Christmas Present for ME!

If you have followed my blog for any time now -or also follow me on Facebook -you know I spend a huge amount of time busy with needlecraft stuff -embroidery in particular.

I have published photos on my blog throughout the past year now of the various projects I have completed, most of which have been tabletopper cloths -the smaller, square pieces that can be used as a center piece on a dining room table or that just fit on a smaller kitchen table. I also had put up pictures of the pillow cases I completed along with the ONE tablecloth done -measuring 50x50 inches square and also a couple other smaller embroidered items.

My goal had been to try to get enough items completed early enough -before Christmas -to open an Etsy.com site and see if I could perhaps sell a few of these things.

I didn't get around to opening an Etsy.com site just yet but hopefully sometime in 2011 I will be able to do that but I'm going to have to really get busy -again -and do lots and lots of embroidery work and quickly too because yesterday, I pretty much had much of my stockpile of items wiped out!

No, nothing drastic happened to any of these craft things, but I did manage to sell a goodly amount of my craft stuff yesterday to one lady, who came to my house and loaded up with the tablecloth, six tabletoppers, five pair of pillow cases, a set of acrylic coasters, a pair of terry guest towels and two small childrens vests!

I won't elaborate on how much she paid me for those items but suffice it to say, it will make for a much nicer Christmas for my kids and me, that's for sure!

If anyone reading this is interested in purchasing any tabletoppers, I decided to post photos here of the ones I still have available. Pretty slim pickings really compared to what I had on hand yesterday morning!

"Christmas Tree" -Here's a view of the full cloth to the left and on the right, a corner closeup of the tree, all decked out with the colorful balls and ribbons.






This one is a Nordic Christmas design and on the left is a "full" view of the cloth with a corner closeup shown on the right.












Here's full view on the left of "Golden Lillies" with the corner close-up on the right. My apologies for the darkness of the upper part of the pictures but I haven't been able to figure out how to photograph these pieces and get the lighting even on the pics. Any suggestions? Feel free to pass them along to me!



Reflections is the name of this piece and I will say this -it is the least expensive of the items available mainly because there isn't all that much embroidery work on it. The leaves are appliqued on which means there was a lot less time involved in finishing it!


This one is titled "Winding Flowers" and was one of my own particular favorites while doing it. Just thought the flowers -and the edging -made it a really pretty piece.





And, the last piece -is this one, which I don't recall the name of this tabletopper. But it is a pretty piece with the blue flowers with yellow accents and the very pretty yellow lace edging along the cloth.

Feel free to e-mail me if you have questions about any of these items as I'd be happy to give you whatever information I can pertaining to them.

But these pieces, along with all the pieces the lady purchased yesterday -plus a couple of small things done specifically for family and/or friends, represent a years worth of embroidery work for me. Trust me when I tell you, that's a whole lot of hours! And, if you are interested in purchasing a piece, keep in mind that what I ask for an item represents the cost of the materials and my labor -which generally runs to two to three weeks worth of working several hours a day but I can't very well ask the going rate of minimum wage or these pieces would then run several hundred dollars per piece and I can't very well see anyone wanting to pay anywhere near that much for an item like this, can you? Still and all, my time, I do believe, is worth something, but I do try to ask what I believe is a fair and reasonable price for them.

Now that there is only a week left till Christmas and I have yet to address any Christmas cards, nor have I done any baking, plus I have gifts to be wrapped too -its gonna be a really hectic week ahead for me!

The hardest part of those tasks for me is the Christmas card thing! I absolutely hate to address them! Within five minutes after signing the very first card and putting a name and address to the envelope, my right hand will begin to cramp and as a result, my penmanship -which is a lot on the chicken-scratchy side to start with -will become more and more illegible as the addressing process goes on! I'd like to wheedle Mandy into doing this dreaded job for me but she already has more than enough on her plate with working and dealing with the kids too. Too bad Maya's printing is rather large right now or I could, I'm sure, get her to do this for me as she has been getting into the boxes of cards her mother purchased and been addressing them to everyone and their brother until Mandy catches her with the cards! I think Mandy's now had to purchase at least one more box of cards, possibly two, to make up for the ones Maya got into!

And - you all know too how things go in the weeks leading up to Christmas when there are small children around -all the threats of how we're gonna keep lists of who's been naughty and nice to scare the living daylights out of those children, hopefully into behaving better. Well, although I have not seen these "elf on a shelf" things I read about, yesterday, at supper, I told Maya that she'd best straighten her act out because unbeknownst to her, there is an elf in the house who sleeps on the shelf in the dining room -when she is sleeping but the rest of the time, he is invisible and follows her and Kurtis all over the house, watching their actions, recording for Santa when they do nice things (like pick up their toys willingly or are nice, not bullying each other -the bullying thing is mainly for Maya's benefit as she does really try to boss -and push -Kurtis around ALL the time) so she has, at every opportunity now, been inquiring more and more about that "elf" ya know. Not that I've seen any major changes in her behavior as apparently she fears nothing when it comes to that stuff, but I figure any little thing that might get her attention is worth a shot, ya know.

At least she hasn't found the boxes (and there are two fairly large ones) in my bedroom that are packed with unwrapped gifts though. Thankfully, she is quite as much of a snoop in all areas of the house like her mother and aunt were -and her grandmother too which my Mom would say if she were around to comment about that topic! Especially since this week, Maya has returned to sleeping in my room with me again! Mandy was a bit concerned that she might nose around but so far, so good and lets hope it continues in that vein too!

I finally got around today to making an appointment to have my eyes checked and to get new glasses -which are really very badly needed too, I might add. That is my Christmas present from me to me, ya know! The stem on the right side broke several months back and was "mended" somewhat haphazardly at that time and then, if you recall when I went to my cousin's funeral last month, I changed my name, temporarily there to Grace as I managed to fall, flat on my face in the parking lot and broke the frames then above the left eye! I did manage -thanks to some crazy glue -to get the frames glued back together -again, a bit haphazardly too but the upshot was that the glasses kind of fit like my face is crooked -leaning down a bit on the right side! Okay, so they made me look a bit on the drunk side I guess -that I couldn't even put glasses on straight ya know -so I hope to heck I can get fitted with some new frames and especially with new and much more powerful lenses too because these that I have now just don't do the job adequately any more! I really would like to be able to see what I'm doing much better than I can right now! Of course, I can always use the excuse that my glasses need changed when I screw things up though, can't I? But who wants to eat stuff that doesn't taste quite right because I can't read the measuring spoons or cups correctly right now, huh?

Yesterday, my high school girlfriends and I celebrated our third Christmas lunch together! Three years ago this month, our friend, Rose, came up with this idea for the group of us -five usually -who have known each other for between 55 and 60 years now, to have lunch together once a month and thus started our little tradition. Two of us live within two doors of each other, Rose lives about 2 miles from Kate and me; Linda lives about 12 miles from us and Carol, lives over the mountain in State College -about 35 miles from here. A sixth former classmate who lives about 4 miles from those of us here in this region attends our lunches too every now and again and today, she was with us. So we six had a very lovely meal, shared news of our kids and grandkids and such and had many, many laughs too. Three of my classmates -Carol, Rose and Kate are married while Claudia and Linda are widows and I'm the so-called "gay divorcee" ya know! Rose and Carol will celebrate their golden wedding anniversaries next year -Rose and her husband Durvin, in March -on St. Patrick's Day and Carol and her husband, Ed (who grew up two doors up the street from me) will have been married 50 years next September or October -can't recall right now which month it is. Kate and Jim -my neighbors 2 doors down -celebrated their 45 anniversary this past October. I find it absolutely fantastic that they have made it those many years together! And yes, I confess, I do have a little twinge of jealousy -or envy -of them for having been able to do that especially when I think I was damned lucky to have lived through being married for a mere eight years! (Yeah I know -you just have to be fortunate enough first off to have found the right person and then, both have to have been willing to work like hell to make things work as well! And even then, sometimes, things just don't work out the way you'd like them to I suppose, do they?)

So now, time for me to go hop in bed with my sweet little sleeping buddy who will have that bed all nice and toasty warm for me too. It's one time of the day when Maya truly is very angelic so I kind of like to take advantage then of that aspect!

Hope you all are better organized with getting the last of your holiday preparations completed and are able to relax a bit, enjoy the beauty of the season in all aspects.

Just remember there's a whole lot more to Christmas than presents, baking and Christmas cards as those are just symbols and not the true meaning of this blessed season.

Sit back and read the words that tell us why we celebrate our Savior's birth and keep that message uppermost in our minds -that's my thoughts anyway as Christmas Day draws nearer and nearer.

And I'll be watching that "elf on the shelf" too -as he tries to sleep after a hard days work of recording the antics of the two little grandchildren that rule this household too!