Finishes

I was getting a bit depressed about the lack of pictures in my 2013 Finishes album, so I decided I'm going to count each of the Santa's Village houses as its own finish.  Cheating?  Maybe, considering I am stitching it all on one piece of fabric, but it keeps me motivated.  I swear Santa and Mrs. Claus's eyes aren't really as freaky as they look in the picture.  I took these outside in bright light, and you're seeing shadows cast by the itsy bitsy tiny beads I used for their eyes.

I did make some changes to the cookie shop, and turned it into a bakery by stitching a chocolate cake on a silver stand.  The cookie button is borderline too big for my 36 count fabric, but oh well.

For those that follow me on Instagram, these next pictures will be a bit of deja vu.  June, hold your breath, I finally finished Eve's Garden and the chart will be in the mail to you shortly.

Shepherds Bush Eve's Garden, stitched as kitted

The orange tree is absolutely loaded with flower buds, and smells heavenly as you walk by.  Just like a bottle of my favorite Jo Malone Orange Blossom cologne!

The lavender is coming into bloom as well.  If it were my house/yard, I'd have this all over the place.  Its beautiful and one of the best natural bug repellents around.  I had 3 plants right next to my small patio up in Utah, and could sit outside in the evening and never be bothered by gnats, no-see-ums, or any other kind of flying insect that tries to eat me alive.

I've totally gone California hippy with my breakfast.  Greek yoghurt is fine, adding homemade pomegranate jelly is delicious, the ground flax is healthy, but the hippy part was the local bee pollen I added.  Oh well, it fits in with the Birkenstocks I seem to live in due to my various ankle surgeries.

When the cat is away...

or in this case, when mom is away, what do Dad and I do?

Meet up with our friend that works on HAL Statendam when its in port and take her to the zoo.  Love my membership, especially since I can now take someone in with me for free.

Polar Bear Plunge

  While waiting for her we walked around the waterfront and I got a picture of The Kiss.  Some of you are familiar with this statue, for the rest, here's the condensed version.  Its inspired by the famous photo taken in Times Square and the original statue in San Diego was only a temporary exhibit, made out of fiberglass.  It started looking grungy so it was taken down, and a huge hubaloo broke out about the permanent (bronze) replacement.  The San Diego Art Commission rejected it, stating it was tacky and not the look desired for that area of town.  The Port Authority said screw you, we want it, go ahead since its Port Authority property.  The Midway was given 3 months to raise $1 million, which they did in 8 weeks.  Now we have The Kiss back permanently, and it has a 96% approval rating.  Take THAT San Diego Art Commission!

The Kiss

Star of India, part of the San Diego Maritime Museum

Princess Annie got a haircut.  This was only half of what got cut off.  For some reason mom likes her fuzzy, even though she gets dirty faster, she itches more, and is just generally harder to keep properly brushed and groomed.

I went to a Painting and Vino class and made a masterpiece!  Ok, not quite a masterpiece, but I had a lot of fun.  I learned I can't draw straight lines or make a balloon symmetrical if my life depended on it, but I do great with text.

And I've done some stitching.  Horrible picture of Santa's Hamlet, but you get the idea.  I think I want to make some adjustments to the cookie shop and make it a bakery.  The cookies just look strange.

CCN Santa's Village, on 36 ct Light Sand with assorted overdyed cotton floss

Jane Rees finally saw some progress as well.  Not a lot, but I've made it all the way across the top of the chart.  Obviously I was too lazy to take it out of the Qsnaps to take this picture.

Scarlet Letter Jane Rees, on 40 ct Ricamo with HDF silk

Thank you everyone for stopping by and a special thanks to those leaving comments.  I know I've been absolutely horrible about responding back to them.  Please forgive me, and know they're all read and appreciated.

Scarlet Letter stitching

If you read Nicole's Scarlet Letter Year blog, you've probably already seen these pics.

Ann Smith had some progress, and I started on some of the over-1 stitching.  The plan to use tent stitch for the over 1 (except the words) didn't work out.  I wasn't getting good enough coverage on the 35 count linen, so all that over 1 is being done with full crosses.  Miss Ann has a lot of over 1.

Mom and I were discussing that deer on the left one night.  I thought it looked like a moose.  She thinks its a donkey with antlers.  I really laughed at that.

The after Christmas illness that hit the household caught up with me.  All 3 of us were on antibiotics for sinus infections, and I still have the lingering crud - cough and congestion.  I'm not complaining too much, since this is what I lived with 90% of my time in Utah.  I loved Utah, my body didn't.  When I was at my worst, I indulged in a couple of new starts, partly because I didn't feel like facing the over 1 on Ann.

Meet Elizabeth Burrows.  She's a small sampler, but requires some mental agility since the stitches are over 2, 3, and 4 threads.  It was my first exposure to the Montenegrin stitch and Italian cross.  I'm in love.  I chose 4 silks from my stash, trying to respect Elizabeth's original choices, but drew the line at pale pink.  Instead I substituted an overdyed cream silk that had some touches of peach and taupe.

Since taking this picture I've gotten down to the alphabet stitched in eyelets.  I usually substitute smyrna crosses for eyelets, but I'm actually going with the more time consuming eyelets.  Its worth it, they look great.

My other new start was CCN's Santa's Village.  This is going to be a huge piece when finished, even stitched on 36 count.  I changed out some of the floss, using overdyed cotton from my stash, but decided to stay with some of the bright colors.  I'm questioning that now, but I'm not going to rip out what's stitched.  Instead I pulled a darker and more muted red, and will bring some of that in, starting with the berries that should be in the bottom border.  My wreath is missing its berries, and Santa his eyes, and of course the star on the top of the tree.  I want to use some seed beeds and the JABCO button, so will wait until the end to attach those.

My goal for this year is to focus more on my "serious" stitching, with just enough "fun" stitching to keep life lively.  I love my "serious" projects, but they tend to get pushed to the side so easily with my love for seasonal stitching.

MIA Blogger

Yeah, yeah, I've been MIA both from posting and reading/commenting.  Luckily that doesn't mean I no stitching either.  Not a lot done in the past few weeks, but some.

Last month a fellow blogger (a very generous one I want to add) was kind enough to remember from my rant the end of November that I liked the new CCN Cottages series, but wasn't going to be purchasing them.  Kris very kindly offered to gift me with her patterns as she finished them.  The one condition is that I must gift them to someone else once I'm finished.

I held off starting on January for a few weeks, since I have so many other WIPs begging for attention, but I couldn't hold out forever.  I had a picture in my mind of exactly what silk flosses in my stash I wanted to use.

Once January was complete it was just too easy to continue onto February.  Again, I converted this to silk floss from my stash, using a more muted and dusty palette.  Both are stitched on 38 count Natural Gander linen.

On a side note, Kris is going through a rough time right now, with a family member having some medical issues.  This is very similar to what I was facing a month ago with my grandmother, so please keep her in your thoughts, or even stop by her blog to offer up some good wishes.

For the non-stitchy news, I've been pretty busy.  The weight loss goal has turned into 2 personal training sessions, 4 spin classes, and 2 water aerobics classes per week, and sometimes some yoga classes thrown in.  Princess Annie (the dog) is getting walked twice a day, with some of those walks being 3+ miles on hilly terrain.  I'm still not losing much weight.  It almost looked like I had an under-active thyroid, but more extensive testing came back normal.  Damnit.

I got diagnosed with arthritis in my spine, so add in 2 physical therapy sessions each week.

Dad went to the ER again, for back pain.  6 hours and an MRI later we got sent home with directions to follow-up with his spine surgeon.  They admitted that any other person would have been admitted for surgery right then and there, but since his MRI from a year ago didn't show further deterioration, they were sending him home.  Moral of the story - he should have gotten the third surgery a year ago when they suggested it.  Now he's having to find a way to live with the pain 30 days before taking off on a 40 day cruise.  Listen to your doctors!

Somewhere between the fitness, ER trips, and doctor's appointments, I've managed to work on my MBA.  Not as much as I'd have liked, but I turned in my first assignment and I'm working on my second.  Hopefully things will quiet down soon.