Advent Blog Hop, Day 23

Welcome to Day 23 of the annual Serendipitous Stitching Advent Blog Hop. Two more sleeps! (Actually for us it's just one more, but that's a story for another day.)

I have an annual tradition--insofar as something you have been doing for four years is a "tradition"--of making my nieces a Christmas ornament. This year it's a Lizzie*Kate Sled Dudes Snow Man for Special K and a Stocking Sleds Santa for Sugar Rea. (Santa was stitched for Craft Month.)

You can follow these links to see the other ornaments I've made for the girls:
First Christmas
Second Christmas: Santa and Snowman
Third Christmas: Santa and Snowman

Jo asked us to share our favorite Christmas Songs with you, and I went all Rob Gordon:

5. "The Christmas Waltz," She and Him
4."Fairytale of New York," The Pogues
3. "Christmas Wrapping," The Waitresses
2. "Elf's Lament", Barenaked Ladies (with Michael Bublé)
1. "Silver Bells"

 Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!

Advent Blog Hop

Welcome one and all. Special Christmas Cheer if you are visiting for the first time from Jo's Advent Blog Hop. Ten more days! Can someone invent a time machine? I need to go back--I need another month. 

Jo asks:
Do you have a favourite decoration you must have on display every year, maybe an heirloom, one the children made or something with a special story behind it?

I got kind of hung up on the heirloom part of this question when I was thinking about which ornaments, which are decidedly not on the tree, to photograph. I don't really have any Christmas heirlooms. Maggie never had a tree in my memory--or more precisely, she had a ceramic tree about 12" tall that lit up. On my father's side, my great grandmother, when she got Alzheimer's, started throwing away heirlooms--her wedding portrait, other photos, "junk no one wanted." And her daughter always did "theme" trees. The thing with most theme trees, in my experience, especially if they are changed annually, is that you don't really develop an attachment to the ornaments. Unless, of course, you make your own.

When we moved to my childhood home in 1976, my mother had a designer from Ethan Allen come decorate our formal living room. It was blue and gold with touches of pink that were in the oriental rug. So the small tree she put up in that room pulled in those colors too. And for that tree, she made these angels. When we were cleaning out her house thirty three years later, we found enough Christmas ornaments to open up a shop. Most went to the thrift store, but I couldn't let these go. So I guess these are the heirlooms from one crafty lady to her daughter.

But that's not really the question, is it? In the years we haven't decorated (usually we do, even when we are going to England on December 26) I always put out this Santa that I stitched. The pattern is by Heartstrings, and it is stitched with fluffy fibers that Silver Needle kitted up. I loved every stitch, but especially the ones done with Very Velvet!

It was finished (at an incredibly reasonable price) by the fabulous Miss Mona of Magic by Mona. 

It is also something seasonal that I've stitched. Two birds, one stone.

I wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Halloween Blog Hop

Welcome, Blog Hoppers! Serendipitous Jo has once again gathered the blogging community to celebrate Halloween. And my letter for you is

 

I had hoped to finish my October small before today, but no such luck. I think I may not have shown this piece before. It's a Mill Hill kit that I stitched preblog.

I realize that shot, while spooky (I find that pumpkin clown creepy) doesn't show the stitching and beading very well. So here's a close up!  This was a lot of fun to stitch, lots of specialty stitches and beads. That frame was stupid expensive, but I loved the candy corn. (I don't love it to eat it nearly as much!) This piece, which is on perforated paper, has held up really well since I think it dates back at least to 2003!

Hopping friends should now make their way back to Serendipitous Stitching.

Away Again, Naturally

Portland Head

As we usually do this time of year, the dude and I drove up to Maine to visit my parents. This year, with the addition of the twins, my parents' house was full-up so we were fortunate enough to stay with my cousin who lives closer to the beach.

Her proximity to the beach facilitated our viewing of the Perseid meteor shower. We walked over and lay down in the sand and watched shooting stars for almost an hour while listening to the crashing waves; it was so relaxing. My mother (a mere three miles away) said they couldn't see for the clouds, but I'm pretty sure it was light pollution. Our delightful viewing came crashing to an end when a couple of drunk guys stumbled onto the beach and started throwing a lighted frisbee. Oh well. It was great while it lasted!

My cousin's younger daughter has become obsessed with lighthouses, so we visited Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth (look for Edward Hopper's portrayals) and then to Portland Head Lighthouse. I can't believe in all the time we've been going to Maine we've never been!

We also went shopping with the girls which was a lot less painful than it sounds--especially to this non-shopper. Those girls are so good. I don't know how my sister got so lucky! They made it through lunch (where there were no high chairs, only booster seats without the seatbelts) and several stores. And my sister got to do a full shop at her favorite store.

My elder niece and her "summer friend" were especially good mother's helpers, and I know my sister was grateful for the help. I'm pretty sure this is the best birth control these girls could have (for now). (They're only 15.) The twins loved the beach especially playing in the water. But what's not to love when you have attendants like these?

If you enjoyed this postcard from Maine, you might want to check out Serendipitous Jo's Summer (Pet themed) Blog Hop. Self-promotion warning: today's postcard is from me to Vickie. You can read it here.

Summer Postcard Blog Hop

Serendipitous Jo (I've completely rechristened her, which I am very careful not to do IRL because I hate being called Nikole or, worse, Nik) (but she couldn't think of a clever nickname, and since I think of Donna at Needleworker Not in Paradise as Jo--she was when she started blogging--I have to distinguish.) Let's get on with that sentence, shall we? Serendipitous Jo is hosting a postcard blog hop, and I'm next to share. 

I received this postcard form Katie at Jeremiah's Mom:

I thought this one would fit well for all dog lovers. Now if only we could learn from them.

Thanks, Katie, for reminding us all the things our pets can teach us. Her note reminds me of this quote:

In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn't merely try to train him to be semi human. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog. --Edward Hoagland.

As readers know, I have a rescue dog called Stella. She's been in our lives for just over six years, and that's how long the dude and I have been working on becoming part dog.

Be sure to check out the other hoppers at Serendipitous Stitching.

Blog Hop and Haunting Flashback Friday

If you're here for Jo's Halloween Blog Hop, let me apologize for forgetting about you! I'm just coming off a couple of giant projects at work. In fact, I finished one yesterday and one on Wednesday.

You can probably guess from all that busy busi-ness (and my lack of SAL post on Wednesday) that I haven't been stitching much. So this flashback Friday from 2010 is my most favorite Halloween piece, Birds of a Feather's Scared Silly. I did manage to take it out of storage at the beginning of the month and hang it.

From here, you're heading to see Hazel. Good luck!

For those of you who said, hey, it's Friday, I wonder what was going on a hundred or so years ago in women's magazines. I have been looking for some news of Hallowe'ens of long ago, but as with all things this holiday has evolved. The search engines tell me there is nothing of Halloween in the nineteenth century magazines. It was of course, known since the late 1500s. Robert Burns wrote a poem about it in 1786 and in 1864 a book of days referenced "The evening of the 31st of October" as a "night set apart for a universal walking abroad of spirits." But "21 Quick and Easy Costumes to Wear to Work" and Sexy [fill in the blank] Costumes were years in the future.

I did finally find something I found tremendously frightening in Godey's Magazine and Lady's Book, October 1846; 33, 187. Ironically it is from the Dead Letter Office; this letter was presented without comment. I do wonder how it was received back then.

I am a great admirer of beauty, therefore she must be pretty. Elegance of manner and good temper are of course indispensable. I would not for the world marry a learned lady, yet I would like her to know enough to follow any conversation I might wish to lead--that is, to know enough to appreciate and respect my acquirements. Science I absolutely prohibit, though I should blush if, like Tom Burns' smiling idiot of a wife, she were to ask in a company, "what became of all the old moons?"

You know I have been a great deal in the gay world, so much that I am sick of it. Public places are my aversion; I wish, then, to marry a young lady who must be so attached to me that she will wish never to pass an evening out. Our own fireside must be our Paradise, for I would give nothing for a wife whose happiness would be found away from her husband. I expect exclusive devotion, a brow ever serene, and a heart full of love always. Money, of course, is desirable, but I would be satisfied with a small portion from a woman very beautiful and very much in love with me.

The soul of romantic passion I require is seldom found but in fresh, unsophisticated hearts; it is a sine qua non, therefore, that she be under twenty. You may at first call this a disparity, but I assure you I shall not be fifty until my next birthday: then I am as young as ever in my feelings, and you have not seen me in my new wig, which really takes ten years from my appearance. If I can find an intelligent, amiable, beautiful, graceful young creature, who will give me her whole heart, and yield a sweet, unwavering compliance to all my moods, all my wishes, I think we will enjoy a domestic bliss to be envied by all the gay and fashionable.

I live in horror that he found such a one. Pleasant dreams and Happy Halloween!