Final Preparations

So, here I am again - didn't expect me to be back so soon now, did ya? Okay, maybe you did, after all I promised some news on what I decide to do with my New Year project, but I'll come to that in a moment.

First of all, I'm finally starting to figure out (thanks to Carla, mostly) some of the things important to this whole blog-thingie - like putting lots and lots of colorful buttons there on the right, each representing a intersting project I intend to take part in! From top to bottom, we now have

2014: The Year of the Magnificent Teresa Wentzler, which I already explained about in my last post - stitching as many of her wonderful designs as possible during the course of the year

Stitch from Stash - the wonderful idea to 'force' each participant into using all this supplies that lurk in corners long forgotten instead of continuing to buy lots of new and shiny stuff we'll never use anyway - by limiting the stitching-budget to 25$ a month (or maybe €, in my case, since everything seems to be so much more expensive over here). I'm not that much of a horder when it comes to stitching, honestly, but over the last few months there was a lot og 'Oh look, it's on sale' and 'I really need to order from this shop, but the 5€ of wares is hardly word the shipping cost - let's get something else!', and now I have like half a dozend unopend kits lying around, on top of the supplies for my two big TW-projects. So I'll try to reduce that a little, saving some money - I do plan to move out be the end of the year, so my funds could be used to better ands than more and more suplus stitching supplies, huh?

International Hermit & Stitch Weekend, which requires (or rather encourages) participants to dedicate one weekend a month as purely as possible to stitching - which I do sometimes anyway, but I hope it will be a ahole new experience to do so conciously, and also, I'm in for the chatting with and getting to know lots and lots of stitchers from all over the world

WIPocalpsye, a pretty awesom all-year-long stitch along, because I love stitch alongs and find them highly encouraging, and I'm pretty proud that only one of the projects I started in 2013 remains unfinished, and I want to do just as good next year.

I suppose I still have lots to figure out about the layout here - for example, why are there ugly white borders on my shiny, pretty buttons when I used transparent pictures? - but I'll find the time for that eventually, so for now, let's just concentrate on the written content of this blog, mkay? I'm aiming for somewhat weekly updates, but no promises - life doesn't like to be planned ahead, if I learned one thing about it thus far.

Anyways, it looks like next year will be pretty busy for me - not only with stitching, but also with my other hobbies: My friend Steffi (who's also responsible for me starting Final Fantasy XIV some month ago, which is way away from finished still *coughs*) gave me Atelier Meruru for Christmas, part of one of my favourite video game series ever, and my boyfriend overdid himself by presenting me with Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix, the remake of two parts of another of my favourite series, and then I also preordered Final Fantasy X|X-2 HD and Tales of Symphonia Chronicles since I couldn't pass on this awesome Collector's Edition with the cute little figurines, and don't even get me started on all this other games that still lurk on my HDD and on my shelves. Oh well. I won't get into any more details now, but I'll keep you updated on my progress with this enormous heap of entertainment, provided anyone actually wants to read it xD

On the other hands, I also got my very first ebook-reader for christmas, the simple, non-touch version of the amazon kindle - I was pretty suspicious of reading on such a thing as I'm a big fan of paper, so I wanted to start with something non-expensive. And I have to admit, I love it! It's great how many books fit on such a small device, the display is reaaaly comfortable to the eyes, and I got the cover with an integrated lamp, so I can even read after dark. Sure, the kindle with its amazon-only-purchases might not be the best choice when it comes to buying books, but I'm manly using it to read old, free books anyway, since if I'm going to pay full price, I'd stil lrather have a physical copy than just some data. So I started by plundering Project Gutenberg which has some really great classics which are no longer unter copy right protection, and I started this christmas by reading the Christmas Carol for what I have to admit the first time in my life. To my defense, it's not really standard reading in non-english speeking countries, I guess, but nevertheless I regret waiting for the long, I loved it. Next up is The Complete Sherlock Holmes, which I now am reading in paralel with A Dance With Dragons (the latter one on paper) which I already started some time ago. And then there are some other fifty or so books already downloaded and waiting for me. Anyone knows of a cheap cloning facility? I get the feeling that one of me is just not going to be enough...

Okay, but enough rambling now, back to stitching! I decided that starting tomorrow at midnight (right after kissing my boyfriend, with whom I will spend the occasion, and calling everyone to wish them a Happy New Year) I'll start working on Peacock Tapestry. I spent some time studying the pattern, which seems really challenging, and I can't wait, it's sitting there on my bed and looking so absolutely tempting - narf, still 27 hours to go. So, to officially start this, here is my 'WIP Zero' of Peacock Tapestry by Teresa Wentzler:

And with that (way to much text again already), I'm taking my leave for now - still some packing and stuff left to do before I leave tomorrow. I hope all of you will safely arrive in 2014 and may the new year  welcome you with open arms, lots of time and happy stitching!

Ready for take off!

Bloggers of the world, beware, as a new challenger enters the arena! ...or something like that.
Okay, first things first - I guess a short introduction is in order. So...I'm Leonore Winterer aka Fusainne from deviantArt, sweet almost-25 according to my licence but not a day older than fifteen at heart - or maybe even more like five, if you believe some people ^_^
I'm currently working on my Master's degree in Computer Science in Freiburg, Germany (born and raised) and until I'll be finished, I'm living with my beloved grandparents. I very much enjoy reading, stitching, crocheting and video games and also lots of other things that constantly make me wish for 48 hour-days, which all might find their way into this blog to a bigger or smaller extent, depending on who actually reads this stuff - far be it from me to bore anyone!

Okay, formalities out of the way, I guess if you actually read this far you're probably curious what brought me here and my ramblings to you. Well, you can probably blame that one on Mattsma from Scéal Teach, because she and Katjakay from Vanya Sulie started this wonderful project called '2014: The Year of the Magnificent Teresa Wentzler' (and as soon as I find out how, I'll place their wonderfully created button on here somehow, along with problably a few others, but I'm pretty new to the whole blog-thing, so please bear with me!). When I first read about it on dA I have to admit that I had no idea who this Teresa Wentzler even was - but I'm a curious girl, so I did some research, and it turns out she's a amazing designer of not less amazing cross stitch charts, and I had indeed seen a few of her designs before without realizing they were from the same artist. So the more I saw, the more I fell in love with her work, and decided I really HAD to join this project!

So I did a little shopping, too, and over the last few weeks I spent more money than I care to admit on supplies and charts and other stuff (I had to do quite some ebay-hunting too, since just about all of her patterns are out of print, and not all are avaiable online, and don't even get me started on delivery times from the US to Germany and how absolutly unfair it is how very cheap stuff is over there and...okay, enough rambling already) and now I'm more than read for the year of Teresa Wentzler - heck, I guess I'd even be ready if it was a whole decade of hers, but take a look for yourself:

So, in case you're wondering what you actually SEE in this picture - things I bought during the last weeks include

• The Best of Teresa Wentzler Fantasy Collection Volumes 1 & 2
• The Best of Teresa Wentzler Christmas Collection
• The Best of Teresa Wentzler Sampler Collection
• Woodland Faerie Chart
• Opened (and therefor cheap) but complete and unused kit for Peacock Tapestry
• Most*(see below) of the supplies for the Enchanter
• Online-Version of the Enchanter chart since there were quite a few changes
• Two pieces of fabric I'll now use for who knows what (see also below)

Things in the picture I already owned, but will certainly use a lot include my beloves Q-snap, lots of needles, scissors and a little diary to jot down notes in.

So, with all that laid out before me and patterns that'll probably keep me busy for the better part of my life, where do I actually begin? My declared plan was to start with The Enchanter, and as soon as I back from wishing everyone a Happy New Year at about 1 am on New Year's Day. Now, there are a few minor problems:

For one, while sorting my floss I realized I am, in fact, six skeins short. Two account for my own stupidity (I just plainly overlooked them), but the four others were actually missing from the material list I used. Not that big a problem, however, since I'm planning to start on the border, and the missing colors are only needed towards the middle of the picture and as I already ordered them would probably arrive looong before I got there.

Second (and much more gravely)  - I bought the wrong fabric. I ordered antique white (because, god knows what I was thinking about at the time, but I thought it would be a good idea) only to realize it wouldn't fit the pattern at all. So I went to town and bought some white fabric instead (which you can see in the picture) only to get home and discover that there actually is one shop which still sells the pearl grey which is the 'recommended' fabric for the project. No way I'll settle for less than as-perfect-as-possible on a project I have put so much money (and will put even more time) in! So, new fabric is ordered, but it's from the UK and might take up to four weeks to arrive - no way I can start The Enchanter on New Year's day now. Also, I got two pretty pieces of fabric now that I'll have to find use for.

Soooo...what now? I guess I have two options. One, I wait patiently for the order to arrive and start The Enchanter as soon as the fabric arrives - until than, I'll work on the medium-sized Little Mermaid-Kit from the Thomas Kinkade/Disney Dreams Collection, which is the only project I started in 2013 and didn't finish yet; you can see my progress below - as I finally reached the lower left corner, you can imagine the dimensions pretty well.

Second option: A little rescheduling, and I start Peacock Tapestry first. Little Mermaid won't be forgotten, but more of a side project for now. So...to bring this long, long post to an end (since it's almost 2am and I'm only writing this now because I was lying awake anyways trying to formulate everything in may head and being afraid to forget all of my oh-so-witty remarks come morning) - which one will it be? Try to convince me of one option or the other, I'm quite open to both!

Now, finally off to bed. More about blogging-formalities and what ever else there might be left to say on the morrow, or whenever I make up my mind, I guess. A good day to all of my dear friend's whose weekend is just about to start, and good night to everyone who (like me) should long be asleep ^_^