2015 Turtle Trot: March Post

I made a bit of progress on my Turtle Trot pieces this month! School has gotten pretty crazy though, so I don't expect to make much progress on most of my pieces for the next couple months. And I might be a camp counselor this summer, in which case I wouldn't get to stitch all summer! And then the cycle of school begins again. I like to dream of a future where I can stitch every day, for at least 30 minutes. That would be something.

1. Tardis 3D: None
2. Blushing Rose: None
3. Santa's Village: None (left it at home)
4. Dream: None (left it at home)

6. Sing: Progress!

Before:

After:

7. Favorite Pony: None

8. Everything is Possible: None

9. Woodland Winter: None (left it at home)

10. Snowman and Friends: Progress!

Before:

After:

It's May!

I love new months so much. No matter how things went in April, it's a new month, a fresh start! Which is, of course, prime goal-setting time. So let's get going!

1. Finish stitching Santa's House, Poinsettia Place, Snowman and Friends, and You Have Stolen My Heart.

2. Read The Catcher in the Rye, Pride and Prejudice, Walden, The Help, Things Fall Apart, The Jane Austen Book Club, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Troy, Ithaka, and the Iliad. (And whatever I check out from the library on a whim. Cannot. Resist.)

3. FINALLY start those knitting classes.

4. Work on my ancient Greek, every day that health allows.
5. Blog more often - two times a week, at least?

I am so ready to do stuff. I started a new medication last week, and for a week I seriously couldn't get out of bed from being so sick. It was awful. I'm done taking it now, though. :D Oh, by the way, y'all should look into detoxing sugars and carbs and stuff. It's insane. Like, raisins taste like candy now, and candy seems awful.

Anyway, here's the scant progress I've made since last week. I only just felt like stitching again today, so it's not much.

See the difference? Yeah, I don't either. There's a few more stitches there, though.

I'm not happy with Santa's buttons, but they were driving me crazy so I started Poinsettia Place. Yayyyyy new start!

And now I'll sign off, to get a bit more stitching time in before bed! Happy stitching, y'all!

April IHSW

A bit late, but not too bad. I had kind of a crazy day yesterday. Anyway, I didn't take a before picture on Friday, so some of this progress was made during the course of last week. For example, I finished this piece midweek:

I also stitched the scarf and a lot of white (which doesn't show up so well) on Snowman and Friends during the week. On a whim I broke out this piece, which I haven't touched in a few months.

Happy stitching!

I'm back! With a slightly late TUSAL

Wow, it's been a while. I've hardly touched my laptop for almost two weeks... I blame my health and my self-imposed busyness. I have been going crazy in my room, organizing things and getting rid of things that seemed so important in high school and suddenly don't matter a bit. I even moved a bit of furniture around! I've had lots of appointments as well... even acupuncture! :o I've gotten some stitching done too, whilst listening to War and Peace. I absolutely love War and Peace and Anna Karenina. If I had to pick a favorite thus far, though, I'd definitely pick the latter. It's delicious.

Here's a late TUSAL update. :o I definitely would've posted it yesterday, but I was a bit nonfunctional. :/ 

It's more thread than it looks like, I promise.

And here's all of my 2012 ORTs!

I was a bit diverted from cross stitch by the discovering of this incomplete latch hook project in my closet, "Sunflower":

So, naturally, I immediately threw my energy into working on it:

Quite tragically, there was some manufacturing error and I ran out of both brown thread colors. However, the company was wonderful and yesterday I received this, for free, in the mail:

 The company shall no longer receive my wrath. :)

I've been working on Quoth the Raven quite a bit, since it needs to be finished and framed in time for Christmas. I love it. :)

I picked up Snowman and Friends for a bit, too.

I even started something new! How could I resist beginning Santa's House when I had the materials gathered? :) I love the pattern, I love stitching on linen, I just love it all. :D I'm thrilled to be stitching the entire series on this great big piece of linen!

Santa's Village: Santa's House
Began December 1, 2012

And I shall leave my fellow cross stitchers with a picture of my darling dog, who has taken over my bed since it was moved near the windows. :)

Making big decisions.

I've found that cross stitching is a good way to think over big decisions without my mind racing. So, I got some stitching done while thinking over a major decision. I'm taking medical leave for the remainder of the semester. It's crushing to leave and drop my classes, but I need time to focus on my health. Hopefully I'll be feeling great by next semester and will be on top of things. Anyway, here's my stitching progress:

"Snowman and Friends"

"Live, Love, Laugh"

Have a lovely Monday! Happy stitching!

TUSAL and other updates!

I went home for the weekend, and it was lovely! I think my family is trying to fatten me up by Thanksgiving though, haha. :) Although I disappeared from teh interwebz for the weekend, I did get some stitching done. And my mom and I bought cross stitch supplies on Sunday! I have a frame for Darth Vader now, and I shall embark on that adventure come Thanksgiving. And so much thread! I wish I had a picture, but I left most of it at home, since it's for the Crazy January Challenge. Which I am decidedly completing. :D Here are several of the pieces I shall be stitching, come January:

"Folk Art Deer"

"Blushing Rose"

"Shell Collection" for my Mommy

"Favorite Pony" for my Ashlyn

"Everything Is Possible"

Several bookmarks from this,
for lots of wonderful people. :D

"Spring Sampler"

Lots of fun plans! More short-term, I'm hoping to finish all of my current projects by the end of the year (fingers crossed!). I'll also be stitching some really simple ornaments for my mom and this for my brother. Ambitious, I know, especially with college and my health. But it shall be fun! :) And now for this week's progress! :D

"Live Simply"

Look at that! I am nearly done with the cross stitching, and then I'll just have some back stitching and such. :) This piece is so lovely! It gives me such joy. :)

 "Snowman and Friends"

And look at that! Gettin' crazy, I know. I branched out and worked on one of my other WIPs! :D It's fun to stitch some detail when you've been working on a simple piece like Live Simply. And it's getting cold outside, getting me in the mood for winter!

It is so gorgeous here at Davidson!! Here are some pictures, as proof. :)

Aaaaaand here's a TUSAL update! I'm not officially on the list (working on that), but I've been keeping my ORTs since last new moon, so here they are! And I don't actually have a glass jar... but plastic is close enough, I hope. :) I used an old contact lens thingy as my glass jar. I love this so much, it's such a fun thing to do with little thread tails! :D

And now I shall finally wrap this post up. Lots and lots of updates today! Hope you're all having a great Tuesday! :)

Accountability and extrinsic rewards. :D

Inspired by my psychology lecture of the day, yesterday I tried out some accountability and an extrinsic reward system as a means of limiting my procrastination problem, and I met with great success. I gave my sewing basket to my hallmate Anita, and she was not allowed to give it back until I had completed a set amount of schoolwork. I did so with hitherto unheard of rapidity and was allowed my precious cross stitching back.

My dear sewing basket and home of all my cross stitching supplies. :)

 I received this kit in the mail with the utmost joy Monday night...

...And of course, took the first opportunity yesterday to begin it. I was overwhelmed temporarily by the detail and skill level of the pattern, but I am determined to press on and gain more experience. Snowman and Friends is on 18 count Aida, whereas everything else I've stitched is on 14 count, and this pattern uses a great deal of color and half- and quarter-cross stitches.

 "Snowman and Friends"

Began October 23, 2012

And I've made a bit of progress on Live, Love, Laugh, despite having to go back and undo several stitches because of an early error in counting. I love the prettiness of this piece. :)

 "Live, Love, Laugh"

In other news, I finished listening to Sense and Sensibility while stitching Live, Love, Laugh today, to my greatest delight. Surely such a lovely novel, and such a satisfying ending, was the only way I could be lifted out of my low spirits. I have developed a rapid adoration of Jane Austen that I cannot believe was not earlier in beginning, for I first read Pride and Prejudice many years ago and loved it. Perhaps, as with Great Expectations, I was not ready then to fully take it in, and so did not pursue my interest further. I was also quite busy with school reading. I still am, but my student employment and my stitching allow me much more leisure time for audiobook delights nowadays. :) And now I shall stop babbling on, and leave you to your own stitching, dear reader. Have a delightful Wednesday! Eat some chocolate. It makes everything better. :)