January Achievements & February Goals

Goals for January:
1. Start and finish my New Year's Day small Done and done.
2. Start my New Year's Start Yes, but there isn't any progress worth posting
3. Finish Mushroom and turn it into a drawstring bag Done and it's off with the happy owner
4. Start Cirque des Triangle No.
5. Start anything else I feel like since it's Guilt Free January! Woohoo! Masquerade, and I've gotten as far as I can go without that last cursed thread.

Goals for February:
1. Finish and mail out Kathy's winnings!!!
2. Stitch on the UFO RR
3. Finish Masquerade (if I ever get around to Michaels/LNS to get that thread!
4. Stitch a themed small for my pinkeep collection
5. Stitch on The Runekeeper Saga

To Frog Or Not To Frog

Just a tiny bit more on Masquerade this week.

Masquerade
32 ct Pewter Lugana
But this is my issue: The model moon looks something like that.

Mine is a very clear yellow/white. I'm trying to decide if the contrast is too much and whether I should frog and go for a paler yellow. Any opinions/ideas?

The Winner

So did anyone think I'd forgotten my 150+ Giveaway?

Well, you were half right. I thought it ended tomorrow!

All names were thrown into the Hat of Destiny!!! (lie: I stick with randomizer. I could claim to be eco-conscious, but it's actually sheer laziness) and the winner is
.
.
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How about a peek at what I'm up to?


Oh, you want to know who the winner is?

That would be Kathy from Kathy's Stitching and Other Comments, who, if you don't know, posts (along with gorgeous stitchery) the most amazing pictures of her dog Rory.

Kathy, drop me a line (and I'll get you winnings out as soon as I finish it, find an envelope, battle my way to the post office...)

Talk About Customer Service!

Ages ago I saw a cute tic-tac-toe Valentine pattern finished, then someone had it few days (and I can't remember either of these stitchers, mea culpa!). An email to the second netted the name: Erica Michael's Hugs and Kisses.

Now this is where it becomes a quest, a tale of excellent customer service and a ridiculous realization.

The quest: I emailed the designer, who didn't have it anymore but suggested a store in Indiana who might have it. So I emailed them.

The customer service: House of Stitches from Indiana had it and sent it to me. Let's recap: I'm in Manitoba, chances that I'm going to Indiana are nil, chances I'll buy anything there are also nil. They send it to me no charge and even threw in a freebie from The Workbasket. If they treat a non-purchasing non-returning customer like this I wonder how they treat their regulars!

And the ridiculous? Turns out that the lady (I can't remember her blog name and am not putting up her real one) who told me the name of the pattern had sent it to me as a jpg. Something I realized five minutes ago when I went to see if I could find her name!

Benefits of Doing Laundry

1. Clean clothes
2. Find lost items (such as memory cards) when you turn out pockets before throwing sweats in the wash.

I'm really enjoying Masquerade. I think it's because I can see the part of it grow (as opposed to my other starts where you really need to get a massive chunk in to see any "picture").


Masquerade
32 ct Pewter Lugana

I love the fact that the moon is actually made of milk and cream which are pouring out of bottles!

Sadly this will be on hiatus in just a little while since I ran out of 844 and don't want to count too far out into space.

A Quick Decision

I participated in an SAL over at Ink Circle Stitchers last year (Cirque des Cercles owes that SAL a big thanks) and part one of my winnings arrived today. (well, probably yesterday but I didn't get to the mailbox until today)

I had the option of picking a chart and it was a no-brainer: I went for Masquerade. I'd thought that the ornament version in JCS was cute, so a full size version? Score!

Of course, about five minutes after I ripped apart the envelope I checked my stash on the off chance, and... well, I went ahead and started it! Definitely the shortest in-hand to start time ever!

The fabric is 32 count Pewter lugana, and I'm going with the DMC conversion.

I have to mention that I love Tracy's charts: they're large-print so it's very easy to see, split over multiple pages which means no wrestling with a a bulky chart and no rips along fold lines and do not have similar symbols that I could mix up in the middle of the night.

Still haven't found the memory card. The picture is courtesy of the internal memory.

You've Got To Be Kidding!

Somewhere after removing my memory card from the computer, putting it in my hoodie pocket, wandering upstairs, throwing my hoodie over a chair, wandering back downstairs, and then back to the hoodie to get the card so that I can put in it the camera...

I lost it.

Seriously?

It's not along the route.

Which means I need to find a shovel and a machete and go exploring in the jungle that is my room.

Wander Around

The third round of the UFO RR was MissStitchy's Enchanting Geisha, who reached my house as this:


And will be leaving as this:


Originally I planned to stitch her hair, but the relentless black drove me away, same with part of the kimono. So I went to the background, got tired of the half stitches and stitched some of the coloured bits in the kimono. Apologies to whoever gets trapped with the black ;)

The colours are very pretty and being Dimensions there's a lot of odd colour/strand number combinations, but the effect looks lovely.

Creature of the Day

Today's post is all about that hippocamp. When Riona had it up as part of her giveaway I threw my name into the hat with fervour (ok, so I throw my name into just about every hat, but still) because it's a limited edition Dragon Dreams and it's so cute! Lucky for me I won, and it arrived a few days ago accompanies by all the other booty.


And before anyone cries foul, hippocampi can be winged or not.

A Little Bit of Fall

Melissa mentioned that she likes fall colours. So I took that theme and went with it. (Which was kinda funny when I realized that she had sent me a fall-themed piece too).

The pattern is a modification from this freebie from Tantes zolder. It ended up as quite the giant biscornu. And I was so tempted to keep that bag. I didn't get much of that fabric and I really wish I had!

Confession Time

I've done very little stitching this month. When you add in the fact that a huge majority are starting something new every day right now, it's just a lousy start to the new year.

Now don't get me wrong, my mojo's just fine and I've got a billion things planned. It's just finding the time...

Part of the confession is that I've got quite a few things to talk about but again, the time.

Let's start off with what Melissa sent me in exchange for a biscornu (picture of that tomorrow):

A very cute Quaker scissors holder. Now if you're thinking that design looks really familiar, it's Tis Green!(I'll have to admit that once I realized that I had my own Tis Green I was more open to the idea of passing mine on).
And this darling stork scissor! This makes my 5th pair of scissors (not counting my pinking shears and regular shears). Nothing compared to some of you hardcore scissor collectors but a lot more than I thought it'd end up with!

Mostly Green

With a touch of red ribbon:
Pictured above are what will become something for my 150+ giveaway.

There is only one requirement:
Leave a comment saying that you'd like to enter.

The fine print:
Deadline is January 24, 2011 11:00 PM Winnipeg time
International entries welcome.

In the Nick of Time

I just managed to stitch the Mushroom bag. A very good thing since my brother flies out tomorrow morning.



The short drawstrings are as per his request. The inside is a barely patterned black. It actually doesn't close since the batting makes it too fat at the top.

A perfect indication about the eye of the beholder: When I gave it to him I gave him a heads up that the top was very wonky and that the opening was a bit of a tight fit and that the top was wonky. He couldn't care less and was too thrilled by fact that it held his DS and was custom made for him.

TUSAL Version 2.0

I checked Google Reader only to see a couple billion TUSAL posts which reminded me that I should dash off to get a picture of mine. The TUSAL has been revived with a vengeance by Daffycat, who explains the requirements better than I ever could.

As a note of interested: this is the ONLY SAL that I keep up with faithfully last year. I still haven't figured out what to do with the orts but this achievement must be documented and preserved!!!

TADA!

Nah. Just kidding. That was my jar as of December 31,2010. All the orts from that year.

This is the sad reality of 3 days of stitching.
Let's see. Red is from Love
Black, green and white from Mushrooms
Yellow from my New Year's Start...

In utterly awesome news I see that I've got 150+ followers! What does this mean? Just about what it always means! A giveaway. As soon as I figure out what...

Know Your 'Shrooms

What do you stitch on bag for a DS? How about the classic mushroom from Mario? What's that you say? The owner hasn't actually played the classic Mario? Why let that stop you?

My brother got himself a DSlite and wanted a simple drawstring bag for it. I'd been looking for an excuse to stitch up Fiona's Mushroom pattern. A simple thing like my brother not being a Mario player wasn't going to stop me!

I wanted to stitch "Grow up" and "Get a life" (because I think that's funny. My sense of humour is such). But he wanted "Game over"...


No border because then it would be very obvious if I mess up the assembly!

Title	Mushrooms
Designer	Fiona
Start date	December 30, 2010
Finish date	January 3, 2011
Total time	8.25 hours
Fabric	32 ct Thunderstorm
Floss	As charted; except I used B5200 instead of white

Best Foot Forward

I have a tradition (currently in it's 2nd year) where I start and finish something very small on New Year's Day. Like a good luck charm. Only stitchy.

I went with The Stitcherhood's Love freebie. This'll work for my February pinkeep. As a sidenote, I'm going ahead with the themed pinkeep idea, except that months will be stitched at random (as I find patterns I like). And I think I'll save the "finish" finishing part for when I have a few pieces so I can assembly-line it.
I love the red and yellow combination. Not too sure about the pink, but I know I don't want the heart in red or yellow, so...

Title	Love
Designer	The Stitcherhood
Start date	January 1, 2011
Finish date	January 1, 2011
Total time	3 hours
Fabric	32 ct Waterlily Jobelan (I adore this fabric!)
Floss	Kreinik 003HL, CC Goldfish, CC Ruby Slippers, GAST Daffodil

Looking Forward

Happy New Year! Here's hoping everyone's 2011 is filled with all things excellent and piles of stash and tons of stitching!

Now I'm a planner (not so much a do-er), so of course I need to set plans for the year:

1. Work at least 100 hours on Ganesha (He didn't get a stitch last year)
2. Finish at least 10 of my carry-over WIPs
3. End the year with less WIPs than I started
4. Make one (themed?) pinkeep a month
5. Finish Sleepy Hollow so I can wrap up that contest (I haven't forgotten, just...not feeling Halloween)

I think that's a suitable number of vague and specific goals that I may be able to keep.

And more specifically:
Goals for January:
1. Start and finish my New Year's Day small
2. Start my New Year's Start
3. Finish Mushroom and turn it into a drawstring bag
4. Start Cirque des Triangle
5. Start anything else I feel like since it's Guilt Free January! Woohoo!