Finished frenzy

The crosses were done for over a year by the time I forced myself to finish all the pesky backstitching on this one, but I did finish just in time for my mother's birthday. Here it is all finished and framed, and now I cannot stop happy dancing.

Feasting Frenzy by Dimensions

Almost mid-month April WIPocalypse report

March had been a pretty hectic month and a particularly unlucky one for our family, so I am glad it is over. Here's hoping it will never surface again. Not only were most of us really sick last month, my baby was also bit by a dog very badly. I will never ever get her screams of pain out of my head for as long as I live. Never. Ever. It's been almost a month since it happened, but I wasn't ready to talk about it until I could see it healing. She was bit on her thigh and most of the minor bruises are almost gone, but two big holes where the dog's fangs have pierced the skin are still healing and will take at least another month before they are closed. For now, we change bandages several times a day to make sure the wound gets some air too. My girl still refuses to look at it. It seems the horror of being injured is multiplied by the disturbing sight.

And now for the regularly scheduled stitchy news. 

January WIPocalypse report

I spent most of my stitchy time working on my BAP items and starting the Crazy January projects. Here are my big progress photos and I will add my CRC scans later today.

Victorian Elegance by Dimensions Gold

Lady of the Thread by Lavender and Lace

Little Wings by Lavender and Lace

Eye of the tiger

I'm finally done with this beautiful Dimensions Gold kit too! Looks like July is the month of finishes. I cannot tell you how happy I am to have finished the backstitching and see this noble beast look right back at me. This kit is amazing, look at the glint in her eyes, who would have thought that two french knots would add so much to this design?

Here is the interpretation of a relevant poem, one of my personal favourites.

This video is here to show you the playful sides of these majestic beasts:

Another finish coming your way

I finally managed to finish these mustangs for my girl. I have completed the cross stitches quite a few months ago, but I was too annoyed with the backstitching, so I put it aside for a little while, and it got lost in the throng of WIPs I have in my stash. I completely forgot about it until recently, when I was going through my stitchy stuff to see if I have any kits or charts I could sell, either because I have an extra copy or just don't like that much any more. I am planning to set up a sale/trade album on Picasaweb some time soon, I will keep you posted on that. Meanwhile, here is the finished picture. It's a Dimensions Gold mini kit.

Victorian progress

I gave up on trying to use hoops on Victorian Elegance and sewn it onto my roll frame. I'm still not very happy with the face and will probably frog and stitch it again before I do the ribbons. Here is how far I got stitching her.

UFOs dusted off

Sorry for the absence, I had to spend a longer-than-usual period at my parents because my dad was briefly in hospital and they needed my help. Then, after coming home, I just laid back feeling sorry for myself for having to carry and stack up 10 quintals of wood on my own. Until I remembered that my parents do it every few months.

Anyway, I took a look around my stash and found some abandoned projects I have decided to work on. I also did some motivational decorating, that is, I hung up a couple of my kits and charts on the wall to remind me what I wanted to stitch. Feasting Frenzy is almost ready, I just need to do the backstitch. I have two Dimensions Gold kits only an afternoon's work away from completion. The Permin butterfly is nearly done too. But somehow I am unable to do those. So I pulled Victorian Elegance from the pile. I was very disappointed with my starting stitches. I may gonna frog and re-do them in the end. I started working on it a few years ago, when I had less experience, and my stitches look too uneven to me. Right now I just wanna carry on and see how much floss I will have left at the end. 

The other project is Butterflies and Brambles by DMC. I just love this one, very easy on the eyes.

In the meantime

I shared a lot of non-stitching stories in the past day, but I have been busy doing the little x-s despite not mentioning them. I think I mentioned frogging the ballerina's hair, that is gonna happen soon. Right now I am working mainly on Feasting Frenzy. My parents have a bird feeder in the backyard that is visited mostly by blue tits and great tits (which in Hungary have a name that translates to coal tit because of the black cap they have) and blackbirds. Everyone in my family adores them. So my mom really wants to have that picture stitched, framed and hanging on her wall. I have made really great progress and will soon start doing the backstitching!

Feasting Frenzy update

The last time I showed you a scan of Dimensions's Feasting Frenzy, it looked like this:

 That was in June. I didn't work on it as much as I wanted to because of my other projects, but I am still very pleased with the progress, and I am proud to say that it no longer fits into my scanner! I had to scan the two halves separately so you can see the whole beauty. I hope to finish this before the end of the year. I know, that is plenty of time, but then again, I have plenty of WIPs too!

So much to blog

My girl has been visited by the tooth fairy for the first time! She lost exactly the same tooth that came out first and the one next to it is loose too, she keeps fidgeting with it. Also, she discovered the fun in trampolines and she hops around in the one we have occasional access to whenever she can. This Monday seen the closure of the ballet course and the little ones gave us a performance to celebrate it. I cannot believe how good she is and how much her moves and coordination have improved!

On a side note, does anyone else use Picasa? It was my favourite image viewer/organizer until recently, but has gone mad in the past weeks. I like correcting my photos, as in removing red eyes, straightening the slanting photos, cropping out what is irrelevant, that sort of thing. Picasa even turned my photos automatically in the right direction depending on landscape or portrait orientation. It still does for itself, but not any other program. You see in my previous post that the photos are sideways. Very annoying. Also, when I change something, it automatically saves the original version in a backup folder. Which is okay, but it doesn't automatically save the changes I made, which means that if I don't manually save every piece myself, I will end up with hours of work wasted and two versions of the same crappy pictures I started with.
On a more positive note, the water is receding, but this process is a much slower one than the rising one. You see, here is my school that I wrote about earlier. The building is safe, but the yard is still flooded, the water will have to soak in the ground because it has no other exit. Maybe someone will pump it, I don't know. You can see the hedge in the front, all grey with the dried mud, shows you how high the water level was.

Oh, I almost forgot that I got my PIF gifts from Carol! I got this lovely cushion and an adorable snowman ornament. Thank you very much, I love them!

I also have some progress pictures on Feasting Frenzy. As you can see, I have some new birdies and the roof is almost finished!

And last but not least, this is a drawing by my DD, and this is how she sees me. Amazing how she got the details right, the green eyes, my favourite turtleneck sweater and the white sneakers with the red stripes on the sides. What a budding little artist I have!

Needless to say, I am very proud of her and this picture is on my wall where I can always see it!

Beauties of many kinds

First of all, thanks for all the nice words, whether in group/private mail or a blog comment. A fellow crafts blogger pointed me to the Blogging Without Obligation "movement" and you can find the logo on the right. The click will take you to the original post where it all started.

I also have Deepest Love back at home. Isn't she lovely in that beautiful frame? Fits her perfectly. It was by far the most expensive framing job, but it's for my mom's birthday, so what the heck.

I found some long forgotten WIPs as well. This one is called something like Butterfly on Bramble and it's a DMC kit. I started about two years ago, put ten stitches in it and put it aside. I found it last week and decided to make it my next project. Nice progress in two days, right?

I have finished a mini Lanarte kit that I just cannot find right now. Who knew that things can get lost for good in a 25 m2 apartment? It had a blue china teapot and a bunch of flowers on it. I think it is no longer on sale. I finished a pink teacup too, it was a magazine freebie, but it is also lost in the mess vortex. One day it will pop up on the middle of my dinner table when I least expect it, I just know it.

One finish I can show you is also a Lanarte kit I stitched almost a year ago. Only the backstitch was missing. At the time I got fed up with all the subtle, pale colours, but stumbling upon it last week, I decided to finish that project too. Here it is.

I started filling the gaps on my Dimensions tiger too, plus made some progress on Lady of the Thread as well. Not sure if I shared these progress photos before, but hey, I'm in a good mood and wanna show off my craft! So here they are:

 As far as non-stitching beauties are concerned: well, it's spring and the garden is finally in bloom! The tulip bulbs I purchased last year were the best buy ever! Look at these amazing colours! A dozen tulips to my daughter's delight. The loveliest flowers I have seen in a while. My girl is spending most of her time outside. Is she a diva in those sunglasses or what?

Survived Valentine

Valentine's day, the would-be-anniversary and the first court visit in my divorce case are all behind me.

*phew*

That is pretty much what I have to say about that. I tried to dodge the lovey-dovey period of the year, but it is very difficult when my usual escapade reality, World of Warcraft, has a two week long Love Festival scheduled on all its realms. Thankfully I got the relevant achievement last year, so I could concentrate on other activities.

I wasn't very active on my stitch related mailing groups or blogs either. I tried to avoid everything pink and heart-shaped, as in my present state of mind it only triggers a "bah, humbug" comment from me, and I didn't want to spread my bitterness. I'll get over it. I've been a good girl about stitching the monthly magazine freebies though. Despite them being heart shaped.

On further stitching news, my mom gets more and more interested in my stitching. That is the politically correct expression about her nagging me almost daily about when I wanna finis beading Deepest Love and when will I resume stitching The Lady of the Thread. :) Don't get me wrong, I love that I can finally chat about my projects with someone offline, but I really don't need anyone setting deadlines. I'm not complaining. It's the first time in years that I feel like she thinks I am good at something, so I enjoy it.

She made me start a new project. My daughter loves to fill the bird feeder and watch the adorable feathered friends gather around it, so I started a Dimensions kit I had in my stash for quite some time. As a belated Christmas present I bought my first q-snap and I tested it for this project. I absolutely love how tight it can keep the fabric without damaging the stitches the way my wooden hoops did. I wish I would have bought a larger one and not the 6"x6" but that was the only available one at that time, so I will have to make do with that, as I cannot afford another until I get a job.

Oh, and I have a question to my trade partners: do I owe anyone a piece of linen? One of my friends sent me some special floss in return for the fabric I sent her, and what she apparently wasn't expecting. I do have memory problems due to sleeping problems, had them for months, but I cannot remember even the intention of RAKing anyone, so I must assume I sent her the fabric by mistake. Which possibly means that there is somewhere in the world a trade partner of mine who has been waiting for that package in vain, possibly for months, and has to think I ripped her off. I tried to search my mail but couldn't find who that was supposed to go to. I faintly recall trading linen for some magazines, which I remember sending, but I don't even remember which Yahoo group it was, and I am a member of too many to read through all of them. So if you know who you are and I still owe you, please mail me at my jadestitch address at gmail, and I will make up for the delay.

Lazy needle

I haven't been stitching a lot lately. I got a bit lazy with my Christmas sampler, so now I'm stitching part 7 and 8 together to catch up. I can't take my time because part 9 is already available on Carole's website.
I don't know why I'm acting as if I didn't know what to do with all the empty hours of my time, but I did sign up for a HAED stitch-a-long as well! Not sure what made me do it, don't even ask! HAED simply makes me weak. I cannot resist their beautiful designs! Misery and cross stitching likes, what's more, craves company, so if you want to sign up, you can do that on the HAED message board, come along!
I spent four days at my parents with my amazing little girl. I missed her so much! She got better, waved her cough good-bye, so she is back in kindergarten again. Good thing too, she simply loves that place.
By the way, on this picture she is sitting on Granpa's head. Yes, she's allowed to do that. When she is at Gran's house, she is allowed to do whatever she likes. I'm not particularly happy with that, but what can I do? I need their support.
For the four days I dusted off an older WIP and took it with me. I worked on that single project for the time I spent there. Tamara was really delighted by my choice, because she loves tigers just as much as her mommy does. Here you go, this is my latest progress picture:

On my last day the family doctor gave me and my daughter the H1N1 shot. I never got a flu shot before. I didn't want this one either, but after I heard news that a few miles from my hometown an elementary school was temporarily closed due to a mass outbreak, I changed my mind. I thought, it is simply not worth taking chances. The doctor assured me that the vaccine is strong and has only minor possible side effects, such as light fever, muscle pains, tiredness and slight pain at the spot of the shot. Tamara did develop some fever and seems very tired and sleepy most of the time. In my case it's only the muscle aches and my right arm is very much in pain. I can feel a small lump under my skin where the shot was injected. I put some warm wet cloth on it, it does ease the pain a little, but I still can't do my washing dishes or ironing.

I think I have the perfect excuse to just sit on the couch and stitch a little.

So much to stitch...

I have been soooo busy these past weeks! First of all, I was working on my model stitch. It has two cartoon characters on it, so it uses only a few colours and is not very difficult. I am done with the crosses and now I am doing the backstitch. I really hated all the half stitches in it, as I got a very stiff aida to work on, and I can hardly understand 1) why not use linen for a design with so many half stitches, and 2) why are those half stitches needed at all, when the backstitch doesn't follow the stitching outline. Anyway, I'll be done in a few days.

In the meantime, I got further news that are - in a way - connected to stitching. We got invitations for two weddings, one from DH's former classmates and one from one of his cousins, Roland. We also heard that another one of his cousins is going to get married next May! Plus, if all goes well, my sister will marry her NZ beloved this September, along with one of our best friends! That makes FIVE weddings = five wedding samplers! ;) One of our friends is expecting a baby for July, so there is one more gift to stitch... and then I didn't mention all my WIPs or future plans!

I also had a birthday, you know. :) I turned 32 last week. I had a day off from my usual daily duties. I used the chance to get back to my old feminine self, waxed my legs and visited the hairdresser, had a copper red dye and a cut. I also got a new, pretty top from my MIL and bought a light green one to match my new, bright hair colour. No more running around in jumpers or worn jeans and T-shirts! I can wear skirts again! It's summer! All I need now is the weather to realize that. As one of my friends said in a message board: it'd be time to tell the global warming that it's happening! :P It is cold, really cold here! :(

Back to my birthday... I also got some stash, a few Light Effects floss and a kit called Wildflower Trio from Dimensions. I love it! I already have the floss sorted, and cannot wait to get started!

About my weekend: we spent Sunday at my FIL's and MIL's place, and on Monday we visited DH's grandmothers. They both live in small villages, not too far from each other - not by car, anyway. DH's maternal granny had her 83rd birthday this week, so that was an extra reason for our visit. She is a darling, I love her as if she was my Granny, and in a way, she is. I showed her the semi-finished Ice Angel, as it is going to be hers once it is finished and framed. She loved it. Tamara fell asleep on her couch, so we had some time to chat and I was stitching on the angel's skirt quite a lot.


After Tami woke we said our good-byes and left to visit the other Granny. We were taken by surprise as she was not alone, FIL's siblings and their spouses were there as well, plus two of DH's cousins - that is where we got the invite I mentioned earlier. :) Everyone wanted to see my baby! Tamara was extra cute, she was amazed to see all the animals: she loved the hens and was awed by the rooster; everything was full of the song of birds, and most of all, there were cats wherever she went! There were three cats in Granma's yard and several others all around! She kept running to catch one but they eluded her. She wasn't very disappointed though. Running is half the fun, after all. :)
Anyway, we went back to DH's parents' place and spent most of Tuesday there. We got home late in the afternoon. Tami barely wanted to let her grandparents go. Anyway, we are back to our everydays now.

Oh, one more thing: I mentioned that I had some plans regarding cross stitch I wouldn't talk about. I'm telling you now as it seems I had to give it up for now. There was a vacancy at a needlework store and I wanted to apply for the job. I had some doubts whether it's a good idea or not, mainly because of Tamara. But you see, Oliver has serious difficulties getting a daytime job, as he has little working experience, and without that or without degree rarely anyone can get a good job nowadays. So he voulenteered to be a stay-at-home-dad. I should work about 13-15 days a month, from 10 to 20 hours, so he said he could cope with Tami and also be able to continue his translating job. BUT. But then he got a phone call from his boss saying that the deadline for his present work is now set to July 1. And that he had better not miss that. Which means, that now he has to work all day, every day. Even now as I type, he is looking over my shoulder, waiting for the keyboard to be freed from my fingers. :) Anyway, I had to postpone my plans of working in the cross stitch industry. Maybe later. Who knows, maybe they won't find anyone until July... we shall see what happens. I'll keep you updated.