New Year's start and the first trip of the year

Wow!  Has it really been almost 3 weeks since I last posted?  Where does the time go!  I guess I will start by sharing some stitching progress.  Like many of my fellow stitchers, I like to start on a brand new project on January 1st, as a sort of New Year's celebration.  This year, I chose to work on "Heaven and Nature Sing" by With Thy Needle and Thread.  The following picture shows one day's worth of stitching, and only one day's worth of stitching, since I haven't had time to work on the piece since the 1st.  Not too bad for one day's work, I think:

Since the first, I've been devoting my stitching time to a model piece for Mom, which I can't share yet, of course.  There actually hasn't been all that much time for stitching though.  Among other things, Alton and I spent a week in California cleaning out his uncle's condo in order to make some progress on his estate (Alton is the executor).  It was hard work, and sad work too.  I won't bore you with the details, but I will say that it truly boggled my mind to see how many different documents used to be generated containing a person's social security number: bank statements, pay stubs, loan documents, etc, etc.  Shred, shred, shred.

While we were in California, we did take a few hours off to do a tiny bit of sight seeing.   Between Los Angeles and San Diego, there is a old Spanish Mission at the town of San Juan Capistrano.  The original church was destroyed by an earthquake in the 19th century, and the ruins of "The Great Stone Church" still stand on the site today:

The church is listed on the World Monuments Fund top 100 Most Endangered Sites because of its fragile state.  The whole mission was simply beautiful, and relaxing.

The mission is also famous for its annual "Return of the Swallows" which is celebrated every year on March 19.  Apparently, the birds return on almost the same day every year, and build their nests along the eaves of the mission's buildings.  Sadly, it was the wrong time of the year for us to see the swallows ourselves.

There were some beautiful cactus plantings around the mission.  I didn't take many photos of the gardens, so you'll just have to take my word that they were lovely.

 So that's most of what I've been up to this month.  I have two of my six patterns bagged up, and I'm working hard at getting all the others ready.  I can't believe it's less than a month til the Nashville show!

Tomorrow (assuming that we still have power), I will post a giveaway announcement, and I will start sharing photos of my designs.  I hope some of you will like them!  Til next time, stay warm, stay safe, and stay crafty!