2014 Recap & 2015 Ambitions (Image-Heavy)

Welp, I'm still not used to writing 2014 so it must be time to add a new year into the mix. 2014 was not a spectacular year for me in the creative world but as it was better than 2013, I suppose there are small victories to be joyful about! :D  This is an image-heavy post for those of you who may have somewhat questionable Internet connections.  It took me several days of adding things to get this post fixed up.

Cross-Stitch

Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein

As a part of MMMM, I managed to get two little Halloween stitches worked up which "effectively" caught me up after skipping one in 2013.  They're adorable, easy to stitch, and are festive... yet still took me an absurdly long time to get done.  I was afraid of the Mrs's hair for far too long.

Noel ornament

Also a part of MMMM, my only Christmas stitch for the year, yikes.  I'll have to buckle down and get two done for next year to catch up.  :b

Pusheen Sailor Moon

A gift for a couple of hobos overseas who decided the time was right to get married.  My sanity was tested with all that pink.  It was an interesting experiment in finishing though, I had never used lace or added ribbons for hanging or had a felt backing like this.......  yes, it was an adventure and was ONLY two months late!  A miracle!

Mother's Love

A quicky kit worked up one IHSW in summer.  I snuck it onto my mother's fridge one time we were down there and I am not entirely sure she has noticed it yet (she has MANY magnets haha).

Crochet
A new hobby for me, picked up in October.

A giant potholder!

My first finished crochet piece.  Pattern was for a dishcloth, decided to make two and attach them together.  Mom got this for Christmas and loved it.

little snowflakes

My foray into thread crochet!!  I've always loved the snowflakes (and angels, and wreaths, and doilies and and and...) and I'm so happy to report I know how to make them now!  I made these as a thank you for the ladies in our class.

scarf with inspiration gloves

My scarf, yay!  I'm a bit impatient to wear it out into the world but so far, our December has been quite mild.  Maybe it'll be a new scarf for a new year.  :)

jellyfish hat?

And I squeezed in a last minute finish while listening to my husband yell at the WiiU playing "Dark Souls Pokemon" as he calls Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate.  I now have a goofy, floppy, matching hat!  It started out as a beanie and well, I have no idea what happened.  I guess my increases didn't increase fast enough and I wound up with a sort of basket that I put a ruffle on.  Lol.  Please note the little paws that came creeping into the picture after I sat the hat in front of the Christmas tree.  Peanut likes to help.

Misc

STL Cardinals

mahna mahna

Made up these little onesies for a friend's first baby.  I cut the little pieces out of felt and stitched them on and had a terrible time with wrinkles until I discovered the magic of iron on hem tape.  I particularly like the way Mahna Mahna came out, he was fun to make.  :D

2015 Ambitions
I'm not sure I want to call them goals as if I inevitably fail, the self-abuse kicks in and I'll never get anything done haha. :I Anyway, this year brings stitch-a-longs! MMMM was my first dip into the SAL world and I didn't fail miserably so I'm braving two more (so far).

First, Gifted Gorgeousness as hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching. Giving gifts, received gifts, shoehorned gifts, stitch them all!

tossin' bobbin

• Muppets Baby Sampler - designed by me, gift for friend.  This has high priority, higher than anything else ever at the moment.  It's all ready to be started once I get a copy of the pattern printed on a printer that is not mine.

• Dolphin Trio - kit from several years ago from my husband's grandmother.  Poor thing isn't bad to stitch but it's been a UFO for far too long for my taste.  Last touched May 2012.
• little kits in stash after I finish the first two.  Still to be sorted through.



seventeen hours!

• finish FFIII - GIFT FOR MYSELF?!?!  I won't sneak this in here.  Maybe.  Lol.  I do want to finish it though, and get the next one started (I won't get overly ambitious here and declare I will finish two next year hah). Last touched March 2014.  Must acquire big girl panties to resume.

Next, Flower of the Month as hosted by Alyssa at Brownie's Chair.  These are really nice freebie patterns that I've been interested in stitching for a while now.  I've completed March's years ago on a huck towel and am thinking to put the rest on 'em too because I like matching sets.  This might be hard as it's difficult to find ecru towels around here! I found one though (with a coupon even!), so I've got January's kitted up and ready to go!  None of the colors are the ones called for, hah.  I only had two of the greens and nothing really "matched" them so I just made up my own scheme.  :D

There will also be the usual IHSW (hosted by Joysze at Random Ramblings) and TUSAL (as hosted by Daffycat).  Joysze's is a monthly signup and Daffycat's signup will be posted soonish. And of course, make all the crochet things.  Already my ravelry library is approaching SABLE.

Two other contenders are a) TAST (Take a Stitch Tuesday) on Pintangle and b) Frosted Pumpkin's Story Time SAL.  I like learning new stitches and TAST seemed like a good way to expand my horizons.  I dunno what I'd do with the stitches though.  Maybe just a doodle cloth.  And the Frosted Pumpkin is just plain cute.  It's a bit pricey for me though so I'm holding out for a sale or more courage maybe lol.

Random goal: Get/make a needle minder! (!!!!)  I've always wanted one of these and I have an old pin that I think would be cute but regular magnets are not strong enough to hold a needle, bah!  This is something I've never come across in a thrift store, and believe you me, I've looked.

I feel like my little selection pales in comparison to, oh, everyone else's but I hope I can achieve them.  I also feel like I need a calendar for what few I have joined eek!

Wishing you and yours a

with glitter! :b
See you next year!

Whoop-de-Doo and Dickory-Dock

Hello, world~ I feel like I've been silent for too long. The blame lies totally with our ISP which oddly improves when it rains. Luckily we have a rainy Christmas Eve! (It's Christmas Eve, eeeeek.) What better way to spend a rainy day than catching up on stitchy blogs (sorry for the comment spams)? I've gotten the entries down to 100 but I can tell my Internet is starting to die with the load so I had better get this posted before I lose everything (autosave doesn't play well with bad Internet)!  So what have I been up to?

COOKIES! I always make cookies to send out at Christmas and this year I decided to make double batches of everything so we actually have some left over for ourselves after shipping them all over the country. I spent 12 hours one day just making all the doughs, then the next two days baking and creating. This year's lineup was Thin Mints (not like the USA Girl Scout variety, more like peppermint patties), Cocoa Crinkles, Snickerdoodles, Cranberry Almond Bark, Rocks, Cran-Orange Shortbread, and the ever popular Snickers (a mini Snickers candy bar wrapped in peanut butter cookie dough). I ran out of the mints much to my husband's Great Sadness so I made up another batch a few days ago just for him. :b  I didn't take a picture of the finished hoard but I had every tupperware thing I own filled, plus a pitcher and an 8-quart stock pot!  This is also the time of year I desperately wish for a KitchenAid mixer haha.

Crochet World: Aaaaaaaaaaaa I have a scarf! And of course I ran out of the white mystery yarn two little lines from the end. I found a tiny ball of a close lookalike, enough for one line. Then I found a skein of not-quite-as-close lookalike for the last line. Should've just bought new, laaaaaa~~ >_> But! I have enough of the blue and definitely enough of the sorta-close white left over that I may attempt to make a matching hat!

with inspiration gloves

As you can see from the picture, the last skinny line on the right side is not quite as white as the others.  Sigh.  It can be the hidden part, right? :)  Also present are the inspiration gloves (not at all created by my haha).  The scarf wound up being 66" long and it honestly could've been longer (original plans were 60").  I like to bundle up into a Rosey Ball when I am forced out into the cold. 

I listened to everyone's advice on this post, thank you muchly! I had four votes for evenweave and two for linen. I rummaged through my stash to see if I had either before I went shopping and this is what came out of the black hole of stash.

options!

From left to right in a very horrible picture (sorry!), MCG Textiles 28-count evenweave, white; Zweigart pastel linen, pink; Flamingo Mills 22-count hardanger, white.  It's amazing what one can find in a thrift store (Rosey Motto?)! The evenweave was bought on sale at Micheal's though... I think. It was quite a while ago. Anyway, pink isn't gonna work out for this piece and I use the hardanger for my FF pieces so with everyone's votes and the process of elimination, we arrive at evenweave, weeeee~

tossin' bobbin

I feel like this is a fun floss toss; I love all the bright colors. Out of the 30 the pattern selected, I had about 10 so I got to go shopping for floss~ And then wrap some bobbins~~ I might hire myself out to wind bobbins; I love doing it. Some (most) of the colors are still pending judgement. The pattern maker I use is a bit hit-or-miss with picking appropriate colors so I have to see what I'm up against when I actually start stitching.

someone stole my spot

I think I've talked myself out for the non.  I'll try to get up a post detailing 2015 stitchy shenanigans if I survive tomorrow.  Merry Christmas to you all, and to all a... sleepy kitty?

Advent Calendar Blog Hop: Day 18!

Mele Kalikimaka, hoppers from around the blogosphere!

Here we are on day 18 of Jo's Advent Calendar Blog Hop and Christmas is now ONE WEEK AWAY. /panic!  I hope you're all squared away because I for sure am not!  Every year, it's "I'm gonna do things so timely this year!"... and then here we are, a week away, panicking.  :)  Anyway, I found this cute (freebie!) pattern here along with all 23 other days in case you needed to add more patterns to your stash~

A short introduction: I am Rosey, owned by two derpy cats and owner of one derpy husband all of which I love very much.  I am... excitable.  And I maybe talk too much.  I like hoarding stitching cutesy and possibly nerdy/geeky/dorky patterns although I am very, verrry slow at producing finishes.  Not sure I could pick a favorite designer as that seems to change with the wind, but I'm partial to browsing SODA pattern mall, Alessandra Adelaide swirly patterns, Frosted Pumpkin, Sprite Stitch, and Stoney Creek designs.  Someday!  Also, I've just bounced into the wild world of crochet because I need to hoard admire even more cutesy patterns.

Santa Dave

Firstly, per Blog Hop Rules™ here is my little Christmas piece, stitched up in 2012! Meet Santa Dave, so named because he looks very much like a friend!  He's a jumping jack ornament gifted to my mother who likes jumping jack ornaments... a lot.  I chose this piece because I am proud of it, rarrrr!  It was by far the most fiddly stitch I've ever done with all the strange assembling and whatnot.  The picture makes him look sorta tiny; he wound up being around 5-6" tall not including pull cord.  I would totally wear his coat.  And hat.  And because I'm always cold, everything else he's got on.

We were asked to give a ramble about our bestest gift ever. This was a difficult for me as I grew up a bit poor and learned to appreciate any gift but the one that stands out the most for me is my little telescope. Though it wasn't a Big & Fancy High-Powered one, I knew how much my mother had to save to get it at all and let me tell you my level of speechlessness surpassed anything ever. The Great Motor-Mouth was speechless. I also hated the very sun for being out all day, how dare it! It needed to set Right. Now!  After I read every last ounce of instructions a million times over all day, assembled it, and that night I put it outside to acclimate (lenses will fog up so it can't be used immediately). I cast it around looking at various fuzzy blobs (remember, not a high-powered scope) and then eyeballed a bright star. Wait, this star is still fuzzy, that can't be right. SATURN O MY GOODNESS I WAS LOOKING AT SATURN. It had rings! I could see another planet! With rings! From my yard! A planet! I teleported back in the house and screamed probably incomprehensible babble at my mom and teleported back outside.  A planet!!

So, I suppose it would win as my Best Ever Present.  I still have it and still take it out on occasion because it's good to remember just how very tiny we are. And despite it being so close to home, Saturn is still my favorite sky object.  :)

Thanks to new and old friends popping in and to Jo for hosting this fun hop~ Be sure to check in tomorrow at Shebafudge for magical door 19.  I am going to skedaddle on out of here to finish baking cookies that get shipped seemingly everywhere in a perfectly timely manner.  :D

No Reply Fix & Santa Nancy Giveaway & Help Me!

 Hello, World!  This is gonna be a wordy post with only one picture since we are having a horrible time with our ISP lately.  I wish Google Fiber would just roll out to the middle of nowhere and fix all our problems.

First!  I've noticed the "no-reply" problem pop up a lot in the blogging world and thought maybe I could have a go at helping out a few of you.  Basically, whenever you reply on someone's blog, a copy gets emailed to them but if you're a "no-reply blogger" your reply address shows up as "noreply@blogger.com" or "noreply-comment@blogger.com" which are both nothing!  People cannot send a reply back to answer your questions or to thank you for your comments. 

I borrowed this handy picture to explain how to fix this problem!  Thanks to this blog for the graphic.  Even if you haven't yet been called a "no reply" blogger, I would recommend you check these settings~

click on the picture for a larger size!

If you are concerned about privacy (say your blogger email address contains your full name), you can always use an alternate email address.  Under "Identity" in step 4, just put an email you wouldn't mind people seeing; it doesn't have to be the same address as you use for logging into blogger.  :) 

I really hope this helps someone out!  Not getting replies is no fun!

The second rambly part of this message is for fantastic giveaways!  I know many of you already know about the tremendous 25 Days of Christmas giveaway held on Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe! She has truly awesome giveaways every year; I won a Christmas Ornament Collection one year. :D  There is still a little time to enter some so scoot on over there (and maybe say I've sent you :b).

This year I've entered (numbers do not necessarily correspond to days!):

1. Choice of fabric
2. 20 skeins of floss
3. Hand-dyed linen/aida
4. Surprise me!
5. $25 gift certificate
6. Hand-dyed linen/aida (again)
7. 80 skeins of floss
8. $25 gift certificate (again)
9.  Fabric or floss?!
10. 40 skeins of floss
11. $25 gift certificate or fabric
12. 30 skeins of floss
13. Floss or Fabric?!
14. Pick one!
15. $100 gift certificate

Yes, I pretty much entered fabric or floss things this time.  There isn't much of a selection around this neck of the woods so maybe I can branch out a little if I win something?!  Those choosing fabric or floss ones would be a stinker for me and every time I think I've decided, I wake up the next day with the unknown again!  :)

P.S. I don't think this counts for the 25 extra entries; that's okay.  I just needed a way of keeping track~

Lastly, the question!  I am considering using something of a higher count than my normal comfort zone of hardanger (22-count) for the baby sampler thing. If I use a higher count, I will probably be stitching two-over-one.  I would like the Xs to be smaller than 14-count (so fabric higher count than 28-count).  I have very poor eyesight even with correctional lenses!  In your opinion, what is easier to work with, linen or evenweave or some other magical fabric I don't know about?  Brand?  Where to find it?!  I doubt I will be able to get a magnifier though I most definitely need one.

Welp that was a lot of words.  Thanks for your assistance and hopefully I provided some of my own! :) Now I'm going to run around like a crazy person putting up Christmas decorations.  Not including the tree (we always get live), I would say I'm about 3/4 done.  Whew.

November MMMM #4 (Final)

Well, here we are on the last MMMM post for November already. Mrs. Frankenstein is finally finished (about dang time)~

done!

Gosh, I did worse this month than last month. Only one finish, and it wasn't even that big! I think there are three different blacks in her hair as I was rummaging through my old kit remains. At least they were all mostly created equal which may be very lucky on my part!

finally together

Well, at least I got one done... @_@ Since I did the two of them, I'm "caught up" from missing last year's entirely. I'll try to squeeze in another Christmas finish to be caught up on that as well but it may not be a mini~ These MMMMs have been quite helpful for slow me but I will probably have to bow out of next month's as there are bigger things I need to be paying more attention to. I really need to get that baby "sampler" done before the poor child turns one eek!

Short entry this time! Am I ever going to be productive again~? :I

IHSW & November MMMM #3 & Giveaway Win!

Well hello again! This is a somewhat late IHSW update so I've combined it with MMMM.

creepy cute as made by Moonpie!

First, looky what came for me from the wilds of England! Aren't they cute? And so well made too! The ever creative Steph at Show and Tell made them for her All Hallow's Read giveaway. Heaven knows I have enough books but there are never enough bookmarks so this is delightful~ :D The little one is a pin too which is great as my Halloweeny pins are sorely lacking! Thank you, Steph~!

before!

after!

Would you believe I'm still not done with Mrs. Frankenstein? Of course you would! :b I can't stitch long with the black on black without my eyes going NOPE NO THANK YOU so as you can see, I have about half her hair attached. I guess I should look into a directly over my head lamp of some kind instead of turning everything on in the room and angling my work. So maybe IHSW was a bit of a bust.  Can you find the picked out thing that was bugging me so much? :D

For my next mini, I would love to work on this little thing. It's a brooch! I found the kit in a thrift store and, at the time, I thought it was just a tiny frame for an ornament. But no, a brooch. I was so thrilled with this (I put pins/brooches on my coat lapels a lot), I went back to the thrift store and bought the other kit haha. I'm not too fond of the pattern that came with it so if anyone knows of some oval-y cute 28 x 32-ish freebies, let me know. It doesn't have to be Christmas themed though I think I would like either holiday or seasonal.  I wonder if I could make a collection and switch them out! O_O

In the crocheting world, our class has finished. I managed to get enough little snowflakes made for all the ladies in class but completely underestimated how long they would take to dry after being starched! So they got bundled up in plastic wrap and baggies and apologies but the ladies were delighted. It seems I was the only one willing to venture into the world of thread crochet haha. And would you believe I forgot to take a picture of them all, ARGH. Instead, please admire this rather goofy picture of them being blocked (yes, I know my blocking needs work; I used what I had and what I had was not appropriate). I hope they turned out all right because I think the 1:1 ratio of sugar and water was like syrup! I think I would use less sugar next time.  But each one is different like snowflakes should be. :)

daffodowndilly

In our last class, I attempted to make a daffodil, from a free pattern I found on ravelry. It had some new stitches in it (crossed double and double treble) and I wanted to make sure I had assistance available when I got confused. But! Look! It turned out fairly well for a first attempt. I just made the flower but I'm not sure if I want to make the whole square. The cup sticks up quite a bit so it wouldn't make a very good potholder (which is a shame as my kitchen is daffodils) but maybe I can whip up a long simple swatch to make curtain tiebacks. That could be kinda cute maybe. I am not sure how much I like the round petals though; they just don't seem daffodowndilly.  I did find a project modification that looked spectacular though, so I may try that next.

braaaiiinnnsss...

No pictures of my scarf progress though it's just over two feet long now. Instead, have my blob of yarn.  I've been trying to organize my inheritance of yarny supplies and as you can see, some are a mess.  I haven't quite discerned if that is two or three skeins in that alien life form.

Until next time assuming I haven't been devoured by the zombie yarn~

November MMMM #2

I did hope to have the Mrs finished by this post -- and I did get close! All that is left is the black of her hair and I've been putting it off because stitching black on black always drives me (more) bonkers.

before

peek-a-boo...?

after!

Of course, after uploading those pictures I see a glaringly obvious mistake I'm going to have to pick out and ponder how on earth I made it in the first place.

But I do have a different sort of finish!! I will say this -- I scared my husband last night when I screamed at my crochet! I've always loved those crocheted snowflakes and last night I MADE ONE eeeeeeee. It's like a life goal has been accomplished! It looks a little odd because 1) it was my first one and picots are weird, 2) oooooooold crochet thread was discolored, 3) not yet starched. But! I MADE IT!!! *spazzes* I hope I can make a few more before the last class to give to the ladies a little thank-you-for-putting-up-with-me.

eeeeee

Anywhoodle! Last class we learned how to join colors and make granny squares. My granny square turned out surprisingly better than I thought it would've and they were also surprisingly easy once I figured out where I was supposed to be slip stitching. They're also super mindless to stitch. So very little counting and if you don't count, you still get it right because it's obvious how many are supposed to be in what section. At least to me it was.

it's almost square!

And I also worked a bit more on my scarf. The color pattern is a bit more obvious now. There will be another section of white ~4 inches wide and then miles of blue until I decide I need to start the end pattern. I'm not a very tall person but I like longer lengths so it will probably wind up somewhere between 60-65" long. I haven't decided if I want tassels on the end yet!

totally long enough now

Welp, that's all from me for the week! I'm excited for the weekend as they're calling for a little bit of snow! I hate being cold without snow, it just seems so mean. Plus it will give me an excuse to stay at home and be buried in my crafts. :b Productive fingers, GOOOOO!

REVIEW - 22-Piece Crochet Hooks w/Case

No stitchy stuff in this post; it's just a review of a set of hooks I ordered on Amazon that I thought may be of interest to at least someone. :) More experienced hookers are welcome to chime in.

Since I'm new to crocheting, I don't (didn't) have very many hooks. I found this set on Amazon for a whopping $5-6 which is much cheaper than one can find around here. It shipped free from China so it had a month-plus delivery date; no big deal as I'm patient, especially for cheap things. It arrived in roughly two and a half weeks. It has a purple zippered case to store all of the hooks in. The case isn't spectacular but it's handy and holy moly did it smell like stored plastic! A little time in the sun cleared that up. I cannot see it holding up well with heavy use; even after having it for a couple of weeks, the plastic holders are a little bent from taking out/replacing hooks.

They came oriented this way in the case and for some odd reason, this really bugged me. Maybe because the open zipper was at the top. So, I flipped them all around.

I must admit I do not know a lot about hook quality. The colored hooks are aluminum and seem to be comparable to the ones that can be found in local big box stores. I had a few Boye hooks before and they're the same weight and hook dimensions. They only list the size in millimeters on the hook (so no letters for USAers). I'm not particularly bothered by that because it seems that most patterns give both the letter and size anyway. If it becomes an issue, I can always print off a little chart to keep in the case with the hooks.

The little silver hooks are of a more questionable quality. I felt the sizes were somewhat random and I'm honestly not sure if I can trust those sizes. The 1.05mm size looks smaller than the 0.6mm size! A few of the sizes were off centered as well, making it difficult to read. The throats look somewhat rough. I attempted chaining with them and a random bit of crochet thread and they did not snag so looks may be deceiving! I'm guessing I'll get to the point where the size on the hook won't really matter and I'll just use what feels "right" at the time.

All of the hooks feel sturdy and I find them comfortable to hold.

The sizes listed
color 2.0mm/2.5mm/3.0mm/3.5mm/4.0mm/4.5mm/5.0mm/5.5mm/6.0mm/6.5mm;
silver 0.8mm/0.9mm/1.0mm/1.05mm/1.15mm/1.25mm/1.40mm/1.5mm/1.6mm/1.75mm/1.90mm/2.10mm

The sizes received
color 2.0mm/2.5mm/3.0mm/3.5mm/4.0mm/4.5mm/5.0mm/5.5mm/6.0mm/6.5mm;
silver 0.6mm/0.75mm/0.85mm/1.0mm/1.05mm/1.1mm/1.15mm/1.4mm/1.5mm/1.6mm/1.7mm/1.75mm

Would I recommend? Yes and no. If you have a bunch of hooks, this set probably won't bring you anything new. The questionable quality of the steel hooks would probably bother more experienced crocheters. I do, however, think it's a good set for a beginner (hi!) because it has the common "normal" sizes. I'm having fun just making stitches with the different hooks to see what happens. And that price just can't be beat!

November MMMM #1

Aloha~

I decided to go ahead with MMMM for November (this time hosted by Justine!) because it's fun getting these minis stitched up! Of course, that is if one has the time to sit down....

before

after

Such amazing progress, right? sigh It was a busy week again. Things should be winding down soon. I hope. My poor lazy bones need more lazy-ing than they have been getting lately!

But! Look! I finished a crochet thing! Remember this square?

my first square...

...is a potholder!

I made a second one and attached the two together and made a little loopy thing. It's a little wonky but for a first larger project, I guess it's okay. The first side I attached I think I may have gotten overzealous with the stitches lol. I think there are twice as many in that side than the others, oops. :D I love the colors in it but they don't really match my kitchen so I know a Very Wonderful Mom who will probably receive this for Christmas. She was saying she wanted a larger one anyway! And it is quite large; the lamp it's displayed on is about 1.5-2 feet tall. And if for some reason this Mom is reading my blog, shoo! Don't look at the picture you've already looked at!

a thing!

I also started a new project that will hopefully wind up being a scarf. It's a bit wide but I get cold easy so the larger the better, maybe...? I'm stitching it with Yarn Bee Soft Secret in navy and some mysterious white that I had in my stash. My goal is to make it match a pair of gloves I have... and I love matching things! Because I'm still a noob, using the Soft Secret instead of the regular worsted Red Heart is an adventure. It's so... slippery! And soft! I love to just fondle the skein ahaha.

And look what I found!! On my quest to obtain a rainbow of floss boxes, I stumbled upon this on eBay:

purple!

It was a little beat up but has the hinges instead of plastic flaps and came with that rather random assortment of floss. I'm not really sure what the two gold flosses are as they aren't numbered. Maybe some sort of Kreinik? So now I have blue, purple, pink and the ever-so-findable clear boxes. I can finally start winding the rest of my floss.

Well I can guarantee your stitchy fingers have been more productive than mine for the past week so uhhh here's to next week? :D

MMMM #5, The Final One (For October)!

Well, here we are at the final day of October (I swear, it really was just May yesterday...)! I managed to squeak in another finish bringing my grand total of finishes... to two. Lol. Well, two is better than zero, right? I have a feeling I'd have been more productive if I hadn't been taking a class, going on vacation, and in the middle of deep cleaning the house at the same time! But it was fun being part of a sort-of-SAL for once (my first, weeee~). Mahalo to our host at Pull the Other Thread. :D

To match the Witchy Kitty microkit from the blog hop post I give you... Mr. Frankenstein!

toxic green

He's just as cute as Witchy Kitty. I'll probably finish him off with felt like before but as you can see, I completely derped out stitching him and he's very close to the edge! Eek! I'll think of something... I hope.

A Mr needs his Mrs but alas, she was not meant to be finished in time.

feminine(?) toxic green

If I had had my wits about me, they would've been stitched on the same piece of plastic canvas with a gruesome little heart between them. Maybe I can still pull it off?

Anywhoodle, I'm still trying to decide if I can continue into November which will now be hosted by Justine! I still have class, but I won't be taking vacations or scrubbing every corner of the house so I should have a bit more time. I say that now. :)

Productive fingers go.... to bed!

Trick or Treat! It's a Hallowe'en Blog Hop!

BOO! Are you frightened? :D

o my, I didn't realize my next post would be another blog hop! These holiday ones are hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching and are always a lot of fun. I'm not sure where I'm at in the order so you might want to start there first!

Now, I must admit I do not have a lot of Halloween stitches (yet!) so I will give you this piece I stitched two years ago:

Front & Back

She was stitched on black 14-count perforated plastic in six colors plus the orange blanket stitch for the edge. I backed her with a piece of black felt and I think she's just adorable haha. You can find the pattern on Carolyn's blog, along with a whole bunch of others! :D Also her dA has more!

Of course you all are wanting your next letter...

grotesque I

And now I need to send you on your merry way -- the next stop is at jocondine's blog!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN to you all~ :D

I've scheduled this to appear in the dark of the night; I do hope it works!

Around the World Blog Hop!

I was invited on the Around the World Blog Hop by the wonderful Vickie (her blog hop post is here) and of course y'all know by now I can't miss an opportunity to ramble~ We were asked to answer a few questions so maybe you British folks would like to have a cuppa before you start. I don't even know if I used that word right. I'm as American as a hamburger casserole.

chibi America
from Hetalia

1. What am I working on?
MY SANITY?! AAHHAHAHAaahhaha... ahem. It's never fixed.

I have a couple of projects going on in-between the random morale-boosting smalls.

First we have the neglected Dolphin Trio. This poor thing is definitely a UFO for, um, maybe 4-5 years now. Eep. I really should finish it some day, especially since it's so small and so close!

seventeen hours!

Next we have FFIII. There is (still) a grievous counting mistake in it that I haven't found the heart to pick out yet so it's been lurking on the stand for several months now, mocking me. I'll put on my big girl panties some day and get it back in shape. It's turning into one of those projects, you know, those ones that just give you all sorts of problems from fabric to floss to being unable to count...

Lastly, I have a couple of smalls going/planned as I'm participating in Mega Mini Month Madness along with a host of other wonderful ladies who are all glad to be getting their pile of minis worked on. I have made more progress on him but haven't gotten a new picture yet.

I also have a pattern on the computer I'm being very (overly?) picky about as it will be a gift for a friend.  It's very close to being completed but it will be interesting to see how it actually works up.  Eek!

itty bitty pumpkin... attempt

I am also learning how to crochet! My friend introduced me to ravelry.com and I've been hoarding free patterns in my library. This was one called Itty Bitty Pumpkin and it almost looks sort of like a pumpkin! Maybe!  It is very small; I should've included a coin with it (slightly bigger than a US quarter).  I wanted the stem to be a loop so I sort of made that part up as I went along.  It starts with a magic ring and as you can see, the magic wasn't in my ring (there isn't supposed to be a hole in the middle).  :(  I will keep trying though!

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I guess my work differs in that I tend to like stitching nontraditional subjects (eg video games/anime/manga). Please don't take that to mean I'm not interested in traditional subjects, I am! But I'm much more likely to stitch something nontraditional myself and cheer on all the traditional stitchers. :D  But for me, there is something about taking a traditional medium and doing nontraditional subjects. Does this make me subversive...?

3. Why do I write/create what I do?
I write what I do because I like to hear my own head rattle (cough). Once a motor-mouth, always a motor-mouth (cough cough).  In reality, I write because I will forget. I have a horrible memory and if I don't chronicle my adventures in crafts (personal blog is elsewhere), I will not remember the journey. And I don't want to forget it! Plus I like to share my creations with others and see their opinions and be inspired by their works.

I have a hard time creating because I have a stigma about the "usefulness" of a project. I love the relaxing feeling of creating but there is only so much I'm willing to put on the wall (and that is admittedly a very small amount). I like to stitch the video games and anime stuffs as a way of showing that love for the subject. I imagine that's true for a lot of people even if we don't obsess over the same things! :) That said, sometimes I just need an escape. Stitching allows me to organize my chaotic thoughts and still have something productive going on.

4. How does my writing/creating process work?
Writing = word vomit?  I'm much more reserved in-person but somehow the hyper-happy always leaks out online.  :)

Creating... hmm. It depends on the piece and who it's going to be for. Once I get over the usefulness aspect, anyway. If designing my own patterns, I have to find an image I like, run it through a charting program, get mad at it a few times, let it lurk in the depths of my computer, fish it out again and redraw, take the colors listed to the store, gasp at how none of them are correct, wing a floss toss, and then maybe I can stitch. Even then, when I'm working on a project I'll have a random whim to change something (whether color or shape or or or...). I am an expert at creating frogs so if you've been around long enough, you might recall just how Overly Excited I get when I have a (somewhat largish) finish. Amplify that 10x if the finished product gets a frame. So my creative process is pretty much a mess filled with ultimate highs and despairing lows. It's the highs that keep us going. :)

I hope you have survived and if you've gleaned anything from this post -- I'm just a little helter-skelter. I fly by the seat of my pants more than have a strict organizational thing going on.

Now I'm supposed to pass on the baton of the world so I picked these fun ladies:

Steph at Show and Tell - In the wilds of England! - The happiest blogger in the world; she knows the secret of finding joy in everything and then giving it to others. I think she might actually be a fairy because it seems she just makes magical projects out of nothingness all the time. If only I had, like, a tenth of her doing ability, I'd have so many finishes!

Tenille at Stitched Up! - In the wilds of Australia! - She's pretty new to the blogging world and works on crazy things like HAEDs and Châtelaines which I know many of you love (and they are gorgeous)!  She also has an adorable little boy who would love nothing more than to explore her craft bin, ehehe.

Amber at Last Yesterday - In the wilds of Oz! - I've known this hobo for probably around 10 years in the online world and she's one of those special snowflakes who's like "Hey, a thing!" and then makes the thing. Perfectly. She stitches, sews (when sewing machines aren't out to off her fingers), yarns (when her wrists aren't falling off), and quilts.

And that's all folks!