June ornament finished

This is the Christmas tree ornament I started on my trip. I added the beads and finished it tonight.

Back home again

Physically home - but in my mind I am still enjoying the sights of Europe, and my body clock is still set to European time, which is somewhat inconvenient, given the number of pressing items that are requiring immediate action! I haven't yet loaded my photos onto the computer, but I do intend to get them up as soon as possible (hopefully before my failing memory has a chance to forget what the pics represent). I had a temporary panic when I couldn't locate my three SD cards after unpacking my suitcases. I did eventually find them safely tucked away in the study desk drawer where I keep the camera, but not before several hours of searching the rubbish and recycling, the suitcases and everything I had unpacked from them. Clearly my memory is not as reliable as it once was!

In the six weeks I was away, I did almost no stitching. Not surprising, as I took no stitching supplies with me. By week 3 I was regretting that decision, and started looking for cross stitch supplies to buy, but they weren't easy to find, and it wasn't till the third last day of week 6 that I actually found some fabric, DMC thread and needles. It was nice to have a needle in my hand again, and I did manage to stitch up one ornament - I just have to add some beads and finish it up. The shop was in Bordeaux, France and I expected to pay less there for DMC thread than I do here in OZ, but was amazed to see they cost 1.5 Euros (about $1.90) each. I can often buy them here for $1, and the most I've ever paid (in a country shop) was $1.60. Live and learn.

Jolly Old Fellow is packed away and resting in the craft room again. It's unlikely I'll get him out before early 2012. I'll be stitching some Christmas ornaments in July, and then I'll be starting a birth sampler for Amelia. I hope to have it finished and framed for her first birthday in November this year.

Another page completed

Page 13 is now stitched, and I have made start on page 14. Yay!

A happy night for me

I have just finished pages 11 and 12, so I am very happy tonight! I now have two complete rows of pages stitched. Now that Santa has a face it's going to be very hard to pack him away, but I do need to do that so I can stitch other projects - like a baby birth sampler for our new little girl in the family, and Christmas ornaments for a number of children (Dylan, Georgia, Lucia, Harper, Thomas, Jackson, Brittany, Matthew, Daniel, Amelia, Kate, Matthew, Megan, and David, and there may well be more names added to this list). SO - I have two more weeks to stitch on Jolly Old Fellow, and then he will be packed away until the beginning of 2012. I'm hoping to get page 13 finished before he goes away.

Small HD tonight - come celebrate with me!

Page 10 of HAED Jolly Old Fellow is now finished, and I've made a tiny start on pages 11/12. I'm a third of the way through JOF now - yay! I'll be continuing to stitch on JOF till the end of this month, and for the first 2 weeks in May. I'm now hoping to finish pages 11 & 12 (a tiny page - just 12 stitches wide) by the end of April, and in May I hope to stitch page 13, which is the start of the third row of pages. I am so pleased to be able to say that Maddie has had no further fits and is behaving quite normally, except that she's sleeping a lot more than she used to . But then, she's 12 years old, so I guess she;s entitled to sleep more. And when she's awake, she's quite active and just as bossy as she ever was. Great news! I'd like to be able to say that my Dad was progressing well too - but no such luck. He's very labile in his mood, and once again thinks that we (his children and in particular me - as I have the power of attorney and enduring guardianship, and manage all his affairs) have stolen all his money and placed him in prison. The poor old soul never did have any money in his whole life - he was a hard worker, but raised 6 children and did it a bit tough at times. He's very unpredictable - sometimes as sweet as pie, othertimes he's aggressive and very unpleasant. I have heard more colourful language from my father in the past 18 months than I ever did in all the years before that. Until the dementia started I never once heard him swear in front of a female - now it's another story! I feel so sad for him. It's not the life he would prefer to be living, I'm sure. Old age is not something to look forward to, if Dad's experience is any indication. I keep trying to forget that I'm just 25 years behind him on the age scale!

Santa has a face!

Well, at least he has two eyes now - he's starting to look like a real Santa. It's not a good pic - he's actually nicer when you're looking at the fabric (not so washed out). I'm pleased with my progress - page 10 is about half-done now. I'm now quietly confident that I'll finish the second 'row' (the rest of page 10, and pages 11 and 12) in the next six weeks. I need to pack JOF away in mid May, and it's extremely unlikely I'll find any more stitching time for him until December, if then. I want to get as far ahead as I can before he's packed away,because I would really love to have him framed for Christmas 2013, and there's still a lot of stitching left to finish!

Five little finishes

Christmas gifts for five little Irish-Aussie girls. The stocking design is a favourite of mine - it's adapted from LA's Christmas Caboodle leaflet (1986). I first stitched it in 1986, and I have stitched it every year since, for different children. My best guess is that I have stitched this design at least 80 times. There are five more of these ornaments on my stitching list for 2011 - but the colours will be different for the next batch.