Our 2010 Dallas Cowboys Ornament

Christmas Hearts by Just Nan
Stitched over 2 on 32 ct. Antique White
with DMC and overdyed threads
embellished with beads

Every year, my husband and I add another Dallas Cowboys ornament to our Christmas tree. (You can see Emmitt Smith's elbow in the photo above) We have an entire section dedicated to these ornaments - we call it Cowboy Land. They're not all specifically Cowboys ornaments - we have a few assorted stars, mostly blue and silver, and a blue and silver angel hanging along with them.

I stitched this piece a while back in more traditional Christmas colors of red, gold and green, but had this color combination in mind for our own tree. Since the Cowboys use two different color combinations (one dark blue and white for the jerseys, silver for the pants, and the other white and light blue for the jerseys, and a lighter blue for the pants), I wanted to include both color combinations.

I used WDW Peacoat and Pewter for the dark blue and the grey around the border and a silvery grey DMC Rayon / Satin S415 thread for the hearts. The lighter blues are DMC 824, 826 and 827, and the other shade of grey is DMC 415 with a strand of opalescent blending filament. For the beads, I just used a silvery lined seed bead from the craft store and sewed them on with matching thread. It doesn't show up well in the photo, but the beads do add a pretty sparkle, especially in the light from the tree.

I finished the ornament with a painted wooden embroidery hoop as I described in the post about the first Christmas Hearts ornament. I picked up some dark blue ribbon at the craft store and mixed up a little bit of acrylic paint that I had to match. Once again, I am a big advocate of sanding the hoop before painting to make a much nicer finished product. Some fine grit sandpaper and a damp paper towel can make a huge difference in the hoop's appearance, and it's well worth the extra effort. To finish it up, I used two light coats of matte varnish, available alongside the acrylic paints at the craft store.

As a side note, we did purchase the Tony Romo Hallmark ornament when it was released, but it will not be allowed to join the ranks of the two Troy Aikmans (yes, we have two) and the one Emmitt Smith already hanging on the tree until Tony can bring home a Super Bowl. Sadly for us, it won't be this year, despite our high hopes at the beginning of the season.

Help a girl out, please!

As most of you know, my husband and I are expecting our first child in October, and we've been getting things ready for his arrival. Sure, we've got the big stuff like the crib and the stroller, but what I am in need of is nearly impossible to find here in the suburban Philadelphia area.... Dallas Cowboys gear.

Yep. Dallas Cowboys stuff. I've been hitting Babies R Us, plus the department and sporting goods stores, and sure, there's a ton of Eagles (gack) and Phillies stuff, and even some Steelers stuff, but not a whole lot in the way of Dallas Cowboys gear. I'm guessing that most of these things are only locally availble in the teams' home markets, which is probably why I can't find them online either.

Yes, we have already purchased the Tony Romo Hallmark ornament on the condition that he not be placed on the tree until he gets his December act together... He may not join our collection of Cowboys ornaments until he can get through the playoffs without blowing it. LOL

I'd love to have his first picture taken in a Cowboys outfit (and bring him home in one), and of course, he's going to need a Cowboys outfit for Thanksgiving. I can order stuff online, but I've seen different things in places like Wal-Mart and Target, and I am sure they are probably way less expensive there than they are on some of these sites.

We're already expecting our boy to be over 8 lbs at birth, so newborn stuff isn't going to work, but 0-3 months and especially 3-6 months will. Mostly I am looking for some onesies (long or short sleeve), sleepers, or outfits like the warm up suit. We've seen a few jerseys around, but most of them seem to be too big (we're planning on getting him a Jason Witten jersey for Christmas).

I'm also looking for a few little Cowboy related things like pacifiers, a hooded towel, a picture frame, etc. And if you see anything cool that I haven't mentioned, please let me know. I know that there are usually things only available locally that I might not have even considered. So if you live in Texas or an area where you have access to Cowboys baby gear, I would be eternally grateful if you could help us out. Let me know ahead of time (so I can avoid multiples of the same item) and I will happily reimburse you for the cost of the item and the shipping to PA.

And if you happen to be looking for Eagles / Phillies / Flyers stuff, or Steelers or Giants, let me know and I can help you out (baby, child and adult sizes). Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

My very first Fair & Square Exchange

French Country Bunny by JBW Designs
Stitched by Michele with Sugar Maple Floss in Candy Floss
Fair & Square Exchange, Round #9
Isn't he adorable? Michele stitched this for me for my very first F&S Exchange and he arrived yesterday. I LOVE it - and I already know what I'll be doing with these squares. They'll be made into an ornament for my Bride's Tree collection that I am technically working on (but the project has fallen a bit by the wayside.) This fulfills the rabbit ornament, and it's even more special having been stitched by my new friend Michele.

Michele also included a cute little tin of mints featuring photos of the Seattle area. I've never visited the West Coast, but it's definitely on my list of places to see (do you know how many lighthouses are out there? LOTS!) and I hope to include Seattle in my journies some day. The mint tin will be perfect as a needle case once the mints are gone and a bit of sticky back magnetic sheet is installed. I think it will fit neatly into one of the mesh pockets in my traveling stitching bag.

I also finished up the stitching on Michele's squares, and photographed them this morning, so they'll be going out in the mail tomorrow. I am absolutely thrilled with them and I can't wait to share pictures, but of course, Michele gets to see them first.

As for me today, it's Sunday, and you know what that means. Football. Plus my beloved Dallas Cowboys are the Sunday Night game, so I'm excited about that. Can I tell you how absolutely annoyed and disappointed I was that they had to play on Monday night? I cannot STAND the crew that does the MNF broadcast on ESPN and I was happy to see we only had one Monday Night game this season. Tony Kornheiser annoys me in ways I can't even describe, and I'm not a big Jaws fan, although he's tolerable when Kornheiser is not around. Kornheiser is just awful - he's not funny, he knows very little about football and he NEVER SHUTS UP. Ugh. It's enough to make me insane. I even prefer John Madden to Kornheiser. It will be a happy day for football fans everywhere when they fire him from the MNF broadcast.

Ornament Frenzy

I've been stitching on some ornaments, partially to keep up with the 2 ornament blogs I'm on, and partially because I have a very short attention span. Ornaments are good for this because by the time I get bored with them, I'm almost finished. I've finished the stitching on a few, now I have to get to the finishing finishing.

For my Bride's Tree SAL, I'm trying to work on 2 sets of ornaments, one for me, one for my best friend and her husband. I finished stitching the one for my friend, and now I have to get a piece of fabric to put behind the stitching because the weave is kind of loose and I don't want any batting showing through. I stitched a freebie pattern, La petite maison de campagne de décembre, and changed the Decembre to the family name (blurred for privacy)

I stitched it over one on 25 ct. linen using mostly the recommended DMC threads. I did use up some Toasted Marshmallow I had left from another project for the snow, and I added a little gold star on top of the tree using metallic braid.

I'm also making a little progress on my own ornament, the 3-D Lavender house.
As you may or may not know, my DH and I are HUGE Dallas Cowboys fans, and every year, we try to add another Cowboys ornament to our growing collection. I saw this one as a design on etsy.com and thought, "Hey, I could make that", so I made up a pattern and customized it for one of my DH's favorite players, Roger Staubach. It's not finished yet - I'm stitching on plastic canvas which is sheer torture to my fingers, so I only do a little each night.

And in case you were wondering, DMC 823 perfectly matches my blue Dallas Cowboys jersey. 415 is a pretty good approximation for the silver on the jersey as well. I had so much fun designing the Cowboys one, I made one for most of the rest of the teams (I still have a tiny grudge about the Patriots. LOL) If you want one, let me know and I will send a pattern to you.

I've also been working on some Princess ornaments, based on a free pattern I found on Cyberstitchers. My 5 year old niece is very into princesses, and ever since she heard my DH refer to me as "Princess", she calls me Princess Aunt Jenn. We also have a cousin who is a "Princess" herself, so I thought it would be fun for all three of us to have our own Princess ornaments! Here are 2 so far.

The pattern calls for small stitched stars, but I substituted some sequins and seed beads instead for the one on top. I might change it up a little for the second one, I'm not sure yet.