This is the first of my TW Christmas ornament exchanges to arrive - it's from Sara (RXLady) and she was kind enough to include some hot chocolate and floss along with the ornament.

What a week!

I've had my condo on the market for a couple of months now, not expecting much. There's lots of condos on the market, and so I didn't want to get my hopes up. But against my expectations, it sold last weekend, and conditions came off yesterday. So it's really, really sold!

Which means in the next 30 days, I need to pack. And find a place to live. So I won't be blogging a lot. (Or unfortunatley, finishing the 12 days of blog candy - I'm sure you all understand). It's been an exciting week,but there's oh so much to do.

Before I pack, Christine and Abi both tagged me for the same blog game.

Here are the tag rules:

Rule #1 ~ Link to the person that tagged you.
Rule #2 ~ Post the rules on your Blog.
Rule #3 ~ Write 6 random things about yourself.
Rule #4 ~ Tag 6 people at the end of your post.
Rule #5 ~ Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Rule #6 ~ Let the tagger know your entry is up.

1) I was born in a hospital that's across the street from my current residence. It's no longer a hospital, but the building is still there.

2) I've never started a lawnmower - gas or electric. My family's always had a push mower, and for most of my adult life, the condo or strata has taken care of the gardening.

3) I can't stand either yogurt or bananas because of the texture.

4) My first real cross-stitch project was TW's "Spring Carousel Horse". On Aida. Apparently I like a challenge.

5) I completed the advanced PADI scuba diving course. The best part of the course was going on a night dive, where we got to play with phosphorescent plankton.

6) The most adventurous thing I've done is sky diving, which was done outside of Auckland, NZ.

I suspect that this game has been going around for a while, so I won't tag anyone else, but if you haven't completed it yet, feel free to consider yourself tagged.

Scissor Fob Winner

Is Redwitch! Congratulations!

There were 9 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Redwitch
2. Karoline
3. Christine
4. StitchinGranny
5. Kathy
6. Juls
7. Suz
8. Abi
9. Dani

Christmas Tree Earing Winner

Is Melissa M! Congrats!

There were 9 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Melissa M
2. Redwitch
3. Suz
4. Karen V
5. Dani
6. Kathy A
7. Heather
8. Faith Ann
9. Karen (No initial)

On the fourth day of Christmas....

Sunday's blog candy, and the fourth installment in the Christmas giveaway, is for a scissor fob, plus 5 matching beads (not pictured). To enter, please leave a comment on this post, and I'll draw from all comments received on Wednesday. You can enter for both Saturday's and Sunday's blog candy if you'd like.

On the third day of Christmas.....

As a gift to my on-line friends this year, I decided to give away 12 items of blog candy on the 12 weekend days before Christmas. The rules are simple - just add your name to the comment section below, and I'll draw a name on Tuesday night from those comments, and then mail the item to the winner.

Saturday's draw is for a pair of Swarovski crystal Christmas tree earings. I'll have to admit that I didn't think up the design on these ones, but I saw them a couple of weeks ago at the local bead store's sale, I decided they'd be perfect for what I had in mind.

More baking...

Salty Nut Bars. I love the combination of salty and sweet, and these are perfect for that.

Its arrived.

In all of its Harry Potter splendor. In colour way "Tonks".

And the winner .... (Christmas Blog Candy #2)

Is Lelia! Congrats! She wins Sunday's scissor pocket.

And the winner .... (Christmas Blog Candy #1)

Is Claire! Congrats!

For those of you who missed out - stay tuned! There's 1 more open blog candy, plus 10 new blog candy items to come.

I've been baking

Bite-sized pecan pies. This one is only about an inch in diameter.

Just a reminder - Saturday's blog candy is open until tomorrow, Sundays until Wednesday - just leave a comment.

On the second day of Christmas.....

Sunday's blog candy is for a beaded scissor pocket. Please leave a comment in this post if you'd like to be included in the drawing. I'll pick a name from the comments received on Wednesday at midnight Eastern time. Feel free to enter your name if you've also put your name in for Saturday's drawing or if you've won something previously from a blog draw.

On the first day of Christmas....

I decided to give away 12 gifts on the 12 weekend days before Christmas as blog candy. I love doing blog candy - it gives me a chance to send things out into the world and have other people appreciate them. I like the act of creating things for other people, and blog candy is a perfect way to do that.

So without further ado, here is the first of the 12 gifts - a hand beaded needlecase. It's a combination of blue, turquoise and lime green beads, which are more green in real life than the yellow tone showing up in the picture. If you'd like to enter your name for the needlecase, please leave a comment in this post, and I'll draw from all the comments on Tuesday night at midnight Eastern time. You don't have to be a regular reader, or have commented before, just leave a comment and I will enter you into the drawing.

10,000 hours ?

I was reading the New York Times this week, and ran across an article (which of course, I can no longer find) that suggested that to achieve "mastery" in any area, you needed to put in 10,000 hours, or about 10 years of practice at three hours a day, to become an expert at something. Which got me to thinking - how far am I into my 10,000 stitching hours? And does 10,000 hours just qualify me as a cross-stitch expert, or is it a general stitching or needlecraft expert?

Curious minds want to know.

I've succumbed....

I've been knitting pretty much non-stop for two days. Except for a break for work and a few other things, I've just knit. And it's going pretty well - I have most of one sock, knit toe up, with an invisible cast on. I must say that I'm pretty impressed with myself. It's not a perfect sock by any means, but I've managed to shape a heel and a toe, which I think is an accomplishment in itself.

And during all of this, I've watched the first season of "Mad Men" on DVD. The DVD was on USA Today's list of perfect hostess gifts, and it was also recommended by the hostess at a restaurant last week, so I thought I'd give it a go. It's terrific - a great period show, set at a time when women managed the house, and men worked in the city. If you get a chance, its worth catching.

I learned over the weekend that one of the two bead studios in town is closing, or at least shutting the bead portion of their shop. They've had a substantial increase in rent, and can't justify the extra space it takes to have the torches available. The torches are mostly in use on Saturday, and even then, it's not usually that busy, so I can see why they're trying to rationalize. The other bead studio in town charges a lot more, so I'll have to see how often I get up there.

A new hobby..

Most people who read the blog know I stitch and bead. Both hobbies can be pretty expensive and time consuming, depending on what you're working on at the time. I also have a pretty full life elsewhere - a job, travel, friends and other stuff going on. I don't need a new hobby. I don't have time for a new hobby.

But I've now bought sock yarn. Opal, in the Harry Potter "Tonks" colourway, which I've fallen in love with. Which means I now need to brush off my very rusty knitting skills and attempt to make socks. Or convince/bribe/pay someone else to do it for me....

Stay tuned.




In other news, may favourite LBS (Local Bead Store) was having a sale today. Crystals are definitely my weakness, and I bought too many of those. I also bought supplies for the 12 Days of Christmas blog candy - so stay tuned for that.

There are a couple of bead stores in town, and I've had reason to not like most of them, except the one that had the sale today. One sells mostly plastic, which is OK sometimes, but mostly not what I want. Another seems like it hasn't cleaned since I was in high school, which was many years ago. And another has great beads, but also has the highest prices in town too. The store with today's sale sells mostly what I want, has reasonable prices, and has a very sweet owner, who mostly remembers the customers. What else do you want in a store?

This is the PIF/Blog Candy that I created for Heather. She'd signed up for a gift at the start of the year, and I'm terribly embarrassed to say that it's taken me this long to finish her gift. I hope it's been worth the wait.

The peyote stitch needle case pattern is from "Threaded Needle Designs" and is the same pattern as I'd used for Barbara's gift earlier in the year. The pattern is originally came as a kit with the purple beads, and I re-used the pattern to create a second needlecase with some plain black and white beads that I had on hand. The beads are all Bullseye art glass, handmade by me.

A sneak peak

I was making beads this weekend, and nothing seemed to be going right - my beads were all collecting soot or I was melting the glass wrong and getting funny colours, neither one of which was very attractive. So I switched gears, and made this little bead. It's only about 3/4 of an inch wide, and I think it would look great on a necklace or something with dangles.

I decided to show this, because I'm going to try and run a "12 Days of Christmas" blog candy event on the 12 weekend days prior to Christmas. That means that there will be blog candy offered November 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, and 30th, as well as December 6,7, 13, 14, 20 and 21st. Stay tuned for more details.

If you're going celebrity spotting....

it would be best not to take me along. I was at the airport today, in the security line, and only realized Stephen Ames was in front of me because he had his name and the words "PGA" written on to a label on his laptop. Otherwise, I'd still be clueless....

St Petersburg Progress.

I'm stuck in the middle of what seems to be a thousand algerian eyelets on this one - There are 15 pink eyelets on each corner, plus 24 dark purple ones on each of the corners for a grand total of 156 eyelets. I'm about 2/3 the way through, and it seems like all of those little eyelets will go on forever....