Happy New Year to my stitching friends! I hope everyone had safe and joyful holidays. I'm glad a new year lies ahead and I look forward to seeing what it brings. A new year is a hopeful thing.

"Hope smiles on the threshold of the year to come, whispering that it will be better." - Alfred Lord Tennyson

I'm excited about the Crazy January Challenge. Half the fun was digging through stash, makings lists and more lists, and pulling supplies together, and reading how other stitchers were mapping out the challenge to meet their personal goals. Not only that, but this challenge has really motivated me to work on those charts I've wanted to stitch for awhile. Each night while I stitch I always wonder about all the other stitchers around the world stitching for the very same challenge. So, here are my chosen 15, appearing in alphabetical order:

Alphabet Sampler - BOAF
Bluebird Reward of Merit - Blackbird Designs
Christmas Angel Ornaments - BOAF
Counting Magpies - BOAF
Dainty Housewren - Carriage House Samplings
Eagle - Sheepish Designs
From His Hand - Plum Street Samplers
Hornbook Angel - Primitive Needle
Il Etait Une Fois ... Demain - Muriel Brunet
Penny Angel - Primitive Needle
Plant Virtue - Goode Huswife
Prairie Schooler - Parrot in a Cage (from Forget-Me-Nots)
Quaker Christmas Samplers - Carriage House Samplings
Quaker Marriage Sampler - Good Huswife
Waiting for the Harvest Reward of Merit - Blackbird Designs

My NY Day start was Plant Virtue, which I should surely make a point of doing. So far I've also worked on Quaker Marriage Sampler, Waiting for the Harvest, Bluebird, Il Etait, Hornbook Angel, and Quaker Christmas Samplers. I would show pictures but I would be boring you with shots of only borders.

Middle Georgia is expecting snow and ice on Sunday and Monday. Woohoo! The grocery store was packed this afternoon in true Southern style - a prediction of one inch of snow will pack the aisles and empty out the shelves. I hope it does snow as long as we can keep our electricity. We have lots of firewood, a gas grill and my grandmama's little perculator coffee pot. Oh, and a stocked wine shelf. I can stitch for hours!

No stitching pictures, but I'll leave you with images from my few days in the Charleston area. DH's sister and BIL invited us to their Charleston place for New Year's. It was a lot of fun and much different than my trips in earlier years (think bathing suits and coolers ...). This was a "grownup trip," more or less. Pictures are of things that caught my eye and that I had time to shoot while out and about: the oldest Catholic church in the Carolinas and Georgia, lunch at a restaurant in what was once an old church, Folly Beach and the Polar Plunge on Folly Beach. We were always on the go and had a great time, but we did get in our blackeyed peas and collards on New Year's Day so the money should be rolling in this year. As I said earlier, a new year is a hopeful thing!







Have a great weekend!