2024 New Starts

Not quite ready for a end of year review, so let's go with the new starts.I have been off this week and tried to finish Happy Haunts, but it is killing me. I don't think I'm going to make it through the week with it and it won't even be a row finish, let alone a total finish. I need a break from it. But that's for another post.

So, I guess you guys knew that I wouldn't be able to hold off from new starts, but I came VERY close! I had the chosen six picked out, but when I added some fabric to a chart (I do have fabric in my stash) and added the thread (more about thread in a mo-mo), it was almost $700! I am NOT kidding...it was exactly $678.76, but that's pretty darn close to seven (and yes, that is with discounted fabric and a coupon)!!! For friggin THREAD! I can't say how many skeins I ordered, it was for at least one max color project and four others (yes, 4+1=5, my math skills will bite me later). I decided I could NOT afford that and was ready to let it go with the WIPs I have. I agreed with myself that I would pay off three credit cards first (granted, the smallest three, but three nonetheless). But then we got our xmas bonuses and they cashed in some of my vacation time (because we're only allowed to roll over three weeks and I had way more than that saved up) and all of a sudden, three credit cards were paid off. I took that as a sign (granted, I didn't need much of a sign, but the checks came the exact same day I decided not to make the purchase, so here's your sign Keebs).

Of course, it's never just that simple and here's where my math caught up with me...I forgot an entire project hence #6, so fabric and thread again, another $108. I also had to place an Amazon order for some other things (another $120), I still have to get scroll rods (and you'll see why in a minute), and there are other things, so it won't be a January 1st start for any of these. I need to pay this stuff down, save up more money, and frankly, kit up six new projects. I like bobbins, so bobbinating a max color project is going to be a chore. But oh my, cross stitching is an expensive hobby!

I've always prided myself on my stash of stuff, but apparently, I'm not as stashed up as I thought. I went through all my thread to see what I had (so I hopefully wouldn't have to buy any) and I discovered that all that Chinese thread I bought years ago had faded and started to fuzz up. Most of it was probably over 10 years old, but the DMC was about the same and it was fine. I just decided to pull all the bad thread, unless it was the only one for the color I had and I gave it all to a co-worker. I ended up with about a forth of the stash I had to begin with, and none of it was enough for a full project. After all these projects are finished though, my thread stash will be stocked again.

Speaking of which, so which projects did I choose? Well, I guess it's no surprise that I went with HAED's Belle of Bonaventure by Jasmine Becket-Griffith, she'll be on 28ct Lugana:

And the HAED Supersize Max Color version of Once Upon A Fairy Tale by Aimee Stewart (and I'm not doing the redo chart...I had already printed the chart when they reissued it...I actually had to email HAED last week to figure out the difference because it's been so long, which was just two colors, so I figured I wasn't going to reprint the whole thing just for that and I don't mind the colors anyway, so I'm just going to keep as is...I do still work with paper charts and I print them on this soft card stock stuff, and it ain't cheap either). This will also be on 28ct Lugana, magic guide. I will say, this week I've been on vacation and I've been working on Happy Haunts (it's on 18ct 2x1) and I really HATE working with two threads, so I'm pretty sure I won't be doing 2x1 tent stitch on this. I still can't wrap my head around tent not being a "cheat" version of cross stitch, but any time I would save with tent I would just be wasting with the two threads. I can't deal. I think I stitch fast enough that 1x1 full crosses will be fine. Guess we'll find out!

A chart by Thread Geeks that goes with my Snow and Charming, Evil Queen is also one of my new starts...it should be fairly easy if it's like Snow and Charming. Of course, another 28ct Lugana, unless I pull out some old Monaco that I still have.

Then there is my first Unconventional X Stitch, The Blue Marble is So Fragile by Borda Danut Adrian. I've been wanting to start this since the second I saw it! She will probably be on the 28ct magic guide Lugana as well, but she is not small.

Another easy one, DoNa Stitches Merida, she'll be on 18ct opalescent Aida, like Rapunzel was. She shouldn't take very long, although she is a lot more coverage than some of the other DoNa's.

Another new designer, Fox and Teacup Designs, Harry Potter Bookcovers. I went with the American version, not because "American pride" and all, but when the books were coming out, I was one of the weirdos standing in line for them, and I live in the US, so the American versions were the ones I ended up with. I still own those original versions. Maybe, when I finish this one, I'll do the British covers (which I also now own). It will also be on 28ct, but I'm not sure whether it will be Lugana or Monaco. It's also the supersize max color version, but it's still not very big, so I'm not sure if I have the wrong pattern, so I'm reading it wrong, or what. If it's right, it shouldn't take very long.

I've also decided, since I have a new stand now, on the kit front, to go back to A Summer Ball. I UFO'ed that several years ago and haven't touched it since 2015. I hated it. Maybe a new stand will make it better? It seems like I also had issue with all the partial stitches, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. If I still hate it after another shot, then I'll look at another kit.

Here is where I left off, barely a third of the way through (and to be honest, I'm not even sure where I put it, so I might have to do some digging):

As a side note, I am going to UFO retire a project, HAED's Christmas Contest Suteki by Aimee Stewart.

This was a project I started for my sister, who never really acted like she cared for it anyway. I don't know why I was bothering. It was a nightmare to work on with all the confetti, and frankly, now that my sister is not in my life anymore, I just don't see the purpose in working on it because it definitely isn't my style at all. I actually have several charts I bought to do for her. Guess they will go in my RAK folder. I haven't worked on her since 2020, so it's really no skin off my back to retire her. Maybe someday I'll pull her back out again if I meet someone who's style she is, but I just can't see it. I only made it here:

So that at least takes one WIP off the books along with Maleficent. Next time, a year end review, which should be short since I've only been stitching since October and only (at least so far) on two and there is only a few more days left in the year.

Suteki...why am I bothering?

On Thursday, my Sister told me to stop watching the news, it was making me worse, so I did. And going home and watching hours and hours of news of social unrest on TV, of people hurting, not only emotionally, but with all of the violence on both sides, has also taken its toll on me. I don't want to stitch because I don't feel like I should stitch. I shouldn't sit and enjoy myself while the rest of the world is fighting for basic human rights (something I could never go out and do myself for obvious reasons).

I spent months working myself to the bone, practically sequestered at work. I pushed past the limits of exhaustion and came out the other side, not exactly ready for social activity (a difficult feat even before that began). Then, within less than a week after go-live, we have a tornado less than 400 ft away from my trailer...not the safest place to be in the South anyway. THEN, almost immediately after that, I see that that the world is heading towards a pandemic, so I had to sequester myself again, which I did a good month before everyone else around here. This time, it took me a while to figure out that I was using the pandemic as an excuse, more than a legitimate reason to stay away from people. I haven't been inside a store or restaurant in months. I also haven't been able to to through a drive-thru since the very beginning days of this, something I could at least do before.

But it's also gotten harder to even go to the store to pick up groceries via online ordering. They are typically out of stock of EVERYTHING. I'm way over-ordering just to try to get half of what I need and I'm still having to buy groceries a couple of times a week. This was something it took me weeks to work up to before! In an effort to help, a co-worker offered to go inside a local store with me although we had to have a long discussion about where I could actually go. Going inside the Wal-Mart I pick up from is not an option (the other SuperCenter has a Subway...Daddy issues, so no go there). And I'm having a LOT of trouble with just the idea of any store that has an entrance that very eerily remind me of TSA checkouts at airports...one of my top 5 greatest fears. Even before all this happened, I had a panic attack in one of our local Wal-Mart Marketplaces because, since I had been buying online, I hadn't been there in a while, and they moved the checkout lanes on me (they changed them to complete self-checkout...which I do typically hate because, since it takes me forever to build up the courage to go to the store, I buy a TON of stuff...not really what the self-checkers were designed for). I couldn't find my way into the stupid lanes because the entrance wasn't marked, it wasn't readily visible because of the big bins blocking it. I spent an hour on the phone with my Sister bawling like a baby, stalking the isles trying to watch to see how other customers were getting in (but because it was a late hour, not a lot of people were in the store and it just made me look weirder, which made me more self conscious, it was a total cluster fudge). I also can't go to the local Kroger for an even stupider reason, they moved to a bigger store and I haven't been in there yet. And, the last time I went to Target, one of the few stores I could go in, the next day it got hit by a tornado...see a pattern here? I can't go anywhere by myself and, even with help, I still can't go anywhere! We have dozens of stores in this town, all have given me mini-panic attacks at one time or another!

But, I did agree to go with my co-worker to the store down the street from my house, since it's also on her way home. It's not the best store, but I've been there before and I was getting desperate for certain things. We get in there, and NO ONE, I repeat NO ONE is wearing masks...not patrons, not staff, not management, NO ONE! Freak out #1. When I would go up to look at something, some complete stranger would walk right up on me like it was just normal days (something I hated even in normal days), so I would have to just walk away (and, in some cases, sprint). Freak out #2. I waited in line at the meat counter at a safe distance, while the girl in front of me handled almost every single package of meat trying to decide. She held them in her hands, she would put them in her basket, then back on the shelf, she would ask her companion, then take them back again. She would compare them to the ones still on the shelf. She would swap them out. Freak out #3. I stood my ground, especially since I was there for meat, but eventually, my rage must have been felt, because she turned and looked all evil at me and walked off. Thank goodness I, at least, was wearing a mask and she couldn't see MY face! By the time I got out of that store, I was stressed, freaked and had to practically bleach everything I bought.

My Sister is big on social desensitization (probably because she's been going to a therapist too long). Social desensitization doesn't work on me and it took me a long time for all my old therapists and shrinks to realize this and take other measures. It just makes me worse. Almost every single time I go out, it's like 90/10 trauma/calm situation, so next time, I just remember the trauma. I get where she's coming from, but I also can't make her understand that, yes, I get this whole new phobia I've built up is ALL in my head and there is no magic pill, I'm QUITE aware, but it's still there and it's still very real to me, as is the traumas. I'm the type of person that, if a toilet is going to fall from an airplane and kill someone, that someone would be me. Unfortunately, there are only two people who can fix it...me (which I'm obviously in no state to do at this point) and a professional (which our local mental facility made sure I will NEVER been able to seek professional help again, so thanks for that!). For now, this is my reality.

On Wednesday last week, driving to work, it was like someone flipped a switch and turned the pandemic off. Traffic was normal, every business parking lot was full and just the drive itself, with all the people around, even though I was in the safety of my own vehicle, freaked me out enough that I had to take a "little blue friend" when I got to work. It's been like that every morning (and every night) since.

I mentioned to my Sister, after the rocket launch, that I wanted to go to Kennedy for my 50th B-Day this year, but then I realized that I don't think I can do that. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I don't think I can go back to Disney either. It's just been too long since I've been there. If I can't even drive to work without freaking out, how am I supposed to go out of town? How am I ever going to drive down to the coast again? I could do that because I was in the safety of my own vehicle, a space that, even now a simple drive to work can prove, isn't safe enough for me. So what do I do?

The more time goes on, the more I am realizing that I'm using the pandemic and the issues of our country now as the excuse I've been searching for my whole live...a valid excuse to lock myself in my house and never leave it again. I've worked through years of childhood traumas to "appear" normal so no one would realize I wasn't. I dealt with all sorts of issues in my 20's as a side effect of all that youth trauma. In my 30's, I started to accept what I was and began to work on the best ways to deal with it and learn to function in my own ways and (I had thought) by my 40's, I had it all down to a routine, even if I spent everyday fighting my true nature. But here we are, on the cusp of my 50th year of life, and everything I've worked for is slipping away from me and I'm not sure how, or if I even want, to stop it. Is that a sign of old age or am I just tired?

Once my Sister told me to turn off the TV on Wednesday, it took until Friday before I could watch normal TV again and then I felt guilty (but I was having Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. withdrawal). I was careful what I watched, nothing too lighthearted, but slowly I noticed I was sinking back into my old TV routines. By Sunday, I picked up my needle again. I felt guilty for that too. But my life is already in such disarray, I can't keep making it worse. I'm already in pretty bad shape, bad enough that, I'm pretty sure, once the pandemic is over with, my life can't go back to "my" normal. I've developed fears I never knew I had or never had before (like germs...I was an anti-germiphobe before and, just me going out in public with a mask on my face is something you would NEVER see me do, like ever, even as a kid at Halloween!). I have to at least keep some semblance of normalcy, so back to stitching it is.

So here is my ONE day worth of work. I left off here last week after only two days worth of work (have I mentioned I hate this project, although I will say she ain't going so bad what little I have been stitching on her this time, maybe because it's in little doses):

And here is my "progress" (if you want to call it that), I've been working on filling in the gaps on the first page more than anything, so you can't even see what progress there is:

Just to add insult to injury, after YEARS of sleeping on the couch because I felt more comfortable within a stone's throw of the front door (and it just sort of evolved after my "bad hospital" stint), my couch, even after replacing the cushions, has become WAY too uncomfortable, enough so that, after last weekend's barely moving and sitting all tightened up, I could barely walk for days! Since I stitch there too, that also affects my stitching. I've had to go back to sitting in the chair, but I haven't moved my stitching gear back yet, but I've also had to go back to sleeping in the bed, something I am VERY uncomfortable with! Every little sound wakes me up. The pups aren't used to it, so they are up and down all night (and Bam is too little to get off and on by himself, even with the step bench, so I have to help him up and down). I'm not physically hurting anymore, but I'm exhausted, which isn't helping everything else!

And I have a back porch light out, one that can't be reached without a ladder. Another coworker offered to help with that, but I'm so scared to get out of the house at all, that when she texted me Saturday, I panicked and asked if we could wait until next weekend. Granted, my excuse was I was up until 5 am (which was true...I'm obsessed with paint-by-numbers on my iPad now), but it was an excuse. I was just too scared to go outside...of my own house...at 9 am in the morning...on a Saturday...with a coworker. Stupid! And now I still have a light out, another reason keeping me from sleeping in the bed (which is past that light) good. I'm the destroyer of my own world!

In the beginning of the pandemic, I warned about the dangers this would have on our mentally ill. I thought I was prepared for my own issues, but I wasn't prepared for everything else packed on top, that just has become too much and I don't know how to process it all anymore. I can't help the world, I can't help myself, and my few outlets of release, like TV and stitching, have become guilt trips rather than helpers. I'm at a loss as to what to do, but I'm still hanging in there. And, if anyone has any ideas (rather than desensitization), let me know!

Weekly Stitching

I know it seems like my posts are a bit mundane lately, but I am soooo grateful for mundane it's not even funny! I'm still in hiding from the world, barely leaving the safety of my nest, but I feel so much better on the inside that I don't really care much about the outside world. When I can't get out of doing something social, I've been shutting myself completely off to get through it, but every time I do this, it gets harder and harder to turn back on. I had to go out of town twice last week for work and by the second time it took me a day and a half to straighten back out. I have to work on that. But for now, I'm stitching like crazy, trying not to deal...which is how I deal, if that makes sense.

I tried to work on Suteki, but she's driving me nuts. I left off on her here last week:

And after one day of stitching, I decided I needed a break and left off here:

But there was another glitch I wasn't counting on...this past week, the bolts that tighten the clamps to my lap stand got stripped and wouldn't tighten. I've stitched with scroll rods since my teens and most all my projects are kitted up that way. I have a floor stand, but I've gotten so used to the lap stand, I'm almost useless without it now. I couldn't get to the hardware store fast enough...so much so that I ended up stopping at one on one of my work trips to get replacement bolts. I wouldn't stop at a strange place in a strange town on a normal day, let alone right now, but I needed to get back to stitching and with my new-found talent of shutting off like a light bulb, it makes it easier to do things like that, even with the consequences. I just have to master turning back on like a light bulb.

Once all was back to normal, at least stand-wise, I decided to hop back to Happy Haunts. It was supposed to be my A New Stitchy Start project for the year and I should have it finished by now, but I've had trouble with it too. It's not a HAED, but it was another project I could finish the row for before the end of the year. I left off on it back in June:

And despite my two day respite, I made it here tonight:

Oh, if I had those two days I lost, I could have finished the row this week. Oh well, at least I have next week! I'm not sure if I'll go back to Suteki or Sleepy Hollow. There is NO WAY I could finish the row to Sleepy Hollow either...since it's horizontal, a row is like 30 pages, but at least it's not dithered confetti, it's just normal confetti and I could use some of that right now. And who knows, since I'm off the week after Christmas, maybe if I stitch the entire week straight, I could finish the row to whichever one I choose after Happy Haunts (and I could go back to the Bride Dollmaker too, although since I barely got started on that, that's a ton of work for a row finish). We'll see where the stitching takes me I guess.

I had to stop binge-watching Charmed. I decided that since the new season of X-Files starts January 3rd, I'd better start binge-watching X-Files to get myself ready. Those Charmed DVDs are looking at me though, waiting for their turn again. Since I'm behind on Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, and Heartland, it might be a while before I get back to those particular witches. But that's the joy of DVDs...binge-watching whatever and whenever you want.

Here's hoping for another quiet week.

Weekly Stitching

Another week down, another project row done! I left off on Night Wish with just that pesky moon to go:

And after almost an entire skein of thread, I finally finished it, with a total of 131.2 hrs:


Despite all my better judgement, I moved on to the next project, Christmas Contest Suteki. I left off on her back in June:

And despite working on her non-stop since Friday night, I only made it here:

It's one of the reasons why I hate this project so much...I work and work on it and barely get anywhere. I have the feeling I won't finish the row by the end of the year. If it wasn't going to be the perfect gift for my Sister, I would chuck it.

I finally got all my Charmed DVDs in to and the theme song is different than the Netflix version. I seriously HATE it when a brilliant 80's song gets butchered, but when you are talking the level of The Smiths, it's downright blasphemous! Luckily I have to fast-forward through the opening sequences anyway because of the seizure factor. That song has always been the song that defined my teenage angst (as I'm sure it did most people's) and to hear it get revamped into a 90's Disney Radio version is almost heartbreaking. Thankfully, we still have YouTube for those lovely reminders of said teenage angst, angst I'm not entirely sure I've grown out of yet.

Weekly Stitching

I worked on my Sister's project this week, Suteki. I left off back here in March, just beginning on the second row:

And considering how confetti-heavy it is, I made a fair amount of progress this week:

I will say, for the first time in forever (damn, now I've got that bloody song in my head), I am actually enjoying working on this project. Maybe the first row was just sucky or maybe I'm just getting used to all the confetti or maybe because I want to finish it so I can give my Sister something instead of the other way around. I'm not real sure...I'm not sure of too much right now.

I should really switch over to Happy Haunts for the rest of the month, especially since I did nothing on it last month, but I'm still feeling pretty into Suteki, so I may continue on with her. Guess we'll see how I feel tomorrow. Duty rarely wins out over want with me.

It's still too early to determine if the Wellbutrin is working, but I am feeling a bit testy already and that's usually a bad sign. I'm going to hope it is because of the antibiotics for my gums interfering. I only have one of those left though, so I should know better within another week. Something sure as heck is interfering with my Zanaflex, because I am barely sleeping except for yesterday...I didn't manage to wake up until 4 pm (although I didn't go to sleep Friday night, or Saturday morning I should say, until 4 am). That really affected my stitching time yesterday. I could have done way better with two full days instead of one. Maybe that's why I want another week with her.

Weekly Stitching

Before I left for Dallas, I did start back on Suteki. I left off on her on May 31 of last year:

I FINALLY finished the row on Saturday:

and made it a bit into the next row:

I think that the second row won't be as confetti'ed as the first, but I decided to start back on Happy Haunts today so that I might have some progress to show for The New Stitchy Start Blog at the end of the month.

I am still on the fence about the April A to Z. Right now, my stitching mojo is strong and I'm itching to get back to Alice and the B's. Plus, I'm going to have a lot of extra work in April because of a co-worker's vacation days. I have so much on my plate right now and I'm not happy about the signup process for the challenge this year (be it Facebook or commenting daily...which just sounds like even more work). I'm going to take the week to decide, but it means I'm already ill-prepared and behind. I'll need to buy thread and fabric and kit it up and will at least need to get some kind of a head start, so when work bogs me down, I won't get too far behind. I'm just not sure my head is in the right space to be working on a challenge right now. I figure if I can't decide, it probably means I shouldn't start it.

Growing Stash with no stitching

I haven't had any stitching progress to show in a couple of weeks, which is surprising considering I've promised myself that I'm going to finish Lilo and Stitch before the end of the year, but I've still been buying stash like crazy and today's HAED sale didn't help. I picked up most all of the items on my Wishlist, most of which were Jasmine Becket-Griffith's stuff:
Unseelie Court Wrath:

Spring:

Summer:

Autumn:

Winter:

As well as two Aimee Stewart's...
Supersized Max Color Little Dreamers Tree:

and Supersized Max Color A Stitching Shelf without that annoying logo in the middle:

I may never ever stitch these, especially considering how I feel about their dithering method of charting now, but I've wanted them forever, so I guess that's all that matters!

March WIPocalypse 2016

Measi's WIPocalypse

This month's question is: "Do you use hoops, stretcher bars, lap stands or Q snap frames and why? (viaCathieJ)"
I personally use scroll frames mounted on lap stands and have as long as I can remember. The stand frees up the project and I can easily stitch two-handed (which makes it go twice as fast). I have a floor stand too, but I tend to hunch over too much and it hurts my back. Upon occasion I will use hoops for smaller projects, but I have to stitch one-handed and it slows me down. I will often unknowingly grip the hoop so tightly with my right (I'm a dominant leftie so that hand gets to do all the stitching), my right hand cramps closed around the hoop and I literally have to pry it off. I've never tried stretcher bars (the logic escapes me), but I have a Q-snap frame (still in the package) for me to use on a supersized HAED. I've never tried to stitch without some sort of support. One of these days, I'm going to invest in a proper set of scroll frames and stands, but definitely not with my current budgetary restrictions. My smorgasbord of sets will have to do me for a while!

On to the stitching...because of vacation (the prep time, the actual vacation, and the recover time), my stitching progress this month is very minimal, but I do have something to show. I left off Cinderella Castle here:

And last week I finished it for a total of 53.38 hrs:

Now that both castles are finished, I'm going to get them framed together:

The only other project that got a bit of love since last month's post was Suteki. I'm a hair further now, but I can show what I posted on last month's A New Stitchy Start Blog. I left off here:

And made it to here:

Obviously, I have to save the new stuff on her for the end of the month and the other blog, but it's really not enough to make that much of a difference.

I'd like to say that next month will be better, but it won't because of the April A to Z Challenge. May should be back to stitch-normal (hopefully).

Sunday Stitching

It's that time again, but this sure was a short week considering it was the first full work one in three. Any hopes of a better time at work in the new year have already been dashed and, if anything, things have gotten worse. Oh well, c'est la vie. I don't have any marketable skills and I need a roof over my head and food on the table (and a Disney trip at least once a year), so I'm stuck.

Thanks again for everyone's kind comments over my Disneyland pictures! Sorry I dumped so much personal crap into the mix, but it's part of the story, so it had to be told. And, like everything else that happens, it's made me a stronger person (or more closed off, depending on your point of view and the jury is still out on the subject). The pictures remind me of the good stuff, the actual Disney stuff, so I think it's a win-win situation.

But on the home front, I spent the week working on Snow White and the weekend on Suteki. I left off Snow after the first day of stitching here:

And by Thursday night, I made it here:

I wasn't expecting the frame to be as confetti-filled as it was, so I didn't get very far at all. I was pretty disappointed in myself by the time I put it back in the stack, but I did decide on a plan. I'm thinking, as of now, I'm going to swap projects every week and work on Suteki on the weekends and every piece gets time and Suteki gets finished quicker. On the months when there are five weekends, I'll stitch on A Summer Ball and 35th Anniversary and that way, I don't have to spend much time on either of those two, but they still get worked on too.

I've also started using waste knots instead of my regular back knotting method. I know it's not kosher to knot thread, but I've done it since day one of my stitching career and I've never had troubles with it, despite the hoopla by the stitcher community over doing it. I'm never going to have a nice and pretty clean back, but I decided I could make more of an effort to try to make it easier to work through when the confetti gets heavy. In all honesty, when it comes to confetti, it really doesn't matter whether I knot on the front side or back side, but it's all a learning process, right?

To further help things along, I signed up for A New Stitchy Start blog, a great SAL blog that will hopefully motivate me more. I knew Suteki wouldn't be easy, but I wasn't expecting the level of difficulty I'm experiencing with it, so I felt like I needed a bit more help than usual. I'll be posting her progress over there instead of here at the end of each month, but there is one thing I couldn't pass up...on Saturday, I hit a hidden Mickey:

Despite the fact that I seem to be avoiding Disney World in March, apparently the "visions" of Mickey have already begun, although there is one place I'll always see one:

Notice the tags? My baby gets his Disney love too!

Next week, I'm going to work on Night Wish, followed by either Maleficent or Alice and the B's, I'm not really sure which just yet. Then again, I might be able to get very close to finishing Cinderella Caste in a week, so maybe I'll go there...guess it will be a surprise. As always, I'm still hoping for a better week but, when all else fails, here's to a good stitching week with a bit of pup-snuggling encouragement!

Sunday Stitching

I know this is a bit redundant since I just did a progress post, but a lot happened this three-day weekend, so I still have enough for my usual Sunday update. Almost all the household projects I skipped last weekend got done this weekend...just a few straggler projects left. How I ever managed time to stitch was pretty surprising actually. I un-scrolled Rainy Wedding and got it ironed (I didn't think it needed washing, so I didn't bother).

You never really pay too much attention to fabric changes when you go up in count (Rainy Wedding was on 18), but when you go back down again, it's really hard to adjust. My fabric of choice is always 28ct Monaco and all of my new projects as well as most of the old ones are on 28ct. It takes a while for my eyes to adjust back to stitching on such tiny fabric. It's probably why I've had a massive headache all day today.

Friday I worked on Suteki...just as I feared, it's dithered to the max, but I still managed a chunk of it, technically, almost half a page (although, in fairness, it's only a partial page anyway):

Honestly, I really just don't like the overall look of it either, but it's what I'm stuck with, so on I must roll. As always, I'm hoping that the end result won't suck as much as it does actually working on it.

On Saturday, I took care of most of the household tasks, so I got started late on Night Wish but, again, I did manage a bit of it:

So far, this one is my favorite. I do absolutely LOVE the colors, but considering purple is my favorite color of all, it's kind of expected. Again though, we'll see how I feel after a couple of rows.

Sunday was set aside for Snow White but, unfortunately, my head didn't cooperate and it decided to explode at some point a few hours ago and I haven't been able to stitch anymore. I'm just now able to even look at a computer screen...here's hoping it's all gone by tomorrow. I got some done on her though, but not nearly as much as I wanted to and it took me forever to do the little bit I finished:

All of these were pretty heavily confetti'ed, at least where I started, but the difference between Suteki and the other two was pretty distinct and I can already tell that, even though Suteki is going to stitch fast, I'm going to hate every minute of it. You guys probably can't tell the detail level, but Snow's compared to Suteki is like night and day which is why my brain can't wrap around why they changed their charting method in the first place.

Despite today's downturn of events, I have still thoroughly enjoying having two three-day weekends in a row. But for now, my head needs to rest.