Sooooo it's been a while

Yeah I've been kind of bad with the blog updating and all . . .

Ok so the Two Geishas and the bird heart wreath have now found homes on the wall of the dining room - mine near my end and Mom's near her end.

I did start the pixie mentioned, Fern. I started her like January 17th or 18th or so and finished her in March before I went to London, England to visit my friend, Gilee. The peach beads match the fabric almost exactly, which is nice.


I did get the fabric and the threads for that SAL I mentioned, The Moon. Unfortunately, it never did materialize since the company it was being done thru went under. :( I'm still going to stitch her tho. I printed out the whole patters - 42 pages!!!! I'm hoping to start her later this year.

I did get some more stitched in February on the alien storykeep, but not much then. I definitely didn't want to take that with me to England! Too tiny - 25 count over 1!

I did however, take WAY more projects than I could have reasonably expected to complete . . . but that's normal for a cross stitcher! lol
I took that Going to Market and the pink dolly (I will eventually stitch for my sister, Mary). I did decide to take my now (well then) oldest wip, the Celebration of Music. I started that in 1993 and want to give it to my Aunt Susan, who plays the flute - she's the reason I decided to play flute back in the 6th grade when we were picking out instruments in band.
Gilee got us tickets for the Britain's Cross Stitcher's craft show/fair/thingy. So we went on Sunday - it took us 4 tube transfers but we made it! It was neat - the cross stitch dealers had actual stitched models up, which was neat to see. I was VERY good and only got one kit of Sherwood Forest & one book, both very cheap.
Kew Gardens and both Platform 9 3/4 (yes there really IS one!) and the Great Hall were very cool to see.

I didn't start the not-yet-started kits nor did I finish the Celebration of Music, but I did get a nice bit done on it!
I did finish the Celebration of Music on May 13th yay!

I then picked the alien cat storykeep back up and got all the threads for it. 50+ colors! Wow. It is a HAED (Heaven And Earth Designs) afterall!
This is what it will look like:


Also Sal & I discussed converting his art - awesomely cool abstract stuff! - into counted cross stitch. I started with a line drawing called Gato Bruja. My charting program actually turned it into cross stitches rather than backstitched lines . . . this will take some working on I think . . . also it's kind of harder than I thought it would be on that white evenweave, I think I'll re-do it on a different color, I haven't gotten very far yet so it's ok.


I've been working REALLY hard on the alien cat storykeep and now that I've gotten used to the tiny stitches, I'm comfortable working on it during my lunch hour - I take a couple of pb&j sandwiches and then have the whole hour to stitch!
I've gotten further than this but this is the most recent picture I've taken:


I also started the "castles in the clouds" as I call it - on the blue/periwinkle combination and the green/copper combinations! What a difference the background makes!

I got my Daniel Radcliffe framed and now I have to decide where he's going to go . . . I don't really want to take him back to work with me! lol

I got Joan Elliott's blue geisha which came out in October. I was hoping someone'd get it for me for Christmas, but nobody did. And then maybe for my birthday, but still nobody did (and I even had them circled in the catalogs :( ) I hadn't used the gift card Aunt Debbie & Uncle Bill had given me for Christmas to Hobby Lobby. There isn't one any closer to me than Danville and I never go there (been thru it a few times on my way to Greensboro but never stopped). I didn't use it when I got it because there wasn't anything I wanted from their online shopping bit. But I had gotten to thinking about it. So I went online and looked . . . and ohmygosh!!! That blue geisha!!!!! So I got it - it still cost me $17.59, but that's still half of what it would have cost me from Herrschners or the Stitchery so that's good.


So I've got a bit of a rotation going on with the alien cat storykeep for Gilee, the two castle in the clouds, and the blue geisha. I want to stitch the Gato Brujah, the two houses ones for my cousins (for their house/home-warming presents late I know), the other 3 pixies I have the floss for, the Moon, my Tannith one, and maybe something else - I also want to stitch the Going to Market, the Three Yoruban women, and that cool-looking old world map as well as House Work. I would REALLY like most of that list to be done by the end of this year!!! No wonder I don't have time to update my blog! LOL





I also got this thing called a topsy-turvey - so far I've gotten three strawberries! They were tasty. I wonder if the Mr. Stripey tomatoes will be any good. I have strawberries, like 4 or 5 tomato plants, some cucumbers, and some squash.