Statistics And Other (Boring) Facts

Or A Very Very Long Post Where I Wrap Things Up For The Year.

Starting with a look at Goals for December:
1. Stitch on the UFO RR and mail it out Cut it very close since I mailed out on the deadline (and it arrived last)
2. Finish Cirque des Cercles YES!!!!
3. Stitch on the next UFO RR (if CP gets it here before the end of the month) Done

Unexpectedly in December, I:
1. Started and finished Christmas Tree 2009
2. Started Celtic Spring
3. Started Mushrooms

A quick look at everything I stitched this year:
And a look at numbers:
Total finishes: 33 (the 27 pictured, an extra Heart Biscornu since one was eaten by the post, two mini fobs that didn't live past the day, a 2nd Small Token, a hardanger needlebook, and my 2nd exchange)
Pieces started and finished in 2010: 28
WIPs at the start of the year: 8
WIPs at the end of the year: 15 (that doesn't bode well for next year!!!)
WIPs carried over from 2009 and not finished: 3 (I also didn't put a single stitch into two of these

Fastest finish: one of the lost fobs in 1 hour. Of those pictured both the Christmas fob & the Seahorse fob took 2 hours each
Most time consuming piece: Minx
Pieces that took 10 hours or less: 18
Pieces that took between 10 & 50 hours: 10
Pieces that took between 50 & 100 hours: 3
Pieces that took over 100 hours: 1
Total hours (approximately): 825

A Day Late

Why be on time when you can be (un)fashionably late?

Begin with a pot:

Add a somewhat nontraditional tree topper:

Go crazy with the decorations:


End with a sparkly tree:

Start date December 20, 2010
Finish date December 26, 2010
Designer Nora Corbett
Fabric 32 ct opalescent white lugana
Total time 18.75 hours

For anyone planning on stitching this: The urn is most definitely not symmetrical. The entire middle bead portion is not symmetrical and the base is off a bit here and there. Many of the ornaments are not round/oval/any symmetrical shape.

I made lots of little changes here and there to make the urn and some of the ornaments symmetrical. I moved branches around so that ornaments wouldn't be floating at random. The vertical strands of beads are not in the charted colours since that would have red strands with a giant pink bead and I preferred it as a pink strand with a giant pink bead. By the end I was randomly placing beads since I didn't like where they were charted. BUT it's pretty and that's all that matters.

Dancing in Circles

Finished 10 minutes ago.

Cirque des Cercles
Start date January 24, 2010
Finish date December 18, 2010
Fabric 32 ct Lemon Whip Lugana
Floss DMC 115
Total time 97.5 hours

A couple of motifs have been switched around and a couple of stitches are off (but mirrored correctly on the opposite side).

Jolly Good

Finals are over, it's winter break and maybe I'll get some stitching done? But first:

Flashback to, oh maybe, about a week ago? So I open my mailbox and there's a pretty light blue box. With a Royal crest. My first thought was the Queen was sending me mail!!! Then I realized that instead of being called British Mail it's actually called Royal Mail. A slight disappointment (I like the idea of royalty) but I recovered very quick when I saw what Lindsay had sent as part of our exchange.
A lovely purple and green biscornu which now holds court as the largest in my collection, fabric with the cutest stitchy print, and an ornament!

Purple is the September Celtic Knot and green is the October Celtic Knot. Both from Ink Circles. I've been planning to stitch some of Tracy's squares up as a biscornus, so this was just serendipity.

The snowflake (a green one?) was apparently sent because the mail went out late. Ummm. Am I a bad/greedy person if I say I'm glad for Lindsay's over developed sense of guilt? Now I've spent a great deal of time drooling over her beaded works so it gives me great pleasure to hang this pretty up beside the other ornie I won from her last year.

Music to my Ears

Continuing what appears to be a December theme of posts with little stitching, here's what I scored from Berit who's currently decluttering. The entire Mill Hills Harmony set of charts! The whole set! (And yes, that very cute Halloween chart and that yummy silk) but the whole set! I plan on stitching the whole lot together and turning it into a cube finish.

Berit is actually decluttering another lot of stuff right now. She goes by the unscientific (yet simple) method of picking a winner when she feels like it, so if you're interested drop by.

Ocean Waterlilies

Ages and ages and ages ago Veronica had a giveaway that I (among many) won, and ages and ages ago she mailed it off to me, and ages ago I received it. So isn't it about time I shared a picture?



It has the cutest dolphin charm, a gorgeous dark blue central bead and just a tiny bit of pink here and there as a lovely counterpoint. Basically it's very pretty. And adorning my pinking scissors.

A Beehive?

At least that's I thought when I saw the orange "thing". Turns out it's part of a roof.

Round 2 of the UFO RR was Rachel's Wizard of Oz.

Upon arrival:

Upon departure:

Finished off the page and put out a feeler into the next.

TUSAL December

Almost forgot that it's the new moon today.

Butterflies in the Stomach

While it's as fun to give as to receive, they never mention that the giving part comes with a truckload of nervous butterflies!

A while back I put out a shout for anyone who wanted to swap a biscornu and Lindsay agreed to be my guinea pig. She already put up pictures ages ago, and I'm finally getting to mine.

A lot of nerves and indecision later I send this off to her:

Which unwrapped to


Should I admit that I entirely unsure of sending the box and put it away a dozen times and hesitated at the post office with a desperate need to rip apart the package and toss it out?
The prize at the bottom of the pile
The design is a freebie from here. It's actually from a set for the four seasons.

Since no mail-related post is complete without CP bashing, this took about 3 weeks to get there. Can we make it official? 3 weeks to send or receive mail from Canada?

In more mundane news, work is going pretty well. It's the exact same thing I was doing over the summer so no learning curve or anything. BUT I get home pretty late and therefore no stitching AT ALL.

I'm pretty sure everyone (and their dog) knows about the Crazy January Challenge and the spinoff Flip'n Crazy January Challenge. I will not be joining either of these. Mostly since I'm not that crazy! But best of luck to everyone playing.

Halloween Goodness II

Mail from Missy actually arrived the same day as Annette's. But first my camera died and then I just got lazy.
The whole lot. Taken on the first day which is why the candy is still there.
I love that cat! And after I finished drooling I wondered what happened in 1862.
The inside with skull pins! And tons of more fun stuff. I have to admit I love the safety pin as a closure.
Vlad's coffin. Tutorial here: I, II, III
More pins and a pair of scissors (which I still haven't tried out to be honest!)
Ok, so my first reaction on seeing the spider was "That's just wrong! Spiders are arachnids and they have 8 legs. I should write a letter of protest!" But since it's such a cute spider I got over it pretty quick.
The skeleton needleminder! a) This is so cool!!! b)Now I don't have to make one myself c)Instructions here
And a bunch of dishcloths. So I've managed to figure out (after several days) that the orange is a pumpkin and the beige is a ghost, and I think the green is skull. But I'm lost on the others and I think the picture is too dark to make out what they are.

This makes the 2nd year that I've won the annual BIG Halloween giveaway:) I love Halloween!