Flapping Parrot & Game of Swannes update

 I've been making an active effort to have more me time and thus have been stitching more. I have the next two weeks off so hopefully that's even more stitching time, even factoring the traveling I have to do. Without further ado, here are the updates.

Flapping Parrot before:

After:

Game of Swannes Before:

 After:

 I'm pretty happy with my progress on both pieces. They are both really pleasant to stitch but in wildly different ways. 

I'm on a bit of a kick lately to clear out my stash, both in knitting and in stitching. I just finished knitting my first sweater with yarn I've had for close to a decade. IT was really satisfying to cross that off my list. Now my focus is on a commission piece, which I really want to finish as soon as possible and move on. There's something really motivating about actually finishing something, especially if you've been working on it for a while. As a result I'm trying not to start new stuff and just focus on what I have going on, finish it up, and move on to the next thing I have going on. We'll see how it goes, but so far I'm really enjoying it. 

Some of you asked me what I'm reading. I just finished A Shadow in the Ember. Then I took my Goodreads "to be read" list, ran a random number generator, and picked up whatever book it landed on. That turned out to be Credible Witness: Paranormal Police Stories which I must have heard about on a podcast or something and added it to my to be read after which I promptly forgot about it. It's kind of a fun way to decide what to read next. 

So that's basically it. I'm much happier with the way things are now. I hope I can keep it up.

Happy stitching, everyone!

Big Update (Flapping Parrot page finish, Game of Swannes, Faery Tales)

 I have been really bad about blogging lately, which is on me. Work, as always, has been exhausting and I just haven't been in the right frame of mind to blog. But I've been stitching, so here are the updates!

Finished a page of the Flapping Parrot!

Before:

 After:

Put some more stitching into Game of Swannes!

Before:

After:

And inching toward a page finish on Once Upon and Faery Tale!

Before:

After:

I've really been throwing myself into crafting lately. My stress levels have been pretty intense and my health is suffering for it. I'm cutting back on work to the extent I can, but the effects are still there, though lessening day by day. I took the week off work so hoping to do a lot of relaxing, reading, and stitching.

I hope you're all well. Thanks for bearing with me through my ups and downs. 

Happy stitching!

Snow Bears Stocking - Finish

 I have been so bad about posting. Between the house, work, and everything else I haven't been crafting nearly as much. Good news is that construction on my office/craft room is complete and now I can start moving my stuff in there, once I acquire furniture. 

I also had LASIK eye surgery just a little over a month ago, which has been a quality of life game changer. It's not without its side effects, but generally I'm really happy with the results. 

I did, however, actually finish a stitching project. My Christmas stocking is finally done!

Before:

And finished:

I even ironed it! So that's something. 

I'd like to get back into the habit of blogging. Usually I'm so tired it just doesn't even cross my mind. But blogging right now reminds me how much I used to enjoy it. 

Having a finish also send a bit of motivation to keep working on my projects. 

So hopefully this is a restart of some good habits. On to the next!

Faery Tales - Page 19 Finish

 So it has been forever since I posted. We moved into the new house and a lot of energy has been put into fixing basically everything. I absolutely love the house, though, and I'm so happy we bought it. It's a different world having a place of our own. It doesn't come without its difficulties, of course, but we're working through everything. 

Work continues to be absurd and at this point I have to set as many boundaries as I possibly can otherwise they'll keep taking advantage of me.

I've been knitting a lot lately, and stitching on my Christmas stocking. I'll post a photo when that's done. Lesli and I have returned to our Faery Tale SAL (last week of every month) and although I forgot to take a picture last month, last night I managed to finish a page.

Before:

 After:

 The new house has much better lighting than our old place, hence the difference in colors. 

This project is an absolute beast to stitch, but I'm really enjoying having something new and exciting on each page. I'm going to try to put in a few stitches on the next page today even though I have company coming soon and need to tidy the house a bit. 

Once I finish my Christmas stocking I'm going to go back to my rotation. Hopefully that will mean more posts here! I didn't mean to abandon this blog honestly, life just got a little too hectic and before I knew it, it had been months!

Glad to be back, now. Happy stitching, everyone!

Catch-Up Post (Flapping Parrot and Faery Tales)

 I haven't posted in a bit. Things have been hectic. Work has absolutely exploded and we bought a house (!) so there has been a lot to take care of, organize, handle, set up, etc. I have been so focused on the house-buying process and achieving this goal for so many years that I don't know what I'm going to do with myself once we move in in a few weeks. 

I have been stitching, though! I have a status update on the Flapping Parrot as well as Faery Tales. I'll be going back to stitching the Flapping Parrot next and instead of Game of Swannes I'm going to move on to my half-finished Christmas stocking. Now that we have a mantle and Christmas is only a few months away, husband wants me to finish it so it's ready for this coming Christmas. I don't have too much left to stitch on it so might as well.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

As you can see, almost a page finish on both pieces! 

I'm really hoping that with the house-buying out of the way, I'm going to have more time to myself. I've been running on empty for a while now, trying to take care of everything, so getting this huge thing out of the way will, I hope, be a huge relief.

Of course now we have a huge list of house projects we need to take care of. Some of them need to happen before we move in, and they're already in the works. The rest will, I suspect, be spread out over a few years.

I hope everyone is safe and healthy and, as always, happy stitching!

Game of Swannes - 1

 I realize I have never posted my Game of Swannes by Long Dog, despite working on it for a little while. So, here's the first post ever:

This is stitched on a 32-count natural linen, 2 over 2, using the called for cotton threads from The Gentle Arts with the exception of one color I had to sub out because I couldn't find it anywhere so I used a color as close to it as I could find. 

This is a really pleasant stitch, a nice break from the huge full-coverage pieces I usually work on, and it goes pretty quick. The floss is very slightly variegated in tone, not color, the effects of which you can see in the above photo. I have a special method of stitching with variegated floss to maximize the effect and I've applied it to this piece, the effect of which I'm happy with.

I have been working so much I'm on the verge of burn out. I'm completely maxed out on my PTO and very likely losing money, despite taking time off as much as I can the last two months (I haven't worked a full five day work week since May). I do have a week off in August coming up, and I can't wait to just veg out. 

With that has come the need for a creative outlet. I've had so many ideas of what I would like to do. One of them is a YouTube channel. I'm not sure if I'll go through with it, but if I do I'll post about it here. As with my instagram, it would not replace this blog, merely supplement it. 

Besides that, just trying to get through each day as it comes. 

I hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy and safe.

As always, happy stitching.

Flapping Parrot 32 (Page Finish!)

 Despite how much I've been working, I managed to finish another page of the Flapping Parrot!

Before:

After:

I'm fairly happy with it. I have some page lines showing but I think once it's done and has a good wash and stretch, those will come right out.

I've been thinking and rethinking my rotation lately. I'd really like to close out my WIPs before starting a new one and I like having a focus piece (currently the flapping parrot) that I mainly stitch on, since it makes me feel like I'm making progress. My main issue, however, is that I have a lot of other projects that are in progress, and that's been nagging at me, because of the number of SSMC pieces I have on the go that it feels like before I finish one of those, a lot of time will have passed.

So here's my solution. I'm breaking down my projects by type:

Focus Piece:
Still Life With Parrot (Golden Kite)

Large WIPs:
Once Upon a Fairy Tale [SSMC] (Heaven and Earth Designs)
"Surprise Stitching" [SSMC] (Heaven and Earth Designs)
QS Curl Up (Heaven and Earth Designs)
Mario (Some Random Chart Generator from years ago)
Riding the Wave (Dimensions)
Medieval Shelf (Heaven and Earth Designs)
Middle Earth (Heaven and Earth Designs)
Greek Mandala (Chatelaine Designs)
Library Adventures (Heaven and Earth Designs)
The Wizards Implements (Heaven and Earth Designs)

Small WIPs:
Game of Swannes (Long Dog)
Birds (Tiny Cross Stitch)
Magical Creatures Calendar (Cloudsfactory)
12 Doctors Clock (Cloudsfactory)
Celestial Dragon (Joan Elliott)
Snow Bears Christmas Stocking (Dimensions)

That's a lot of WIPs. So here's my tentative plan.
7 days of stitching on focus piece (Flapping Parrot)
7 days of stitching on small WIP (Game of Swannes)
7 days of stitching on focus piece (Flapping Parrot)
7 days of stitching on Large WIP (until page finish, then rotate)

I would love to be a one project at a time stitcher, but it's just not in me, and I end up getting bored and losing my stitching bug. It seems like rotating pieces is a sure-fire way to keep myself interested and motivated to stitch. Don't get me wrong, I love all my WIPs (I wouldn't be stitching them otherwise) but I need variety. So, could be you'll see some "long lost WIPs" pop up in the coming months that you haven't seen in a while. 

I also have no idea what order I'll be stitching the "long lost WIPs" in, but whatever order, I'll write it down and hopefully keep to that order. So I guess Once Upon a Faery Tale is first on the list and I'll go from there. 

So that's that. I'm basically maxed out on PTO (or very close to being maxed out) so all of June and half of July I have 3 and 4 days weekend which will be spent cross stitching, video gaming, and turning into a general potato. 

Hope you're all well and happy stitching!