July SFS

Pray forgive me as this will be another rather short update, but at least, this one will be on time! Time for what? Well, for Stitch from Stash, of course! Another month has passed, and against my own predictions I stayed strong this time and didn't order any new stitching stash. Well, I did order a few more needles because ever since threading all those greens for Angel of Frost, I can never find any new needles when I need them, and a small set of beading needles as well as I did not have any of those and beading with sewing needles is not quite the optimum. However, if I recall the SFS rules correctly, those should be excluded from the budget, so I can declare this month a success at $0. No promises for next month though; I'll leave for Prague tomorrow morning and I know that there are a few absolutely awesome eastern Europa based cross stitch companies, so I might or might not find some stuff I can't resist there.

I did however purchase some stuff on another front...I've recently gotten a little more into knitting, mostly to a German blog I've started reading for the authors beautiful crocheting projects, and that has lead me to another blog of a knitting designer that does the most wonderful scarves using hand dyed or otherwise multicolored sock yarn. So I couldn't resist and I ordered two skeins of yarn together with the appropriate needles, and I'll try my hands on one of those scarves myself sometime soon. I really love the colors, can't wait to see how they will come out in the design:

While I'm still rather busy (mostly university staff and flat-hunting), I did some stitching done anyways - in fact I finished my little kittens just a few hours ago, and just in time, so my grandma can send them on to the recipient while I'm gone because I won't be back in time to do so myself. I'm rather pleased with the outcome of this one; originally I had only bought this kit because the kittens reminded me of a friend's, but I really enjoyed stitching them and aren't they ever so cute?

So as I said, I'll be off for a total of five days starting tomorrow, which means some more love for my bookmarks while on the train and such, and after I return I will finally, finally start an focus on Angel of Frost, hoping I can still get it done for christmas!

July IHSW

Sorry for always being late with my posts at the moment, but I'm super busy right now - two friends/relatives of Felix were her last Friday, so we made another trip to the fun park, this time riding all of the big rollercoasters, and now I'm having lots and lots of meetings at university and work to do at home for said meetings and planing our next university-business-trip to Prague next week,. So I'll just do a reallyreally quick post now to catch up on crafting stuff, and everything else will have to wait a little longer.

I actually wanted to do a small crochet project before getting back to stitching after all those deadlined projects, but I couldn't really get into it so it's on hold for now. Almost finished though, so you might see it soon. Instead, I spent most of my free time working on the kitties - I just learned the deadline for those will be August 2nd, with shipping and everything considered I guess I should finish this before I leave for Prague on Sunday morning. But it's looking good so far, the kittens themthelves are done now and I only need to add the grass and flowers.

To be honest, I'm almost tempted to leave it like that - those two are much more cute than I imagined them to be! - but I'm also eager to stitch the flowers, I love stitching colorful stuff, so I guess that won't happen ^_^ Most of kitten 2 was done over the weekend, so I guess this qualifies as an IHSW post after all :D

For my evenings, Lady has been swapped out with a knitting project, a sweater, I started yeeeears ago and then kinda abandoned. Took me a while to get back into the pattern, and some days I was knitting more backwards than forwards, but I think I got the drill now - this is just the kind of repetetive work I need to relax before going to bed. Also made some considerable progress yet, going from 18 to 32 rows:

I'm sorry to keep this post so brief, but I don't have more time right now; I have to leave in less than an hour and still got stuff to do...but I hope I'll be back to my usual blogging and crafting routine soon!

July WIPocalypse - Secrets revealed

I realize I'm a little late for the WIPocalypse check-in already, but I was at Felix' place again over the weekend and we were quite busy preparing and celebrating his birthday, so I only get back to writing now. On the plus side, I can now finally show you these secret projects I've been talking about all that time - so without further rambling, let's jump right into it!

First project I've been working on was a brithday present for a good friend of mine. She had send me a care package of home baked christmas cookies last year, so I wanted to make something for her as well, and as she loves to bake and cook and also loves cats in general and Pusheen in particular, I had just the right idea for her - an apron with baker-Pusheen stitched on it. I made the pattern myself using the .gif-version and gimp. At first I wanted to stitch this using waste canvas, but the apron I bought alread had a square pattern and I couldn't for the love of god get the waste canvas to align properly with those squares - until I realized I could just stitch on the fabric directly using said squares, and I could start to work and was quite pleased with the result.
My friend got/opened the present on the 4th of July, and she loved it and was quite happy which in turn made me quite happy, so mission accomplished here ^_^

Next up was a birthday present for Felix. I really love cloudsfactory and the patterns they offer, especially the Mini People. I'd like to stitch up just short of all of them eventually, but then putting a lot of those in frames and on your walls might get a little boring...so I decided to try something else and stitch them on a t-shirt. So I got a nice blue shirt in Felix' size, grabbed my waste canvas and started stiching Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Stitching with the waste canvas turned out much harder than I thought it would be (I had to check the backside constantly to make sure the stitches were still properly 'holding hands' on the fabric itself) so I got in quite a hurry to get it finished at the end, but eventually I made it - I was so very nervous right before pulling out the waste canvas, but everything turned out alright. Here is is, before and after removing the canvas (I put the backstitching and knot details on after removing the waste canvas because I was afraid they'd be to delicate to slight changes in fabric tension or something like that):

Also the proud owner, wearing the shirt on his birthday (he insisted I cut his head of before putting his picture on the internet...the head in the picture only of course, I can asure you that the original head is still safly attached to his shoulders!):

I think my 'prototype' turned out quite well, so I might be doing a few more of those in the future ^_^ It also was quite a funny moment when Felix' aunt was admiring his shirt and asked me how much time I had put into this - surely it must have been a whole two or three hours? She was quite shocked when I explained that it was more like 20 or 30 hours...it's funny how much non-stitching people underestimate the time those things take, but fortunately Felix has watched me stitch often enough to know how long it takes.

Another project I've been working on (mostly when Felix was here as he wasn't allowed to the his present of course) is my little Two kitties-kit. I already finished one of the cats, no I'll just need to do the second one and the green and flowers around them. This one is due in mid-August, so no big hurry yet.

And last but not least, as I was away over the weekend, I got a little more work done on my Game of Thrones-bookmarks and added the second half of the Arryn words - next time I'll be on to the falcon.

So that was is for my recent stitching - now on to July's WIPocalypse dicussion topic: It’s halfway to Christmas. Do you start your holiday stitching this early? If so, what do you hope to accomplish this year?

Actually, I do have some plans this year - I want to finish one big design for my grandma and I already started it because I'm not sure how long this will take, and as you can see with all the stuff that keeps distracting me it's probably a good idea as well (Teresa Wentzler's Angel of Frost, the beginning of which you can see here). Depending on how well I get along with this, I might consider doing a few smaller christmas-y projects as well, but for now I'm well booked out.

And I guess that concludes this month's WIPocalypse post, which has become quite long already, so everything else that might need discussing will have to wait until a later time :)

The weekly Lady, #7

So here I am again, on time this week, with my weekly progress of Lady & the Tramp. This time I actually managed to finish that tree I've been working on for the last couple of weeks, and got quite a bit of sky done:

See the straight line on the edge of the page? That's actually the border of the page, isn't that exciting?! I also love how quick this is going with the rather big chunks of one color now. Quite a bit more sky to go on this page, so the speed should stay rather hight for a time...only, I'm thinking to stop doing this weekly lady thing for the time, I'm afraid. I have noticed severe problems with concentrating on my work recently, and I think that doing to many things at once it a big part of the problem for me. So I'll try to turn it down a notch, focusing on one thing (one book, one game, one crafting project and so on) at a time - pick one, finish, rinse and repeat. Or at least, finish up until a pre-set point (like a page finish or something). I'm not sure yet if this will also affect my evening sessions on Lady, I'll have to put a few more thoughts into that.

I did however already manage to finish another book (does wonders not to read three or four at once): My friend Steffi lent me her copy of divergent, telling me 'You've got to read this it's amazing!', and she was right. Wasn't quite what I expected, but it was truely wonderfull, and I can't wait until she sends me the other two (she still needs to read #3 herself). I guess I'll try and make Felix watch the movie with me as well ^_^

Okay, now I'll be off at Felix' place for the weekend, which probably means some bookmark stitching. Stay tuned, as there will be my WIPocalypse post on Sunday or Monday and there I will finally reveal my secret projects for everyone to see - I'm so glad both of those are finished now ^_^

The weekly Lady, #6

A little later than usual due to more urgent stuff to be posted, but here is my weekly update on Lady & the Tramp (picture taken on Friday, when the update normally would have been due). So without further delay, here she is:

As you can see, I couldn't resist and already started on the sky, even though the tree isn't completely finished - I've been alternating little confetti-y bits of tree with bigger blocks of sky - but I think this week should finally see the last of the tree, of that one at least.

I also realized it's been a while since I last talked about stuff we've been watching, so quite a bit has piled up; I'll just take yare of it now before it gets even more:

• Click: Felix says he watches this movie every once in a while to remind himself what's truly important in life, and I think that's a brilliant idea. Although superficialy a comedy, this movie really gives one a bit to think...I like Adam Sandler for that, he always seems to find the right balance between clown and 'hero'.
• Back to the Future: You know this feeling when everyone assumes you have to know a movie because everyone else does but really, you just never got around to watching it? I get that a lot, but in this case, Felix hadn't seen it yet as well. And boy, did we miss out - this movie is brilliant, it aged very, very well and I love all those little references and hints between the timelines. I'd really like to the the sequels as well, but I'm a little scared they might go the way of most sequels and just not life up to the original...
• Dark Shadows: I like Tim Burton, and I love Jonny Depp, I really do, but this one...well, the beginning was really good and funny, but it just got more and more abstruse and confusing and at the latest when the werewolf appeared, they completely lost me. Don't think I'll watch this again...
• Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask: Another one of those 'Should hae watched but never got around to' movies, but this time we were not of one mind: Felix gave up two episodes in because is was too absurd for him, I later picked it up where we had left off and found the later episodes to be quite enjoyable. Still, if all Woody Allen movies are like that, I'm not sure I'm going to watch more by him...not quite my type of movie.
• Keinohrhasen (No ear rabbits), a German rom-com starring Til Schweiger. German rom-coms usually follow the pattern of  'Party animal with no interesent in a serious relationships meets wallflower who somehow manages to tame him', but that's okay, and Til Schweiger and Nora Tschirner really fit well into their roles. Also lots of German 'VIP's in the cast, as well as most of Schweiger's (then) little kids in minor roles, quite enjoyable to watch.
• Zweiohrkücken (Two ear chicks), so sequel to Keinohrhasen. Ever wondered what happens to the couple after the end of a rom-com? Well, here you get to know, completely with 'Why did't you take the trash out?!' and ex girl/boyfriends suddenly appearing on the doorsteps. Also quite fun to watch.
• Vikings (Season 1): When Vikings got to amazon prime, Felix and I set right out to watch it, but it took us a while to finish it - not because we didn't like it, it was just that other stuff kept popping up. Yesterday we watched the last episodes of Season 1 - we quite like it, but I think it's even worse than GoT in terms of likeable characters, I think theres only three or maybe four persons I actually trust in this show. Really curious to see what will happen next though, it's a good thing Season 2 is already waiting to get started!

Happyhappy day

Right here should be more posting for The weekly Lady, but that will have to wait for a bit longer as today, I have other things I need to talk about (don't worry, I already took the picture of Lady this morning, so no cheating involved :D). Don't you worry, it not one of these uncomfortable 'talks', it's just that two good things (well, one good thing and one amazing thing, really) have happend for me today, and I just need to share them with you (or at least those of you that didn't know already).

Some of you might remember how when I posted my Spring Bunnies a few weeks back, I said those were for a small contest in a deviantArt group I'm a member of? Well, imagine my joy when I came online this morning and saw that my Bunnies had actually taken first place! Of course I had hoped that they might score well, but I wouldn't have dreamt that I'd actually win - after all, the group might be rather small, but has some of the most talented stitchers I have ever seen.

On top of being happy as a clam at high water, there are also some awesome prices that come with winning this contest - some awesome patterns and even a custom made bead dress pendant by the wonderful PinkyThePink herself.

So, is there something that could make a stitcher even more happy than that, you might ask? Indeed there is - new stash! Because on top of that all I also got to go to the custom's office and fetch the supplies for my Mysterious Halloween Town Club and isn't it all so pretty?

The fabric is all sparkly and the hand dyed floss is just lovely, I can't wait to start it now! Sadly, I'll have to wait a bit longer, first I need to finish mystery project #2 and the kittens and we need a new printer because our old one broke down and I can't print the pattern right now. Still, very happy day indeed!

But honestly, what made me happiest today was that I got to give mystery project #1 to my friend today (well, I mailed it to her earlier this week and today was her birthday and she opend it) and she absolutely loves it ^_^ I'll tell you all about this project later when I get around to posting it.

Lady-post will be up either later today or some time over the weekend.

Owl is well that ends well

...please excuse the terrible pun in the headline, I couldn't resist :D But I do have owl good news indeed: As of friday evening, I finally finished the owl tote bag. And just in time as well; because on Saturday, my friend Steffi from Berlin arrived, and I could give it to her as a late birthday present. I hope she likes it as much as I do, I'm really pleased with the outcome ^_^

 

I also spent an (for me) unsual high amount of time out during the last few days, also thanks to Steffi and her friend Stefan, because I do not often have the chance to hang out with them. We spent all of monday in the Europa-Park, Germany's largest theme park (and only second to Disneyland Paris in Europe). We had loads of fun with the roller coasters and other rides, shows and good food. My feet were killing me the next day, but totally worth it! The best thing is that Felix and I will be there again soon, because he invited his godfather (not really godfather, it's some strange catholic thing I don't quite understand ^.~) and since he's bringing his new girlfriend, I will be coming as well :D

Alltogether we had a really good time those past days, but as much as I enjoyed spending time with Steffi I'm also glad to get to relax and stitch some more now. In fact, I finally finished mystery project #1 (which already shipped to it's destination) and started on #2. And I also startet working on my 'Two kittens'-kit, because the friend I wanted to make it for is havong a really rough time right now, and it's her brithday in August.

So together with Lady, I have three active projects going now, and I already realized that's more than I can comfortably handle...even though I'll probably be getting the supplies for my Halloween Project today ore tomorrow, I don't think I will touch them before I finished one or better yet both of the smaller ongoing projects :)