Colourful plans and a finish

First of all, yes, I am very happy to report that I have my first finish of the year, and it is a big one: I have put the last stitches in the Lady of the Thread! Hurray! She is every bit as stunning as I thought she would be.

Finished and ready to be framed

This is what the working copy of the chart looks like now.

By the way, the chart is available for sale or trade. :)

Second: I started planning my next project. One more finish and I will be kitting up Rose of Sharon.

I'm not sure I like the colour of her dress though, so I started to look for alternatives on the net and found some pretty impressive projects. Some are on blogs and some are on the Mirabilia stitchers BB, but I wanna wait for the stitchers' permission to post the images before I display them all. Until then, here is one of the versions stitched by Anka, who graciously agreed to share this photo of her amazing stitching. She had not only changed the colour of the dress and the flowers, but stitched the column completely.

Ankaa's Rose of Sharon

Conversion problems

I spent the past two days working on my super secret project. I got to the point where I should work on the heads of the people in it, and I need to convert hair from blonde to brunette. The chart has instructions for that, but not very obvious ones. It says hair shades can be substituted. My problem is that the brunette has four shades and the blonde five, so I can substitute some but not all. Can anyone who has experience help me out? The original colours were 801, 420, 3045, 3046 and 3047 going from darkest to brightest. I changed them to 3371, 898, 433 and 434 in this order, but dunno what to do with the last one.
I really wish I could blog about this but my family reads that and I don't wanna spoil the surprise. No one in our family can keep secrets. Well, no one apart from me.

Job hunt update

Since my usual methods of answering any and all job ads, signing up to head hunter websites and so on has failed me, I decided to try a new approach. I grabbed a bunch of copies of my CV and walked around a couple malls. Whenever I saw a "help wanted" sign on any door, I just walked in and handed over a CV to whoever would accept one. No, I have no commercial qualification, but I can serve your customers better than any gal who just left that school, ma'am. And it worked! No, I don't have a job yet, but I already had one job interview, and I have an appointment for tomorrow. I am going to take my chances in another shop. Plus, who knows, a few more calls may come in. Not to mention that there are several malls I have not visited yet. My feet hurt from walking all day long, but I am so not giving up!
Wish me luck for tomorrow!

Trouble in paradise

I know I disappeared for a long time. My years-long war with depression took another turn this winter/spring and my foe seemed to conquer. I'm very, VERY slowly getting back on my feet. Right now I don't get professional help, as I can't afford it. I don't even have health insurance! I do take some purely herbal meds though, plus I resumed tanning (didn't do that for a decade), made some new friends, planning to exercise more and resume my blogging as well. So please, leave nice comments!

Stitchingwise I haven't got much to show, I have completed Bunnymoon of the Somebunny To Love series, but apart from that, only a few freebies and mostly model stitching for the Hungarian cross stitch mag.

Here's a recent piece in its almost-finished status. I forgot to scan it when it was done. I'll scan it from next month's mag.

Other troubles in our personal paradise? Well, I tried to ignore it, I tried to hide it, I tried to deny it, but finally I have to face it. Our marriage is in the pits. He no longer shows any interest in me, and I definitely fell out of love with him. It's been almost a year since I know that it's kinda over. None of us really wanna divorce, but we are truly miserable together. No idea where we'll go from here. I'll keep you updated.
Tamara, snapped here in the Budapest Zoo, suspects nothing.

Plans for the future

My Works In Progress
Lavender and Lace - Ice Angel
Mirabilia - Deepest Love
Sunset - Garden Gate
Popcorn Alphabet - Letter "D"
Permin - Bird Bath (miniature)
Model Stitching
Fleur de Lis in silver metallics
Blue headband with metallics
Native American pattern with Variegated floss
Round Robins
Cross My Heart - Tiny Teacups
Kitty and Me - Millenium Cats
Jeremiah Junction - Birthday Flowers
To do (real soon)
Lavender and Lace: Little Wings
Emma's Garden
Fairy Dreams
In the Arms of an Angel
The Quiltmaker
Sweet Dreams
Dance of the Roses
Mirabilia: Stargazer
Villa Mirabilia
Rose of Sharon
Alma Lynne: Angel Collector
Dragon Dreams: Dragon Alphabet
Marty Bell: Patricia's Porch
Dimensions: Wildflower Trio