'Twas the fifth day after Christmas

And a new celebration begins - no, it is not yet New Year's Eve - it is my birthday!

One advantage of having a birthday at this time of year is almost always having the day off. The disadvantage is that many people are travelling. So a safe journey to anyone out there still traveling and a Happy New Year to all!

I hope that I look a bit better than this cat on its birthday: http://www.cnn.com/US/9702/06/fringe/oldest.cat/index.html

All your cupcakes are belong to us

This is what almost 90 cupcakes looks like. No, I am not going to eat them all. And yes, it is rather difficult to make red icing. For the record: 12 egg whites, 4 boxes of cake mix, two ovens going, and a partidge in a pear tree. Oh, wait, forget that last one. These will be delivered tonight.





This went in the mail today:

And contains a secret message:

To make up for being knit in that color. These have been mostly finished for a while, although it took me some time to get around to putting the booties together and then I had to buy the buttons for them. I did size them down from the original pattern by knitting with smaller needles, but after seeing a friend's 6 week old girl today, the booties have to get much smaller for newborns. Oh, well.

On the stitching front: A new model arrived and it is gorgeous! Kudos to Faye my model stitcher this time! Sorry, no pictures until after Nashville Market opens - lets just say that if you like Labyrinth and Maze, you'll like this one (and it will complete the series). Speaking of completing a series, I'm coming along on the Ancient world sampler. Although I haven't gotten to stitch on it much this week (did you see the 90 cupcakes at the top of this post), I have gotten some more design work done on it, including the border. For all of these pieces, there is a certain amount of research that goes into the work aside from the designing, so the border had to reflect the design styles and motifs of the people who are represented by the sampler. It also has to fit in the space of the sampler (all of the Ancient World samplers are exactly the same size). Next, I have to work on the columns and then the glyphs/alphabet for the piece. I'm personally hoping to get a bunch of stitching done over the holidays.

I don't know how much I'll post in the coming days as the holiday rush creeps in, so for everyone reading, happy holidays, happy New Year, stay safe and stay warm.

What's wrong with this picture?

Well, unless you live in a Dr. Seuss kind of world, the sky usually isn't that shade of pink. In fact it isn't pink at all here right now. It is very grey and foggy - which is why you can see the weird rectangle in the middle, that is a reflection of the door in the window. It hasn't been that cold here, but we've had some very grey and foggy days lately.

That was Friday - now it is raining, not much of an improvement. It is the kind of weather that makes you want to sing that John Lennon song, "And so this is Christmas and what have you done." I am almost done with the Christmas shopping - just one more thing to get. Unfortunately, I have no idea what it is. I did get my last packages mailed off on Saturday. It only took 45 minutes - 30 minutes to stand in line the first time, then 15 more to rebox my international package in something other than a priority mail box (which is for domestic use only, mea culpa). I must say that the Post Office lady was very nice and let me use her tape and I didn't have to stand in the whole line again.

I did get a bit of stitching done this weekend and one design is nearing completion (not the blobby grey one). Which means I'll have some work to do to make sure I stay busy during the holidays.

Tour Day France

Ten points to those who can correctly name these two gentlemen:








Give up?











Greg LeMond, 3 time winner of the Tour de France:


Bob Roll (aka Bobke), former professional cyclist and current Vs. Cycling commentator:

They gave a talk at a local bike shop, then were kind enough to sign autographs and pose for pictures. Really a great couple of guys, it was an amazing evening!

Teaser

This may not look like much, but it is proof of two things: (1) I am dutifully refraining from knitting and (2) I started to make progress on the Final Ancient World Sampler, hearafter referred to as FAWS.
Yes, it looks like a grey blob. But, more importantly, all of the greys flow together and don't clash. No one has guessed the ancient location yet! This will be the last Ancient World Sampler. I like the concept, and felt I could do a bunch of these, but I keep falling into doing different series, which is both good and bad. I think a quadrangle of these deisgns will make a nice set. The "Triangularity" design will also be the last in its set.

Double stitch-ins this week! Hopefully I'll get lots accomplished.

I tried really hard to get ahead on Christmas this year. In fact, I did some of my shopping in July. I have a bunch done, and I even wrapped up what I had done. My biggest problem is that people are now asking me what I want for Christmas and I really don't know! A real Time-turner would be terrific (or a TARDIS), then I could get all the stuff done that I really want to get done. A personal chef would be great, too. I guess it just means I'm mostly content, which is a good thing. (ok, I do have a small list of books and DVDs on Amazon, but the people asking don't want to look at those things).

Well, seasons greetings to all.

Brrrrr

Look it is cold enough for me to wear my glove/mittens and hat! No, I didn't knit them (I only learned to knit in June, after all) - I got them at REI in Denver. I was glad to have them for the drive home last night. Luckily we don't have any ice or snow to contend with, so I hope those who do are staying safe and staying warm! I remember the two winters I spent in Minnesota and having to scrape ice and shovel snow just to go to work - not fun. If we got any of that down here, the city would just shut down. Of course, that would mean more stitching time, but I don't really want the power to go out.

I have been working on stitching the new design and I think tonight or tomorrow I'm going to pull the threads for the final "Old World Sampler" Any guesses as to the location/culture that will be pictured? I have at least one idea for another Snowfight ornament. I might see if I can make it two, then eventually have a rainbow of dragons in a snowfight. No promises, though!

Countdown time: 30 days until my birthday. The terrible thing is, I have no idea what I want for Christmas or my birthday this year. I'd really like some time, but I don't think that's available at the store. It is bad, I have so many ideas in my head, but not enough time to get them out as fast as I would like. Guess I will just have to go slow!