WIP Wednesday...on Thursday!

It is after 1am and I had every intention of posting earlier but then got extremely distracted with the kids, dinner, a walk, bath time, story time, bed time, dishes, laundry and finally starting my relaxing portion of having to stay up all night to flip myself back to my night shift work schedule for the next 2 nights. Thankfully this is my last week on midnight shift for a while and it's a short week since I have a vacation day on Saturday for my anniversary weekend!

Over the past week I did a little bit more stitching than I expected and also worked on a few new things.

First, I worked on the Olde World Map a tiny bit and I finally finished inside the western hemisphere, like I've been telling myself I would do forever. Other than that, I didn't make any other progress.

this week:

last time:

Next, I worked on the Game of Throne Houses and finished House Baratheon's banner. I still need to stitch their actual house. I also stitched the yellow portion of the flower in House Tyrell's banner just so I wouldn't have to use the yellow again.

this week:

last time:

I continued working the Magic Kingdom SAL a little bit as well and started on March's Snow White section. I stitched a good portion of the sky and all the dwarves and Snow White have heads! 

this week:

last time:

I started working on an Easter piece called Easter Gnome. Hopefully he will stitch up quickly! I've got most of his hat done, his beard is outlined, and I started on an ear. I'll be focusing on this heavily this week.

And lastly, I started working on my Crash Bandicoot piece. It's just the outlining of his feet and 1 leg for now since I was actually missing a bunch of the colors I needed for him. I should have all the colors now to keep working on him. 

That's all I've got for now! Happy Stitching!

WIP Wednesday & Gifted Gorgeousness!

I know, I know, it’s technically Thursday but I’ve been busy with 2 very hyper little ones all day so I haven’t had a chance to post and since I haven't gone to bed yet, it's still Wednesday! That's how it works, right? Just go with it! 😝 

Today is WIP Wednesday and also happens to be just after the February Gifted Gorgeousness link up has gone live! It's where you show off what you've been working on that is a gift for someone or was a gift to you. Hop on over to Jo’s page  to check out all the awesome stuff people are working on! 

Keep in mind that last year, I basically did no stitching due to everything I had going on so I feel like there hasn’t been much progress made recently but I have worked on some things here and there. 

First up is my most recent WIP which I finished the stitching on as well but I need to fully finish it! I found this pattern on Etsy and thought it was too cute. This was a silly little Valentine’s gift for my husband! It took me a total of 20 hrs and 45 mins over 3 days during down time on the night shift at work! 

I did modify this pattern in the tiniest way. The flower on the girl Pikachu is supposed to be pink and red but instead I changed them to lighter shades of our wedding colors!

Next is my oldest WIP so far, the Olde World Map. This will be a gift for my Mom & Stepdad who have their master bedroom decorated with all sorts of maps. The last time it was posted was in May 2018 😱 

then:

now:

I guess I made more progress on this one than I thought. This was probably the only piece that I tried to distract myself with while in the hospital helplessly watching my daughter. 

Another gift for my Mom & Stepdad will be the Game of Thrones houses since they are huge fans of the show. The last time this was mentioned was in February 2019 and there's been a little bit of progress.

then:

now:

I also signed up for a couple SALs at the beginning of last year but didn't make it far in them. One was the Homely Houseplants by Stitchonomy. This is intended to be a gift for my Dad since he also developed a recent love of indoor plants!

Instead of going with the default color scheme that was provided, I was playing with a variegated rainbow thread and white for the pots. I'm liking how it is turning out but I haven't touched this one in a while. 

My daughter has always loved Disney, Disney princesses and Disney movies, so when I stumbled upon this Magic Kingdom SAL by Cunning Cross Stitch on Facebook, I knew I just had to attempt to do it for her. I literally just found this late last week and the January (Ariel) and February (Alice) patterns are out. So, I'm pretty behind but I did start it! This is also my first piece ever working on evenweave, so it's making me a little bit nervous! 

The final piece that can be included for the GG is actually not cross stitch. It was a diamond art painting that was given to me for the Secret Santa gift exchange we had at work. It is perfect because it's basically been what my mantra has been since everything started with my daughter in March last year. This is actually finished as far as the diamonds go, but it needs to be framed and I haven't decided if it will go on our gallery wall or in our master bedroom yet. I will have to say that this will be my first and last diamond painting, lol. It was definitely an interesting little project though.

Then there are just 2 other pieces that I have started as well but aren't gifts for anyone. They are just nerdy things that I wanted to stitch!

First is the Avatar: The Last Airbender 4 Elements SAL from last year. I haven't made it far but I am liking my border thread choice a lot!

The second nerdy piece is an Etsy pattern of a Final Fantasy moogle and chocobo. FF is one of my all time favorite game series and I thought the pattern was too cute to pass up. I am stitching this on black aida so it's a little rough on the eyes but this will be a quick piece. This is only maybe an hour's worth of stitching during down time at work so I could probably have it done by my next work night if I focused on it. 

I believe that's everything that I've started so far and I do plan on starting another SAL soon. We will see how it all turns out! 

Thank you for hopping on by and don't forget to keep hopping along to see all the other participants' work! Happy stitching!

After the Holidays and Into the New Year!

First and foremost, I hope everyone had a great holiday season and a great 1st month of the year!

Our Christmas was pretty awesome because this was the first time our little one could actually recognize that it was Christmas and was so excited to open her presents. That was definitely a busy week. We celebrated Christmas Eve with my husband's parents, Christmas with my parents, and then opened gifts from my dad in Michigan over FaceTime the day after. My daughter was extremely spoiled this Christmas and loved everything she received!

Even with all the busy days after Christmas, I have not one but TWO stitching updates!

First, I had a complete finish! The Polar Pals stocking for my daughter was successfully completed in time for Christmas! Finally seeing it finished, after being so frustrated with the actual stitching, was awesome and now I love it! She was so excited to get it in her Christmas Eve box and then to have it filled with all sorts of goodies on Christmas!

FINISHED! DIMENSIONS NEEDLEPOINT KIT - POLAR PALS STOCKING

My friend did an amazing job with the sewing! She was a little nervous at first but it came out great!

The second update is that I was able to finish stitching the Star Wars piece for my friends' son finally! 

I don't know why but stitching large areas of black are really hard for me because I start to lose interest. I finished the stitching before the new year and knew I wouldn't be able to get together with my friends until this month so I haven't been in a rush to complete it. I do have all the stuff to finish and will do so on my next days off!

Our hectic days didn't really stop after the holidays because we have 3 birthdays during January: my daughter, my sister-in-law, and my niece. Needless to say January is always crazy for us but as my daughter was saying all day at her Frozen themed 3rd birthday party, we just "let it go!" and try to enjoy all the festivities!

I do have a new start that will be another piece for my mom and stepdad....eventually.... It's a Game of Thrones family houses/flags/sayings and it should be pretty neat once it's done.

Now that it's officially February and all the festivities are over for now, it's back to work, school, family, and hopefully I can sneak in a little more stitching this year. 

I wish everyone a great rest of the year since I missed posting in January!