Thursday, December 31, 2015

December/January goals!

Here's how it went in December!

- stitch/send Mirabilia RR on time - done! (and the next one arrived!)
- stitch MH butterfly kit - done!
- finish leaves in Fatum border - done!
- plan & post about 2016 stitching! - done!

Worked out nicely since I went light on the goals. I spent most of the month writing and working on other projects, plus I got sucked into the game my wife got me for Christmas. :3

For January...

- stitch/send Mirabilia RR on time
- get materials for hardanger SAL (I have no fabric in the right count!)
- stitch part one of hardanger SAL
- make visible progress on at least one of my 2016 goal projects
- no shopping (except for hardanger SAL materials)

There. Not too crazy, and that gives me a lot of flexibility to work on something new if I want, or to carry on with an older WIP. I'm still waiting on fabric for two of my planned new starts, but I can start the others any time! In fact, I've already started the bride's tree ornaments... I should probably post a pic but I'll do that later. :3

Monday, December 21, 2015

getting ready!

Since I've already met my monthly goals, I think I'm going to get started on next year's plans! It took a couple of hours to gather up suitable substitutes for all the threads in the Bride's Tree Ornament set, but once they're all together, they look pretty impressive!

I wanted to do 100% cotton but I did have to sneak a few silks in there to cover some of the colors. I guess that's fine since the original charts call for mostly silks and a few cottons!

But what I did do was source everything 100% from my existing stash! Go me. :3


Closeup of the yummy colors!

My fabric is all cut and ready to go... all that I have to do now is get started!

Friday, December 18, 2015

another tiny finish!

It only took two days to work up this cute Mill Hill kit! With this, I've finished up my goals for the month - need to take a new pic of Fatum with the border all done, but I'll save that for another post.


Like the others, it's not finish-finished yet, but I did manage to stick it to the fridge so I can pretend it's been made into a proper magnet!

I think I'm down to three Mill Hill kits in my stash now... two that I'm not crazy about, and a beautiful one of cats silhouetted against the moon. Here's the three...

Love this one! (Moonlit Kitties)

Kinda meh about these. (Autumn Bouquet & Fall Blooms)

My wife likes those two, though (I'm sure she's the one who picked them out) so I may just do them as a gift for her. She used to stitch, but now she's 100% into knitting, so "my stash" is really "our stash" and contains all of her stuff too. :3

I have three others on my wishlist, but I'm not buying anything until I do something with all three of these... either stitch them up or gift/sell. I'm interested in working on using things up (not just stitchy stash, but all sorts of things) but I don't want to fall into the trap of making something I don't really like just for the sake of crossing it off a list, either.

I do a lot of reading about decluttering, minimalism, and recently, destashing makeup! One of the terms used for makeup is to "hit pan" which is to use up enough of something (like blush or eyeshadow) to see the silver pan showing at the bottom. I want to start doing that with all sorts of things around the house. And if I don't like something enough to "hit pan" on it, then maybe it needs to be escorted out, preferably by giving away, selling, or donating.

So I'll be making an effort to fully enjoy a variety of things! Tea, eyeliner, those interesting beans in the pantry, candles, video games, yarn, stationery, the contents of the freezer, nail polish, etc. I may ramble about it here on occasion, but only as a side note to stitching posts. 

Don't worry, this isn't going to turn into some weird decluttering blog. :p

Monday, December 14, 2015

2016 stitching plans

Ahhh, the year is almost over! You know what that means? Time to plan next year's stitching! And also to totally ignore the plans I made for 2015 because I didn't follow through on them, haha. Don't worry, 2016 will be a little different. :)

~~~

First up, plans for my current WIPs, in order of priority instead of alphabetical.

- Fatum (Passione Ricamo) ~ goal: finish in 2016!
- Beaded Dragonfly Tile (Chatelaine) ~ goal: finish in 2016!
- Night (Wentzler) ~ goal: finish 1/4 of the design in 2016
- Chinese Garden Mandala (Chatelaine) ~ goal: finish parts 1-6ish (all gates) in 2016
- Transcendence - Sessler (HAED) ~ goal: finish pages 8 & 9 in 2016
- Air ACEO - Butcher (HAED) ~ banished to UFO land for now

~~~

Next, general thoughts about 2016 stitching, aka a list of what NOT to do:

- No new round robins. They're fun, but I get frustrated about the lack of progress on my personal stitching. Next year, I'm stitching for me!
- No joining groups or SALs unless it's something I was gonna do anyway. I'm always SUPER PUMPED to join a SAL, then I fizzle out quickly and get annoyed about being obligated to do something like post a monthly update. Instead, I will admire SALs from afar. :p
- No mystery designs. Again, I get pumped about a group thing, then end up hating the design. :(

Basically, I'm going to avoid committing to any sort of group activity unless I'm 100% sure that it's something I want to do and can participate in cheerfully for the duration. Not just for myself, but I don't want to be That Person who brings a group down by being blah.

~~~

NOW THE FUN PART!
New starts for 2016!

Brooke's Books - Bride's Tree Ornaments

Veronique Enginger - Etude aux Fraises

Mirabilia - South Seas Mermaid
(informal SAL with Mel of Epic Stitching!)

Tournicoton - Jardin de Feuilles

I've also joined the Round in Circles SAL by Mabel Figworthy, because I've wanted to learn hardanger for years and never got up the guts to try it on my own. Yeah, it's a SAL, but it's really just a monthly pattern and skill to learn, and this is something I genuinely want to do!

Oops, I forgot one of my new starts! I remembered when it showed up in my mailbox yesterday evening, haha...

Rosewood Manor - Summer Quakers
(not my usual style but I saw a WIP and fell in love!)

~~~

And that's it for plans! I'm not going to overload myself with unattainable goals next year. 

Instead, I'll use the remaining time to make more progress on WIPs that aren't slated for finishing, or start other projects that catch my eye. There are plenty of other small kits and charts in my stash that could use some love, and my bucket list isn't getting any shorter! (Well, maybe a little, since I removed a few things that no longer sparked as much interest as they did originally...)

Thursday, December 10, 2015

another RR finish!

Here's a snippet of Forest Goddess by Mirabilia. I had to sub regular beads for the bugle beads because the portion I chose to stitch cut off some of the length of the beads. I didn't realize they were bugle beads until I'd already done a bunch of stitching... oops.


Now I can move on to something else... like finishing my crochet hat. :3

Monday, December 07, 2015

giveaway winner! (paging CalamityJr!)

Hihi! The randomizer chose CalamityJr as the winner of my little giveaway!

I think I already have your email address, but not your mailing address... could you email that to me at rahenna@rahenna.com so I can get your goodies sent out this week? :)

Thanks so much to everyone who entered!

I hope to have a stitchy blog post soon, though all I've been working on is the Mira RR. Maybe I should take a progress pic... I usually don't post about RR stitching until I finish my block, but this one is really killing me! At least I'm on track to finish and mail on time. :)

Wednesday, December 02, 2015

November/December goals! (and a tiny finish)

Whew, how is it December already?!? New month, new goals... but first, let's see how I did with the goals I set for November:

- stitch/send Mirabilia RR on time - well, I'm not late yet...
- finish Willow Queen - YES!
- take crochet lessons - YES!
- win Nano!YES!

Not too bad, except for the lack of progress on the RR. I'm having a rough time with the fabric on the current one, a very tightly woven, thick, opal evenweave. My eyes aren't THAT bad but the opal is throwing me off somehow, and the fabric is so tight it literally squeaks whenever I pull the needle through, and it makes the thread knot constantly. It's a shame because the piece is gorgeous and the fabric is so pretty. It's going to be a challenge to get this done in time. :(

Now, December goals:

- stitch/send Mirabilia RR on time
- stitch MH butterfly kit
- finish leaves in Fatum border
- plan & post about 2016 stitching!

Not too much, but I know the RR will be tough, and I'm caught up in other projects again. I'd rather set myself up for success. :p

Speaking of MH kits, I finished another little one last week!


This one seemed easier than the last. Maybe I'm getting used to stitching on the paper. Or maybe this one just had fewer fussy bits or something.

And yes, I know I'm doing the whole fridge magnet thing wrong. I'll finish it properly later. :p