On the Last Day of November . . .

Since 5 a.m. this morning, we have

• loaded the car with all of our belongings (it looks that way, at least) and driven to Williamsburg
• had lunch at The Carrot Tree
• enhanced the stash at Haus Tirol

• checked into the Kingsmill Resort and unloaded all of our belongings
• headed for a special tour of the needlework drawers at DeWitt Wallace
• realized we had left our annual passes at the hotel and returned to get them
• went to DeWitt Wallace and found two samplers I really wish someone would reproduce

• visited the Visitors' Center to pick up our new annual passes and tickets to an evening concert
• dined at Christiana Campbell's
• tottered back to our room, where I plan to collapse in a heap as soon as I hit Publish

Nevermore

Today and tomorrow, and I will have blogged every day in November.

And I have decided that, until I retire or find at least four more hours in a day, I will not attempt daily blogging next November. For one thing, my daily life is deadly dull and boring, even to me. The more important thing, though, is that some days I either have time to stitch or time to blog.

Tonight I have neither. I'm trying to get the final stuff packed for our trip to Williamsburg. We have a jam-packed day planned for tomorrow and need to leave at 0 dark-thirty in the morning if we hope to do half of what we'd like to do.

So I need to get back to throwing things into the suitcase.

Starry, Starry Night

Stars are done.

Back to packing.

Seeing Stars

Between trying to do some Christmas decorating and starting to get ready to leave for Williamsburg on Wednesday morning, I did manage to get part of the background stars on Key to My Heart stitched.

I'm hoping to get the rest of them added before we leave.

And now I'm trying to decide if I even want to think about taking a stitching project with me. I'm taking four classes from Jackie du Plessis, starting at the crack of dawn on Thursday, and there is the boutique, so it's not like I'll have nothing to stitch.

But there is always the fear of having time and place to stitch, and nothing to work on.

ooh! Shiny!

Amazing what a decent night's sleep will do for one's attitude!

So we started moving things around to do a little bit of Christmas decorating today. We have a small-ish living room and generally we have to move furniture to get the tree in. We won't get the tree until we get back from Williamsburg--by the way, we're going to Williamsburg--but we decided we may as well get ready for that before we go.

So things are moved, and boxes have been pulled from closet shelves, and the Christmas china is sitting on the counter ready to go into the dishwasher.

No actual decorating, however, has occurred.

After a certain point, we start to get just a wee bit cranky with each other and it's best to go to our opposing corners and ignore each other for awhile.

So I started another new project.

I'm taking Key to My Heart from Michele Roberts through ANG's cyberworkshop program. This teaches traditional raised English goldwork techniques, which I have enjoyed doing in the past. Actually, at one point, I think I was taking an average of two goldwork classes a year, so this is like a needlework homecoming of sorts.

It is quite possible that I may be finished with the first lesson before the second one is posted.

And I may have just jinxed myself.

I should know by now not to make plans.

Black Friday

This is where I stopped on Ann Almy last night.

It's a good thing I have a picture to show you, because a needle has not been threaded today.

I went to bed about midnight.

I woke up shortly after five.

I was unable to go back to sleep.

I am not a pleasant person to be around when I don't get enough sleep. I also can't stitch. That may contribute to the unpleasantness.

So I believe I will take my cranky self upstairs and put me to bed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

As predicted, we're having a lovely, quiet Thanksgiving Day. I've had my turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce, left over from Saturday, talked to Baby Girl who is cooking a feast with her housemates today, and pulled the meat sauce out of the freezer for our lasagna dinner tonight.

It isn't the traditional day I grew up with, but it's working out this year. And what's wrong with new traditions?

And I decided what to do with my long holiday. I'm going to work on something (or somethings) different every day.

Up today is a project that I sewed to the scroll bars months ago, then never stuck a needle into.

Here's Ann Almy after a couple of hours:

For someone who doesn't enjoy stitching letters, I seem to be doing a lot of it lately.

Maybe that's another new tradition  . . .