Update

Many of you may have been wondering, where the heck have I been?!?!?!?

Well, work has been … work. 🙂 There has been a lot of it and it has consumed most of my life for the past year, but the huge project I was working on is now complete, thank goodness. Now I can try to re-establish some boundaries, reclaim my personal life and hopefully regain some sanity. Needless to say, I’m behind on… well… everything. I guess I have a thing for ellipses tonight, but there’s much that I’d rather leave unsaid at this point, so you’ll just have to write your own filler. I’ll just say that it’s been a very challenging year and I will be quite glad to see it go.

With that said, I’m already looking forward to 2013. I have a lot of fun things planned for the first few months, more ideas on the back burner and much planning to do. It’s all good.

As far as stitching goes, here is what I’ve been doing since I last posted a stitching update back in July:

• Started the final PIF gift, but didn’t get very far before I put it down again. I will probably get to it in the new year.
• Started Passione Ricamo’s Fairy Mystery SAL. I’m on steps 2/3 of the 5 available and have some serious catching up to do. Here is where I stood after completing step 1:
  
• Stitched Lizzie*Kate’s Good Things:
  
  The fun part about this one is that it has now become a traveling pattern and is crossing the globe.
• Stitched Teresa Wentzler’s Sun Dragon, as a purple moon dragon:
  
  
• Started another instance of Teresa Wentzler’s Sun Dragon, this time as a turquoise moon dragon:
  
• Stitched My Mark Designs’ Be Calm, in mint:
  
• Framed My Mark Designs’ Be Calm, in mint:
  
• Stitched My Mark Designs’ Be Calm, in blue/purple, for my cousin:
  
• Framed My Mark Designs’ Be Calm, in blue/purple, for my cousin:
  
  I just framed it last week and packed it up Friday night, so it is winging its way across the country as I type this.
• Started stitching a lovely little Joan Elliott design for my mother, called Water Wonderland, then realized that I don’t stand a chance of finishing it in time to have it framed for Christmas, so decided to whip up some ornaments instead.
• Stitched Star, from Mill Hill’s Winter Greetings Charmed Ornament series of kits, for myself:
  
• Sent Nora Corbett’s Sunflower Fairy away to Jill Rensel for framing. She did an absolutely fantastic job and I just got it back this week, but haven’t had a chance to take a good photo of it. As soon as I do, I will post it. In the meantime, here is the photo she sent to me before she shipped it back:
  
• Started Here Comes Treble by Ink Circles, as a Christmas gift for my music teacher.
• Stitched Lizzie*Kate’s Cross Stitcher in Residence, another traveling pattern:
  

Over the long Thanksgiving weekend is when I decided to try to crank out a few ornaments for my mother, which has now spilled over into trying to stitch a few for my step-dad, as well. I kitted up 6 or 7 ornaments and have already completed two:

1. Holly Reindeer, designed by Sharon Bennett:
   
2. Merry Little Christmas Ornament, designed by The Drawn Thread:
   

That’s enough for now. I really need to go throw some more stitches into some pieces before bed. Or work on transcribing more Adele songs. I need another day off… or two! 😀

I hope that all of my U.S. friends had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday. I know that I have much to be thankful for in my own life, including any and all of you who are still reading this blog! Have a great week!