A little later than intended

... but still before the end of the year so I'm happy, all of Clara's outlining is done and I'm ready to colour her in. I'm going to put her away for a little while to finally dedicate some time to some other projects but I'm pretty happy with how she looks and looking forward to adding all the colour in.

2012 Goals and how I've done

Short answer, not great!

 

So, here goes:

HEAD: Lance and Gwen: The top row, so that's 3 pages to complete - Didn't manage it - did one page in total

HAED: Dragon Rider: The bottom row, so that's 7 half pages. - Didn't manage it,3 pages in total

Maia: Winter's Majesty: Next row, so that's actually only two pages - Also no, managed half of it.

Dragon Dreams: Fairy Tale Sampler: Complete - woohoo, I completed one

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

Cross Stitcher: King Arthur Sampler: At least the first page. - Didn't even start it

Joan Elliott: Start a Joan Elliott chart - Failed miserably

Dork Stitch: Come to the dark side - Completed

And now I need to justify the fact that I failed all but two, here are the things that weren't on the target list that I got distracted by:

•  Chakra Fae by Linda Ravenscroft - 1 and a half pages
• Hannah Lynn's QS Clara - by the end of the year I'll have completed the black on all 9 pages
• Passione Ricamo SAL - two full pages (apart from beads) and half of the next two pages
• World Collection - first girl (China) compelted.
• Pride and Prejudice - first page completed
   

It meets up!

You have no idea how relieved I was when I finished the circuit and it actually met up, such a relief. I was absolutely terrified that I'd get to the bottom of the page and find that I was a stitch out somehwere around the edge. I actually did a little happy dance when it worked! I'm now taking bets on whether I can get her finished by Christmas rather than New Year, it might be achieveable. We've only got a couple of things to do today, although I am working tomorrow (boo), and I volunteered for the Sunday shift, it wasn't on my rota but they were short so I volunteered... if I hadn't done that I'd have finished for Christmas by now!

I think this will be my last post before Chirstmas (unless I do manage to finish her - well, the black), so I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas, gets everything that they want from Santa and don't spend all day stuck in the kitchen cooking! Have fun!

Last International Hermit & Stitch of 2012

And it didn't go to badly actually. Especially considering the time of year and how many other things there are to get done. Clara is growing, Only 1 full page and two partials to go (one of those I'm now over halfway through), I think I'm still on target to get all the outlining done by the end of the year (fingers crossed)! I do love her, I almost don't want to finish the outlining because I know that the colouring in will go so much slower... but then I've got Heather to look forward to starting for the Rakateers SAL so just as I finish it for this I'll have a new one to start on (yeah, like I need a new start, I know).

For those that do celebrate, hope everyone is looking forward to Christmas. I have to admit that with the two jobs I'm really looking forward to some time off, as I'm (currently) not down to work for either job. Think we're closing the office over Christmas, and as my second job is casual, all the hours that are available go to the full time staff, which I'm perfactly happy with. Most of my shopping is done, I have to finish my wrapping this week and that's it, it's all good!

Happy Stitching all!

I'm slightly less behind!

The title says it all really, I'm still behind, but it's slightly less behind than I was last week. I'm still hoping to get the top row finished by the end of the year, but seeing as I'm also wanting to get the black of Clara finished by the end of the year (and she's calling to me more), this might fall by teh wayside ever so slightly. It's been quite nice stitching this week though, the gold work always surprises me by being much easier and quicker to stitch than I expect it to be, and I've also been doing some nice easy block stitching, thus why it actually looks like I've made some progress this year.

Another page done

Here's the development of Clara, I'm still loving working on her, and this page has stitched up quite quickly! I'm starting another Hannah Lynn as a New Year SAL (Heather for those that are interested), so I'm looking forward to another one where I can enjoy working on the outline! I think I'm still just about on track to get all the black done before the end of year, although I also want to get some more progress done on the Passione Ricamo SAL before the end of the year! Can't believe it's that time of the year when I'm looking towards end of year targets and working out what targets I want to set myself for next year.

I was starting to catch up...

I was starting to catch up (not much I know, but a bit), I was working on pages 3 and 4 together and was starting to get somewhere, then the new page was released this morning, and I'm still about 3 pages behind. But she has grown this week, and that makes me happy... and she's on my new Millennium Frame, which I'm loving! The new page released today is very exciting, it's got her face on!

 

I don't update on this project because she lives under my desk at work, but as I'd finished the first one, I couldn't resist bringing her home to take a pic. She doesn't look that clear because the flash has bleached teh paler colours, but I'm quite chuffed to finally finish one of them.

Designs on Craft: Giveaway

Just a quick post, Designs on Craft are having another lovely giveaway if yu fancy heading over and adding your name to the list.

Well, I managed it before the end of the month

I've stitched my little butt off this evening, and have rather surprised myself by managing to finish the page... yay! Feel like I've been working on this page for ages so it's lovely to see it finished... now debating what to work on next.

So near and yet so far!

I'm getting there, and I've finally finished the star fish! The end of the page is in sight, but I've been working on it for so long that I just want to get it done now. Hopefully I can manage to actually get some progress this weekend, I'm still hoping to get the page finished by the end of the month, and I still think that it's achieveable!

Went to the Knitting and Stitching show in Harrogate today, always dangerous. I got a Millennium Frame (every one on facebook has been raving about them for ages, so I finally gave in and got one), and went to see the lovely Kate at Sparklies, I've stitched on her fabric before, the dragon sampler I did at the beginning of this year was one of hers, so I caved and got some more today, and they're both beautiful. Dark Sorceress and Lavendar Blue if you want to have a look on her site.

Quick IHSW update

I'm a little disappointed to be honest, I thought I'd done more than this... I am starting to close up the little white gaps there... getting there. Maybe I'll manage this by the end of the month... stranger things have happened!

More tininess

Another tiny update, I miss having time to stitch, there's difference, honest there really is! I'm hoping to actually show some decent progress next week, you know, the sort of progress where you can actually tell that I've done something, when I actually have had time to do some stitching... well, it's bound to happen one of these days.

 

And a little upate on the Passione Ricamo, her wings are starting to take shape! Woohoo!

I've also decided to set myself some 'to the end of the year' targets, although I'm also trying to take into account my now, rather limited, stitching time.

• Finish current page of Dragon Rider
• Finish the black on Clara
• Finish the top row of Passione Ricamo SAL
• Hopefully the current page of Chakra Fae

I'm possibly being a little optimisitc, but you never know, I might manage it!

Look, an actual difference

I know it's not much of a difference, but it's there, you can see a definite difference, and considering how little stitching time I get at the moment (damn second job), I'm glad to see that! Basically, I've added a door, and a little bit of blue sky! But as I say, seeing progress is enough for me! I can't believe that I'm already looking forward to Chirstmas, because it currently looks like I'll be working very little for either job and so should get plenty of time off, and so hopefully also plenty of time to stitch. Can't wait!

Also, everyone on the groups at the moment keeps going on about Millennium frames, so I'm debating saving up for one and treating myself, you seem to get incredible tension off them, judging by what everyone's saying anyway!

Lots of Tiny Updates

As the title says, I've got lots of tiny little updates this week due to stitching as and when I can in between shifts. You can barely see the difference on Dragon Rider, barely anything to see, but I honestly have worked on this, even if it was only for an hour. I'll try and put a bit more work into it this week so that I've actually got something to show.

I've done more on this page than it looks like I have. Due to being an idiot I'd done the white and lilac on her wings in the wrong colour (it should have been sparkly and it wasn't), so I had to unpick it all and re-do it to put the sparkle in, and unfortunately you can't see the sparkle on the photos so it doesn't look and different. It's only a couple of hours work to re-do and get me a bit further on at crafting group last week though, so I don't fee like I've lost loads of time. I should have received the next page on Thursday and for some reason I don't seem to have received it yet, (and yes, I did check my junk folder as well), so I've had to drop her an email and ask if she can re-send it to me... although I'm so behind that it's not like I'm going to need it any time soon.

 

And finally, my work lunchtime project gets a little update as well, she doens't come home very often, but then she also doesn't get worked on very often as my lunch breaks have been surprisingly dry just recently. But I had to bring her home this weekend to exchange the colours that I've used to ones that I still need to do so i thought I'd get a picture at the first time. I'm not far off finishing the first girl, and more importantly she actually looks like a girl now, rather than a sunburnt sea lion and a devil, which are stages that I seem to have gone throguh just recently.

Giveaway at Designs on Craft

Good morning everyone,

 

The lovely Designs on Craft (okay, I'm biased, I know them) are having a giveaway at the moment... in fact I believe that it's going to be a series of giveaways so why not pop over and look at the pretty shiny things that are currently being offered and what else might happen in the future.

http://designsoncraft2.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/giveaway.html

And good luck to everyone that decides to enter.

I see a tail

I feel like I haven't worked on a proper confetti HAED in ages, the only other HAED I've worked on recently is my Hannah Lynn and as I've been working on the black on that I haven't been changing colours and colouring in for ages. I love it, it looks great,  the castle is defintiely filling in, there's a proper tail developing and I've started to colour in Patrick, which is great!

Haven't got as much stitching as I wanted to this week, and I'm late posting tonight because I've had a Saturday shift, my first one, shock horror!

IHSW October

Did everyone have a good International Hermit and Stitch Weekend. Mine's been pretty good, but I was predicting that it would be. Ben was away and I didn't have much planned, so I was hopeful that I've have something decent to show. I've been good though, I haven't just stitched. I've managed to make it to the gym and go out for a coffee with a friend as well. But here's the progress that I have made. Firstly my progress on the Passione Ricamo SAL, I finished page two. Granted I'm still two pages behind, but it's progress all the same. And I can see the beginning of her wings, so she's starting to look like something, which is good. I'll have to try and see if I can get another page done before the next one's released in a week or so, it seems unlikely, but you never know.

Secondly, I've managed to get back to Dragon Rider. I didn't think I'd have much to show on this, but it looks better than I expected to. If I compare it to the last pic I can see a fairly major difference. Although you guys, my poor follwers, probably won't actually be able to see much difference, I'm afraid you'll just have to take my word for it. There's more castle than there was in my last progress picture, and you can also see a but more tail than you originally could, well, I'm happy with it anyway.

I finally finished the page

I finally finished the first page of Pride and Prejudice, and I love that it's finished becuase it makes such a difference, and has really bought the page together. I actually finished this while watching Persuasion, so not quite right, but it was close. I do love how this is turning out actually, it'll look great once it's finished! I can see the beginning of his eye now, and that's her forehead at the bottom. It seemed to take me quite a while to do the easy stitching on this page, but I love the outcome so it's all good.

Secondly, an update on the Passione Ricamo SAL, there's not a massive difference since my last post, I've basically done some more blue! The advantage is that the blue is very easy stitching, and I should get the rest of the blue finished today (if I dont' I'll be seriously worried about my stitching speed). It's International Hermit and Stitch weekend this weekend, and Ben's away, so I'm planning on having a proper hermit and stitch. I want to finish this page (including the start of the wing on the right, which'll probably stray into the next page as well), and then planning on moving back to Dragon Rider who has been long neglected and feeling unloved.

It's been a long week so I've been really looking forward to this weekend. It's been my first proper week in my second job this week, so that's been three evenings working to 10, then we went to see Jack Dee in York after Ben's parents bought us tickets, then it was Harrogate Craftwork Group on Thursday, where we all (I hope) had a lovely night gossiping and crafting, and Sandra kindly offered to jab me with her needle everytime I dozed off, which is how I was feeling by that point. So a weekend of napping, dvds and stitching is in order I think. Along with Merlin and Stirctly Come Dancing of course... Ooh, I did a bad thing. I bought another kit from Serenity Designs. I've been umming and ahhing over another kit from Serenity Designs the last few weeks, and I got some money from my folks for my birthday, so I ordered the Merlin kit, and I'm so tempted to start it during Merlin tonight, but I really don't need another start. I've also ordered some beautiful fabrics from Polstitches from the same generous family given money, so I'll post of photos of those when I get them. Jo's away at the moment at a craft fair so she won't be able to post until Tuesday ish, but I'm already stalking the postman because I want to get my beautiful fabrics, I know he won't have them yet, I'm just getting some practice in.

So near and yet so far

I've been saying that I'm going to finish this page for hte last couple of weeks, so hopefully I'll actually manage it this week, it's this pesky second job that's the problem, it's eating away at my stitching time. Hopefully you can now see a bit more of what it actually is, I know my last couple of posts on this have been a bit of a brown shmush but I'm now absolutely determined that I can see what it is, and I've put a picture up in the right bar of what the finished picture will look like, so that might help you to identify it.

Thank you by the way, for all the birthday wishes last week. I had a fabulous in Bath, where Ben took me, we went to the Jane Austen Centre, and did a walking tour of Bath which pointed out all the Jane Austen landmarks, we ate far too much and I was thoroughly spoiled, had a brillant time!

Not quite a page finish

I was hoping to have a page finish to show this week, but it hasn't quite happened. However I am nearly finished, a decent stitching time this weekend and I'll get this page done. There's no counting involved on this page, the back ground is one colour and the remainder of the hair is another, so it's mindless. I got loads done last night as Ben and I have a bit of a film sesh... RED (Helen Mirren, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman) which I loved, it was action, silly and cheesy but very enjoyable, the Two Towers, which I love anyway, it's a good stitching film. So hopefully I'll get this page finished tomorrow.
I've got loads of pages that I'm half way through so I'm trying to get some stitching tidying up done at the moment. Ben's away for International Hermit and Stitch in a couple of weeks so I'm planning on really hermitting and stitching that weekend, I want to get loads done.

It's my birthday next weekend, so my progress may be a little late next week as Ben's taking me for a Jane Austen weekend in Bath, so excited! I'm debating getting some pretty Polstitches fabric for my birthday. I've been day dreaming on their site and over Joan Elliott's patterns for ages so I think that it might be time to take the leap and do both at once (although I really ought to finish something else first, but I'm not guaranteeing that that'll happen!)

Pride and Prejudice is starting to take shape

I think so anyway, I'm starting to see what the different shapes are rather than it just being one big beige shmush! It's his hair and the top of his head, and I think a little bit of her head as well! Love it.

Clara (again)

Another week, another update on Clara. You much all be getting bored of her by now. I have to say that I'm not, but as I've worked on practically nothing else since I started working on her, I am actually putting her away for a while, to concentrate on other projects for a while.

I've done two full and three partial pages, and I've got two full and two partial pages left, so I'm a little over halfway through (especially as I've started working on one of the full pages already), which is rather exciting, I can see her coming together really quickly.

My first Pride and Prejudice post

You may remember that I couple of weeks ago I posted about a lovely kit that I'd bought from the lovely Anna at Serentiy Designs, well here's my first progress pic. I'm loving working on it, it's a lovely easy stitch, the shading looks lovely and it seems to stitch up really quickly. I haven't spent much time on this and I seem to have managed a chunk of progress already, and that's including the fact that I'm an idiot and missed out a row of stitches then had to frog loads. I know it doesn't look like all that much just yet, but I can already see what's it is and what it's going to turn into, and that makes me happy! If you're not sure by the way, this is the top of Darcy's face and his hair!

Also, as I've admitted before, I'm really struggling to put Clara down for any period of time, so of course there's yet another update to show for her as well. I've not reached the far right side which is great, because it means that I know how big she's going to be, and I'm still completely in love with her.

A plethora of updates

 As you can see, I've got many updates to show this week, it's been a surprisingly productibe stitchy week this week, I'm quite proud. Firstly Clara, and I've discovered her gravity defiant boobs. I do love Clara, and I'm absolutely loving working on her, but I really do need to put her down and work on something else at some point, I'll wait until I finish this page though, and maybe I'll just do the bottom partial page so I can see how big she's going to be... you can see where this thought process is going to end up can't you? Thus far I've managed to resist the HAED sale (apart from running a little competition on facebook and sending a chart), although I don't know how much longer I'm going to last.

Passione Ricamo Mystery SAL, the third page arrived today, so last weekend I decided that I ought to get my ass into gear and get some progress in on page to... I'm trying to never be more than one page behind, but I'm sure that it'll get worse as the year goes on. There's lots of filling in left to do on this page, although that dip in on the right side is the beginning of her wings (I was looking at the chart this morning), so I feel like I ought to get started on those.

 

And finally, a tiny little update on a much neglected project. This lives under my desk at work for cold or rainy lunch breaks when I don't want to go out, and, despite how miserable the weather's been this summer there haven't actually been many rainy lunch breaks, so it's just got absolutely no attention at all. I did manage to get a little done this week when the weather was pretty miserable, and she she's almost started to resemble a person instead of a sunburnt teddy bear I thought I'd put a little picture up and show what's happening with her.

Clara's completely addictive

I do love working on Clara, she's completely addictive. My first Hannah, and defintiely not my last, she's so lovely to stitch!

This is the 3rd page completed (well, the black completed anyway), I really want to carry on working on her, although I'm going to try and put her down and work on something else, even if it's only for a couple of hours, but I think I'll be back on her again pretty soon. If you want to see a more progressed verstion of her check out Megan's blog, she's absolutely flying through. She started after me and is already well ahead.

We're off out tomorrow cos Ben's taking me to Whitby, but other than that we don't really have much planned, so I'm hoping to have quite a productive stitching weekend, especially after having such a stitchless week. I put Clara down last Saturday and didn't get a chance to pick her up again until last night, I really missed her too!

It's been a busy week though. Our local football club had an opening of their new hospitality suite on Tuesday so I managed to get invited to that through work, then on Wednesday I won tickets to go and see Philippa Gregory give a talk as part of her book tour, she was really interesting, and much more entertaining than I expected her to be. I really like her books so I was quite chuffed to win the tickets, especially as I also week a set of her latest quartet of books

Latest International Hermit and Stitch

I didn't manage to finish my page like I was aiming for... Saturday went well and I was on track, Sunday I didn't get any stitching done at all, life got in the way instead... there's still enough progress for it to not be embarassing to show at least.

The Minx that is Miss Clara and the PR Mystery SAL

I've managed to do a bit more on the Passione Ricamo SAL. It's really odd stitching something when I don't know what it's going to look like.That little unstitched in the bottom corner that I thought was going to be wing is actually the moon, but I think the next page shows the start of her wing. I'm still behind, but I'm starting to catch up, and hopefully I'll be able to get a bit more done on her this week. The border is actually really glittery, but my camera hasn't managed to pick that up at all.



Clara started calling to me. She's developing a bit of a habit of doing that. It was stitching group on Thursday and she seemed like a nice project to take with them, and then I didn't want to put her down again yesterday.

It's International Hermit and Stitch this weekend, and I'm debating whether I'm going to be able to spend enough time stitching to finish this page. We haven't got much planned, so it is a possibility.

Happy Stitching!

Pride and Prejudice Kit by Serenity Design

I bought a lovely Pride and Prejudice kit from Serenity Designs recently, and as Anna's making and selling her own kits I thought I'd put a review up and try and get her name (and thus some of her gorgeous kits) out there.

You can either buy direct through her websitse - http://www.serenitydesigns.org.uk or her ebay store - http://stores.ebay.co.uk/serenitycrossstitchdesigns depending on which you prefer.

Her kits are fabulous, especially if you're a bit of a geek, but even if you're not I recommend going and having a look. She's got kits of CSI, Twilight, Buffy, Merlin (which I want!) Game of Thrones, Serenity, Lord of The Rings and so many other things - I was basically in geek heaven, there are so many that I wanted, it took me absolutely ages to narrow it down to just 1, and even now I'm wavering towards a couple of her others. She also does threads packs for HAEDs and also some HAED charts (authorised retailer, don't worry!).

I ordered through ebay, because I hadn't discovered her own site at the time and received excellent service. The kit was dispatched really quickly and I got message telling me that it had been dispatched, and it arrived I think 2 days later. The kit itself is great, comes with a front cover picture, a chart (obviously) over 6 pages in this case, all your threads pre-sorted and labelled (I photographed it the wrong way up, so you can't see the labelling, but it's all really clear!), a key and a needle. The chart's really clear, and I'm itching to start it (but seeing as I've got 7 on the go at the moment, I'm trying to resist for a while).

Service was great, excellent communication and arrived in great condition and good time. On an additional note on communication, Anna's also got a facebook page for Serenity Designs, making her even easier to contact, and it also means that you can see other progress pictures as well.

I love Anna's stuff so I hope a few people pop over and have a look, and hopefully are maybe even tempted by them! If you do make sure you post on your blog so I can see what pretties you've bought and I can stitch the others that I love vicariously through all of you!

I got distracted... again!

I was away last weekend to see the Olympic Football (we went out on penalties, oh what a surprise!) so I took Clara away with me because she's a bit more portable than Dragon Rider (Q-Snap versus massive roll frame), and having started working on her while I was away I couldn't put her down again, so I decided to finish the page, and I am completely in love with her!

I'm really tempted to carry on working on her, and move on to the next page, but I'm going to be good and go back to Dragon Rider. Finishing this page means that I've completed one of my Olympic goals, and and I'm going to make Dragon Rider a Paralympic goal instead.

Happy Stitching all!

Look, a starfish!

It's quite sad just how excited I am to see the starfish... I ought to have put some purple in really to make him look less like a starfish and more like a wizard, but he's then and you've no idea how happy I am to see him... I'm also seeing definite castle development, and that dark green streak in the top right corner is the tail with goes across this page, although it's not that obvious that that's what it is yet! However, I may have over strived on my Olympic ambitions, of finishing this page and the black on the next page of Clara might have been a mistake, so I'm thinking that I'll extend my deadline, and instead say that it's going to be my target for the Olympics and Paralympics instead.

Another Little Update

There isn't much to show from this week. I didn't get much done in the evenings, but was intending to make up for that yesterday evening during the Opening Ceremony. Sadly I got completely distracted by the opening ceremony, so only got an hours worth of stitching done before I got distracted.

Lots of ladies on facebook have done Olympic starts, which I did debate over for a while, FoF was calling to me, but I decided instead to set myself an Olymplic target... I want to get this page finished and the black on the 2nd page of QS Clara, I might be being a bit optimistic about how much I can do, but I'm hoping to have quite a good stitching weekend this weekend, so you never know.

I also wanted to show you this... Ice Blue Winter by Zindy Nielsen, which I've been completely in love with since she was released... I mentioned on one of the stitching groups that I was debating with myself whether I could justify buying her while the sale was on, and half an hour later she was in my inbox because someone had sent her her me.

I've got a few of Zindy's, both her Snow Whites, and now this, and I just think she's completely gorgeous, even if she does have 24 skeins of black... but that means there's lots of nice sections of non-confetti so she should be quite a nice stitch!

July's International Hermit & Stitch

Hey guys, did everyone have a good International Hermit and Stitch. I did better than I thought I would but not as well as I would have liked, but isn't that always the case!

There's definite shape happening (I say it every week, I'm determined that it's improving). I can see castle, and archway, and, that green diagonal top right, is either the beginning of a outline of where teh tail's going to be, and the white stripe on the other side, will also be tail! I'm so excited!

Dum Dum Dum, Du Du Dum, Du Du Dum

Don't get the title? Look at the picture to the left and try it again!

He's finished, yay! It feels like ages since I've had a finish, so even a tiny one like this makes me happy! Had a rainy lunch at work yesterday, so I worked on him then, and was so close to finishing that I couldn't resist bringing him home to finish last night! No idea what I'm going to do with him now that he's finished though. 

Barely any progress on Dragon Rider though. In fact I did the red for the turrets, just so that I'd be able to see some progress for this week, although if you really squint at it (ie practically close your eyes), you can see it starting to take shape. The red gives you the turrets, and I can just about make out the shape of the door way on the castle, although that might be hopeful imagining. It's international hermit and stitch this weekend, so I'm hoping that I'm actually going to be able to make some progress that's visible this weekend.

And finally, this is the start that's going to replace Darth Vader, this was what I did at Harrogate Craftwork Group on Thursday, and it kinda looks like a slightly sunburnt sea lion with a beach ball at the moment, but I'm hopeful that that will soon change and actually start to look like something else, for instance a person. I'm an eternal optimist!

And finally finally, I'd like to introduce Kerry at Stitching Sister, who does some lovely stitching (and is also looking forward to retirement where she's hoping to massively up her stitching output), so please pop along and have a look at the pretties.

I'm a little late this week

I'm a bit late posting this week cos we were away over the weekend, visitng friends in Ireland, which also means that I haven't got much stitching done either. You can't really see much progress, and you really can't see what the next page is going to turn into yet. There will be the beginnning of his tail in the top right corner, and the wizard will be on this page in the bottom left corner, I think I can vaguely see the white space where he's going to be, but if I'm right then I think he might be a bit of a funny shape, but I trust to the charting, he'll appear.

Looking forward to the next meeting of Harrogate Craftwork Group this week, so I'm debating what to take with me. I've got Come to the Dark Side, but I think I'll finish that at work in teh next couple of days if the weather's anything to go by, and I've been taking QS Clara the last couple of months, but I could do with something a bit easier to work on, or at least a bit easier on the eyes, I'm thinking it might be the costumes of the world chart, which is quite cute, I'll have to see what threads I've got lying about.

Hmmmmm

Here's my latest Chakra Fae update, I have an admission to make, I think I've been getting bored with her, that why there isn't much progress, every time I pick her up I just get really distracted, so I've decided to put her away for a while then come back to her before I completely lose my mojo. She is lovely, I don't know why I can't settle on her at the moment, but I figure a bit of a break will probably do the trick.

I also had a slight stitching crisis with her last weekend,  I decided to unpick a little bit of where the line was between the two pages, but I accidently cut a slight hole in my fabric. I think I've managed to mend it (honestly, if you think you can see where I did it, let me know, cos I'd much rather know), bur I think I've managed to cover it up in such a way that you can't see I did it. Fingers crossed anyway.

So, here's one of the things that I've been distracted by... and I can't believe how long this little patch of blue has taken me to stitch this week. Some of you may have noticed my tiny little post a couple of weeks ago that I posted about the Passione Ricamo Mystery SAL, which I signed up to, well this is the start of her. There will be a gold border round the top and left side of this, with many purple beads like bunches of grapes, but I think half the stitchers in the UK must have signed up for this because when I went to order the Treasure Braid from sewandso they were out of stock, so I've got it all on back order. I have got the pretty purple beads, but as I'm using Q-Snaps for this I want to leave all the beading until last, as I'm a bit scared of what the Q-Snap might do to the beads. Also, it's really weird stitching something and having absolutely no idea what it's going to look like when it's been finished. Because it's a mystery SAL there hasn't been a picture released of what the final design is.I'm assuming that little white bit that's missing Treasure Braid is going to be the start of her (? - I don't even know that for definite) wings.

Finally, one of the groups I'm on on facebook (HAED Addiction if you're interested) recently set up a list of email addresses so that if you wanted to RAK someone from the group you could go onto the list and find their email address so you could go on to the HAED site and find their wishlist, which was a lovely idea. Anyway, I put my name on this list not really thinking that anything would come of it, but one of the kindly ladies sent me this lovely Faces of Faery by Jasmine Beckett-Griffith. I absolutely love her (the kindly lady and the Ninja). It was the two Ninjas that converted me to JBG's designs so I'm loving this. But I think it'll be a while before I get her started. I'm thinking that she might be started when Clara's finished.Although I'm also thinking that, as she's a bit smaller I might try her on 18 count instead of 25... I figure that (after Clara, which I've already started on 25) when the designs are a bit smaller it might be worth doing them on the 18 count, for the sake of my eye sight. I'm fine with 25 count at the moment, but I'm also aware that the last time I went to the opticians (my glasses are like bottle bottoms they're so thick), she reeled off a list of things that could go wrong with my eyes, and that there wasn't really much I could do about it, other than go and see them as so as I spotted anything wrong... anyway, that was an unexpected moment of 'poor me', I'm honestly not, I figure that I'm fine and if it happens then it'll be resolved, so please don't think this was a pity plee, it's just part of, when I can work on bigger fabrics, I'd probably be doing my eyes a favour if I did.

It's the Wimbeldon Final tomorrow and there will be a definite split in our home. Ben will be supporting Murray because he's British and so you support the British player... I however think that Murray is a rat faced monkey boy (it's surprising how many tennis players I'm willing to describe as rat faced monkey boy), who is continually grumpy, and I'm quite a big fan of Federer, so that's who I'll be supporting. So, along with antagonising each other, I'm also planning on getting some stitching done. I went back to Dragon Rider last night, so I'll hopefully have a bit of progress to show next week, maybe the beginning of the tiny little wizard, or, there could even be a tiny showing of tail!

This is a very long and whittering post by my standards, I haven't written a properly whittering post in ages (the blog was originally called Random Ramblings of a Kim), so I'll stop now, go and do some exercise (once I can get Ben off the Wii for long enough to get him to hand it over, to let me do some toning along with my run earlier), then have dinner and have a stitchy evening.