Tusal-y goodness!

I'm a day late, I'm sorry! And it's an appalling photo, all in all, this post has gone well!

My first (and probably last) finish of the year!

It's finished! Yay, I got a finish in 2011, I was starting to think that that wasn't going to happen! And it is, almost certainly going to be my only finish of the year, so I'd better make the most of it!

I finished the Dictionary of Tea, and this makes me very happy. Now I have to contact the friend in quesiton and get her to come and collect her present for one of her friends as this was (technically) a commission piece!

I loved working on this, Bothy charts are such beautifully easy charts to stitch, it's all whole stitches and it's the easiest back stitch that I have ever done. And it really makes the pictures pop out where they didn't really look like much without it. Also, love the fact that you actually get 10 little projects or finishes when you do the Dictionaries.

So, this finished, next project sorted and about to be started. We have friends who are due to have a little dude in January so I'm doing a Maria Diaz chart which I think is called 'Little Angel' but I seem to have thrown away the page that had the title on it, so I wouldn't swear to it.

A saucy little pot

Here it is, the penultimate teapot, only one more to go. And it has to be said that I rather like this one. I saved my two favourites till last (as is often the case with my stitching, I think I've had this rant before - start with the boring bits/the back ground and it helps to stop me from losing interest because I've still got the best bits/the central focus to look forward to!) so here's my second favourite tea stitched, and I've only got my favourite one left to do. My plan is that by this time next week it'll all be finished and I'll be able to call the friend who asked me to do this in the first place to tell her that's it's all finished and she can give it to the friend that she bought it for a few years back. And in turn I can start on the birth sampler that is beginning to stare accusingly at me whenever I go anywhere near it.

I have really enjoyed working on this kit, it's the first time I've done a Bothy Threads and it's been most enjoyable. I'll probably do a little review of the kit etc next week when I post my finished picture of it... I will finish it by next weekend, if I have to stay up until all hours to do so... and I've just realised that this is a rather foolish promise as I'm busy next weekend and pretty busy this week. But I want it to be finished so one way or another this will be achieved.

And in other news... why would Michele have another sale on the HAED site, it's good for neither my will power or my bank balance. I ended up with another 3, Raven's Treasure by Meredith Dillman, Rapunzel by Linda Ravenscroft (she looks so grumpy and yet I still love it for some reason) and QS Genevive by Hannah Disney... they're all charts that are on my bucket list at least. And I was thinking about it the other day, cross stitch (even taking into account the seriously addictive nature of stashing), is quite a cheap hobby really. Yes it can be a bit of a painful outlay when you first buy the kit or kit up your chosen chart, but think how long that then lasts you. If you worked it out at cost per hour I'd be surprised if it was even close to a £1 per hour, it's probably only a matter of pence per hours fun and enjoyment, in which case, pretty cheap hobby, especially when I consider that a couple of hours at the cinema is £10, an hour at Zumba is £4, an hours badminton £12 and a couple of hours at the theatre £15. And just think, once you've made the initial outlay your hobby is then free for the period of that kit/chart! See, suddenly that few pence per hour on your stitching, not so bad. Check it out, justified out stitching addicition (and even the stashing to a certain degree) in one simple paragraph

After a gap - a new tea pot

I've been quite for a week. We've been on holiday and got back and some unnatural hour in the morning on Sunday morning, so that's why I haven't been commenting etc!

Here's the latest teaapot, and I'm not sure that I like it as much as the others, I don't quite like the writing on it for some reason, it looks oddly uneaven, and that's after I altered it slightly. It's improved a little from how it looks on the chart, but still doesn't quite look right to me somehow. Only two teas left!

I'm just in the process on catching up on everyones blogs for the last week, but I don't know how well I'll do, so I apologise if I don't manage to comment on all the blogs like I normally do.