Look, a window!

I'm seeing a window arch, and this makes me happy. However, I also thought that I'd done more than I actually have last weekend, so I'm a little disappointed. Despite that there is quite a bit of progress so it's not bad, but I was aiming to get this page finished this weekend, which, to be fair, was possibly a little optimistic on my behalf. I don't seem to quite have the speed and time that other people have.

I am still really enjoiyng stitching it though. There's just under 30 hours gone into this so far, which is a little scary really. I've done nearly 30 hours and haven't managed to finished the first page yet. Be afraid, be very afraid, but as I say, I'm enjoying it, and that's the most important thing.

This weekend, Ben's on yet another conference so I've got another weekend of stitching and dvds ahead of me. The more eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed that another picture appeared in my WIPs pictures on the right a couple of weeks ago, Raymond Spangler's Dragon Rider (another HAED, oops, how did that happen?), so my plan is to start and work on that this weekend. I say plan, I did actually start and do a tiny amount last night so it's already started. I've now got an odd sort of frame which blocks out the size of the first page. More than 50% of this page is the same colour (black, oh joy!) so I did all the black on the outside line of the page to give me something to work around seeing as I don't grid at the moment.

In other news, it's my last day at my current job on Wednesday. I was told I was being made redundant a few weeks ago. I've not mentioned it on here because it was never my intention to use this blog as a big heart out pouring, I'm not really good at things like that, plus, when I was a little worried myself I'm not good at people being nice to me, I'm much more likely to get upset about people being nice to me than I am at the thing that I'm actually worried about so I decided to avoid that happening. However the future is now rosey, I know that a job is there for me and all is good in the world again, woohoo!

Look, it's starting to fill in

I'm strangely chuffed with this weeks progress, despite the fact that I haven't actually got that much done, but what I have done has been little bits of gap filling and (to me at least) it's made a massive difference. I've now got a couple of areas that are completely solid stitch.

I'm progressing with this much faster than I did the last page, and much faster than I expected to, probably because the last page was SO slow and fiddly.

Haven't really been able to get much stitching done this week, there's been a fade in the mojo, however, I'm relatively sure that's it's a temporary lull that's simply because I've got a lot on at the moment. I've got the flat to myself today, so I'm thinking that it's time for a day of stitching, dvds and chocolate (whoop whoop) which should get my mojo back. Now, what to watch...

Happy stitching everyone.

Oh bother

My latest update, but I've now fallen out with it. I had done a lot more, but I was visited by the little green critters that go ribbit last night and consequently, spent as much time unpicking as I spent doing the stitching in the first place. As such I'm glad that I can now put it aside for two weeks and hopefully will be a lot less annoyed with it (and lets be honest, myself) when I next go back to. However, despite the frogs it is looking much more than it was when I last finished. I've finished the fourth page, technically the fifth (there were about 20 stitches) and am now on the sixth page so I'm well over half way now.

In other news, we've had a plumbing nightmare this last week and a half. We haven't had a shower for the last week and a half, we chased this up a couple of days ago and are now getting a new bathroom, which is very exciting. Then the day we found that out I managed to snap the top off one of the taps in the bath. I'm not that strong so I'm swearing that it was already rusted or similar. So, despite the fact that we're getting a new bathroom, in the mean time we had a plumber out yesterday replacing the tap that I snapped so that we do at least have somewhere to wash that produces warm water.

A little bit of gap filling!

It's a little green, and I don't really know why, camera must have had a funny five minutes, sadly I think it always has five minutes all the times.

However, there's been a lot of gap filling this week, so it's starting to look like it may, one day turn into a piece of solid stitching. I thought I'd done loads this week, but now that I'm looking at it there doesn't seem to be as much progress as I thought there had been, I'm most disappointed.

What you have created, if it has a name, is some green

I don't know, it just seemed like an apt description of this weeks' stitching somehow. It's not looking to bad considering that it's only had a couple of evenings on it. Even better when you consider that I'm probably about halfway through this page already, there's a little bit of green left (basically just filling in the gaps) then a flower and a half, one on the left on that little off shoot and one at the top finishing the flower from the page above. This one is stitching up nicely at the moment, so I think my New Year resolution of finishing this should be a nice easy finish.

I was asked what I had on the go the other day, it's the three on the right hand side of the page, Winter's Majesty, the brown shmush that will eventually turn into Lancelot and Guinevere, and of course, Little Snap Dragon, and I'm hoping to get two of those finished this year, although I'm not convinced that it'll happen.

I made ten attempts at taking a photo and this brown shmush was the best that I could come up with. I've got to get a camera that doens't turn the anti shake off when I turn teh flash off, otherwise my world's gonna be full of brown shmush's for some time to come.

It doesn't look much bigger than the last brown shmush, but I've added a whole shade or red/brown and half a shade of mustard, it's all very exciting.

Okay, so this is the final post of the day

I know, I said yesterday was going to be my last post of the year, but I came to a good stopping point so I thought I'd take the picture and put it up. I've finished the top row of Little Snap Dragon, and I can definitely see the dragon now, so I'm quite excited. The top row is now finished, with a little run down on the right hand side where I was finishing cottons off because I didn't want to cut them off when I didn't have to. So, in theory, I'm now a third of the way through little snap dragon and I'm very chuffed to see the little curled wings making an appearance.



I bought beautiful shoes!

Well, it's true I did! I haven't got them yet, I ordered them online yesterday. Apparently they've already been dispatched, but it seems unlikely that I'll get them before next Wednesday, the next working day. I'll post a picture when I get them because they really are beautiful. I didn't used to (awful grammar) have the 'traditional' shoe obsession, but it's developed in the last couple of years, then I discovered Irregular Choice and it's become a full blown obsession, although this is the first pair that I've bought cos they're quite expensive, but there was a lovely sale at Schuh, so it's all good.

Anyway, I'll stop obsessing about the beautiful shoes, and go back to stitching, which is what this is meant to (mostly) be about. Here's the latest update on In Love, I was hoping to get this page finished this week, but as you can see, it hasn't quite happened, it's definitely a lot more identifiable as people now, I think that that's the first that I've been able to say that. Haven't got as much as I hoped done as it's been a busy week (and who hasn't this week?). I was ushering the panto at teh local theatre one night, and out with the folks from work another, plus packing cos we go away to spend some time with family over Christmas, but it's made a jump forward, and I'm hoping to get quite a bit of stitching done over the Christmas break, seeing as I've got some time off when Ben's in work.

And finally, I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas, and if I don't get back on here before, also a lovely New Year, good luck with all those New Year challenges everyone. My first one's looking quite good already seeing as it was finish In Love. Good luck everyone.

Winter's Majesty and a bit more snow

We woke up to snow this morning, albeit only a little bit, which, because I'm still a big kid, I'm very excited about. The strange thing is we got back late last night (it was Ben's work's do) and there was nothing, not even a sign that it might, then woke up this morning to our tiny amount of snow!

Anyway, here's the latest update on Winter's Majesty. I was thinking that there wasn't muhc progress since the last picture, but I've just looked back and it looks much better than I expected. I'm loving how the red makes the snow flake stand out cos it was really annoying me that I couldn't see the snowflake when it had been such a pain to stitch! It's lovely glossy thread, but I really don't enjoy stitching with it for some reason.

Quite excited that it's Christmas next week (I told you I was a big kid), we're going to see my dad and his fiance in South Wales, as long as the weather is all right. Ben and I have to go shopping today for a final shopping trip, so it's going to be chaos, but I need to get something for Ben's stocking. We only decided about a week ago that we were going to do stockings this year so I've had a bit of a last minute panic shop, especially as we're on a very strict budget, £7.50 to fill the stocking. I've cheated slightly, I got a 3 for 2 while buying a couple of last minute presents yesterday, so I've used the free 3rd one for his stocking, a real cheat, I know. But it's devious in a generous way, so I don't feel to guilty about it.

Don't know if I'll get another post in in the next week, so I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas!

Look, look, look, a dragon!

I have the hiccups! That's completely unrelated to anything that I'm about to write, but it's annoying me, so I thought that I'd share!

Another progress on Little Snap Dragon! I haven't done as much as I hoped to this week, just couldn't quite settle into it really. Was hoping to get this page finished this week, but that hasn't happened. However, I think the next time this gets a weeks worth of stitching I should finish the top row of pages, cos there isn't much to do on the third page.

Also, look look! The dragon is appearing, those two little lighter curls at the bottom right of the page are the beginning of his wings (I was half way through this page before I realised that) so I'm well chuffed to see him start appearing.

Ben's got a boys afternoon/night tonight so I get sole control of teh remote control, and hopefully the return of my stitching mojo, and I'll settle and get some done, possibly the return of Winter's Majesty!

In Love & Snow!

It's Saturday morning, Ben's at work, it must be time for me to update here!

Another weeks progress on In Love is here, and it's actually starting to look like something, it's about time it does have to be said! It's another Vervaco and I am rather enjoying it because it's a really easy stitch but, because about 80% of it is scenery and background, it's spent a lot of time not looking like very much, but you can just see my people starting to emerge in the middle now.

In many ways I'm a bit odd when it comes to stitching like this, because there is part of me that likes to stitch round the edge first, then concentrate on the picture in the centre, especially if, like this, there's a lot of background and scenery around the central focus point. I think the thing is, I like to see that central picture growing, and lets be honest, most of us find the background a bit boring, so I find, if (using this one as an example) I'd stitched the people first I'd have completed the focal point then got really board stitching the back ground around it, it looks finished and you're just adding extra bits round the edge, (although you know that it'll look better when the background's done). My way, it's not finished and could never be judged as finished until I've finished that central point. I know it's all a bit odd, but there is method in my madness starting on the edge and working in. I think I'm going to do it when I start my HAED projects as well, do the 'border' pages first then work in.

I think with this project, if I really worked on it in the next few weeks I could get it finished by the end of the year, quite comfortably, but only at the loss of my other projects, and as I don't even have a date for the deadline for this yet (gonna be at least another two years - they haven't gone to Australia for the ashes/honeymoon this year, so it's going to be a two year wait now, I think) then there's no point hurrying for the sake of it.

And as to the other part of my title, snow! Those of you in the UK will have seen the news (and probably the snow as well) and if you've seen the news you'll know that everyone in Yorkshire is six feet under snow, except, apparently us. The entire North East has apparently been under snow for the last couple of days according to the news, but I was starting to believe that Harrogate wasn't in Yorkshire as I'd previously been lead to believe, because we didn't have any. But, I woke up this morning to a beautiful snowy view out of our living room window, so I'm quite childishly excited about it.

Hmmm, just seen Nigella cooking lemon polenta cake and it looks good, now there's tempting!

I Couldn't Stay Away for Long

The pull of Winter's Majesty was just to strong and I had to go back to her and I've got quite a bit done, even if it has gone back to being a whole sea of blue again! I'm enjoying her though, this page isn't frustrating me anywhere near as much as last page did, you can already see this page starting to building up.

I started on the red to give a central streak to work around but I've then tried to start on some of the more fiddly colours so that I don't end up finishing with all the fiddly stuff like I did on the last page, having said that, I'm sure this is a lot less fiddly than the last page was. I (hopefully) seem to have been right, that I did the most difficult page first, meaning that the rest of it should seem like an absolute walk in the park. Some of the pale stuff isn't showing brilliantly against the blue material, but there are little cream dots across the bottom (4 half stitches in each dot, and there are two different colours in that, you can see why it's fiddly).

It was Children in Need last night (for non Brits - it's a massive telathon that's run every year, to raise money for Children in the UK be they living in poverty, have some sort of illness or disability, living with bereavement, pretty much anything that a child might be in need over) so I did a bit of stitching on and off while watching that. And I was good and gave a donation, it was only a little donation, but I figure if every person who watched gave a little bit then they'd make loads so at least I gave something.

I might get a little more stitching done this weekend yet, we've got a pretty quiet weekend planned after a few busy weeks and with the Christmas run coming up so we're making the most of not having to do much this week, but I had some half decent light an an opportunity to get my blog done while Ben's at work so I thought I'd do my update now.

A bit of randomness

I stole this off Stitchandie and thought I'd give it a go myself.

1. What are you stitching at the moment?
In Love by Vervaco, Winter's Majesty by Maia and Little Snap Dragon by Kustom Krafts2. How many finishes have you had this year? Small? Medium? Large? Extra Large?
2, 1 medium (Tatty Ted Christening Sampler) and 1 large (Tenderness by Vervaco)3. Do you think you will finish any more in the next month and a half before the end of the year?
It seems unlikely, I'm still quite early into all three.4. If you could buy 1 thing for yourself what would it be? (Doesn't have to be stitching)
Hmmm, frivilous or practical? Practical (ish) - a house. Frivilous - A Troll Bead bracelet, ooh or tickets to a (currently) non existant David Bowie gig, would love to see him live!5. What is the best thing you have ever stitched?
Toss up between Jewels of the Orient which is a Dimensions Gold, or Sea of Science (Beatles) which a kindly soul designed for me when I couldn't find a chart I liked - and I'm feeling really guilty because I can't remember her name or her site!6. Do you like making lists?
Used to, no so much now.7. Do you stitch in rotation (how does it work?) or OAAT?
Technically it's rotation, but there's no real logic to it, I work on which ever one I feel like at the time, unless I'm frantically stitching to a deadline. I only started rotation a couple of years ago when I was doing a present for my other half and needed something to work on when he was about!8. What is the next thing you plan to stitch?
It's definitely going to be a HEAD, but I'm not certain which one yet, Alice in Wonderland - Meredith Dillman, Bubbles - Selena Fenech, Lance & Gwen - Selena Fenech, Queen of the Night Sky - Fenech, or possibly one that I don't even own yet! But I need to wait for a frame to come free by me finishing something else first.9. What is your fave ONS? And why?
I don't really know what ONS is, but from th answers I've seen I'm guessing it's something to do with store/online? So I'm taking a random swipe of an answer with HAED10. Do you have a stitching chair?
Corner of the sofa generally, but it's not specific11. Do your children/pets get into your stitching things?
No children or pets, so it's all safe at the mo!
 12. Do you participate in any stitching forums?
Not really, I just love watching peoples blogs and progress that way!

In Love has people

Here's another page finish, so I'm two pages into In Love and it's starting to actually look like something now, which is nice. I'm quite chuffed with it actually, its starting to look really nice already. Vervaco kits are lovely to stitch, becuase they're only about eight colours and are really simple to stitch, but look so effective when they're done.

This one's built up quite quickly this week, it seemed like it was going really slowly the last time I worked on it, but I've done about a quarter of this in a week and it's developed really nicely. And it's certainly a lot simpler and less likely to make me go cross eyed than Winter's Majesty was.

In a huff!

That's it, it's no good, I'm cancelling my CrossStitcher subscription. I'm sorry, it used to be a lovely magazine, I've been getting it for years, through five different addresses, through them getting lost in the post through one of those address changes and I've stood fast and continued to subscribe. I've put up with them re-designing the magazine every six months in a completely unnecessary fashion, generally for the worst, because it still had enough in it that I liked, but now the end is nigh. They've re-designed one time to many, I gave them a second month to see if it would improve and it hasn't, so I'm off to cancel it.

Anyway, rant over, back to my stitching.

Inspiration

Have you ever noticed how just going onto the Heaven and Earth designs site inspires you to do more stitching? Well, I don't know about you guys but it always does me! I go on to the site, and look at all the beautiful charts on there and think "I've got to get stitching, I need to free up the frames so I can start on those, I've got to stitch as many of these as is humanly possible." But I'm still stitching away on Winter's Majesty at the moment, I'm determined that I'm going to get that first page finshed this weekend. Despite the extreme fiddlyness of it at the moment, I'm actually quite enjoying it, because it's filling in all those little gaps so it seems to be growing quite quickly, because I'm basically just piecing it together. So, it will be finished this weekend, the evil page that I've been working on for nearly a year will be completed, this weekend. And if I haven't posted a completed page 1 by last thing on Sunday I want everyone to shout at me and generally guilt trip me until I get my ass into gear and do it!

I've decided that no matter what my next design has to be a HAED, I have to finally stitch one of the beauties, I've got my eye on one of the Spangler's (there are so many beautiful copies of Train of Dreams out there at the moment) that I somehow just think would be perfect for my mum, I don't even know why exactly, but I just saw it and knew that I had to stitch it for her, however, I also already own seven charts, can I justify buying another when I already have 7 waiting to be stitched? It's a gift, it's for someone else, of course I can (so, how many times have we all said that, huh?)

I've been remiss with my stitching the last couple of weeks, we've been away at the weekends (last two weekends spent in Cardiff) and busy in the evenings so I'm trying to make up for it a bit this week, but then I also bought a Wii this week, (birthday present from the combined donations of family members), so I'm playing on that as well because it's my exciting new toy, but I'm trying to ration myself and make sure that I do do some stitching as well, and I am, I did about an hour and a half tonight and about the same on Monday, it's not a massive amount I know, but it is something and I'll attempt to do at least the same again this weekend. We've got a friend staying this weekend, my old housemate in fact, but he's recently decided that he likes hill walking and scrambling (which I hate), so he and Ben are going out for a boys day of hill walking and scrambling (or as I call it, genrealised plummeting, I hate it, you may have realised that) and I get the flat to myself for the day with the TV and my stitching, although I'll have to make sure that I get some exercise first thing, or they'll make me feel lazy, fat and guilty when they get back.

Anyway, what started out as a five minute post about how HAEDs inspire me to do my stitching has turned into quite a ramble (there's a reason why my blog was originally called 'Random Ramblings of a Kim') so I'll stop now, go and give my teeth a super clean (dentist type torture tomorrow - sigh) then go and curl up in bed with a book and wait for Ben to get back from his badminton match (damn single court venues, it's 10.50pm and still no sign of him).

Happy stitching all

Update on Little Snap Dragon

I've had a very productive evening, but that doesn't make for very good update pictures. So far I've stretched a piece of stitching ready for putting in the frame, just as soon as I find where my gummer tape has gone... or failing that gone shopping on lunch tomorrow... what do people usually use to stick their stretched piece to their mount board? I couldn't do the mount board to size and just slot it in, as the fabric in the kit wasn't big enough.

I've also mended a pair of trousers and put a button back on a jacket, so it's all been very productive!

But I do also have a stitching update, as you can see, this is the first page of Little Snap Dragon done, 1st of 9 and think, and not all of them are full pages, so its quite a big percentage of it done it quite a small period of time, by my standards anyway.

Not getting to get much stitching done again this week, but I'll try and put an update up at the end of the week.

A shiny new start

A shiny new start, which makes me very excited, but does mean that I am, once again, posting pictures that don't really look like anything.

It also means that I've got three projects on the go at the moment, two of which I'm still on the first page of, and all three of which still don't really look like anything. Although I think this is currently the prize winner for not looking like anything.

He will be Little Snap Dragon, who will be very cute when he's finished, it's a really nice pattern, that I fell in love with and bought on impulse a couple of years ago, I've cut the material a little small, it's big enough for the picture, but I haven't left much of a border, so I don't know what I'll do with it when it's done, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it!

Hello to my new followers by the way. You can tell that I'm still quite new to blogging, I still get excited when I get new followers!

Heaven and Earth

Why? Why would Heaven and Earth Designs have a sale when it's payday on Tuesday? I cannot justify another kit at the moment, but there are so many beautiful charts... I've got 230 charts on my wish list for goodness sake, 62 of those are Love to Have or Must Have, 21 of them are in my must haves, so I really need to get stitching (and buying for that matter). And I can't decide which one I want the most, I've always loved Bubbles by Selena Fenech (I've even got a pair of earrings with the design on, and it's my profile picture), and I love the colours on Dancer by Meredith DIllman, ditto Dragon Fae 2 by Selena Fenech and I've just completely fallen in love with Alice in Wonderland by Meredith Dillman (you can see a theme here, Meredith and Selena). I think that when I get paid I may end up caving and getting one of them, probably Alice, if I can just over ride that sense of not being able to justify it.

Ahh well, I've got a couple of weekends of stitching coming up, Ben's away hill walking with friends next weekend and away on a course the weekend after so lots of stitching time. I'm planning to get the birth sampler finished, then the woman's back that I'm doing for Ben's clinic, I reckon that's possible in two weekends, then that'll free up a frame for a new challenge, and as I posted a couple of weeks ago, all that's left then is to make the decision of which one it's going to be... hmmm, ponder ponder!

Oh yeah, and I have to build furniture this weekend, Ben took me to IKEA in the week to buy a new wardrobe and bookcase, and I need to do some baking because I moved to a new office a week ago and the girls are complaining that I haven't baked them anything nice since moving into my new desk, how exciting is my life?

Wish me luck!

Tenderness Cross Stitch update

As promised, I've finally got round to doing an update on Tenderness. I actually took this picture a while ago, I just haven't got round to uploading it, and I haven't done anything else on it since the picture was taken. I need to finish the birth sampler I'm doing (hopefully this week), then I can go back to getting this finished, hopefully by early September anyway!

I'm still very fond of the Vervaco charts, the sepia ones look so effective when they're done. I've got two nearing completion which means decisions will have to be made soon! Birth Sample will be replaced by In Love, which I had to eject from the frame in the first place, but I haven't decided what I'm going to replace Tenderness with, I've got about half a dozen in mind! Little snap dragon, regency ballroom from Cross Stitch Collection, King Arthur sampler, which a kindly soul donated to me once, a nice Arthurian lady who was also donated, the the famous shot from Memoirs of a geisha of her white face and the black hair or pluck up the courage to start my first HAED, I've got 5 so I really ought to pick one, a couple of Meredith Dillmans, a couple of Selena Fenech and a Linda Ravenscroft one, there are so many to choose from, and I just can't decide. Still, I've got a month to think about it, and knowing me despite the fact that they're all the ones that I've got 'queued' at the moment, you know I'll end up picking something completely random instead!

Anyway, after that quick update, I''d better head back to the kitchen. I'm attempting to make chocolate mousse cake, and I think my mousse is to runny and isn't going to set properly. If I'm honest, going back to the kitchen isn't going to help, it's done now, I'm simply hovering round it in a nervous fashion and hoping that it sets. This is why I normally do cupcakes, cupcakes are simple and I always get those round, but now I'm trying something new, and I'm a bit worried about it! Ah well, wish me luck!