Holiday Stitching

I hate holidays in the middle of the week. You work up to it, have the day off and then work away from it. My whole semblance of normalcy, not to mention the girls looking at me quizzically when I struggled to haul it out of bed at 10 a.m., is out of sorts. I wasn't expected to stay up late on the 31st, I just did. I could go to bed at 11:00, as I usually do, and the world would have passed into a new page on a new calendar without me. The firecrackers set off in the neighborhood would have awakened me so I just stayed up...and stayed up...and stayed up. It was 2:15 before I finally headed to bed.

So New Year's Day was something of a wash. Oh I got a load of laundry done, speaking of wash. I blogged. I made myself a pizza and ate fresh strawberries, but I was so tired. I decided the best thing to do was sit in the recliner, watch, let's see, it's 2:00, the tail end of the Cotton Bowl and the start of the Rose Bowl and do some stitching.

Um...it's New Year's Day. Where are the college football games? Cable. Oh great. It's just a "normal" Tuesday then for broadcast TV. By the time I decided a movie was in order, I had a black cat in my lap and one does not disturb the cat. Travel shows and I guess I could watch "Ellen". I've never seen her show. (I lasted 30 minutes. I think it might be a good show if the audience was so toady.)

I stitched. I have one letter left to stitch and this project is done.

You'd think, in 2 hours, I could get more done but if you've never done cross-stitch you don't know how fast it doesn't go. You're counting and changing colors, deciding which direction to go, and if you want to extend this floss over those 3 squares to get to the next color. This was quite a lot to be done in 2 hours, actually.

I have picked out the next project after this.

That's that "Team Spirit" yarn that JoAnn Fabrics had. It was on sale right after Christmas so I bought four skeins to see if I can make what I hope I can make. This project will be taking me back to my high school and college years but I'm excited to get started. The blog, Michelle Made Me, inspired me to dig out my crochet hook. I'm nervous because I haven't done crochet in a very, very long time, but I'm eager to get the hook going and what a perfect winter activity.

BUT, I have to wait until the cross-stitch project is completely finished. I turned the Christmas lights off on the tree last night. Tradition keeps them on 24/7 from the 17th through New Year's Day. It felt kind of sad to turn them off and walk through the now dark house to the bedroom. The tree itself comes down this coming weekend. I can't bear to do it sooner. Finishing the cross-stitch will involve hauling out the sewing machine and I need a place to set that up. Plus, Pilchard wants her box that usually sits on the table where the tree is, back. I pulled it out but it's not in the same place so she is a bit irritated by that. By week's end, we will be back to what life was like on November 20, 2012.

Now that it's January 2nd, I'm looking ahead to December 2013 gifts. Maybe that's what it's like for people who craft. We are looking at what gives us pleasure to make to give away. There are a lot of birthdays between then and now and some of what I make could go for birthday presents. I just know that I'm happy when I am making something.

Beverage:  Irish Breakfast tea

Deb