Linda and Candi stitched this for me for a Stitch 'n Bitch gift this year. It was in my stitching bag to do, that bottomless pit, so imagine my delight in receiving it this year from them. Love it and it will be hanging in the shop now that Christmas is over so you can see it without the light glare. Thanks ladies...I love it. I have lots more to show you but having a problem locating it in my picture file so I'll be showing you Christmas pictures long after Christmas...perhaps one a blog. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and safely made it into 2011. I'm back, although it's been a somewhat hobbled journey. 2010 will be remembered as the year I finally realized I am no longer 30. In fact, I'm wondering if I'm a 100 and just can't remember that anymore. Everything seems to be going to pot, and most of it is heading south. So I'm entering 2011 with a body that feels and looks like I'm 100 years old. My hearing sucks....can't hear certain tones, so the girls look at each other and roll their eyes everytime something needs to be repeated (which apparently is quite often). I just look at them and repeat, "This is your future so you better be careful." Just when did I become my mother, or should I say parents? My eyes are such a mess that I wear 2 different glasses in the evenings, one to watch T.V. and the other to do needlework. I will say that towards the end of 2010 wearing my peepers and using my Daylight magnifier(and sometimes 2 peepers and the Daylight Magnifier) I could still manage to do over one stitching. I even did 1 piece of 40 count over one, wait, perhaps that was over 2, oh crap, my memory isn't quite what it use to be...just one more thing going wrong. As for my appetite, the one thing that I wish would go away, well, actually it's not that I'm ever hungry, not really, I just can't seem to stay away from the refrigerator, or pantry. I just look at some foods and know I'm in trouble. Cheese, which I love, well....just looking at it causes me to spend too many hours in the bathroom and the list is expanding every day. Yes, 2011 hasn't started out with a bang....I caught a bug over the holidays and spent several days lanquishing on the sofa with the clicker in my hand....no stitching, no e-mails, no phone...yes already I'm behind. For those who e-mailed me I apologize as I couldn't get to the computer. Every year I can't wait for Christmas to end so that I can just sit and stitch without worrying about getting gifts done. Which was another issue in 2010. I got several gifts stitched for Christmas, but never got any of them put together. What the hell is that about? But Sunday I returned to work, with a new attitude. I'm back to stitching, well I was until I ran into Lauren Sauer's class piece and well, I've torn it out 3 times and it's not even difficult. Sara is whizzing away on hers and every time I see her I have to ask to see it once again to make sure I'm on track. Monday she pulled it out to show Stacy Stinson (since I commented on how easy it was) and I realized I forgot to put the interfacing on before stitching so now I'm pulling it out again. Holy crap...but I did pull out an oldie but goodie, Bent Creek's "Red Thread" piece which was half finished and I'm now working on it once again and am determined to finish it in 2011. I did finish a couple of things for Sara....after Christmas so I gave them to her for a New Year's Eve gift. She was dying for Lizzie Kate's "Cleaning the house while the children are growing is like shoveling snow while it's still snowing." It was quite appropriate since we got 12-14 inches of snow on Christmas. Last year I wished for snow...this year I've kept my mouth shut...well perhaps that isn't true but I haven't wished for snow. But if it must snow I'm hoping it gets it out of it's system before our Superbowl Sale. No one wants that mess again while we're having that event. Although everyone made a snow party out of it....but we need clear sailing for that event. Anyway, Santa, as usual, was very good to me. We had our Stitch 'n Bitch Christmas dinner at Fager's as usual and spirits were high. Kay Fletcher brought me a cute little Christmas hat and I wore it in good spirits, much to Sara's embarrassment. And since I realized how much it embarrassed her I wore it through much of the dinner and then when we made our pilgrimmage to Annapolis managed to start out the trip wearing the hat again. But that was short lived as she snatched it off my head and threw it in the back of the car where I couldn't reach it. (sometimes she's just no fun at all) The ladies were, as usual, very generous. In fact I think just about everyone brought a little bag of cookies, candy, someone brought Christmas Socks for everyone, oh many Christmas items for each person at the dinner. Linda and Candi brought me Shepherd's Bush Holy Night for Stitch 'n Bitch, and still gave me a wonderful Christmas Gift. Before the dinner was even served the table was filled with little bags and boxes and the secret santa exchange hadn't even started. Spirits were high and apparently so was Sara since she got to the dinner and forgot the only thing she had to remember, her secret Santa gift for Beth. So she started out the night having to go back home for Beth's gift. Debbie Liming and Phyllis Yurack came down from Pennsylvania for the event and our Kay Fletcher came in from up Baltimore way (everything on the north side of the Bay Bridge becomes Baltimore to me although Kay doesn't live in Baltimore), and the only 2 people that were missing were Jackie Janovsky who chose to have her knee blow out before Christmas, and Connie Heppding who chose Christmas to have some sort of bug. We missed you Jackie, but she had Kay bring us each a little something from her and she also sent me a gift....whoppee! And Connie sent her secret Santa (I was the recipient only I thought it was my Christmas gift which she brought in to the shop after Christmas...anyway at the dinner I got a hand knit scarf which was gorgeous and so warm) through Pat so no one was left out of the gift exchange. I think our group entertained everyone that was at Fager's that night laughing and regaling each other with stories. And after dinner the real reason we love this dinner....Secret Santa gifts. It is fascinating to me to see what everyone comes up with. When we first began this annual event, I think Judy was the only one who stitched something and the rest of us gave each other things we purchased. Well, when we saw what she made, a J.B. Design Christmas piece, well, we were all determined to stitch for each other. That really didn't happen for a year or two after that first year, but each year someone else would join that wonderful group and stitch their gift, but it took some of us (yeah, I'm part of that group) much longer to get in line. Now just about all of us are doing it on a regular basis, and the ideas are so creative. I'm always amazed at the work being done....and the finishing is often quite inventive and done in ways I hadn't thought of. (I've decided I'm the least creative person in the group.) Anyway, it was a wonderful evening filled with stitching, good friends, laughter and wonderful food. So ladies thanks for a great dinner and for all the wonderful gifts....I loved them and hopefully will do a better job of getting the Thank You notes out as I'm still carrying around the Thank You note to Jennifer for my birthday gift in June. (yes, I'm embarrassed about that as well). I do want to show you my gifts as they were stitched with love and were so beautifully done. So bear with me please while I go through this. I'll do as many each day (I swear I will blog more frequently in 2011) as I can, but I'm having difficulty locating the pictures on my computer. I can't figure out why they aren't all with Linda and Candi's, but apparently something has gone wrong and I'm too stupid at this point to figure it out. But I'm on it and will continue to fight the good fight. They will all end up at the shop as models so you will get to see them up close and personal. In the meantime I want to thank each and every one of you, and also promise to do a better job this year with e-mails, shipping, customer service, etc., if I can remember what I'm suppose to be doing which is also questionable at this point. Anyway, thanks for sticking with me and I'll talk to you later.
No comments:
Post a Comment