This has been a rough year all around. No stitching or blogging mojo was just the start. On the plus side, I’ve had a sleep study and discovered why my CPAP machine wasn’t helping me. 🙂 Now I have a new machine, with a new pressure, and I’m sleeping better. I’ve decided it’s a sign of good things to come in the New Year.
On the stitching front, I’ve received a sweet, sweet ornament from Wendy. She and I have had a private ornament exchange the past couple of years, and I was determined not to miss it this year. Here’s what she sent me–
I always enjoy reading her blog posts about her garden and the birds that visit there. She made this one because she has robins visit her, and they make the sweetest song. I loved the ornament without the story. It’s that much more special now.
This is what I made her–
It’s a freebie I found on a blog somewhere. I’m not sure where. I’m usually better about noting sources. Wendy was organized and early with my ornament. I was unmotivated and late with mine. The good part about that is that after I finished my ornament, I was able to photograph both of them together.
I love that I was able to get this photo.
The one thing I managed to do last year was read, quite a bit more than I normally read. It’s nice to feel I accomplished something for myself during a rough patch. This year, I’m going to participate in Book Riot‘s Read Harder Challenge. There are 24 tasks, that run the gamut from reading a book according to an author’s age when published, to where the book takes place, to specific genres, to self-help (traditional to non-traditional, which is inspiring people in the Goodreads group to read cookbooks to help them and other non-traditional books to help themselves). It’s a very loose challenge, so if you don’t normally read 24 books in a year, a book can cover two or more categories to accomplish all the tasks. It’s entirely up to you. I’ll have the hardest time with the poetry task. I’m excited for the New Year to begin so I can get started. Like cross-stitch, I seem to think I can finish the challenge in five minutes. I have a list of selections for each category (with some books listed in multiple categories). My goal is to read books I already own or to check out titles from the library. I don’t want to purchase books specifically to complete a task. Unless I simple can’t resist…
Happy New Year to all and happy stitching!
🙂
Raised by Poodles 
How lovely to see both our ornaments together. We must do it next year. Robin has been visiting everyday and usually eats a suet pellet and then flies off to a tree with the next one.
I shall have to lok into the book challenge you are doing. I have read over 100 books this year but most of them are lightweight and i often don’t remember much about the story after week or two. I am in the moment though:) I used to log it all on goodreads but this year I listed them in a note book.
Hope 2015 is a good year for you xx
Happy New Year!
I’ve been reading heavy, too, this past year. Still have lots of books on my side table!
A very sweet exchange and nice to have the pc of the pieces side by side. We don’t often get to see that.
Have a happy, healthy, mojo-filled 2015!
those are beautiful gifts, and how special that you got to photograph them together, it never happens!
boy that reading challenge sounds SO interesting, and tempting.. I’ll try not to give it a look, I would never have the time – but still.. 😉