Happy Winter Solstice! And a Little Stitched JOY!

 Another year flying by, it's hard to believe its the first day of winter.

The first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere arrived on Sunday, December 21, 2025, at 10:03 A.M. (EST).

Although the winter solstice means the start of winter, it also means the return of light, the days begin to grow longer and longer again until we reach the summer solstice.

For those that are not lovers of winter it only gets brighter from here! The Duration is only 88 days, 23 hours, 42 minutes.

Here in Florida we are expecting 80 degrees and sunshine so while it doesn't look or feel like the winter of my youth I can live with it. 

Happy Winter Solstice!

  I have managed to get some stitching done mostly on the weekends. Currently I am making a little Spirit doll for my Word of the Year, which is Joy.

It came to me recently somewhere between March 2020, when I was plagued with that mysterious illness lasting 2 years and Now dealing with Cancer  I lost my sense of JOY. Not just the oh gosh I feel good kind of Joy, but deep in the bones Joy you get from nature, living and those simple things that us Joy.

So for 2026 I am on the journey to not only reclaim Joy I want to build an entire adventure to once again feel the deep in your bones JOY. 

Here is the fabric and the traced line body for the Goddess doll

After the body was stitched I made a little patch with my word JOY, pinned it in place before stitching it on.

The patch is stitched on, I left the top unstitched to create a little pocket, embroidered the face and pinned the head on.

I stitched the head in place and she is ready for the back of the body to be added. I slipped a little piece of paper into the pocket.

My fingers were too sore to continue stitching so I hope to add the back and have her done later today.

It's been a while since I did much stitching however I am linking my post to https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2025/12/slow-sunday-stitching_01479291710.html