The easy part is done

The Hands on Design Cookie Exchange SAL started last Wednesday with part 1, followed by part 2 on Friday and part 3 yesterday, and I managed to get all of the parts stitched on the day they were released:

 

I did make a few very minor changes, including using a Rhodes stitch for the holly berries instead of the Smyrna stitch that was called for; it made for nice, rounded berries:

So that's the easy part complete--now we get the finishing instructions tomorrow and that's the part that I'm not very good at! I'm hoping it'll be simple enough for me to do a decent job on as it would be nice to add this to my decorations when I get them out later this week.

On the days between installments I finally got around to starting Madame Chantilly's Cats in the Rain, which I am changing up a bit:

There are nine cats in this design, and while I've never had that many at one time I did have eight in my house for several months back in 2011/2012 when my mom lived with us for a while and brought her four cats. Here's a picture taken at feeding time (otherwise they would never be this close together!) of all but one of the kitties:

This week I need to get some cleaning done and then get the Christmas tree up and decorations out so stitching time will be curtailed, but I'm hoping to get Cats in the Rain finished by the end of next week. That would work out well if I end up getting a model from Wichelt in the next couple of weeks; I have really enjoyed having some time solely for my own stitching, and now am getting ready to get back to "work" feeling refreshed.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!