Updated Bucket List

Unfortunately the Bucket List has grown a little bit since I originally created it, it's now a little longer.

Ben seemed to think that a Bucket List was quite a depressing thing to do, but I look upon it as quite positive, because it means that I've got to last forever to finish everything that's on the list.

Technically I've managed to make the list go down because I've managed to cross 4 off as completed, unfortunately I've added nearly a hundred on that I want to complete, so I'm basically in big trouble.

Happy Stitching!

I'm now up to 126, and consequently am in a lot of trouble!

HAED: Lancelot and Guinevere (Fenech)

HAED: Dragon Rider (Spangler)

Maia: Winter's Majesty

Dragon Dreams: Fairy Tale Sampler

Bothy Threads: Kings & Queens

Bothy: Cut Thru Castle

Cross Stitch Collection: Heathcliffe

Cross Stitch Collection: Robin Hood

Cross Stitch Collection: Regency Ballroom

Cross Stitcher: King Arthur Sampler

Cross Stitcher: Medieval Lady

Dimensions Gold: Elegance of the Orient

Dimensions Gold: Enchanting Geisha

Dimensions Gold: Japanese Maiden

Dimensions Gold: Jewels of the Orient (again)

Dimensions Gold: Mighty Samurai

HAED: A Source of Admiration

HAED: Dahlig: Avarice

HAED: Dahlig: Envy

HAED: Dahlig: Gluttony

HAED: Dahlig: Hope

HAED: Dahlig: Light

HAED: Dahlig: Love

HAED: Dahlig: Lust

HAED: Dahlig: Ophelia

HAED: Dahlig: Pandora

HAED: Dahlig: Sloth

HAED: Dahlig: Vanity

HAED: Dahlig: Wrath

HAED: Hannah Lynn: Alice Lost

HAED: Hannah Lynn: Annabelle

HAED: Hannah Lynn: Glacier Lily

HAED: Hannah Lynn: QS Genevive

HAED: Hannah Lynn: Runaway Princess

HAED: JJB: QS Alice in Clockwork

HAED: Linda Ravenscroft: Mask of Colours 1

HAED: Linda Ravenscroft: Mask of Colours 2

HAED: Linda Ravenscroft: Rapunzel

HAED: Linda Tso: Ice Winds 2

HAED: Meeting on the Turret Stairs

HAED: Meredith Dillman: Alice in Wonderland

HAED: Meredith Dillman: Blossoming Spring

HAED: Meredith Dillman: Fall Fire

HAED: Meredith Dillman: Queen of the Night

HAED: Meredith Dillman: Raven's Treasure

HAED: Meredith Dillman: Summer Sun

HAED: Nene Thomas: Deidre

HAED: Rachel Anderson: Emerald

HAED: Rachel Anderson: Garnet

HAED: Rachel Anderson: Ruby

HAED: Rachel Anderson: Sapphire

HAED: Randal Spangler: Flights of Imagination

HAED: Randal Spangler: Hit any Key

HAED: Randal Spangler: Medieval Shelf

HAED: Randal Spangler: Sundae Delight

HAED: Randal Spangler: Train of Dreams

HAED: Randal Spangler: Treasure Quest

HAED: Rebecca Sniz: Enchanted Evening

HAED: Rebecca Sniz: Gothic Lament

HAED: Selena Fenech: Bewitched

HAED: Selina Fenech: Bright Skies + Dark Waters + Centre Section

HAED: Selina Fenech: Bubbles

HAED: Selina Fenech: Gloriana

HAED: Selina Fenech: Hide & Seek

HAED: Selina Fenech: Impossible Love

HAED: Selina Fenech: Jinxed

HAED: Selina Fenech: Lady of Avalon

HAED: Selina Fenech: Mab

HAED: Selina Fenech: Nephalia

HAED: Selina Fenech: Titania

HAED: The Soul of the Rose

HAED: The Tempest

Heritage Craft: John Clayton: The Grand Ball

Joan Elliott: Earth, Water, Air and Fire Goddess

Joan Elliott: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter Fairies.

Joan Elliott: The Renaissance Ladies

Lanarte: Geisha

Lanarte: Indian Beauty

LOTR: I've got for Lord of the Ring Charts by Fluffy Kittens (I kid you not), I'd like to do one of them, don't mind which)

Maia: Geishas

Maia: Hutari Mai

Maia: Kihaku

Maia: Tsubaki

Maia: Yumezakura

Maia: Zojoji Temple

Memoirs of a Geisha

Mirabilia: Autumn Queen

Mirabilia: Midsummer Nights Fairy

Mirabilia: My Lady of the Mist

Mirabilia: Spring Queen

Mirabilia: Summer Queen

Mirabilia: The Kiss

Mirabilia: Three for Tea

Mirabilia: Venetian Opulence

Mirabilia: Winter Queen

Passione Ricamo: Autumn Fairy Spirit

Passione Ricamo: Fae Eyes

Passione Ricamo: Fairy of Dreams

Passione Ricamo: Mediterrano

Passione Ricamo: Moon Fairy Spirit

Passione Ricamo: My Lady of the Snow

Passione Ricamo: Once Upon a Time

Passione Ricamo: Selene, the Moon Goddess

Passione Ricamo: Serendipity Fae

Passione Ricamo: Spring Fairy Spirit

Passione Ricamo: Summer Fairy Spirit

Passione Ricamo: The Night

Passione Ricamo: Winter Beauty Princess

Passione Ricamo: Winter Fairy Spirit

Penguin Parade (can't remember the make)

Pixel People: Firefly

Pixel People: Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Pixel People: The Princess Bride

Self Designed: Princess Bride

Self Designed: Susan Sto Helit (Discworld)

Self Designed: Wicked

Pixel People: Big Bang Theory

Bothy: Dictionary of Tea

Kustom Krafts: Little Snap Dragon

Birth Sampler

First update of Fairy Tale Sampler

Here's the first update of Fairy Tale Sampler, which I'm rather enjoying working on. The fabrics lovely and sparkly, but I can't get the camera to take a picture of the pretty sparkles.

Due to a slight moment of stupidity on my part this is on 32 count rather than 28 count, which is what it should be on, but I didn't notice until I'd already started sewing, so now I'm crossing my fingers that the beads fit okay despite the fact that the fabric's the wrong count, I think it'll be okay.

I can't do much more on this now because I'm waiting on teh beads and threads that I had to order, including some very nice Caron Waterlilies dyed threads which look beautiful. Can't wait for them to arrive so I can carry on with it. It'll look great when it's finished, lots of speciality stitches that I've never done. Can't wait!

2012 Stitching Plans

Okay, it's that time of year where we all start making plans about what we're going to stitch in the next year, and having seen the gorgeous (and ambitious) list that Joysze's set herself for this year, I thought that it was probably about time I thought about doing mine.

So, I'd love to say that I'm going to finish my first Heaven and Earth Design, but I think that that might a little unlikely. Instead I'm going to aim to achieve the following.

HEAD: Lance and Gwen: The top row, so that's 3 pages to complete

HAED: Dragon Rider: The bottom row, so that's 7 half pages.

Maia: Winter's Majesty: Next row, so that's actually only two pages

Dragon Dreams: Fairy Tale Sampler: Complete

Pixel People: A chart off the bucket list, there are 3 to choose between

Cross Stitcher: King Arthur Sampler: At least the first page.
Joan Elliott: Start a Joan Elliott chart
Dork Stitch: Come to the dark side

I think that's more than enough, but I think (maybe) that it should be just about achieveable, I hope!

I know I've seen that a few people have already put their lists up, but for those that haven't, go on, give it a shot.

Right, I'm off to order the speciality bits that I need for my Fairy Tale Sampler.

Happy Stitching!

Final TUSAL of the year

The final, slightly blurry TUSAL of the year, with the threads from Little Snap Dragon and Big Bang Theory in it.

Hope everyone has had a good year, has a good Christmas and is looking forward to the New Year.

and it all started with a Big Bang!

A quick little Pre-Christmas finish.

I wanted a little project to work on this week having finished Little Snap Dragon last week, and this little chart was calling out to me.

This lovely little chart is by Wee Little Stitches and I just loved it. In fact I recommend a quick visit to her site if you are in any way a geek, cos she's got loads of charts in this style, there are at least three others that I want to do, Princess Bride, Monty Python and Firefly!

I have to admit that I don't normally like working on little charts, I don't know why, but I have enjoyed this, although Leonard is a little cross eyed, but I'm willing to admit that that probablyt has something to do with my stitching rather than the charting.

I hope everyone has an absolutely lovely Christmas, I'm sure I'll get another post in before New Year, but just in case I don't, I also hope that everyone has a lovely and happy New Year.

IHSW and a finish

Well, I had a productive International Hermit and Stitch weekend. Much to my surprise I managed to finish Little Snap Dragon, and I think he's rather sweet.

I've been working on him (on and off) for fifteen months, although there was a seven month gap in there, so I've actually only been working on it for about eight months.

I didn't enjoy it very much when I started, and I wasn't quite convinced with the shading, but in the last few weeks when I've been working on it the shading's all started to make sense and it seems to have stitched much faster, possibly because I was finally pulling everything together.

I've also promised Ben that I'll mention him in this post and how the fact that I finished it is partially down to him.

Having had quite a busy Saturday (his final family Christmas shopping, a two hour power cut which involved me trying to finish off a stitched Christmas card as part of his secret santa for his works do in the evening) on Sunday he glanced over my shoulder while I was looking at other blogs and noticed that it was International Hermit and Stitch Weekend. As such he declared that I wasn't allowed to help him with the chores that he had to do and that instead I had to stay home to do some Hermit and Stitching as the weekend declared. He also then agreed to watching Miracle on 34th Street while I stitched later on in the day. Which I thought was very sweet of him and meant that I got Little Snap Dragon finished around 10 o'clock yesterday evening.

I hope everyone else had an equally lovely and successful International Hermit and Stitch Weekend.

Now I'm debating what to put on the frame to replace him, I think I've decided that it's going to be the Fairy Tale Sampler and fabric that I bought a few weeks ago from the stitching fair, but mum's agreed that I can have these off her for Christmas (I couldn't really justify buying it), so I can't do anything with that for a week.

Happy stitching!

Another week... hopefully!

He's getting there, and I'm hoping that one more week (I've got next Friday off and currently nothing planned) will be long enough to get it finished!

He's got a a torso now (do dragons have torsos?), and he almost looks like he's attached to his wings now.

The flowers and stalks are all finished, so all that's left is the dragon himself, which is very exciting because it means that I can see it all coming together now.

Oh yeah, and it's International Hermit and Stitch weekend. I don't know how much time I'm going to get this weekend, but I'll give it a show.

Happy stitching!
Oh yeah, and I'm still useless with commenting (think I might have to cave in and get a new computer in the new year), but I'm going to make a concerted effort to comment on as many blogs as I can over Christmas and New Year, just to prove that I haven't forgotten anything.

The end is in sight

I've done two weeks on this and was going to put it away to work on something else, but when it's so close to being finished I haven't got the heart to put it away. So hopefully, in the next couple of weeks I should be able to show a final finish for the year.

I was planning to get a lot more done yesterday because I had a half day. Unfortunately I had the half day because I had my wisdom teeth out, so I spent more of yesterday feeling sorry for myself than I meant to, so I didn't manage to do quite as much stitching as I was hoping to, but I did a little bit, so that's better than nothing.

There's a definite dragon shape appearing here, but right now he doesn't quite seem to be attached to his wings, I'll have to work on that this weekend, so it looks like it's actually all the same thing. There's not much left to do, the last couple of colours to finish the stalks, half a flower above his snout and of course the rest of the dragon. End of the year? Yeah, no problem!

Little Snap Dragon is Growing

I can't believe how quickly this is stitching up. More to the point I can't believe how slowly I used to be working on this. I've only got a page and a half left to do and I'm done, and I've done three half pages this week. It's completely possible that I'll have this finished by Christmas. Why was it taking me so long to stitch this last time? Getting used to working on HAEDs has obviously done wonders for my stitching speed cos I'm suddenly so used to working on quite fiddlyh stitching. The only thing I'd say about this is I seem to be changing colour all the time, even more often than I feel I do with a HAED, don't know why that is.

Oh yeah, for HAED fans, have you seen Selina Fenech's three new pin up witches? I really hope they get charted, they're just lovely. Oh yeah, and I crumbled on the HAED sale again, I am a bad person!

Anyway, I better get my ass into gear and out of the house, I'm a volunteer usher at my local theatre and it's my first shift doing the Panto today, so I better get ready for that. Happy stitching everyone.

Oh yeah, and I apologise for not commenting much at the moment. I've complained about the vagaries of my computer in the past, so I won't go into that again, but I'm also having some problems with blogger that when I try to comment it tells me that I don't have permission. It's happening quite randomly, some days I can comment on one blog and not another and the next it's the other way round, so I apologise for not being more chatty, but chances are I've tried to comment and the computer's refused to let me!

A little bit of Stash Enhancement!

Okay, so I said I wasn't going to be anything at the Knitting and Stitching show, but lets be honest, we all knew that that was a lie, I had good intentions, but it just wasn't going to happen. So here's what I got, a chart called Fairy Tale Sampler which I fell in love with, and its going to be my new year challenge because it's got some speciality stitches in it which I've never done, so I'll do that.

I also bought some beautiful fabric to stitch it on, from a company called Sparklies I recommend her, she's got some absolutely gorgeous fabrics, they're lovely!

Finally, I fell in love with another Bothy Kit, called Kings & Queens. It's gorgeous! What do you think? Isn't it great! I'm going to have to get it at some point.

Little Angel is FINISHED!

 Right then, a miracle has happened, I've managed a second finish in 2011, I really didn't think that that was going to happen. Here's Little Angel by Maria Diaz.

I've got mixed feelings about this one. It was quite an easy stitch, although I really did get sick of the sight of cream, as it felt like that was all I worked on for two or three weeks. It does look really effective now that it's finished, although I do have to say that it's really not to my taste, I've only stitched becuase it's a present for some friends who are due to have a day in new year! In fact Ben's even declared that the mum on this looks a bit like our mum to be, although I'm not as sure that I can see it. But it does make it look even more thoughtful than it actually is, so I'll go with it if that's what he thinks!

Of course, the fact that Little Angel is finished means that the frame is freed up and Little Snap Dragon can finally go back on to a frame and I can stop feeling guilty about the fact that I've been neglecting him for nearly an entire year! I love this piece, I settled down to work on it again last night and am back in love with him. It's such an easy stitch. I have a vague memory of thinking that was a bit confetti based when I was stitching it originally, but after working on a couple of HAEDs this is suddenly really simple to work on.

I was going to work on Dragon Rider this week, (Ben's away so I've got a day of stitching goodness ahead of me) but now that I've got Little Snap Dragon back I just want to keep working on it, I reckon I can get the wings page finished today, and hopefully the stalks on the bottom page as well if I put my mind to it and really work on it today (and this week of course, but it may be a busy week this week).

In other news, it's the knitting and stitching show in Harrogate today, and seeing as I live about 5 minutes walk from where it's being held I couldn't not go, so before my stitching marathon can start I'm going to see if I can test my will power and see if I'm capable of spending an hour or two in a room with that much stitching stuff and not buy anything... I suspect that I can't, but you never know, I could surprise myself.

TUSAL

I forgot TUSAL again, I'm useless.

Here's this month, it's mostly light blue and cream from Winter's Majesty and Little Angel this month!

International Hermit and Stitch Weekend

Good evening all, did everyone have a good International Hermit and Stitch Weekend?

I got quite a bit done, although it's not really looking like much because all I've done it add more cream. I'll be honest, I'm getting a little bored  of cream, but I know it'll be worth it in the end. I've still got to do mum's top, her neck and face, babies sleeve and face. I'll get there, I'm hoping to get it all done this week, then all I've got is the darker colours and the backstitch. The aim is by the end of the year. Two finishes in one year, can such a magical thing happen?

I haven't had a chance to check out everyone elses proress yet, but I promise I will, and will leave comments on as many as I can.

Filling in some blue

I'm a bit late posting this week. I somehow ended up covering for one of Ben's receptionists when she couldn't make it into work this morning. Gulible? Moi? I guess I must just be a loving girlfriend.

I've managed to make a fair bit of progress though, there are who sections that I practically filled in now. Although there are also whole sections that don't actually have any stitches done. But, as predicted with the end of the evil little flowers, my love of this piece has returned, and I am rather enjoying seeing the shape of her actually appearing now.

And now, for International Hermit and Stitch weekend and the following week I'm back on to Little Angel, which contains a lot of cream. I've just had to go and buy a second skein!

Cream, cream and more cream!

There is a lot of cream in this piece, so that's pretty much what I've been stitching this week, as the title says, cream, cream and more cream!

It is starting to look a lot better with the extra colours filling in. I think that there are only about four colours left, but I think it's time for a break, I'm getting fed up of the all the cream.

Hope everyones stitching is going well, I'm enjoying everyone's progress and am starting to manage to comment on other people's blogs, so all is good in the world!

I can see it!

Now that I've got a third (start or a fourth) colour in here, the shading's starting to look better. I'm hating the darker colour less now that it's all fading in a bit better. I'm pretty comfortable that I'll be able to get this finished within time. Little dude is due in January, and it'll probably be a couple of months after that little dude is christened so plently of time. But I'm aiming to get it finished in time for the birth so I've just got to get it framed for the christening.

So, now I'm debating what to work on next, I think I will take a week off from this, but I can't work out what's calling to me the most. I do love Dragon Rider which is technically what I'm due to work on. But my love for Winter's Majesty is returning and she has seen periods of neglect this year. Also, Lance & Gwen has seen a drought this year, so it'd be nice to work on that. But if I work on Little Angel then when it's finished I can get back to Little Snap Dragon. Basically I just can't decide. I'm sure that I'll make a decision at some point in the next 24 hours!

Oh yeah, in other news we went to see Bill Bailey in Sheffield last night, he was absolutely brilliant, really funny!

Nearly finished the flowers!

I know, it actually doesn't look like much, but this is a big step for me, I've nearly finished the evil flowers on this section, which means that my love of this piece has returned, because that's the bit that I really don't like working on. You can almost see this page taking shape, so it's a start!

I actually want to make a bit of an apology today. I'm not commenting on people's blogs at the moment. My computer is going through a bit of a tempremental phase (I think it's telling me that it's going to break soon - must remember to back everythin up!) whenever I try to open a second page then it keeps freezing my computer, so I am reading most people's blogs I think, but I'm always worrying that clicking another link to comment will be the one that causes the freeze! I'm debating gettin a tablet for internet browsing, but I'm undecided at the moment, so generally I'm just potterin along.

Also, I may go a bit quiet through out November. I've signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writin Month), which means that I'm meant to try and write 50 000 words in November. To be honest, I'm not convinced that I can see it happening. But if by some fluke it does, if I disappear, that's why!

Tusal of the month

Here's the latest (very blurry) update.

Happy stitching!

Little Angel update

I know, not the most original of titles this week!

Here it is, two colours in, but I'm not sure about the shading thus far. It doesn't look right somehow.

I'm hoping that another couple of colours will even it out a bit!

Hope everyone's having a fun weekend!

Internation Hermit & Stitch and Parking

I've made another attempt at parking, and I'm actually getting along with it a lot better this time... and I've created the beginning of some small mushrooms (it's not a very good picture, but they're there, honest!).

I didn't get as much done this weekend as I was hoping to, but I've achieved a row and a black smush, so that's not bad!

Hope everyone else had a good Hermit and Stitch, I'm off to  check out everyone elses stitching!

Return of the Evil Flowers - The Evil Flowers Strike Back

For some reason that I can't quite fathom the colours haven't come out on this quite as well as I would have liked, but then I also didn't get as much stitching done on this as I would have liked, so perhaps it's just one of those weeks!

You can see the beginning of the next set of evil little flowers (hence the title) down the right hand side, and that's mostly what I've been working on this week, along with a little bit of the fur trim on her cloak.

International Hermit and Stitch again this weekend (it seems to have come round really fast this month. Is everyone joining in? I've got a few plans for today but hopefully that will also involve some stitching time, and I haven't got much planned for tomorrow yet, so hopefully so progress will be achieved. Dragon Rider is coming out again, I've only got half a page left to finish the first column, so I'm keen to work on that and try and achieve it, start to give me an idea of the size of a completed HAED. Unfortunately the latest Terry Pratchett novel also arrived today, so there's a chance that I'm going to get distracted from my stitching by that.

In other news it was my birthday on Thursday so I had a day off, and Ben took me out to lunch (local pub/restaurant called the Pine Marten, really nice), and we went to see the Three Musketeers in the evening at the cinema. I'm getting behind in my reviews, but I might try and get round to posting a review of that this weekend when I want a break for squinting at 25 count. And what did I get for my birthday? Ben got me a purple ukulele! It currently sounds like I'm torturing cute furry animals when I try to play it, but I'm going to try and play it (well practice chords at the moment) a little each day until it stops sounding like the torture of cute furry animals, and starts sounding like something that vaguely resembles music.

Have a fun weekend all, and enjoy the stitchathon if you're joining in!

DrumChasers

Better late then never, I said last Sautrday that I was going to put this post up, and I'm only just getting round to it now. Lazy, that's what I am, just lazy. Also increidibly disorganised and forgetful!

Anyway, I said last week that I'd been to see an incredible show called DrumChasers which is touring at the moment, unfortunately just coming to the end of it's tour actually, so this may not be massively relevant to many of you, but I do suggest keeping an eye out in case it comes somewhere near you. I believe that it will be heading to Holland (I think) soon, and also that there are plans to head to London at some point.

The cast are mostly unknown. The only exception being Stephen Fry who I suspect most people will have heard of, however he wasn't there. A voice over of a narrator was pre-recorded and played in the right places. The narrator explains what is happening and gives you a bit of history on the plot because, apart from a couple of lines from Mr Bennett there's little to no dialogue.

To give you a vauge idea of what DrumChasers is think of a percussion show (something along the line of Stomp but with drums and percussion instruments in feet - there's an entire routine played on the triangle!) with a Romeo and Juliet style plot with warring factions and star crossed lovers and that's pretty much a run down of what the show is, but it doesn't really do justice to the sheer joy and power of the show as a whole. I have to admit to not being able to play any form of musical instrument, but that doesn't mean that I can't see talent in others, and these guys were incredibly talented. It absolutely amazed me the sort of beautiful noises that could come out of instruments that is basically someone hitting an object with a stick. It made me completely fall in love with Xylophones and Glockenspiels (sp?), they make such a beautiful noise.

The show takes places in the backstage of a theatre where the caretaker (Mr Bennett played by Jack Warner) is tidying up. I think the entire audience fell in love with Mr Bennett, he was brilliant, and his plot arc was very dramatic! As he's tidying there are some odd noises and the DrumChasers invade the theatre.

The first DrumChaser that you really see is Weckl (Rachel Stone), who practically speaking isn't actually a DrumChaser, but I'm not going to get that involved in that detail here. First and foremost, I want her hat, it was brillant. Weckl is the force that keeps the two warring factions apart, through the use of two lightsabre esq weapons (and yes, you can buy replica in the foyer - there were a lot of happy kids there). Weckl didn't get as involved in the percussive performances as some of the other performers, but she was a beautiful dancer was was fabulous to watch, giving a macabre but sensous performance, and her fascination when she inspected Mr Bennett when she first saw him was a joy to watch. She also leads the audience in some percussive clapping of their own at the end. Yes, there is audience participation, but don't worry, it isn't scary and you won't be dragged up on stage, but you'll be amazed, even you can be involved in making lovely percussion noises through only the use of clapping.

The second performance that caught my eye was Buddy played by Simon Morgan-Thomas. Buddy was one half of the love story and is a character who is relentless in his determination to bring the two factions together.There is a charm in his depiction of a young man in love for the first time, not quite sure how to act to impress her, his efforts hampered by the warring groups who don’t want to see love across the divide, and it's a beautiful moment when, rather than presenting his love with a bunch of flowers he presents her with a bunch of drum sticks tied with a ribbon. He was also the only cast member to come out into the audience at the end of the performance, drawing smiles (if also a little nervous laughter, especially from us) from all that he approached. Again, another dramatic arc that had the audience on the edge of their seats at the end.

Finally you have to mention Gene & Jansen, performed by Amy Kelly and Roger Chapman, who are very much the comedy duo of the ensemble. They are the trouble makers of the group and responsible for the two funniest routines in the show. One of thses is a brilliant UV sequence. I did theatre when I was (a lot) younger and logically speaking I knew how the UV sequence was done, most people will but, despite the fact that we were sat on the front row, I still couldn't actually see it being done, and it was such fun to watch.

Another routine that I loved was when they decide to steal tambourines of Mr Bennett because they're fascinated by the noise they make. It's a wonderfully playful routine where the tambourines are passed round the stage in an elaborate game of piggy in the middle while Mr Bennett trys to chase after them to get them back.

Overall, as you can probably tell, I loved this show and have been enthusing to anyone who will sit still for long enough (people are starting to avoid me). It was fun and imaginiative, and really high energy. Suitable for all the family there were families with young kids who were fascinated by the noise and colours to groups like ourselves who just sat there open mouthed at some on the sounds and routines created. If it comes near you, I really do recommend going to see it becuase it was just such fun.

The web address if you want to see their tour dates etc is www.drumchasers.co.uk

There's also a trailer on the site! And a shop - personally I'm hoping that they'll add a dvd eventually

Whoop Whoop!

Another update a day later, this isn't like me at all. But I've finished the page, which makes me very happy, so I thought I'd share that happiness with all my lovely followers in blog land!

Two pages done, I can't even remember how many more to go, possibly 12 full and 7 half pages to go, but it's only another half page before I've finished the first column, and if I've remembered that right that means I'm nearly (ish) one seventh of the way through!

But anyway, I love it! I love the difference that filling in all those little white gaps makes! I still love the castle, but now I've got a tree that I love as well, so all is good in my stitching world!

So now I'm debating what to work on next, I ought to go back to working on the birth sampler, but I don't really want to. I do love this and am very tempted to go straight onto working on the next page, but it's also a long time since I worked on Winter's Majesty, and I am feeling bad for neglecting it, and I've been neglecting Lance & Gwen for even longer and also quite fancy picking that up again. Hmmm, decisions decisions!

And review for DrumChasers will still follow, I'm still composing!

So near and yet so far!

I meant to finish this page this week, but it didn't quite happen. However I did manage to finish all the confetti so all that's left for this page is the black now, so hopefully should be finished in the next couple of days.

I'm loving the castle! As per usual when you've got your nose three inches away from it you can't really see what's developing. Now that I look at the picture I can see the shading and the shape of the castle when it was just a bit of a grey shmush when I was working on it!

I have a question... I set myself targets to finish by the end of the year, and unless some kind of miracle happens, I'm not going to achieve them so, what do I do?

Do I pick one or two to concentrate on so that I can achieve some of my targets and let some others fall by the wayside

OR

Do I continue to work on each of them and get each one closer to where I was aiming to be?

I've got one that I've got to finish, the birth sampler needs to be finished by the end of the year because you can't ask a little dude to wait to be born, but other than that I've got no time limits to work to.

I will actually do a second post later, I went to see the incredible DrumChasers last night because I knew someone who was in it, so I've promised that I'll put a review together for them, so second post to follow! Hope everyone has a good weekend and that the rugby fans aren't shouting at the TV as much as Ben is!

The start of Little Angel

Here's my first week on Little Angel. Seeing as I actually haven't had much time to work on it I'm quite happy with how much I've done and how fast it's stitching up. Despite the fact that I've done one and a half colours you can clearly see the picture taking shape, how often can you say that?

This is one of those projects that I know will look great when it's finished, but it's not really to my taste so there is an element of knowing that I have to work on it, as oppossed to wanting to. But as I say, it seems to be stitching quite quickly so hopefully it shouldn't be too much of a struggle to get it finished in time (as long as she's roughly on her due date, early January).

I started a second job yesterday (like my life isn't full enough), so I'm now waitressing at a local little restaurant two evenings a week, which is a bit of a catch twenty-two, because it means that I'll have more money to spend on my hobby (for the first time since being an undergrad I'll be being paid weekly and in cash - it's a bit like having pocket money again), but I'll have less time to work on the hobby. Although the money is going to be used for other things as well. I also have a couple of days off coming up in the next couple of weeks which will involve some stitching time. Off this coming Wednesday on a random day off, the following Thursday for my birthday (woo hoo, I'm such a kid, still get massively excited about my birthday) and then Ben's away for a conference that weekend as well, so a bit of a stitching marathon will (hopefully) happen in the next few weeks.

So what to work on next? The rotation has crumbled a bit in the last few weeks so I'm pretty much picking up whatever I want to work on for a week until I wor out what I'm going to have as my rotation. Was putting Little Angel away last night and debating what to work on next and as my brain was fried from an 8 hour office day then a 4 hour waitress shift I decided Ben could decide instead.

Me: What shall I work on next?

Him: (Surprisingly decided and almost excited) Dragon Rider!

Me: Is that because that's the only one you can name?

Him: (sounding insulted) No, you like Dragon Rider, you're working on the baby one as well.

All pretty true really, I do like Dragon Rider, and am generally referring to Little Angel as 'the baby one' myself. Anyway, England/Scotland rugby match has just started, so I'm off to stitch through that while Ben watches it and gets far to over excited for this time in the morning!