Attitude of Gratitude

Hi Stunners!!!

As the end of last month was my birthday month this post is all about gratitude! 

To start with I would love to thank and welcome my lastest 5 followers. Welcome Randi Martin, Marcy, Kathy Denehey, Linda and Nurdan Kanber. Thanks so much for stopping by and joining the followship of the Crafty Lunatic Princess.

By the way if any of you received a scam email from my email address neon_princess33 stating that I had been robbed in the Philippines and to send me money. I truly apologise as my email account had been hacked. I'm ok and still in Australia and thank you to all that offered to send me money. And to Kim (scullys cross stitching) who knew it was a scam as she stated on my fb page that if it were really me I would be asking for fabric and thread...You're such a scream Kim and you know me so well LOL! I have changed the password and security questions and lodged a complaint with Yahoo mail so it should be safe now.

And to the following people thank you for your lovely Crafty gifts that I have received this year.

Mrs Dibble was at the Salvation Army store recently trying to acquire some old furniture to refurnish as a project and came across this old DMC thread sample chart for 50 cents!! I would have paid 50 bucks for it. Which she gave to me as a "just cos your my friend and I thought you would like this gift"!

 

 

Jo (who can't think of a clever nickname - Serendipitous stitching) designed, stitched and sent me this card for Chrissy. It just made it into January so it still counts. Isn't it too perfectly cool?? I'm working on something special for Jo at the moment but it's a surprise so please don't mention it to her.

 

 

 

My mum busted me gazing wistfully at the Needle Needs website at the Millennium Frame and then to my huge surprise I also received the Millennium frame with 2 lots of stretcher bars for Christmas AND a Bottle of Chardonnay. Princess parents rock! (It counts as they ordered it in December but I didn't receive it till March!)

 

Nina (Pistellen-Stitching) honoured me greatly by awarding my blog the AGI Award. Thank you Nina you really keep me motivated and love my stitching even more. Plus you've inspired me in other areas of my life with your thoughtful emails. Thank you again stunner xo

Unrelated fairy pic that I like.

And thank you to my Bff Lori "Angel" Marlow for my lovely birthday cake. It's not cross stitch related technically but cake making is still a craft. How cute are the little icing Princesses? And the candles indicate my mental age. Bless you Angel cakes. You can't even see the bit that Zac (her beautiful doggie) licked. Somehow he managed to get a tongue under the cake cover and lick all the icing off one side. Ha ha! and Yes we didn't eat that bit...

 

 

Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You stunning stunners for my beautiful gifts and award!

And for my self gifting I bought a few new stash enhancements from the 50% off HAED sale

Darkness Falls - Maxine GADD

Hidden - Bente Schlick

Primrose - Jessica Galbreth

The Dreaming Tree - Aimee Stewart

QS Tarot Fairy 12 - Babette Vanderberg

  

I was going to buy the full size chart (as above) but I thought she looked a little weird. By the position of her left leg it kinda looked like her head was on backwards and she should have been walking forward. But the more I looked at the QS the more I liked it better anyway. Does anyone else see this in the full size or is just me??

Candied Apples and Candy Corn - Jane Wooster Scott

Isn't Candied Apples wild? There's just something going on in every part of the picture and when I get a little weary of confetti - there's that lovely chunks of colour in the sky!

Mini Steampunk iThing - Chris Down

Cherry Blossom Lake - Gordon Fitchett

This is possibly going to be my next SAL with Mrs. Dibble.

and last but not least from Paine Free Crafts

Apocalypse Princesses - Tess Fowler

 

Baby Dragon with Hot Sauce - John R Wohland

OMG how cute is he??? This is exactly the same pose I strike when I receive Crafty Parcels in the mail...

and this is the expression of my postman after he hands them to me!!

 

Now for the stitching progress:

 

I've decided to abandon all stitching schedules, rules and other restrictive wahoos. I find that I spend so much time devising them and then stick to them for a whole 10 minutes and end up just stitching what I like anyway but feel guilty about it. I really do have the attention span of a tiny tiny gnat. 

So I think this is the best practice for me and it means I stitch more as I don't feel compelled to, the only side effect is that I am constantly starting new charts. But hey ho. Remember my motto stunners - "To achieve a finish, one must first make a start" Sounds a bit Yoda-like I think the force is with me on this. 

I have 6 new starts in the wings. So in the next 6 posts or so I will feature the progress on each. I'm hoping to get a least a page finish on all before I post but I will see how that goes!!!

After that I will have 37 charts in my rotation and I will stick to these like glue until I get some substantial finishes. This isn't a rule as such more of a Princess promise to myself.

Here are the WIP Pictures!!!

Faery 2 

 

Initially I was working this chart one row at time, then it went to 10x10 blocks across the entire chart. Now it's "bugger it I'll stitch the bits of the pic that I love first". So as I couldn't wait to reach the Castle, I just...stitched the castle. Man it was so liberating to do this!! I have no idea why I have restricted myself all these years to just do page by page in chronological order. Silly Princess!

I was a little disappointed when working on the castle as I thought it looked quite blobby and wasn't capturing the detail of the original art but then I guess it looks ok when you step back a bit. Hmmm.

 

 

 





 

Where is my Valentine?

 

Once again - how awesome is my new camera??? It makes such a difference.

 

Purple Orchid

 

 

 

Ok the fabric isn't as vibrant as all that, I've been mucking around with the settings but it's much closer than with the old camera which looks like it's just on plain grey fabric. And that my friends is a page finish for Purple Orchid..woo hoo!

 

That's all from me stunners. Now that I've abandoned that ridiculous schedule  I will have updates more frequently and therefore my posts won't be as huge.  I didn't like to post unless I had something worthwhile to show you and as the schedule was only stitching 400 or so stitches before moving on it didn't make for great progress pics.  So as I'm stitching something when I like, for as long as I like in the rotation I should have quicker progress pics.

 

Love you all and thanx for stopping by!

Have fun in everything you do.

xox Alicia 

Going to the Forest and not the Wood



Page 1 completed

Well this is what I have accomplished on my "Valentine" rotation.
It kinda dragged over 2 weeks as I had a swing shift in the middle of my days off and it really throws your energy and body clock around. So instead of only getting 2 days on another project I just continued with her.  I managed to complete page 1 (yay - take celebratory sip of charddy) and a column and a bit of page 2. A bit excited as I've actually made a start on her, that's the top of her pigtail on the bottom right. Awesome!

Fragile Heart

This week is the Heaven and Earth designs freebie SAL (stitch a long) finishing on Friday morning. So I have been working on "Fragile Heart" a Hannah Lynn design.  I need to complete at least one row per day to finish the page. It's a really cool idea. Sign up on the HAED bb was end of last year. They send you the stash chart first and then on the 1st January 2011 the SAL began and page one only was emailed to you. We receive one page every 2 months. The entire chart is 6 pages so with this one hopefully everyone that joined in will have a completed cross stitch by the end of the year. The next page is due in March so I want to get her finished this week and then I don't have to worry about her for a while. There were 183 participants and 7 different charts to choose from. All you have to do is post a few Wips (works in progress) on the bb and you will qualify to have all 7 charts emailed to you for free, even if you don't finish you're chosen design. How good is that???

I was supposed to start Golden Wood this week but unfortunately those lovely ladies in the wood have been bumped yet again to the next rotation. Reason being is that I am very far behind Mrs. Dibble in the competition to finish Golden Wood. So wanted to work on them when I only had to concentrate on them and not on Fragile Heart as well.

So this week will be working on Emerald Forest as I am up to "Other" category on my rotation list. Other is pretty much made up of charts that are not Mystic stitches, Heaven and Earth designs or other BAP's (big ass projects).  So all my Mirabilia's, Passione Ricamo's, Dimensions etc etc charts come under this rotation. 

Emerald Forest is design by Collin Bogle. It's being completed on 14ct Khaki Aida 3 over 1 full crosses. This was purchased by my ex boyfriend back in mid 2009 as he loved it upon sight, but of course I was meant to stitch it. Well in the redistribution of property during the break up. I forgot all about it and so it's still in my possession.  I was going to give it away to someone else to do but as I had already started it when we were together and recall how much I actually enjoyed stitching it. I've decided to keep it. Besides there is no hard feelings between us, but when finished I think I may give it away as a gift to someone else. Or keep it as I would like to have an African animals collection...sigh...someday!





Well that's all for now. I've just started a month's leave so hopefully this blog will get updated more often and that I will have a hellava lot to show.

Take care my sisters and brothers of the thread

Happy stitching

xox Alicia

Still Lost but one page closer to a finish!



Page 1 Complete

Lost in You - Rachel Marks





I managed to finish page 1 on Lost in You! It's beginning to feel alot like progress. I also entered this project in the HAED confetti SAL so killed 2 birds so to speak. For my next rotation it will be another Jasmine Becket-Griffith (sorry Mrs. D I know you don't like her artwork) "Where is my Valentine?" This chart was the very first chart that I bought off the HAED website. I just fell in love with it. What's not to love she reminded myself of me! A little impudent girl with a hand on her hip demanding her Valentine!!! Plus it was sooo PINK.

However she also served in the beginning of my demise. There was a time believe it or not when I was only a one project at a time girl. But I couldn't wait to start her and once she was downloaded I was in my car and on the way to Spotlight to buy all the required stuff.

Now if you get away with convincing yourself to start a project whilst another is still going once then trust me you can do it 15 times. Which is why I find myself in a position where rotations are required if I'm ever going to achieve a finish in my lifetime!!!

I also realised that I haven't added the links to all the projects. So I have gone through my blog and added the links. If you click on the title of a chart in the text that is blue it will take you to the website I purchased it from and you can also view other charts by the same artist.

Where is my Valentine?

 

Isn't she gorgeous?? Got a long way to go though but she is fun to stitch and that's all that counts.

 Golden Wood was next in the rotation but after stitching for over a week on a monochrome project I just needed to work on a vibrant project. Golden Wood is pretty but with all the browns and yellow hues it was just not calling to me. So decided to swap those 2 in the rotation. Will head to the Woods next week.

I hope everyone is enjoying life and only seeing rainbows. Happy stitching to my sisters and brothers of the thread. Good to see some males are into cross stitching and breaking those gender stereotypes. I will speak to you next week. Take care stunners!

xox Alicia