It's hard to believe that another year has gone and we're
now into a whole new year, with all the promise and the
worry that facing the unknown brings. Hope that the
year ahead is a good one for everyone, with more joys
then sorrows.

A lot of you have been setting down stitching goals for
this year, which is very admirable and just a wee bit
scary. As for me, I'm the sort of person who prefers to
rummage in my stash, see what grabs my attention
at the time and pull it out. I don't usually do huge
mega-projects and I don't usually have more then
one project on the go at any given time so I just go
with the flow and stitch without structure. It suits
my personality.


Having said that....at the moment I actually have three
projects on the go at this time, which is almost unheard
of for me. I think some of you stitchers out there may
be having a bad influence on me.

I needed a new travel project after finishing Kitty
Cottage and ended up choosing... a LHN design....
surprise...surprise!! My Needle's Work came with all
it's own threads and just needed me to choose a piece
of fabric to stitch it on. I think this is 28 count Bitter-
sweet. I've been working on it a bit at home thanks
to "new project enthusiasm" and it's looking very
pretty.


I've been stitching on Waxing Moon's Halloween Short
Stack over the holidays and finished the ghost, more or
less. Next is the witches hat and the mouse and then
all the stuff around the main design.

I have one other project on the go which is Prairie
Schooler's November window sampler but I have not
touched it in quite awhile now. I actually had a notion
to stitch on it yesterday but had a seniors moment and
couldn't remember where I'd put the threads for it
(they were right under my nose) so ended up winding
DMC thread on bobbins instead. (I lead such an exciting
life, don't I?) A relaxing activity but one that I tend to get
very behind in.


We had a relatively quiet week at home between Christmas
and New Years, which is what we needed. We did go to
visit our friends Matt and Charmaine one day and were
introduced to the newest member of their family who had
only arrived 24 hours previously. This is Jersey and she is
an eight week old, Old English Sheep dog. Adorable???
Are you kidding?? This is one little bundle of utter cuteness.
She'll grow to be about 65 pounds I'm told, and so this little
furball won't be so little for long.

We spent New Years eve with a group of friends and had
a nice evening eating, talking, reminiscing and laughing.
We watched the final countdown at midnight on TV,
then turned it off and sat talking some more until almost
two in the morning!! I can't remember the last time that
DH and I stayed up that late, but I do know it's been years!
It was half past two when we finally got to bed and New
Years day we didn't do much of anything because we're a
pair of old fogies and can't handle the wild life anymore.

Our refrigerator is stuffed full of left overs, which is
great because it means less cooking is required of me
when meal times roll around. On the other hand, I've
been eating turnip casserole since Christmas and much
as I love turnip I am starting to get a wee bit tired of it.
DH hates turnip so I don't get any help or sympathy
from him.

I can't believe that tomorrow we go back to work, and
probably next weekend the Christmas tree will be taken
down and packed away for another year. It makes me
feel very sad just to think of it.


My final book read for 2008 is the first book in a
series by Robyn Carr. Small town life in Grace
Valley California with all the quirky characters
that tend to fill these types of books. The main
character is Doctor June Hudson who took over
the doctoring of the good people of the valley
from her retired father. Doctor June has
devoted her working life to looking after the
people of the valley where she grew up but
is now at the stage where she realizes that she
can't do it all by herself any longer. And she's
beginning to feel the longings for a family of her
own. Although finding an eligible man in such
a tight knit and somewhat isolated community
is a problem. As it said in the book: this is a town
where you should have picked your husband in
the ninth grade. There is a half dozen or more
books in this series and I've got most of them here,
ready to read. If you enjoy Jan Karon's books then
you'd probably like these as well.


I forgot to mention and pay tribute to Majel
Barrett, who passed away just before Christmas
from cancer. If you're a trekkie like I am then you'll
know her as the voice of the computer in all the
series, and the movies, as well as Nurse Chapel in
the classic series, and Lwaxana Troi in Next Gen.
She was an integral part of the Star Trek universe
and I was sorry to hear of her passing. I was lucky
enough to meet Majel Barrett at a convention
about 10 years ago after the release of one of the
Next Gen. movies.


Well, DH has just arrived home from church, and we
have to go see Mom this afternoon, plus do laundry and
other fun stuff. So have a great week everyone. Here's
the cats under the Christmas tree to end the post with
furry cuteness.

Cheers!