Happy New Year!!! Here we are at 2:00 am on Friday
morning. The party is about to break up and the weary
celebrators are about to disperse to home and bed after
talking, laughing and eating their way into the New
Year. I'm on the right, seated. DH is in the middle, in
the back row, in the black and white stripped shirt. The
short (!!!) guy on the left (arms crossed) is our little
godson, the actor.

After getting up for work at 5:30, working all day and
being very, very busy, getting home at 5:40 and making
dinner, heading back out at 7:30 to our friend's home
for our yearly gathering, and staying out way, way, way
past our normal bedtimes, DH and I fell into bed at
2:30 and didn't stir until 8:30 (him) or 9:30 (me) New
Years Day. And then it was only because Phoebe was
demanding breakfast.

I spent all day Friday in my pajamas, stitching and
blogging and listening to music. It was wonderful.
On Saturday I walked down to Curves and worked
out, which was the first time since last Monday that
I'd had a chance to do that. The walk to and from
Curves was a cold, frigid one as the temperatures
dropped considerably from the previous day...and
year. When I got home it was to settle once again
into my stitching chair for more blissful, all the
rest of the day stitching. And the result?? My
first happy dance of the year.

Lizzie Kate
Christmas is Forever
special edition kit for 2008
Stitched with Crescent Colors and a couple of DMC threads.

Loved the wonderful, bright colors that went into this design.
And I love stitching with Crescent Colors threads so much.
I am very happy to have finished this one in such a timely
manner and am thinking that it would make a wonderful
flat fold finish.

I don't usually do the New Years resolution thing, but if
I did I'd want this years to be to try and stitch more. I'm off
to a good start, but it is vacation time so not our normal
routine. I'd also like to attempt my first "finishing" of
some of my stitching and even frame a few more pieces as
well. We'll see how all of that works out.

And yes, I have started a new project. I spent a couple
of hours rummaging through my stash, from charts to
magazines to books, and then back to the charts again.
Finally I settled on something that suits the season, and
that will keep my well occupied for some time I suspect,
slow stitcher that I am. Pictures to come in my next post.


I haven't blogged much about my reading lately, so I'll
do a brief catch up here of the final reads of 2009.

The first was a book that I saw reviewed and recommended
on a couple of book blogs and was intrigued and eager to
read it for myself. So much so that when it arrived here in
the mail from Chapters I started reading the first few pages,
to see what it was like, and ended up temporarily abandoning
the book that I was reading at the time to keep on going with
this one and finishing this story in a week. Keep in mind that
this book is over 500 pages long too.

Categorize this one as Young Adult, supernatural fiction but
know that it's a wonderfully written, enthralling story that is
first and foremost rich in character and visual imagery and
a well imagined history and back story. And no drippy, mournful,
vampires and dreary, obsessed teenage girls. There's wry humor
and a strong feeling for family, and for life in a small town. I
really enjoyed this book and recommend it highly.


I finished off the 2008 reading year and began the 2009
year reading my first trilogy by Robyn Carr, again based
on recommendations from book blogs. I finished off this
year by reading the second trilogy and enjoying each and
every book.


Yes, these are somewhat formulaic, and the heros and
heroines are somewhat too good to be true but on the
other hand these are books to be read for escape and
pleasure, not to experience real life in all its disappoint-
ments and warts and what-have-you.


I enjoyed being sucked into these stories, falling for the
handsome, rugged men and the lovely, strong yet
vulnerable women, and the quirky characters that live
in the small town of Virgin River. So much so that,
like eating peanuts, I couldn't read just one. I have
picked up three more books by this author that also
take place in Virgin River and feature characters
introduced in the first books. If that's not a
recommendation for these novels then I don't know
what is.

***********************************************

Thank you everyone who left comments on my last
post about my weight loss and new look. It's going
to be an interesting year ahead as I work to find
that perfect balance of eating, working out and
relaxing that will allow me to maintain this look.

I've been naughty and ordered some new charts
and fabric and some of those mesh bags from
various places. The charts are mostly from
designers that I don't normally collect because
I wanted to expand my horizons and try new
things. Pictures to come when the stash does.

The end of the Yuletide holidays is always a bit
depressing as we face the rest of the long, cold
winter without the lights, the decorations, the
food, the parties and the time away from work
to enjoy.

Will any of you be watching the Winter Olympics???
The Olympic torch came through Georgetown before
Christmas, but it came through at 7:00 am on a bitterly
cold Saturday morning and I for one was not inclined
to leave my warm bed to stand on the side of the
road to watch it go by. I'm not keen on sports or the
Olympics anyways so I probably won't be watching
any of the coverage while it's on.

I think I'd best finish off today's post since there are
chores to be done, and a new project to stitch on once
those chores are done. Hope you all have a great
week settling back into the normal routines of life
and get lots of time to stitch and read. Thanks for
visiting.

Cheers!