Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to all my friends out there! It's not too late to be good - Santa will see!! I which everyone a blessed holiday.

Finished - finally!!

I scrambled to finish this to send to my daughter.
It will even get to her on time most likely. I thought the post office was going to be late and there was a mad scramble to find a box for all her presents and to get in the door before they closed. My husband did a wonderful job for his part - getting the box and getting there. She is going to just love it! The cat, Stashu, is still her "baby" and he has feline leukemia and has bouts of getting really sick, then rallying. It's been hard on her. She raised him from kittenhood and he has brought her (and us) a lot of pressure. She has the loudest purr!

I'm kind of disappointed that Lauralai won't be here for Christmas. I don't remember if I told everyone that her best friend lives ourside of Washington DC and invited her to the presidential inauguration in January. She couldn't afford airline tickets to both and of course I said "Go!! It's a once in a life time historic event." And she listened! What are the chances of that??

I am a bit stressed because tonight I start on the evening shift at work. I haven't worked anything but night shift when most of the kiddos are asleep or was on disability for the past year and a half +. Luckily, I only have one evening until next week, then starts the every other weekend rotation. UGH. I actually applied and interviewed for a position in a pediatric office. I'm not sure how I feel about the huge cut in pay or the near lack of benefits. If I get the offer, it will be a tough decision. Part of me just can imagine going back to every other weekend and every other holiday. It gets old fast, believe me!

In the cross stitch world, I'm making a few "Believe" freebies. They came out really pretty and I have to figure out how I want to finish them. I'm running out of time. I can always save them for next year.

Thanks for stopping by! If you are all too busy to post, (or comment) I wish you blessed holidays!

I've been lurking!

I can't believe how I've been lurking - checking out lots of posts, usually not commenting but enjoying everyone's progress.

I've been busy- I'm working on a "simple" piece - or that's how it should have been. I made one huge counting error and had to take so much of it out I hate to admit it!! It's been a disaster and I've just kept plugging away - and you know what? I'm glad I kept ripping because now it's pretty close to right. I changed the colors. This designer does all black and white with a splash of color. I just couldn't do the tree black, I'm sorry.

The reason this piece is so meaningful is that my daughter adopted 2 kittens when she was at school. Someone in the dorm told on her and we ended up the long term foster parents of these cats. One cat was all black named Stashu and he just LOVED the Christmas tree. He spent his time trying to climb it, played with the ornaments, batted at the beads and bent all the branches. It was a very trying time for everyone. I found this great pattern years ago, but then wasn't able to locate it again when I wanted it. This year I found it on line and heree is my progress:Another thing I just completed tonight was a restitching of my daughter's name on her stocking. I made the stocking when she was a little girl and she was named Laura. As an adult, she legally changed her name and has nothing personalized. I ripped out her old name on the stocking and restitched her new name Lauralai. I wish I had moved it over a little more to the left, but I have to live with it not being perfectly centered. You folks have reminded me that I'm sometimes too hard on myself so I'm letting it go!! It was challenging stitching on a completed stocking! I was toying with doing the name and sewing a cuff on the stocking with the new name, but none of my aida cloth matched in color so I just did my best with what I had to work with. She will be very excited. Unfortunately, she changed her plans and won't be coming home this Christmas! Boo hoo. I told her not to look at my blog so here's the finished product.