300 Days Till Christmas Project - August 21, 2011 - 125 days to go!!

The dog days of summer continue.  Whew, it's hot.  Every day.  Well, we've had a few below 90, but only a few.  We escaped to the mountains a couple of times to cool off.  At the family cabin it tends to be about 20 degrees cooler during the summer.  Great sleeping and some really impressive storms.  Last time we were there, the deck got pounded and covered with pea-sized hail.  Meanwhile, to the west we could see the beautiful sunset and to the east was a rainbow.  Colorado weather.  Go figure.


The weather has meant a lot of not moving much, and not getting to spend much time upstairs in the craft loft.  So, more cross-stitching!

Yeah, working on more than one at once -- breaking one of my rules!!  But it keeps me from getting bored, that's for sure.


I finally got some jingle bells, so I can finish all the knitted bells that are filling my yarn basket and get them hung on one of my trees upstairs.  I also have some light repair to do on one of the trees.  Only one of the strands of lights is lighting right now.  Probably a dead bulb somewhere.  Fortunately, I have a few more strands lying around to replace if I have to.

And I've started playing with colored pencils.  Saw a great exercise on the internet, so, of course, I had to try it.  I've done it with both Christmas and non-Christmas colors.  It's fun, and very Dr. Seuss-like.  While I've been doing these, my husband has taken to calling me "Mrs. Seuss."  Here's the Christmas-looking one.

Kind of weird, I think, but fun and a great exercise in terms of colors and shading.


Last, but not least, some other coloring that might make another appearance on some wrapping paper.  I know that I could do it with stamps, but I really like the effect of having it hand-drawn and colored. 

I was excited to go to Hobby Lobby this week and find that the Christmas craft stuff has arrived!!  All different shapes and sizes of glass ornaments to be decorated.  All different colors, too.  Garlands and wreaths and everything!!  I restrained and only bought a couple of things, but I take this as a sign that cooler weather will come and soon I'll be baking and lamenting that there just isn't enough time before Christmas to get everything done.

Keep cool!!

-Jayne