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!