Have you ever seen those ads that pop up in your Facebook feed (there are many for me!)? The one with the mosaic lamp? Well… there is a new shop close to me that has these all year round and at a pretty reasonable rate. A friend and I took a look at the shop one morning and decided that we wanted to make these. We invited a few friends and my daughter and had a great morning activity!

This one is mine. My favorite part is the little hearts on the bottom.

This one is my daughter’s. I really like hers.

Making these only took about 2 hours so easy to fit into the schedule and super fun.

I took a needlepoint class at my local needlepoint store, StitchedUp, a few months ago.

I had never done anything this big before and was not familiar with a lot of the stitches called for. Kay, the owner of StitchedUp and the teacher, Denise Park assured me I’d be able to stitch this piece. I enrolled in the class – which was fantastic! – and with help from both of them was able to complete the piece. I’m totally thrilled with it!

I took it one section at a time and had a blast with each new stitch.

There was a lot of beading in this piece and I learned how to attach beads so they “stand” up and stay secure.

I love this turkey!

The ice cubes were the most challenging in this drink. I think I like Very Velvet thread the best!

This drink was soooo much fun. Kay suggested that instead of the thread called for to stitch Santa’s belt, I use Patent Leather. I love the look and think it is perfect for the belt, but found it to be a bear to work with because it did not lay flat easily.

Teacher Denise suggested to do the background stitching first. That was a huge fail for me. I did not know how to use compensating stitches yet and counting to 4 was impossible :o). I worked the background at the same time as all the other elements and that worked for me, but now that I have learned so much I know I will be able to do the background first for my next project.

We took today off from any kind of gardening and had a fun time crafting.

Since it was a nice day, I set it up outside. I had purchased shells and napkins and we all set to “work”.

Lots of painting and blending. We spent hours!

What I thought was going to be a fun couple of hours turned into almost a full day of crafting! My favorite part? Being with the kids and listening to them laugh and joke together!

My chapter of the EGA (Embroiderers Guild of America) donates stitched hearts to be used for the Hearts for Hospice program. This is my heart for this year:

This was a fun stitch and surprisingly went much more quickly than I anticipated!

This year we revived our gingerbread house tradition. We did not use real gingerbread but instead used graham crackers. The kids decided that they wanted to spend more time playing games and doing puzzles instead of baking this year.

First up we have the rustic cabin with a mountain bike out front.

Then a shed to park the sleigh when not needed.

We have the “stairway to heaven”.

A library.

And last, but not least we have… Wafer Man!

It’s been a few days now so the houses have either been eaten or they have collapsed. This made such a fun evening.