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!

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!