99 Bottles and Jewel On The Water

Last weekend I worked on 99 Bottles by Ink Circles and managed to finish 3 and a bit bottles:

I also worked on the shelf below the bottles and almost finished it...

For this week I worked on Jewel On The Water and almost finished the flower:

I am going to deviate from the rotation a bit this weekend though.  I signed up for the SAL 2014 Smalls as an incentive to get some christmas decorations done during this year.  The first update is in a few days and I need to start my small. I am hoping to start and complete one this weekend, totally finish it into an ornament and also finish one of the others I have completed and not "finished".  I have two that need finishing still:

Hopefully my plans for this weekend are not too ambitious as other than housework I will have alot of time on my hands today.  The daughter is at school and going straight from there to a sleep over so I will have a couple of hours in the afternoon and all night to stitch.

A Quick Update On A New Start

I started Winter Fairy by Joan Elliott on Monday and here is five days worth of stitching:

I had hoped to have all her skin and her hair done but it was obviously not meant to be.  Next rotation I will hopefully complete her skin, hair, gloves and hopefully start on her wings and a bit of the ribbons

Have you ever read a book that you liked but don't like?

I started listening to the audiobooks series House Of Night by PC. Cast.

I saw it on a list of best Fantasy books and it looked interesting.

Okay firstly it's a new take on Vampires in the sense that it's a Vampire School etc and I liked the idea of reading a different view on the whole Vampire thing.

I like the storyline and the the way the story is unfolding and it is interesting being more about teenage life in that lifestyle.

One thing that bugs me is that the author seems to have for some reason decided to integrate Pagan rituals, beliefs and greetings/blessings into the storyline.  I don't know if I have mentioned before but I am Pagain in my beliefs and specifically the Wiccan aspect of it, so it is nice to read about celebrations such as Yule and Samhain in the books so far, and for people to be doing the wonderful greetings and blessings.
The confusing bit is that the author only mentions Pagan's once in the book to mention that Yule is a Pagan celebration that the church "borrowed" Christmas from but that is as far as it goes.
If you do not know more about the Pagan beliefs you would not know at all that all the details in the book are from Paganism and the author leaves you to believe that all of it is connected to the Vampires and the way that they live.  I guess writers are allowed to do that but it's just a little something that bugs me.

The main thing that makes me not enjoy the books as much as I would like to is that the main Character is absolutely and utterly full of herself.  She is one of those people who can do no wrong and even when she does do wrong it's justifiable and all pat her on the back (including herself) in the end.

There are alot of books in the series but I am only on the third one.  I am enjoying the storyline and that is what is making me continue reading but the main character is already making me cringe alot so not sure if I will push through... hopefully she becomes a bit more humble in the next few books:-)

Some nice progress over the weekend...

I spent a bit more time stitching this weekend than I probably should of but I had a great time.

Here is the progress I made:

Sadly I realized that I made a huge mistake when I measured the fabric for cutting and I don't know how I managed that.  The fabric will have very little edge for framing and I am trying to figure out what to do about it.  Maybe I will turn it into a pillow or just sew more fabric on the sides to get it framed.

I framed A+ Teacher and am not sure if the frame suits it or not.  It was a weird size and this was the only frame I could find that the design fitted into.

Audiobooks are good for progress

I spent the last four months of last year playing a online game and so most of my free time was spent in front of the pc and so I didn't do much cleaning (other than the necessities)  and not much stitching.

So my one decision for 2014 was less gaming and so far I have not played once in a week.  I don't miss it as much as I thought I would.  I think what is the worst is that I got so much stuff in game that I worked hard to get and alot of time improving my character... but I don't miss the actual playing.

To help me I have been listening to audiobooks.  They are lovely as you can listen to them no matter what you are doing.  So while I clean I listen and while I stitch, I listen.

I finally listened to The Hunger Games and must say that the books are good to read before you watch the movies(s) as there is alot more info in the books that are not in the movie.

I listened to all 3 books in the series as they were not that long and I have now moved onto some Dean Koontz books... specifically the Odd Thomas books.

I finished Odd Thomas and just started Forever Odd.

I went to the shops the other day to get a frame for A+ Teacher and got one for Broom Parking while I was at it.  Sadly the frame didn't work for the Teachers gift as it has an overlap that you didn't see until you try put the stitching in it but the frame for Broom Parking worked beautifully.

I have also been working on 99 Bottles and am pleased with the progress.

I finished the last bottle and the last of the shelf:

And here is the full shelf (and yes Deb it's the middle shelf that I just did):

I moved one shelf down and finished two bottles on that one:

Even though each bottle is different and I feel accomplished every time I finish one, I also realised that I will go nuts if I only stitch bottle after bottle for an entire week.  So after thought I have decided to make this my Fri - Sun project every week and I will carry on with Jewel on the water one week from Mon - Thur.

Also now that I finished my A+ Teacher which I had in the New Start rotation, I will start Winter Fairy by Joan Elliott on Monday this coming week as it's replacement.

First Finish Of 2014

I felt overwhelmed last year not knowing what to stitch because I had too many starts and I kind of lost my mojo near to the end.  So this year I have decided to stick to a 2 week rotation... one week a wip and the other week a new start.

So when one wip is finished, I will pick up another wip and when I finish a new start, I will start something else new.

Though I have already broken my schedule:-P

But it was for a good reason.  Last week was my turn to work on a new start and I worked on A+ teacher and it was so close to being finished that I just decided to continue on working on it for the first two days of this month.  But it has to be done because school starts next week and this needed to be done and I still need to be framed.

So here it is:

A+ Teacher
Finished:  07 January 2014