hahaha. My sweet friend Laura wondered what cross-stitch project I had been working on for almost 5 years, so I thought I would share it with you. A little background first…

In the early days of my college life, I went to the craft store looking for a project to keep me out of trouble. (A great big LOL!) I picked up a kit to make this carousel horse….

Why a carousel horse, you ask? I don’t know. I think because it was pretty. It was pink. And I knew it would be a challenge. It took me 5 years to complete. Granted I wasn’t working on it non-stop. I had papers to write, finals to take, and parties to go to. *wink* I got it framed just after Wade and I got married and just before we moved to Colorado. It has a prominent spot in the upstairs hallway…you can’t miss it.

Then, I came across the information that my horse was only one in a series of four horses. One for each season. The horse I have hanging in my hall is the Winter horse. I immediately started looking for the other patterns. (Still baffled by my obsession. I’m not “into” carousel horses per se….but these are just so pretty!)  I got the wild hair that I would complete all four horses, have them framed, and then hang each according to what season it was. Kind of like a changing of the guard. Enter Ebay. I found each of the other three (discontinued) patterns and eventually won them all at auction.

I’m not sure how I decided, but I chose the Autumn horse to work on next. I began the project on 9-1-03. I had an 8 month old, Tyler was starting preschool, and I was in the middle of getting certified to teach Jazzercise. I thought I needed another project. oy. At some point, I lost interest. When I picked it back up about this time last year, there was no neck piece, no horse head or mane, no pole and definitely no border. I am really trying my best to get this done and framed by this fall so that I can begin my changing ritual. I think that in my second round of 21 days to a habit, I will include cross-stitching just a little each day. I really do love it.

Here’s my project at present time…(I put the quarter in there so you could get a sense of scale)

This is a little closeup…

Speaking of my 21 day goal. I’m on day 16 and have checked off all three goals each and every day. Although, today is not over, and I still have yet to  get to my creativity goal. I *am* going to remedy that before climbing into bed tonight. Benji gave me the ammunition for the perfect layout today. It will be just the thing for the Cogsmo paper that I am supposed to make something with for MaryKay’s store. *wink*