Slushy, icy rain.... yuck!

I really enjoyed having some time today to work on Girl with Cat again. I love this project, and am glad it was resurrected from UFO status this year. It has such a nice watercolor effect, which makes me think of my mom, who happens to be a watercolor artist and instructor :-) A lot of what I did today may well not even show in the photo - quite a bit of off white (DMC 746) on the kitty's tummy just does not show well on the white fabric in the photo (really stands out IRL).

I selected one of my Christmas gifts from Mike today - I signed up for Chatelaine's Mystery IX, and just ordered my kit... with any luck, it will be here before Christmas so Mike can wrap it up LOL! Anyhow... with its start date of January 1, I will probably start my Mirabilia SAL piece on New Year's Eve instead. (I have been warned that I will end up with Chatelaine burn out, but I really don't think that is true at all. I know how I can pace myself - I am sure I will be fine - what is the rush, right??).

I spent my entire morning and early afternoon trying to get BlogRolling to work in my blog - FINALLY, it works! Unfortunately, I have to put it at the end of my sidebar, as it seems existing items tend to cover it up.

I got some horrible news via email from my mother today. Christmas is very much up in the air for our family this year. My brother's father in law, Roger, whom we all love dearly, is in ICU. He has been battling some form of cancer for the past couple of years. According to my mom's email, it does not look good at all. He lives on Cape Cod, and my brother and his family are heading down there today as the roads are clearing nicely from the storm. Christmas is usually at my brother's house, so we will have to alter our plans... but most importantly, it is time to pray for Roger's recovery. Very sad. And the strangest part of it is that on Sunday, the 18th of December, it will be the tenth anniversary of my own father's sudden death - tomorrow, the 17th, is my niece Caitlin's 17th birthday - I don't think she needs to have both of her grandfathers pass away around her birthday :-(


On a whole different note, I received some stash from Stitching Bits & Bobs today - the first part of which is some of the December releases. I got Elizabeth's Designs' Nature's Alphabet II, which I will be doing as a SAL with Katrina some time next year. And, I got in Jeannette Douglas' Winter Stitches with embellishment pack. This is the companion piece to her stunning Autumn Stitches that was in Just Cross Stitch just a few short months ago :-)

And... I also received two discontinued charts by White Willow Stitching, which I am thrilled to have been able to get! One is Atlantis, which has got to be one of the thickest charts I have ever owned (LOL!) and the other is Moon Witch. I have been tracking this one down for some time now, after having seen a stitched model of it on White Willow's website. I had shown it to Mike, and he was not at all impressed by it. But I am strangely drawn to Moon Witch.

Our basement is completed now. The carpet was installed today. I think Mike will be taking pictures of it very soon now, so I will post them when he does. I imagine he will do a better job of it than I could!

Speaking of Mike taking pictures... when I took the photos of my WIP and my stash off of my camera just now, there was a photo in there from earlier today that he must have taken - I thought it was cute! Here are three of my kitties all trying to squeeze in on their cat window shelf to watch the bird feeder today! (left to right: Ava, Lily, Gig)

Stitched on today: Girl with Cat