The Beginning of a New Hobby

Hello!  Is everyone back to the grind after Halloween or are we just counting down the hours until it’s officially the weekend?  Last night Ethan and I watched The Lost Boys which was truly enjoyable and I gobbled up the first book of a Nora Roberts trilogy (my first by her, can you believe it?).  I have a confession to make though.  Much before the month of October I was scheming…scheming for Christmases to come.  Isn’t that awful of me?  Ethan and I even watched The Holiday before any Halloween movies!  Gah.  I don’t know.  There’s just something about Christmas music and decorating, it takes me back.  And I have so many wonderful Christmas memories.

But now that I am the woman of our little family, my mind has been dancing around what future Christmases for us will look like.  I know I know, I’m sort of rushing Thanksgiving.  It’s okay, I won’t put up the tree until December first.  I get to wondering, quite easily, what sort of traditions our McDowell family will have, new and old.  One new, that I have been stewing over the past few months and am finally about to embark on (if only in the preliminary stages) is the Christmas stocking.

Stockings weren’t big in my family.  Probably because we had St. Nick’s day for presents and then Christmas, and then my birthday followed…if we had stockings they weren’t integral in the gift-giving part of the holiday.  And obviously that aspect will be determined when we actually have children, but I love the look of them, tacked up to the mantle with a fire roaring…they definitely hold some magic as they fill up overnight with treats and goodies.

What does this have to do with having a new hobby?  Well, if you follow Bailey, you may remember her darling custom needlepoint stockings from last year.  I’m fairly certain everyone was drooling over them.  But at hundreds of dollars for each stocking, I couldn’t justify even having one!!  So that’s when the gears in my head started turning, and I decided I’d teach myself to needlepoint, thus bestowing myself with the skill to craft heirloom stockings for ourselves.  Pretty insane, right?

I’m starting with a generic needlepoint print– Monet’s Japanese Bridge— to teach myself how the technique and get a feel for the threads.  I’ve giving myself a few years to tackle the actual stockings, since who am I kidding, I won’t be a natural born needlepoint prodigy.  But those stockings’ patterns are already picked out…and I may have promised to make some for my sister and parents as well.  I tend to be quite ambitious in new hobbies when I have absolutely no experience.  They may end up turning out like a craftsy Mrs. Weasley gift, but hey, all the quainter, right?

I finally got my frame in the mail so I am seriously going to start this this weekend (once the canvas is stretched and taunt).  I have a good amount of indoor time during Alaskan winters, so I’m actually really really excited slash nerding out about needlepoint.  Wish me luck!

Have a wonderful weekend, keep warm, keep happy, and crunch on some leaves for me!