November Achievements & December Goals

Goals for November:
1. Finish Sleepy Hollow No.
2. Stitch on the UFO RR and mail it out Sadly no. But since the mail-by date is the 6th I'm not actually behind
3. Send off my exchanges This one I actually did. And good thing too. One's already arrived so that's even better.
4. NO NEW STARTS!!! Well, considering the amount of stitching I didn't do sticking to this goal wasn't too hard.

Goals for December:
1. Stitch on the UFO RR and mail it out
2. Finish Cirque des Cercles
3. Stitch on the next UFO RR (if CP gets it here before the end of the month)

This month was absolutely lousy all round. My stitching mojo was pretty low, my blogging mojo about the same level, and while I still looked at everyone's blog I don't think I made a single comment (well, except for when I entered every giveaway under the sun).

I've also picked up some part time work for the next few months, so I'm not actually sure how much time I'll have for stitching between that and school. *sigh*

And I still haven't posted pictures of what Missy sent me for Halloween or a couple of other things that have arrived since.

And there's far too much snow.

Halloween Goodness

So I was the grand winner in Missy & Annette's 31 Days of Halloween. And after 3 weeks I got two of the most gorgeous packages in the mail!
Today is devoted to Annette's. Mostly because my camera batteries died before I could take pictures of Missy's.
The whole pile of goodies.
The fob went on my scissors immediately. The spider and the frog are so cool.
Check out the adorable little kid on the cushion. It's actually a pretty hefty cushion. Feels like rice? The bat has these loops for feet. Presumably so he can be hanged upside down.(Or at least that's my plan).
Batsy actually folds up!
A couple of cute bags. The skeleton one has an opening like a glasses case, the one where you squeeze it to open and it auto shuts. (No idea what it's properly called). The other has that cute witch print!
Book one of the Mercy Thompson series. It's been quite a while since I read them so a reread is clearly called for. And since I'd borrowed them from the library it's great to have my own copy. Bookmark Frankie's expressions are so hilarious.
The rest of the fun stuff. I adore Frankie. He actually lurches about. It took quite a while to figure out what the bat thing was: a stamp.
And not forgetting the candy! Quite possibly the most important part of Halloween.

I'm still suffering from the winter blahs. Almost no stitching, no homework finished, no assignments completed and no new books read.

For Everything Else There's Mastercard

Black satin		$ 1.00
White satin ribbon		$ 0.70
Clear beads		$ 1.00
Flower embellishment		$ 0.20
Velco		$ 0.20
Something that fits my specifications		PRICELESS

*Cost estimates based on fraction of material used. eg. 1/5 of $ 3.5 dollar ribbon. Small errors may be visible upon close examination. Beadwork cannot be rigorously handled. Washing is not recommended. Shelflife depends on amount of use.
**Giftcard for demonstration purposes only, not included.

A Contest?

How many hours to finish all the backstitching on Sleepy Hollow?

This is what it looks like at 96.5 hours (before any backstitching):


Sleepy Hollow
32 ct Thunderstorm
Rules of the contest:
You can narrow your guess to the nearest quarter hour.
Comments will lock in one week.
The closest guess will win something Halloween related (or Fall if the winner isn't a fan).
The prize will be sent out sometime next year since the rest of the year is no-new-starts. The prize will arrive before Halloween.

Random helpful/useless information

What is backstitched?
The text
Every motif in the border
The outermost part and the innermost part of the border
The trees, the grass, the gravestones, the pumpkin, the horse and the man
If it looks like there's a major colour change, then there's backstitching there
The moon is not backstitched

My record of backstitching:
Legends of Dragons border: 11.5 hours
Weekend in Paris: 6.75 hours.
Christmas Angel:13.75 hours.

*Sigh*

While I've been good and haven't started anything, I've also felt somewhat blah and not stitched very much. I blame the weather. Tomorrow's forecast is snow.

After I got tired of the Sleepy Hollow moon I stitched a little on (everyone's favourite) CdC.

Cirque des Cercles
32 ct Lemon Whip Lugana, DMC 115

TUSAL November

I can't believe that it's November! Almost the end of the year. Time just seems to go by faster the older I get.

Some red, green and blue from what I'm working on for exchanges. The gray is from my Sleepy Hollow frogging.