Aunt Squared

I have a neice! And my nephew has a sister! And there was much rejoicing! No pictures yet, as she was born half a world away in Germany, but hopefully the happy parents will have a moment in the near future to send us some via email.

In other news, Thanksgiving was delightfully uneventful. We spent it with DH's family and did the usual rounds of visiting, watching football and shopping. The cat survived the long weekend without us and didn't break anything on the Christmas tree (which we had put up before we left). She was very happy to see us back, though. I managed to finish up designing a new piece before leaving so that I could stitch on it during the trip. I didn't get much stitching done on the way down because we left very early Thursday morning, which turned out to be a great idea as there was very little traffic. However, I got a ton of stitching done on the way back home: six hours in a car with excellent daylight is a great time to get some stitching in. I'm liking the way it is coming out so far. This design is going to be stitched almost entirely in silk, and it has some departures from my usual style. The main part of the design is NOT confetti-shaded! (was there a gasp from the crowd?) Instead, it just has large blocks of color. It does keep with my particular way of doing curved edges, though, so you can tell it is a Cross Eyed Kat design that way. ;) I've got to get back to the drawing board, though, and keep those creative juices flowing. It is nice to have something of mine to stitch on, especially since stitch night at the LNS is coming up this week. Actually, this month, I'll have one this week and one next week, so it will be nicely spread out. Other than stitching (and designing), I've also got some finishing to do! I think this weekend, I will be experimenting with making ornaments. I have the cutest fabric and trim, so we shall see how it all goes. Unfortunately, I won't be able to post pictures until after Nashville.

I also need to get busy wrapping presents. The cat's current favorite toy seems to be the tree skirt. She likes to lay on it, pounce on it, spring from it and hide on it. Of course, since our floors are smooth, this inevitably means that the tree skirt ends up anywhere but under the tree. So, some presents are needed to weigh it down. This will just change the game from play-with-the-tree-skirt to hide-in-the-presents. The cat really likes Christmas!