Catching Up

Over the holidays I needed portable projects so I finished several Christmas ornaments. Sorry I'm not going to rearrange them. We start with Six Geese A-Laying.

Five Golden Rings...

Four Colly Birds...

Three French Hens

Two Turle Doves...

And a Partridege in a Pear Tree. These are from Cricket Collection. The plan is to finish the remaining six before next Christmas.

This is Birdhouse Mitten, also from Cricket.


Michele

A New Year, at least

Welcome to a New Year! I hope this one goes better then it's starting out. I'll elaborate in a minute. The photos are of two more ornaments I made and forgot that I hadn't posted. I gave the Noel Candy to my Mom as part of her Christmas. I also made her and my MIL a set of towels and an ornament for my MIL that I forgot to take photos of. They are really cute if I may say so.

Anyway, we had a nice holiday. Jason's family came to town and we had our annual Christmas party. Putting a damper on the festivities and my reason for staying away from my blog (because I didn't have anything nice to say) was that Jason's job was in jeopardy. At the end of the NASCAR season a lot of teams were laying off and making changes which we accepted. But about two weeks before Christmas the investment firm that bought into Petty Enterprises about 6 months ago decided they were done with racing and wanted their money. The Friday before Christmas Jason and his co-workers were told to have a nice holiday because that might be it. Well, when they went back to work they were there Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday (New Year's Eve) they were told there was a meeting at 2 pm where they would turn in their keys and remove all personal property. So, welcome 2009, we don't have a job. He has been working on it and under normal circumstances this wouldn't be a problem, but these aren't normal.

So, I'm still here and surviving. I'm working on a knitted bag that is felted. Hopefully, my next post will have some happy news.

Michele

In the Spirit

Two Christmases ago we had a real tree. We had decided that when Lowe's put their trees on sale after the holiday we were going to get an artificial. Well, we went to Indiana for the holidays that year and when we came home we found baby praying mantis' all over the living room, so that solidified the artificial tree purchase. Last year, we put it up where we normally put the tree and it was too big. It was like the scene out of Christmas Vacation, "Really full, a little sap." Anyway, I thought it could use some more ornaments and after hitting a speed bump with the blue stump doll I mentioned a few posts ago, I've been trying to make some cross stitched ornaments. These are two I've finished. There are two more whose designs are done and need to be sewn to background fabric, and I'm working on another.



They both come from Just Cross Stitch Ornament magazines of different years. I also got together with some girlfriends to knit a purse that will be felted. I will have the bottom finished for Saturday so DeLane can help me with the next step. If I get on a roll I can finish it next week. This has helped keep me focused on the holiday while dealing with Jason's job situation. They have laid off all but 36 people. We are waiting to hear if there will be a merger or they will close.

Michele