I Suck!

Hey guys miss me?  I can't believe it's been so long since my last update but I have a lot to share.  I have no excuse for my absence other than getting into flosstube.  I guess I like the platform because I can listen while I stitch and so it's easier to find time.  I've been lurking on your blogs but I haven't commented on them all.  😳

But enough with that, on to progress!  First off I have done some stitching on museum shelf which was here:

Now it's here:

I started this doing extreme cross country but now I'm switching to cross country by page.

I also did some work on the dragon sal:

Other than that I don't have much else to show.  I've started working on Santa in the clods again but don't have much to show.

On the personal front I finished all of my schooling and am officially a teacher!  I don't have a job teaching yet but I'm hoping my current company will need one soon.

Thanks for stopping by I'll see you all next time!

Lots of Progress...and a Fat Frog :(

Hello again faithful followers!  I'm sorry I haven't been on in a while.  Life and stitching has gotten in the way.  I'm happy to say I have a lot of progress on my new start!  Last time you saw me was almost a month ago and I didn't have much to show then.  Just my Birthstone Dragon SAL (which has a new month out that I haven't started yet).  But I'm excited to show you my new start!  I chose Max Color Museum Shelf by Aimee Stewart charted by HAED.  The more eagle eyed among you might have noticed that I already have a progress bar up with progress.  I was planning on doing a post at the same time but I totally forgot!  The progress on my bar is from when I finished my first color:

Both pictures show the same amount of progress.  As you can see I'm doing this extreme cross country.  I tried to get good photos but it's a very large piece so it's difficult.  But this is all of 301 and the colors are more true in the bottom photo.  I started with this color because it's the first stitch in the upper left corner but then I decided to do the color with the most stitches so I started black next.  I'm only 4 pages in so far (not including some bleed through to other pages) and I only finished this today but here is my most up to date progress:

Close Up:

Here is what it will look like when it's finished:

Two different pictures and I'm not sure which one will be closer to the actual piece but I'm assuming the more muted one.

This is being stitched on 28ct Jobelan 1 over 1 full cross.  The pattern has 74 pages and 236 colors and measures 750x536.  So yeah...it's going to take me a while to finish.  Can you see where the girl with the pearl earring will be? :)

The frog has visited me a few times so far on this piece.  The first time (other than a random stitch here and there) was with the black:

I had done all of this and it was 2 rows down too far so I had to frog it all and restart.  Keep in mind the grid lines are pages so this is a pretty significant amount.  Basically a whole weekend was spent stitching it and then I spent all of Sunday night frogging.  Nightmare and too much of a difference to fudge.  The frog visited me again a few days later but it wasn't such a big deal then I was just off a stitch for part of one of the curtain lines so it only took me a half hour to frog it.

I'm starting to lose steam with the black so this may go away for a while or I may switch out for a color with a few stitches but we'll see how it goes.

On the personal front things are going really well so far in my student teaching.  This new teacher is soooo much better than my other one.  I'm still learning the ropes since my observation week had not only a day missing out of it but every other day that week was not a typical school day.  We had an assembly one day, a field trip the next and some junior Olympic tryouts I had to help with.  I started taking over a bit last week but tomorrow starts my first lesson takeover.  Well I did a lesson last week but they were just practicing their typing so I wasn't really counting that.

I'm actually getting more stitching done than I thought I would at this point.  I just booked my final test today for the first week in May so I may have to take a stitching break to study for it.  It's a state assessment that's required for licensure and it's apparently really difficult so I'm going to have to really buckle down and practice it.

Well that's all for me at the moment.  The new Zelda game is supposed to come tomorrow so I'm sure that's going to cut into my stitching time as well.  My goal was to finish the black on this page before I played so I'll probably be starting it tomorrow lol.  My hubby has been playing on his new game too (Final Fantasy) so I'll stitch while he plays.

Thanks for stopping by I'll see you all next time!

February GG

Hello again!  I'm happy to say the first half of my student teaching is officially over and the second half starts on Tuesday (Monday is a holiday for us in the U.S.) and the second teacher seems like we'll get along a lot better.  The kids from the first class all made me cards though so I'm looking forward to reading those this weekend :)

I've started a new project but I'm not going to show anything until I get the first color done.  I'm only about halfway through because of some issues I've run into with counting.  However, we're here for GG!  I missed it last month because I was so busy I forgot!  There isn't huge progress this month but any progress is good :)

Gifted Gorgeousness is run by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching and is our chance to show off projects we got as gifts.  Here's my progress:

One of the red threads in the first dragon was gifted to me in a Christmas card two years ago.  I'm finally caught up on both SALs so I'm happy :)  Thanks for stopping by see you all next time!

Hello Again!

Hi everyone!  I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while (over a month!) things have been pretty crazy so far.  I am happy to say that I got a lot of progress in though!  Student teaching has gone a little easier than I thought and I'm more than halfway through my school tasks for it.  My first two tasks are done (out of 4) and my 3rd task is over halfway done and 2 of my 6 observations are finished.  I'm happy to say I passed everything so far.  My host teacher and I have had a few bumps but I think it's because we have contrasting personalities.  Next week is my last week with my current teacher but I'll be going into other classes to observe.  My last observation in my current classroom is on Friday and it will be an art lesson.  Every other lesson has been math.  I'm teaching my 3rd graders how to multiply and divide.

Okay enough school stuff...onto stitching!

So I mentioned I've been busy right?  Well I have finished my HAED challenge and have another page done on Celtic Wolf:

I'm not sure why there's that dark streak in the white but I may rip it out and restitch it.  Kind of odd since it's the same skein as all the rest of the white.  This pattern is crazy so far there's been very little black and a ton of purples and blues.  I also dyed my fabric and started the Dragon SAL from Ingleside Imaginarium I talked about last time.  I haven't finished January yet but I hope to in the next day or two.

I decided to dye it a nice gold color with a tea stained underlayer so that it looks like the dragon is sitting on a bunch of gold.  I also did the border in gold Kreinik for the same reason.  I thought at first it would be too much sparkle but we'll see I'm liking it so far.  Now I'm thinking about adding some sparkle to the dragons too!

The next one I don't have a picture of but I spent almost all of SuperBowl Sunday gridding my fabric for HAED's Museum Shelf by Aimee Stewart.  The chart is 750x536 and has 250ish colors and I'm doing it on a sage green 28ct Jobelan that I got in that giant sale my LNS had when it closed.  I didn't think gridding would take all day since I only gridded the page lines but holy crap!  I'm going to be extreme cross countrying it so I needed to grid all of the pages and I'm glad I double checked the numbers because I screwed up a lot!

In other stitchy news, I've finally joined the Flosstube community!  Here's my link to my channel.  I only have one video up so far but will make another probably on Wednesday.  I need a large amount of time alone to make my next one since it's dyeing fabric :)

I ordered some new needleminders which should be coming in soon so I'll share those but in the meantime I'm just stitching on whatever strikes my fancy :)  So I'm hoping to get caught up with dragons and possibly start Museum Shelf but we'll see, I've been itching to start Rapunzel again as well.  Thanks for stopping in I'll see you all next time!

A Finish and Haul!

Hi everyone I'm back!  I hope you all had a nice holiday.  I had a good one but I'm not ready to start back to work tomorrow.  I have to go to my regular job for a week and then I start my student teaching until the beginning of April.  I'm so nervous about it and feel like I have no clue what I'm doing.  I'm sure I'll be fine though.

The good news is I have another finish to share!  Not quite in time for the end of the year because the beading took waaaaaay longer than I thought but I finished Raven!  Last time you saw her I had only done the black so there are quite a few pictures to put in.  I also have a lot of new stash that I got for Christmas so let's go!

Here's where you saw Raven last:

Then I started to add colors alternating between her dress and her skin as the skin was over one (well technically over 1/4 as I stitched this on aida).

First I added some eggplant purple:

 Then I did her darkest skin:

Sorry for the brown hue my mom's house didn't have very good lighting for pictures.  I added a lighter purple next:

The lighting gets better I promise!  Then a slightly lighter skin color:

Then my favorite purple color:

Another much lighter skin tone:

The next purple:

The final skin color:

Then the skin backstitching which was a color not used in the rest of the pattern:

The final purple in her dress was really pretty too.  It was more of a blue I thought but it's DMC 156:

Then I had the moon to do:

The second color:

And the final color was a blend of the other two colors:

And finally the beads!

If you click any of the pics you can make them bigger but the pics really can't do it justice.  The beads are gorgeous in person.

So she took me a little longer than two weeks to finish but I was a bit obsessed with her.  She still needs washed but for now she's put away.  My plan is to finish all 12 and put them in the same size/kind of frame so I can display them all and have them look cohesive.  I want to say I'll do it all when I'm done with all of them because they're all different sizes but it'll really be when I can afford it, which won't be for a LONG time.  With my student teaching I'm going to be working without pay for 3 months and we're going to be looking to buy a house (finally!) after our lease is up in March.  We'll probably have to live with my mother-in-law for a couple of months so we can save up for a down payment.

Anyway, I got a lot of new stash in a kind of last-chance binge.  First off two of the things I got were presents from my mother-in-law for Hanukkah.   I told you guys last time that I sent pics to her with a very subtle hint ;)  But she got both that I wanted which are Dimensions Gold kits.  The first is Fall Fairy:

And Aurora:

Then since I was finishing Raven I decided to get two more Bewitching Pixies:

These two are not my favorites but I love the colors in the last one.  I also got all of the beads needed for them.  Raven was my first time beading on a project so I got a bead organizer (which has all of the beads for all of the Pixies so far):

I love it because I can just grab what I need and put it in my travel case.  I also got a great tool off Amazon.  It's called a Bead Smith and was only I think $7.  It's better than a Sticky Bob because it's cheaper and once it gets dirty you can just rinse it off and let it air dry and it's completely sticky again.  I keep it with the plastic covers on when not in use but it's great for travel because it holds the beads well and is flexible so it fits in my case.

The last thing I got was another piece of Aida for the next Pixie I do (they only had one silver sparkle one left) and a piece of gold sparkle for my new start.  I still need to dye both of them but I'm not rushing it.  Oh yeah my new start?  ;)

Blimeycatstitches on Flosstube is hosting a SAL this year.  I haven't started it yet but I'm not worried about it at all.  I'm still debating what color to dye the fabric.  Or colors I should say since there are going to be a bunch of different colored dragons (including white).  The pattern is for sale in her Etsy store and a new one will be e-mailed each month.

That's all I have for now.  I'll have a couple of new Needleminders to show when they come (I may have done some tipsy shopping on New Years Eve) but luckily it's only $7 with shipping.  I deleted some of the ones I didn't absolutely need before she billed me luckily!  Even then it was only like $25 I think but still!

I'm going to apologize in advance if I don't update in the next few months.  I start my student teaching next Monday and will not be doing much stitching at all.  The only thing I might work on will be the SAL.  I have an hour long phone call every Tuesday as well as lesson planning, meetings every Thursday and creating a portfolio.  I'm hoping to still read blogs in my off-time though as that's easier to me than stitching.  Well not easier because I like to comment but less time-consuming in that I don't have to take everything out and set everything up.  I can just grab my computer and go.

Thanks for listening to me ramble I hope you enjoyed the update!  See you all later!

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!