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!

I'm Back!

Hi everyone! I know I've been gone for a while but I'm happy to say that I'm back. I went on vacation after I finished paradise and the week in between was spent making my Halloween costume. I do have some nice updates on projects and a new start!

First up is Paradise! It is framed and on its way to the recipient.

Sorry for the glare this was really hard to photograph.

It it ended up being 39" long so shipping was quite expensive. I had to reframe it a few times too because I found a cat hair, then a piece in the back was sticking out and then I found a little black speck right next to the sun. Then I refused to look at it again lol.

my next update is that I have a color finish on Halloween Green.

Finally, my new start! I started Hocus Pocus by Tilton Crafts. I was going to do cross country across the whole piece but then I realized that there were no stitch counts in the pattern so in order to update my progress bar I've decided to stitch by page...kind of. I'm stitching the colors in sections to avoid the page lines I had in Paradise. I'll update my progress bar after I totally finish a page. The stitching in the picture is 939 and it is over 3 pages.

I'm loving the fabric I dyed and I'm not stitching the black on the sides so that the fabric shows through. I'm stitching the swirls though. That's what a lot of that stitching is.

I'm still trying to catch up on blogs but I'm still around 400 behind. I'll catch up though! Thanks for stopping by see you all next time! I'll probably have another new start I'm feeling the Christmas spirit ;)

Page Finish!

Hey guys I'm here with another page finish!  Took a while but school's been busy and we spent the Memorial Day weekend in Vegas then had to come home straight to a convention near Disneyland so we went there for 2 days.  I've made it up this weekend though and have knocked the 28th page off my list.  

Here was last time:

And now:

I finally have blue sky!

If you noticed the couple of missing stitches I seem to have lost one of my bobbins I need so I'll have to stop by Michaels and grab more.  I have a sneaking suspicion that kitty Mocha was involved.

Did you notice my cute new minder?  He'll be switching for another now that I've finished the page.

I went on a bit of a minder spree :)

Okay so maybe 5 isn't a spree but the Starbucks one was free :D

Close-up!

I also finished the black on Halloween Green.

I finished it in Vegas in the hotel.

Thanks for stopping by I'm off to stitch!

Obligatory kitty photo!  She kept following the cursor with her paw lol.

So Much Goodness!

First off hi everyone!  It's been two weeks since my last post but I have a lot to make up for it!  So saddle up for the ride! 

First off this is my 100th blog post!  So to celebrate I'm having a giveaway!  I'm giving away a chart from Tilton Crafts.  HAEDs get a lot of love but not too many people I see stitch Tiltons so it's time to spread the love :). 

The rules are: you have to be a follower.  You have to comment on this post that you want to be entered.  And you have to begin it sometime this year.  I'm being a bit selfish on this one lol I like watching big pieces progressing :)

I've made progress on three pieces this post!  Including a new start 😳

First up is Paradise:

Last time:

This time I just finished up another page:

I really wanted to have a page finish on this before I posted so that's what took so long.  The colors look washed out but that's because it's now night and there have been storms all day so no chance to take a picture.  But the colors are starting to mute a bit too before we start getting into the deep blues.  And yes that is some purple we see.  I got to go to my floss stash finally and pull out several new colors.  Yay!  We will see the first official blues when I finish filling in the mountains.  And on that note see the bright yellow just to the left of the purple mountain?  That's the last of it!  No more 444 for this girl!  I used about a skein and a half in this piece so I'm happy to say that's the end of it!  I think I finished off another couple too but that's the only one I know of for sure.

So what's my new start and why did I start it when I said I wouldn't?

Yep I joined the HAED challenge.  The first one had to be done before March and we had to stitch 1000 stitches in a checkerboard/diagonal pattern.  This is a year long challenge with 6 different components.  It's offered on the HAED Facebook page and there's still time to sign up.  I can say that it was interesting to stitch this way but definitely something I won't do again.  

I chose to do a new start because at least one challenge will be tent stitching and on this new piece in going to try doing both tent and full cross on the same piece.  The background will be rented and the design full.

The design is the exclusive chart I got from Brigid Ashwood's calendar Kickstarter I talked about several months ago.  I talked to Michele and she said it counted since they charted it.  

This is the design and I have the part in the middle of his forehead and above his left eye done.  It's the exact middle.

I did an interesting dye for this chart.  

 It's darker in real life.  The colors correspond to the symbols around the frame.  The red ended up bleeding a bit but they should be covered by stitching so I'm not worried.  I'm excited to see how this one ends up.

Lastly I've made a bit more progress on Halloween Green.

Last time:

Now:

Not much but I only work on it when I'm away doing laundry or something.

On the personal front things are going well.  My hubby just got offered a permanent position at work!  No details yet because he had to talk to HR first but it couldn't have come at a better time.  Our lease is up in the middle of March so once we know how much he will be making we can start looking for a new place and get our things out of storage.  As for me I've already finished a semester of school except for one last bit in my last class.  I'll finish it tomorrow hopefully.  I started school in December so if everything goes well I can start my student teaching next January.  As it so happens my little cousin (who paradise is for) will be starting hers then too although we're in different states and she's going for her bachelors.  Still it'll be fun.  Tutoring is going well too other than having some issues with motivating kids to work.

Oh well hubby will be gone next weekend so I'll have s nice long stitchy weekend ahead.  And after that it's Presidents' Day weekend I'm not sure if we're going away for the weekend or not but I have 4 days off so I'm excited!  I'm already spoiled by the school schedule lol.  

Thanks for stopping by and sticking with me!  See you next time! 

December GG

Hello again everyone it's time for our last Gifted Gorgeousness of the year.  GG is hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching.  Paradise has suffered greatly in the last few weeks.  Between the holidays and me starting school I've barely touched it.

Last month I had finished the page:

This month I'm here:

Not even a page.  And most of that was in the first week.  I think my education killed my bug lol.

However Halloween Banner Green has seen some love

Last time:

Now:

This was done in the car on the drive down and back from Seaworld.  Around 6 hours total.  And some was done a week before that at a group with some local stitching ladies.  

Alas no more will be done for a while as this weekend I have my sister in law coming to stay with us and then 2 days after she leaves we have my mom coming to stay with us for Christmas.  I'm going to teach her how to stitch counted.  She's only ever done stamped so this should be interesting.  She chose HAED's You Can Leave Your Hat On as her first piece LOL!  I got my mother in law started stitching too she's working on a Tilton Crafts piece which is the Dalmation (sic).  I'll update you all as it they go!  

Thanks for stopping by I hope my bug comes back soon.  I think once the holidays are over I can find a routine with my new job, school and stitching.  I've had my eye on HAED's Falling Snow for several months so once we play catch up with my paychecks I may have to get it.  

See you all next time with hopefully a large update.  I probably won't be back until the new year though so just in case Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy Halloween Blog Hop!

Happy Halloween everyone!  This post is part of the blog hop sponsored by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching.  If you want to participate head over there and go to each blog to spell out the mystery phrase.  Then email it to Jo for a chance to be in the drawing.

I've made some more progress on Halloween Banner Green:

And your letter is in the pic above ;).  Hint: it's on the stitching. If you can't figure it out I'll post it at the bottom as well.

Your next stop is Fireflies Cats in the Garden

So head on over there and say hi to Noni.

I hung up my other banners finally and got them finished finished :). I did them as bell pulls.  I cut the dowels and painted them an oil rubbed bronze color. Then I added some twine as the hanging mechanism.  I love how they turned out.

I carved my pumpkin Thursday night and love how it came out:

Carving pumpkins is my favorite part of Halloween.

If you didn't see the letter don't worry.  It's: U

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a happy Halloween!

It Came It Came!!!

I kind've stalked the mailman a bit because my calendar and coloring book came today!

They're gorgeous and Brigid was even sweet enough to sign the coloring book.  

The coloring book has 50 Celtic mandalas including all of the designs from the calendar.

I've also reached page finishes (sort of) on 2 projects.  

Of course we have Paradise:

Which is a true page finish and I've reached the bottom of the page on the half I've been working on in the black on Halloween Banner Green:

I kind of like having multiple projects with page finishes!

Thanks for stopping in.  I won't have much more progress on paradise for a while because I leave the day after tomorrow for the wedding and I'm leaving it at home so the bride doesn't see.  I'll take banner on the plane.  I have to let out my bridesmaid dress which I may do by hand because I gained more weight from having to eat out for 6 weeks during the move.  I hope I don't mess it up.  Wish me luck!  On the other hand I started working out today finally after finding some good workout dance videos.  It's time to get this PCOS under control.  It should help me lose weight too.

September SFS

Hello again friends it's time for another SFS.  SFS is hosted by Mel from Epic Stitching and is designed to curb our spending and stitch from our stash!

September: $25

Carryover: $50

Used: $19

Total: $59

What did I buy?  This one was a little difficult to determine because it was part of a package deal.  A few months ago Brigid Ashwood had a kickstarter for a calendar of her designs.  Well I love Celtic designs and when I saw that it also included a Celtic wolf cross stitch I had to go for it.  Then I decided to just go for broke and get the coloring book too.  Altogether it was $45 + shipping and the pattern is from heaven and earth designs so I figured the pattern is about $19 which is their normal price.  I was bummed though because they said it was an exclusive design but it's actually the wolf guide design on the site just a little smaller.  It's okay though because I'm going to change it to match the picture in the calendar.

This is the cross stitch:

And this is the calendar pic:

I will probably just change the designs of the 4 medallions.  The coloring book patterns will probably get changed into cross stitches too later down the road.

I did some stitching as well.  And actually I got a lot done on Paradise.  I feel like I'm making great progress on it finally and have almost another page finish.

Last time I only had s few letters:

Now I have more color:

Close up:

The row row of stitches above the random stitch is where the page ends.  I should have it done in a couple of days.  

I also made some progress on Halloween banner green although not as much.

Last time:

This time:

I should take pics with my dresses on more often lol it creates a fun background!  Speaking of which I can see my schoolbook in the background as well so that's my cue to get back to work.  Thanks for stopping by!  I'll see you next month!