Happy New Year!

You're probably shocked to see another post from me so quickly!!!

I quickly took down my little Christmas tree with my cross stitch ornaments, and then put up my New Year's Tree.  I only have FOUR cross stitch New Year's ornaments!!!  I guess I need to get on that for next year!!  However, a couple of years ago I bought several small packages of gold and silver shiny ornaments at Walmart on the 90% off shelf!  So, I've just filled in with those bought things to make it a shiny and festive tree!!!

I left the little top decoration and just added four gold party horns!  Below are some close-ups of my stitching.  I plan to make a few more.  I did a google search for free New Year's Cross Stitch and a ton of things came up.  And I mean true freebies, not the things tacky people have scanned in that are copyrighted and illegal copies.  I will find a few more that way!

 

A couple are Trail Creek Farms and a couple are online freebies.  I hope to stitch up another one or two soon.

Thank you for all your sweet comments on my last post.  I appreciate your concern for my finger!! I don't think I was clear about my big bandage!  I had that large one on for only two days.  Now, I just have a band-aid.  I went back to the doctor yesterday for an x-ray, and all is fine.  I will have the pin removed on February 7th and I hope this will all be over!!!

Sweet Vickie asked if I would ever be showing my piano...well, I had never thought about doing that, but if you really want to see, here it is:

 

I've had my Steinway for about five years.  I love it!!  This piano came with a player on it.  I never wanted a player because I didn't think I needed one, since I play myself!  However, it turned out to be great fun to have it!  When company comes over, you can let the piano play as background music.  It's really nice!

When my mother died, I got several nice pieces of furniture from her house.  The secretary you see was hers and is filled with old things that were at her house.  You also see part of a settee and that was also hers.  When I had a designer's help, we put a silver leopard seat cushion along with a silver lumbar pillow and a black mink pillow!  I'm not real sure what my mother would think of that!  But I've enjoyed it that way!!  You may also notice a dark brown border by the ceiling.  At one time, I had a little floral border up there. I got an artist to paint it out in dark brown, and then he painted a music quote by Plato, in gold, on top of the brown background.  I love it!  (The tree you see in this room is my music tree).

I am hoping 2017 will be a MUCH better year than 2016!!  I will probably make my usual list of resolutions that I never keep!  hahaha  But one I want to keep is to stitch more and post more on my blog!  Maybe I can at least accomplish that much!

Thank you for visiting and I hope you come back soon!

Happy New Year!!

Frances

Merry Christmas!!

Dear Blogging Friends:

As usual, I start my blog posts with some lame sentence about wanting to post more!  I will just let that go now--you've heard it already!

As you know, this is the busy Christmas Season, and I have been overwhelmed with music stuff, and a lot of other things, too!  But I do want to catch up and hopefully stay caught up!

So much has gone on since my Thanksgiving post!  (isn't that pitiful?!)

I am getting into a rhythm of my "new normal" since my husband has been gone now for 6 1/2 months.  It's not how I want things to be, but I've made up my mind to search for happiness and contentment, and that's where I am now.

You all know that I am a musician, and have a job as a church musician.  Well, imagine my surprise when this happened!!!

Yes, I had a little accident!  I was gluing something with plain old white glue, and got a little on my finger.  I went to wipe it off with my left hand, and heard a little pop!  It didn't hurt, but I looked at my right hand and the end of my finger was drooping!!  SO,,,I went to the doctor and it wasn't broken but the ligament had popped loose!!  Freak accident!  SO, I had to go to a hand specialist and I now have a little rod inserted in my finger. It will heal in 8 weeks and the rod will be removed.  I'm already finished 2 weeks.  Can you believe this???  I am still playing, with 9 fingers!!!!  It's not great at all!!  But I guess I'll survive! This is a minor setback!

My new grand daughter is due on January 4th!  I am so excited!!!!   I will keep you posted on that!

I did put up four trees this year..even did some with a hurt finger!  My heart really wasn't in it this year, but after I was finished and looked at them, it was the right thing to do!  I think I would have been extremely depressed to have no decorations.  

This is the family tree, full of decorations from events in our lives.  This is in the den, and where Santa always came.  We have decorations from our travels, things our son made through the years, old family items, and just a good mixture.  The last time my mother came up before she died, she stood there looking, and said that this tree was like a diary of our lives.  And it really is!

 

This is my music tree,  It has all types of musical ornaments, with emphasis on little grand pianos!  I love this tree.  It's in my music room, of course!  I can see it when I play my piano!

This is a skinny little tree for Mississippi State University!  I did not go there, but my husband and son did.  We have season football tickets and it's just a big deal!  So, I still put this up, even though my husband is gone.  But our son loved it.  It's tucked in the corner of the dining room, so we can see it when we eat!  ha

Finally, this is my cross stitch tree.  I made most of the ornaments, but have a few that were gifts or from exchanges.  I love this tree!  And I have a couple of new ones this year! One was a gift from a FB exchange that Dixie Samplar started.  I absolutely LOVE my ornament!!

Isn't this beautiful??  I am so lucky!  I just love it!

I also had a small finish--finally!  ha!  My dear friend Janie was down from Indiana to visit her mother and she came by and we did some finishing!  I will show you one for another holiday later.  I love this silly little ornament!

I am worried that I might be a no-reply blogger.  If anyone has found that to be true please let me know!  Google + has messed everything up!  It looks like all is ok but I read an article saying that just because it lists your email on your profile, it still might not show up!  I just don't know!  ha

You know I can't post without including Omar!  My son and daughter in law brought him this fabulous kitty cocoon, handmade in Nepal!  He loves it!  I think it suits him perfectly!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!  Keep stitching!  Thank you for your visit and please come back soon!

Frances