Wednesday, February 25, 2015

small update! aka too much hair!

Nothing much to see here, but I wanted to post something so I can see the progress...


Almost done with the hair, but it's killing me with all the color changes in the flowers and the hair color itself... gaaaaaaah. I can't wait to be done with it! It's somewhat slow going since I'm only stitching during the day now. Nights are eaten up by gaming again. This time, Persona 4, because I'm the kind of cool person who only plays games once they've been out for at least five years. :p

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Stitch from Stash - February report!

Month: February
Spent: $47.95
Earned: $0
Carryover to next month: $2.05

Not a good month for me, but thankfully still within budget, since I didn't spend anything last month. Like many other stitchers, I got sucked in by the clearance sale at Keepsake Needlearts and picked up some things on mega clearance, but...

I regret buying all of it. It was 100% impulse and I'm really upset with myself for not saving my budget for the new Mirabilia releases, which I actually want but can't get because I wasted my money on crap. :(

Well, here is what I got...




I honestly don't see myself stitching ANY of the things I bought, except maybe the Nora Corbett cakes and the pretty bird. And of the five items I bought, four are kits packaged with aida cloth, which I will NOT stitch on. Usually I'd just swap it out, but of those four, two have a background that's printed right on the aida. Subbing a different fabric would be a problem... sigh.

And here are the two charts I REALLY wanted to buy, but couldn't because I wasted my money. Nora Corbett Wisteria and Mirabilia Moon Flower.


And finally, the only project I worked on this month was Gypsy Mermaid. Hoping for a finish next month... I can't believe I haven't had any finishes yet this year. Sigh. To be fair, I've been spending most of my free time writing, so that's just how it goes...


You can't tell from the picture, but the right side is complete up to the seahorse, and the flowers she's holding are done too. It shouldn't be too hard to wrap her up by the end of March.

So, there's my long and somewhat whiny report. This is the first time I've felt like a bit of a failure at SFS since it started last year. Anyone else have some tales of stash-money-wasting woe to share so I don't feel alone in this?

Saturday, February 21, 2015

post #350!

I can't believe I've made 350 posts in this blog over the last five years! That's kind of scary... but it's fun to have a log of things I've made, too. :)

Here's the fishy lady!


I'm running out of parts to stitch... gonna have to start that skin soon. Bah. I mean, it's not really all that much since she's holding a lot of flowers, but it's still a big task.

I'm not going to be crazy and say "oh I'll try finishing her this month" but definitely by the end of March. All that's left is skin, hair, a bit of border, one compass point, backstitch, and beads. And I'm not getting tired of working on her at all. Maybe it's doing me a bit of good to work on only one project at a time.

Next post will be Stitch from Stash for February. :3

Saturday, February 14, 2015

small Sweetheart Tree kit giveaway!

Hey hey, no stitching to show today but I do have a little giveaway to offer.

Remember this?


I have a partial kit left over from making this and the other patterns in the same series. The kit includes the chart for this particular design, the original 28ct linen fabric, and all the threads and beads I had left over from all the patterns in this series.

I don't know if it's enough floss/beads to stitch the entire thing (I'm pretty sure I used most, or maybe all, of the variegated thread) but it's enough for a good start! And the chart gives the DMC and Mill Hill numbers for all the materials, so it would be easy to get anything you need.

All the large "pearls" ARE included since I subbed real pearls on my stitching.

If you'd like this partial kit, please comment here. The only rules are:

~ Please be a follower of this blog.
~ Please enter only if you truly want to stitch this design. No hoarding. :)
~ I will pick a winner on February 17. Yes, that's soon, I want this off my desk! :p

I can ONLY ship to a US address. I can't afford international shipping at this time, sorry! If you have a friend in the US, I'd be happy to ship to them so they can pass it on to you.

Okay, well, that's it! Please comment if interested, and good luck! :)

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

slow progress is better than NO progress

Well, as the title says, some slow progress on ye olde mermaid. :)


Added the seahorse and the compass point. Next will be the water to the left of the seahorse. At some point I should start outlining the mermaid's body so I can plan her over-one skin. Sigh. At least she's holding a lot of stuff, so she has less skin exposed than she might otherwise! :p

Wednesday, February 04, 2015

WIPocalypse - Feb 4 (and 2015 intro)

Whew, it's been a long time since I've participated in the WIPocalypse! I sign up every year but I tend to lose track of all my different SALs because I'm just bad at keeping to a schedule.

So, these are my WIPocalypse projects for the year!

- Angel Procession (Wentzler)
- Beaded Dragonfly Tile (Chatelaine)
- Floral Fifteen (Just Nan)
- Gypsy Mermaid (Mirabilia)

And my focus has been Gypsy Mermaid since the beginning of the year. My progress so far, minus a bit more on the left side seahorse, but I haven't taken a picture of that yet. :)


I also started Chinese Garden Mandala by Chatelaine, but I'm not counting that for this SAL because I don't intend to finish it this year. It did steal some stitchy time from my mermaid, but I'm not going to feel bad about that because ANY stitching is GOOD stitching. :3

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I missed the last check-in but I do want to write about the topic!
Introduce yourself, your projects, and any goals you have for the year!

Well. I'm Rahenna, I've been stitching on and off since I was about 12 (mostly off, haha) but I got serious about stitching about 4-5 years ago and started this blog to keep track of my progress. In the last 2-3 years, I can honestly say I've been VERY serious about stitching and it's one of my favorite hobbies. My other hobbies are gaming, web/graphic design, collecting and wearing nail polish, and writing fiction.

My goals for this year are detailed HERE but in short, I want to finish the four projects I listed above, make progress on a few others, and maybe start some more. My plans never work out as, uh, planned, so I'll probably end up going completely off the rails, but ehhh, that's part of the fun of stitching, right? :p

~~~

And the question for this time!
How do you overcome that feeling that you’re in a rut with a particular project?

If I'm determined to keep going with that particular project, I'll start working on another part of it. If that's not possible, I just suck it up and power through it. I know I was ready to kill myself by the end of the borders on Spring Knotgarden, but I just sat down and made myself do it. It DID help that I was soooo close to finishing. The almost-victory was a huge motivator.

Or if I'm not laser-focused on that one project at the moment, I'll switch to something else for a while. Even a short break can be enough to help me get back into the mood.

But yeah. Usually I just make myself do it because I'm crazy like that. That's how I operate with my other hobbies and things I need to do... sometimes being too kind to yourself and taking too many breaks means nothing will ever get done! Just because something is a hobby for me, that doesn't mean I don't have to work at it sometimes. The results are always worth it. :)