Some Cross Stitch

I hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving! We are not celebrating until tomorrow due to having to share Andrew and Alison.  But it's all good. I spent today baking (apple and pecan pies) and doing more house cleaning in anticipation of putting up the Christmas decorations. We will be a small group for dinner, so I bought a roasting chicken instead of a big turkey. I'll make the usual sage stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, deviled eggs, and salad. Rick is going to make his mom's cranberry relish (so good!) and homemade rolls. Have I told you what a good bread maker he is? He's taken it over because he does a much better job of it than I ever did.

In between working on Christmas presents, which are almost done I may add, (aren't you impressed?) I have been finishing up some little cross stitch projects. These are so fun. I have been choosing small patterns that don't take too long and are fun to finish. Also, I have been finding so many cute ones for free through pinterest.

I changed this one a little so I could get it done quicker, but I loved the way it was finished and found I could do the apple very easily. This was found at http://perelles.canalblog.com/. She has so many cute patterns and finishes.

I just finished this one yesterday. I love adding a little charm, in this case the tiny bell. This one was from http://carmelabrode.canalblog.com.

I made this one last year, but just got around to finishing it. I had never done beading on one of these before, and though I won't do it very often, I kind of like it. Something different, anyway. What do you think? Here again I added a charm. It's hard to see, but it's a tiny fireplace. It fit perfectly in the doorway and I thought it was a nice addition. Sorry, I can't find the source of this one.

I just had to share this picture of our backyard last weekend. Pretty, isn't it? Today it was sunny and in the 60's!