A Year in Review - 2024 & Goals for 2025

Hello fellow cross stitch bloggers. I have not blogged at all in a year because I have only cross stitched 2 or 3 days in 2024. I really did lose my stitching mojo. I still don’t have it back, but I’m ready to force myself to try stitching in the new year. I have been busy in 2024 with all of my other hobbies, just not with stitching. You can read about those other hobbies below.

I have always been a one at a time stitcher. I start a project and work on it until it is complete. Sometimes I would have 2 projects (1 big one at home, 1 smaller one for travelling). At the moment I have 2 projects on the go.

1. Home on the Point - I never did finish the lighthouse project. I don’t LOVE the pattern because there is a lot of blending of floss. It takes more time to try and figure out what colour to use and then I lose track of where I am on the canvas. I used to love the challenge of more colours, now I just want to see it finished. I don’t have all that much left to do for a finish. This is how it looks as of today.

This is what it is supposed to look like.

2. Summer Sweets - I bought this cross stitch kit 20+ years ago for my mom. I taught her how to cross stitch. She loved working on it. A family friend came for a visit who also stitches and thought she would work on my mom’s project. 

First off, you never touch someone else’s cross stitch project without asking them. 

Second, you don’t stitch on some else’s project unless they ask you for help or it is a round robin. 

Anyways, my Mom was left handed and stitched opposite from me (X’s where reversed), the family friend obviously didn’t know the correct way to cross stitch because she crossed her X’s whatever direction she felt like doing. She upset my Mom so much that she never finished her project again and gave it to me. I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish her project because we stitch different and she only stitched on Aida and I only use evenweave. My Mom passed away 9 years ago, so I thought I’d start this project over for myself as a reminder of my Mom.

Here is what it will look like.

Here is my progress after a few hours on August 12.

3. If I manage to complete these 2 projects I would like to finally try hardanger. I will start by stitching a Christmas ornament for my tree.  http://manya72.blogspot.com/p/free-patterns.html this site has some free Hardanger Christmas ornament patterns that I will try.

4. I also have 5 Just Nan mice to assemble. 3 Gingerbread mice (Santa, Mrs. Claus, Reindeer), and 2 witches ( Miss Witchy, Witchy’s Sister).

Other Hobbies in 2024.

READING - 1 read every day, so I managed to read 148 books (physical, e-books, and audio books). I also started a reading journal where I track the books I have read. I usually read 3 different Genres (Romance - pink, Romantic Suspense - blue, and Fantasy - green).

Dave & I don’t care to travel,  so I try to read books taken place in different countries around the world. I have maps that I colour to show where the book takes place. Ex. Harry Potter takes place in England, so I coloured England in green. I’m trying to colour as many countries in the world.

PUZZLES - We built 4 x 1000pc puzzles and 1 x 1500pc puzzle.                                                                

2025 - We want to build 2 x 2000pc puzzles and 1 x 3000pc puzzle.

CRICUT - I bought myself a Cricut Maker 3 for Mother’s Day in May. It took me quite awhile to learn the software to design and create 11 Christmas cards and 19 birthday cards. Unfortunately, I live in Canada and the Post Office went on strike in November, so I couldn’t mail my Christmas cards to Dave’s family. We handed out to family and friends who live close.

GARDENING - We have 4 metal raised garden beds (2’ deep, 6’ long, 3’ high). They are the same length, depth and height as  a 6 foot kitchen counter. This makes it easier to garden as we get older. Less bending to weed. We planted vegetables in all  4 of them as usual. We also added 2 more smaller plastic raised garden beds. When we had a turtle, she had an indoor pond where she lived and a temporary outdoor pond for her to get some fresh air in the summer. She has been gone for several years and I finally found a way to recycle her 2 ponds into raised garden beds. We just had to make 2 strong bases on wheels.

2025 - I want to create a pollinator/wildflower garden for the birds, bees and butterflies to enjoy.

WOODWORKING - Dave & I built a spice rack for the pantry door in our kitchen.

VIDEO GAMES - I still LOVE playing games on my Nintendo Switch. I am patiently awaiting a few new games and a brand new model of the Nintendo Switch coming sometime in 2025.