The Mystery of the Magic Chocolate Tin !

Only 4 more days until Christmas and everything feels quite festive at work - i.e. no-one feels much like doing work and tins of chocolates appear almost every day from various people who prefer to give chocolates than write out loads of Christmas cards. I said to the administrator that I was convinced it was a tin with magical powers, because the same tin has continually emptied and re-filled every day this week - but she assured me it was just different people buying the same tins of Quality Street. Ahhh, I was hoping it was the Christmas Chocolate Fairy! I guess I am too accustomed to sewing all those Flower Fairies....

I am going shopping after work this evening with my friend Steph as we have been promising ourselves a mega Christmas shopping trip for several weeks. Steph wants to look for some seating for her living room (which she hopes will be in the Sales) and also some new carpets. I want to get some curtain fabric to make up curtains over the Christmas holidays. So we both have our wish-lists to try to fulfil. Shall give all the details in a future entry on the Blog, so watch this space!

I plan to take another WIP photo of my sample within the next few days. Unfortunately I had a bit of a trauma with it on Monday - I thought I was progressing well, but realised that I had rushed into sewing some of the border without having completed the double line around the edge so had to unpick about an hour's work which was very annoying. I know an hour's work does not seem so much to lose, but (a) it is a lot when I do not have much time to sew during the week :-( and (b) as you know, unpicking stitches can take as long, or sometimes longer than it does to stitch booooo hooooo!!!

However, I am back on track with it now and making good progress. I think I am going to start a new project at the weekend so that I can switch between the two - I have found it helps with my motivation if I can have a break from each project, so that when I go back to it, I look forward to working on it. The question is which project shall I choose? I have around 4 possibilities so please feel free to give me your advice as I can't make up my mind!!

1. Michael Powell - The Secret Garden. This is a lovely kit that I bought back in September and I have already sorted out the threads, so its ready to go. My concern is that it is another fairly complex project to undertake while doing my Welsh Sampler.
2. Happy New Year Cards. I have a few charts from various magazines or I could make up my own design on Jane Greenoff Cross Stitch Gold Software. If I use existing charts it will be fairly quick, but then how many will I need to make and could I still be stitching them into the summer!!!
3. Jane Greenoff Pin Cushion Heart. When San and I were at the Alexander Palace exhibition in November, Jane had a stand at the show and I bought her new book (which she signed for me!). There are some great projects, large and small, one of which is the Pin Cushion.
4. Flower Fairies Kit. Willow Fairy or Sweet Pea Fairy.

Decisions, decision !