Mini-Finish, New Start and Some Stash!

Hi everyone! I know it's been almost a month since I've posted on any progress but I have a lot to show and talk about!  So grab a warm beverage and a snack because we're off!

First off, I have made some progress on Santa in the Clouds.  The last time it looked like this:

And now I've filled in more of the top:

Next I get to put in some gray which will be a welcome change from blue.  That spot in the middle is where the star is.

I didn't stitch much on this because I got distracted with holiday stuff.

However, I do have a finish to show!

Yep Halloween Green is done!

Last time it was here:

I was surprised because the color on the bottom is 307 which is bright yellow and it's the same color as the windows but looks really different.  Now I only have Halloween Yellow to do and then I'm done with them all.  I haven't fully finished it yet but I'll probably wait to do that until I finish Yellow.

Finally, I have a new start!  I told myself I wouldn't start it until I finished Halloween Green which is what pushed me to finish it but ever since I have I've been a stitching machine!  Curious yet?  😈

It's Raven from Nora Corbett's Bewitching Pixies series!  I stitched all of the black in the last two days and I think I'll have her finished in no time!  She's stitched on 14 ct opalescent Aida that I dyed a stormy gray with a touch of purple.  It's a tad darker than I was planning but I like it.  I chose the gray because it's something that all of them will look good on and with the sparkles it's like they're conjuring magic on a stormy night.  Each one will have a touch of the same color as in their dress.  The purple didn't come out super well but I still like it.  I'm excited to get into the purples in her dress and the moon.  I'm going to do the skin over one so that will take a while but I don't think it'll be too bad.  All of Halloween Green and Raven have been stitched since the weekend since I am now officially on break from work.

I also got a bit of new stash.  The first I'm not going to show but I finally finished my DMC collection after 3 trips to the store.  I only was short by 50 or so colors.

The second thing I got was the Dimensions Gold kit Woodland Enchantress.

It was on clearance at Michaels for $20 originally $45.  They had 2 other kits on clearance that I like which are Fall Fairy and Aurora.  I sent pictures of them to my mother-in-law with a 'very subtle' hint that I'd like them for Christmas and that they were on clearance 😀

Finally, I received a very generous gift from Keiley at Keebles World.  She got me a HAED!

This is After the Ball and I love it because not only is Cinderella a brunette with blue eyes (like me) but she's so pretty and has such a wistful look in her eyes.  I also like that it's not a blatant in-your-face fairy tale picture (although I like those too).

Whew that's a lot!  I'm still catching up on blogs but I'm only about a week behind now instead of over a month.  I haven't been reading a lot lately because I've been too busy stitching but I'm okay with that!

After the new year I won't be stitching much because I'll be starting student teaching which is going to eat up almost all of my time.  Luckily the school is less than ten minutes from me.  I'm hopefully going to have one day a week that I won't do any planning or anything and can just stitch but we'll see how things go.

Thanks for stopping by!  I probably won't be back (well depends on how Raven goes) so if I don't see you again have a Merry Christmas or happy whatever holiday you celebrate!  We celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah at my house.  I'll see you (hopefully) before the new year!

Christmas Advent Calendar!

Hi everyone and Merry Christmas!  Okay it's not here quite yet but I'm taking part in Jo's Christmas Advent Calendar blog hop!  The wonderful Jo from Serendipitous Stitching is hosting again this year and this is a great Christmas blog hop where we showcase some Christmas projects and talk about special Christmas things :).

First off here are my Christmas cross stitches that I've completed:

Please don't pay attention to the matting job.  My mat cutter didn't work like I was hoping so I need to get a better cutter.  I painted the mats so they matched well.  I love how they look except for the mats being uneven.

This is my current project:

 

And my progress:

This is my first 3 colors and is pretty true to color.  I was actually able to snap a pic while the sun was still out.

Our question to answer this year is:

Decorations - do you have a favourite decoration you must have on display every year, maybe an heirloom, one the children made or something with a special story behind it?

 

I actually don't have my favorite decorations with me.  They're my mom's and she displays them at her house.  One is a giant stuffed snowman that we always display that my grandparents bought in (I think) the 50s.  It has a striped hat and scarf and a big red nose that squeaks when you squeeze it.  My other favorite is a music box in the shape of a house.  In order to make the music play you have to pull Santa out of the chimney (just like the old pull string see n says) and he slowly climbs back up again while the music plays.  I'll try to get pics of these when I finally get to go home for Christmas.  It'll be my first time back in 6 years I'm so excited!  I could never go before because of my job being the busiest on Christmas.

That being said, I do always have to have up my Christmas tree and stockings with my big jingle bell candy cane on the front door.  All of these can be seen above :)

Thanks for stopping by and for Jo for hosting another great hop!  Merry Christmas!