Mirabilia madness

Nora Corbett has a hold on me. Her designs are amazing and I just cannot stay away from them.

So she released Persephone some weeks (months?) ago, and I just had to order the chart immediately. I had a bit of extra money so I got the embellishment pack as well. I already picked a wonderful hand dyed fabric by Stephanie and bought the DMC floss required. No hand dyed floss yet, as the fabric I chose looks very different from the original. Therefore I will stitch the lady before I decide what colours I should use for the background pattern. Long story short, I have her kitted up and she is patiently waiting her turn.










 Then they released Red, which not only looks amazing, but she also reminds me of Ruby from the TV series Once Upon A Time. I love that series and Ruby is one of my favourite characters.

(SPOILERS!)

You may already know that I have a thing for werewolves. So for me Red has an extra special meaning. I don't even have the chart yet, but I bought a piece of 32ct grey marble linen and most of the floss. That is how nuts I am for this chart.

It was then that I realized that as much as I like finishes and try to make myself stitch smaller designs, my true calling is Mirabilia, as these designs give me the most joy, and I feel happier working on them then I feel finishing anything else. So, after years of futile efforts of not making more WIPs but concentrating on finishes, I finally embraced my nuts-for-Miras side and started working on Villa Mirabilia. It is my absolute favourite design and had it kitted up for years. I didn't start on it because its size scared me and I kind of assumed it will become a UFO. But now I had enough of waiting. I work on VM and every single stitch makes me happy. And, at the end of the day, that is all that matters.

So much to stitch, so little time.

And those are just my kits. Well... most of them. The ones I haven't opened yet. Except for the ballerina on the right.

I won!

I am so excited! You may remember that I entered a giveaway at the GoldenAngelsWorks blog and even posted my 17th birthday photo. Well, I won one of the prizes, a collection of cross stitch magazines! It's the first time I ever won anything on a giveaway! Thank you so much!
I hope it also means that my streak of bad luck, that lasted for about 24-30 months, is about to end. I could really use some help from above, and angels are always welcome here.
Fae are also invited.

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.

Happy Halloween!

I wanna wish all my friends happy Halloween and/or Samhain!

This is what my Christmas sampler by Carole looks like right now. I just printed part 7 and hope to stitch it tomorrow.

I worked on the Permin butterfly kit too. As you can see, I will soon finish the central section and will start to literally stitch outside the box. :)

I have made such a great progress I keep surprising myself! But finally I can dream of buying new stash without feeling guilty about my ever growing WIP lineup. I already know that I will buy me a new kit by Permin of Copenhagen. This above picture is nice but not really my cup of tea. My husband chose it, that's why he's the one who will be getting it. Me, I would like to have one of these on my wall:

 What do you think? Are they lovely or what?

I will go and set up another wish list on my web album now. That's what I always do in times of turmoil. Today I helped my husband pack his things, he is leaving. We are about to write the official letter that we must hand in to the court... that is, we file for divorce. I feel rather strange now. Half of me is scared of what is going to happen, and the other half cannot actually believe that it is really happening. I'm 35 and I am about to divorce for the second time. It's hard to not say "life sucks", even if I know that it really doesn't. My parents help me despite all our arguments, I have a most amazing child, I'm more or less healthy and still young. I have a roof above my head and food in my fridge, I have 24 hr online connection to the world, HBO digital, a multi-functional scanner/printer/fax machine and enough stash for the next decade. I have friends in all continents. I speak two languages and can kinda read two more, and my IQ is so high Mensa needs extra tests to specify it. I'm tall and thin and have excellent skin. And yet... life kinda sucks right now.

Giveaway at Anette's Acre

Anette has a blogoversary and she decided to celebrate it in a major and very generous way. She published some huge giveaways for readers, knitters and stitchers! I have decided to test my luck and enter the stitcher giveaway, of which you can read in detail on her site:

http://www.annettesacre.com/stitchblog/?p=203

Come and join the fun!

Also, you can still sign up for my PIF 'till the end of this week.

Been a bad girl

It all started with a Dimensions chart. I was organizing my

leaflets and realised I bought a second copy of a chart I already had. As it happened earlier this week, I hurried back to my LNS to see if I can swap it for another while the lady behind the counter still remembers me. She was very nice and allowed me to swap my leaflet for another in the same price category, which is great because I managed to get yet another birdhouse pattern. :)

Problem is, I had to wait for the other shoppers to be served, and my eye kept wandering... and I realised that the beautiful Coffee Bean linen I purchased with the Dimensions chart a few days ago is exactly the one this stunning Mirabilia design calls for... so of course I had to buy it!

And while the lady before me got a little tutorial on blending filaments I discovered there is a 20% sale on kits for a couple of days only... and you guessed it... another birdhouse design that has been on my Wish List for about 6 years decided to come with me.

Do you think that's bad? Wait 'till you find out that I pre-ordered threee DMC kits! My LNS doesn't carry them but they are always ready to order whatever we like, and these kits were available for such a good price!

Yeah, I know it's no excuse... but I really, really needed Somebunny To Love.

Grandma RAKd me

Some of you might remember that I have the most amazing virtual Grandma' in the world. She might live on the other side of the Atlantic, but that doesn't stop her from spoiling me like I was her granddaughter by blood.She decided to send me all the magazines and leaflets she doesn't intend to stitch and I already got the first package she mailed. It had two leaflets by StitchWorld and two of my beloved Stoney Creek magazines.

For all those new to my untraditional family, allow me to present to you some of the wonderful works of my beloved Granma Jane.

Granma Jane's stitching

Mag S. E. X. and asking for advice or help

One of the oldest LNSs that sells cross stitch supplies has a new sale. Every now and then they put old mags on a display. Crochet, knitting, quilting and cross stitch mags too. Any three mags you choose cost only 2000 HUF. To put that price into perspective, my favourite mags originally cost the following amount:

Susanna - 2490,-
Cross Stitch Crazy - 2200,-
Stoney Creek CS - 2100,-
Cross Stitch Gold - 3450,-


Needless to say that whenever I get the chance I invest as much as I can afford! These Stoney Creek mags were found in December, I haven't seen any of them since. Last week, however, I found three CS Crazy and three The World Of CS mags.

Of course, these are all old issues, and there can be problems. For example, the little hedgehog on the cover of the 1998 September TWO CS magazine is just a picture, the chart was supposed to be attached on a separate sheet as a free gift, but it's missing! The shop owner said it was probably stolen and since the magazine is so old, they can not replace it. Needless to say, I bought this issue for the sake of the hedgehog, my daughter, Tamara, loves it and asked me several times to stitch it for her.

I wonder what I should do. Do you think I should write to the publisher? Do they still have replacement charts for a nine year old magazine? Do they have the right at all to sell that pattern after all these years? Or should I look somewhere else? What do you suggest? Leave comments!