Advent Calendar Blog Hop: Day 5

Hello there, jolly blog hoppers! It is time for this year's Advent Calendar hosted by the fantabulous Jo at Serendipitous Stitching.  You can go here to see the others in the calendar so far and the doors yet to come!

5 Christmas Lane

This is my ornament for this year! I picked up this little kit at a truly amazing yard sale (I love crafter sales!) along with a small box of several others of the same type (plus a plethora of other items).

a delicious house

A little gingerbread house with a good amount of backstitching to make it pop.  I really like how small and cheerful it is but that thread!  It was like stitching with crochet thread (or maybe perle cotton?) -- very twisty and thick.  I wasn't much for the single strand of gold for the loop so I cut it in half and found another leftover bit from a different kit that was the same type.  A braid should be a little more sturdy!

Technical Details

• "Gingerbread House" Item 3356, a Stitch 'N Hang ornament kit by NeedleMagic, Inc.
• 2-over-1 on a 14-count plastic canvas.
• Finished size: 2.5" x 3".
• Started ????, finished November 27, 2018, unknown hours.

without backstitching

This was one of those pieces that have what seems like an absurd amount of backstitching for such a little piece but it really made a nice difference!  I still like backstitching so this wasn't a troublesome task for me but it was a bit difficult with that twisty thread!

The theme for this year is our favorite Christmas song. This was tough for me! I like so many of them and usually sing my way through the days, especially while decorating and baking cookies.  Though it's already been in the calendar, "O Holy Night" is one of my favorites, particularly the version by Willie K.  The Hawaiian language (second verse) is beautiful!

And if I can be so silly, I will include a bonus Christmas song that I'm sure most of you have never heard before: The Twelve Days of Starcraft.  This version is from the original PC game when Blizzard (the maker) made a special map for Christmas one year, each day being sung by a different unit.  It definitely makes more sense to have played the game hah.  My favorite part is when the archon gets annoyed and makes up new lyrics. :D

Peanut wants the vent, Klondike wants to play, Oreo wants the package

That is all from me this advent!  Be sure to check out everyone else's beautiful Christmas pieces and listen to all their songs~

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*MERRY CHRISTMAS!*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

As usual with these blog hops, I've scheduled this post to appear overnight here so the people in the future (read: the rest of the world) can have the post in a timely fashion.

Advent Calendar Blog Hop: Day 21!

Hello, hello~  Are you here for Jo's Advent Blog Hop on this fine Winter's Solstice?  Sure you are!

Ooo we are so close to Christmas; are you ready?!  I can safely say all the Christmas cards are mailed and so are all the cookies!  I am now working on the "local" cookie batches, mostly the cookies that I love to make but would never survive mailing (decorated sugar cookies, etc) or that my husband loves and I have to make another batch of (thin mints).

Here is what I've created for you behind door 21!  I can assure you it took an awful lot of work to assemble this intricate piece.

almost staying still

Wait, that's not a craft...

Okay, okay, enough with the silliness and on to the Real Stuff.  Every year I've been trying to make something for the tree and this is 2017's contribution.

baby, it's COLD outside

I bought this little kit in a thrift store. I really like brass ornaments so finding a cross-stitch one was awesome!  There doesn't seem to be any images of this particular kit online, but there are stockings and wreaths out there somewhere.  I enjoyed the easy finish of it but it was a bit rough "seeing" the beginning stitches; I simply couldn't process the squares!  I just started at the bottom and worked my way up until it made sense.   Plus the 3-over-1 was remarkably tough despite the the large holes.  Back stitching required a thimble just to stuff the needle through some places!

Technical Details

• Brass Stitchables "Snowman Mitten", a kit by Bucilla.
  
• 3 over 1 on 14-count brass.
  
• Finished Size:
• Started: November ?, 2017, Finished: December 8th, 2017. Unknown hours.

I added a bit of red felt to the back to hide protect the stitches.  I thought I'd get all fancy pants and attach the felt with gold metallic floss to match the brass.  Trying to do that blindly and neatly....... Nope, not happening!  Glue gun to the rescue hah.

And because I felt this was a pretty sparse post, I will share two previous ornaments I don't believe were ever on the blog.

naughty or nice

delicious house

Both of these little kits were picked up in thrift stores (of course).  I believe the gingerbread house is the first Christmas ornament I've ever made in cross-stitch; I scribbled a date on the back of August of 2009 which is the year I started.  It was a fun stitch, although I obviously needed a bit more practice centering in a frame!  Santa  was stitched closer to Christmas that same year and was finished by being glued to cardboard, and then of course that looked ugly on the back, so I cut another piece of cardboard and used Christmas wrapping paper and a fat ribbon for hanging.  I do remember designing the M and C myself because the plain font looked too, well, plain!

Christmas... worm?

And this little guy was made when I was a tiny Rosey in kindergarten.  Our teacher cut out the little pieces of felt and we assembled them into these ornaments with glue.  Then we "sewed" around the edges and stuffed the bottom with a bit of fluff.  Such trust with a needle!  I'm sure nowadays someone would demand that children are too young and would eat the needles or some other disaster.


Jo asks: How do you plan to spend Boxing Day?  Do you have any traditions associated with this day?

Welp, like a few others on this hop, I'm also American and have no specific traditions associated with this day! My husband does actually have off the day after Christmas though, but this is more of a fluke of the days lining up just so.  It's a day for lazing around, eating cookies (and I guess leftovers), and playing with any new toys that Santa deposited under the tree.  Although after reading all the hops so far, I feel this might actually fit in haha.  I could pretend to be a milkgal and you could slip a note under the door on the way out. ;)

Okay, that's enough from me.  Thank you for visiting!  Your next stop is a Double Delight.  Please knock on Craftartista and A Snapshot of my Life's door tomorrow~

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* MERRY CHRISTMAS! *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

As usual with these blog hops, I've scheduled this post to appear overnight here so the people in the future (read: the rest of the world) can have the post in a timely fashion.

Advent Calendar Blog Hop: Day 18!

Mele Kalikimaka, hoppers from around the blogosphere!

Here we are on day 18 of Jo's Advent Calendar Blog Hop and Christmas is now ONE WEEK AWAY. /panic!  I hope you're all squared away because I for sure am not!  Every year, it's "I'm gonna do things so timely this year!"... and then here we are, a week away, panicking.  :)  Anyway, I found this cute (freebie!) pattern here along with all 23 other days in case you needed to add more patterns to your stash~

A short introduction: I am Rosey, owned by two derpy cats and owner of one derpy husband all of which I love very much.  I am... excitable.  And I maybe talk too much.  I like hoarding stitching cutesy and possibly nerdy/geeky/dorky patterns although I am very, verrry slow at producing finishes.  Not sure I could pick a favorite designer as that seems to change with the wind, but I'm partial to browsing SODA pattern mall, Alessandra Adelaide swirly patterns, Frosted Pumpkin, Sprite Stitch, and Stoney Creek designs.  Someday!  Also, I've just bounced into the wild world of crochet because I need to hoard admire even more cutesy patterns.

Santa Dave

Firstly, per Blog Hop Rules™ here is my little Christmas piece, stitched up in 2012! Meet Santa Dave, so named because he looks very much like a friend!  He's a jumping jack ornament gifted to my mother who likes jumping jack ornaments... a lot.  I chose this piece because I am proud of it, rarrrr!  It was by far the most fiddly stitch I've ever done with all the strange assembling and whatnot.  The picture makes him look sorta tiny; he wound up being around 5-6" tall not including pull cord.  I would totally wear his coat.  And hat.  And because I'm always cold, everything else he's got on.

We were asked to give a ramble about our bestest gift ever. This was a difficult for me as I grew up a bit poor and learned to appreciate any gift but the one that stands out the most for me is my little telescope. Though it wasn't a Big & Fancy High-Powered one, I knew how much my mother had to save to get it at all and let me tell you my level of speechlessness surpassed anything ever. The Great Motor-Mouth was speechless. I also hated the very sun for being out all day, how dare it! It needed to set Right. Now!  After I read every last ounce of instructions a million times over all day, assembled it, and that night I put it outside to acclimate (lenses will fog up so it can't be used immediately). I cast it around looking at various fuzzy blobs (remember, not a high-powered scope) and then eyeballed a bright star. Wait, this star is still fuzzy, that can't be right. SATURN O MY GOODNESS I WAS LOOKING AT SATURN. It had rings! I could see another planet! With rings! From my yard! A planet! I teleported back in the house and screamed probably incomprehensible babble at my mom and teleported back outside.  A planet!!

So, I suppose it would win as my Best Ever Present.  I still have it and still take it out on occasion because it's good to remember just how very tiny we are. And despite it being so close to home, Saturn is still my favorite sky object.  :)

Thanks to new and old friends popping in and to Jo for hosting this fun hop~ Be sure to check in tomorrow at Shebafudge for magical door 19.  I am going to skedaddle on out of here to finish baking cookies that get shipped seemingly everywhere in a perfectly timely manner.  :D

What's Behind Door #9?

Hello~ I'm sure y'all are here because of Jo's delightful Advent Calendar! I'm day number nine so I had to hurry and dig my Christmas stuff out, haha. I've only been stitching for just over three years so I don't have many choices... But I will give you my favorite so far: a little clothespin angel!

Hi there!

I stitched her from a little kit found in a thrift store and everything was fun until I tried to follow the directions for her lace. Let me tell you: Glue does not work! (!!!) So she got a red backstitch to hold her pretties on. Otherwise she was a delightfully fun stitch and I did save the cutout pattern so maybe I can design more friends to hang out on the tree. :)

As the Advent theme this year is "Stocking, Sack, or Something Else" I will give you a terribly ghetto picture from last year (our stockings aren't up yet this year!).

LOL.

We had moved to a new house (twice!) near Christmas and there was no time or energy or space to put out a Christmas tree! I couldn't have that so I quickly tied up some yarn, tacked it to the wall, and "decorated" it with Christmas cards as they came in. Our stockings were hung by the tree with care in hopes that St. Nicholas would be able to find our forwarding address (he did; thank you, Santa!)! I really liked the yarn tree idea though and I have it up again for this year's cards.

My stocking is the one on the right - my boyfriend's wonderful grandmother decorated it for me when I was in Hawaii for Christmas one year. It has handmade beads and letters and candy canes and I was so happy to receive it! The one on the left is my dear boyfriend's that I made a valiant effort to decorate while he was in Missouri. I didn't have access to the delightful items from my own stocking so I did the best I could with little beads and leftover buttons and Christmas lights. I think now that I'm older and "wiser" I will have to experiment with waste canvas, don't you think? :)

I love meeting new stitchers so thank you for visiting! I hope you enjoyed today! :D