My goals for November were to finish my ornament for the exchange and work on my model. Done.
My goals for December are to finish the model, start, finish, and ornamentify the new Dragon Dreams Christmyth ornament, sew Grandmother's (in-law) butterflies into pillows, pick a project to stick with until it's finished (yeah right), and kit up The Castle for the stitch along on New Year's.
Non-stitching goals for this month include getting present for children only. Adults and their wants are not in our budget. Children and their wants are only barely in our budget. I love giving people presents, so this may be hard. Other than that, just survive the month and all it's stresses.
Christmas is always a scramble for us. When everyone else starts shopping in the beginning of November, we start trying to scrape together money for Tobi's birthday (November 27), and only after that's taken care do we remember Christmas is not far behind. Last night I bought the boys a new TV for their room for Christmas. I had priced them at Target, and the cheapest ones all had bad reviews when I checked the brands out online. So I got a name brand. What didn't make any sense to me though, was the smaller TVs cost alot more. I decided to pay less for the bigger one. I got out to the parking lot, only to find it was too big to get in my car. It would have fit if the front passenger door opened, but it doesn't anymore. Yes, my car sucks that bad. So I called my mom (she has a SUV) and she took the TV to hide until we have out Christmas get together. Tonight, Jymi's going to get off work early, and I'm going to try to mail my ornament, otherwise it's going to be late. After that we're going to Toys-R-Us. We'll take the boys through the store to make lists for Santa, and then Jymi will take them to look at video games or something, while I pick out what Santa will bring them, buy it, and load it into the car. Since they're getting a TV, they won't get much else.
I've also gotta find two presents for my niece. Her birthday is four days before Christmas, and she'll be ten. She's decided she's too old for Barbies and princess stuff, which has suddenly made shopping for her insanely difficult. She may end up with a gift certificate to Michael's or the bookstore if I can't find anything. She does like crafts and books very much. I swear she's my mini me. She looked just like me when she was born, and the only way to tell us apart in pictures of us at the same age is to look at how old the other people are. Especially since she got alot of my old baby/toddler dresses my mom made.
I've got two SBQs to catch up on. Do you stitch Christmas ornaments? If so, how many do you stitch each year and for whom? If not, why not? I do stitch ornament, of course. This year, I think I've done eighteen or nineteen, and I plan to do at least one more. I stitched one for an exchange, and the rest are for our tree. Yes I am stingy, but please also remember Jymi and I have only been living together for three years. We haven't had time or money to collect ornaments, and the few we have bought, are too heavy for the little fake tree we have, and we don't have room for anything bigger at the moment. So it need some light cross stitch ornaments. When the boys go to school, I plan to stitch and ornament for each of their teachers. My mom always did for my teachers, and they always loved it. I don't stitch ornaments for Jymi's family. I stitch Just Another Button Company's Oh Holy Night for Jymi's grandmother last year, because she collects nativity scenes. She loved it. Jymi's mom (who doesn't like me anyway), however gave me the dirtiest look that said, "How could you be so cheap?" First of all, for as little as it was, it was pretty expensive. Not to mention the four hours I spent fighting to try to finish it (it was my first attempt at that particular method). In my family, handmade gifts means you are very loved, because someone spent alot of time to make something just for you. I guess the same is not true for Jymi's family.
How do you secure your thread when you begin a new one? Specifically, do you or have you ever used a waste knot? Usually, I use the loop method. If I'm using overdyes, or an odd number of threads, I'll either run it under stitches that are already there or hold a small tail in the back and stitch over it. I have only ever used a waste knot once, on my very first project, and I'm pretty sure I did it wrong. I just tied a knot in my thread and started stitching. If that piece is still around anywhere, that knot is still on the back. After that, my mom taught me the loop method, and then when I did something with a blend, I figured I could start a thread the same way I ended it, and that would hold it enough.
I've taken a picture of one of the projects Jymi's grandmother gave me, but the butterflies need to be scanned to even begin to show their beauty, and I can't for the life of me get it to work. So that will be my next post! Have a nice weekend!

Labels: Goals, Holidays, Ornaments, SBQ