A Teeny Hallowe'en Blog Hop!

Helloooo, blogland~ I hope you guys are ready for another fun Blog Hop courtesy of our Spooktacular Hostess, Jo! I've been remarkably (regrettably) remiss with blogging this latter part of the year but how can I miss these fun hops?!  If you're happening upon my post randomly, please start your journey at Jo's blog to collect the letters in order~

Google-y Oogley

This year I accomplished a tiny finish of a Mill Hill kit. I bought this in a thrift store when visiting my Grandma last year, and I brought it back to her house this year to work on! Grandmas make enthusiastic observers and she was suitably impressed with the tiny beads, teasing me for stitching with "grains of sand".

Wendy's Rosey's cat

Obviously I had to have this one because of the black cat, right!  I really liked the black "rainbow" beads.  It's like they were a beaded oil slick of color.  This is the first Mill Hill I've worked on where it had one of the special, fancy beads (the pumpkin collar charm).  Of course I made a few minor changes because what's a piece without personalization~?  I regret not using more floss though.  The kit suggested using three strands for the cross-stitches but I like my loop starts.  This has been done in two strands and hindsight being 20/20, I should've gone up to four strands.  There were definitely enough materials to do so!  So kitty looks a little bald in spots haha~  It's mostly noticeable here in the photos; it's not bad in person.

oil slick black beads

To finish it off, I glued (eeeeek!) some black felt to the back to hide protect the stitches, and then attached the magnet that came with the kit.  I considered making this another ornament finish but now I can decorate my fridge for Hallowe'en instead of an ornament tree that I don't have. Win/win!

Technical Details

• "Wendy's Cat" - MH18-5206, a counted glass bead kit by Mill Hill.
• Perforated paper, teeny tiny beads (most were petites), magnet.
• Started October 4, 2019; finished October 18, 2019; unknown hours.

🎃💀👻🎃💀👻🎃💀👻🎃💀👻🎃💀👻🎃💀👻🎃💀👻🎃💀👻🎃💀👻🎃
And of course, you're here for the letter!

capital i, not lowercase L!

So ghoul your way on to the next haunting, which is Tiffstitches a Blog! She always has some awesome Hallowe'eny stuff.   Since I schedule these posts for the early morning hours, I'll come back and edit the links to go to the specific pages once they're (and I'm!) up.

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!

January GG ~ Please Present Your Shoehorns

Hello, world! 

First of all, blogger is up to some shenanigans again.  Comments are acting up on blogs with embedded comment forms (such as mine).  They take a long time to publish (sometimes requiring more than one click) and it doesn't matter if comments are moderated or not.  Keep this in mind when leaving comments!  Some people may close the window or tab before the comment actually posts.  Add this to the no-reply/Yahoo nonsense going on!

One fix is to switch to the pop-up version of comment forms.  I don't particularly like the pop-up version for my own blog because I cannot leave replies directly on comments.  If that doesn't bother you, the option is in your dashboard under Settings --> Posts, comments and sharing.

Now enough about Google being silly, it's time for some Gifted Gorgeousness!  I already had to dig out the shoehorns for this one... sort of.  

click for more info

First we have a new start (gasp) for 2018.  I wanted to dive into my pile of thrifted and gifted kits this year and make a dent in that collection but discovered 95% of them are Christmas!  How did this even happen?!  I don't think I could stitch on Christmas all year so I chose one of the 5%, a nice spring-ish pattern that can be finished into a card.  I picked it up in a thrift store back in 2015.  It isn't a very large piece (could count for the Smalls SAL oooo) so it's working up rather quickly and the colors are so bright and cheery, perfect for this string of gloomy days we've been having.

not a cupcake

I'm not entirely sure who will get it when it's finished but it isn't for us or our house so it totally counts as a gift!  I've been toying with the idea of making a "Gift Drawer" full of small items such as this that can easily be drawn from in a pinch, stuff like pretty stitched cards or bookmarks or little ornaments.  Do any of y'all have anything like that?  Or is that the Box of Shame haha.

Next is Actual, Factual progress on FFIII.  This is turning into a gift for me because I want it DONE so I will use Shoehorn Power to make it fit in.  :b  Plus, it's stitched on a "gifted" stand (someone provided it to a church rummage sale), on "gifted" fabric (someone donated it to a thrift store), the pattern was made on "gifted" software (freebie pattern maker), and the needle sits on a gift (from Justine)!

before

after

I did the backstitching on another couple of letters as well as filling in more of the missing leg of stitches in his cape.  And a few backstitching details in his cape and hair.

Lastly is my New-To-Me craft storage, that was in fact gifted, and I did do some work on it.  I've been using an plastic storage caddy from my mom's classroom to store all my stitchy fabric and kits.  That little caddy has seen better days so I was on the lookout for something a bit more elegant.

store everything

This was my great-great grandmother's chest of drawers.  My mother had it for a long time but gave it to me a couple of months ago.  It was not kept in a climate controlled location so it had a few issues with mildew.  I scrubbed it down with vinegar, and then again with Murphy's Oil Soap.  It is as smooth as silk now!  It has been refinished at some point, probably by my grandmother.  Mom said she didn't do this one but it does have a coat of polyurethane on it so it had to have happened at some point.  I'm not sure if the handles are original; I know the top two aren't as they were missing from the piece when my grandma gave it to my mom.  The round dovetails (pin and cove) date the piece to the late 1800s and the mirror is still the original (though it has a lot of discoloration).  The doily/scarf was crocheted by my great-aunt.  My husband jokes that this is now the nicest piece of furniture we own (and it is haha).

Okay, that's all from me~  I don't even have any crochet or knitting to share as nothing is going on there.  My hands have entered the dry, cracked stage of winter so apart from being a bit tender, I keep snagging on floss, fabric, and yarn.  If it gets any worse, I shall have to get out the old remedy of socks and Vaseline to wear on my hands overnight!

Gifted Gorgeousness - June Edition! Finish, New Start, and TUSAL!

Here we are, already in the middle of June so it's time for an update on Gifted Gorgeousness project(s) as hosted by Jo!  And it's the second month in a row for a finish, yaaaay!

click to join the fun!

before

This kit was gifted to me by my husband's grandmother(s) when I first started stitching as they knew I like dolphins. I should've paid it more attention but somehow it wound up a piece to "snack on" so to speak.  It was started sometime in the latter half of 2010 so it is was my oldest WIP!  I'm so glad it's done although I did have some issues with the backstitching charted.  You can't even tell it's there in some of the spots so I wondered what the point was haha.  There's also a healthy sprinkling of French knots which I dutifully ignored the pattern and just put them wherever I thought looked bare lol.

after, and more true to color

And of course I washed it so that helped that goofy stiff Aida some.  There are a few (probably more than a few) mistakes in this piece.  My organizational skills weren't up to snuff at the time and I think I spent more time trying to figure out what color was what than actually stitching!

Technical Details

• Dolphin Trio, Dimensions kit 6817
• (Mostly) 2 over 1 on blue VERY STIFF 14-count Aida
• Finished size: 5" x 7" (13 x 18cm)
• Started: September ??, 2010, Finished: June 08, 2015
• Unknown hours as I wasn't keeping track at the time
• Contender for messiest back ever, I hope I have learned better!

king of the sky

And in the spirit of continuing on with GG, I have started a new piece (no, not a FPS, not yet)!  This little thing will be a gift for my husband who likes my "sewing" and sort of hinted that he might put a piece on his desk at work if I just so happened to make one.  I made the pattern from this Rathalos glyph, one of the signature wyverns in the Monster Hunter video game series we both love playing together. Doesn't look like much right now but I hope he'll like it (or at least be a good husband and ooh and ahh over it appropriately ahaha).  It is being stitched on 20-count Jobelan, light tan.  It's my first time using this fabric and it is so soft and so lovely to hold!  And unravels if I look at it wrong.  Or right.  Or if it just sits there.  My goodness gracious.

In other news, I found the ecru huck towels again yaaaaaay!  There is a Hancock Fabrics in the area and although their selection for needlework is quite small, they carry them!  Unfortunately there wasn't a coupon to use on it but maybe there will be one eventually.  Then I could just hoard the rest of the year and not risk not being able to find them again.  I bought just one so I can start advancing my FotM progress again.  Just gotta plow my way through the silly violets.  I won't start April until February is finished, I won't I won't I won't.

June TUSAL... already?!

Lastly, a day early but I'll squeeze my TUSAL in here so we can all sit around my ORT jar and admire the little snippets.  We've got a finish of Dolphin Trio, some snippets of violets, and a little bit of Rathalos.  Woo!  Also, right after this picture I returned the jar to its rightful location -- and dropped it end-over-end.  ORTs were packed so tightly in there nothing moved ahaha.

Until next time!  My fingers almost feel productive for once! :D :D

site update for self-reminder: widened the page, added new header (stitchy girl), added credits to "about"

Gifted Gorgeousness - January Edition

Yay, my first Gifted Gorgeousness post!  Thanks to Jo for hosting these~ :D

It's amazing how even our best-laid plans go wonky, or at least mine do. I was so excited to start the Muppets sampler. First, I washed the fabric because, learning from experience, washing after you've stitched does not always mean any fabric creases will magically go away and it becomes impossible to iron! So, washed, dried, and nicely ironed. Then I decided to cut the fabric down to a 20" x 20" square which would leave me a little room to play around with other projects on the smaller piece. Easy enough. Next, I wanted to mark the center of the fabric and toyed around with actually making a grid on this so I wouldn't have quite so many counting mistakes. I folded the fabric, found the center, and marked it.

With a blue permanent marker instead of the fabric pen sitting beside it.

Of course there's a nice empty space right in the center so it can't be stitched over and the colors for that area wouldn't really hide the blue anyway. I decided to try bleach... it lightened it extensively but still there is a nice little blue dot and the bleach did something strange to the fabric.

So, while the fabric isn't destroyed, it's not useable for this particular project.  It was large enough that I could cut it up for several smaller works or, if there was a pattern that fully covered the center... Bah.  I did so hope to have a whole array of adorable Muppet letters to show off this month. :(

Lesson learned: Keep your fabric pens separate! (!!!)

Before

So I instead worked a bit on Dolphin Trio! This little kit was a gift from my husband's grandmother(s) who like to encourage hobbies and know I like dolphins.  There's really not too much left on this piece. Here's where I was previously, back in May 2012.

updated

updateder

And here's the after! Most obviously filled in the bottom right corner because I like to see edges. Gives me a goal, haha. Not too sure how I feel about the dark half stitches, though.  Easy to stitch but ehhhhh.  There's a lot of them too!

Blah. Not at all how I wanted to start out the year! But I did work on something that really should've been finished eons ago so there's that~ :D

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!

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

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~

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!

MMMM #3

Aloha, everyone! I think I've fixed the comments issue. And gave my blog a Halloweeniesh sort of theme.

This will be a short post because I am simply too tired to do more than be a zombie. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise since I'm sure I ramble too much anyway. ;)

finally framed!

blinding flash

Please ignore the dismal excuse for a ribbon. It's one of those skills I feel I'll never master.

my first square!

This photo was shot at an angle; I swear it's square! It's not "finished" because I haven't learned how to do edging and didn't want to try on it after the countless efforts it took me to get this far. I think I will make another square of the same size and make it into a large potholder because I've never heard of a yarn dishcloth before (that's what the pattern called it).

new stitch floss toss!

This will be the next (two) project(s) for MMMM. I'm not quite sure about the colors but I didn't have the listed ones in stash and getting new stash requires a lengthy trip. I think they will work out. I hope.

And before I forget! CraftySasha is having a really fun pattern giveaway, found here. I suggest you head over there and join in the fun (and admire the super cute paperclip army)!

Until next time~ But now, I'm going to go crash in some soft-cushioned thing.