New Year, New Start

We spent New Year's Eve at the home of some good friends and played board games all night. Some of the games we played were Taboo, Oodles, Apples to Apples and Cranium. It was a fun way to while the hours away until midnight. Funny, we have had the game Cranium for over a year and never played it, never realized what a fun game it was. Well, now I think I can guarantee that it will be played. We love to play games as a family, but when it is just us, we tend to play Clue or Ticket to Ride.


I have traditionally started something new on New Year's Eve, but since we were actually gone then, I didn't get to stitch until New Year's Day. I started Redbird Sampler by Bent Creek. I have seen many, many pictures of this finished on various blogs and webpages, and I have always wanted to stitch it. This was finally the year I found the pattern...on sale even...and got going on it. Here is my progress as of the end of today.




I first stitched the Redbird in the WDW thread listed on the chart, Lancaster Red. It is a darkish, rusty, reddish brown and I thought the bird needed to be more red (perhaps I was unlucky in the dyelot for this skein). The pattern also lists DMC threads, so I restitched him in DMC 815. I like it better than the Lancaster Red, but neither looks like the model, so I might stitch him yet again in some other over-dyed red. At least he is small and easy to frog. My husband and kids like him how he is, so perhaps I'll just leave him alone. My son told me that I was killing the bird when he saw me frogging out the Lancaster Red version. He even thought the bits of reddish-brown fuzz left behind looked like bird blood. Oh the joys of a life with boys ;-).

This is stitching up very fast, which is unusual for me, especially lately. I have been stitching so much on HAEDs and other BIG projects lately, that finishes are few and far between. This and the nature alphabet I did last year have reminded that it is fun to work on quicker, smaller, easier stuff now and then. So that is one goal for this year, stitch more of these smaller fun projects. I foresee some LHN and CCN and Elizabeth's Designs in my future.

Other goals will be:
1.) Participate in the HAED SAL Challenge every month 0f 2008.
2.) Get started on a sampler for the HAED Sampler SAL.
3.) Finish Petite Maisons de Campagne by Maryse.
4.) Complete two pages on each of my HAEDs.
5.) Finish Engelbreit's "To a Friend's House, the Road is Never Long"
6.) Learn how to make a pinkeep and make one.
7.) Stitch 4 Christmas ornaments and finish them.

Well, that's enough for now. I don't think I'll list specific starts because I am so fickle, I could change my mind by tomorrow. It should be amusing, anyway, to see what I can accomplish.