Happy New Year...I have a good feeling about 2014

First, let me share my last finish of 2014.  In my line of work, the holidays are just wonderful.  Classes end well before the Christmas holiday and don't begin until later in January.  That gives me a lot of time to focus on my stitching.  Don't get me wrong, I still work during the holidays, writing and revising the textbooks, but I have a lot  more freedom to work on my on schedule and enjoy the down time.  This holiday I have been stitching and watching one of my all time favorite TV shows Homicide Life of the Street.  I have Seasons 1 - 5 and 7 on DVD, so I stitch and listen to the television.

And, this is my first finish of 2014, Country Cottage Needleworks Poinsettia House in the Santa's Village series.  I just love this series.  When it first was released, I knew I wanted to stitch it but it wasn't one of those that I just had to do immediately.  I love the Country Cottage Needleworks style, so I usually get her designs.  But, I have to admit that this is just a fun one to stitch.  It may be that I am using colors that I haven't stitched with in a while, but the designs are just too cute.  The fabric is 36 ct. Solo from Silkweaver.  I love the variation in blues with just a small touch of purple.  Really makes the piece look wintery.  I think I will finish this as the center of a small quilt to hang during the holidays.  

So, as many of you know, we moved into our new house this year.  The official move-in was back in October.  We are still rearranging and unpacking.   It has been a lot of fun, going through all of our 'things' and thinking about them.

This beautiful piece is my great-grandmother's biscuit bowl.  It is a large, shallow wooden bowl that she used to make biscuits every day.  The story of how I came to possess it is somewhat interesting.  My great-grandparents were extremely caring individuals.  They had three children, but opened their homes to many others that needed love and support.  They were very poor, but felt it was their mission in life to help the less fortunate.  So, their home was full all the time.  My great-grandmother, Clarcia (pronounced Clair-Cee by her family), was a great cook.  A man in the neighborhood carved this bowl for her.  After my great-grandparents passed away, different people kind of ransacked their home and threw things out into the yard.  I'm not sure how much later, but time had passed and my parents were walking around looking over the old home.  My dad found this bowl almost completely buried in the yard.  He dug it up and took it home.  You can see the termites had worked on it some.  He cleaned it up and varnished it.  I remember this bowl in my home, always full of mail and other paperwork.  I would clean it out and fill it with fruit or some other decoration.  My mother gave it to me several years ago.  It is one of my absolute favorite heirlooms.  I know the history and it connects me to a lady that though I never met her, I love her.  My mother and her sisters and cousins talk about her so fondly.  It is obvious she was a wonderful person.  She has left a legacy and this bowl, to me, is a symbol of that.