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A Visitor, Victorian Emojis, and Festive Music

Happy Wednesday!

It was an interesting week here at the Castle. A new visitor flew in: 

Doesn't he look dashing? Judging from his outfit, he must have flown in from some frosty climate. He hasn't told me his name yet, instead he's taken up residence on the fireplace mantle.

Cross Stitch Corner

Usually I stitch in the morning, but last night I got my stitching done at night. Does that mean I'm a member of the nighttime stitcher club? (Does such a club even exist?) It was nice to lounge on my sofa, fire up a podcast or two, and make progress on Nikolai.

I glanced at last week's WIP update picture- which you can see here.

Here's this weeks progress: 

Now, I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised at the progress I've made! I'm nearly finished with this column! The splash of orange on his coat was great to stitch, and it was thrilling to reach the horse's nose. Nikolai might look a bit out of focus right now, but I'm convinced that backstitch will make him, and especially his face, really jump out of the fabric. But I'm probably not going to backstitch as I go, instead I'll do all the backstitch once all of the cross stitch is completed. Stay tuned for that, dear reader, because that won't be for a good long while.

Odds & Ends

I never thought of it before, but they sort of were the emojis of their day!



Lastly, have some music to get you into the Christmas spirit. I decorated the Castle Christmas tree with this playing on the background:

Happy stitching! 

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