parade o' gifts (part 1)

Yeah, so, um...Hubs was gone on a work trip all week and got home at midnight last night...and a good thing, too, because I was just about at the end of my parenting rope. I don't know how those of you with traveling spouses do it. I bow down to you.

So I'm a little cranky. And also tired, because I don't sleep too well when he isn't here. I stayed up way too late each night working on a Christmas gift for my nephew. I mentioned it awhile back, and now it's almost done:

I love looking at this - it actually helps a great deal with my crankiness because I'm the queen of unfinished stitchery, typically, but this one is going to get done! I worked it each night until my eyes burned and I started making mistakes, and I was tired enough to fall asleep. 

I need to finish my nephew's name, work a few backstitch outlines (the propeller, the sail), and then carefully steam out all that awful hoop-burn. And frame it.

Now to go hem a halloween costume and finish up some baby gifts for our new niece who will arrive anytime...and then there are a few more Christmas items to work on...this time of year the crafts all sort of blend together, the end of one flows right into the start of another. I still need to make a rough list of all I hope to accomplish. 

Busy!