Library Adventures #7

Here's one I haven't worked on in a while, although that can probably be said of most of my WIPs at this point: Library Adventures by Randal Spangler.

Before:

After 10 hours:

I have missed stitching so much and now that I'm back into it, it feels so good. I usually knit during the week after work if I have time for it. I'm training for two half marathons right now and possibly a marathon so sometimes I get home pretty late and by the time I settle in it's usually too late to pull all my stitching out. But I can pick up with my knitting where I left off and then have little stitching marathons on the weekend.

I actually took a personal day on Monday (I paid for it Friday night and I'll pay for it again on Tuesday) but it got to the point where I just needed a day all for myself with no work. I have already booked a mani/pedi for Monday morning and then I plan to do some shopping, maybe hang out at a coffee shop and write for a bit, and stitching until I can't see straight. Throw some video games in there, too. And today I have to go for a run, hit up the BevMo $0.05 wine sale, and then we're going to go play board games at a friend's. Stitching now while my breakfast settles before going out for a run.

All in all, life is pretty okay right now. Work is still work and there is SO MUCH of it. I can't keep up. I think one of these days I'm just going to have to work until I get through everything in my inbox and then it will feel like a fresh start. Right now I have so many things outstanding my head is spinning.

One thing at a time.

Happy stitching!

Celestial Dragon, page finish!

My stitching bug is back and in full force, helped along by the fact that work is slowing down a bit so I've been working normal 8 hour days instead of 10-12 hour days! Put together all this means more stitching!

Before:

After:

 There is lots and lots of Kreinik in this piece, and you can just barely see the border that will surround the whole dragon, all stitching in 032 Kreinik. Once all the cross stitch is done there's also a crazy amount of backstitching, a couple of french knots, and beads galore! By the time I'm done I'm going to need sunglasses to look at it it will be so shiny!

Not that I'm complaining.

Happy stitching, everyone!

I'm Alive!

After I posted the last dragon picture, H³ asked me to finish crocheting his blanket, since it had been so cold in December. So I was crocheting away, busily, and my stitching fell by the wayside. Then, in January, we flew off to Iceland for a week. The weather was cold and snowy, the nights were long, and I felt so relaxed after. Lots of sleep was had. H³ also found some stitching stores in Reykjavik, and I ended up buying two patterns with chickens on them. Since then, I've been stitching away and just finished one!

We're calling her Henrietta! I have one more chicken, slightly different, so when that's done I'll post a photo. Henrietta is stitched on canvas with wool threads, something I'd never done before. She's cute, though, so once her companion is stitched I'll frame them both.

Next project will be going back to the dragon and finish my quarter page.

Besides that, life has just been work. Lots and lots of work. Always work. I should probably be working right now. But I'm not because I want a weekend. The good news about that much work is I discovered the power of audio books while I work. As long as the book isn't too complicated, I can listen while I work, so I've been blowing through books that would normally take me a year to get through. Almost through the whole Sookie Stackhouse series now!

The dog is good, Iceland was fantastic, I have missed stitching, and I am so glad to be back to it.