I'm Still Alive! Updated WIPs and Finishes

This spring has been hectic with boards, patient completion, requirements and graduation. Officially, graduation is in one week and I cannot wait. I have been stitching but not too much.

Finished!!!

Garden Party Cakes - Mirabilia (framed)

Stitched on 32 ct Imagination by Polstitches.

Promessa - Alessandra Adelaide (framed)

Stitched on 22 ct Jade by Picture This Plus
Guests at my wedding will sign the white border as the "guestbook."

Persephone - Mirabilia (unframed)

Stitched on 32 ct Lavendar by Steph's Fabbys
My all-time favorite. I can't wait til I make some money to frame this beauty.

WIP!

Queen's Farmhouse - Chatelaine

 


TTAS (Touching the Autumn Sky) - Mirabilia

Stitched on 32 ct Cotton clouds by Stephs Fabbys (I think)
I have a more updated picture somewhere, I am just not sure where. When I pack up my stuff to move, I will take a better picture.

First Finish of 2014: Faerie Spring Fling

I tried to finish her on Dec 31, 2013. I really did. My eyes were swimming and I had a massive headache, so unfortunately my total finish count for 2013 is a paltry number. Fortunately, I started 2014 strong  with the finish of the beautiful Faerie Spring Fling! Here are the progress pictures:

October 2, 2013

October 3, 2013

November 10, 2013

Undated

December 1, 2013

December 31, 2013

January 1, 2014. The stripes are from my ironing board cover.

 Fabric: 32 ct lugana, Spring Fling by Steph's Fabbys.

Next start? Probably Nora Corbett's Hummingbird.

Lady Hera Update

I did not get too far on my Lady Hera, but I like taking pictures of my work anyway.  Here is what she will look like finished:

 

Here what I have so far:

 I usually start in the middle of my mira patterns, so what you are looking at is the bouquet of flowers that she is holding in the middle.

That peacock is just so beautiful, I can't wait to put in a few stitches on it!

Stitching Updates

Danggg it's been a while! I just didn't feel like I could truly relax until I found out the results of my licensure exams. Fortunately I have passed the national exam (the one that certifies me to practice dentistry in the US). The regional exam is the one that allows me to practice dentistry in a specific state, and the scores are not out yet. I feel good about it though.

Thanksgiving break turned out to be a Game of Thrones and stitching marathon. It was amazing. I finished a project and got as far as I could through two others before having to stop due to lack of threads. I started another project on an impulse and now I am in love with that one too. Let's view:

1. Faerie Spring Fling is so lovely on Steph's Fabbys's Spring Green. I am missing the beads and kreinik for her wings. I am determined to finish her before the new year. I don't think she will be featured at my wedding but will look wonderful on my walls, regardless.

2. Persephone is also resplendent on Steph's Fabbys's Lilac and is my most favorite project in the history of cross stitching. Yes, you heard that right. It's been kind of a long haul, as I started her in the summer. I ran out of one of the caron waterlilies for the background and I am missing the other waterlilies so I'm just playing a waiting game. She is huge too, like a foot and a half long and 9 inches wide. Something like that. I can't wait to frame her!!

3. New start! Lady Hera and her pretentious peacock will also grace my walls in a few months' time. I am stitching her on Steph's Fabbys Simply Sage. I think it's safe to say that Stephanie Bishop is my supplier. My dealer of deliciously smelling fabrics, if you will. The colors are just so lovely and the fabrics always arrive with the edges serged (finished by stitching the edges so they don't fray)! What a thoughtful touch.

I just started Hera last night and I adore the colors already.

 

4. A finish! I completed Alessandra Ambrosio's Promessa a few days ago. It was stitched on PTP Jade. It was a lot of fun! Some mistakes here and there but they were easily fudged. I substituted beads from my stash for the french knots, and I think they add a little sass and a little sparkle. I will be framing this one with the mat on the outside of the glass, so people can sign the mat at my wedding instead of a guestbook. How awesome will that be? Extremely awesome. Frankly, I just want an excuse to buy charts for the wedding. 

Anyway, here is the finished Promessa with lots of random shots: 

Spring fairy

Wow!! It feels like it's been forever since I did any stitching! I have been taking my licensure exams which have kept me busy, stressed and unable to focus on anything else. Fortunately, I spent some time this weekend on Spring Fairy and for quite a bit done.

How Wedding Planning is Like a Lobotomy

Things I’ve learned in Wedding Planning

1.       Everyone gets excited for you!

2.       You will get swept up in crafty DIY ideas that will change at least once per month per item or idea, which is proportional to the amount of time spent on Pinterest and Style Me Pretty

3.       You will become an amateur calligrapher, photographer, baker and/or florist until someone (fiancé) reins you back and reminds you that you can’t do it all and sometimes it’s better to pay someone qualified to just get it done. Outsourcing is a hard, hard lesson to learn.

4.       You will care about things that don’t matter at all to your fiancé or even to yourself prior to this whole wedding thingamajig.

5.       You will start to feel yourself slipping away a little bit as hours of your time are spent in a hunched posture, with stomach growling because you’re on a diet and your credit card groaning from the impulse purchases online.

I WILL find a way to use 50 mismatched gold frames after the wedding!

6.       You will start to critically evaluate yourself, your friends, your wardrobe and your DIY Pinterest-y craft choices as SMP-worthy. If it’s not, back to the drawing board, or in this special case, Pinterest.

7.       You will be convinced that you need a theme. This year, it’s the 1920s/Great Gatsby. Next year: Hunger Games: Catching Fire?

8.       Money will flow out of your wallet uncontrollably.

9.       There will be mysterious family members who neither you nor anyone else have ever met, and in fact may be dusty old skeletons in their house on the hill, but are obligated invitees. No questions asked, no arguments given.

10.   Some wedding trends will just pop up over and over again, and the only thing you can wonder is “WHYYYYYY???” Ahem, gray and yellow palette, AHEM BURLAP AND LACE. MASON JARS. MUSTACHE PROPS. REGISTRIES!!

11.   Okay, that last part isn’t fair. Registries are useful to guests, yes, who have been socialized that weddings = gifts. But that’s not the point of a wedding! It’s to observe the joyful couple’s commitment to and love for each other, and to celebrate with days-old bakery cake and a conga line if you’re feeling rowdy.

12. You will hear this phrase: “People will expect [xyz].” Expect what, you ask? Cake. A registry. An invitation to the rehearsal dinner (which, prior to all this research, I literally only expected to invite those involved in the actual rehearsal!!!). Flowers. Favors. An open bar with top shelf liquor that no one drinks except at weddings with someone else’s dime. A dinner. A place to sit. Some form of entertainment including a belly dancer, a firebreathing sword swallower, a clown, an acrobat and/or a poet.

I personally want a birds of prey exhibit at my wedding, but I can’t imagine the logistics or liability. Would a pygmy owl perched on my shoulder, nuzzling my cheek be worthy of a Pinterest post?

13.       You will want to elope. Many times. Probably every day. But I have heard that it will be all worth it on your wedding day, mostly because your opportunity to elope is pretty much gone.

 

What's on YOUR Impossible List?

Phew it's been crazy up in here! Lots of boring school stuff so let's skip right over that. Not a whole lot of stitching has been happening, BUT there has quite a bit of introspection and evaluation of where I am and where I want to be.

Long story short, it's been a rough couple of years and I need a mental change. I want to create a life worth living and writing about.

I found Joel Runyon's Impossible Blog a few months ago and his sometimes outrageous ideas are always hovering on the edges of my consciousness. Cold shower therapy? Adventure roulette? How badly do I want it? (Answer: Badly, but never enough to stick to a program) What crazy ideas are these!?