IHSW & Merry Christmas!

Sure, I'm a bit late for both, but with cleaning and laundry, last minute preparations, eating and celebrating and driving to Felix' parents and more eating and celebrating, I've been pretty much booked for the holidays, so I only get to write about stuff now. Not ALL the stuff, mind you, we still have plans this evening, but if you look out of our window:

wo won't be going far anytime soon, and I will post bout christmas presents, New Year goals and stuff at a later point. So, where to begin...last weekend was IHSW, and while hermitting happened, stitching didn't so much: Felix was finishing up his thesis, and I did my best to help him. What I did stitch was mostly on Lady, there was a Disney Dream SAL going on at the same time on facebook. I started of here:

Over the weekend, I finished the hose you see in the lower middle and filled in another color on the sky; but I somehow managed to forget and take another picture at the end of the weekend. I'm currently working on her again (still pushing for that pagefinish, although it's very, VERY unlikely to see it before the end of the year), and I'm to lazy to take her out of the frame, so I'm afraid you'll have to wait a bit mor for an update on her.

After that, I returned to CTC for a while: I really wanted to finish the next page before Christmas, because as we are spending the holidays at Felix' parents' and CTC is meant for his sister, I couldn't take it with me to work on here. I did, however, reach my goal: Cross stitching was finished on the 23rd, backstitching one day later. That page had a lot more stitching, it's one of (I think) 4 more or less 'full pages' out of 9, whereas the others are only less then half covered. 

Last but not least, I also managed to finish beading on Angel of Frost in time. Things got a bit close when the frame I had ordered only arrived late on the 23rd, but we managed to get things done. I'm not 100% satisfied how framing her turned out - neither Felix nor I had done anything of the size before, and stretching the linen properly proved much more difficult than we thought it would, so she turned out a bit crooked in the end. We might try to figure things out and fix her up at some time, but at least my grandma still liked her.

 

That's my progress for now; I'm still busy catching up with everything else that has happend, but I'm opptimistic to be able to post some more shortly, so have a good time until then :)

December SFS

It's the final check in of the year, which means that I can proudly declare that 'I survived SFS 2014!'

One of the other paticipants made this cool graphic for everyone to use, and I did the math: not counting the several exemptions over they year, I spend a total of $166.36 of my $300 budget. I had to months looged at 0, and a few other low ones, and I made my personal goal to stay underneath the $25 budget every single month. I also didn't used my splurge-exemption month, but logged all twelve months regularyly. In total, I have a good $140 left over that I might use to treat myself to a few things in order to celebrate, and because I have a few new things planned for next year ;) But let's not get ahead of ourselves here...so, what did I spend on this month? 

Mostly, I got a few downloadable patterns - there are these strange new VAT-laws creeping up for the EU, and right now, it's still not clear who will and who won't keep selling digital goods to EU citizens, so I thought I should better get a few things I 'can't life without' :D 

First, I got those Endangered Young'Uns I had been eying ever since Carla showed hers to me. For some reason, I thought it would be about 15 patterns, when really there are 28 of them - so at $12.50, I got a great deal, and I hope to stitch a few of them next year.

Next, I did a little shopping at Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery, and I bought Halloween Spooky Sampler, Christmas Celebration Sampler and Cherry Blossom Festival Sampler. Normaly, the puchase would have totalled at $38, but they were doing a Black Friday Sale so it only came to $30.28 total.

From Cloudsfactory, I got Winnie the Pooh and Little Indian Village - it was really difficult to decide, because they do so many patterns that I would love to stitch; and I really hope it will still be possible to get them next year. Total here was $10.80, also with a Black Friday sales code.

I also bought a few physical things because I had to place a few orders at my prefered ONS - framing and washing supplies, storage boxes and bobbins as well as a few christmas presents that I don't know anything about but had to order myself anyway.

The two magazines were discounted and cost 6.98€/$8.69 together. I checked them online, and both have a few really awesome patterns I'd love to stitch. The Lizzie*Kate pattern is one I instantly fell in love with the first time I saw it, and it was €3.99/$4.96. The two Halloween charts where added to the parcels as little 'thank you's, and I adore them, they are so very cute, aren't they?

So my total for the month comes to $67.23, but since I still had all of my $50 year's end bonus, that only comes to $17.23 officially.

Now as I said, I do hae a few things to celebrate - I handed in my thesis on monday, I survived SFS 2014 (and I posted all of my other monthly SALs in time each month as well!)...and on friday night, I finally finished Angel of Frost! Yup, that's right, all the beads are were they belong, and I lovelovelove her and am sooooo proud of myself! No pictures yet, sorry - I will only show her again once she's all washed and pressed and framed, which will hopefully be in time for christmas, when the frame arrives tomorrow (please let it arrive tomorrow).

Now for the usual stuff, I finally managed to finish my book (or rather, Felix' brother Max' book - he gave it to me to read): 'Götterschwert' (God's Sword) by Frederic Neuwald. I don't think there's an english version of this, sorry Carla - but it was really enjoyable; a bit like a young Indiana Jones on his first quest. The romance part was totally unrealistic and a bit unnesseccary, though. Apart from that, I did a bit of gaming to make up for the long times that I couldn't, and I watched a lot of Scandal while beading: S2, E17-22, and S3, E1-12.

Apart from that, I also did a bit of baking for our university christmas party last week...I really enjoy having my own kitchen for once! So let me end this update with a few yummy pictures, and bid you well, and merry christmas and peaceful holidays to all of you, in case we don't see each other again before that!

2015 SALs

So I think it's time I finally sit down and write a bit about all those SALs I am planning to join in 2015. There are quite a few; and I thnk it might avaid confusion both for me and for you to have them all neatly together in one place :) I joined quite a few, hoping they will keep me in the routine of regularly posting to this blog - most of them are rather low effort though.

First, there are a few old friends that are back from last year: Measi is doing another round of WIPocalypse, a rather low-pace SAL where once a month, we talk about our progress towards our goals and also about a monthly theme. It was quite fun to take part in last year, so I'll be back in as well :) I'm still waiting for a new button for this one to add to my sidebar.

My good friend Carla is also doing another round of her The Magnificent Teresa Wentzler - I'm quite excited about that, as it was my very first SAL I joined last year. This one is easy as well, it just requires you to stitch on something designd by Teresa Wentzler, and I still have one started (PT - given I can finish AoF before christmas, what I'm still aiming for), two kitted up (12 Days of Christmas & The Enchanter) and quite some more planned.

Mel's Stitch from Stash is also back for another year, or rather for two half years. This one requires you to spend no more then $25 (or an equivalent in your own currency) on stitching supplies like fabric, floss, and patterns. I do have to admit that I'm probably quite the unusual participant for this, as of the beginning of 2014, I had no real stash to speak of. I'm using this a bit differently than it might be intended: Not to stop stashing, but to controll it. So - stash as much as possible for as little money as possible. I think it will be good for me to continue this for another year, because soon I'll start actually working, which means more money to stash, but less time to stitch; so it will be good to have that controll unit. A few of the rules have changes this year; and I will talk a bit more about how I'm planning to change my habits accordingly in the final report for this year, later this week.

I haven't had any word yet if ISHW will continue on into 2015, but either way I'm sure me and my girls will try to sit it anyway :)

Now on to the new SALs I joined for next year...first up, there's another one hosted by my dear friend Carla, called ToT (Tons of Tiny), which focuses on all those small and quick patterns most of us tend to hoard. The goal is to finish at least one a month, and I already have some plans and patterns laid out for this.

Then there is Gifted Gorgeousness over at Jo's place, which is a SAL focusing on projects that are either meant to be gifts or where some of the supplies have been gifted to you. I have quite a few things lined up that fit that desciption - most prominently, my Lady and the Tramp-WIP was a birthday gift, and most of what I stitch is meant as a present for someone anyway.

Stacy over at Crossed Stitches is hosting two SALs as well: Her New Year SAL is about making progress on a HAP (Huge A... Project), where the smallest dimension is no less than 300 stitches. As I'm planning to start my first project of the sort in January, that's a goo opportunity to get some motivation from the teamspirit. Here, I'm also taking part in my first 'proper' SAL, as in 'Actually stitch a part each month' - she's doing a band sampler, and I'm really looking forward to join that, I just need to get my supplies ordered before then.

In terms of my new, big project, I'll also be guest-posting at A Stitchy Start, which is about starting a not-to-small project in 2015 and posting aout your progress.

Last but not least, there's also my own DESIGN SAL, which I've told you about before: Each month, work on a WIP by a different designer, than post about both them and the piece at question. Sign ups are still open, by the way! ;)

So as you can see, I have quite a few things planned for new way. Details will follow in my start posts for each of those. I hope I haven't forgotten anything now, if I notice later, I might add it here, and mention in in a new post as well.

And to not end this post without a picture, have another sneak-peak at my beading progress on AoF:

December WIPocalypse

Oh my, has it been a week already? Despite me best resolutions to get a bit of posting done in between, this week has been incredibly busy - between finishing my Master thesis (gave it to the printer yesterday morning and will hand it in tomorrow), being away for almost two days because of a close friend's dad's funeral and Felix' band concert yesterday, it was positivly stuffed, and I'm so, so glad to spend a nice and quiet day hat home, with nothing to disturb me besides laundry.

So, one thing I really should get posting about is the WIPocalypse update for December. I'm actually lte by more than a week already, but Measi encouraged people to push it a bit further towards the end of the year, so we could do a proper recap. But I have time to post now, and I think I should take the opportunity, before life comes along and takes time away again...

This month's topic is Recap your accomplishments for the year!. I like what my friend Carla did for this topic - she just went through all her old blog entries and summarized what she worked on, month by month. I think I will do that as well, but first I'll go back to my WIPocalpyse introduction in January: Back then, I had only three (or two, because one just needs finishing) WIPs: Peacock Tapestry, which I started January 1st, and The Little Mermaid, which was started in 2013. Also a Tulip pillowcase that needed finishing, and, big spoiler: it still does...

January: In January, I worked almost exclusivly on Peacock Tapestry. I made I nice dent in that border too - finished the upper part and stitched the first section of the left side. I also started and finished Toby Fox bookmark, did a bit of stitching on the Little Mermaid and crocheted my Pop Heart.

February: I lost speed for a bit on Peacock Tapestry, finished only one section of the border in February. I nearly despaired over, but finally finished in time, Emergency bookmark, and crocheted a cover for my kindle. More importantly, I finished cross stitching on the Little Mermaid, so only a bit of backstitching was left.

March: In March, I started stitching the first (Tully) of the Game of Thrones bookmarks. I started and finished two small guinea pigs (Cavy and Lucky) for my grandma's birthday, which reminds me - I still need to do the other two of the set. I did the backstitching on The Little Mermaid, so that's another finish, completed the left side border on Peacock Tapestry, Started Lady and The Tramp, which I got for my birthday, and crocheted another kindle cover, for Felix (although his father has it now, he got a paper white in the meantime and it won't fit anymore).

April: More work on Tully and Lady, and another section done (top of right side border) on PT. Started the next section, and I think that might already be the last we saw of him last year. Crocheted an oven mitten and a (failed) smart phone cover. I started Cross Stitch Angel, and also another bookmark, TWs knotwork freebie.

May: Finished the Knotwork Bookmark, and a good part of the upper half of CS Angel's border. I think that's another one we won't see again this year. I started crocheting an owl tote, and started and finished my customized spring bunnies that eventually won me the Puppy Love Contest on Stitching Pirates :) I also had my first little start on Angel of Frost, but didn't get very far, and worked a bit on Lady.

June: Tiny bit more on AoF before I put it aside. Progress on lady, I finished Tully and started Arryn, the next in the series, and I worked some more on the Owl Tote. Also worked on a mystery project that I later revealed to be Pusheen Apron.

July: Finshed Owl Tote and Pusheen Apron, started and finished mystery project #2 (Felix' Pirates of the Caribean shirt). I also started and finished Two Kittens. I also worked some more on Lady, and took up knitting again with a sweater that has been in the works for years.

August: I finally took up AoF again and already managed a page finish. I also worked on Arryn, knitted on my sweater, and started & finished the first of a pair of wristwarmers (that I'm now thinking about redoing...).

September: Knitted the second wristwarmer (which still needs finishing) and started the matching scarf. I started Halloween Town Club and finished the first clue. More stitching on AoF and another page finish, Also, I started and finished Tiny Lamb.

October:  Focused almost entirely on AoF and got another one and a half pages down. Also, second clue of Halloween Town was stitched.

November: Finshed the stitching on AoF - cross stitch, backstitch, and the speciality stitches as well. Also, I started and finished Peter Polar Bear (which reminds me, I still need to ship him) and started Cut Thru' Cottage.

December: So far, I finished one page on CTC and worked a bit on Lady as well. Crocheted a pair of pot holders.

Wow, if I write it out like that is doesn't look too shabby, does it...It's fun how I was being super-productive until about the middle of the year, than got more and more busy with life and less and less stitching happened. I'm curious already how that will work out next year! By the way, you can find pictures of most of the projects mentioned either on the 'Finished: 2014' or the 'List of projects' page, though both of them are not quite up to date at the moment.

So, that much for WIPocalypse, now on to my usual ramblings, aka watching list...what has happend since the last time:

• The other to parts of the amazonia documentary I started last time. I really love seeing that place...
• Another documentary, but this time about Africa and called African Safari. The two prtagonists where talking a bit much useless stuff, but the landscapes and animals where really stunning.
• A few more episodes of The Nanny: S5, E8-14 
• Scandal, S2:E14-16. I had to rewatch E14 because I didn't know what was happening anymore after such a long time, but now I'm up to date again and still love it.

And after you made it this far into the wall of text, I even have a little treat for you:

I started beading on AoF today (finally got myself set up at my new desk as well!), and here is how far I got. It's really, really fun to add those beads, and way easier then I though, though there is a LOT of them so I will still need to hurry. But I feel much more confident that I can actually finish this by christmas! Time to go and order a frame for her.

So that's it, enough for today...I hope I'll find time next week to finally post about my SALs and plans for next year, and also SFS deadline is creeping closer. On to work!

Weekly Update, more to come

Hi my pretties, it's me again! My, that was another fast week...and then it feels like it's been ages since my last post! For sure I stitched like it has been ages; but then with all the sressful, busy stuff going on, it's really the only thing keeping my sane...on the bright side, just one more week of busy-busy writting, and I'll be ready to hand my thesis in (don't really have a choice, it's due monday in a week).

To break the 'bad' news first - I didn't start my beading yet. With everything that's going on right now, I just couldn't set my mind to start something like that. I hope I will be able to this week, otherwise I will have one hell of a beading marathong to get through before Christmas. Now what I did work on was Cut Thru' Cottage, and I really, really enjoyed it - I finished the first page in just a few days; decided to do the backstitch right away because otherwise I would have weeks of just that in the end. It's one of the designs that really gain a lot by the backstitching, don't you think?

After finishin this first page (out of nine) I decided to give a little love to my long neglected Lady & The Tramp project. I continued stitching on the sky, and did all that was left of the light dull purple on the first page - then I thought it would be nice to do something with less color blocking for a change, so I could alternate between faster and slower portions, and started stitching on another house at the lower border. Next time I pick her up, I'm going to finish the house, then put in the next color on the sky. I'm kinda hoping for a page finish before the year is over; I don't think I'll actually make it but I'll try my best.

I also did a little crocheting this week - I had started a pair of potholders from leftovers shortly after we moved in, but never finished them. But we could really use them, so I thought it wouldn't take to long, and really it didn't - I had finished the yellow part before, did the red and green this week. Yes, they are quite colorful - Felix is more a black, stainless steel and if it can't be helped white kind of guy, but I love colors and try to sneak them in whereever possible :D

In other news, there was also some watching stuff, of course. Quite some more of The Nanny, which is our usual evening-pasttime these days (S4, E9-26, and S5, E1-7). When I was watching alone, I started a few nature documantations because they tend to relax me when I'm stressed out, and there are quite a few of those on amazon prime - Turtle: The Incredible Journey, which beautifully narrates the journey of a turtle arond half of the world, from hatching until laying eggs of her own, and then the first part of a documantation about amazonia - really interesting. Yesterday, Felix and I took an evening off to watch A Knight's Tale - as usual he had seen it before, I hadn't, but really liked it. Heath Ledger was a brilliant actor even then, and I LOVED the use of music - every medivial Tjoust should start of to 'We will rock you'!
I even managed a little gaming this week - only two or three hours, but enough to start and finish the quite enjoyable Space Invaders-clone 'Titan Attacks!'. I hope I'll soon have more time for this kind of entertainment again...

So that's it for today, although I have a few more posts lined up that I will write when I find the time - something about next year's SALs, WIPocalypse and stuff like that.

November SFS

Oh boy (Or rather 'Oh girls'? I don't think I have lots of male readers, or if I have, they never leave comments), time really does fly...is it really the end of November already? Which also means, I don't have much time left to finish my thesis, but on the other hand, I have so much exciting, fun stuff to share with you today, so this post is probably going to be a bit on the long side anyways. Don't worry, there will be pretty pictures amongst all the rambling as well!

Let's start of with this month's SFS. I've done a bit more of pattern-gathering, but well within my budget - in the beginning of the month, I bought Cloudsfatory's 'Magical Creatures' Sampler, the 2014 SAL, for $16.99 - I will stitch it some day in one piece, just wanted to secure the patter before the year is over because I don't know if they will still offer it afterwards. And just today, I signed up for Stacy's Mystery Band Sampler SAL for $7, I'm planning to actually stitch along with this one, so I will need to get supplies soon. This brings my total for this month to $23.99. I also made use of the current exemption - Love Thy Thread will be going out of business in a few days, so we ware allowed to get the patterns without it eating away on our budget. It took me a while to decide, but I finally got two of them - Fragile and The Loneliness of Autumn.

I also bought a kit off ebay - Bothy Threads 'Cut Thru Cottage' - but that shouldn't cont for SFS, as it's going to be stitched right away as a gift for Felix' sister and her boyfriend, for when the move into their new home next year. I saved about 9€ by buying it from someone who's cleaning out their stash of un-opened kits, so at least I made some right budgeting choices!

To be honest, I've been eying th Cut Thru' series for quite a while now. They are all so cute, so colorful and look really fun to stich. If stitching this is only half as fun as I imagine, it won't be the last one I stitched from the series...there's also Noah's Arc, and a pirate ship, a fairy hill, a castle...so much fun!

So much for my new stash, lets got on to the happy and exciting things mentioned earlier:

The first bit of happy news is that I finished-finished Peter Polarbear. It was my first try at any kind of ornament finish, so I kept it simple - he has a backing of red felt and is stuffed with the thread-bits I collected while stitching AoF, which makes him kind of extra special, at least that's what I like to tell myself! He's by no means perfect as an ornament, but I'm still pretty pleased by how he has turned out, and I sincerly hope that whoever will get to get him will love him as much as I do!

Of course, I also continued stitching on Angel of Frost, and...I finished! Not the whole thing, of course, but the stitching part. I just need to add beads now. Thankfully, there wasn't that much stitching left to do anyways: I just had to backstitch around the inner and outer edge of the border, do onther line of wrapped backstitch around the picture area, then add the cords to her cloak and basket (I'm starting to actually like wrapped backstitch)  and do the details on her skirt (I loooved those, so much detail, and not at all repetitive!). Now I'll need to get started on the beading, which makes me a bit nervous...but I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually.

So with only the beading left, I have a bit of free stitching time at my hands - I can only do the beading at my desk (and only when the light is good because I don't have a proper lamp there yet). I'll try to get a bit done every day, but most of the time I have put aside for stitching is in the evenings, when I watch shows with Felix, so did start Cut Thru Cottage for that (I actually got a few stitches done on Lady before CTC arrived, but really not enough to show - I promise you'll see her again before the end of the year, however!).

I haven't gotten much stitching in yet, but let me say a few words about the kit itself - it's marvelous, probably the best kit I ever had! The thread came pre sorted on two color cards, marked with the symbols already instead of some name or number; the chart is divided in 9 regular sized pages (big print), and there are two versions of it - one is the background, so cross stitch only, the other has all the backstitching. So fun to work with! The materials are really good quality as well, 16ct light blue Zweigart aida and Madeira threads. I'm pretty sure I'll stitch some more Bothy kits eventually, but for now I'll focus on this one!

One more thing befoe I commence with non-stitchy stuff (and an apology to my regular readers, who will read this for the second time and probably a few more times in the future): As statistically speaking, quite a few more people read this SAL-checkins then my usual updates, I want to take this opportunity to do a little advertisment for the SAL I will host next year: DESIGN.

DESIGN (Designers Everyone Should Instantly Get to Notice) is a SAL where each month, you pick one project you worked on during the year (doesn't matter whether you just started, finished, or are somewhere in the middle), then talk a bit about the designer of said project - why you like him/her, what's special about them, is it your first (or last?) project by this designer, and so on. I think it should be a fun way to introduce everyone to your favourites, and possibly find news one! No need to participate every month either. For more info and sign up, click here.


So now (as I have been writing on this post on and of for over eight hours), let me just get to the non-stitchy part really quick. Not much happend this week (again), but a bit of watching: The Walking Dead (S3, E8+9) continues to be awesome, The Nanny (S4, E1-8) continues to be funny, and Once Upon a Time...Man (E3-5) is still semi-informative and give me nostalgic feelings. We also watched Breaking Dawn Part 1 + 2...and I feel the need to explain (although I think it's really a shame anyone should feel the need to explain and defend themselves for liking or disliking something): I am by no means a...what do they call themselves no? Twihards? I read the books when I was a teenager, and I really enjoyed them. I can see why other kids that age do. When I got older, I got to realize that they are not that great, really - the image they paint of love is just too unrealistic, too one sided, and they are not that well written either (though I'm afraid that a few figures of speech have found their way into my own vocabluary...my english wasn't that sophisticated [not to say that it is now] when I read them, and I did read them in the original). But there were still a few things that I liked, maybe just by looking at them from another perspective. Those things were what made me drag Felix to the first three movies (and he 'suffered' through them bravely!). We didn't see the last two in the cinema (because by then, ticket prices had risen way too much and it just wasn't worth it for us), but now that both had appeared on amazon prime, we still wanted to watch them - the last one was bound to have some nice special effects, and really, I think it was the best of the five. In fact, the movies were quite good, considering the books - they just used the wrong actors. Seriously, apart from Jacob, Charly and maybe Renesme noone looked even close to what I had in mind while reading. Thank god for stitching, so I was mostly listening to the movies anyways :D

So, after that 'confession' on my part, I'll be going right back to work...and maybe stitching...or shopping, it's Black Friday after all, even online for us Germanys. See you!

Middle-of-actual-IHSW post

So it turns out IHSW acutally should be this weekend instead of last, just as I thought - not that it's going to make any difference for me, my weekend all tend to be about the same those last few weeks/months/how long has this been going on now? Getting up, trying to work, failing miserably, getting a few stitches done, trying again, maybe actually get stuff done, then some movie watching and stitching in the evening before bed. Not just the weekends, but just about every day looks like that now, but there really is light at the end of the tunnel - I'm at 25 pages of my thesis, so I only need about 15 more (although more is always good) and I pretty much know what to write, I just need to get it done. Should be posible during the next 8 days or so, right? Right? I hope I'm right...

ANYWAYS, you're probably not here to hear me rambling, so lets get to actually stitching and stuff - short and sweet due to a lack of time, lets not get into that yet again. I did work more on AoFs border (after finding another skein of Ecru in The Enchanters threads), and as you can see, I actually finished all of the diamond lattice as well as the lazy daisies. I've become a lot better with those now! In fact, there's very little stitching left to be done, so little that I actually hope to get down to the beading before next week's post. I actually started planning my next project already, but I'll tell you more about that in the SFS post next week.

I also finished stitching my ornament - not done the finishing-finish yet, but maybe I can get to that tomorrow. Everyone seems to share their ornaments now, effectivly lifting the whole secret-thing, so I might as well do it myself: This is Peter Polar Bear, one of the free patterns of Brooke's Books Advent Animals series. I didn't stitch the number '2' that usually comes with him to make hm 'stand alone' and I was thinking about putting something else there, but I think it looks good as is actually. Eventually I'm going to do all of them to get a full set (so I'll do Peter again as well), this little guy was really fun to stitch ^_^

We were so very busy this week, not even a whole lot of watching happened.  (Also, the last post was on a Monday, if I remember correctly, so it hasn't been a full week yet). There was a bit more of The Walking Dead (S3, E3-7) and The Nanny (S3, E19-24), and since we had enjoyed Wasabi that much last weekend, we also watched another Jean Reno movie, Rubin & Quentin/Tais tois! which also has Gérard Depardieu to make it extra funny - Reno is a cold-blooded killer and Depardieu a stupid petty criminal who meets him in prison, decides that he's his best friend, and refuses to leave him, even when he flees from prison. Very funny and just what you need after working with numbers and stuff all day long! :)

I hope I'll be able to tell you more next week, but for now that's it...have a fun weekend, and goodbye!

November - Post-Pre-IHSW

So...I actually meant to have this up on Saturday morning, but then I overslept and my dad got here before I could post; we spent the day with him as well as Sunday morning and by Sunday noon I jst thought I could make this a proper post-weekend post instead. It might even have been IHSW, the judges are still not sure whether it should have been last or next weekend. Long storey short, life happend and got in the way and so my post comes now.

So as predicted, I mostly stitched Snowflakes on Angel of Frost. I got them all done in four days, and they turned out really pretty (if I may say so!). Next up was the diamon lattice which is made with wrapped backstitch, and I have to say I'm not to fond of that...working with six strands is not so much fun, especially the beginning and end of a thread, and it just looked so...bulky. I had half a mind to rip it out again, maye try three strands or just the backstitching instead, but luckyly I decided to put the lazy Daisies in in the section I had been working on, and with them I can now see how rich this border is actually going to be, especially when the beads will be added (lots and lots of beads, to be precise), and I think the wrapped backstitch will look good after all, so I will continue doing it - if I can find another skein of Ecru, I know I have one or two in my stash, the satin stitch and the wrapped backstitch just ate through it really quickly. By the way, that makes three stitches I'd never done before!

With all this wrapping or no wrapping, I got a little frustrated with AoF this week, so I decided to actually start on this ornament I have been talking about. It took me a while to find a pattern I like (and actually have the supplies for), but I finally found something nice and I already finished most of the stitching - I hope I can take it to my grandparents later this week to get my sewing stuff and finish it. As it's for a secret exchange, I won't share my progress with you just now, but I can show you the floss toss I did before starting, and share a few hints: White and red are the colors used most, and it's winter-y, but not neccessarily christmas-y.

Other than my stitching progress, most of my time focused on writing my thesis this week. I already got 14 pages down, so I am optimistic to finish it in time - I just miss doing other stuff so much! You wouldn't believe it, because I actually got a bit of stuff done this week, but apart from our usually hour-or-two of relaxing on the couch and watching stuff in the evening, it was really just things that were almst done already: I finished a little game on my PS Vita called Doki Doki Universe, where you play as a robot looking for the girl who left him on a lonely rock in space and at the same time learning but being human is about, because otherwise he'll be trashed by the company that made him. He then travels from planet to planet, looking for the girl and helping people by bringing them stuff. Fun little game, but it did get a bit repetetiv in the end.

I also finished my most current book, which was 'The Memoires of Sherlock Holmes'. I really like this stories, and the end was pretty sad - if I didn't have the next volume titled 'The Return of Sherlock Holmes' on my kindle already, I might have cried a little; but as things are I'm just really looking forward to read that.

As for watching, I realized that last week, I totally forgot about two movies we watched: The Hangover, which I had actually never seen before (shame on me) and really enjoyed, even it the homour was a bit...crude? for my taste at bits; and also Babylon A.D., which I enjoyed, but not really understood.

This week, there was some more of The Walking Dead, we finished S2 (E9-13) and started on S3 (E1+2). We already watched quite a bit of The Nanny (S3, E5-18) because it makes for a great, short working-break and I don't want to watch TWD right before bed. Then I also watched E3 of Once Upon A Time...Man, and when my dad was here we saw Wasabi, a creat French/Japanese production starrind dad's favourite Jean Reno, and a few short episodes of Shaun the Sheep (S1 E1-3), a stop/motion animation by the guys who also did Wallace & Grommit. Sounds like a lot, but didn't really feel like it...so now I'm back to writing before I'll hopefulyl get to watch another merciful episode of something, then fall into bed :D

November WIPocalypse

So it's already time for the second-to-last WIPocalypse update for this year...wow, where has time gone? It really flies by, even more so if you're really busy...and busy I have been this past month! Between moving and lots and lots of university stuff and stitching and life, I hardly have time to breathe, but I can see light yet at the ends of all those tunnels, so no reason to despair! It just means I'll have to keep these blogs and stuff a little shorter than usual, so let me jump right up ahead and into the update.

The question for this month is What are your favorite and least favorite materials to use in your stitching?, and that's a good one for me to answer because I can't say a whole lot to this yet - I haven't done a lot of experimenting yet. For fabric, I think I can say that my favourite is evenweave - more even (hence the name, haha) and easier to work on then linen, much prettier in the finish than aida, escpecially if you love hand dyed fabrics (which I do!). My least favourite at this point is probably waste canvas - you can do really pretty things with it, so I won't get around using it more often, but it's a realy pain to get your stitches even and to properly attach the canvas to the fabric, I will have to do a bit more experimenting to figure that out I guess.
As for floss, I haven't worked with anything but cottons so far (not counting one pillow cover that was done with a really thik yarn like stuff, which was strange), so those will have to count as my favourites - I really like hand dyed/over dyed here as well, especially subtle color changes (although I will have to do something rainbow-y eventually!).

Now for my actual progress - there was much more of it then I expected! I had finished the remainder of the cross stitching by saturday evening, then I spent all sunday doing the backstitching on the wings. The tree in the foreground took me almost two days, since it wasn't always clear which lines should be stitched in the green of the tree and which in the grey of the snow, but I eventually figured it out and I think it looks okay now. The remainder of the regular backstitching went much more smootly, lots of straight lines and not as much as I had feared at all, and I finished the 'regular' backstitching tomorrow morning. I then decided to also put in the over one backstitching on her face, even though that's much further down the list of instructions, but it just felt strange to have her look at me without a real face. That part was done yesterday evening, and went by rather quickly as well, only that one of the colors used wasn't listed with the floss needed and I didn't have it, but it was only a few stitches and easy to substitute.

Here's another picture which is more of a closeup of the face area...I'm not 100% satisfied, but I can't frog on the over one two often or I will dissort all of the other stitches as well, so I think it will be okay like this. Now on to the 'special instructions', I will probably spend most of next week stitching snow flakes on the border.

It's only been a week of backstitching now, but I already really, really miss cross stitching...maybe I will take a short break soon to stitch up an ornament for an exchange I want to take part in.



As for other stuff, I didn't have time for much, but some watching had to happen or would never have made as much progress: And after The Walking Dead finally showed up on amazon prime, there was no way to keep Felix from watching that anyway. We already finished all of Season 1 (which is only six episodes), and E1-8 from S2. I don't think we'll watch much else before we caught up, this show is quite fascinating...
Apart from it, we've only watched a bit of The Nanny (S3, E1-4) and E1+2 of Once Upon A Time...Man. That's a rather old (1978) animated, educative show which is originally from France. Some of the facts in there have been proven wrong or incomplete by now, but I used to watch these as a child and I'm now doing it again mostly out of nostalgia. This first season deals with the history of humanity, there are quite a few more, but only the first three (Man, Space and Life) are on amazon prime so far.

So that's it for this week, I'm going back to working and stitching snow flakes now...see you!

Scary Stuff. Oh, and it's Halloween too!

Don't worry, there won't be really scary suff in here, I was just going for the joke...well, kinda, the week was pretty crazy again, but I'm getting used to it. After the weekend at Felix' parents (which was busy and great and left us pretty tired, who would have expected otherwise) we were planning on a nice quiet week to get further ahead in our work and setteling into the apartmaent, allas, it wasn't meant to be - apart from more furniture arriving on Tuesday (that much was planned) and having a bit of trouble putting everything together (that wasn't planned), we're having a bit of trouble with the craftsmen (that should have been done before we moved in, so...more then two weeks ago), my granddad is having health issues, work isn't going as plannend and and and...so much for nice and quiet!

So to not further stretch my timetable, let me just give you a quick update here...Stitching has happend, not a whole lot, but at least rather steadyly; in fact, it feels much more effective since we have a couch and I have a stitchy corner on it with a daylight lamp! AoFs cloak was finished, as was her bag, so from here on, it's all tree and snow. Doesn't look like much, I might be able to finish that before next week, but after that comes the border, and the backstitching, and the beads...so I will be busy for a few more weeks at least. And all the while, she's just standing there, smiling and teasing!

I've also done some more knitting - only five more spikes on my shawl! I bought some more yarn for a new sweater, but I'm going to have to order another needle (or a shoter cable, to be exact) before I can really start on that. Some gaming has happend, mostly on my Vita, were I finished Mahjong Gold - I used to love those Mahjong Solitaire games, but got a serious over dose a few years back so I couldn't stand them anymore. Now that feeling has vanished, and I'm finally able to enjoy those games again ^_^

As for watching, some more Supernatural was the course of action, S2 E10-13, to be precise, and then yesterday we finished Season 2 of The Nanny, which which only had episodes 23 and 24 left. I hope we will be able to do some more over the weekend, but I think I'm giving up on making plans...

Weekly Stuff + October SFS

Another week has passed, and we have settled a bit more into our new place - we now have a washing mashine and a dryer, a dining table, a bed, and I also got a desk that is almost set up already! Next week, we will get our wardrobes, couch and living room furniture, and once everything is built there will only be small stuff missing, maybe a few shelves and stuff.

With all that going on, I'm a bit proud to be only a day late with my posting - actually, we drove up to Felix' parents yesterday, which is the primary reason for this post being late at all! And despite als the chaos and stress I actually manged some stitching on AoF:

I worked more on her cloak (and finished all the reds, which is great, but also kinda sad because I loved stitching those) and on the tree on the right. Next week I hope to finish her cloak and also her bag so the tree-part will be all that i left - getting so very close now! It looks like so little is missing, but I know it's still two weeks at least, more likely three with my current speed *sighs*

Now on to this week's other topic, which is Stitch from Stash - not a zero month for me, but I stayed inside the limits. Right after the last post, I went to the Tilton Crafts homepage and treated myself to Master, a Star Wars pattern that is the companion piece to Dark Force which I got a while back as a price for the Stitching Pirates Puppy Love contest - they were having a sale at 30% off all patterns, bringing Master to $11.20 and since I really want to stich both of them I just went ahead and bought it. Turns out it was a good thing to do, since both charts have since disapeared from the site. Both are artworks drawn by the incredible Tsuneo Sanda, check out his homepage if you are into Star Wars at all.

I also got a message from Jody (one of the girls running Unconventional X Stitch) that the Cherry Blossom pattern was avaiable again from her second Etsy store, Simply Flora Cross Stitch was avaiable again - I really liked it when she first posted it, but then it kinda disapeared from my wishlists and I asked her if I could still buy it, so obviously, I had to now, and it's a really great pattern for only $5.

That brings my monthly total to $16.20, which is not to bad for to amazing patterns! There also was a special exemption this month, concerning Nene Thomas' patterns on HEAD, since she was canceling her license agreement or something, and her charts were only avaiable for a few more days at that time - I have to admit that after talking to Felix and both of us getting to the exact smae two patterns we liked most, I splurged a bit and bought two of those - Fire Moon and Wings in Repose. I still have some plans what I want to get for the rest of the year, and there's also a $50 holiday bonus, so let's see what will happen for the last two months of 2014.

Felix was even more busy then I was, his Master thesis isn't going to well, or at least not as swiftly as he would like it to - so not much has happend on the watching-front, only a bit of Supenatural - E4-9 of S2, to be more precisly. Still pretty awesome, but I wish we could watch more.

A bit of gaming did happen once my PS3 was set up again, and I managed to finish CSI: Fatal Conspiracy, one of the games base on the CSI TV show, this one in Las Vegas. Yes, it sounds a bit like what gamers call 'license crap', and it's definatly not stallar on the game play part, but it was still fun, the story was kinda interesting, and it only cost me about 3€, and so I think it was worth getting it.

I didn't get much reading in due to the move, but yesterday I kinda made up for that while Felix and his family were at band practice and finished the last ~200 pages of Amazonia by James Rollins. Felix' brother Max gave it to me the last time I was here, because it's his favourite book, and I was a bit recultant at first - the cover text sounds a bit clichée, an expedition in the rain forest that vanishes and starts to discoer amazing stuff that had been hidden there, but I did him the favour and read, and I was suprised. True, it is a bit clichée, but it's very well written as well and super intese in the end, I couldn't put it down until well after 1am tonight.

Now I guess I should continue working on my thesis, or find something to eat, whichever proves more pressing...but with a cat sitting on (and warming) my feet, I think it's going to be work for now :D

Moved!

We moved on Wednesday, and despie being very chaotic and lacking lots of things yet, I can already say that I'm totally in love with this place! It's light and quiet (perfect conditions for nerding and stitching and such), I get a little corner for myself, and so far life with Felix is pretty good; we managed more than 24 hours without arguing about anything and then it was only light quarels. Success! Now, before I head back into the crazyness that is out move (and going to a concert tonight for which we have tickets since May...didn't even think about moving at this time back then), let me just drop a real quick weekls + Pre-IHSW post:

I continued to work on Angel of Frost whenever I could, and I'm now well into the next page...as you can see, I worked both on her cloak and on the back fore ground in the lower right corner. I can't see yet how much stitching will hapen for the next couple days, but I got a little stiching corner set up (matress to sit on, TV to watch, light to stitch by), so I'll try to make it some.

On Halloween town, I finished the second (actually first) clue by finishing the tree and adding an owl, and I'm afraid that's where it will have to stay for a while - there are now longer nightly talks with my grandparents where I can't take Angel of Frost with me (not that I don't get

to see them anymore, but we mostly visit by daytime, and without stitching), so this project will have to wait until AoF is finished.

For watching, we did finish Vikings S2 before the move (only the last episode remained), and it was a good end - epic and without a cliff hanger, I like & I want a season 3! We then started Supernatural S2 by watching the first three episodes, and it continues to be as awesome as it started of, I hope to get some more in before the weekend is over. 

The first night at out new apartment, we didn't have internet access, so without amazon prime we finally got to watch The Lego Movie, which I had bought on BlueRay a while back - everything was awesome!

And now I will head bacl to a weekend full of shopping and building furniture and doing other stuff and, hopefully, a bit of stiching. Happy IHSW everyone, hermit a bit for me as well!

October WIPocalypse

So, one day late for my usual post, or three days for WIPocalypse itself, I'm finally here and typing what needs to be typed :D

I've been away for a few days again this week, so stiching has been a bit slow once more, but I still managed to make a good bit of progress - in fact, the reason for me cheating by one day was an impending page finish; check it out:

The remainder of the cloak was done really fast, and to my suprise, so where the trees - I don't really know what makes them stitch up so fast, but they did, and I could selebrate my third page finish yesterday. The fourth and last page is covered in stitches almost completely, but most of it doesn't look too difficult (more cloak, more trees), so let's see how fast this will go from now on - usually I'd say three or four weeks tops, but I have my move coming up on Wednesday, so I really don't know how much stitching time I will have left after that, with moving stuff in and around an buying furniture and everything.

I also made some teeny-tiny progress on Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery's Haloween Town, so there is now Frankenstein's Monster and also a bit of the tree next to him - I still enjoy stitching this, despite the lack of time, and I'm looking forward to getting it finished for next year's Halloween.

Which brings me to this month's WIPocalpyse question: Are you a Halloween or Christmas stitcher? I think my current cast of WIPs already shows that I do both, but neither is something I identify with: In fact, those are the first Halloween/Christmas themed designs I've ever sone. I'm sure I will do more in the future; there are really pretty, awesome and/or cute designs for either occasion, but I still love my non-seasonal designs as well.

So, what happend appart from stitching...as I already mentioned, we're still busy preparing our move, but most pressing issues are dealt with now so we can relax a little and actually look forward to it. And as usual, relaxing for us means a lot of watching stuff - this week, we watched Catching Fire as soon as is showed up on amazon prime (I loved the books and I love Jennifer Lawrence, plus the movies are really well made, so lots of stars for this one), then we saw Guardian of the Galaxy at the cinema (which was great, and funny, and GROOT!, can't decide if I like this one or the Avengers more). We also finished Season 2 of Breaking Bad (E12+13). and I'm starting to like it more again, I think, even though that is quite tough stuff happening there - same goes for Vikings which we finally continued, S2, E3-7, this is really taking up pace and getting awesome by the minute. There also was another episode of The Nanny in there, and yesterday Felix decided I had to watch The Truman Show as I'd never seen it before, and I liked it, it's both funny and makes one think about some things in our society...

I even got some gaming done, finished Crazy Market, one of those silly little time management games, on my PS Vita, and then also Arcania; which is a full grow RPG and the official fourth part of my beloved Gothic-series, but it's not made by the same guys and it really shows. I played it for the second time, this time together with the AddOn that I didn't know yet, and while there are still some nostalgia-moments, it's not a great game on it's own, so I'm not sad it's over. I shall play Risen sometime soon, which is made by the guys rom Gothic, and, while it doesn't continue the story, it continues the spirit ^_^

Okay, that's enough for one post I guess, I'm off to work and stitch and stuff again; see you!

2014 D.E.S.I.G.N. SAL

So I'm back from my latest trip, almost back into my normal schedule - in fact, I'm feeling really energetic and motivated today - and only a little bit behind on my blogging routine - I know I should be posting WIPocalypse now, which was due a few days ago, together with my weekly progress, but I'm cheating a bit because I want to get something finished before I do that, so that will have to wait until tomorrow. I do have some other exciting news to share though, and here it goes:

My good stitching friends - Carla, Krystal and Nancy - and I have been putting together a google site called NCCIH (Nerd Central Command International Headquarters) as a home for all those SALs, resources and other crafty stuff we love, participate in and/or want to share. It has only gone live today, and we're still working on filling in blanks and adding stuff, but I still recommend checking it out - soon, our friend Ashley and possibly also Magical will join the cast, and that will add even more awesome and cool content! Click here to get to the nerdness.

While working on this (or even a bit before, I'm not sure) I also had an idea for a stitch along that I wanted to host next year - I told my friends, and as usual they where totally up for some crazyness, so we developed the idea together and now I have the pleasure to proudly announce D.E.S.I.G.N., the first ever event to be hosted at NCCIH!

D.E.S.I.G.N. (which stands for Designer Everony Should Instantly Get to Notice) of the month is a monthly Stichalong/Blog Challenge for cross stitchers (or other crafters) where each month, you work on a project by a different designer (acutally it's enough to work on it at sometime during the year), then talk a bit about the designer, the particular design and such. There will also be an opportunity for designers to promote their work, and possibly give-aways along the way. No need to participate each month either.

You can find the complete descriptions and rules here, so please check it out and check in if you want - you still have time to decide, I just wanted to tell everyone extra-early in case anyone needs time to plan that many designs (I know that I do...). I hope you will like it, but I'm still open for suggestionss as well!

So that's it for today, regular (stichy-pictures) blog will hopefully be up tomorrow :)

Weekly progress, part who-even-counts-these

Last week was somewhat quiet, and still somewhat busy - I got to stay at home, mostly, so no extended trips, but I had to spend quite some time at university for a workshop, and Felix and I did some more preparations concerning our move, so while some stitching has happend, it is (once again) not as much as I would have liked.

I did, however, make the progress I predicted on Angel of Frost: Stitched everything on her head, including the over-one area of the face, which proved to be challenging, but much less difficult than I had feared it would be.  I also stitched some more on her cloak (which I'm still severely in love with) and even though next week will be much more busy again, I hope that I shall be able to finish the cloak-part on this page and move on to the trees - let's hope that those fill in quite as fast as those on the left did!

On a sad note, I realized that I had to decide between finishing Halloween Town in time and even having a shot at finishing Angel of Frost before Christmas, I just couldn't do both - and as the latter is a gift, my choice was easy; and I'm only stitching on Halloween town now when I don't have any possibility to work on AoF. So I only got a little bit done this week and stitched Frankenstein's bride; hopefully, he will join her next week.





I also got a bit of knitting done during my workshop, but it all looks kind of the same, so I'm not going to bore you with more pictures of it for a while. On the other frots, not to much happend as well - we did watch the last episode of season 1 of Supernatural, and while we really want to know what happens next, we decided to finish some other stuff before we start on season 2, so we also saw E10+11 of Breaking Bad (which we still enjoy, only not in larger doses) and S2 E21 of The Nanny.

I also got some reading done, tonight I finished reading Labyrinth of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers. It was great, although it wasn't really a novel per se but more of the interlude to the next one - that is, it ends just when stuff is about to happen, but that's okay, the next one is actually coming in a few days and I just need to stalk the library for it :D

For now, I'm looking forward to a hopefully quiet long weekend (today is our national holiday...not that it would really matter to me, my thesis is not going to write itself), and next week I'll be away for a bit again, but hopefully, that trip will be as much fun as it is work. See you soon, my faitful readers!

September IHSW & SFS - Mamooth Update

So with all the stuff going on, my posting times tend to become a little unstable, and I beg your forgivness for that - I know I wanted to post on Monday for the end of IHSW, but as I was leaving for a university/business trip on Tuesday, I decided to rather stitch a little more than to write about it, and I think that was a good descision :D I'm also able to distinguish pretty well between what I did on IHSW and what I did in the time after that, so no information was lost, hooray! Okay, enough chitchat, let's get on to stitching stuff...

During IHSW, I worked a bit more on Angel of Frost. Just as I had planned to, I did a bit more of her cloak, then went on to stitching the left wing, which went really smoothly and is now finished as well. Now I'm starting to fill in the head, which is quite a lot of detail in a rather small area: the hood of the cloak, the hair, and, of course, the face. The latter is stitched over one, and will be kind of a test run for any big over-one projects I have planned for the future. I'm a little nervous, but really looking forward to the challenge as well :D



On Saturday evening, I also got to take part in my first IHSW-hangout in almost a half year, and for the first time ever (I think) we also got to have all four of us (well technically there are two more of us, but while we deeply love both of them, they are not as 'involved' with the group at the moment, if that makes any sense) online at the same time. It was great, and imagine what fun it would be to have all six online together!

While on the hangout, I worked on a quick little project from a kit I picked up really cheap on ebay earlier this year. It was a birthday present for our hairdresser, who's also a friend of the family and who loves sheep. The kit was a bit strange, as it didn't come with stranded floss, but rather some kind of really thin cord to stitch with, but after some getting used to it, it became really fun and easy to work with - it stitched up really quickly and I'm more then pleased with the result! It also came with this little plastic hanger in the kit, which is a really smart and fun way to finish such a cute little project, don't you think?


As I already mentioned, Felix and I both went on a universtiy business trip to Saarbrucken starting Tuesday, and only got back yesterday afternoon. It was fun, we learned lots of interesting stuff and we got to meet a lot of people from both Oldenburg and Saarbrucken that we really enjoy working with but don't get to meet in person really often. We had booked a cozy little room in a lokal hotel, were we got to spend quite some time (schedule wasn't as busy as usual), so my Halloween Town Sampler which I had brought with me made a little progress, both on the actual journey and on those breaks - I finished block three on the right and continued working on the middle block. I also brought my knitting along, which I had terribly neglected during the past weeks, but it was just the right thing to keep my fingers busy and my mind focused during the discussions and presentations, and so Hitchhiker (that's the official name of the design in case I didn't mention it before) has grown quite a bit :)

So much for my stitching, now for me SFS report! With our move looming over our heads and all the expenses waiting for us, I wanted to be a little more careful with my spending, but still make use of my budget because there are SO many things I still need to build a proper stash! So in order to compromise I decided on some digital download patterns and to save on the shipping and tax (which can get quite a lot when ordering from overseas). I got the Whacky Witches Halloween Sampler from cloudsfactory (I'm kinda hooked on Halloween stitching right now, and scared it won't be avaiable anymore next year) for $16,99 and Impossible from Satsuma Street on Etsy, which I want to hang on the wall in my future office one day, for $6.00, so my total for this month is $22,99 without any further strings attached - hooray! Also, both are patterns I reallyreally want to stitch, nothing to massive either, so I have a good chance of actually doing so one day :D

Of course, non-crafty stuff happend as well this week - I finished a book I was reading, Alan Turing: Unlocking the Enigma by David Boyle. It's more of an essay than an actual book (maybe 60 pages), but how I got it was a real strange coincidence: I had just answered one of those tag-blog-things on dA and was asked what famous (contemporary or historical) person I'd liked to meet, and never really having thought about it I chose Alan Turing - one of the great pioneers of computer science who died much to young, when he commited suicide aged 41. Later that day, I was browsing the kindle deals on amazon and there was this book, for 99ct or something like that, and I just had to get and read it. Is's actually quite informative - the math described is mostly wrong, sure, but I've known the foundations of Turing's math for long enough, I don't need to read about those again - in the ways it describes his life. I guess I will get a 'proper' biography eventually, and I also learned that there will be a movie about his life staring Benedict Cumberbatch which I HAVE to go and see (called 'The Imitation Game' - if you are in the US or UK, it will start showing in November, I will have to wait until next February :/ ).

Also, Felix and I visited a friend yesterday, and we finished a game we had been playing together for a few years (because we got together way to rarely) - The Book of Unwritten Tales, or more precisly the expension, The Critter Chronicles. Both are really good pont & click adventures that kind of make fun of fantasy games in general, but are great fantasy games by themselves at the same time that we really enjoyed, despite all the bugs.

For watching stuff, there was, of course, more Supernatural (S1, E12-21, we will finish season 1 later today) and also two movies: Bad Grandpa, a Jackass production featuring lots of people who had no idea that they were being filmed at the time it happend (they were told later, of course, but their reactions were priceless) and Not Another Teen Movie, which bascially makes fun of every highschool comedy ever made - do you know that feeling that you shouldn't be laughing because this is not really funny and also kind of offensive, but you have to laugh anyways? That's what both of these movies made me feel like; I still can't really decide whether I enjoyed them or not...and while I will continue thinking about that, I will just hit post and let you read through this really long update; have fun :D