Annual Christmas finish

And I can say annual now - this is the third year in a row I've managed to stitch a Christmas piece as a gift for my fellow ballet mom friend, Rachel.  She loves all things Christmas.
None of her kids do ballet anymore, since Paige stopped early last term, so I don't see her hardly at all anymore and it's a shame.  At least this gives me an excuse to drop by, don't you think?  And in plenty of time for Advent too - go me!

Nationals Photos

Champion Photos were at Nationals in force, taking shots of all the action (it was a 5 ring circus there for 5 full days so there was lots to cover) and I've been haunting their web and face book pages in the hope that they got some of Jess.
And they did!  I really thought she'd been missed again - there are none of her from National Secondary Schools, and they've yet to put up anything from North Is Champs.

Here she is, doing hoop - her silver medal routine:

Jess at Nationals courtesy of Champion Photos

If Tinkerbelle had curls...

Tink's school chose to hold a mufti + crazy hair do day on the last day of term.  I didn't get any shots of the actual hair do, but I did get some of Jess and Victoria taking the pins and hair ties out, and the resulting curls...

Very 1940's, don't you think?

October finish

and of course, when one has a gazillion crystals on hand, one has to bling

These word trees from M Designs are such fun to stitch.  This one is on 22ct hardarnger, one over one with WDW Mermaid.  Hope you have some ideas how you want to finish and display it Sarah!