Monday round up....

It's Monday....
not that I'm totally thrilled about it ;) But I'll get along OK . How was your weekend, dear friend? Mine, you ask? Well so-so, I had to work but that wasn't so bad, but poor Ellie is dreadfully ill. I thought she was coming out of it yesterday afternoon, but last night she took a turn and is back to the same old symptoms. (103 temp, sleeping, grouchy...) Today, luckily we have a "down" day, so she's staying in her PJ's and I'm sticking to my chair *fingers crossed*.

I've got....
lots to share so I'll get on with it. First up, was a surprise that landed in my mailbox last week. It sure was a sweet surprise when I opened up a box and found this sweet face peering back at me:

Punchneedle Snowman Pincushion

punched and finished by my dear friend Brenda

Hop on over...
to Brenda's blog and check out all her lovely stitching and finishes. GORGEOUS stuff abounds in her stitching corner  :) Thank you Brenda for your sweet surprise. He sits on the arm of my chair grinning up at me.

Next....
I had this wild hair in late September to get myself a partner to exchange a Christmas Ornament with me. Seems I can't be satisfied just stitching one myself and hanging it on my tree... So I put up a "would you like to exchange with me..." on my blog and in 15 minutes I had five exchange partners and were turning people away. The next day I thought..."how in the world did it come about I was stitching 5 different ornaments for 5 different people"...I'm sure you know the feeling! LOL! But the stitching was pleasurable and the exchanges are beginning to be exchanged and that always gets my juices flowing! Here is the first little beauty that landed in my mailbox. This one is from Danica

A Christmas Cross

stitched and finished by Danica

design taken from Just Cross Stitch Magazine Oranment Issue 2004

Thank you....
Danica for exchanging with me! I will treasure this beauty each Christmas season, as I hang it on our tree. And mine is in the mail on the way to Dani, so I'll be able to show YOU what I stitched for HER soon!

Finally....
for the past 5 years, I've had this lovely gold and silver ornament ball wreath that I made hanging on our door. Last year, when I was taking down the Christmas decorations, I fumbled the delicate wreath -which resulted in mass hysteria. This year...I have no wreath to put on our door. The Hubs and I were talking yesterday about outside decorations for this year and I said, I'd rather go big on the inside and go light on the outside. So we settled on flickering candles in all the windows (that'd be 15 - you should have seen the guy's face at Lowe's when we checked out), trees with white lights in the milk cans at the front door and wreaths around the carriage lights on either side of the garage door....but what for the door? I looked at wreaths and nothing suited me (or my pocket book) so I had an idea about a large stocking for the front door. I got out some newspaper, taped it together and started drawing. Then I revved up my Janome and got going and here's what I produced:

A Pointy Toe Christmas Stocking

for our front door, made out of wool felt

with jingle bells and wool felt embellishments

by me :)

Not to shabby....
for an hours work, eh? And you should see how it looks on our Burgundy colored front door....!!!!! The neighbors will be jealous :)

I guess that does it for me.....
for today. Hopefully there will be something else to jump out of the pot to bedazzle you later on this week. Until then, I'll be keeping my "hands to work and heart to God"!
Hugs and love,

Tool: Smile. Smiling sure doesn't take much effort on your part, but the result it brings is worth more than a vault filled with gold.  Put a smile on your face and see the rewards that will be reaped....not only will you see smiles in return, but you'll see even the hardest heart melted, moods altered, the down trodden uplifted and your own heart filled with warmth and happiness. So SMILE :) it's a gift. It's a tool. Put it in your toolbox and take it out, examine and share it!