See what I did there? I fell off the face of the blog again. Though, to be fair, life hit some rather nasty speed bumps since I last posted. Had a few really gnarly wide spread service outages at work, followed by someone important to me taking his own life just 4 days before Christmas, followed by additional stressors at work...Kind of soap opera-esque, really. So, stitching has been somewhat impacted of late - mainly with regard to Happy Bat.
Spring might be peaking in at us here in central Indiana. We had a lovely week of mild (dare I say warm?) temps last week. Next weekend I'm going to hang out with friends at Abe Martin Lodge for my birthday. I'm looking forward to watching B and C play in the kiddie pool. I will not be partaking. Me? In a swim suit? NOT gonna happen! LOL
I've been trying to get myself motivated to start exercising so I can actually meet my goal for this year. My goal is to be in fair enough shape to join my sister in the annual Dragon Boat race in Lake Orion, MI. Thus far I'm falling behind. Here's my problem - or rather, what I TELL myself is my problem - I work from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm, Monday thru Friday. I compulsively arrive early by 30 minutes, so that means I get on the road a little before 9:00. If I get up at 7:20, that leaves me just enough time to shower, feed the cats, eat breakfast, wash my b-fast dishes and lunch box and make/pack my lunch for the day. I get home around 7:30 and usually G and K have bedded down for the night (they get up for work at 5:00 AM). Though, with the spring time change, they have lately been up watching TV. So, to be unobtrusive when I get home, I usually just hit the sack and play with my iPad till I fall asleep 9:30 or 10:00.
I've tried setting my alarm for 6:00 am so I can get up and have plenty of time for a workout before my typical morning routine. Alarm goes off and I hit snooze - repeat till 7:20 am. Two weeks of this and no change in behavior. How about working out in the evening? Every night I come home the girls have been watching TV in the living room. Crap. What's really happening here? I'm finding lame excuses to NOT exercise. Work in progress.
On to happier topics!
Pink Fairy Vomit is done - Huzzah!
B really likes it, and It was framed in time for Christmas.
In it's rotation spot, I've been working on Happy Bat - last progress pic was this
And latest stitching session ended here:
Just over half way. This on has been challenging, to say the least. I made an error on the outline of the wing where it goes up passed the tip tip of the ear and it didn't' become apparent till I was about a quarter of the way down the wing. That resulted in a LOT of frogging. I was less than amused.
On Konstantinople Hamam I decided to work form the center to the top, and then will continue clockwise around the design. That helps me avoid stitching the same parts repeatedly. Last progress photo was here:
And latest progress is here:
Yeah. Everything between the middle part and this end part is rolled up. You can peruse the album by clicking either of the pics. Once I get the first tulip done I will unroll it and get pic of the whole thing.
So that's it for now. Later!
It's that time again! It's been a productive month with one finish and a new start. For those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you had a wonderful day! I got to go back home Michigan to be with my Mom, sister, brother in law and gramma. Was a wonderful 4 days. Weather permitting I will get to do it again for Christmas.
The topic for the month is: Recap your accomplishments for the year. This is going to be fun!
You see, I'm pretty much the kind of person who gets excited by an idea and then jumps full in, plays for a while, gets bored and looks for something else to do. I did that with knitting, crocheting, polymer clay and paper modeling - all over the course of my lifetime. And I really never got much done. Small things, sure, but the big stuff never got finished. Like the 4' tall paper model Optimus Prime. His foot still stares at me from the corner where it's hidden, but the thought of getting out the mat, x-acto knife and glue makes me shudder.
Cross stitch is something I have always come back to, but it wasn't till the last couple of months of chemo that I really got back in to it. With a vengeance. I pulled out "Stitching the Standard" and made a lot of progress on her. Then I remembered the hardanger work Mom used to do and I bought a set of bookmark kits and really enjoyed that. Then I found out about Papillon Creations and got some of their charts with specialty stitches. And I've been hooked ever since. It's been a good solid 2 years now and I've felt no hints of the boredom that usually pops up after about 6 months.
What all this long drawn out blather is getting to is: I actually have finishes in 2014!
Finish # 1
The Castle Garden, by Papillon Creations.
Started 9/28/2103
Finished 5/11/2014
Finish #2
Around the World in 80 Stitches, by Papillon Creations
Started around 7/4/2013
Finished 9/7/2014
Finish #3
QS Butterfly Fae, by Heaven and Earth Designs
Started 9/28/2014
Finished 12/5/2014, taken to framer 12/6/2014
When I look back at that, I'm kind of surprised. A lot surprised. I guess I finally found what I love to do.
So, on to the regular part of the post. As mentioned above, QS Butterfuly Fae is done. Last month at this time, I was here:
On Konstantinople Hamam I was here:
And am now here:
Last night, I started on K's project, Happy Bat, by AAN, and am here:
This is being stitched on 28ct Haunted Cashel, by PTP - 1x1.
So there you go! Hope you've found your hobby Nirvana, too!
