Christmas Turkey

I've fallen behind in my blog updates-- as well as my Christmas stitching! No matter how hard I try, I always seem to lack in one category or the next. I finished the Turkey stitch exactly when I promised... But I definitely didn't update when I said I would! Better late than never, so have a turkey everyone while I attempt to catch up in my stitchings!!

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Turkey

Christmas (Crowned) Penguin

I'm feeling much better-- and I'm even able to cross stitch again! My lack of updates over the past two months have been very dismal, haven't they? The main problem was the fact that every time I picked up a needle, something would go wrong. From miscounting, to the aida ripping, to thread tearing, it was a disaster!! I eventually gave up trying for a while there, and when I tried once more in December, it kept happening! So I stopped once more... But with Christmas literally around the corner, I need to get moving!

Last night, after I worked on Christmas cards to my clients (had around 50 to do!) I felt very much like stitching, so I sat down, looked up some nice-- and tiny-- patterns to put on a card, and found this lovely Crowned Penguin. I managed to finish him with only one hitch-- the black thread broke after the 7th stitch, but after that it was smooooth sailing.

Isn't he so cute??

Can't wait to cut him out and paste him to some pretty paper. However, I'm going to make his Turkey comrade first-- for my mom! She's very proud of her turkey centerpieces, so I think she'll like this fellow quite a bit. Hopefully you'll get to see him tomorrow! xoxox

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Crowned Penguin
Turkey

December IHSW

I have a roaring headache, therefore don't feel all that chatty, so today's update will be short and sweet. (I'll elaborate more once I feel better.)

Have some Lady Gagas that I found on Dorkstitch! Not sure why the picture is so small but, I think you can still see them. White dress GaGa has sparkly thread for the criss crosses over her face.

Edit:
As I promised, I'll elaborate more. I've been feeling fairly uninspired to stitch for the past while, and due to missy-tannenbaum's Sprite Patterns December, I've been itching to make a standee for my girlfriend. Sorting through all the amazing patterns was great, but it was difficult to choose something she'd like. I know how much she loves Lady Gaga, and I had been hesitating for a while about making them for her, but I decided, "I'll show her hairbow Gaga and see what she thinks".

Her reaction was quite pleasing, so I was more than eager to stitch all three up~ Originally I was going to make them into keychains: sew them to some material and stuff it with filling, buuut... Meat Dress Gaga suffered. It didn't work. They're so tiny!! Now I need to remake Meat dress Gaga, but the other two are still all right.

As for what to use them for, well, that's still undecided! xoxox

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Meat Dress Lady GaGa
8-Bit Lady GaGa
Hair Bow Lady GaGa

October IHSW (Day Three)

Ah, just gonna make this another quick update. Not feeling so chatty today. Nearly completed all the greens, up until some "drama" decided to interfere last night. Haven't really done much since then.

Quite happy with the progress so far, though I am absolutely dreading the colours of the sword and visor. Do not want! (I'm almost considering making the colours of the sword purple, just so I'll want to stitch it up! Do you think he'll mind? XD)

Hope you all had a good IHSW. xoxo

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Master Chief Sprite Sheet

October IHSW (Day Two)

Just a quick, and very late (It's 1 AM!) update of Mason's Halo gift:

Starting to come along. c:

October IHSW (Day One)

Time to update for October's IHSW! Haven't updated since earlier this month, but... There isn't really anything to show. Stitching has been very slow going as of late. I just can't get into it... More than likely, this is because I have so much to stitch, I'm beginning to feel overwhelmed. But I can't quit! I have a swap gift to deliver, and a birthday next week!! Ahhh!

I found a super cool cross stitch kit at the Dollar Store today. It's a Brass bookmark, and you cross stitch directly on it! I don't know how good the quality is, since DS standards are fairly low, but I think it's totally awesome!

Or... Looking up a picture to show you, apparently it sells for more than a $1! XD Well, that reassures me of the quality then. (And saves me having to use my camera. ;) )

Hummingbird Bookmark Kit

I'm not going to use the pattern that came with it, but rather something a little more... Appealing to my tastes. I can't do it this weekend, but I am VERY excited!

Aside from that snazzy little buy, I did do a handful of stitching over the week. I can't show any previews of my swap gift, but I can show you the progress on my brother's gift.

What is that you ask? Well, it's Master Chief from Halo! Not very complete buuut... It's getting there! After the fire, where we were living, one of our roommates had a Xbox 360 and Halo 3, and he became totally addicted to it. A few weeks ago, his friend came over for a sleep over, and they stayed up all night talking about Halo. I think this is a very suitable gift! c: (He's turning 10, by the way.)

That's all for now, but my goal is to finish his gift AND the rest of my swap gifts! I need to get these things done, and when's a better time than IHSW?! ... That's what I thought. Till tomorrow, xoxox

KH: 358/2 Days Update

This will be a short update tonight. It is now October, which means no more progress on my 358/2 project, but it also means I can start on a Halloween stitch-- so long as I finish my more important objectives first! I'm  a little sad I have to put this away until after Christmas since I've been really enjoying working on it. Granted, the black/grey was becoming a little tedious, but it's just looking so great thus far! Because of the tediousness, my progress was very stop go, stop go, so I didn't get nearly as far as I would have liked to.

On the bottom row, I missed count for two of the black outlines, which means I need to pull out the threads and redo them! Least I caught the mistake by the third one, or the entire row would be off! Even looking at this now, I want to get started on it, but I have so many more important stitches I need to finish. Such a shame; haven't had this much passion for a particular project in a long while! xoxox

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KH: 358/2 Days

KH: 358/2 Days Start

I know I never updated for the last day of September's IHSW, but considering the fact all I did was fill in the second wing of Fairy Silhouette, I figured there was no point in updating! I did complete Fairy Silhouette (last Wednesday! I'm so horrible for not updating sooner!) but the batteries in my camera died RIGHT as I was taking a photo! So, unfortunately, there's no completed picture of it until I see Samara again. I will get a completed pic of it though-- promise!

I also made another hair clip for her, this time of Miltank! She loved all of the gifts I made for her, which makes me happy. Fairy Silhouette was a big hit with several people! And to make things even better, I got them all completed in time for her birthday! A big first after several years of late gifts! (I'm still sorry about that Sammy...) Here's to hoping Christmas goes just as well!

It looks a little too red, and a lot less pink, but it is supposed to be Hot Pink! Haha, silly cameras. Least the beads look as they should! ;)

Now to reveal the meaning of my title! Since Samara's birthday gifts were such a smash, I figured that I deserved a well-earned project for myself. I recently restarted the game Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, and found that I utterly love the facial sprites of the Organization members. I looked for a sprite sheet (found here: KH: 358/2) and decided I wanted a slightly smaller project, so I chose the AI Battle Portraits.

Turns out it's not quite as small as I thought it would be. LOL!

I've been working very on and off since about Saturday, but I've gotten the first row started. I know Christmas is looming every nearer, with another birthday arriving in October and my swap gifts still waiting, so I'm focusing on the FUN colours. Once those are done, I won't want to touch this for months! ... I hope.

Augh! Why do I get myself into these predicaments?!

Either way, I told myself, once October hits, I'm not allowed to touch this until I get my swap gifts, October's birthday present, and at least one Christmas gift DONE. But I'm sure we all know I'll disregard that if I feel like it! Haha! I hope you enjoyed the update! Till next time, xoxox

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KH: 358/2

September IHSW (Day Two)

I actually managed to complete some stitching last night! I am very happy with my progress, and hope to get a little more done tonight. (But first, a quick Kingdom Hearts 2 break. c: ) I didn't feel like sitting at the computer, so I decided to get a little crafty. I made two barrettes for Samara, and I might make a few more. I wasn't too happy with one in particular, why I didn't work on the others, but looking at it with some sleep, it's pretty darn cute!

It was so hard cutting the felt straight, and then I didn't even sew on the picture straight! Augh! But aside from the slight loopsy to it, I think it's super adorable. I just took a Pokemon card (a spare one, don't worry! But why does it still feel like blasphemy?) and cut it up, then sewed it onto a piece of felt. Added some beads, and threw it onto a hair clip. I didn't want to use hot glue because I figured, constantly bending the cardboard to open and close the clip would wear the glue, making it fall apart. I had this happen with my Pokeball hair clips. They fell off!

I wasn't done sewing, so I took three satin stars, and sewed them together. I still need to glue them to the barrette, but it's basically done. It's just as cute in my opinion!

I also started on a new pattern. As I said, I wasn't near the computer, which holds 95% of my patterns, so I had to scrounge through my pattern books. Most of them are far too large, what with Christmas looming nearer, so I chose this small one. I found it at a thrift store for only 50 cents! Unfortunately, I can't find it on the internetz, so I can't show what it should look like. I didn't cross stitch for long last night-- I was pretty sleepy, so all I got done was one guinea pig's bottom.

So beautiful, is it not? But no more procrastinating. I have to get the Fairy Silhouette finished tonight, in time for Samara's birthday! More updates for you tomorrow, so until then, lots of stitches! xoxox

September IHSW (Day One)

It's been a while since I last updated; I'm so sorry! I haven't been stitching quite a whole lot these past few weeks, I've been focusing on writing and such. (As if I got much done in THAT category either.) The little stitching I did do so far this month, has been Sprite Stitch Swap related! It's my first, though I've been stalking the swaps for a few years now. I'm currently done one gift, and about halfway through the second.

That isn't the point of this though! It be a Hermit and Stitch Weekend, which means I should show my *scarce* updates! My friend, Samara's birthday is this Monday which means I need to get her fairy done soon! I haven't touched it since the last time, so that still leaves a wing and some glitter/snowflakes. I also want to try and make her something else, probably Pokemons related.

I do have an update for her Christmas gift, Slytherin Witch though! (It's a very small update, be warned. XD )

If you can't tell what's new, it's the green hair! I told ya it wasn't much of an improvement, haha!

I also started a new project. It's a Link profile from Card Gallery:

I adore the Link AND Cloud profiles, but I was more drawn towards the greens, so I started Link first. Unfortunately, a day after I started was when I received my swap partner. Oh my!

I've no idea why the picture isn't coming out clear! Silly Blogger. Well, those are the only updates I can show you at the moment (my swap gifts need to wait ;A; ) but I hope to get a lot done this weekend, so here's to plenty of hermiting and stitching! (Couldn't have come at a better time. I am feeling SO anti-social at the moment. A little break from society will be nice. c: )

Till tomorrow! xoxox

Slytherin Witch Update II

I wanted to update last week, but unfortunately the temperatures around here dropped drastically and I caught a head cold! It's now so cool in the mornings I've been wearing a scarf and toque while delivering papers. I didn't mean to complain about the heat, but I sure do want it back! XD

I'm still not feeling the greatest, but August is nearly over, and it's been 7 days since my last update, so I'm going to force myself to focus and get this done! As stated above, I have an update for the Slytherin Witch!

I finished the rest of the hat (aside from the colour I need to hunt down!) and you can already see the head starting to form. The green belt took forever to complete, for reasons unknown, which is causing me to dread the rest of the green in the pattern! I hope it was just one of those days.

After I reached the end of the hat, I took a break and decide I wanted to try my hand at making a Bicornu. I wanted a simple, easy pattern to begin with and decided I'd turn it into a Christmas present for my Aunt. Unfortunately, it's amazingly difficult to find buttons here in Kamloops, so it's been put to a standstill for the time being. I don't want to finish the stitching, or else I'll want to complete it entirely, but I need buttons to do that! Augh! XD

It was going really fast, and really well, up until my dreams of buying buttons was crushed. ;A; Since then, I haven't bothered with it. (I'm horrible, I know! How do I ever get things done?!)

Recently, a friend bought me a pattern that I've been eyeing for a while now. It's Once Upon A Time by Passione Ricamo, and I am so excited to work on it! I still need to get some fabric to work with, but once I have that, I don't think anything will be holding me back!

That's all for now, so happy stitching! xoxox

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Red Biscornu

August IHSW (Day Three)

Ahh! I didn't update on Saturday, and my Sunday update is late! It was far too hot to do much of anything this weekend-- Kamloops was Canada's hotspot reaching all the way up to 38 degrees! And it isn't ending any time soon. We're stuck in a heat wave! It was already 21 degrees at 6 AM today-- utterly crazy!

We moved all our beds downstairs, and have been sleeping in the living room. Feels like a camp out, and least we're avoiding the heat! Unfortunately, the fact all three of us are downstairs makes it hard to keep a lamp on/near me while cross stitching. It kept getting turned off... >.>

So, my IHSW wasn't as productive as I had hoped it would be. First up will be a WIP of the Fairy Silhouette, which I only managed to finished a wing and a half. It was too dark once I started working on it, which required me to hold the aida in an awkward position, so I successfully managed to hurt my arm. ... I haven't work on it since. XD

After I put down the fairy, I procrastinated for a little while. What to work on, what to work on? Eventually I decided to start on a Christmas present, since I had the pattern ready to go. I don't want to leave gifts until December, since then I don't have time for ANYTHING else. I learned.

That is the beginnings of a witch's hat. A Slytherin witch to be exact. ;) It's for the same person as the Fairy Silhoutte, who is a big Slytherin supporter. I'm going to adjust the colours so that it looks like her! Unfortunately, the pattern consists of a lot of black, so I was thinking I could make the hair green, even though that isn't her real life hair colour! (It's very dark.)

The pattern asks for 3 shades of black, one of which I don't have, so I'll need to go thread shopping. That also explains that blank portion of the top. Even if I don't get the necessary colour for a while, it'll be a lot less to stitch come December!

Not a whole lot to update with, but better than nothing! I'm still in a mood for stitching, so I'll take advantage of the early morning before it gets too hot! Till next time, xoxoxo

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Blossom Of Winter - Heartstitch Designs
Slytherin Witch - Hazel's Farm

August TUSAL + IHSW (Day One)

Yay! I finally get to participate in the TUSAL/IHSW for this year! It's been far too long, so I won't diddle daddle in getting straight to the point!

First off will be my ORTs. I did have a jar (and a pre-existing bag) but both were lost in the apartment fire. The bag + its collection smelt too much of fire smoke, and the jar... Well, I have no idea WHAT happened to it. Because everything was in the storage unit, mixed in with the fact I wasn't stitching much AND I kept forgetting I needed a new jar, I've been using a plastic sandwich bag (again.).

I don't know why I have a DMC cover in there ( XD) and I threw in some plastic canvas from a Deathly Hallows cellphone charm I made a few weeks ago. Mainly, there are a lot of greens and blacks. Plastic bags aren't so good at layering your ORTs, as they all just pile in whichever way they prefer. More personality I suppose!

Now, IHSW starts this weekend, which I am totally stoked about! I've been in a huge cross stitchy mood as of late, so this gives me a great excuse to literally whittle away the hours with my needle and aida! I'm going to start off this IHSW with a current WIP of a project I started on Tuesday.

It's a fairy silhouette-- a Winter one to be exact, and all that is left on her is her wings and some snowflakes/sparkles. (Not really sure what they are. XD) I'm going to make those glow-in-the-dark, so hopefully it'll look REALLY nice once I reach the end result.

It's for a friend whose birthday is in September. I wanted a head start so I'm not racing within a week's deadline, only to not finish it. I'm VERY happy I chose to do it this way; it's nearly done, and I still have several weeks till her birthday!! Yay! (Now if I can behave and work like this for Christmas!)

I'll post an update tomorrow for ISHW, and if it isn't the fairy, it might be Bulbasaurs! (I'm in a Bulbasaur mood.) Till then, xoxoxo

Final Fantasy VII Logo

Small update today, which is a simple, tiny emblem from FF VII! It's the first project I worked on after moving into the new place, and it only took me an hour or two. It's cute, was great fun to work on, and I had another excuse to work with my brown aida! I think it looks great on the brown.

My younger brother saw it and instantly asked if he could have it; I'm still considering that request! Till next time xoxox
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FF VII Logo

Pikachu Pile

Ah life, how it gets in the way of your to do lists~

Whelp, today will be a small update. For my mom's birthday, which fell two days before Mother's Day, I figured I'd work on a large project for the two holidays. I started on it about a week before, and made fairly good progress (even though I missed count on two pikachus and didn't notice until I was done the entire black outline! ;A; So two of them are chubby Pikachus... :c ) once I hit the yellow, I just... Stopped working on it. Not sure why.

Of course, I couldn't find my camera, so I wasn't able to take WIP pictures, which saddens me greatly. I really liked watching the progress on this. This is my most current progress thus far:

It's definitely fun to work on, and I really should get started back on it. I just don't focus well! x3 Good thing moms are so understanding~

Till next time, xoxox

Bellsprout Evolution

When I moved into my new place, one of my best friends helped me out, whereas everyone else bailed out on me. Very tough move, I'll tell ya. But because she spent so much time helping out, I wanted to make her something as thanks, and seeing how her favourite Pokemon is Bellsprout, that's what I made for her! She was very happy when I gave it to her, the smile on her face leaving me quite fuzzy and warm inside. <3

Worked on this over the course of a few days, very on and off, especially at the beginning. I love the greens; it's so vibrant in person! Genis decided to pop in for most of the pictures, looking all wrinkly and cute. x3

I think this one was one of my top favourites, and was incredibly hard to give away, so I can't wait to get started on my own Pokemons to hoard. I'll have to start with my favourite-- Bulbasaur. ;) Till next time! xoxo

Valentine's 2012

Well, I was keeping up with my Valentine's gifts in February, with only the large gift needing a few colours when the fire hit, so I didn't get it done until around April! I worked on a total of four projects: 3 of which were simple pokechat hearts, and 1 of an Abysswolf sprite.

I'll start with the Poke hearts, which were fun to make and didn't take long at all! I still haven't given them out to my friends, as I've been trying to gather up ALL the gifts I owe to them before mailing them out. (Two need to go all the way to Ireland!) So, I can't tell you if they liked them or not!!

I accidentally kept using the wrong reds for all three of them, so each one is unique! x3

Next up is the sprite, which was of Genis from Tales of Symphonia! It was around 22 colours, which is probably the most colours I've ever worked with in a single project. It was a lot of work, but I'm super proud of how it turned out. I don't know if I'll be able to give it away! </3

I managed to take quite a few WIPs of my progress, but I lost my camera when everything got packed up, so it jumps from partially done to COMPLETED. I wish I had been able to WIP shot throughout the whole process.

I used sparkly DMC for the white in his hair and clothing, which looks great, though if I ever remake him (probably will. I want my own ToS set!) I'll go with good ole regular white.

That's all that I worked on for Valentine's Day, so that's all for tonight. Tomorrow, expect a new set of WIPs, though it's going to be difficult to choose which project I should show first! So many! (I think there's about 20. :O ) Till then, many happy stitchings! xoxox

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PokeChat Sprites
Genis Sprite #194

Long Over-Due Return!

Hello everyone! Even if you don't remember me, or why you were following this blog, I hope in the next few weeks I create new memories/reasons for you!

To begin with, I want to apologize for my long absence (it's been about, 7-8 months since my last blog?) and explain a little of what happened to me this year. Very big, not-so-exciting, life changing events happened. Let's start with Christmas. I was going strong, had plenty of ambitious projects, then poof! I was gone. Well, unfortunately for me, I came down with a really bad flu halfway through December, which elevated into an ear infection and even the loss of my voice! Needless to say, I didn't get my gifts done, and Christmas was pretty miserable.

January was spent procrastinating, and though I started up cross stitching in February, on the 29th, a fire occurred in the building I lived in. There were 52 units in that building-- thankfully only 4 of them burned up. (Though I do feel sorry for those 4.) The rest suffered severe water damage. (Over 1, 500 gallons of water per minute!) No one was hurt, though a few animals were found dead, including one of my own, who drowned in his cage.

The building was classified uninhabitable, and everyone was forced to pack up what little was intact, and move. Everyone was given lodgings for 3 days on the 29th, and after that, was a 2 week wait until we heard what state the building was in. Of course, we were all told we only had a few days to move out. Hard hats, reflector vests, and even safety masks were needed when going inside. It was horrible, and so stressful. I personally lived in my apartment for 9 years, so I was literally packing up my life.

A friend graciously took me in for the next four months, and though I had access to internet and some of my cross stitching supplies, I was just too plain stressed to want to stitch. Not to mention, a good portion of my belongings were in storage!

The good news finally came in June, when I found a place that I could afford, and was in the right location. Some might call it silly, but I'm now in a townhouse directly behind the building I previously lived in! I think it's a great reminder to show how far I've come since the fire, and I really do love this complex. The cause of the fire was undetermined-- some say it had to do with the laundry room, others with a lady who had been evicted, was a heavy drug user, and had a known record of property damage. Either way, after all that had happened, I feel much stronger for the wear, and I learned a lot. It really feels like a whole new beginning. (And don't worry, this complex has been around for over 30 years, and this was the first fire ever! I'm not worried about another one happening anytime soon. :3)

Of course, unfortunately for me, it took a whole month to get internet/cable hooked up, so I'm only able now to start blogging again! But during that time, after settling into my brand new place, I stitched a lot, and I can't wait to share with you all my new projects!

Now that my sob story is all over with, I suppose I should start with my Christmas WIPs. Only makes sense, right? I have a lot to blog about, so be ready to be busy for the next few days!

Let's start with a surprise gift for my friend, which was inspired by that popular meme "Took An Arrow To The Knee", which she really adored at the time.

I played around with some fonts, and I really like the outcome, and as an added bonus: the capped words "Arrow" and "Knee" are glow-in-the-dark! She really liked it, and even her dad got a kick out of it.

Next update shall be the Vampire Knight scarf I was working on. It still isn't done, but here's a nice WIP to catch all of you up on:

After awhile, I found I was losing count as I worked from the center out, so I opted for working on the border, as you can see. It looks funny, but it saved my sanity, and probably the project. Every time I go to work on it, I always have the wrong amount of threads, so I need to undo my stitches to add the right amount, but then I'm too annoyed so I put it aside to work on something else. I'm sorry!

Another Christmas gift I had been working on for multiple people had been those Pokeball barrettes. I successfully completed them all, but unfortunately, did not take any photos of the completed job! I still have two lying around as I didn't mail them out, so once I find them, I'll be sure to take a proper picture before they get sent off in that envelope. Let me just say, that they're so cute, and look wonderful! Well received by all. :3

Next, is a gift for a friend in Ireland. She really likes owls, just as I do, so I thought a Noctowl would be most fitting!! I didn't start this one in December, but rather in March/April. It didn't go well, as I said, due to the stress, though I did get at least half of it completed. Hope she doesn't mind how late her gift is!!

Lastly! (I know, that sure is a lot, isn't?!) Are some various Pokemons I was stitching up for everyone. I found out their faves, and got the sprites off of Bulbapedia. Nice and tiny, they are. I finished 3/5: Pikachu for my mom, Bellsprout for a friend, and Espeon for my brother. Just need a Charizard and a Dragonite!

I know I was planning on making Reindeer ornaments for our tree, but I haven't touched the first one since the last update, so there isn't much to share about those. I'll probably pick them back up in the fall when we all feel Christmas coming near. That's all for today, but I'll be back tomorrow with some Valentine's stitchy projects! (This time, all of them complete! :O) xoxo