A Busy Time of Year

I have been busying myself with some fun activities and preparations for a cozy Christmas with Skip. We're not sure if Scooter will be joining us and are pretty flexible about that.

The only photos I took last week were of our guild's ornament exchange and they can be viewed here. 15 of us took part in the ornament exchange. We used a Secret Santa app to draw names and then either mailed or surreptitiously delivered the ornaments to the recipients. They were to stay wrapped until our Zoom meeting last Wednesday where all was revealed. 

I received a beautiful wintery ornament that was stitched with sparkly thread by Lauren.

Some of us planned to partake in afternoon tea last Wednesday at the Toasted Walnut in Bowmanville. We all wore our pearls and had a nice visit. We were all a bit antsy about the soaring COVID-19 rate in our region and I personally had decided that this was going to be my last social engagement until our numbers got back to normal. I had spent time with them at our Elim retreat at the end of October and it was nice getting together again. 

Jeanette gave us pretty, filagree needle threaders,

twill tape with inches printed on it, 

and a delicate, itty bitty scissor fob, stitched over one.

Jeanette had been complaining about having difficulty seeing her stitching clearly and needing stronger glasses. No wonder! She was doing micro stitchery on all these itty bitty things!

Jennifer (Jen1) gave us beautiful boxes with magnetic lids (suitable for mounting a nice piece of stitchery), and a cross stitch pattern. Mine was from Heartstring Samplery,

and the 2022 Book of Days for keeping track of our stitching (and other crafty) projects.

Copying Brenda and Laura (the Serial Starter), YouTubers that I watch, I ordered the Antiquarian Sticker Book to decorate it through the whole year. 

It has lots of neat stickers and in the back are a variety alphabets. I even put some stickers on the back of my iPhone to snazz it up.

Since then I have had something akin to a nesting urge. I guess it's like I'm preparing to give birth to Christmas. I was inspired by a couple of YouTube videos on deep cleaning and tried out 'slow vacuuming' before using my carpet cleaner in the dining room. It really did take a lot more dirt and dust out of the carpet. So when I shampooed the carpet the water that was sucked up wasn't nearly as dirty as when I don't do slow vacuuming. 

I finished the rest of the carpet cleaning in the dining room today and then will tackle the mound of stuff on the dining room table. I love my crafts but they do take up a lot of room. 

Today, before I did the carpet cleaning I ran several errands: to Kim's to pick up more stitching supplies, to the liquor store to stock up on more wine for regular consumption and to make more glögg (I drank all of the last batch), then to the grocery store to pick up more foodstuffs, then to Michaels for more crafty stuff, then to our local chocolate shop for Christmas treats, and finally picked up some lunch to bring home to eat.

In spite of the fact that I got my 3rd COVID-19 shot yesterday and slept most of that afternoon, I have taken advantage of today’s spurt of energy. I think the key is to just get going doing some of these tasks rather than spending a lot of the day entertaining myself. I got everything off my current to do list and feel quite accomplished. 

In my next post I will share my authentic Swedish glögg (spiced, mulled wine) recipe.