A Finish (!!) and WIPocalypse, the last coming

"You're going to read over my shoulder, aren't you?"
"Yeah, just to make sure you mention me in every other sentence, at least. It's a proof-reading thing. You know you want to."

And that is how Handsome Helpful Boyfriend is helping me write this blog post.

I finally finished his secret Christmas stitching. A few days late and it would have been done a tad earlier if I hadn't lost an entire bobbin of 159. As I didn't have a spare, I ended up having to go to Hobby Lobby the next day and buy another one (and keep from buying all the Thomas Kinkade Disney kits). BUT, all that aside, I finally finished, and here it is:

"Spring Meeting" by Alessandra Adelaide

Stitched on 22-count "Precious Metals" Hardanger by Silkweaver Fabrics

2 over 1 DMC

And there you have it. It took me roughly 3-4 weeks to finish it and it would have been done on time but I ended up getting the fabric a bit late, mostly due to Hurricane Sandy.

I do have another secret stitch going on right now but it's incorporated into my rotation so there should (theoretically) be more updates coming. 

Handsome helpful boyfriend is very handsome and helpful and wonderful. He got me a Golden Kite pattern for Christmas of this beauty:

After a serious bout of handsome helpful puppy boyfriend eyes and "maybe you can start the parrot?" I have now incorporated it into my rotation. My long.... long rotation. Oh well! I just got a finish so I'm not complaining.

Handsome helpful boyfriend's mom also got me a lovely kit:

Definitely itching to start this one (along with all my charts) but holding off... for now. Maybe when I finish the horses I'll pull this one out. It's got beads and blending filament and all sorts of things to make it both a fun and challenging stitch.

Those are all the stitchy Christmas things I got, and it's plenty in my opinion. I will also mention that Lesli of the Fabulous Frogger was super naughty and sent me a $50 gift card to White House Black Market. I will most certainly find a very good use for it, thank you Lesli!

So now the WIPocalypse. Unfortunately I don't have any new stitching to show for any of my regular projects, so I'll just do a recap of the beginning of the year and where they're at now.

College of Magical Knowledge before WIPocalypse:

Now:

Mario before WIPocalypse:

Now:

Riding the Wave before WIPocalypse:

Now:

Tiny Rose Garden Mandala before WIPocalypse:

Tiny Rose Garden Mandala now (FINISHED!):

Middle Earf before WIPocalypse:

Now:

Greek Mandala before WIPocalypse:

NOT STARTED

Now:

So there you have it. I will not be participating in the 2013 WIPocalypse or the 2013 TUSAL, mostly because of Grad school and it being difficult to maintain obligations like that but it was fun this year and I'm glad I did it. Also glad that the world did NOT end because I didn't actually get to finish any (except one) of my WIPs. oops!

So today I go back to my regularly scheduled rotation. If you're curious about what's coming up next, I have posted the next ten rotations on the top of my left sidebar. 

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that 2013 brings nothing but joy and good things. From Handsome Helpful Boyfriend and myself! 

Grab a cuppa! (also, giveaway winner!)

I wanted to thank everyone for entering my little haphazard mini giveaway. It's been a lot of fun reading your answers and today I wrote everyone's names out, put numbers next to them, and had Handsome Helpful Boyfriend pick a number between 1 and 21. He picked "2" which means that the winner of the giveaway is....

SHARINE!

Yay! Congratulations, Sharine! I've already picked the perfect thing for you, so give me a week or two to get it together and I'll send that out! Thanks again, everyone!

I meant to participate in IHSW this weekend. I signed up and everything, worked on Saturday, got sick today and stitched all day, and then I realized that wait a second - I'm stitching secret stitching and can't show you guys :( It's coming along nicely, though, and I really hope I have it finished for Handsome Helpful Boyfriend by Christmas, but I'll definitely report back. 

In other news, a few weeks ago I got an e-mail from Jo of Serendipitous Stitching asking me if she could send Handsome Helpful Boyfriend a present. I had no objections and about two weeks later got a neat little packet in the mail. We opened it up and imagine our surprise at the loveliness enclosed! Picture below, along with my last TUSAL jar of the year.

Isn't it WONDERFUL! Thanks so much, Jo! We really love it! The Hobbit is one of Handsome Helpful Boyfriend's favorite books, so this was quite a treat getting us very excited for the movie.

Which brings me to my next story for this post. Handsome Helpful Boyfriend finished the well he was on Wednesday night, and came home at 3am Thursday morning! We had been invited to go see the midnight showing of the Hobbit Thursday night, but declined thinking that Handsome Helpful Boyfriend had to get up at 5 to go to work Friday morning. This was no longer the case, but we still thought we'd just go see the noon showing Friday since we both had the day off work. Well Thursday night we went out to dinner with a bunch of people who were going to the midnight screening. Turns out they had extra tickets and somehow convinced Handsome Helpful Boyfriend to go to the midnight screening. Here I was thinking I was going to be enjoying my warm soft bed that night but no... off to the movies we went after a quick stop at home for a cup of coffee. 

It was a good time, though. This is a small town so only about 1/3 of the theater was full and some people dressed up as characters as well. The tickets were for the 3D screening, which didn't have much effect on me because of my eyesight, but the movie itself was immensely enjoyable. I loved all the tie-ins with LOTR and the little extras they added. True, it was a tad long, but at least I had fun. And Benedict Cumberbatch plays Smaug and the Necromancer, which brings me to my next (and final) story for the night.

SHERLOCK.

Holy crap I'm super addicted to that show! If you haven't seen it yet and have access to it via Netflix Instant or other avenues, WATCH IT, I say! It is such a refreshingly modern take on a classic without being annoying or over-the-top. Well, ok, a little over the top but Sherlock Holmes' character has to be a LITTLE over the top. There are two seasons out so far, with three episodes per season, each episode being an hour and a half long. I have watched both seasons all the way through, and then watched season one all over again. I keep looking over at Handsome Helpful Boyfriend and saying, "I want more Sherlock." "ok, I'll go produce some." Season three is coming... and I wants it now, precious.

WIPocalypse, the twelfth coming

Looks like I'm not going to finish any of my pieces before the end of the world. Oh well! I guess that's what's called the stitcher's dilemma or some such thing. I got a little progress though, so here goes.

Riding the Wave before WIPocalypse:

Last WIPocalypse:

Now:

And the only reason I got anything else done was because the Middle Earf SAL happens every month.

Before WIPocalypse:

Last WIPocalypse:

Now:

I'm pretty happy with the progress I'm not going to lie, especially since it's the last week of school right now so everything is due. I did complete one of three classes today, so just two left! Turned in the final project for one and just have a presentation and final exam left in that one, and a group project, small assignment, and case study post for another and that's it! Freedom for a month and a half to video game until my brain leaks out my ears and stitch until I can't see straight.

Speaking of stitching, you won't see much more here until after Christmas (BOOOOO) because I'm doing secret stitching for Handsome Helpful Boyfriend who is also a Hero because he has let me do my secret stitching while in the same room as he is so I can watch him play Skyrim and he hasn't peeked one bit. Nope, not one bit. I am also told to let you all know that you're more than welcome to send him plenty of Christmas presents this year since he's so Handsome and Helpful and such a good Boyfriend.

On another note, I want to do a small giveaway - especially for those of you who have made it this far. To be honest I don't even know what will be included in it yet so here are the rules:

1. Comment on this post with the following information:
2. Your favorite song or piece of music. HHB and I like all sorts of music, particularly classical (in my case) and jazz (in his case) and we're always looking for more stuff to listen to;
3. What kind of stitchy stuff is your favorite stuff to stash. Is it fabric? Threads? Silks? Beads? Dreaded metallics? Embellishments? This will most definitely influence the contents of the giveaway; and
4. INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS. Sometimes people pose questions to me in the comments section and I can't respond via email because there's a "noreply" address in the field. SAD FACE.

Enter by December 14th and I will ship international so have fun.

Last time I got a question about my gridding thread - do I like the fishing line or not. I like it. I don't have a problem with it leaving marks, mostly because of my stitching style. I use a LOT of tension when I stitch and I think that keeps the line from making the holes bigger, for some reason. Also, the way I run my needle under the fabric has something to do with it, too. I think.

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen (are there any gentlemen?). Hope you've enjoyed and hope you have a great night.