Our December

Winter skies and healing bodies; decorating, music lessons, and a birthday; cozy fires; fog and rain and snow; Christmas shows and lights; a candlelight service and celebrating with cousins... it has been a lovely, full month.

We are now almost giddy at the end of every day as we notice the lengthening hours of sunlight.

I'm caught up now on the long backlog of photos to share with you. December is a dark month, so it wasn't too hard to narrow down the photos that were the least grainy, and get them all fit into one post. I hope you have all had a wonderful holiday season... now breathe deeply and take a day or two to rest.

Winter Sky :: Healing :: Rainbow :: Trimming the Tree :: Not Quite a Duet Yet :: Nine Years Old :: Hi I'm Olaf and I Like Warm Hugs :: Warming Our Toes :: Crabapple :: A Smile at the End of a Busy Day :: When the Christmas Tree Stands in my Stitching Lamp Spot :: Raindrops :: Festive :: Foggy :: Mossy :: Apparently I wasn't Supposed to Take This Picture :: Out Seeing the Lights :: Love Has Come :: Shining Through the Snow :: Outside Inside :: Candlelit Christmas Eve :: Ready :: Joy :: My New Bass-Guitar-String Necklace :: Afterward :: Cousins :: Remembering :: Cold :: Sparkly

*NEW* Stitcher's Resolution

You all tickle my sense of humor with your stories of way too much plunder hidden away in your baskets and closets. Every year, you make resolutions to only stitch from your own stash and go on a buying diet. Yet every year, it seems I sell more patterns, so that must mean that some of you are breaking your resolutions. My conclusion is to be a smarty pants and make a sampler that has the resolutions we would all prefer to keep!

Based on a “Rules for Quilting” list that I found on the internet, this sampler is customized for cross-stitchers and reads:

1. When in doubt always buy more linen and thread
2. Stitch all day and absolutely no housework allowed
3. Always start a new project before the last is finished requiring a return to number 1

And there you have it. If not a set of resolutions you plan to keep in reality, at least it would be fun to laugh and dream about it!

Stitch Count: 171 x 139
Model stitched on R&R 35ct. Classic Homespun
with one thread over two strands of linen.

Using threads from The Gentle Art: 1191 Brown Bear, 7041 Apple Cider

And from Classic Colorworks: Little House Brown, Onion Skin, Used Brick, Wilderness

The lovely frame is an antique.

This design is now available in my etsy shop, and will be going out to my distributors and the shops on my automatic shipments list soon. If you prefer to bypass etsy and order directly through me, you can send me an email: beth@heartstringsamplery.com

Coming Soon...

Are you ready for 2015? I sure am!

I have two fun and/or exciting things coming next year.

First, I made up a small batch of these:

If you all like them, I'll add them as a staple item to my shop as long as I continue to find good mugs to transform. The quotes are individually hand-drawn by me on thrifted mugs. I'm so happy with how they turned out! I have an arsenal of stitcher-friendly quotes that I want to use. I meant to offer them for Christmas, but November was rocky around here and I didn't get them done in time. Something to look forward to in the New Year!

The really, REALLY exciting news that I keep pinching myself about is that Ann and Pat of Dyeing to Stitch have invited me to design for their Ladies' Prim Society 2015 Club. I'm thrilled to be paired with Blackbird Designs, each of us contributing 2-3 designs for the year. Nothing like a little pressure, creating next to the likes of Barb and Alma, and this being my very first time contributing to a club! I'm up first with a Valentine-y offering that I hope everyone loves.  You can find details here.

And finally, I have one last design for 2014 that I'm going to release the Monday after Christmas if all goes as planned. It is called "Stitcher's Resolution" and I think its a must-have for every stitching corner around the world. I put in the final stitches last night, and got the frame cut to size today. Now its just a matter of getting her framed, photographed, and the cover design finished.

Birdie Ballet

We are constantly entertained by our Winter Birds. They flit and twitter and rustle in the branches, adding living, moving, color to our landscape as well as music for our ears.

Featured in today's artful presentation of "Birdie Ballet" you will see representatives of three species: Chickadee, Junco, and Sparrow, as they celebrate the sunshine and bird seed and all things feathery.

Nine

It keeps happening. I can't stop him from growing up.

I positively adore the young man that my little boy is becoming. He is thoughtful, smart, funny, gives the biggest squeezy hugs a Mom could ask for, and tells me daily how glad he is that I'm his Mama. I love the way he looks after and plays with his Sister, and I thoroughly enjoy watching him interact with his Daddy in an ever-growing-up way.

This year, I have taken on being his Math teacher (he is otherwise still fully public-schooled, and he has begun taking guitar lessons. He loves to play Minecraft and Little Big Planet and all things Mario. He reads avidly and wishes with all of his heart for his own bow to learn archery with.

He sleeps on the top bunk and his favorite color is blue.

Today, he turns nine years old.

My boy, my heart.

Hi There

Wow... I can't believe I've been gone from this blog for so long. It has been a marathon few weeks around here.

The illness that I had Thanksgiving week turned out to be a walking pneumonia virus. I dodged the pneumonia part by guzzling large quantities of a concoction similar to this. But the kids were not so fortunate. Both ended up missing two weeks of school, and we are just now finally having cough-less nights.

I've been slowly but surely getting caught up on the backlog of chores around here, which allows me to squeak in a note to you. I hope you're all doing well and enjoying this holiday season... I'll be back tomorrow (I hope) with a blast of photos taken in the recent past. Just so we can feel somewhat caught up before Christmas, you know.

November Recap

November flew by, but was so very long.

We saw sunshine, ice, rain, snow, and very little frost. The last leaves fell and blew away or were rained into the ground. Power outages from wind storms. A very bad cold with a trip to the pediatrician for some nebulizer help was followed by walking pneumonia with another trip to the pediatrician for lung-listening and permission to return to school.

I turned 40.

The big birthday party of my dreams was held a few days before my actual day, and I'm so glad it worked out that way. The memories of that fun evening (and the gigantic chocolate cake) sustained me while I was stuck on the couch with a raging fever for too many days. Binge-watching Gilmore Girls helped too.

The kids started music lessons. He chose guitar. She chose piano. Their teachers are sisters and had the same time slot available, so both lessons are done in the same half-hour each week. She loves her lessons. He's not so sure yet.

Two loose chickens treed a red squirrel... one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

School picture re-takes were better than the original.

Good-bye for now, November.

Autumn Barn :: Box Elder Bug and Eyelet Lace :: Dried Cinnamon Apples :: When the Power Goes Out :: Brd's and a Hock :: Vibrant :: Feeding the Kitties :: Sorting my Stash :: Mt. Hood from Jonsrud Viewpoint :: Blaze :: Window Sunset :: Bunco Birthday Party :: Every Girl Needs a Gigantic Chocolate Cake with Sprinkles for Her 40th Birthday :: The Reason I Drive an SUV :: Distant Rain :: Explore :: Nature's Flu Shot :: Kurt, Luke, and Lorelai :: Piano Practice :: Rain :: Chicken-Treed Squirrel :: George Looks Happy :: Snowy Barn :: Play Time :: Goodbye November Tradition :: Third and First Grade