December WIPocalypse

So I've been a blog slacker this year and there are lots of reasons- busy with the kids, busy with work, busy with work, busy with family. Both of Erich's remaining grandparents passed away this year and my Mom had a cancer scare (100% removed with surgery and she is fine now).  But 2015 is almost over and I'm hoping to get back to a few things I love in 2016, both stitching and participating in the online stitching community.  I've already got some stitching time back.  My little guys are all in bed by 8:30 or earlier so I've reclaimed the evening as stitching time but for some reason it has been harder to get back into the habit of checking blogs and posting and I miss it so I'm doing something about it.

I guess I made it here at a good time as it happens to be WIPocalypse SAL check in time and time to talk about the year's progress too.

I did have a few finishes this year. I finished a couple ornaments for the boys from 2014 (don't ask about ornamentifying, it didn't happen)...

And I stitched Vervaco's Sleeping Baby not once but twice for two new babies in the family...

My final finish for 2015 is Bluebird Cabin by Country Cottage Needleworks as a Christmas gift for my Mom.

I also made some progress on a couple WIPs like Space Traveler...

And Fish City...

Even started a few 2015 ornaments for the boys but ran out of stitching time before Christmas. This is  Magical Santas and they have appeared in both Cross Stitch & Needlework magazine and one of the Better Homes and Gardens Christmas books. They're much brighter in person than the finished pics with the chart would lead you to believe but I like them, they're very fitting for my boys. 

That's about it for my 2015 stitching. I'm working on Space Traveler at the moment and trying to make some 2016 plans. I was lucky enough to get plenty of stitchy things for Christmas including a chart and some supplies for a photo of my boys that my cousin had converted to cross stitch for me so there are plenty of new starts and WIPs to choose from!

April WIPocalypse and Turtle Trot

So I've been really bad at keeping up with the SAL's again and I think I'm blaming these guys...

 

They are kinda cute though so I guess I'll let them get away with it for now:)  They've all been busy growing up the past couple months. The twins sit up pretty well now and are very happy to be eating some mushy foods along with their bottles.  They're also threatening to crawl so I'm sure they'll really be keeping us on our toes soon.  Josh is enjoying his last few months of kindergarten and is getting ready to start his first real soccer league next week.  I can't wait to see him play his first game soon. 

 

Despite the lack of posting I have been getting a decent amount of time with my WIPocalypse/Turtle Trot piece. Fish City is really starting to grow...

 

 

You can't really see all of it but I've done quite a bit of backstitch to bring out a lot more detail than there was before and I think I'm going to try to continue to backstitch as I go otherwise it will be just way too much all at the end.  Things seem to be going pretty well so I think I'm going to keep on going with this piece for now.  I'm sure I'll get tired of it eventually but the bright colors and alternating between big blocks of color for the background and lots of color changes for the different fish are still keeping me interested for now. 

That's about it for now.  I hope to be back in about a week with another progress pic and maybe some kid pics from this weekend as the twins are being baptized and we're having a big family get together for them so hope to see you again a lot sooner than last time!

 

 

 

 



WIPocalypse and Turtle Trot- Better late than never!

Its February WIPocalypse and Turtle Trot  check in time and I'm only a few days late so you get two check ins for the price of one this month.  Since  I completely missed the first check in for both, I'll tell you now that my expectations for these SALs this year are pretty modest and I'm really just happy to be getting some stitching time.  I'm hoping to make some progress on a few WIPs and maybe stitch a few ornaments but not a lot of specific goals here. So far I'm doing pretty well as I've got two ornaments stitched for WIPocalypse (ok, one was technically finished in 2014 but barely as the last stitches were a few minutes before midnight on 12/31). Both are from the 2014 JCS ornament issue. The first is the SamSarah design and the second is from The Prairie Schooler.  This completes my 2014 ornies for the kids, snowmen for the twins and Santa picked out by Josh.  Hopefully they'll be on our 2015 tree!

 

 

And my progress on Fish City counts for both SALs...

 

And let's not forget the WIPocalypse question of the month-

How do you overcome the feeling that you're in a rut with a particular project?

Easy- put it down and do something else for awhile.  It might be a day or a year or more but unless its obligation stitching I put it down until it feels fresh and fun again. This is a hobby so to me it isn't worth it if I'm not enjoying it.  I spend plenty of time doing not so fun things like dishes and changing diapers so the precious little hobby time I get better be worth it and if that means putting down my stitching entirely for a week or two to read a book or get some extra gaming time then that's what happens.  It will always be there when I'm ready to thread my needle again.  

That's about it for now, don't forget to keep those comments to my GYB post coming to enter my giveaway by Feb 15 and I'm still slowly working my way through the GYB party posts so I may be visiting you soon.

 

January Turtle Trot

As promised there WILL be more frequent posting here this year! I've signed up for an extra SAL to help me out with that as well as keep my goals moving along. So let's get on with the Turtle Trot, hosted by Claudette over at BAP Attack. This SAL has stitchers pick 10 projects they want to make progress on and post their work by the 10th of the month. This one really appeals to me since I've got some BAPs that truly are coming along at turtle's pace so hopefully I can speed them up this year! Since I didn't participate last year I will start with some before pics of my choices this month. I've got a bit of obligation stitching to finish up (the seemingly endless birth teddy bear announcements) so progress might be a bit slow to start but hopefully will pick up soon. But back to that starting lineup...

Polar Lights Sampler


QS Pegasus and Castle Sampler


Fish City


Garden of Wishes


Dragon Moon


Watergarden


Fantasy Triptych


Dragon Master


Space Traveler


And last but not least is Flower Power which is a slow work in progress and I don't have a pic yet as I'm actually still gathering a few supplies and haven't started stitching yet. I intend to before year's end though!

So that's my Turtle Trot. Apologies if the thumbnails look a little weird. Photobucket has been doing something strange to my recent thumbnails but the full size pics look great, I promise! The next couple weeks are a little hectic in my house by the look of the calendar but I'll try to get back as often as I can and I'm definitely looking forward to reading everyone else's blogs and leaving some comments.

One last thing-Don't forget sign ups are still going on for the Grow Your Blog party, just click the pretty flowery button on my sidebar to get signed up before January 15!

August WIPocalypse Part 2

A few days late but still not too far into September yet:)

So since last WIPocalypse post, I did participate in some stitching competitions inspired by the athletic events over in London.  I decided to work on projects that had solid stitching and to see how many stitches I could get in during the month.  With vacation and adoption paperwork and plain old work I probably didn't have my best month ever but I got a fair amount done.

First up was a new start, Lisa Victoria's QS Pirate Dragon charted by HAED got a total of 6,463 stitches...



And I also put some more stitches into Fish City, 3,680 to be exact...





I finished off the billboard, added a fish, and got to work on all that background at the bottom of my new chart page.  Not too bad for a month filled with all sorts of distractions from stitching:)

So for September, I have no real stitching plans, no pressure, no deadlines.  I'm thinking about continuing on with the dragon since I finally got to a good point to start his tail and it is the year of the dragon after all but we'll see which WIP calls the loudest next time I sit down to stitch!

Late TUSAL and a stitchy update

I missed TUSAL this round while we were on vacation but wanted to post my orts anyway...



I've got a nice blue/green/brown combo going this round as I've been working on the pirate dragon's boat and some Fish City background mostly. Hope to add some brighter colors next time! Oh, and here's what the stitching looks like...




Lots of life stuff going on around here too but that probably is enough for another post so I think I'll save all that for next time.  Happy stitching until then!

August WIPocalypse

Long time no post:)  Since it is WIPocalypse check in time again and there are actually two scheduled for this month, I thought I'd better get on it and get my first post out before too much time passes.  So here's what I've been stitching on since last time we posted.

First up is Fish City.  It definitely grew since last round...





And then there's my new start to coincide with those sporting events over in London...



I know, another new start but I'm still doing better on my finishes than starts for the year so I can live with that:)  This one will eventually be QS Pirate Dragon by HAED/Lisa Victoria.  Blue blob for now but I keep assuring my son I will get to the dragon eventually.  Hope everyone else is having lots of stitchy fun this round.


And in the non-stitchy news, adoption application is mailed off and should be reaching our new agency by the end of the week.  Attempt #2 at adoption #2 is officially underway!

Fish City grew again

I think I'm getting kinda close to rightly being able to call it a city now.  It features multiple buildings, several fish, even the start of a billboard...




Time to say good-bye to the fishies for awhile and tackle the creatures above water, pirate dragons sailing ships to be specific:) Until next time!

July TUSAL

Time again for TUSAL! Don't know about TUSAL, click the button on my sidebar and join the fun. I actually have a decent amount of orts to show off this time, lots of Fish City blues for the most part...



And here is the result of all my blue stitching...



It's been mostly background this time but I really like what the addition of all the blue is doing to the overall look of the piece. And I was pretty excited to finally hit the top too, a big BAP accomplishment to me. It gives me perspective on how far I've got left to go- quite a long way for now!

Not much else going on around here that I can talk too much about yet. Still researching other adoption routes and I think we're getting close to our next move but still a few kinks to work out. I'll let you know our choice as soon as we sign with someone. Hoping it's sooner rather than later, we're anxious to get back on track for giving Josh a sibling.

In non-adoption news, looks like the heat has finally broken, at least for a few days. And we got rain, real soak the ground rain! Sounds terrible since we need more but I really hope tomorrow is sunny as we're hoping to make a trip to the county fair but if it rains we'll make it another day. Take care and happy stitching!

July WIPocalypse

Hope everyone celebrating this week had a happy 4th! We had a great time.  It was my grandfather's 80th birthday so my family rented a suite at the local minor league ballpark and we had a surprise party for him.  Everyone had an excellent time and now I am officially spoiled for going to the ballpark.  Look for pics coming soon.

For now, it is time again to check in on what I've been stitching.  Since the last WIPocalypse check-in I've worked on 3 projects and I actually finished one of them too. So let's get to the pics. 

First up,  Fish City doesn't have any new fish to show off but the buildings in the background are growing...






Please excuse my wrinkly fabric and the lighting.  The colors are a little truer in the before pic.  I was taking pics in a different spot and don't think I like the lighting so well there.  Anyway, I also worked on TW's Fantasy Triptych...





And finally, I have WIPocalypse Finish #4 to share.  After much consideration and a little experimenting I give you Skeleton Crew...



After letting it sit for awhile with just a bit of backstitch unfinished I found a skein of 3819 in my Fish City box and went to work filling in the serpent's hair only to find that I really didn't like the way it looked.  I was never quite sure about it anyway and the 3819 didn't look great on the fabric so I ended up leaving it off, adding my initials and calling it done.  I started stitching on 9/2/08 and finished it this morning.  The fabric is Silkweaver Shadowbrook lugana in 32 count.  I stitched as charted except for the serpent's hair which I left off entirely. 

Now to decide what to work on until the Stitching Olympics start.  One of the boards I read and Measi are both hosting Olympic-themed stitching events to coincide with the London Summer Olympics at the end of the month and I believe I have settled on starting a new HAED to participate.  Josh got a look at Lisa Victoria's Pirate Dragon piece and he wants it so I think I might try to finish it off for his new big boy room when we swap rooms eventually after the next adoption.  Off to go browse the WIPs until then... 

June WIPocalypse check in

Time once again for a WIPocalypse post. Haven't heard of the WIPocalypse? Click on the colorful dragon over on my sidebar to see what you've been missing. I actually have 3 projects to show off this time. Sorry in advance for any spacing issues, I'm posting from the iPad today and sometimes it has opinions on how things should be spaced. They sometimes agree with mine. Anyway, the fish of Fish City are steadily multiplying...





Watergarden got a little more fence and part of a gate...





Sorry for the shadowy pic on that last one, lighting was not my friend that day. And finally, I have a new start to show you. I've been so good working on old WIPs for the most part this year that I decided to treat myself to a new start. In my defense it has actually been kitted and ready to go for awhile and it was on my list of WIPs-to-be so it wasn't totally impulsive. I've wanted to have TW's Fantasy Triptych for our bedroom for a long time so here we go, I estimate a finish sometime before I retire...



I'm stitching on 32 count antique white Lugana and am remembering just how much TW likes confetti. I know it will be worth it in the end but for now let's just not look at the back. The plan for now is to keep on this one until TUSAL time and then switch back to the fishes. We'll see what I can accomplish with the limited Summer stitching time I have. Back soon with pics from our recent trip. We had a great time but it's nice to be back too.