October Rudolph Day (lakeside edition!)

 Obviously, October 25 would have been Rudolph Day for this month.  I was pretty busy that day (Wednesday) and decided to postpone any Christmas-related activities until the weekend when things would be quieter.

And they were indeed much quieter!  Although Mr. T and I were off on a brief getaway to our favorite northern lake, I did manage a little Christmas crafting time on Saturday.

The day was glorious.  Simply glorious.  Sunny, bright, and warm.  Even though it was the end of October, Mr. T and I had prayed for good weather -- sun, and temperatures warm enough to allow sitting on the dock.  God certainly answered our prayers.  Friday had some temps warm enough for dock-sitting too, but it was extremely breezy and not a day to try and do any crafting out there.

But Saturday ... now, that was definitely a day for outdoor crafting.  First, I sat on the dock for awhile and worked on this cross-stitched cardinal Christmas ornament.

Then I decided to put some time into my cross-stitched "Snow Angels" which is a UFO of many years' standing.  This project is done on 18-count Aida, not a favorite of my aging eyes.  Although not technically a Christmas project, the brilliant sunlight there on the dock was perfect for working on this challenging scene.

This is one of those projects that I work on so seldom, I have to figure out where I am each time.  There is so much shading in here that I find it really difficult.  Even though I try and mark my place with washi tape -- and that seemed to work very well for awhile -- I still struggle to figure out how to pick up where I left off. 

Took the Snow Angels photos back at home.  Sorry this is so blurry.

This time, after a few frustrating minutes, I decided to work on the sky, which is done with fairly large amounts of the color I had threaded in the needle already.  That worked very well and I was able to accomplish quite a bit.  It's the very pale sky blue that you can barely see.

It actually got too warm sitting there in the sun after awhile.  I ended up moving to a nearby picnic table which was still sunny, but not too hot, and still in view of the glorious sights and sounds of the lake.  What a beautiful place to stitch!

Although I didn't accomplish a large amount of crafting on this Rudolph Day, I must say it was one of my favorite Rudolph Days this year.  So thankful to be stitching beside the lake on this gorgeous October Saturday!