Miss you Mom

It's difficult to start this post as I'm still coming to terms with my mom's death the day before Thanksgiving. She was actually living with us after a serious health event when I started this blog back at the end of 2011 and was always such a fan of my stitching; I would get emails from her almost as soon as I would make a post because she checked here several times a day, even when I told her I usually only posted one day a week. During her hospitalizations and rehab stays in 2024 I would often use her iPad to pay her bills, and every time I opened her browser it would be open to my blog. So it's hard to write this knowing that she'll never see it, but I'm trying to find my "normal" again and stitching and blogging are a part of that.

The Thursday before Thanksgiving I spent a few hours visiting my mom and I started a Jim Shore Mill Hill ornament for a friend who was supportive while I dealt with everything this past year; we both love the cardinals that visit our bird feeders so I thought this ornament was perfect for her. My husband, son and I were supposed to go to my mom's care facility the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to celebrate the holiday there, but Monday afternoon she slipped into an unresponsive state so instead I spent Monday afternoon and all day Tuesday sitting with her and stitching while families gathered in the main part of the facility. I finished the ornament Tuesday night, and the next morning she left me. All that to say that of course I couldn't give the ornament away, so I decided to stitch it again for my friend and used 18ct perforated paper instead of the 14ct that comes in the kits. I really like the smaller version created by using 18ct and will definitely be using it for more ornaments:

I did sub out two of the size 15 beads, one with a petite bead and one with a Magnifica; if there are more than about six beads in a row then the size 15s are too large for the 18ct paper. 

I also used the 18ct paper to stitch a new little ornament from Val's Stuff called The Giving Season; she is donating all of the profits from kits sold last November and December to a local pet food pantry in her area, so I bought it both because it's adorable and because it was for a good cause:

I'm going to make a beaded hanger for it, just haven't felt like pulling my beads out yet to choose colors.

I had received a Mirabilia model last August before things really got crazy here, so it was not quite halfway done when December rolled around and it was supposed to be completed by early February. It's probably good that I had it though, because stressing about meeting the deadline made me work on it even when I didn't really want to, and the stitching process started to work its magic and bring some much-needed peace to my mind and body. I finished it on December 30th and was able to ring in the New Year with no deadline pressure and working on an old WIP from about 13 years ago, Nora Corbett's Needle Fairy:

There are six Stitching Fairies in this series and so far I've completed Floss, Pincushion and Needle, with Thimble, Bead and Linen still to stitch.

Back in October I finished Nora's Arezzo, which wasn't very far along in my last post from September:

This past weekend I started the newest Mirabilia design called Merry Merry; I have this fun snowflake fabric from HLC Fabrics and I thought it would be perfect for this one:

Here she is as of last night:

There is some Kreinik #4 braid used around her collar and I really didn't like how thin it looked on my fabric. The circled area on the right side shows how it looked with one strand of the Kreinik; for the area on the left side I used one strand of DMC 890 to make the stitches then topped them with stitches of Kreinik and I like it much better:

I really need to get some things done around the house that I've been neglecting for the past couple of months, but I'm planning to work on this one when I have stitching time.

I'll end with a piece that I stitched for my mom back when she was exactly the age I am now, and a photo that I've always disliked. It was my mom's favorite photo of us but I've always thought I look horrible; now I just see how happy and healthy she looks and I love it too:

I'm really hoping for a good 2025, and wish the same for everyone.