May WIPocalypse

I know, I know, I'm a little late for WIPocalypse this month, and if it wasn't for Carly I might have completely forgotten about it. But then, I didn't stitch all week since I finished my knotwork  bookmark...I did, however, do a fair amount of crocheting, I finally started on the owl tote I told you guys a while back and now I have all eight of the little owl panels done (minus weaving in loose ends and doing their faces). At first the different kind of techniques used were a little unfamiliar, but I quickly got the hang of it and it was really, really fun to work on. Next up are all the little square and triangle 'fillers' and than on to the details and assembly.

Stitching is about to resume, however; this weekend is IHSW and I just started on my entry for the stitching pirates puppy love contest. It's rather small, so maybe I'll even be able to finish it before my next post, and then I finally got my supplies for Angel of Frost and I still have some other projects planned. Lots to do!

But now for this month's WIPocalpyse-topic: What designs or themes do you really wish you could find? What do you think is missing among stitching designs? I personally think that some animals and even pets are badly under representated when it comes to cross stitch designs. There is an abundance of cats and dogs and rabbits in all varieties, but what I'm personally missing are guinea pigs (my favorite pets as I used to have some) and tortoises (my grandmas favorite animals). There are only designs that are either very small and cartoon-ish, or super detailed and photorealistic, but in between really. I guess the same goes for other pets, like budgies, hamsters, most aquarium fish, do I need to continue? It just doesn't seem fair, those are really cute and have a lots of admires as well.
Non-crafting-wise, I want to talk a little about books today; I'm still trying to do a little reading every night as long as I'm not to tired, and I finished some crime novel my mum gave me a while ago - not very special or good, but there were a few funny points which made it quite entertaining nevertheless. Then, looking for something else to read on my shelf, I picked up The cat who came in from the cold by British author Deric Longden - a friend had recommended it to me some years ago, and I had started and enjoyed it before putting it away for some reasons I can't remember. This time I read the whole thing, and I loved it - Longden describes how he and his wife adopted (or rather, were adopted by) there first kitten, and how that feline family then proceeded to grow. Very amusingly written, I'll have to keep an eye out for the following volumes.

Felix and I also had some more audio books for his last trip home; one by a German doctor/cabaret artist which was just genius, and a crime story set in lower Bavaria, featuring a rather dump police officer and brilliantly read by a Bavarian actor, it was really funny. I still have two more books to listen to before I'll need to make another trip to the library :)