Leftover Halloween Pieces

I've decided to continue on, and finish, the autumn/Halloween pieces I've started. There are four of them. I'm not counting Celtic Autumn with this group, because she is a SAL, and though she is Autumn, she somehow falls into a different category. I will also be adding winter and Christmas pieces, and am trying to decide whether to make some ornaments as gifts to enclose with gift cards to send to family out west, or do something else for them. So the Autumn pieces will still stay in my bag, and get regular attention, but I'll do others as well. Here is what I've done on In Search of the Perfect Pumpkin. I just love the colors on this one, which is funny because all my life I have been a pastel and pink/purple/blue sort of person. It just shows your tastes change and expand through the years.

And here is the Pumpkin Cat. I'm almost finished with him . . . isn't he cute? I won't be able to use him in this year's Halloween decorations, because they are now in the attic, and the Thanksgiving things, the few that I have, are waiting to be put out. I had better be quick about it, because we typically start our Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving! We'll see what happens this year.

This last one my husband entitled "Your Guess is as Good as Mine" in its file name, because to him (and possibly to you) it looks like a blob. And I was not around when he was uploading these pictures from the camera to the computer. But it is really Chessie and Me's Bittersweet and Pumpkins Sampler. It is taking me awhile because all of the lighter color is not cross stitch, but smyrna cross stitches, which take extra time. Also, it takes longer to do a piece if it is one of about ten in your stitching bag rather than the only one! But I love this piece, so I will spend the time to do it. It has other specialty stitches as well, and most of it is done with one thread over two linen threads.

Some More Pictures

Did you know that if you click on the "publish post" button without saving as draft first, and blogger is down for scheduled maintainance, that your post will completely disappear?!! I'll try again, and learn from my mistake!

With everything that has been going on lately, it actually feels good to worry about trivial things. Phillip's school picture day was last week, and guess who hasn't had a haircut in weeks and months? When I was a little girl, I remember my mother spending a long time picking out the perfect outfit for me to wear, and curling and spraying my hair so everything would look just right for the pictures that would be sent out to family and friends and remembered through the years. I just had to laugh when I thought of this, and of how Phillip's picture would show more accurately what is happening with life this year than a preppie haircut ever would. And I thought of the contrast between Phillip (who offered to remove some of his hair and tape it to his brother's head), with too much hair, and Stanford, with no hair, and just had to show you. And I plan to take Phillip to the barber on Tuesday, so little by little, things get done.

Here is a picture of two of my boys heading out to trick-or-treat. Phillip went as a highwayman, complete with beard (crayon makeup). Stanford decided to take advantage of his chemotherapy-induced baldness, and went as Aang, from Avatar, the Last Airbender, a Nicolodean cartoon. He spent the day with t-shirts and the sewing machine, then his sister, Heather, drew a blue arrow on his head with the makeup crayons. I need to learn to not "point and shoot" when I take pictures with the digital camera, and instead take the few moments to set it up right for the light conditions. Julia went as a black cat (without ears--yet another detail of life lately that has gone by the wayside), but was out trick-or-treating before I was able to get a picture. Heather handed out candy at our house, Julia went with her friend, Emmy (and Emmy's Dad), and I took the boys to my friend, Patty's, house. Whe we got there, Phillip and Patty's sons left to trick-or-treat before we even noticed, they were so excited. Then Patty turned to Stanford and said, "Well, Stan, it's just the girls (her daughter, Karen, age 17, and three friends) left." Stanford said, "I like girls!", so he ended up going with the girls, and had a great time! I stayed at Patty's house and stitched with her. It was lovely! Poor John wasn't expected to come home before 7pm from work, so when he came home earlier, he was just lost and forlorn until he decided to play on the computer.

This is my progress on Shepherd's Bush's Little Witch. Now it's time to decide if I should spend a few days of concentrated effort and finish her, or save her until next year and work on other things now. I'm really enjoying the silks. As usual, though, I have way too many projects going at once so the chances of actually finishing up the seasonal ones on time are not very good.

Here is my progress to this point on Celtic Autumn. As you can see, I'm a slower stitcher than Sue or Ann. But I keep telling myself, "this is not a race . . . this is not a race!" I just need to listen to myself, and stitch more, and be encouraged by their progress, not intimidated.

Here is my final picture for today. It is a kit sent to me by my dear friend, Chris, who attended the Shepherd's Retreat this year, and wrote that she thought of me the whole time, and sent me this, tied with lovely ribbons and a very cute pumpkin pin which I've been wearing almost every day since. Thank you, Chris! This made my day! I plan to stitch it in time for the next birthday in my family, which is . . . mine! In January!