A Finish and a Start

A while back I finished this cross stitch, Happinest:

 To frame it, I'm going to stretch it across an 8x8 painting canvas. First, obviously, it needs to be blocked.

Right away, I plunged into another Satsuma Street pattern:

This one is substantially harder, so it is going to take longer. 

If you haven't checked out the Satusma Street Etsy store (linked above) and you like to embroider, you might want to see all her designs. I thought I was done with cross stitch until I saw these adorable designs!

A Sin, A Vow, and Other Stuff

 One party down and one to go for the weekend. The Special Ed Department at my school has an epic holiday party every year -- and last night it did not disappoint. We do a hilarious White Elephant Exchange. I schemed to get the item I wanted, but can't show it yet as it's a gift.

So, on to the sin:

I swear this is the last skein of yarn I'm buying until 2019. OK, I am making an exception for my guild's Knit-In and the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. But that's it! I've decided that 2018 needs to be the year of stash busting. It's not like I don't have plenty of yarn right here.

The little needle has been busy, too. Now there are two bird in my Happinest cross stitch. This will be a holiday gift in 2018! This shows an unusual level of organization for me.

And I've been photographing jewelry for my poor neglected Etsy store. There are some really cute knitting earrings, like these:

If you have a minute, check them out at www.etsy.com/shop/caffeinegirl1.

Enjoy your weekend!

Back to Crafting

My family left on Saturday -- my daughter, both my brothers and their families. It was hard to say good-bye. I've always hated that my brothers live so far from me. My son is here in Madison, but he's studying for his veterinary boards so we just got a glimpse of him this weekend.

I hope you had a wonderful holiday. We certainly did. However, it was a little too much activity for me. My jaw condition is worsening, and I need a lot of down time to manage the pain. Of course, I didn't want to miss too much time with my family, so I consumed a frightening amount of painkillers over the past five days.

But now I can use crafts to distract myself from the pain. This is truly the best way for me to manage pain. Most work days, I come home in agony and retreat into my knitting/embroidery chair to unwind. It does help -- without the side effects of painkillers!

I had to hide my Happinest from our guests because it is destined to be a Hanukkah 2018 gift. I'm about 2/3 of the way through it, and I just love it. I may have to make one for my own home.

The directions call for 18-count Aida cloth or linen. I went with the larger 14-count to get a bigger image.

I'm still working on my kelp-forest sundress. I think this will be the last fish:

That yellow-green fish looked lonely to me. 

A friend is coming over later today to make bracelets for me. I intend to enjoy every minute of the last day of my break!

A Project for Me and Kitty TV

Every now and then I get pulled back into cross stitch.

I've been eyeing patterns at the SatsumaStreet Etsy site for a couple of years now, but didn't give into the temptation to buy one until I saw Happinest at my local embroidery store.

While my weekend is largely devoted to the fairly difficult task of finishing my ocean fiber piece, I've been relaxing with this project. I think it's going to be a gift.

I also suspect it will not be my last SatsumaStreet piece. If you have any interest in embroidery, you should head over there. She does amazing cityscapes of some the world's great cities.

Meanwhile, we have some very happy cats at our house. They spend a lot of time like this:

Watching things like this:

Here's another favorite:

I have to thank my daughter for turning us on to cat TV