So glad my stitching obligations are done for now; I can play with beads!
I'm always looking for a way to use African "Christmas" beads, and Janice Parsons's Across Cultures bracelet was a good opportunity.
I used some red and green triangle beads to make some simple bracelets with knotting cord. Just in time for next Christmas.
And I finally got around to purchasing the leather cord ends I needed to finish a bracelet with these fun donut/ring beads. I love how they slide around.
A Surprise for Christmas and other Seasonal Mysteries, ed. by Martin Edwards: Another collection of Golden Age mysteries put out by the British Library. I don't know why Christmas and cozy mysteries go together, but they do.
The Great Christmas Knit-Off by Alexandra Brown: It's your standard city-girl-whose-life-is-falling-apart-relocates-to-quirky-village tale. Done well, they can be fun and comforting, but this one was too slapstick for my tastes. Why do so many books (and movies) like this revel in humiliating the protagonist repeatedly, before she finally gets the man, new job, and new home? It did inspire me to crochet (not knit) a Christmas pudding, though:
My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories, ed. by Stephanie Perkins: Some of these YA short stories were great (like Kelly Link's, one of my favorite authors, and Rainbow Rowell's). Some were ... not. For a genre that has a reputation for being inclusive and progressive, there were a whole lot of stereotypes.
Christmas with L.M. Montgomery and Christmas with Louisa May Alcott: These were adorable chapbooks collecting 2-3 short stories by the authors in question. I preferred the Montgomery stories, because they seemed intended for adults. Next year I want to pick up the others in the series -- Dickens, O'Henry, and Hans Christian Anderson.
I finished all of these before the end of the Christmas season, I swear.
Now that the cross stitch gifts have been finished and given, I've been able to make some things for myself.
Such as Wild Olive's adorable Emmet Otter ornament:
Or this quotation from Elf -- one for me, one for a friend:
I adore the yarn I used for these stars, and I'm making pompoms from it, too:
And then there's the freebie from Love Embroidery magazine:
Whew!
