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.

Before:

After:

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.