April Adventures!

Hi Stunners

As promised this is what I got up to cross stitch wise in March and April.

I will start with the successes. March was mainly taken up with Snow White by Gecko Rouge (retired). I finally completed the 2 pages on Snow White. And very excited to report that I have reached one of the dwarves. He is not my favourite one but just happy to get to him, nevertheless. That's his head near Snow's elbow. I really enjoyed working on this and looking forward to her next turn in the rotation! I have decided to always complete 2 pages on her before moving on as I really really want to finish this one.

April was taken up with 2 wips mainly. Heaven on Earth by Mystic Stitch and Alisha by HAED.

I'm very happy with my progress on Alisha, not so much on Heaven. The confetti got the better of me, though I do love the colours. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get a page finish before moving onto Alisha. Oh well there's always next time. 

Heaven on Earth

ALISHA

Before

After

Once I finish the feathers, Page 1 will be complete and due to the diagonal stitching I've actually started page 3. I'm going to keep going till I finish all 3 pages.  I can't tell you how much I am enjoying this. I would love to continue but I can hear the other babies spitting their dummies and stamping their feet with impatience. So I have promised to move on soon as it's getting really noisy in the craft room! 

What's in store for May Mayhem? 

I will be working on TOTA simulateously with Alisha for this month. This is where I'm currently at with this wip.

And then it's back to Carnival Moon. This is another wip that I haven't stitched on since 2016. What the hell was I doing last year??? Both these wips are up to page 3 and I'm determined to finish them in May. 

That's all I have to report at this time stunners. And I waited until the 4th of May to post just so I could say "May the fourth be with you"  Happy Star Wars day Stunners!!!!

Take care everyone and may life be magical for you

xo Alicia

The road stitched so far!

Hi Stunners!

It's time for the results of my January Jaunts & February Frolics. I'm a little behind on my goals to stitch between 100,000 to 200,000 stitches this year. But I'm hoping to giddy up and get alot done this month.

So for January I had a new start for the new year. 

It's Heaven on Earth by Mystic Stitch and it's worked on 18ct white Aida 2 over 1. 

1837 stitches

I also managed to complete 1000 stitches on my Gecko Rouge - Snow White in January. 

Start of the year

January progress 

And 2176 stitches more for February! How cool are my glittery needle-minders. The lipstick was my most recent acquisition, perfect for a Snow White wip. I'm really excited to finally reach one of the sexy dwarves. See that smoosh of fuzzy brown near her elbow, yep that is the top of his head. Rrrrrrrrr

February progress

The other wip I worked on was QS Theatre of the Absurd. This is from the 2013 Heaven and Earth designs BB Freebie SAL. And it isn't even my oldest wip!! I'm determined to finish this in March. And then I can re-start the 2011 Freebie SAL LOL. 

Start of the year

January Progress

February Progress

Also my new start of Rose Zircon by Maxine Gadd from Imaginarium got 600 stitches. 

My January stitch totals are 4588 as I am including my diamond painting as seen in my previous post.

February was a little less impressive at 3051.

I'm going to need a whopping 9237 to catch up and be back on track for a minimum stitch of 100,000 by the years end.

With the help of all the challenges from the Ultimate Cross Stitch group on FB and all the support I get from you wonderfully amazing and stunning followers, I know I will be able to achieve it. 

Good news is that I got my new computer all set up at home and now I can access my emails and reply to all your brilliant and hilarious comments. 

Happy stitching for March stunners, may this month be full of love and magical things.

Thank you so much for the visit.

xoxo Alicia

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - March

Hi Stunners!

Sorry I'm late...again! 

For this month I worked on Rose Zircon which is a gift for my sister. I didn't quite get the page finish that I wanted as I had to swap to SS Masque of Love for the HAED FB challenge wahoo which ends on April 1 - I think. 

So this is October - Rose Zircon:

Before

After

And here is Masque of Love which ironically was a gift chart from my sister. I managed to complete page 1 and I have to stitch just under half of page 2 to qualify for the challenge finish. 

Before

After

I am also starting a Diamond Painting project using this beautiful chart - Galaxy Girl - from HAED which was a gift from my beautiful friend Helvi . So next GG SAL I'm hoping to get page 2 of Rose and Masque finished and show you my new start with this diamond painting. It was a little tricky ordering the tiles and canvas as you had to work it out for 10ct chart. Needless to say it is freaking HUGE!!!! I can't wait to see how it turns out. 

Thanks for visiting my blog. 

To my friends in the UK, my thoughts are with you guys and I was sorry to hear about the recent attack in London. I hope you and all your loved ones are safe and well. 

Take care my amazing and magical stitchy friends. 

xoxo Alicia

Gifted Gorgeousness

HELLO STUNNERS!!! 

I've said in the past that one day I would start my blog post without an apology about lateness. Definitely not going to happen today, my last post was in July and this post is 5 days late for December Gifted Gorgeousness SAL. FAIL!!! 

Sorry sorry sorry for the total AWOL from blogworld. No excuses really but I will blame facebook. Joining (well technically being added) to new groups has led me to overindulge in SABLE and be so spoilt by my amazing and too generous Crafty brothers and sisters, as it has led to way too many new starts and new start SAL's. Something had to give and blogging paid the price eeek.

So I have decreed that in 2016 I'm going to be returning to my roots and also the place I met most of my stitching friends and that is blogging. I've missed reading blogs and keeping up with everyone that way. FB is very instantaneous, yes, but it also is just a quick pow of updates and it's a little hard to keep up with everyone. 

Whereas blogging feels more like a long journey and adventure with friends. So I will be spending more time here than on fb type of social media. 

So let's get to it stunners.

Firstly is the update for my sisters gift. Mystic Stitch - October Rose Zircon by Maxine Gadd. Not much progress I'm afraid but I've changed my way of stitching this. 

If anyone has stitched a MS you will know the pain of their symbols. They are so so so hard to read and the confetti is incredible. I've decided to do it using cross country page by page. I think it's faster for this particular project, and the only way that I can do it without going insane. So unfortunately I've had to abandon my beloved parking technique. 

Notice the beautiful Tardis Qsnap cover and fabric keepers. They were a gift from my lovely friend Kim Howe. Aren't they amazeballs?  The fabric keepers are the best they just keep all that excess fabric outta the way.  

Here is the second one Kim gifted me. I love love love them both but this is my favourite one. Look how regal King Tut looks amongst all the Tardii (is that the plural of Tardis LOL). Thank you so much Kim, I'm truly grateful.

And now for more Gifted Gorgeousness - my Christmas package from the McDougall family. Head McDougall being Sharine. I'll have to post another pic with the Qsnaps in action they look amazing and the horsey one doesn't really show up. And check out the Magical Unicorn that grows in water. I'll have to post a pic when that magic happens too!!! 

And thank you to the littlest McDougall, Hannah for choosing the butt crack Santa card. That kid cracks me up...oooh pun there. Thank you so much Sharine and the McDougall clan you guys are rock stars. 

Now to a bit of stitching. I almost got to the end of page 2 of Carnival Moon. Why is it that the last 1000 stitches always seem to take the longest. Or is that just me? 

The next page is the building and the tower bit. And there are big chunks of colour so hopefully it won't take too long. But once I finish page 2 I'm going to be concentrating on my 2 gift projects.

Ewa's wedding anniversary project which was due in October (hangs head in massive massive shame) and my cousin's baby sampler which I haven't touched since I first started it. See below...head still in shame hang mode. 

So this

Has to become this

I'm determined to make 2016 a year of finishes. As I never managed ONE not even a tiny finish in 2015. It's been a year of new starts, re-starts and total abandonment. Not a good year for the Crafty Princess. I may even have to abdicate the title!!

Nah.

I have plans for a rotation that will help ensure this, but I think I've rambled on enough for one post. Check you later and now I'm off to reaquaint myself with all of your blogs. Sorry if you get comments on blogs that are months old but I want to see all that I've missed. 

To all that celebrate Christmas. I wish you a very very Merry one and may it be magical, special and full of laughter and love. I hope you all had a fantastic 2015 but I wish you an even better 2016.  See you next year stunners. Love you heaps and muchly.

Gotta go Santa is calling me! 

xoxoxo Princess Alicia

The most amazing Gifted Gorgeousness!

Hi Stunners!

I know I am really really late with this even for me, so sorry sorry sorry! But if it's any consolation there is alot of piccies and alot of pretties, and even a few page finishes so stay tuned. I'll try to make it worth your while :D

GIFTED GORGEOUSNESS

Straight on to stitching - I FINALLY FINISHED THE FIRST PAGE OF OCTOBER -ROSE ZIRCON!!! Apologies for screaming but this page was doing my head in and now it's done and I managed to make a wee start on Page 2. This is my GG piece as it's for my sister who is an October baby.

Before

AFTER!!

MORE STITCHING!

I also whipped off (pun intended) another page on Harry with the help of the boys from Supernatural. It took me Seasons 1 -5 to finish this page. I was happy to finish in July as it's the 1 year anniversary of Eclectic Blokes Design this month. So this one's for Neil Bray, who most of you know passed away in March and never got to see his baby turn 1. 

Also managed to finish Page 1 on So Many Books SO Little Time. My first Spangler!

MY BEAUTIFUL FRIENDS

Now this is the part of the post that refers to the title - The most AMAZING Gifted Gorgeousness. It was my birthday at the end of June and my friends were just so generous it reduced me to tears! I had alot of lovely wishes on fb and to add to that I was totally spoilt. Please don't get too jealous LOL.

I was RAKd this chart by the very talented and very generous Nikki Northup from Charting Creations. The magnificent Celestial.

From the lovely lady who also loves the dark side as much as me - Jayne Walton - I was RAKd Mesmer from Eclectic Blokes Design

This one is called The Collector from HAED - and I think all crafters can relate to this, hee hee. Thank you to gorgeous generous Kim of Cross stitching with Kim fame for this intriguing chart. Love it! 

And from another amazing Kim from the famous Sense and Stitchability - Supersized Faery Tales - HAED. 

My good friend Nina of Pistot-Stitches fame went a little crazy and completely spoilt me with her kindness and RAK'd 2 Supersized HAED's. The Butterfly Ball by Aimee Stewart and Sanctuary of Knowledge by Randal Spangler!

But that's not all!!

Nina was lucky enough to travel to London recently and the lovely girl that she is, didn't forget about me and bought me a few gifts. Check out the Dr. Who torch light key ring. It's so cool from the Dr. Who shop. Wahh I wish we had a Dr.Who shop in Oz!  And I've always wanted a needle threader from HAED but the postage to Australia was too ridiculous so I never bought one. And without ever mentioning it to Nina, her sixth sense kicked in and she bought one for me. It's beautiful! 

Oh there were 2 bars of chocolates and a packet of lollies but....um they were gone by the time I took this photo - too yummy! 

Our favourite Crafty Spice girl, the amazing Nguyen from Spice up your life and the owner/operator of Fiberlicious Threads AND little sweetheart Angie from Miamina's Musings  each sent me a Gecko Rouge voucher. Ladies you were so generous that I can buy a kit with them. 

I'm either going to buy Ice Queen by Medusa Dollmaker

or 

Hatter by Omri Koresh

I also was gifted a gift certificate for Colour Cascade fabrics from the lovely Carmel Clark - Woo hoo. Which is just what I need after all those chart RAK's

And finally from the wickedly devilish but deep down softie Sharine of Charbella Stitching I received a very cute chimpanzee birthday card picked by her youngest daughter (whom I am convinced was my child in another lifetime) and was so lucky to be given a very generous voucher for Tragic Beautiful! This is an awesome shop that Sharine first introduced me to a while back. It's clothing and accessories that are generally not found in contemporary stores. It's got a bit of goth, witchey stuff, creatures of the night, steampunk and some of the darker fairytale type stuff. Here are a few things on my wish list: 

Dorothy Slippers

Nevermore dress! 

Steam punk boots

Vampiria Dress

  

Or something to wear down to the shops!!! 

As you can see I was very very pampered by my very very generous and thoughtful friends. I am so humbled by all and also all the beautiful wishes I received. You guys rock! Love you stunners!

I'm almost up to date with catching up with blogs. Got a few more to read. I've been so bad with blogging but I endeavour to be more proficient with blogs. Both posting and reading.

Take care beautiful people. I hope life is magical for you. If not just close your eyes and believe!

xoxo Alicia