HAPPY 2014!!!

Hi Stunners!!!



Happy New Year. I love the start of the year as it's a time to wipe the slate clean and forget about the past. For me it's like shedding the skin of the mistakes and regrets of the year gone and coming out the other side with renewed vigour, love of life and all things crafty!  So don't worry about the goals that weren't met, the promises not kept and the stash that was added to the list...it's all good!!

Firstly thank you to my new followers it's a good year to join as I am endeavoring to post a lot more as I've joined a few SAL's that will ensure I post at least once or twice a month (maybe more but let's not get ahead of oneself hee hee).

By the end of the year I will have 48 wips in my rotation as I've kitted up quite a few newbies which I will start along the way as well as continuing with my current golden oldies.


THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
 I have made some amazing friends along the way since starting this blog and the generosity that people show in the blogosphere never ceases to astound me. You guys are truly awesome, even just taking the time to comment and also cheer me up when I've made some terrible boo boos is greatly appreciated, all your support makes my day. Thank you everyone.

I would love to take this opportunity to publicly thank Johanna stitchstitchknit,  and Nina Pistellen-Stitching for their beautiful and very generous gifts of HAED charts.

This is the chart I received from Johanna in November and I started her straight away.  I finished the first page on Christmas Night whilst at work. It's called Feel the Magic by Little Fairy Art. Isn't she amazing?? I'm stitching her on 28 ct Purple Mist evenweave 1 over 1 using DMC cotton strands. The fabric is a show piece from the lovely boys at Sew it all so unfortunately it's not available on their website.

Feel the Magic

Page 1 completed

Nina kindly gifted me the mesmerising chart "Fallen Angel" by Michael Hayes. Nina chose the full version as she rightly guessed that I'm a lover of detail. I can't wait to start her. She will be my next start after my next finish (no matter how small LOL!)

Fallen Angel

Thank you to Angela (Miamina's Musings) for the awesome gift certificate to one of my favourite Aussie fabric websites Colour Cascade Fabrics. It's just what I needed Angie, thank you so very very much.


And to Ewa (Cross stitch and other Musings) and handsome and helpful fiancée for the lovely Christmas card that I received yesterday in the mail. Very sweet of you both, thank you.

See now you guys understand why I'm a Princess, it's not really my self indulgent behaviour (well not much) but it's because I have such beautiful and generous people in my life that makes me feel like one.

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

Now for more stitching. Since my last post back in Halloween last year (gulp I've been so slack huh?) I've started Large Treasure Hunt Bookshelf by Aimee Stewart from HAED. It's a whopping 168 pages in the large chart format so I've decided to make it my focus piece and also my Wipocalypse wip so will be working steadily on this one for a long long while!

I'm stitching it on 20 count white evenweave purchased from Sew it all. Using 2 over 1 DMC cotton thread. I think I have discovered that my favourite count is 20, it suits my stitching tension and it's not too large and not too small, but Goldilocks just right!

ROSE CERISE SAL WITH KIM

Kim and I have decided to work on Rose on a bi-monthly basis and post our progress on the first of every second month starting from January 1. So here is my progress in the last 2 months. I seem to have misplaced one of the colours that's why there are a few holes in the ribbon. Still looking for the little bugger. If you click on the picture of Rose Cerise in the side bar I've linked Kim's blog...she should be posting her update any day now!

I have loved reading all the blog posts that have demonstrated their progress for the year 2013. I will be posting mine no matter how shameful it is on the Wipocalypse post on Jan 16. I'm back at work tomorrow, man those days off really fly by. So I will have 12 hours (between doing actual work) to go through everyone's blogs. I'm looking forward to it.

Take care my beautiful followers and guest stars.

Enjoy everything you do and I will see you soon!

xoxo Alicia

Happy Halloween!

Hi Stunners!!!

Happy Halloween to you all. I hope you have a ghoully, ghostly and witchy time! I'm stuck at work tonight dressed as Morticia with a Princess twist (namely pink bling shoes, and metallic pink eyelashes - Hee hee!) I just couldn't do the full black.

Thank you to everyone that left a comment on my previous post. I wanted to reply to you all but when I sat down at the computer to send reply emails they were all gone! Not sure what happened there. I just wanted to let you all know that I appreciated all of your kind, funny and awesome comments. You guys so rock! 

Ok onward to the stitching!

Here is how I have been spending the latter half of October. I needed to complete page 3 of Guardian Angel for a HAED yearly goal. And I did it!!! Woo hoo. I'm using bling thread Petite Treasure Braid PB23 in lieu of DMC B5200 on the Angels wings to give them a little bit of heavenly sparkles... 

Before

After

I'm not sure why the pic came out so shiny but I kinda like it. I can't wait to work on page 4 as the Angel himself makes an appearance. 

And here is my SAL piece that Kim and I are completing, the beautiful Rose Cerise by Karen Middleton (HAED). Kim is starting from the top left and I'm coming from the other end. 

Before

After

The before pic was taken with my old camera that's why there is such a marked difference between the two, and what a difference 10 pixels make!  I love working on Rose! I'm stitching her using Victoria Clayton's HDF thread. Stitching with silk thread is absolutely brilliant. It just glides through, no thread heaven required and the stitches just sit so neatly on top of each other. 




This week I will be working on the freebie SAL piece from HAED. I will get that damn first never ending page finished if it's the last thing I do!!!!!

Oooh I can feel my sugar crash about to kick in. I guess I had better go and refuel on some Halloween candy...Maybe it will also help me to stitch faster! Anythings worth a try! 

Take care my beautiful, supportive and stunning followers and guest stars! Have fun in everything you do.

See you soon
Alicia xoxo 

And the results are in...Pic heavy post stunnners!!

 Hi STUNNERS!!!

Well here it is finally the results of my January Extravaganza of no work all cross stitching and gyming.

Firstly though welcome to my lastest victims, I mean followers Tazzy, Chris, qtknits and Simona. Enjoy stunners and thank you for taking an interest in my stitching!

Well as usual life plays a hand in every plan no matter how well laid and the extravaganza technically didn't commence until the 12th January and finished on 13th February.  As for the gym, well that hardly got off the ground at all. So no more on that story!

So without further ado here are the before and after pics of all the wips on the stitching schedule. 

Passione Ricamo Mystery Faery SAL

Rose Cerise - (the hand dyed threads only arrived in the last week so this is only 4 hours worth of progress)

Golden Wood

QS Theatre of the Absurd Haed Freebie SAL 2013

QS Fragile Heart HAED Freebie SAL 2011

Managed to finish the first 3 pages, so only the bottom row to go! YAY!

And now for the BAPS!!


Vanity

 Faery 2

Faery Ball

Where is my Valentine?

A Coign Of Vantage (Golden Kite)

And I FINISHED QS Spring to Life!!!!

And what is a post from the Crafty Princess without a bit o stash enhancement pics...

Stash

Heaven and Earth Designs

Spider Queen

I loved her so much that I was in Spotlight the day after I bought her, buying all the supplies. When I got home I wound all the threads on bobbins, quaffed a glass of chardonnay and started her. I'll post a pic when I complete the first page! She's so much fun to stitch so far.

Tuscan Serenade

                         Tilton Crafts

Promise to Heart

Buttercup

So there you go stunners, a few page finishes and one complete finish. I'd thought I would get more done but I found there were days in there where I just didn't want to stitch. And instead of making it a chore and forcing myself I went and played games on the Xbox360.  

I've got a few new starts that I've commenced since the end of the extravaganza but I don't want to overload you all with wip's so until next time.

Take care stunners and find happiness in every minute of every day no matter where you are, and no matter what you're doing!!!!

Love 

Alicia xoxo

December - My month of SAL's.

Hello stunners!!!

Welcome Rai Rai to my followship. Thank you for joining us on my cross stitch adventures, I hope you find it entertaining and stay for a while!!

Okay down to biz, this post will probably, (okay let's be realist Ms. Crafty Princess) this will be my last post for 2012.

So when you see my first post in 2013, it will mean 2 things:

1) The world didn't have an apocalyptic ending as predicted by the Mayan calendar. YAY!!

2) I made enough progress on my SAL's to show progress pics, Double YAY!!!

I have decided to dedicate the month of December to my SALs.  I truly need to get a massive shove along for my SAL's as I will be starting the HAED freebie SAL on January 1st and I still haven't finished the one from 2011 - Fragile Heart. Also I joined the Passione Ricamo Fairy Mystery one 4 months late and now we have had 2 more pages sent out since and I'm hopelessly behind.

I started a new SAL with the stunning Kim from Scully's Cross Stitching. We are working on Rose Cerise by Karen Middleton charted by Heaven and Earth Designs. Kim has made a start from the top on a lovely pale lilac sparkly fabby and I will attack from the other end. My Rose is being worked on 32ct Seaworld bling (of course) 2 over 2 full crosses. We bought our fabric from those lovely boys at Sew it all. And let me tell you I love the way the fabric feels. This is my first time working on such a high count fabric from them and it's just so billowy and silky. LOVE IT!! (that last bit was sung in a high pitched note)

Peter was a little worried when I told him the fabric I wanted for mine. But in the end he gave in and said that he trusted me.  So a bit of presh there but I think so far so good~

As a treat I splurged and bought silk threads from Victoria Clayton's hand dyed fibres for this one too.  Which is awesome except they haven't arrived as yet....(c'mon Vic it's been 3 weeks!)

But luckily I had some black premium floss so at least I could make a start with that and the sparkly thread.

So here are the before pics for projects for December:

Rose Cerise

She is going to be a big beautiful girl!

Passione Ricamo Fairy Mystery SAL (sigh)

Fragile Heart

I will be ecstatic if I can at least get the first row of pages completed on Fragile. Which is approximately 20 more rows or so.

I will still be around though as I will be stalking/supporting/reading all your blogs but I really want to have something substantial to show you in 3 weeks time on my next post.

SO TO ALL MY AMAZING, AWESOME, AND STUNNING FOLLOWERS AND GUEST STARS - THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR COMMENTS, ADVICE, CHEERS AND BRILLIANT FRIENDSHIP THROUGHOUT THE YEAR/S!!!

YOU COMPLETE ME!!! HEE HEE.

Here are some Christmas funnies so that the last thing I see before you leave my blog is a smile on your face. Have an Awesome, Fantastical and Merry Christmas. Give everyone in your family a kiss from me!

See you next year xoxo Alicia

I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying, toys not included.  ~Bernard Manning

 

Note: This applies to heterosexual singles as well - LOL!!

Has yet to happen to me!!!