Welcome 2014!

The past month since we arrived at our winter home in Florida has sped by.  We had a wonderful Christmas and New Years.  I hope that you all did as well.

I started off the New Year by taking part in the Polar Bear Dip at the FloraBama.

The water wasn’t nearly as cold as I had expected but there were way more people than I thought there would be.

People even came dressed up in costumes for the occasion.  There was a group dressed as minions.

Two couples had dressed up a of penguins.

There were fairies and ducks.   One lady was dressed as a salt shaker.   Another three couples were dressed in bright red dresses, even the men!  (Sorry no photos of them, but Dave did get them on the video camera.)

And a father and son team with a cute twist to their costumes.  The son had dressed as Father Time and the Dad had dressed as the Baby New Year.

There was even a group calling themselves the Singing Elvises.

Behind the Singing Elvises there were people as far as you could see and it was the same when you looked in the other direction.  I think there were as many spectators as there were people participating in the Dip.

Dave stayed on the shore to man the camera and video camera.  Unfortunately he didn’t get any of me that are good enough to share because he was trying to hold the camera up over the crowd… but the photos he did manage to get are good enough to prove that I went in!

After I got changed back into dry clothes, Dave and I shared a plate of black-eyed peas, greens and ham.  This meal is a Southern tradition to ensure good fortune and prosperity in the coming year.

And speaking of the new year, over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be sharing photos of some of the Christmas gifts I made for our children.  They each received two handmade gifts.

Tomorrow, Vintage Embroidery Monday will be returning with the last seven designs from the patterns I found when we bought the Art Deco cabinet to house my Singer 15-91.

I had thought that might be the end of Vintage Embroidery Mondays but over the holidays I found some more Workbasket patterns from a seller on Etsy.    Those arrived on Friday and I was delighted to discover that they are the patterns numbered just before the ones I’ve been sharing for the past year.

Dave will be spending the next several days tracing and scanning those into the computer.  So Vintage Embroidery Monday will be continuing throughout 2014.

I’ll also be making some announcements in the near future about new patterns that I’ve designed and where to buy them in the coming days.

2014 is already shaping up to be a great year!

I would be so pleased if you chose to share by clicking on one of the buttons below!