Wishing you the best in 2012!

Happy New Year!  I had meant to send this greeting earlier, but somehow time has gotten away from me--again. 

We have had a very busy time since my last posting on Christmas Eve.  Shortly after my posting, we headed to Fort Wayne to spend a few days with our son, daughter-in-law, and 15-month old grandson.  Then on Wednesday, Tom and I celebrated our 41st wedding anniversary.  (That was a day of mixed emotions as it was also the one month anniversary of my father's death.)  Then yesterday we went with friends to see the Boar's Head Festival in downtown Cincinnati and came back here for dinner.  Wow--what a full week.

Today we are celebrating both Christmas and New Years with our daughter, son-in-law, and 4-year old grandson.  We'll open gifts in the morning, and later in the day enjoy our usual New Years Day dinner--black-eyed peas over a bed of rice.   (Eating black-eyed peas on New Years day is a southern tradition which is supposed to bring you luck during the coming year.)  Several years ago Tom said he thought the black-eyed peas taste better on the second day, so I suggested he fix them the day before. That has now become our tradition.  This year he did two batches, one with ham and the other without because our daughter is a vegetarian.  I think we'll be eating black-eyed peas for a very long time this year! Many people also prepare collard greens, but since neither Tom nor I like them we don't include them. 

The good news is that after having not stitched for five weeks I'm back in the swing of things.  For the past four days I have gotten in a bit of early morning stitching.  (Boy does it feel good to be doing that again.)  I'm working on Ann Rayner from Threads Through Time, and with any luck (and continual stitching) I should finish her this month.  I'll try to show you a photo of my progress soon.  Poor Ann must feel abandoned--although she has traveled with me to quite a few places, she never came out of my stitching bag.  The last photo I showed you of her was taken back in June.

We have also been busy working on the directions for three new projects--two for the retail market and a new teaching piece that will premier in Canton, Ohio in May.  I hope to have photos of these projects soon.

In closing, I thought it might be fun to look back on my stitching goals for 2011 to see how I did. Although I didn't get as much stitching done as I had planned, I guess that I should be happy with my accomplishments, especially considering all of the travel and family trauma we experienced.

My 2011 list was:

• complete Elizabeth Mears (Yes)
• stitch I Sigh Not for Beauty (Yes)
• complete at least one WIP (I fell short here--I don't think I did any)
• design some WMN projects including one new teaching project (Yes--I have designed 3 new projects, down from the number in the past. We still need to get the directions done.)

Yikes, time is getting away from me once again, so I guess I'll have to wait until next time to list my 2012 stitching goals.  Do you make a list of stitching goals?

I'd like to leave you with this verse from an old post card I found.  (It was sent in 1919.)  I think the verse really summarizes what 2011 meant to me and my wish for you.