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Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Happy New Year & Happy New Stitches

I am wishing all of you a wonderful 2012, with fabulous experiences, joy with family & friends and a growing stash and many happy hours of frog-less stitching!

I have enjoyed the break from "real life" immensely.  With my new job-position (many hours of seemingly fruitless labor) and getting sick when I had the least time, I have been chillin' out the past couple of weeks. 
We did not decorate the house for Christmas at all this year, but escaped up to Avon Lake where MIL and FIL live.  We had a great time, the weather was good, we got spoiled something crazy and it was good to just take it easy, lay a puzzle and sleep without an alarm-clock for a while.

I just have to show you some of the wonderful gifts I got:
From DH (aka "Alpha Bunny") - very pretty jewelry (this is what I got after we got back into the store to exchange the original design.  I was so impressed with DH's initial pick, except that my skin-tone is too yellow/green to get away with wearing anything yellow.  These white beauties were picked out instead.  DH mentioned that they were not in the store when he was shopping, but that he would have picked out this set if it had been available at the time.  Isn't he great!?)
BTW - I have just noticed how asymmetrical my eyes are compared to each other.  Maybe age related, cuz I've never noticed before and I haven't switched faces yet.  When I asked DH, he said that "people are usually not perfectly symmetrical"... hmmmm - thanks, I guess?  LOLMIL and FIL spoiled me with, among other things, a pair of seriously cool shoes and a gift certificate for a lot of moolah that can be spent at the Fat Quarter Shop!  Yay!!!

From mom and dad in Sweden - super-cute winter accessories (again, please ignore the asymmetrical eyes...) - and perfect timing too; it snowed here today!  After being up in the mid-fifties all December, 2012 hits and we already have school closings...  (no, the snow did not stick to the ground.  But which school opens on Jan 2nd?  That is just cruel...)
I also got this little tin with candy from my favorite Stockholm coffee-house and bakery, Vetekatten.  I love it - it is so adorable and really cool that it is so realistic!!!  I try to get at least one visit in every time I go home to Sweden - next time I'll take some photos that I can share with you.
 

Yep, I was really lazy over the holidays (I was even off from work today), but I did get a few things done too.  I won't bore you with photos from my clean fridge (LOL!), but here is proof that I did re-pot a bunch of very sad and cramped flowers and also some babies that I got from MIL over Christmas.  Note the bunny-glasses in the windowsill!
I got a couple of old-fashioned looking butter-containers for cheap at TJ Maxx and they are now housing my mini St Paulias that needed divided.  I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.
 
 This is not even all of them.  Luckily, I am giving a few of the larger ones away, so I don't have to keep a jungle on my kitchen counter....  (that''s where DH's booze lives, after all... LOL)
 

I did also get reminded gently by Littlest Sister that while the Niece had a "First Xmas" ornament in the Christmas Tree, the Nephew did not...  Well, enough said - I managed to slap this one together in a couple of evenings.  It was tricky to combine the border with the ornament and have enough space to squeeze in the text, but it did turn out LL RIGHT.  I changed a few of the colors to tone down all the pink.  So, Nephew did not have his very own ornie on the first Christmas, but I have a feeling he won't remember...
The design, Peace Stocking, is a freebie from Brook's Books that can be down-loaded through "Meagan's Brooke's Books Interactive Yahoo! Group" (you can find the link to sign up on the right hand side on Brooke's home-page).  You have to be a member to access all the goodies.
I did also get myself in gear and finished the stitching on this little wool-embroidered pin-cushion kit from Sweden.  The front has been stitched up fro a while, but I wanted to stitch something on the back too, so this is the design I came up with.  Not bad, considering the fact that I was running out of most of the colors at this point...  Now I just have to run the piece thought the sewing machine for a couple of minutes and that should be it!  (The piece of paper in the front is my design draft...  I am quite an artiste, right !?  LOL)

I did manage to finish the Brightneedle sampler while at the In-Laws.  I am still a bit on the fence about how I feel about it, but I am thinking that if I switch the color of the stars or snow-flakes or whatever they are, I may get something that looks better.  Thoughts?
(I need to post this on our Brightneedle board one of these days, btw...)

This is probably the hardest thing I got done - L-bugs birthday gift.  From her blog I had found out that she loves Hello Kitty.  Well, that made things easy - find a cute purse and key-head and stitch up a Hello Kitty coin purse real quick.  I was a bit nervous about the finishing step - especially adding the zipper, but it was a piece of cake, thanks to several great tutorials out there on the net.  This tutorial was the one that I ultimately followed (I have learned that I can not seem to follow tutorials unless they have plenty of photos and use really pretty fabrics... ).
In progress (L-bug loves polka-dots too, so I was lucky to find a charm-square in my stash):
Finished!  (Yes, I added the personalization after the purse had been sewn together.  Why make things easy?)
 Together with its pals!
 Lisa was really happy and impressed that I made the purse, great to hear from her as she is a seriously accomplished quilter and seamstress, so that was a lot of fun!

 We were really good - we started on our new project - the Blue Ribbon Box.  We will be taking this class in March and it is a pre-stitch, so we decided to bite the bullet and add yet another WIP to the pile...
Here is the progress - note the super-cute floss-holder that L-bug made for me!!!

And that leads me into Measi's WIPocalypse!  This sounded like the coolest idea, so I signed up.  I think that I should already have published my WIPocalypse list, but better late than never, right?

2012 WIPocalys Project List (all of these are already WIPS - not that Measi's rules says that they jaust have to be WIPs - not that they need to be finished in 2012 - whiew!)
1)  Nephew's birth sampler needs personalized (design from Prairie Schooler)
2)  Scarlet Letter's Wisdom and Innocence bell pull
3)  Eva Rosenstand's Wren On Branch bell pull
4)  Sandy Orton's American Sampler
5)  SALs: Bent Creek's Snapperville and Moss Creek Design's She Maketh Fine Linen'
6)  Teresa Wentzler's Peacock Tapestry
7)  Permin's Stockholmia
8)  Scarlet Letter's EH 1669 sampler
9)  Brooke's Books Designs' Wedding Sampler
10)  Moss Creek Designs Ukrainian pockets (have to check on the actual name
11)  Madame Chantilly's Keys Collector

Is that it?  No, I have even more grand plans for 2012!  I do also have a
2012 Finishing List
1)  Acorns from Cross-Eyed Cricket
2)  Blackwork Angels from Prairie Schooler
3)  A Sailor's Huswif by Needle's Prayse
4)  Patricks Woods' The Mermaid's Two Tales
5)  Nostalgic Needle's Off With Her Head purse
6)  The Heart's Content's Sewing Clamp~Sampler Bits
7)  The Swedish Wool pin cushion (see above)
8)  BOAF Xmas pic
9)   Fremme's Christmas Tree picture
10)  Burda Christmas Heart

...AND we all love to start on new projects, right?  Well, here it is, the
New Starts 2012 List
1)  Just Nan's Halloween House
2)  Merry Cox' Victorian Carrier
3)  Patrick's Wood's Blue Ribbon Sewing Box (see above)
4)  The blackwork petticoat (?) from Fine Lines Magazine
5)  Carriage House Samplings' Shores of Hawk Run Hollow (SAL with Valerie)
6)  Reticello pin-cushion (me "new technique" project for 2012)
7)  Willing Hands' Hydrangea Clover Cutter Necklace
8)   Scarlet Letter's Shepherdess
9)   Fremme's Altona Pillow
10)  Hillside Samplings'  heart needle-book (?)

Well, with that, it's past my bed-time yet again.
Take care and Happy Stitching!

17 comments:

  1. Thanks for the really interesting post, Jenny.

    Love all your pressies, thanks for the info re Meagan Brookes (I have signed up) and beautiful stitching.

    By the way, how do you do that cool signature at the bottom of your post? I would love to be able to do that.

    My email is KayeDeP@gmail.com if you are able to explain it to my.

    Also, your eyes look lovely to me.

    Hugs, Kaye xoxox

    http://kittenstitching.blospot.com

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  2. hello dear, very lovely post..
    i love all your gifts so much..
    beautiful stitching..
    sending you hugs
    cucki xx

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  3. wow .. you have been seriously spoilt ..lol and well done on the stitching front with the zipper ... cute ornament for your nephew ... well done on the plants and the cleaning heheheh and wow thats an impressive list you have there .. look forward to seeing how you get on ... wishing you a very merry stitchy new year :) love mouse xxxxx

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  4. Mi manca non sentirti Jenny complimenti per i tuoi regali, e i lavori che hai fatto, ciao spero di sentirti.Avevi ricevuto foto dei miei bimbi,ciao Rosella ti abbraccio.

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  5. What a great post! I had fun perusing it and seeing all you got accomplished over your break, the presents you received and also gave. You did amazing work on that Hello Kitty purse! And the wool embroidery -- gorgeous! But then everything is wonderful! I loved seeing your lists as well. Looking forward to seeing all of your stitching in 2012!

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  6. Hej syster! Fina julklappar och blommor! Lite tjurig att min box inte kommit fram än :/ Men, men...det kommer väl?! Snart ska jag tassa iväg och hämta ut paketet som väntar på mig från dig :)
    Wow, du kommer att ha ett fullspäckat 2012...30 projekt som ska sys på!
    Fin liten hellokitty plånbok och bra tutorial. Den ska jag kika på nästa gång jag ska sätta en dragkedja!
    Puss på dig syster!

    PS. hela familjen hilding ligger utslagen i flunsan så jag kan inte hjälpa Ida med skype idag :( DS.

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  7. Loved reading your post & seeing all your photos! You received some lovely gifts! Blessings, Shirlee

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  8. Hey girlie,love all the stitchy goodness. I'm still in love with my coin purse and all my other goodies. Thanks for posting the tutorial. I wondered how you got that zipper and lining to behave. I'm still loving our new start! I'm glad you enjoyed the floss drops I made you too. You really made my birthday very special this year. You know me so well dearest friend. I had such a fun day!

    With great big hugs,
    L-bug

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  9. Hey Jenny!
    It is so good to have an update from you. I always enjoy and am inspired by your stitching and reading about your country. They are great posts.
    It sounds like you had a wonderful holiday. Your DH hit it out of the park!
    All your stitching is beautiful. I love the ornament you did for your niece. You have a great stitching list for 2012. Maybe I need to pull out my Scarlet letter bell pull and finish it too. It is somewhere>>>???
    Hope that the new year is great for you and that your new schedule calms down.

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  10. Those are some stitching lists! good luck and I know you'll complete most if not all of them. Thanks for the link to Brooks designs. I really like her stuff.

    Some awesome gifts you received. Alpha-bunny has earned some major points as well as the in-laws. I only just found the fat quarter shop and did some major damage with BBD blueberry crumb cake fabrics.

    Your Hello Kitty change purse is adorable.

    Looking forward to the get together - in less than 2 weeks!
    YEE - HAW!

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  11. Love all your prezzies!!! The necklace is just sooo pretty!

    How adorable is the Hello Kitty purse?????

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  12. Ps. Inget fel på dina ögon. Mina är också
    Assymetriska, men vi är snygga ändå
    ;) Puss!!!!!

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  13. Great gift articles you have got. Especially I liked "Hello Kitty purses". I just recall my last Christmas days. We really enjoyed a lot. :)

    John from Store Hours

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  14. Happy New Year, Jenny! Great pressies. :D

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  15. Happy New Year! Hey, looks like you got some wonderful gifts over Christmas! The butter container's lovely, the plants look glossy and well cared for, and those are beautiful finishes - love your nephew's ornament and the Hello Kitty change purse!
    Re the Brightneedle - I agree, maybe changing the color might give it more "zing"? Awesome project list for 2012, btw!

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  16. Fantastic gifts, Jenny, both given and received! I am so jealous of your TJ Maxx finds. Oh, how I miss that store!

    Happy new year!

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  17. Ooo, good job to your hubby on the jewelry! Very pretty. And I love the winter wear you got, too. Super cute.

    I am so impressed with the Hello Kitty pouch you made! I am hopeless with the sewing machine.

    That's a looong list of WIPs...still not coming close to the length of my list. ;) Good luck on the WIPocalypse!

    Bunny-hugs to Prince and Bubbette. =)

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