Sit down before you read this!!!

Ok...this is a shock...please sit down...put that brew down...make sure the de-fib is close by.

Are you done? Ready?

I have another finish!!!  I would love to say I finished them on the same day but sadly I had to stay up until 1.30am to finish it so I suppose that isn't really the same day.  But...even better...I can say that I had 2 finishes within 12 hours!

So drumroll please... 

All Through the Night - Oh Christmas Tree

This is the 5th finish from my list of 25 that I want to finish or at least make a load of progress on (never going to finish a HaED or 3 in a year!)  There are actually 17 designs that I want to finish this year on the list so I feel like I am doing quite well so far.

Well! This is getting to be a bit of a habit!

Well what a busy stitching week I have had.  Watching flosstube and stitching is as good as it gets I think.  I love feeling like 'someone' is stitching with me (even if I am rather late to the party!)

This week has seen Positive Thinking getting a little (actually quite a lot) of TLC.  I had finished all of part one, some of part two and the words for part three. I can now confirm that ALL of part two is done as is ALL of part three. This was going to be my focus piece until either it was finished or I got bored.  However, as a Stitch Mayniac, I decided to do the Olympic Stitching Challenge which has different challenges for each day.

Before!

Positive Thinking SAL - Jardin Prive

Friday, for the Opening Ceremony was either a new start (NOOOOOOO!!!!!) or work on your most recent start.  I am pretty sure that the last thing I started was Lakeside Needlecraft's Under the Sea SAL. I actually didn't realise that it had been so long since I had started anything, other than the JCS ornies. That's impressive for me :)

Lakeside Needlecraft - Under the Sea SAL

Saturday was to stitch something with a winter theme.  Well in true Jo Perry fashion, I decided that Christmas is in winter and that I could therefore work on Oh Christmas Tree.  I am also going to work on this for the last challenge which is to work on a piece close to a finish.  I am hoping that it will actually get finished.  There is very little left to do - a bit to the bottom right where I couldn't be bothered to move the Q-Snap, the pot it is in and a bigger chunk on the lefthandside. (Justine, would you still like this one when it is finished?  There is hope!)

All Through the Night - Oh Christmas Tree

Sunday was Korean themed day.  Thankfully, the Korean flag has a lot of white - as does iStitch Advent SAL 2015. I am really happy to have got bands 8, 9, 10 and some of 11 stitched today.  I am going to go back to it in a minute and will hopefully get band 11 finished.  The photos are shocking! It stands out so much more in reality.

iStitch - Advent SAL 2015

 

Tomorrow is animal themed day.  I am going to work on Nature Patchwork which was gifted to me  a gazillion years ago and I used to work on when bathing the kids when they were little.  Well not so much when I was bathing them, more supervising the splashing.  Looking at it has given me a warm, fuzzy feeling...awwww.

In other news - Rachael had an interview for NCS on Monday. Well, it wasn't so much an interview as groupwork, interview, presentations and all sorts of activities.  She was complimented by 2 of the 'examiners' on her presentation skills and was offered the job the following morning.  That's the summer holidays taken care of then!!  

Oh Christmas Tree

I have SO enjoyed working on this all week.  In fact I am very tempted to keep it out and work on it next week too...but that would be cheating!!  However, I now have 2 designs, possibly 3, that could be completed so I have decided that at the end of every quarter, I will have a week of working on PHD's and see if I can get them finished.  Anyway, here is the before and after...

It looks much better in real life.  The fabric is Crafty Kitten 'Oatmeal' and is ever so pretty.  The thread is DMC 4045 and is lovely to work with.

The random generator has chosen #62 this week which is Sunflower Fairy. Another one that I probably wouldn't have chosen to work on but find myself looking forward to. 

Just Good Friends

I thought that I could possibly get this one finished if I got plenty of stitching time this week.  Ha!  As if! I forgot to take a before photo but here it is after a little stitching this week...

The random generator came up with 42 this week and as I made life easier for myself by numbering all my WIP/UFO's in the sidebar, it was very easy to find 'Oh Christmas Tree'.

So here is the design and the bottom photo shows the 'before' I stitch on it this week. As it is half term this week, I am really hoping for LOADS of stitching time...fingers crossed :)

Wipocalypse 2015

I have signed up for this again this year and hope to make it further through the year than I have previously.  The projects I am going to choose for WIPocalypse this year are ones that I would REALLY like to finish this year.  In no particular order, they are:

1. Honeysuckle Courtyard - Patricia Ann Designs
2. Gardens of London - Chatelaine
3. Oh Christmas Tree - All Through the Night
4. A Place we Call Home - CCN 
5. Halloween Town SAL - The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery

So that should be enough to get me started!

I would like to make some serious progress on projects this year and be a lot less flittery fluttery with what I stitch.  I think racing to finish Debbie's unicorn last year showed that actually I don't stitch quite as slowly as I thought I did and that when I make an effort to work on just one project I can actually record a decent amount of progress.

Honeysuckle Courtyard

A Place we Call Home

Halloween Town SAL

Gardens of London

Oh Christmas Tree

This is where I am on all my projects at the moment.  Hopefully there will be some progress on each of them this month. 

I think that people probably know about me but if you don't and there is anything you want to, just ask!

Turtle Trot 2015

I love this picture that Claudette used for announcing Turtle Trot 2015.  In case you have been on Mars for the last few years, you choose 10 projects to stitch on and post about them on 10th of each month.

Mine are going to be: my 2 Chatelaines - Paris Roses and Gardens of London with all the following too.

I will put a current progress photo on once we take the Christmas decorations down and I can have my stitching out again!!

A total mish mash of the week's events!!

On Thursday, I became the mother of 2 teenagers!  How that happened I have no idea.  It doesn't seem 5 minutes since they were both born.  The birthday boy had us all up bright and early so he could open his presents, the main one being a keyboard. I have to say that the One Republic tune he has been learning at school sounds pretty good. Excuse the mess on the window sill.  We have been sorting out lego for the last few weeks.

Luke didn't want to have a birthday party but did ask if he could be allowed a Choccywoccydoodah cake. Here it is in all its glory!  I have to say it's nice but not as nice as the ones the kids have made this year.  The thick layer of chocolate is quite tasty too!

On to stitching news!

Yesterday, I finished StitchersAnon's 'Every stitch is from the heart'.  It is stitched on Sparklies 'Spring Greens' 28ct something or other.  I can see this as a cube finish with some green shamrock backing fabric and emerald green ribbons. I loved stitching this as I thought of Gaynor and her girls on their stitching retreat.  I have already signed up for next year's stitching retreat and have my passport forms ready to fill in!!!

I also finished my first Crazy January Challenge piece too.  It turned out really cute and I turned one of the little reindeer into a Rudolph.  I stitched it on white so had to change the colour of the reindeer but think it looks ok.  Oh and there should have been a heart on top of the tree but I changed it for a star. 

I made a little progress on 'Oh Christmas Tree' but there is only so long that I can stitch one colour for before getting bored and moving on to something else.

Very quickly, look who was in our garden this morning!  Soaking up the sun on our potatoes.

Now if you have got this far (well done!), I have a dilemma for you.  I have joined a facebook SAL and need a fabric.  Originally I saw the 2nd piece of fabric (Polstitches, Cosmos) and thought it was the perfect piece - except it is too small and would have to be done over 1.  As Jo pointed it out, it would lose bling and beads if I did that. However, I could always order a bigger piece of that!  I then chose a piece of Permin aida in Almond which would be plenty big enough  - but is that boring?  So I had another look and found a piece of Zweigart lugana 'Lavender' but again that would be over one or finally there is a SMF 'Summer Twilight' that might work but is again only big enough for over one.  Arrrrgggghhhhh!  What do I do?

Crazy January Challenge - Day 1

Today, for the first project in the challenge, I decided to start 'Oh Christmas Tree' by All Through the Night. I am using Crafty Kitten's 28ct Oatmeal jobelan.  I decided on a DMC Variations thread (shade 4045) which is a very pretty shade of green.

So this is my progess so far today...

Sadly this is all that I will be able today as I was heating a couple of mince pies to have with a dollop of cream and caught the top of the pie with my finger just where the sugar top had caramelised.  Ouch is an understatement, as my finger blistered immediately. I'm still sat here 3 hours later with a wet paper towel wrapped round it as both ice packs need re-cooling. The mince pies were nice though!

Rachael and I go to London tomorrow to see David Tennant in Richard II, leaving the boys at home!  We are 3 rows from the front and Rachael is VERY excited - VERY EXCITED!!!  I have agreed to stand at the stage door afterwards in the hope we may meet him briefly.  Please don't let it rain!  I have to seriously question my mentality!

We have booked to do a touristy bus and river tour and Rachael wants to visit the Science museum too. Other than that I'm not sure what we are doing.