Happy New Year!

On the eve of not only a new year, but a new decade, best wishes for a safe, healthy and happy New Year! Don't you love these vintage postcards? I do! I have a different one on my web site What's New page and another below - couldn't decide on just one! The one above I find particularly sweet with the dear cherub, presumably Baby New Year? dressed in red and carrying a gold ornament-bedecked Christmas tree.



This postcard has great symbolism with the old year heading into the sunset perhaps, depicted by the old man, and the young, new year coming on - maybe that's actually a new sunrise? I guess you could read it either way. And I love the holly artwork. Just a beautiful image.

It's already 2010 "down under"! Shout out to all the revelers down there where it's summertime for you folks! That said, we're bracing in the Northeast for a double-whammy of two snowstorms heading our way. Mother Nature's New Year's gift to us!

My ancestors are of Scottish descent and in Scotland there is a New Year's Eve tradition called the "First Footing". To insure good luck for the household in the new year, the "first foot" within should be "a dark male" and he should bring with him symbolic items like a piece of coal, shortbread, salt, "black bun" and "a wee dram of whiskey"! Sounds like a party! For years we practiced our own sort of "First Footing" by putting money outside the door before midnight and bringing it back into the house after midnight - symbolizing the first thing coming into the household is money, meaning a prosperous new year for the family. Hasn't quite worked for us, maybe we're doing something wrong! But - it can't hurt!

Whatever your holiday traditions within your family, enjoy a fun night! Next time I'll revisit more of the results of a customer survey from back in the fall and maybe a few New Year's resolutions too.

Cheers!

Holiday Hangover

After months of preparation, WHOOSH!! Christmas is over in a flash. I'm always amazed at how quickly it's over once the day arrives. This year was particularly busy with various family get-togethers and things going on at work. Much food was prepared and consumed, and I'm so looking forward to getting on that treadmill at lunchtime tomorrow! I've fallen off the diet bandwagon badly since Thanksgiving and it's time to atone!



It's also time to start putting things on sale to help make way for the new. Shown above is Santa & Snow by Lake View Primitives, one of a handful of doll patterns added back to the web site and in the Sale Bin at half-price. You'll also find some patterns by Walnut Ridge Primitives there.

Some cross-stitch patterns from PrimitiveBettys have been placed in the Sale Bin in the new Cross-Stitch section as well. I'll be adding more things as I have time to gather them and update the web site.

Hope you had a great Christmas! This will be a short week with New Year's Eve on Thursday. We'll stay home as usual and keep off the roads, probably watching some of the Three Stooges' marathon on AMC or the annual Twilight Zone marathon on Sy Fy. What party animals we are! Well, better head off to bed - 5:45 will be here before I know it...

Cheers,

Merry Christmas!

Sneaking a minute to wish all a very Merry Christmas! It's been a busy week and a busy Christmas Eve but we're winding down for a long winter's nap soon. After I watch my Alistair Sim version of "A Christmas Carol" - wouldn't be Christmas Eve without that movie! One of my brothers says Scrooge turns good too quickly, but I love the story and the message just the same. I'll be wiping away tears at the end...

My Christmas wish for you is... May you get all the Peace, Love, Joy and Happiness your heart can hold! God Bless us - Everyone!

Merry Christmas,

Almost Christmas!

Whew! The past couple of weeks have been super-busy with all sorts of activity around Christmas. There was a last-minute decision to travel down to Massachusetts to visit with my family before one of my brothers and wife and 5-month old niece left for a trip to Vietnam. They are there now and will be gone until the end of January. Being baby's first Christmas I just had to see her! Another brother, my mother and son and girlfriend met us as well and we had a lovely holiday get-together at Longfellow's Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Mass. Check it out via the link under the Links You'll Like section on the left (scroll down a bit). I'm a big "atmosphere girl" and a restaurant's ambiance is almost more important than the food! The Wayside Inn is the oldest operating inn in the country. Very cool! One of my brothers was married at the Martha Mary Chapel on the grounds. They delivered the bride and groom to the church in a horse-drawn carriage. That was many moons ago, not last weekend! We all had a great holiday visit, but my husband and I came home a bit empty feeling like the holiday was already over. Trying to shake that feeling and make it a special holiday for us.

The pattern shown above is Notforgotten Farm's popular "Jingle All The Way" cross-stitch design. I just got more in stock recently, it's a perennial favorite at Christmastime. Also available is another annual favorite, "Parson Brown". A new needlepunch pattern called "Merry Stockings" caught my eye and has been a new popular item. This is one I'll have to make myself.

Monday the 21st is the last day to ship packages in time for Christmas, according to the US Postal Service. Although I'm not sure about that, I'm putting it out there! Priority Mail has the best chance of reaching you before Christmas. I'll be shipping whatever I can on Monday and keeping fingers, toes and eyes crossed for good luck!

My little primitive tulip hooked mat got done in time for the rug guild holiday mat swap, which got changed to the February meeting without my knowing. Oh well... At least it's done! I'll post a picture when I can get hubby to upload things from the camera. It's cute but I might want to keep it instead of swap it! I've become attached to it! I can't figure out how folks can part with things they've made!

Hope your holiday plans are coming along! All the gifts bought? Wrapped? Tree up and decorated? Holiday meal all figured out? I'm not sure what I'll be cooking yet, leaning towards a wonderful pork tenderloin with a mulled cider-spiced glaze that I made years ago and got rave reviews. We'll see. We must decide soon!

Cold still, hope you are warm and snug on this Saturday night, less than a week before Christmas. I'll write again during the week.

Season's Greetings!

Looking like Christmas!

Frosty Trim a Tree is one of several new patterns just in from Country Stitches. This guy is made from a clear ball ornament, painted, with a sculpted head. Too clever. Brenda Gervais has also created more whimsical patterns with her signature litte mouse, who appears quite frequently and is sooo cute!



Wild Pomegranate is from Blackbird Designs and is gorgeous! Big, dramatic 20" blocks and a pink ruggled edge. Just so feminine, as are most of their beautiful quilt designs. Some previously sold-out books of theirs are back in stock as well, plus a few other quilt-related books. Details on my What's New page.

My husband and I had a rare day off to escape to the White Mountains region of New Hampshire and do some Christmas shopping today. Loved seeing the snow-capped Mt. Washington off in the distance! We took pictures, maybe I'll have to post one when I get a chance to upload them from the camera. We left early, went to a cute little place called Peaches in North Conway for breakfast - awesome food! - then shopped until we dropped in the afternoon. We're only a little over an hour away so it's definitely a trip we can do every so often. I kept gazing all around me at the mountains! Can't imagine being able to live out there, that would be cool.

Back to work tomorrow, but now it's only a 2-day week. I've got to get serious about finishing an 8" hooked tulip mat for a swap at my rug hooking guild soon and there's a craft fair at work that I need to make things for... Way too much going on and not enough days! I need better time management skills and being on this computer updating all the places I need to udpate takes so much of my time these days. Facebook, Twitter, web site, blog, newsletters... I don't know. All this techy stuff is taking time away from actually creating things! How do you manage it all? Any pointers? I'm all ears!

Enjoy the rest of your week,