The Patriotic Tree and a First Ornament

Several years ago when my son entered the military , I decided to do a small tree decorated with patriotic ornaments. The years when we go away for the holidays, this is the only tree I put up. Last summer I made some little cross stitch designs. I thought I would use them in some way for the 4th of July. There were a few I didn't use so I got the idea that I would make them into ornaments for the patriotic tree. I see all the lovely ornaments on other cross stitch blogs. I have done lots of cross stitch but haven't made ornaments. I had some great fabric so I decided to give it a try. While it doesn't compare with some ornaments I have seen, it suits the little tree just fine. I also took photos of some of the other ornaments. Have a great holiday-it's getting very close!

Christmas Colors and the Solstice

It was a beautiful day ! The sky was so blue. It was probably about 40 degrees but perfect for a walk at our favorite near the house trail. I have blogged about this trail before. Today I decided to focus on Christmas colors. I have a favorite Christmas song called"Christmas in the Northwest." There is a line, "Christmas in the Northwest is a gift God wrapped in green." This is so true!

Enjoy the beautiful blue sky!

These red twig dogwoods seem to be growing wild.

While yellow is not a Christmas color, these were so pretty in the sunlight, I couldn't resist taking a picture. (Yellow twig dogwoods)

Everywhere you look, you see these beautiful tall evergreens!

A little red and green!

Today is the winter solstice. Our sunset is at 4:22. Tomorrow sunset is at 4:23, the light is coming back!

Christmas in Seattle

Today was a great day! My dear daughter, her MIL,Sandy, and I had a girl's day in the city. We went for lunch to an area of the city known as Madison Park. I had only been there once and found the area very interesting. There were so many really interesting houses, I need to go back! We went in a totally awesome shop with a great garden center( City Peoples). We had a delicious lunch at a place called Cafe Flora. The food was wonderful. Laurie and I had been there in 1997 when I visited her. It was lots of fun to go back. I was the driver so I didn't get too many shots of that area. We then drove to downtown Seattle and between Laurie and I we got some city holiday photos -thank goodness for red lights!

Some avid knitters decided the trees needed to be kept warm. Very colorful! This was in an area called Pioneer Square.

Cafe Flora

Love those old floors!

Can you tell Christmas is only 5 days away???!!!

The tree is in Westlake Center, a large downtown shopping mall.

The famous(at least in Seattle) Macy's star.

This music sounded very good!

Every year they decorate this Westlake carousel for Christmas.

Even the duck place is decorated.

This was a very colorful shop in Pioneer Square.

Here's my new cross stitch start. I got the pattern from "Just Cross Stitch" magazine, Jan/Feb. 2010. The fabric is Belfast Linen 32 ct. I'm using DMC 3777. It's a nice brick red. I'm going to make this into a small 10 inch pillow to throw on our bed. I have lots of this color in the bedroom.
Hope you enjoyed seeing Seattle at Christmas and thanks for joining me.

A Finish

I finished "Companion Quaker Christmas Tree Sampler Part Two" by the Goode Huswife. I had a frame all ready to use. It is one I picked up several years ago at an antique show. I don't think it is that old but it was fairly cheap and the wood is beautiful! I use it for other designs so it was easy to pop out the picture in the frame and put the new one in. I decided it just had to go over the desk because I have mostly green on the desk. That means I will have to find a new home for," A Weary World Rejoices." I hope you are all having a happy time getting ready for Christmas-only one week away. I finally got a few gifts for the SBA. We bought a laptop and that was to be our gifts, but he always cheats and gets me a gift! He had a super day as the Seahawks defeated the Chicago Bears!

I think the cross stitch looks great with the old books.

This photo was taken before we framed it. Sorry for the shadow! It is done on Belfast linen 32 ct. antique ivory. The colors are DMC 3362 and 3364. I don't know the brown color. I had some NPI silk and I liked the soft brown color with the green. I must have had the brown before I carefully marked my floss.

This old copy of Charles Dickens "Oliver Twist" is dated Dec. 1886. It belonged to a Daniel Lyon Powell. According to the title page, there are 28 illustrations by T. Mahoney.

The frame is solid tiger maple.

Here is the way it looks. I'm happy with the frame and the cross stitch!
I hope everyone has a great week and thanks for stopping by.