I suck at rotations:-(

The 10 hour rotation with the new program worked so well until I got up once and forgot to push pause.  A few hours later and I had no idea the amount of time stitching versus the time I was up and about.

So now I'm just going to simplify it.
2 projects being worked on at a time, one new and one WIP.  One will be my Mon - Thu project and the other my Fri - Sun project.  When the "week" project is completed then the "weekend" project will move into the week slot and either a WIP or a new one will go into the weekend slot.  Hope that makes sense.

I was working on Winter Fairy hoping to have it as a completed project for the year but things just didn't work out that way.  The design says that you only need one spool of the blue kreinik but I found that it was only enough to complete the wings and now I still need to do the small sections on her skirt.  I don't think I was wasteful with the threads so not sure why it wasn't enough. 
I placed an order with a online shop in October for a few kreiniks and mill hill beads but due to the postal strike we were having, she had difficulty receiving orders from overseas and so she only placed the order which included my stuff end of November.  She hoped it would get to her before she closed for Dec holidays but that didn't happen either.  All in all not a bad thing because I have lost the 2nd spool of gold kreinik needed for the bottom of her skirt and so I had to order another one.  Now I will luckily only have to pay one postage cost instead of two.  I remember putting the spool somewhere safe one day and now I can't remember where.  It will probably turn up the day I receive the new spool:-)

All her stitching is completed.  Just the 2 kreiniks, the bottom of her skirt, the animals on the right to finish and then the beading.

I pulled out Cut-Thru Cottage and have chosen that for the weekend slot.  Though I have already broken the rule on the first week and worked on it yesterday (Monday).  I just wasn't in the mood to pull out the sewing machine to sew around the edges of the fabric for my new start.

I was planning on starting Sleeping Beauty by JE and then I guilted myself out of it due to the fact that I am already working on her Seasonal Fairy series and pretty much have two completed and two to go.

So my new start for today will be Autumn Fairy:

I wish you all a early Merry Christmas and hope to at least have another update before the end of the year.

Winter Fairy And Rotations

It's scary how hard I found a rotation.  My first try was set as days... e.g 4 days per design but that didn't really work as I found some days I stitched more than others and as such there were times where I hardly got anything done before I had to change over.

I liked the idea of a 10 hour rotation but then again found it to be a bit more work than fun.  I used the stop watch on my phone to keep track but if left for a certain time after stopping it, it would clear itself so I would loose the time amount.  The rest of the time I had to keep a notebook of my times and add them up to check if I had hit the allotted time and I chucked the idea.

My ipod classic broke recently and the hubby bought me a ipod touch as a replacement.  I downloaded a app that keeps track of time and I love it.  Technically it's a job timer but it allows me to save each WIP under it's name and all I have to do is press play and pause whenever I start or stop stitching.  It takes the hassle out of it all and makes it so much easier.

I was feeling monogamous and worked on Winter Fairy for about two months and she is very close to the end.  Just the bottom of her dress and then the animals and snow left.

 

I am going to work on the JE Faces SAL for the next bit, as I have not finished beading the previous part and there is a new part out.  I should get both of them done before the next part as it will only be out sometime in the first few days of December.

I put all my WIPs and planned starts (that I had fabric for) in a numbered list and the number generator chose me to start Sleeping Beauty so that's going to be loads of fun.

Getting Back Into The Groove

Wow I seem to be getting back into the stitching, and really enjoying it.

I sort of finished the 4th part of JE Mystery SAL... or as far as I can get as I don't have the metallic thread called for and need to order it.  But it will still be awhile before I do as I need to wait till I have more items needed to order.

 

I then pulled out Winter Fairy as worked on her a bit.

Here is what it looked like last time:

 And now:

Sorry for the crumpled fabric.  It was in my Q-Snap and I didn't iron it before the pic.

Thank you for all the lovely comments about my HAED and I have decided to continue working on it.  But I think I will still order all threads needed for the next HAED design before I start it.

Finally an Update

I was not stitching for a month or two but finally picked up the needle due to the JE KAL on facebook.  I had completed Part 1 before life got hectic in time, but then Part 2 and 3 came out and I never touched it.  Part 4 was to come out on the 9th and I decided to try catch up as best I could before then.  I never managed it but luckily JE had a hectic schedule and it was delayed by a good few days.

Here is Part 2 complete:

 

And here is Part 3 that I finished today:

 

I need to touch up a bit on both parts as one of the beads on the necklace keeps insisting on laying down when all the other beads are standing up and I don't like the way the french knots turned out in kreinik in the cats eyes and I need to redo them.

Here is a view of both together:

 

Sorry for the crummy pics as I didn't realize how bad they were until I uploaded them.

I got a  old FO framed.  It is called Art Nouveau Lady and I finished her in 2012.

My HAED is going to be chucked due to circumstance.  I know the fact that DMC states that their is no differences in colours in their threads and I do know that this is not true.  It's not a thing that happens often and I have only encountered it in one threads in all my years of stitching.

So due to the cost of DMC threads I only have one full set of their colours which took me about two years to accumulate.  I didn't go out and buy all the colours needed for my HAED and stitched the same way I always do.  When one colour runs out, I just go buy another one.

Sadly this did not work out too well and the last time I stitched I noticed a big difference in colour.  It is very noticeable as I work down in colums so it shows as a distinct line:

 

I placed a slight yellow line where it shows.  The left hand side is slightly lighter than the right hand side.  It is not as noticeable in the pic as it is in life but you do still see the difference.

It's depressing due to the work I put in, the cost of the fabric but mostly I'm just not happy with myself.  I think I need to spend the next few months buying a full set of the threads needed for another HAED and all the duplicate colours needed as well.  But I think I will work on a different chart and come back to this one in the future.

A Sad Loss Indeed

I know I'm a bit late in finding out that we have lost a wonderful person.

I have not been online lately due to life being hectic and stressful and so when I logged into facebook today I was absolutely stunned at the post I saw about Debbie passing away.

I don't know how it's going to be not seeing all her fantastic projects on her blog.  She was an inspiration and, if I may say so, a good online friend.

I admired 3 designs on her blog and she was soooo kind enough to offer the patterns to me once she was done.  I have not started any of them yet but they will become so precious to me now and I think I will sit down tonight and decide which one to stitch in her honor.

She has always been a favourite blog to read and usually the first I looked for on my blog list.  It's really not going to be the same without her.

RIP Debbie and may your family gather strength to get through this time.

Finally an Update

It's been awhile so this might be a bit of a mash up of a update.

Firstly I have finished 1.5 pairs of socks but didn't take a pic as I know most of you are not here to see knitting.

I was also very lucky enough to sign up for the Joan Elliott Mystery SAL on Facebook.  As far as I can tell it's going to be faces of designs that she has previously designed but she is working them to fit into this frame, and we have no idea which faces she has chosen to put into it.

We got our first part beginning of June and the 2nd part should be out any day now.

Here is the first part:

I also worked on my Cut-Thru SAL and got a bit done on Cottage:

I also completed my Swop piece which was supposed to be posted out by the last day of June and I feel terrible because it's still here with me.  I got the flu and felt absolutely awful and then as soon as I started feeling better I had passed it on to the husband and the daughter:-(  As I knew that I didn't want to go anywhere when I was sick, I could not expect the daughter to be dragged to the post office when she was sick either.  But I will definately pop it in the post tomorrow morning as we are going away for our annual week long holiday in the Drakensberg and so it has to be done tomorrow.

I will update pics of what I am sending once I know my partner has received it.

Two weeks ago we went down to Durban and just so that we could go watch this:

It was absolutely fantastic and we had a blast.  Even the daughter, who said she didn't understand how going to look at cars would be fun, ended up loving it and she said the whole day was her favourite moment.

Their stint was driving around in vehicles that had to be made out of kitchen parts and I was stunned to see that every single one of them actually ran.  I apologize for the pics but it's really difficult to get good ones of moving objects.

The ironing board won:-)

And lastly here are some pics of my darling 2nd baby just because she is too adorable:

She absolutely loves her hot water bottle and every morning and evening I make her one because she actually comes to look for it and then right before I go to bed I make her another one for her to use during the night.

And here is a pic of her using it the other morning as well:

As I'm typing this she is lying here on the couch next to me curled up on the bottle even though it's cooled down by now.  Time for me to make a new one for her and also time for me to go to bed.  Got a busy morning of packing enough stuff for 3 people to last 7 days and also make sure the house is tidy.

And lastly here is a pic I took while driving down our street the other day.  And yes I did pull over before taking the pic:-)

Oh wait.... actually the following is lastly.  Not sure how many of you have heard of Grumpy Cat??? I have no idea what part of the world it lives in or who it belongs to but I just know that it's a famous cat and rightly so.  I actually have the first pic as my desktop background.  So imagine my pleasure when I came across the second pic!!!  Two absolutely gorgeous beings together and boy did I get jealous of Grumpy Cat when I saw this:-)

I think I will go to bed now and maybe be lucky enough to dream that I am grumpy cat in this exact situation.

No Updates and Why

I have pictures and I have updates but we went away this weekend and I came back with the flu.

For the last two days I have done absolutely no stitching but rather picked up my knitting needles and have been knitting socks.  I started knitting a pair about a year ago and finished the one sock last night but I can't find the other ball of yarn to do the second one.  Hopefully it will turn up soon.

But today I picked up some of my handspun and started a new pair.  It's something easy to do when I am feeling like this as it's only a small bit of rib and most of the rest of the sock is plain st st.

I normally knit socks in winter as that's the time that my feet appreciate handknit socks the best and usually will churn out about 3 pairs during the winter though I'm hoping for a bit more this year at least.

Right now I'm running a hot bath and will go lie in it for awhile because I can't stop shivering and feel like a frozen cube of ice.  I absolutely hate colds as theres nothing you can do to help make you feel better.

After that it will be time to make dinner and then more curling up with hot water bottles and knitting.

Hopefully I will start feeling better soon.

For The Love Of Thread...

I had the weirdest experience today while out buying some DMC that I had run out of.

There are two places that stock the threads in my small little town and I am grateful for it but geeze could it get any weirder???

The first shop is the one I always buy from if I can due to the fact that I really don't like going to the other one and which will become clear in a bit.

Shop #1 isn't a cross stitch shop at all but more a "little of this, and a little of that" craft shop.  He mainly stocks wool and knitting supplies but also a bit of other stuff aswell as Herbal Medicine.  Granted he has a smallish shop which has two smaller rooms aswell.  He has put the cross stitch stuff in one of those small rooms and today when i went to go buy threads I walked in to find the room full of boxes.  I literally had to climb over one box, squeeze myself into a corner and bend over the other boxes to be able to reach the threads.  Unfortunately he was out of stock on 4 of the colours I needed so this meant a trip to the other shop.

Shop #2.  There are a few reasons I don't like buying from this shop.  Firstly they fix sewing machines in this small shop and the threads smell very strongly of the machine oil.  This is not a problem on it's own and threads can always be washed and I always wash my cross stitch when I complete one.  I bought threads one time from them and was winding them onto the bobbin and the thread just kept breaking.  Obviously something had been at their threads and had caused weak spots and I had to threw all of those away.  But the absolute worst thing about it is that way you get treated.

On the few occasions I have gone in there, because I had to have the colours urgently, I always walk straight to their stand, paper in hand and start pulling the colours.  Yet it never fails that the lady will stand up from her desk, walk up to me saying not a word and stand right by me staring until I'm done.  Today she came and stood at my back slightly to my left and watched my every move.  It makes me feel like I have thief written on my forhead and makes me highly uncomfortable to say the least.

Yet next time I run out of some threads I will happily clammer over boxes and feel like a thief just so that I can carry on with a project.  Makes one wander what else we would put up with all for the love of our stitching.

First Ever HAED Page Finish and Stash

I can't believe that I finally have my first page completed on my first HAED.  It's been a long time coming as I started it in September of last year but I did put it away for a few months and didn't touch it.

Luckily for me my stitching is not goal orientated otherwise I would always be failing miserably.  I thought I would of finished this last week but it took me until today to do it.

I was to have been working on Christmas Decorations this week but I think I will sit down tomorrow morning and decide what I am going to make for my swop partner and spend the rest of the weekend working on it.  The swop package has to go out my the latest 1 July, but seeing as my partner is all the way in France, I think I want to send it out a bit earlier.

Even though my rotation was a bust this week, I think I will stick to it, and work on my HAED next week and the Christmas Decorations the week after that.  Should be interesting to see how the next page develops seeing as I am pretty much done with this side curtain.

I got my stash purchase in the mail and now I can share it with you.

First are the two QSnap frames:

I read somewhere about a lady who bought two different sizes and then used them to make other size QSnaps and that is what I did too.  So now I am sitting with 2 frames that are both 8" x 11".

I have enough threads and beads to do at least 3 Joann Elliott designs and I plan on buying alot more.

Where do bloggers go?

It's always good to clean up your blog reading list every once in awhile, otherwise it would just get longer and longer, but I find it a sad time for me.

I made the decision long ago to keep all inactive blogs till they hit the 1 year mark from their last post.  But it's sad because alot of those blogs I really enjoyed reading and liked the bloggers and I feel like I'm loosing a good book that I never got to finish.

Manbroiderer is almost at the one year mark and that is double sad because he used to do such beautiful work and I lived through the speed that he stitched and got to see many of the Joan Elliott designs that I have on my list being worked on.

I think it would be nice if bloggers decide that if they will no longer blog to at least make a final post stating so as it would allow us to conclude (for lack of a better word) our enjoyment of their work.

Everytime I delete a blog off my list I wonder if they will all of a sudden decide to start blogging in future, and I will no longer have access to knowing that.

Bothy Threads Cut-Thru' Cottage

I started a new Bothy Threads on the 10th and stitched every day until today and this is as far as I got:

I was hoping to finish the pantry during the week but either theres more stitches there than I thought or I didn't stitch as much as I thought I would.

Now for this week I will work on Mini Ariadne.  I started her in September last year and I have not even gotten a page finish yet.  Am hoping to at least complete Pg 1 before the end of the week.

I looked at it and it seems like I should be able to manage but we shall see.

Heaven And Earth Designs and their Temptations

HAED are having their Mother's Day sale and it's a whopping 50% off.

So of course I had to go to their site and look around a bit and I saw a new piece that I just had to have.

Remember this design that I already have?

Well I saw a new release that I assume is a companion piece to this one and it's called

The Fortune Teller

I was very good though and only bought the one as the Rand to Dollar exchange rate at the moment is extremely high.

Plans Were Put On Hold

I was planning on a new start and then things were put on hold for awhile but for a very good cause.

We are a bit unlucky as far as Cross Stitch shops are concerned in South Africa and I usually get to live vicariously thru other stitchers but that changed recently.

A new online shop has opened and now we can get almost anything that we want.

http://www.crossstitchsupplies.co.za

She has just started and so it's not as stocked as a normal shop could be but she is doing a stunning job and has some fabric orders and other stuff that she is waiting on.

She is also fantastic in the sense of you are able to request things from her and once a month she places an order with suppliers and includes anything we want if they supply it.

This month I behaved myself and only ordered two items but they are both items that I have wanted for a long time:

A Q Snap and that pink heart is a needlekeeper/minder.

The frame is what put my stitching on hold as I didn't want to start stitching on one thing and then move to the Q Snap and have my tension be different.  Now that it has arrived I will probably start tonight and see how it goes.

I also placed an order of my own with the lady and I won't go into too many details about what I ordered but I will say that I splurged in a big way and look forward to getting my items sometime at the end of the month.  I will say that I ordered two more smaller Q Snap frames and some Thread Heaven but I will leave the rest of the loot for when I get it as I'm sure pictures will show it better than words can.

She also has a facebook group for her shop and she is very chatty on there and usually gives sneak peaks and just interacts with her customers.

She is also getting an order in of some hand dyed 14 count at the end of April and boy am I going to be broke for the next couple of months.  She already has 32 count hand dyed in her shop but that's just too small for me... though I have hinted to hubby (in the sense that I sent him the link) of a nice combo lamp and x5 magnifier available on amazon, and if he does order it for me, then I won't have the problem anymore.

Though I do love my 14 count and will probably only go for a smaller count for specific things like the TW design that has a huge amount of fractional stitches in it.

Best thing for stitching blues....

I have been in a funk lately.

Luckily I have been distracted with the miniature plans and have really enjoyed reading blogs about it, watching youtube movies and reading tutorials.  But now it's all done and my plans have been made as far as the way I want the shell to look.  The inside of the house will be done as I feel like at the time.

So today I felt the urge to pick up my needle again and really wanted to stitch but I looked at all my wips and planned starts and I didn't want to do any of them.

So obviously I went digging and have decided on a Joan Elliott design called Sea Goddess:

It's after 8 at night and i still have to measure fabric, sew around it and collect the threads together so not sure exactly how much actual stitching I will do tonight but at least I have a plan:-)

A Cross Stitch halt due to new plans

I will not be updating for awhile as I have not picked up my stitching in a few days and don't see me picking it up for at least another week.

I have decided to jump into something I have wanted to do for years now and for the moment it is taking a lot of planning, figuring out and tons of research.

I won't post any of the new hobby on here as I would like to keep it only for people who only like reading about cross stitch.  So I have created a new blog today (still a wip) with the start of my plans and I hope to update it as I go along.

If you are interested my new blog addie is as follows:

http://dollhouseadventure.blogspot.com

A Bit Of A Rant

Please excuse the following but I had an incident earlier today and it's been stewing in my head and I just need to vent.

We are doing the easter sale this year again and they have left giving us the sweets to fill the eggs with to the very last minute.  We got the sweets this afternoon and our completed/decorated eggs need to be at the school first thing Friday morning.

Anyhoo one of the moms was saying how she doesn't know how she is going to manage everything because she also signed up to bake a cake and I smiled knowingly at her and I told her that I had also signed up for that and we are going to be so busy until Friday.

She gave me this look and this is how the short conversation went:
She:  But you don't have a job do you?
Me:  Well no I don't.
She:  You are so lucky that you don't have to work.

Umm excuse me?  I'm sure any stay at home mom's are sitting up a bit straighter reading this and feel exactly how I felt.  Lets see:

I am a maid
I am a laundry
I am a cook
I am a 24 hour child minder
I am the reason our animals are still alive and healthy in this house
I am a taxi

We DO have a job.  And it's one of the most thankless jobs out there.  I work every day of the week, I am on duty for longer than 8 hours a day and you know what I don't get a nice salary at the end of the month showing me what my hard work earned.

The work we do in the house is thankless because everything you do today you know will look like it needs it done tomorrow.  You don't do a task in the house and feel satisfied knowing it's a job well done that you can put away as done for good.  I clean the bath today so that someone can dirty it tonight, I wash, iron and pack away washing just so that it can get dirtied again, I organize the daughters room so that her and her friends can mess it up on the first weekend afterwards  I am the sole caregiver of my daughter and everything she needs done is my responsibility as the husband was brought up in a old fashioned family where the children are a woman's job.  On top of that she is in a school  where the mothers are put to work at every school function or fundraiser... hence the painting, decorating and filling of eggs... the baking a cake tomorrow... the working for an hour and a half at the sale on Friday.  I also got given a job by the school for their birthday celebration coming up of trying to find every single person who ever went to the school in the last 50 years via facebook and all I have is their names and surnames.

So any extra work I get given works the same as as any other "working" mom.  I have to do it in my free time just like them.

And you know it's sad but it's not the first time someone has made a comment like this to me.

Jewel On The Water Completed

This is a smallish design but it is pretty much stitching in every square and so it took awhile to do but boy was totally worth it.

It is such a beautiful design that I just keep looking at it.

Anyway here is the finished project:

A Quick Update...

I can't believe that I only did 1 post last month.
I am going to kick myself in the butt and start doing more posts and commenting on other peoples posts as well.  I have been reading but not commenting, and I apologize for that.

Sine my last update I have finished the stitching on Jewell On The Water and have done about 60% of the backstitch as of now.  It's a cold day here which really lets a person know that winter is just around the corner and I am hoping to curl up with my stitching and a good tv series.

So only about 40% of backstitch needed and then the beads.  Maybe I can have a finish to show tomorrow.  Lets hope so.

Can a blogging bug run away?

Well it would seem that mine has.  I have things to share and show and everyday I say I must sit down and do a post and then everyday I don't.  I don't know why I just have not felt like it.

Firstly thank you to everyone who helped with my voting.  It was a close call and there were firm favourites.  But the definite winner is The Witching Hour.  I am surprised that Bound By Love got not even one vote... must be me that has very weird taste then:-)

I also go news that I had won a gift on Jo's Blog: A Stitch In Time by commenting on her one post.  It arrived in the mail and here is the beautiful gift she sent me:

And heres the fabric she chose for the back:

Than you Jo for such a beautiful gift.  It is proudly displayed in my basket of smalls.

I have not been following any rotation the last while and just basically stitched what I wanted to.

I worked on Jewel On The Water and I must say I absolutely love, love, love this design.  I don't have kreinik threads so I made do with dmc metallics that I had in my stash.

I'm not 100% sure bout my colours on the body of the dragonfly but I absolutely love the way the wings are turning out.

I then moved onto some more Christmas Decorations and completed the one that I had already finished stitching, but I still needed to add the gold metallic and then finish it into a decoration:

And then I started and finished two more:

I then went back to Jewel On The Water:

Goodness I seem to have really outdone myself this time with the very horrible pictures.  One would think after so many years, that I would actually learn to take them well.

Today I picked up 99 Bottles and am hoping to finish the row of bottles that I am on.