July WIPocalypse #1

I'll spare you the usual 'oh my god I'm late posting again' and cut right to the point - June sign in for WIPocalypse! I feel like the heat is slowing me down a little, but I still managed to finish my weekly column of DF, plus some other stuff that I will safe for other posts, hopefully soonish.

The question for this month was Reality or Fantasy. Which do you prefer to stitch? Figures or Abstract? and I have both no answer and a very easy answer to this - I don't prefer either, I like both :D I do love fantasy, fairies, and dragons, but I also greatly enjoy stitching animals or pretty florals. And while I lot of what I do would classify as Figures, I also have some word, mandala and band sampler types stashed and wishlisted. It's like a design can speak to me, no matter what it is, and I want to stitch it, and vice versa :)

So since it's July already and half the year is over, I thought I'd use the opportunity to reflect a bit on my yearly goals, and adjust them where neccessary:

My 'Do your very best to achieve' goals are:

• Finish Cut Thru' Cottage - I did get 3 more pages done, 6/9 now - should still be possible!
• Keep up with the Mystery Band Sampler SAL - I fell behind quite a bit, but it is finished by now, so I'm calling this one a sucess
• Keep up with the Ornament a Month SAL - I've done January to May, had a bi of a hiccup with June (will talk about that later), and hope to finish July this week - still on track
• Finish at least one small/tiny a month for the Tons of Tinies SAL - so far, so good
• Work a bit on each of my WIPs at some point so they won't become UFOs - I haven't worked on Peacock Tapestry and Cross Stitch Angel yet, but still very much doable

My 'I would really like to achieve' goals are:

• Six pages (one row) of Dark Force - actually, I realized that one row is just a bit over four pages, so that's what I'm aiming at - three more columns, or 2400 stitches, to go!
• Finish border and get to actual Motif on Peacock Tapestry - haven't worked on it yet
• Finish Halloween Town - finished the third clue, now waiting for some floss to do the last one
• Finish Lady & Tramp  - far from it - let's revise that to 'finish one page on Lady and Tramp' and see if I can do that
• Stitch another gift for my grandma - stitched two little guinea pigs for her birthday
• Stitch at least one ornament for easter and christmas to keep - not yet, but I never said they had to be done by Easter/Christmas, right?!

And last, my 'Would be nice to achieve' goals:

• End the year with no more WIPs than I started with - nope, not going to happen ;)
• Start another Teresa Wentzler Design (most like 12 Days or The Enchanter) - might still happen, we'll see
• Start another cloudsfactory or Frosted Pumpkin Design - Halloween SAL is planed with Carla and Nancy :)
• Stitch up all 12 Little Ship Virtue Designs - haven't started those yet, so I'll probably push that to next year

I think I'm doing pretty good actually! My immediate goals are:

• Finish page 4 + 5 of Dark Force
• Finish Cut thru' cottage
• Finish My Day Off
• Finish Halloween Town before the new SAL starts (or at least alongside it)

Also some smalls, but I'm doing those when they are calling to me :)

In non stitchy news - I finished Contrast, an amazing Indie game about a girl who can walk in the shadow. It's set in a Noire-setting, and the story is pretty short, but really bitter sweet, I liked it a lot.

I also finished readgin Four: A Divergent Collection, some short stories from his perspective...I loved them, but then I thought about the stupid ending of Allegiant and I was sad again :(

Watching was quite a bit, so I'm saving it for another post, I'm afraid my laptop will die of heat before I can finish typing it up. I really need to decide on a new one and buy it...