What is on the drawing board for 2008?

It is such a great feeling to know that the Indian won't be glaring at me from the corner of my stash room! I found a notice with the last EGV magazine, giving details for entering the Challenge for their September show. It is to embroider a leaf. Yes, just a leaf. I thought: I can do that. After looking through about 200 books and charts, I decided on an Assisi pattern, and have made a start on it already. Tried to scan it, but that didn't work, so I'll take photos of my work so far as well as the book, and post them later.
I had a blue and white teacups cross stitch sampler on the go before Christmas, to give to a friend who turned 60 in December. Sadly, it wasn't finished in time (just as well she wasn't expecting anything!), so I'll just play with that during the year and perhaps have it ready for another birthday or even Christmas 2008.
Another friend turns 50 next December, and had hinted that she would love to have me stitch something for that occasion. We went through my books together, and she chose four designs, and left it to me to decide which one to do. One was a bunch of Aust. native flowers which would be stunning when finished, but the chart had heaps of those nasty little quarter and half cross stitches, so that went back on the shelf. Another design was a Japanese lady in a kimono, but I thought it wouldn't really suit my friend's home, even though she liked the design. The third choice was a lighthouse - fantastic picture which would look fabulous anywhere...and the fourth one was an English thatched cottage with hollyhocks etc. and a pussycat. I chose the cottage because these friends are Anglophiles - is that the word? They love everything British, and have been there several times.
Other than those projects, I have some UFO's (kitten doiley, peacock duchess set..) that I would really like to get finished instead of carrying them around with me to stitch when I'm in a waiting room somewhere!