bodner067

Good morning all! Thanksgiving is almost here! Are you ready? This year we'll be heading to Ohio for the day to celebrate with my husband's family. Can you tell I've been relatively stress-free having a year "off?" Oh, I'm still making the pies, a cookie tray, the pumpkin-cranberry bread, and the strawberry-pretzel "salad," but it is such a welcome relief not to be the hostess. None of that exhausting pre-feast cleaning and set-up that accompanies all the shopping and cooking. What are your plans this year? Somehow, all of my stitching lately has been bird-related! I didn't plan that, but well, I do love our little (and-not-so-little) feathered friends. The first finish I'd like to share with you today is my ornament for September (yes, September--I'm way behind on my monthly ornament challenge, but I will get it done!). This is from the 2013 Just Cross Stitch Ornament issue and is called "Baby Cardinal" by The Victoria Sampler...

Hello, hello! I'm back from my stitching retreat and visiting my parents and find myself with only six weeks left until Christmas! How on earth did that happen?? Are the rest of you feeling like this year has passed in a blur, too? Seriously...I don't know where the past 10 1/2 months have gone! Many of you have asked what stitching retreat I went to... Well, it isn't an organized retreat--there are no teachers, no classes, no "stuff" for sale. It is just five friends gathering together at a lovely  bed and breakfast in the town of North East, Pennsylvania (yes, why a town in the northwest corner of Pennsylvania is named "North East" is a bit ironic, to say the least!). This is the fourth year that we've traveled from towns in Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania for three days of stitching, chatting, and eating. I love the casualness of it--I am not a big group person. I tend to be a quiet, rather shy person and crowds just overwhelm me so this sort of...