Flappping Parrot 29 + Once Upon a Fairy Tale Page Finish

 Whew, a whirlwind the last few weeks. Thing at work are going back to normal which means no more pay cuts and no more capped hours. It also means the floodgates have opened for work-related requests and I was working until 10pm last night (I start at 8am). So that was fun. But I took Monday and Tuesday off so hopefully a bit of a stitchy / video gaming weekend ahead for me. 

First up, a bit of progress on the Flapping Parrot.

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 And then, during this month's SAL, I managed to finish another page of Once Upon a Fairy Tale. I had to cheat an extra day of the SAL but I was 202 stitches away from a page finish so feel justified in doing so.

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SSMC is fun in a masochistic sort of way. There's so much confetti that while you're stitching the picture doesn't really come together until POP! and there it is. 

I'm sorry I don't have anything exciting to report. We're still sheltering in place. H³ is picking symbols diligently. Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary. Usually we treat ourselves and either travel (I was in AUSTRIA this time last year!) or go to some fancy Michelin star restaurant (once a year, we're allowed, I think). This year we're hanging out at home. But we've been together 24/7, just about, since the pandemic started and we haven't gotten on each other's nerves yet so I take that as a win.

Happy stitching!

Medieval Shelf 16 (Page Finish)

 I was stitching away late into the night last night thinking maybe I could finish the third page of Medieval Shelf but around 11:30 I gave up and decided I valued sleep over a page finish (blasphemous, I know). But I finished this page by 10:00am today! So here it is.

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I've been jumping around pages a bit on this project so I'm not sure where I'm going to go next but once I decide I'll go ahead and grid the page and then move on to my multitude of Christmas stitching and baby blanket knitting. And since I have the day off I'll probably also be playing extreme amounts of video games today.

So much to do!

Stay safe and healthy and happy stitching!

Once Upon a Fairy Tale (SSMC) 6

 This post is a bit late mostly because, after 8 years on my old grad school laptop, I caved and bought a new one. There's been a bit of a learning curve as I have to do things a little differently than I did on my old machine, mostly because this one actually works. The biggest thing to get used to was that the SD card slot on this laptop doesn't fit the SD card to the camera I use to capture stitching photos, so I had to dig out the cable. Which is fine, but it explains why this post is so late!

Without further ado, here's the August progress on One Upon a Fairy Tale (my once-a-month SAL with Lesli).

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I'm hoping to finish this page during this month's SAL. And I'm hoping to finish the current page of Medieval Shelf I'm working on today or tomorrow. Only 400 stitches to go there.

Other than stitching life has been pretty uneventful. My best friend is pregnant with her second and due in October so I'm knitting a baby blanket as fast as I can. I've been reading a lot, writing a lot, and I have a whole batch of Christmas stitching I need to attend to (nothing overly ambitious this year, thank goodness). Other than that I'm still working, we're both still healthy, and that's really all I can ask for.

I hope you're all staying healthy and safe.

Legendary Creatures - September (Complete)

 Legendary Creatures was next in my new rotation and I managed to finish the September installment!

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R for Rainbow Serpent and W for Wendigo made an appearance.

I have three months left of this (woefully late) SAL and I'm going to try to push through as many letters as I can the next time it comes up in the rotation. Ideally I'd love to get it framed in time to be able to give it to my nephew as a Christmas gift. Not sure how successful I'll be, but that's the plan, anyway.

New rotation is good so far. I've been swamped at work since coming back from vacation so not much stitching has happened but I'm hopeful for this weekend. Fingers crossed.

Stay safe and happy stitching!

Medieval Shelf 15

 Did my first installment of the new rotation! 

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Didn't finish the page but that's okay. I have come to realize that I've been treating stitching (and my other hobbies) like goal-oriented obligations. Yeah, I want to finish my projects and make progress but at the end of the day I'm doing this hobby to relax and I haven't been feeling relaxed while stitching for a while, just stressed out about "meeting my minimum." So I'm trying to chill out. 

Everyone, be kind to yourselves, and happy stitching!

Once Upon a Fairy Tale (SSMC) 5 & Medieval Shelf 14

So apparently I never posted the halfway point of Medieval Shelf and although I've surpassed the halfway point, I might as well post where I'm at now before I finish the page.

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Next, Lesli and I did our July SAL so here's the progress for that.

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I'm really hoping to be able to finish this page on the next go-around, but we'll see!

Unfortunately for July, my stitching bug completely left the building and I had trouble bringing myself to do anything including reading, writing, diamond painting, running, video gaming, pretty much anything. I think I'm at the point of burnout with work and life so I ended up taking a week off in August. Hoping to get some good stitching done but also take care of life stuff like car maintenance, etc.

I think I might switch up my rotation to keep my stitching bug going. After discovering that I enjoy the 7-day SAL immensely, I'm thinking a 7-day plan for my WIPS with the last 7 days of every month reserved for my SAL. I'll have to fudge the plan a little bit for flexibility but I'm okay with that. So I've got a calendar open right now and I'm moving stuff around and plotting things. Maybe you'll even see more WIP posts. We'll see!!

I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy and, until next time, happy stitching!

Once Upon a Fairy Tale SSMC 4

I completely lost my stitching bug this month. Honestly, I kind of lost my drive to do anything. I didn't finish my page of Medieval Shelf, didn't even make it halfway. I didn't make my goal of finishing the half page of this SAL on this round. Just all around didn't make it.

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I'm almost at the halfway point for Medieval Shelf so I'll post that when I get there in the next day or two. H³ has been diligently picking symbols and trying to motivate me so hopefully I'll get out of this funk soon.

Hopefully.

Once Upon a Fairy Tale SSMC 3 - Page Finish

I stitched like a fiend this weekend and over the last 7 days of this SAL managed to meet my goal of finishing page 33!

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The little confetti stitches in the SSMC charts are killer but I have to say I'm quite happy with how the page turned out. I'm not quite sure which page I'll tackle next. To the right will be more sky/castle/moon, to the left, castle wall with some gorgeous ivy, above is the shelf border with some mushrooms, and below more grass and a shelf border with a scroll. I'll make H³ decide and you'll get to see next month! My goal will be to finish a half page. I'm not a particularly fast stitcher so that in and of itself is a bit of a lofty goal, but it'll give me something to work toward.

I think I've mentioned it on this blog before but I do creative writing on the side. I'm not a great writer by any stretch of the imagination, but I really enjoy doing it and publish my stuff on FictionPress. Either way, lately I've been completely consumed by a story idea. It has infiltrated my dreams and basically every waking moment. I write via Scrivener, so when I'm not working or stitching (my brain has a tendency to mull things over when it's occupied elsewhere so stitching is extremely conducive to my writing) I have Scrivener open and I've been world building and outlining like no one's business. When I'm not writing character profiles or plot outlines I'm reading other books for research. It's all a little overwhelming. I kind of feel like I'm not actually writing anything but discovering something that was already there.

I hope you're all well and staying safe. Until next time, happy stitching!

Legendary Creatures - August

My stitching dreams are coming true. I'm getting more stitching done and meeting my goals. With that, I finished August's installment of Legendary Creatures just in time to start this month's installment of Once Upon a Fairy Tale SAL.

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I actually had a really rough week, emotionally, this week. In the middle of it I screwed up on the "P" in this piece and I just wanted to throw it right in the bin and give up. H³ convinced me not to and I worked around it. But yeah. I know there's a mistake in there. I hate that there's a mistake in there. But it is what it is. I'll be giving this piece away when it's done anyway so that's that.

I finished the above Saturday night and the Once Upon a Fairy Tale SAL starts today so yesterday I worked a little bit on Medieval Shelf. I'll go back to it after this month's SAL but have it timed out for number of stitches so that I finish it by next month's SAL. Hopefully I can make it!

With that, I gotta get to it! I want to finish the current page of the SAL this month which will require some hunkering down! Happy stitching!

Flapping Parrot 28 - page finish

I finished page 12 late last night! It was too late to post here, but it was a relief as my goal was to finish the page before the next round of Once Upon a Time SAL and I finished with a week to spare. Maybe even enough time to finish August's installment of the Legendary Creatures SAL. I'm not sure, but I'll try!

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I took a much needed day off today as a mental health day. I haven't been sleeping well and, naturally, my emotions have been all over the place. Honestly I can relax as much as I want but if I'm not sleeping everything goes to hell. So I took an extra day today, I'll have two three day weekends in a row, and I already feel loads better. Today I was a potato and alternated between video games (Spyro remake) and reading a trashy romance novel. H³ made me an espresso (that espresso machine is the gift that keeps on giving) - I had it with some ladyfingers and just feel like I've been living my best life today. Back to work tomorrow, but so glad I just TOOK a day. I also have so much PTO I'm going to max out soon so I should take the odd day here and there anywhere.

Tonight I'll start work on Legendary Creatures again for the week before the next Fairy Tale SAL, but for now I'm going to walk the dog as she's staring at me and urging me on.

Until next time, stay safe and happy stitching.

Flapping Parrot 27

Now that we're not working overtime anymore due to the cuts at work I've had more time to both read and stitch so, best of both worlds!

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Page 12 is about halfway done so the next time I update I'll have a page finish! The whole project is almost a quarter of the way done!

I've been reading House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas and I'm addicted. I can't put it down. I'm always looking for that thrill - the book that calls to me and when I'm not reading it all I want to do is read it. So mission accomplished on that front.

Today's plan: alternate between reading and stitching. I just hope H³ is ready to pick some symbols today.

Happy stitching, everyone!

Once Upon a Fairy Tale SSMC 002

I had another round of Fairy Tale SAL with Lesli!

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It was an extremely productive 7 days and I had a great time. I'm hoping to finish this up next time around.

I don't have much new to announce. We're still on shelter-in-place so there's not much to be done. But I have been working out more and more in the pursuit of "abs" as I call it. I've been keeping up with my workouts, been sensible with my food, and even got a PR running today (fastest mile pace since the lifetime of acquiring my running watch ~3 years). I take progress photos once a week. Whether or not I get "abs" or not doesn't matter at the end of the day. I'm at least keeping myself busy.

My stitching goal is to finish the current page of the Parrot plus August Legendary Creatures before the next Fairy Tale SAL and then finish the current page of Fairy Tale during May's turn. We'll see how I do! I'll check in at the halfway point of the current page of the Flapping Parrot, which should be pretty soon.

Happy Stitching!

Legendary Creatures SAL Update (May, June, July)

It has been a while since I've posted an update to my woefully behind Legendary Creatures SAL. That being said, I HAVE been working on it, usually between page finishes of larger pieces. I've finish May, June, and July and will now be turning back to the Flapping Parrot for another page.

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Quite a few letters added! This is a fun one - I finish each letter over 2-3 days of stitching so it feels like a little mini finish with each one. I think I might give this to my nephew when it's done.

Other than that we have had cutbacks at work. Nothing too terrible and I still have my job, but we'll see what the future holds. Just keeping my head down and trying to stay off the radar in any bad sense while turning things as fast as I can in as high a quality as possible.

Today's is H³'s birthday. I made tiramisu last night (which will be enjoyed shortly) and we're just spending the day enjoying each other's company. Bit of a crap time to have a birthday, but we'll make the most of it.

I hope everyone is well and stays well. In the meantime, happy stitching.

Once Upon a Fairy Tale SSMC 001

My SAL with Lesli ended, a new month started, and I'm back to my queue (Legendary Creatures SAL from 2018 - July).

I realize I didn't post the SAL photo after February's round but I'm posting one now. So here is roughly two weeks of stitching, granted I didn't get a lot of stitching time in February. It was before the shelter-in-place order went into effect and I had a lot of plans. March was quite different. So, without further ado, here is my progress on page 33 of Aimee Stewart's Once Upon a Fairy Tale:

This is outside my typical realm of comfort as I'm stitching it on 28-count instead of 25-count but since it's SSMC I figured it's still going to be huge and the piece is so detailed that 28-count would work well. Either way, here it is. I'm really enjoying stitching on it so far. Aimee's shelves are great because you usually don't have a huge expanse of sky to get through but instead get to see details emerge on every page. I started on page 33 because a whole lot of people are stitching this and I wanted to start somewhere not a lot of people were stitching, just for a change of pace. Not sure which page I'll move on to from here, but I'll let H³ decide which course to take.

I'll post an update from Legendary Creatures when that's done. I've stitched one of three letters for the July portion and I realize I also haven't updated the progress on that one in a few months so it looks quite different from the last time I posted.

Besides that life is fine, albeit a little frustrating. H³ are both homebodies to an extent so staying at home isn't a huge change of pace. We miss our friends and seeing our family. We did a zoom meeting for his mom's birthday a few days ago. His birthday is coming up soon, too. We've been expanding our board game collection, at least with games for 2+ players and passing the time doing that. I've been reading but as I still have my job I've also been working normal hours. I had my annual review on Friday which went well so it seems I'll have my job for a while longer. I am concerned, of course, but taking things one day at a time.

I hope you are all well and staying safe. Happy stitching!

Flapping Parrot 26 - page finish

I finished page 11 amidst the shelter-in-place madness here.

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I can't say that my stitchy bug has super returned but since we're all confined to the house it seems natural that I put in stitches every night. If I don't then I end up knitting a bit. Either way, some sort of craft is getting done.

Currently I'm working on my monthly SAL with Lesli (Once Upon a Fairy Tale, SSMC). Once that's done (always the last 7 days of each month) I'll post a photo and next up will be July of the Legendary Creatures SAL. I'm really enjoying having a main focus piece while sprinkling in other pieces in the midst of it to make more steady progress. I haven't decided what my next focus piece will be after the Flapping Parrot, but that decision is a long way off yet. I'll keep updating The Queue on the left side as I get through it, so we'll see how things go!

In other news, H³ and I are doing well. We have a shelter-in-place here except for necessities and supplies. We go to the grocery store once a week. My work has been on work from home since mid-March. So far I still have a job, so fingers crossed it stays that way. We're both healthy and relatively happy despite the constant state of anxiety, which I think is similar for everyone.

I hope you are all staying healthy and safe.

Flapping Parrot 025

Welp, it happened. I didn't think it would, but it did.

I lost my stitching bug.

I also got really, really sick. But still worked from home all week.

Hey, 2020 - how you doing? Much better than I am, apparently.

I've also been doing a lot of reading and have basically fallen in love with Karen Marie Moning (sorry, not sorry). I also joined the Fantastic Strangelings Book Club without actually joining because I don't need to get a copy of the book every month I just go to the library and then three other friends and I talk about it. I'm a pretty fast reader so having more time is a godsend. I kind of wish I was stitching with all this extra time I have. But, alas, it was not meant to be.

That being said, here's the progress I HAVE made on the Flapping Parrot so far.

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Golden Kite pages are about half the stitch count of a regular HAED page so the progress certainly feels faster for the moments that I do get to sit down and stitch.

Also, I have a goal to finish H³'s secret stitching (different from surprise stitching) by the end of the year. I'm about 50% done with it so far. We'll see!

Happy stitching, everyone. I hope your year has been more productive than mine thus far.

Surprise Stitching 002 (Page Finish)

I feel like 2019 was the year of everything changing. In November I completed my first ever NaNoWriMo which, for me, was huge. I was also recruited by a prestigious Silicon Valley fund so I quit my job. My current firm countered so I ended up staying. Then, in December, very suddenly, we moved house so that I didn't have to commute as far (went from a 3.5 hour roundtrip daily commute to 1 hour daily). My health took a turn and I'm trying to get back on the mend, but that's been a bit up and down with the downs being extremely discouraging despite my best efforts.

All in all, 2019 felt like an emotional storm. I'm hoping 2020 is better. The dust from the move is settling and now that the holidays are over I'm hoping to get back into a good routine, which I sincerely miss.

That being said, I have a few New Year's Resolutions. Some of them are stitching related, some of them aren't. But here goes:

1. Try to stitch a little, more days than not. My stitching really fell by the wayside in 2019 so I'm hoping 2020 will be more productive in terms of stitching, especially now that I'm home more and actually have time for it.

2. Write more - this is related to having more time to myself now.

3. Walk to Mordor and back (total of 3,664 miles) in calendar year 2020. This means I have to start running again. Which is fine because now I have more time (per point 1). I should aim to make it to Rivendell by mid-February.

4. Catch up on my podcasts. So, so many podcasts.

That's pretty much it. I don't want to overload myself with lofty goals I can't achieve and thus I'll be disappointed in myself when I inevitably fail since I set myself up for failure. So a small amount of somewhat measurable goals feels good.

And here's the stitching. I finished the first page of my SSMC surprise stitching.

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H³ already saw the title but doesn't know what the finished product looks like so if you want to look it up it's Ciro Marchett's "Ye Old Kitchen." He reads this blog so I won't post a photo but in case anyone wanted to look it up, he's already seen the title (my fault OH WELL). It'll still be an adventure for him to see it unfold page by page.

It's going away for a little while and I'll work on June's Legendary Creatures SAL (Cloudsfactory 2018 SAL). I'm determined to finish it this year. I've pared down my rotation a bit and I think it'll mean more progress on certain things. I do have a SAL planned with my dear friend Lesli. Once HAED turns their kits back on, I'll order the kit for SSMC Once Upon a Fairy Tale. When it arrives, the last week of every month Lesli and I will stitch that piece together. We're both doing the SSMC version. So that will be pretty fun, I think.

I'll be back with the update of Legendary Creatures SAL but, until then, happy stitching and I hope 2020 treats everyone well.