embellishing and binding

so after the steaming I stitched on the red buttons for holly berries and the little metal charm

the DH sanded the rod for me and I painted it gold

so today I'll be able to get this piece on the rod and add the cord and one more piece will be finished

YIPPEE!



this one is getting closer too

yesterday I did the binding on it

today the steaming and embellishing and putting it on it's display "rod" (ie: piece of tree branch) too

yes folks, I might actually get both of these finished today

meantime I've been quilting away on the second holly leaf -- I'm in the borders now, so there is hope for the quilting part of that to be finished today too

baby mitts for the fence knitting finished last night

so I'm half way through the mitten knittin'

I've decided its a good idea to work my way through all of the mittens first, then move on to the hats, then the sweaters


and I finished up another yarn project last night too, but you don't get to see it here until after Christmas --


over the weekend we went to the big Gem/Jewelry/Mineral show up in Denver

the main purpose of this venture was to turn in scrap silver and gold pieces that we had been collecting in our jewelry work for quite a while

I hadn't really intended to spend any money while we were there

but these pieces of picture jasper were just to wonderful to pass up

and the price was right (usually a piece of picture jasper the size of that rectangular one are in the $75 to $100 range -- the whole lot of these cost me $30)

so now I'm thinking I may be entering more than one piece in the seed bead competition for Fire Mountain in the Spring

I was already thinking about a piece for that, but the big piece of jasper suggests some other things

the little oval one is very cool too -- another picture altogether -- and the round ones? I plan to make them into a pair of earrings

so today's ventures will include lawn mowing (I got the laundry done yesterday, but never got to the lawn) and working on auction stuff and some work in the studio

off to work we go!