Framed!@#

Letter S and Sunflower Fairy have been framed! :) I am really pleased with how they came out.

Sunflower Finish!

And She is done :) Started around May 30th, Finished November 23rd. Used all materials it called for.

Another off the 2011 Bucket list. I almost feel accomplished. :D

Wine a Bit Finish

And it is done! I have a couple people who love their wine and thought of them when I was making this pattern haha. I don't know who I'll send it to. :)

I also spent a good part of the day with Sunflower Fairy, who is coming along very nicely. I even did some of the beading. I'm still undecided about the beading around the skirt bottom as I sort of like it the way it is. We shall see. :) It'll be nice to get her done as she has been a WIP since May 30th!

I'll be focusing on her now until she is finished, and then it's on to Paladin.

I'm also excited about next year as I just may have my first SAL! It will be the Britty Kitty Christmas Stocking, so if anyone else has that pattern in their stash, Evalina and I will be doing it next year. Put in your material orders now! :D

That is it for now, Happy Stitching everyone :)

Yay for Stitching!

I've been puttering around all day and have actually gotten some stitching done! I also went through my stash and kitted up next year's projects. While I'm not joining in on the Crazy January Challenge, I do have a list. What's funny is that I'm only 5 projects off the challenge. When I first made this list, there was only 7, but it has ballooned to 10! My list is in no particular order.

Messenger by Fire Wing Designs
Summer Splendor by LHN
2011 Santa by Prairie Schooler
Letter S by Letters by Nora Corbette
Follow Me by Primitive Needle   
Christmas Kitty Moon by Stitchy Kitty
Britty Kitty Christmas Stocking by Brittercup Designs
Britty Kitties I & II by Brittercup Designs
Cat Lessons for People by Lizzie*Kate
Buzzzz by Bent Creek

This may even be 2 year projects lol. I am paying off my Student Loan next year, so no stash/no finishing (oh I'm itching at the credit card already hahaha)

So here is my photo updates. First up is Wine A Bit by Lizzie*Kate. I'm hoping to get it done tomorrow!

I also worked a bit on Paladin:

aaaaaand a good chunk done on Sunflower Fairy. I am so close to being done this one!

I

I also feel like a real needleworker now. I bought my first pair of Ginghers! The Just Nan needleslide was also too cute and I decided I needed that too.

Back to the scissors though (That sounds like a movie that NEEDS TO BE MADE), I love them. I love the feel. The weight. The smooth cutting action. I'd sleep with these scissors if I could get away with it. Maybe when they are duller. Yes..

Ahem. And I forgot to mention I bought myself a new TV the other day! My  19" Sony Bravia in White and Pink just wasn't cutting it anymore and I upgraded to a 32" LG. It's soo nice! With that came a really nice garage sale find TV armoire. The thing weighs about 400 pounds being solid wood, and it was only 50 bucks!

The only problem with the new armoire was that it was taller than the last one, and there happened to be a loose tile in the ceiling. I then noticed I was missing a cat. Weezi decided going between the floors was the best idea he's EVER had. I had to use the duck jerky to get him to come down. Thankfully all I have to say is "duck" and he comes running. What's really sad is that I can make the CAT come to me but Emma doesn't listen to me at all! My old cat Tomis learned how to shake a paw, sit, speak, and beg on command. Emma? can't (or won't) do a damn thing. :D

That's about it for now :) Happy Stitching!

I need to work on my picture taking skills.

Funny how finding time to stitch is easy when you're not constantly sleeping (or working!). Been chipping away at Sunflower while uhm.. watching some of the Cali vs Murray trial. I duno about manslaughter, but the guy's gross negligence certainly didn't help.  I don't think he set out to intentionally be malicious, and that MJ was probably close to death as it was. What the doctor did after the fact may have saved him, but in this case, what he didn't do lead to him not being able to be resuscitated at all. Sad case. I don't know if I could really be a juror. All the blah blah blah without being able to stitch or do anything would drive me bonkers.

So on to the bad pic of Sunflower!

I did manage to go through my Stash with help from my cats, of course. I narrowed it down to:
Mira's Letter S for which I have all the materials for,
Cat Lessons for People if I haven't done it this year (have all materials),
Prairie Schooler 2011 Santa (need fabric),
some of the Britty Kitties I, II, The Britty Kitty Stocking (need fibers, buttons, and fabrics), even though I don't know how I am going to even finish the thing,
the Christmas Kitty ornament by Stitchy Kitty (need fabric and button),
Messenger by Fire Wing designs (need pattern and fiber).

I'll be putting my order in when I get my HST rebate cheque in October for the rest of the fabrics and fibers I need for those, and then I shall be set!

I still have some smaller patterns too that I recently bought, Summer Splendor by LHN and Wine a Bit by Lizzie*Kate which I'll also get around to doing at some point, too!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the creators of puppy pee pads. Emma absolutely refuses to go outside when it's raining. Or snowing. It's been very fall type weather with rain, and here she is standing at the door looking out, then looking at me with this DO I HAVE TO look on her face. I tell her that she is a dog and indeed must go outside to do her business. So she goes out and I close the door. I kid you not, not even 1 min later she's jumping incessantly at the door, ruining whatever finish it used to have on it. I ended up buying a 150 pack of puppy pee pads because it feels like it's going to be a long and cold winter.

I wonder who has who trained?

Waking up is hard to do!

For some reason the sore throat and general malaise that I had in August came back and I'm just getting over it again now. Since it happened twice I went to the doctor but she didn't think there was anything to be concerned about. It's super annoying because all I've been doing is sleeping! I even took off the second half of my Sunday shift because I was feeling so crappy.

I learned fast that I'm bad at deadlines, so that deadline of having ABC done by October went out the window. Whoops. Maybe by November? :D I am working on another WIP that I haven't touched in awhile, and that's Mirabilia's Sunflower Fairy!

It looks like I missed a spot on the wing with the dark blue line, but it's there. I went and looked after I took the picture because I thought I skipped it lol. Loving the colours.

One of the Blogs I follow was talking about doing a challenge next year to use what she has, and it really got me thinking that I might do just that. I'm sure we all have a ton of stash that we probably should be working on rather than buying more. At least I do. :)

So far this year I've done not too bad on my bucket list. Once I finish ABC of parenting and Sunflower here, I have 2 projects left on the list. Paladin by Fire Wing Designs, and Rules for Cat People by Lizzie Kate. Of course throughout I've also done a bunch of the Signet dragons for friends, and the halloween ornament which were not on the list. :D

I think that in the next couple weeks I'm going to go through my stash and decide just what I want to work on next year. I usually do a big stash buy in December/January of fabrics which I'll have to do again since I'm running low again. We'll see! I'll narrow it all down to basics and try to use what I have.

I switched out my summer bedding to the fall/winter. Fleece sheets, extra blankets, and a darker duvet cover because my darling Emma likes to run in from outside and immediately jump on the bed. When it's dry out that is not a problem. I had this idea in my head that I'd get this girly dog and name her Emma. What I ended up with is a dog who likes to kill wildlife, roll in it's guts, and find the most muddy part of the yard to dig in. At least she's named Emma?

Anyway that's about it for now, I have a desire to go through my stash!

Crazy days

Been awhile, eh? I haven't been stitching too much lately due to a lot of stress from work, and I've also been doing some yard work which is totally not like me at all. :)

I did manage to get a few stitches in Sunflower Fairy, but I don't know if I'm happy with the arms or not. This is my first Mirabilia and I'm not entirely sure how to stitch them in. I'm sure once I get the wings on and the backstitching in it'll look fine.

SO anyway, here is the picture of my small bit of progress!

This Canada Post strike seems to be working in favour of my Stash spending haha. It's keeping me from spending even more money. I'm trying to save it for a new car, so I spent yesterday working out a budget and basically any stash I buy must be spent with money that is not from my paycheque. That means birthday/christmas/government cheques can be spent on stash. Here's hoping I can stick with it! :D

Sunshine!

Today has been a most beautiful day. Being on the West Coast of Canada, we get a lot of dreary gray and rainy days, but today is wonderful! I'm not really a go out into the sun type, but I do like a nice day. I spent most the morning watching trash TV and working on Sunflower Fairy. I also cleaned up the stairwell heading outside of all the leaves and other things that collected there over the winter/spring. I found a huge earthworm hanging out down there, which made a quick disappearance and I can only hope he ran away and that Emma didn't eat him.

Here is todays update on her

There's a purple colour in there that doesn't look like it should be if you're just looking at the Valdani threads, but once you stitch it in, it actually works. Happy with the progress, even if my eyesight isn't cooperating with the 32 ct linen. :)
I leave you with a picture of Emma, after spending a lot of time sunbathing she decided to come in for a bit. I have the basement door open for her to come in and out. I don't have a screen door yet so she also has the duty of making sure the cats don't go out. She knows they need to stay in, so if they venture out into the stairwell, she herds them back in for me. :D

Sunflower again.

So I can't really work on 32 count fabrics. I should have thought about that before I started. I just don't have the eyesight any more for stitches so small. Well, I can probably work on 16 count AIDA, but this Linen fabric is just waaay too hard for me.

Anyway here is today's small bit of progress:

To the left of the shoulder, there's a small blip in the fabric. That was from Weezi thinking it would be a good idea to try and catch the thread as it was being pulled through. I put him on the floor and told him that this is why we can't have nice things. He just looked at me with a scowl because obviously, it's what cats do.

Sunflowers

Yesterday I had 2 hours between clients, and it was a gorgeous sunny evening, so I decided to take Sunflower Fairy with me and check out a cafe that I hadn't been to before. They have a really lovely sun room. I ordered a mango smoothie and sat down for some public stitching. That's the first time I've actually done it out in a public area where people can not only look at what I'm doing, but ask about it too. It was fun. :D

The smoothie was so good!

Today It's going to be me, my needle, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the Tudors. Can't think of a better way to spend my day off.

I love how when it rains, it pours.

I got my next shipment today from 123 Stitch! Now I have everything for Sunflower Fairy, and also more importantly, the Rocky Mountain Threadworx to continue on with Warrior! I don't really like having more than one project going on at once, so I'll continue with Warrior til I run out of thread again, and then plug away at the super secret project. Because I love a floss toss as much as anyone, here is a picture of all the materials for Sunflower!

ooohh. ahhhh. Only thing not pictured is the victorian gold beads, which I have in my stash somewhere. I'll probably start her after my current projects are done!