Finishing

Today I'm heading to a stitching party. Our instructions were to bring a hand-made gift (not necessarily stitched) to exchange. So I finished up these two designs by Marie Driskell: Rose Marie. You've been looking at one of them in my blog header for the last couple of weeks. Here are the finished designs. Next step is to cut and assemble. Yikes.


I spent some time at G Street fabrics in Rockville, selecting trims. Here I'm auditioning them. I eventually conclude they're all too elaborate and detract from the designs by making the ornaments too busy.


It's been so long since I used the sewing machine that I had to review the directions for threading it.


A little liquid courage: a caramel apple martini. Ingredients: Apple Pucker, caramel liqueur, sprite. With a cherry. I don't know the proportions, but I mean to find out. That will be this year's Christmas Dinner cocktail. It's a very smooth, sweet and tasty drink; we may experience Christmas dinner lying on the floor under the table while sharing a box of crackers.


The rabbits appear to share my anxiety: "Don't screw it up, Mom!"


A finish!



The crowd goes wild. These sheep were part of a large display of tiny antique animals in an antique shop window in Fredericksburg. I wanted to purchase all of them, including the little donkeys, cows, pigs and chickens. What fun to have a huge collection of these little guys on the mantel. Tom rolled his eyes when I pointed them out. "Goody, a new collection," he was heard to mutter.


Here's a photo of some of the animals (the camels are camera-shy):


Happy Week of Preparations ahead! I'll be back next Sunday with a Christmas start.