Wipocalypse #2 - Unfashionably Late and IHSW kinda on time!

Hi Stunners!!!

Apologies for the lateness of this post but I was away on holidays and the internet reception was sporadic at best. I tried to keep up with all your blogs too but leaving comments proved to be too taxing for my internet reception on my phone. Boy you guys have been prolific for the last 2 weeks on the blogosphere, awesome to see. I have a lot of brilliant craft reading still to do though. 

 

Wipocalypse #2

 

My wipocalypse project is HAED's Large Treasure Hunt Bookshelf and Golden Kite's The Arrival of Guests, Venice. I managed to get a page finish on the Bookshelf however, the poor guests failed to make an appearance.

 

IHSW

 

Here is my IHSW effort. Not a lot accomplished as I was on nightshift for Saturday and Sunday night. Saturday night proved to be too busy so I didn't even get a chance to throw in a few stitches until an hour before my shift ended. But on Sunday I almost got the acrobat's pants on, he's still got a few holes on his bum.

I'm going to have to bite the bullet and read the instructions on my camera. I seem to be a little hit and miss with the clarity.

 

SURPRISE!!

Don't you love it when you go to your mail box expecting the usual hum drum mail and you find a padded parcel with your name on it. That is the best, the unexpected but always loved and welcome gift. Even better when it's craft stash with chocolate!!!!

 

 

 

 

Nina has done it again and sent me this lovely little present. I've never seen Ear buds before they are too cool! We are both fans of "The Walking Dead" and the Zombie magnet now has pride of place holding my cross stitch charts in place. Every time I look up and see it I can't help but smile out loud. Thank you Nina you are such a generous, thoughtful and stunning STAR! This Ecards for you LOL!

 

 

 

STASH STASH BABY!

HAED had a 50% of sale recently so I thought it would be the perfect time to complete my Tcherevkoff shoe collection. My friend Mrs. Dibble had already RAK'd Salvatore when this designer frist emerged on the HAED website, so I added two more. I have this beautiful fabric I purchased from Sew It All called Pebbles Design

 

The lovely boys kindly sparklied it for me as well and when the shoes are stitched on them it will look like discarded shoes lying on wet pebbles. I hope it turns out as good as I envision it. So now I have the charts, the fabric...just need the threads and a space on the rotation. My wip's have skyrocketed  to 51!!! 



Paradise Found

Shoe Fleur



 Salvatore

And from Gecko Rouge's Etsy shop may I present "Lady Hatter"! The charts are only sold as kits so she will just have to be started when she arrives.

Lady Hatter

 

I plan on getting all my new starts started and then I can just settle down and pick one at random to work on.  I love setting goals and organising schedules to stitch and markers to reach, but that is just not realistic for me. So I don't know why I set them. I love how the SAL's are helping me get some progress done on specific Wip's and I think I will just leave it at that for goals and such.

 

 

Passione Ricamo 2014 Mystery SAL

 

Also for some unknown reason I found myself joining in the Passione Ricamo 2014 mystery SAL....why oh why did I do this seeing as I didn't put one stitch into the 2013 one!!!! (Technically I did but made a bad error - see post back in September - New Start Fail)

 

The word "mystery" gets me sucked in every time. If I was a cat I would be dead in an instant due to my unwavering curiosity. But as a human it keeps me intrigued and stash enhancing. I love anything where the meaning is hidden and awaits discovery...It doesn't start until March 25th so there is time to collect all the requirements.  Anyone want to join me??? The link takes you to the Mystery Sal page.

 

Good luck to those of you participating in YOTA looking forward to your posts next Saturday.

 

Take care my beautiful creative friends. Enjoy life and may it be filled with rainbows and magic.

 

I'm going to go back and leave comments on your blogs. Sorry for the absence but I was silently stalking you all. Bwah hah hah!

 

xox Alicia

 

 

 



February YOTA

Hi Stunners!

 

Welcome to my new followers, thank you for joining me and all my guest stars on this stitching adventure. Thank you to everyone that left a comment on my last post. I love to reply to you personally but a lot of them were no-reply blogger ones. So thank you to all of you. You guys make me laugh and smile out loud!

 

Now for February YOTA.

I can't believe we are already in February, wasn't it New Years Eve last night????

 

 

My YOTA project is Guardian Angel and I'm hoping to finish the top row of pages by the years end. I have 3 completed and 3 to go.



 

I started stitching the background and I wanted to finish his wing, but I just couldn't wait so I just started working on the Angel. His arm looks a little bit too pink though but I'm sure it will blend in more when I have stitched his cloak around it. Thank you to Pull the Other Thread for organising YOTA, my Angel and I are very grateful as I think it will really help with this project. You're a star! For more info on YOTA just click on the Guardian Angel picture on the left hand side.

 

I also wanted to share with you this beautiful dreamcatcher that my bff gave me for Christmas. I finally got around to hanging it up and it's just gorgeous. She's the first thing I see when I wake up, so I always wake up happy.

 

 

Isn't she beautiful??? Do you recognise who the artist is? I'm pretty sure HAED fans will know.

I'm on holidays at the moment and as soon as I get off the computer and finish packing I'll be in the car and heading to Fingal Bay in Port Stephens. A week on my own on a beach, woo hoo!!!  I'm taking a few cross stitches, audio books and plan to relax and stitch on the beach between, swims and quaffing down seafood.

Take care my beautiful and amazing crafty friends. I'll be back for the Wipocalypse.

xoxo Alicia

 

 





 



#1 Wipocalypse & IHSW

Hi Stunners!

I'm loving these SAL's as it's encouraging me to blog more. Saying that I'm being a tad lazy and combining the Wipocalypse and IHSW as they were so close together.

Wipocalypse 

My Wipocalypse projects for 2014 are HAED Large Treasure Hunt Bookshelf (large chart format)  and Golden Kites The Arrival of the Guests, Venice. These 2 charts are my biggest babies so they will need a little more attention than my other kids. Treasure has 160 pages and Venice has a whopping 189 pages. My goal is to complete 2 pages of one chart and one page of the other during each month. But I'm implementing the Pirate code on this, so it's more of a guideline than a rule.

January Wipocalypse I focused on Treasure Hunt Bookshelf

Progress as of December 31 2013

Full Moon - January 16 2014

Almost a 2nd page finish! I will be working on Venice this week so I will be able to show some progress next Wipocalypse.

IHSW

For this SAL I will be working on QS Theatre of the Absurd which was HAED's freebie SAL from last year.

Before

After the IHSW

He's almost got his pants on now, woo hoo!

2013 ACHIEVEMENTS

As promised here is the total amount of progress from last year. I don't know if I can actually title this "achievements" per se as it's pretty dismal. I spent hours creating rotations and organising my stitching time however, I found that I'm such a rule breaker that I couldn't stick to them even though I was the one that created them. Such a rebel huh?

This year is different as I have dispensed with any rules, rotations and all that. Instead I just pick up what I feel like, when I feel like and will see how this goes! Can't be any worse than last year. See for yourself!

New Starts

Feel the Magic - HAED - Page 1 completed

Large Treasure Hunt Bookshelf - HAED 

QS Theatre of the Absurd

Spiders Queen - HAED - Page 1 completed

An Evening of Romance - Tilton Crafts 

The Arrival of Guests, Venice - Golden Kite

A Coign of Vantage - HAED

Faery Ball - HAED

Vampire Red - Mystic Stitch

Rose Cerise - HAED 

  

Progress on Wip's

Vanity

Faery 2

Purple Orchid

'

Passione Ricamo Faery SAL 2012-2013

A Coign of Vantage (Golden Kite version)

Guardian Angel

Where is My Valentine?

Golden Wood

Fragile Heart

Lost in You

FINISHES!!!

I hope everyone had a successful first Wipocalypse and IHSW.

Take care stunners

Live in the moment and keep singing!

Alicia xox

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