More finishes!

Look at me go.

I got my first cross stitch professionally framed and I love it. I picked a suede mat for it, and a green to compliment it.

LOOK AT IT. It's really great. Once I figure out how to pack it up for mailing, it's heading to Montreal. As you might remember from a previous post, this is the one I started there when I was on vacation. :)

I finished Golurk who was a GoJERK to finish on time because he was so big.

and Drifblim was finished as well, in all his or her baloony goodness.

and this is a WIP I am doing for a client of mine who loves owls. It's a pink owl on a branch. I am using a blue sparkly jubilee fabric which is really shiny and pretty. I remember trying to work on it before and I got disgusted with how horrible it was, but I'm trying again and it's not that bad. I guess I had it back when I ws first starting on evenweave so there was a bit of a learning curve. Now I'm an old (I stress OLD) pro at this, the fabric ain't so bad!

Here is the WIP.

So this year I didn't really get much done and bought way too much stash.

Maybe next year, eh? :)

Why do I do this to myself?

I've been playing Pokemon X for awhile now with a few of my gaming buddies, and I got this great idea in my head that I would stitch their favourite Pokemon for Christmas Gifts. This wouldn't be so bad except I'm a slow ass stitcher right now and it's almost the middle of November. I have 2 weeks to get 4 Pokemon done. I've already finished 2 of them, Sylveon for Tim who has the 8 Eeveelutions already, and Umbreon for my guy. One of my friends just HAD to pick Golurk, which is a huge pokemon, so I'm working on that while I wait for the threads for the last one to arrive in the mail.

Good luck to me!

Sylveon for Tim

Umbreon for Rian

Golurk for Ryan

I have some progress on Red Kitten as well, but it's packed up. Next time I work on it during a break from clients I'll take a picture.

Aaaand, I've put Wind Waker to the side right now as I try to finish these Pocket Monsters, but I think I'll work on it every Saturday morning. Gotta keep the momentum going on that big piece.

Stuff and Stuff

I had a great time in Montreal. I did manage to go to the Cross Stitch store that I wanted to, called La Cigale Brodeuse. It's found in a basement of an older looking building. Not much to look at from the outside. Inside it was one room, with most things found around the walls, with a sort of island in the middle that held fabric, beads and a few baskets of patterns. I wasn't sure if she took debit or not because I didn't see a cash register. I only had about 60 bucks on me. My friend said he had some cash on him and I could pay him back but I felt weird doing that. The owner only spoke french so I had my friend translate a few things for us. I asked if she took debit and she did, so I went a little nuts. :)

I bought this pattern and all the things to go with it. Fabric, beads, floss, and kreinik #4 braid

I also picked up 3 different fabrics

That purple one kept jumping out at me, so after picking it up 3 times I decided it was coming home with me. I also brought home those cat scissors from my last post. I wanted something to remember my trip by. :)

I had a few days on my trip where I could stitch. Due to social anxiety I didn't leave the hotel by myself and my guy was working so I stayed in. I had my laptop and my stitching and food, so I was good.

My view from the hotel window. Mount Royal is in the distance. I was on the 12th floor.

I started La-D-Da's the Raven. I'm working it on 32 count Haunted Belfast linen, which is super hard on my eyes so it's slow going sometimes, and Gentle Arts Sampler threads Black Crow. I'm doing the whole thing in one colour thread because I like it. It does call for 3 different colours, but whatevs. :)

What I've done so far. I just took it off the hoop so I decided I'd get a picture in before it goes back on. Like I said, the 32 count is a bit much for me these days.

Figure I'll show a few pictures I got from the Redpath Museum. It was one of the places I HAD to go to, along with the Cross Stitch store, of course. I have an obsession with all things Egypt and it's always been a dream of mine to go to Egypt, but alas, they have much turmoil going on there now. So I read a lot of books and dream about seeing such wonders in person. Well I got to see some in person and let me tell you it was hard not to cry from happiness. I am weird, I know. Anyway here are a few of the pictures I took

Mummified cat, anyone? There's a hawk and an ibis there as well.

The view from the 3rd floor. Rawr.

I have a few more projects lined up. I bought Gardenia Spring Garden Pixie.  And of course, everything to go along with it. I also ordered all the DMC and fabric needed to do another Wind Waker pattern and the last Eeveelution, Sylveon. Finding the time to do everything while still spending time with my guy was proving to be a challenge so I solved it by buying him a capture card. Now he can stream games for me to watch (and stitch!). I am a very smart cookie. :)

Uh oh

I'm in one of those stitching slumps again. A big part of it is because I found a dude. It's a bit of a Long Distance thing. He's been to visit me and we hit it off, now I am off to visit him in September. We are both gamers so yes, a lot of my time is spent playing stuff with him and not stitching, and I am happy.

I managed to finally mail away the last 4 Pokemon and they have since been framed by Tim. He is very happy with them all, and that makes me happy too.

Anyway, heading over to Montreal and I've already scoped out a Cross Stitch store that I am interested in visiting while I am there. I want to pick up a pair of scissors or something to remind me of my first real vacation in 9 years. I am finally at a place in my life where I can do that. I earn enough and get paid vacations now and it's opened up a whole world for me. I'm even tossing around the idea that I want to go to Australia! Me, miss social anxiety and fears everything wanting to go to Australia.

I'm even going to my first concert in 24 years this November. I bought tickets to go see Matthew Good Band. My last, and only, concert was New Kids on the Block when I was 11. Remember them? I can't even remember if I had a favourite one of them, it's been so long ago. That concert was very traumatic for me. thousands of screaming girls and I just did not have a good time at all. I think it really turned me off of going to anything else after that.

On the gaming front, I think I am almost finished with World Of Warcraft. It's been over 8 years since I first started playing back in Norway and then here in Canada. I cancelled my account a few days ago, but it's paid up until September 22nd. We shall see what happens after that. I will be playing Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn when that is launched August 27th. Lets see if that can hold my interest. The dude is excited about playing it, and I have a few other friends showing a bit of interest so we'll see!

So here's to a fun year so far. So many new things happening and new experiences being made.. now if only I could get cracking on some stitching. :)

Oh be joyful, cause that shit spreads.

Sorry for the swearing in the title, I'm listening to Oh Be Joyful by Matthew Good. He's a local musician and one of my favourites. Lets all be joyful, shall we?

I haven't really been stitching since I finished the last Pokemon. I now have Leafeon finished, and that makes 8 done. Of course the makers of Pokemon have added yet another eeveelution, but so far there isn't a pattern for it.

Anyway here is Leafeon

I am going to try and stitch more, rather than play WoW all the days. I seem to be playing a lot of that lately.

I have a couple choices on my next project to work on. I started Duality by Fire Wing Designs, and then I have Follow Me by Bothy Threads also in the WIP pile. I recently got a Fallout VaultBoy pattern as well that someone posted on reddit I'm itching to start. Aaaand, I have some requests from friends for patterns, so I'm not really sure where to start.

At any rate it feels good to be stitching again. :) 

Yay something small

To hopefully get the ball rolling on stitching this year. I spent all day working on this! :D And watching The Tudors.

So anyway, here is my first small finish for 2013! Glaceon!

I am almost done all the Eeveelutions, with only Leafeon to go. :) I don't think I'll start it right away, rather I'll start on Follow Me 2 since I have all the threads for it now.

Anyway that is all.

GOALS?!

I know I've tried this goal thing before and failed miserably. So I'm going to try it again and hope for better results. Who needs logic!

I really want to get Aryll finished. She's really close to being done, I'd say a good 3-4 hour chunk of stitching and she will be done. I haven't started Glaceon yet, which I'm blaming my friend for. Ok so it's not all his fault.  The last couple weeks we've been having a hard time getting together for gaming+stitching. He's bogged down at work and being social, and I've been tired after my work.

Work is going great! I just find myself getting tired as the work days go on. By Sunday all I want to do is sleep, Monday I'm a zombie, and then it's my weekend where I recharge lol.

So for December the plan is getting Aryll finished and Glaceon done. Glaceon shouldn't take more than a week to do if I get 2 hours a night in like I did with Vaporeon. Leafeon has the most colours so I'm leaving it for last. Maybe I'll get that done in December, but I'm keeping my goals small this time lol.

I got some crap on the Aryll fabric which I'm hoping I can get out after I'm done stitching, and hoping the threadworx doesn't bleed. Ok not literal crap. I don't even know what it is. :D

Okay that is it from me. Hopefully some pictures soon :)

what is this work thing

that keeps cutting into my CRAFTY TIME?

This weekend I decided it would be my very own stitch and bitch at a local cafe. Ok so I was the only one there, and I wasn't bitching. But I was stitching and enjoying really yummy hot chocolate. the first day, because it was spur of the moment, I worked on Summer Splendor by LHN and realized how much I hated it. I was only there an hour between clients so I put a few stitches in while hoping I'd somehow slop hot chocolate all over it which would give me an excuse to can the thing, but alas, I'm just not drooly enough. the lid probably didn't help my cause either.

Today I had 2 hours between clients so I brought Jolteon to finish up. I again enjoyed a really yummy hot chocolate but this time I was hoping I wouldn't slop all over the place! I pretty much got him finished there, yay. I just put the last couple stitches in now.

rawr

 

I had a couple people wander over to me to see what I was doing. I got the whole, "oh, you must have a lot of patience" from some but there was a really nice older lady that chatted with me and we had a lot of laughs over this and that.

I just sometimes wish I had more local people to do this with. :)

Next up is Glaceon, hopefully I have less of a frog-fest with that little one.

Really Early Friday Update

Really feels like I haven't done much stitching this week. After Jolteon's frog-fest I have to admit I was a bit sick of stitching.

Here is Jolteon looking all angry. Probably from being picked out all those times. I'd be mad too.

 And here is Aryll, with her other hand stitched in. She looks less creepy now!

I'm getting this really strong urge to start something big. Something that will take me 20+ years to complete that will be what you'd call, my life's work. I was looking through the Golden Kite store and found this one I'm pondering over.

- Stitch count (w x h): 450 x 708
- Total colors: 169
- Solid colors: 58
- Blended colors: 111

84 US Dollars seems a lot for the pattern, well, it's actually 94 because I'd want a hard copy of it. Or it's 390 dollars as a full kit. It's an amazing piece of artwork, though.  I'd also want to get a scroll frame just for that. It's huge, it would take me forever, and the subject is something I like. Especially that Silver Classic Tabby kitten.  I would probably have to learn how to park threads, too. I can imagine this thing being a lot of different colours all over the place. And all that blended!

What do you guys think, would you do something this big and detailed? Am I being crazy? Am I just trying to compensate for not having kids and thinking this will be something I might be remembered for but really it'll end up in some thrift store for 10 bucks after I die? HALF FINISHED?

Ah well. I shall indeed ponder it some more. :)

Jolteon is trying to kill me.

Dat Jolteon. You look so easy. I started stitching with such confidence.

Now I'm a complete wreck and questioning my ability as a stitcher. *IF* I can even call myself that!

I've had to frog the damn thing at least 5 times already, with the first frog being the ENTIRE THING down to nothing again. 3 hours of work, picked out.

Why is this so hard? WHY.

Is it my eyesight? Is it the pattern being colours? Is it because I'm not marking as I'm going? Is it because the printer I printed it on isn't the best? Is it because I printed it too small? is it because Weezi wants to be on top of me every second I'm trying to stitch? Is it because I've got other things on my mind? Is it because I'm stitching this late at night (11pm-1am) and I'm tired?

I just don't get it. I've been cross stitching for almost 20 years now. Why is this little 3"x3" POKEMON giving me the fits?

Ah well. I will defeat this foe. JUST YOU WAIT.

Vaporeon

I finished Vaporeon last night. I'm trying to think how long it took me in hours. I know just his head took me four hours, and then I've been stitching him almost exclusively with my friend playing vidya games after work this week, so maybe 10 hours total? Since we won't be having our usual brodates on Saturday anymore, a few nights a week we'll be gaming and stitching after work for about 2~ hours each time. Really helps keep me motivated on stitching these Pokemon. :)

Right now he's playing Bioshock 1, which I absolutely love. The story line in that game is really amazing. He'll probably play Bioshock 2 after. I can't wait for the next game coming out next year hopefully! It looks amazing.

Next up is Jolteon!

Putting this here

because it makes me happy. These are the 4 pokemon I did earlier this year.. framed!

I think he did a great job framing them, and I made sure when he bought the four frames, to buy four more haha. :D

Why is it November already?

Gosh where DID the year go?

I got the supplies needed to start on the next wave of Pokemon, except I'm a tool and had him order the wrong fabric. Not to worry, since it was only 14ct AIDA, I went to Michaels and bought some.

I started working on Vaporeon yesterday during our last "brodate" before I start working full time. That sort of makes me sad that our weekly time together where he games and I stitch has come to an end due to our work schedules.

This is after 4 hours of work.

 I'm always amazed at how it looks when I see it in a picture. When I'm stitching them, the colours look like they don't work at all. But then my face is up close and personal to the project.

Since getting my new job news, I haven't really been stitching much at all. I haven't started the new hours yet, I go in on Tuesday to fill in all the paperwork, and then I think I start them? While I should be enjoying my last bit of freedom, I'm also eager to start my new shift because I really need the money. For stash.

Here is Aryll, and I really need to stitch in her hand because that is creeping me out a bit looking at it haha.

Thank you all for the nice comments about my new position at work. I'm still very excited about it! :)

I hope everyone has a great week. :)

Finally! a small finish.

This was supposed to be done MONTHS AGO. I finally managed to finish the last of the Pokemon for my AUS friend, Tim. Here is Eevee in all (her? his?) it's glory.

Now all that's left to do is to wash them all, iron, and then mail. I'm also sending him all the materials to make his own! If he learns to do it, that'll be two doods I've taught how to stitch. :D And by taught I mean throw materials at them, google some how-tos and then leave them to learn on their own because I am a horrible teacher. But it still counts in my book. :D

I think today, after I'm doing playing too much World of Warcraft, I'll work on Letter S and try getting her done in the next little bit.

We'll see. :)

ahoy!

Well didn't I just drop off the face of the earth. I've been so slacking in my stitching it's not even FUNNY. Going through one of those slumps, it seems.

I did start Little House Needleworks Summer Splendor after seeing Mouse's progress on it. I got one of the birds stitched in and a few leaves, but that's it!

On with April Goals! Lets see how I did.

- Mail threads and pokemonz  I mailed the threads, but not the pokemon. He wants me to finish Eevee before I mail them, since I'm sending it to AUS, he wants me to save money.. but I have to get Eevee done. doh.

- Continue on with Follow Me/Letter S Didn't get much of either done. Follow me was put away until I feel like working on it again. Letter S sort of got thrown on the backburner because the client I stitch it at is away at respite for 3 weeks. I go back there on the 12th of May, so I'm hoping to get working on it again then.

- Stitch up Rageface for another Guildie. It suits him perfectly haha. Still on my to-do list. It's super easy to do, I just need to DO IT!

- Get crackin on Cougar!  Didn't touch it. At all.

- WALK A LOT (Once my treadmill gets here!) Finally something I AM doing! I've been walking 5-6 days a week, for 30-50 minutes each time and feel great doing it. The google maps thing is WONDERFUL! I've made maps of places in Paris, Australia, New York, and around my town so far and it's been great. I'm down 3.5 pounds so far, and have been watching what I eat for the most part. the iFit program has a lot of bugs as it's something that is constantly evolving, and they are constantly working on it, but even with the problems, I'm still enjoying it. Finally something that gives my mind as much of a workout as my body. That will hopefully be the key to my success.

Should I make May goals? I don't even know. I'll try it. Seems with the better weather I want to spend time doing other things! But here goes.

- Suck it up and finish Eevee so I can mail my friend his package

- Work on Letter S when I'm back with my client on Saturdays

- Stitch up Rageface?

- Continue with LHN Summer Splendor

and finally last but not least: KEEP WALKING!

OH yeah, before I forget. I should be getting the stitcher's package in the next two weeks from Shakespeare's Peddler, and I already know I have one of the things already that is being sent, so I'm hoping to have a giveaway sometime this month, so stay tuned for that!

That is all for now. I really enjoy reading all your lovely blogs and admiring your work and life and pictures. Take care! :)

Ever had a project...

That you just can't stand to work on? Eevee has turned into that project for me. I started it, frogged it, started again and just can't get into it. It has lead me into a shame spiral since it's for a friend and I know how excited he is about getting them. I told him about it and he said to relax, I'm doing this for fun and he doesn't care when he gets it.

BUT STILL. I feel pressure! It's not even that big and won't take that long to do. Agggrhhh.

So I got Twisted Stitches from Amazon on Monday! There are some very off the wall projects in there and a few that I'm interested in doing. Ones that stand out are Lizzie Borden

Would make the perfect gift for my parents. hahaha. Yes I am really that morbid. I doubt I could do my job if I didn't have such a sense of humor about it. :)

and this: on the one side is a happy go lucky bunny, on the other?

My job requires me to drive, a lot. With the increased driving comes the increased chance of hitting something. One fateful Easter Sunday I was driving to a client when out jumps in front of me, a bunny. I couldn't slam on the brakes because I was on a busy road and unfortunately for Insurance purposes, it's my fault if I cause an accident over trying to avoid an animal. So I ran over it, hoping that I didn't actually hit it. I looked in my rearview mirror to see tufts of hair flying all over. When I got to my client I was holding back tears. On her table was a newspaper. The picture on it just happened to be Easter related: two kids holding a brown bunny. That didn't help my guilt AT ALL.

The client after her had a calender with a brown bunny on it. Seriously, my day couldn't have gotten worse lol. I never forgot about that bunny and I think I'll make this keychain for myself.

This one I really like too.

creeepy eh?

And last but not least:

The Sugar skulls are really nice too. What's great is that on the back page is a pocket with charts for the bigger designs. My only problem with the charts overall is that they are sort of hard to see. The symbols that is. I would have to enlarge them. Some of the patterns (like one of  the sugar skulls) is in the middle of the book, so that's not cool to try and see the chart there.

I started Nora Corbetts Letter S yesterday. While I really love the pattern, she could have at least put the colours/symbols on the inside where the pattern actually is. Now I have to write them down somewhere so I don't have to keep flipping the pattern over. The pattern itself is really too big. I don't like messing up my patterns and this is just begging for a working copy because of it's size.

Tomorrow I have to iron and pack up all the projects that are heading out on Friday. It'll be nice to finally get them out :) I hope my friends like them!

That is it for now, take care!

Espeon Finish and Pony update!

I got Espeon finished yesterday! When stitching these, the colours look really out of whack, but then I have my nose right in it. Looking at it from a distance they look okay.

With that said, I'm not sure I like the colour choices on this one, but it's done and as long as my friend likes it, I'm going to leave it as is. Only Eevee left to go now! HOME STRETCH!

All this pink on Pinkie Pie is going to be the death of me!

She looks cute, but really, she's trying to kill me. 

And I still have her tail to stitch in as well. :( My friend Ryan streamed Bioshock while I stitched on Pony, so that's how much I got done from the beginning of the game to the end. I think tomorrow he's going to start Bioshock 2. Tim (who I am making the pokemanz for) is streaming Darksiders for me while I work on his stitching. After Darksiders he has Batman Arkham Asylum and Silent Hill to play for me.

I sure have them trained well! :) And that is it for now! Looking forward to my 2 days off, just need to get through today!

This is my weekend

Yahooo! After 5 episodes of the Tudors and one episode of Hoarders, I finished Flareon!

2 more to go! Going to start on Espeon tomorrow I think. For the rest of the night I am going to work on Pinkie Pie and watch more Hoarders haha. :)

Busy busy busy

I have a full day of clients today which makes me very happy! So what has happened since I last checked in?

I've been working slowly on Flareon. I need to pick up the pace on these but since I tend to stitch them while watching Tim stream, lately it's been sloooooow. He's playing Kingdoms of Amalur, and while it looks like a really fun game to play, it's not so much fun to watch. Here is what I've done at any rate:

It has that angry rabbit look right now

I started Pinkie Pie this week while my other friend Ryan plays Bioshock 1. Sometimes I spend way more time watching games being played than playing them myself. :D

I may or may not get sick of the colour pink

Once I get the outline done I can mindlessly fill in the rest. It's reminding me of a paint by number or colouring book right now, and I like it! Using a Monaco fabric that I picked up at Michaels. It's a bit stiffer than what I'm used to, but it's still nice.

When my mom said she had a thrush, I thought she needed me to take her to the doctor. Apparently it's also a type of bird and we have a couple hanging out around our bird feeders this year! I've never seen them around before, and they sound sort of pretty.

Hi I'm a Varied Thrush and I've come to eat your seeds!

I've ordered my cats a new scratching post. Instead of you know, saving the excess money I made the last couple weeks, I've decided to spend it on the brats instead. There's a very local carpenter that makes them to order. Once I get paid he'll deliver it and the pet stairs I ordered for the dog. Emma is having problems getting on to the bed so I'm having him make her some stairs to help.

It's huggggggge! (that's what she said) and 120 bucks is a steal for one that big. In stores I'd be paying double or more for the same thing. I did have some changes made to it, like sisal on the front legs instead of carpet, no dangle toys, and the top bed was to be made bigger since I have two cats that would probably fight over who got to sleep there. now they both can! Pretty excited about it and I know my boys will love it. :)

That is it for now! Happy Stitching! :)

Whew!

I've had one busy week so far. I do believe I've been watching one too many Hoarders episodes and decided that unless I purged NOW, I was on my way to being on an episode. I might have been over exaggerating all this in my head, but I couldn't take the risk. I ended up tossing and donating at least 50% of my things. I have only what I wear in my closet, purged the linens, and got rid of all the junk in the junk drawers. The spare room is now empty. From having 5+ storage boxes filled with THINGS, I'm down to 2. It's oddly satisfying. I loaded up Mom's vehicle today with everything and we took it all down to Value Village. ALL GONE!

Work has been oddly busy too the past couple weeks. I guess one of the workers is sick with some illness, and another broke her ankle? Whatever it is, I am really glad for all the extra work. I feel sort of bad that I'm only getting work because of their misfortune, but that's the nature of this business for us casuals. We are like vultures circling around waiting for someone to get sick or hurt, and we profit off it.

I found a cross stitch I did ages ago and Mom wanted me to frame it and send it to family on Vancouver Island, but after I washed it and framed it, I couldn't part with it LOL. I really like it, and can't believe I forgot about it!

Yeah.. couldn't send it lol. So cute!

I sent all the pictures I had on my walls to Value Village, so now I have room for my cross stitch!

My friend Tim is streaming Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning which looks pretty good so far, and I'm plugging along on his Pokemon while I watch. Here is the WIP of Flareon:

No progress on Follow Me this week, or Cougar. :( Priority right now is Pokemon/My Little Pony/Follow Me/Cougar in that order!

Anyway that's it for now. I'm off to work soon! :) Take care!