Happy New Year!

 2020 was a strange year, that's for sure! Having tactile sensory issues I never thought I could get used to wearing a mask, but now I've reached a point where I don't know when I'll feel comfortable being around other people without one. I look forward to a time when enough people have been vaccinated that the risk of getting the virus becomes low and we can feel a bit more "normal".

I have to say that as an introvert the past year was not that much different for me except for the mask wearing. I am completely content at home with my family, pets and stitching, so I rarely go out except to get groceries or run other essential errands. Now that my son is out of school and doesn't need rides anymore I often go a week or more without even starting my car. My husband usually travels a lot for work but was home for months this year, so we got to see what it will be like when he retires in a year or two--good thing we still like each other after 30 years (in May) of marriage!

I have had fun the past few weeks stitching on little things just for fun. The first was the design I had started in my last post, Mirabilia Designs Doves of Peace (found in the 1999 CS&N Keepsake Calendar), which I finished on Christmas:

Then I spent a few days stitching the design I was originally planning on when I found the calendar; this is Nora Corbett's Christmas Ornaments (originally in the 2012 CS&N Keepsake Calendar, now available as a download from Herrschner's):

It's a small design; the stitching took a couple of days and then another day for the beading, which I love!

Once that one was done I pulled out a Lizzie*Kate chart that I recently bought called Cold Noses. This is a shop exclusive at The Silver Needle; it was originally released at a retreat in the summer of 2018 and was just recently released to everyone. I've wanted to stitch it since I saw it over two and a half years ago, so now I have!

I did add the purple floss as well as a few others and rearranged some of the called for colors and am very happy with the result. It also comes with a couple of smaller designs with the penguins that I will stitch at some point. L*K also has a new release at 123Stitch called Tiny Tidings XXIII which is basically the same design with a few color and other minor changes. I just think the penguins are so cute, especially with their little button noses!

I then spent a few days finishing the temperature SAL I've been working on since December 2019. I made a header and a chart key, which took a few days to chart and stitch, and just finished it yesterday:

No idea what I'll do with it now, but I am glad that I finally stitched a temperature chart. I thought it would be hard to get out of the habit of checking the previous day's temperature first thing in the morning, but it's been a few days now and I don't really miss it at all.

I finished it pretty late in the afternoon so I didn't feel like taking the tree down afterwards (I'll do it today--ugh!); I decided to make a small start on the latest Rosewood Manor model instead. It's a fairly small one and has really pretty colors and I think I will enjoy working on it, so that's my plan for the next few weeks.

Hope everyone has a safe, healthy and stitchy New Year!