Two birthdays and a pair of Christmas finishes

Well, I did it! I turned 70 and the world didn't end... The lead-up to my birthday was far scarier than the actual day. My over-active imagination had me worrying about all sorts of scenarios that would happen as I entered my 70s. I'm happy to say that once the calendar turned to January 16th, I felt just fine about being in a new decade. In the end, it was "just another day."  We had a wonderful family celebration that weekend at a beautiful rental home on the shores of Deep Creek Lake in Maryland. So grateful to have had my entire family there to honor me on my very special day. I'll tell you more about my birthday celebration further on in the post, but I know some of you are here only to see my stitching so let's get to that first. 

My January ornament finish for the #12in25ornamentstitchalong (that I host on Instagram) is done and it's a cutie. I went with my "comfort stitching" favorite--Prairie Schooler (although many of you would not call stitching "over one" on black "comfort stitching," would you?). This sweet scene of Santa feeding the geese is from PS Book No. 110 "Santa  & Friends" and is stitched on 25ct. black Lugana with the suggested DMC threads.  I will say that if Santa attempted to feed any geese in our yard, he would be strongly reprimanded. We have several that try to nest by our pond each spring and they are not greeted with open arms. As soon as we see them, we run out to chase them away. They make such a mess as you might know if you have ever been around a group of them!

I love the detail on this one--even the bird seed that Santa sprinkles is charted!

The hanging pillow ornament I made is fairly simple... I just added a border of matching green cording and attached five red jingle bells to the bottom. In the upper right corner, I added a green gingham bow and another bell to finish it off. I'm trying my best to make ornaments on the smaller side this year because my Christmas tree (as you know!) is running out of room. This one measures just 2 1/2" X 3 1/4".  One ornament down, eleven to go!

My first ornament of 2025

 

My bigger Christmas finish is one I actually started in December and finished on my birthday. This was one of those designs that I expected would stitch up much more quickly than it actually did. But, when you study it, there certainly is a lot of detail. I used a lovely Christmas red silk ("Poinsettia" by Gloriana Silks) for this piece which is stitched on 40 ct. white Newcastle linen. I find stitching a monochromatic design to be so soothing, don't you?

"Redwork Noel" by Joan Elliott

So many sweet motifs in this design!

Wouldn't you love to live in this cozy village at the base of the wooded mountain? It looks so peaceful.

The finished size ended up being almost 6 inches square on the 40 ct. fabric. I plan on getting this one framed.

I received some lovely birthday gifts from fellow stitching friends which I will certainly treasure...

From my friend Vickie, I received this darling snowman ornament. He is feeling right at home with my other snowmen. Thank you so much, Vickie!

My friend, Claire from Canada, created this adorable snowman berry for me. Just love the fuzzy little fellow and all the beads and charms she added. Thank you so much, Claire!

From my friend, Charlene in Arizona, came two charming charts. Just look at that parade of animals following Santa featured in the top one--so cute! Thank you so much, Charlene!

June, Manuela, and Martina all created beautiful cards for me and sent them across the ocean from England and Germany. You are all very talented--thank you so much!

My friend, Gabi, made this sweet snowman card and included a chart to remind me of my September visit to Strasbourg, France, too. Love them! Thank you so much, Gabi!

And thank you to all who sent birthday cards as well--I was so touched that you remembered my special day.

On turning 70... Oh, how quickly the years have passed! I know most of you feel the same way--and I swear they pass more and more quickly with each and every year.  Below, is little Carol in a precious ruffled pinafore (surely sewn by my maternal grandmother) on my very first birthday in 1956. I think those old cards are so sweet--all bunny themed, I notice. My mother said my nickname back then was "Thumper" because I thumped my foot when I was trying to go to sleep so I guess the bunny theme (the bunny in the Bambi movie is named Thumper) was most appropriate.

Luckily, I seem more interested in playing with the ribbon and am paying no attention at all to the big lit candle on the cake!

Oh, how times have changed over the past 70 years... Just look at the price of eggs in 1955 (61 cents a dozen)! And postage stamps: 3 cents! You could drive to a (50 cent) movie in your brand new car that cost only $2100. The world, and life in general, just seemed kinder and simpler back then--at least to me.

Life in 1955

As I mentioned above, my family held a 70th birthday celebration weekend for me at a lake house in Maryland. It was a beautiful house with amazing views of Deep Creek Lake. All nine of us were there: my husband, me, my oldest son, daughter-in-law, and grandson, and my middle and youngest sons and their girlfriends. Nine of us just enjoying each other's company for three fun-filled days.

The beautiful view from our bedroom window of the frozen lake

We spent the weekend, doing puzzles, playing pool, eating way too much yummy food, and constructing Lego sets. My grandson told his dad yesterday, "I can't believe Nonna knows how to put together Legos!" Ha ha :)  Well, Mister B, I did learn something along the way while raising three boys who adored Legos just as much as you! We also exchanged late Christmas gifts. My oldest son found a series of fun birthday-themed games on Etsy and we all enjoyed reminiscing and laughing over them as we shared memories. One of my favorites was having each person write down four memories they had of me on individual slips of paper and then I tried to guess who wrote them. Such fun!

A beautiful birthday cake (apparently, I'm Nonna to everyone now. Hmm...)

And we got snow--lots and lots of snow! If not for my husband and three sons keeping up with the shoveling over the weekend, I doubt we would have been able to get our cars up that long, steep driveway on Monday morning. We got at least 8 or 9 inches of the fluffy white stuff. It was incredibly beautiful, though--a bit dicey making our way home on Monday, but everyone arrived safely. We love gathering together at Deep Creek Lake as it is about halfway between Pittsburgh and Washington, DC so it's not an extremely long drive for any of us.

The guys could barely keep up with the shoveling!

Some of our more intrepid crew braved the frigid temperatures to walk out onto the frozen lake.

Mister B in my favorite photo of the weekend taken by my middle son's girlfriend.

I took this photo as we were pulling away to drive home--such a beautiful house! I was sad to leave, but, hopefully, we'll visit again soon.

I had a couple of very special visitors on my actual birthday, too. The morning of the 16th, I spotted the female cardinal perched on a snow covered branch right outside my kitchen. I was just about ready to capture her photo when in swooped the male cardinal who proceeded to sit down beside her. I like to think that it was my mom and dad visiting to bring me birthday smiles :) 

Papa and Mama visiting on my 70th birthday

 

And the other birthday I mentioned in my post's title? Well, my little old blog turned 16 years old on January 24th. I still can't believe that I've been writing, photographing, and recording my stitching and other life events for so many years. I've come close to quitting many times as blogging has gone out of fashion, but I still feel that blogging is the format where I feel closest to my fellow stitchers so I'm here for another year! I hope you'll be joining me as I truly love hearing from you either through your sweet comments or by email. 

 

Many years of "Stitching Dreams" memories compiled into hardback books. I always include two years in each book so it's time to order another one for 2023-2024.

Next time, I hope to resume my Rhine River cruise travelogue that I left off in November. We'll be traveling to Switzerland and then on to Italy (obviously we are not on the Rhine River at that point!). Hope everyone has a safe and healthy February ahead.  Such a short month--spring is on it's way! Hooray, hooray! Bye for now...