Almost four years later..

Hello everyone!

Oh my.. It's been ages since I last posted here. Lots of things have happened but I am still stitching! I have to admit I kinda forgot I had this blog, oops. Just recently I started to think about bloggin again and I realised I have this blog. BUT! I forgot what it was called and had no idea about the password either. Luckily, I am still using the same email so it was easy to recover the account. Yay! Maybe I will start posting here more again? I surely try at least.

So, yes I am still stitching. I am still making cards as well. I haven't done many ATCs for a while but I am tempted to do them. I just have to sit down and MAKE them. I have been knitting some, too. Socks, mostly. Although I am not a fast knitter nor I knit that much. But I do buy yarn LOL. I also got my very first sewing machine last year (or two years ago?) and been doing some sewing although again, I am not a master on that field either. I mainly sew small things like little ornaments and pillows.

I may post stuff about my other interests here too, such as movies, subscription boxes (nerdy stuff, mostly), books and games. Maybe a bit about writing as well? Who knows, I surely don't! I will write about things I feel like writing :)

I probably should do a post with some pics, to show what I have been doing recently (or not so recently LOL) but I guess I will make that a separate post so I can have different things on a different posts and not to have everything on the same, long one. Great!

Stitching and painting

I have been lazy again! I haven't updated my blog for weeks again. I have done some stitching, but not that much as I re-discovered my love for painting again! I used to draw and paint a lot when I was younger but not for years. Last time I was painting must have been 2004 or 2005. I haven't been drawing much either, little something every now and then.

I accidentally started painting again as I was bored and didn't feel like stitching so I remembered these ATC cards that I made back in 2007/8. So I took my papercraft supplies and made few cards and I did enjoy it. I also found a forum (atcsforall.com) where you can trade your finished pieces. Soon I noticed that lots of people draw/paint their cards and seem to prefer those, too. I was first a bit scared as I wasn't sure if I still know what to do! But I decided to give it a go.

First I used some old watercolours that I found from my craft closet. I painted few animals and one of them got traded within minutes! I got some selfesteem boost from that and went to basement to get my better paints and stuff. Oh, how I missed my paints! :D I have even started buying new stuff too. Pencils by Derwent. I really love their inktense pencils!

If someone is a part of that forum, you can find me there, using the same nickname there, Hely :) Well, here's a link to my gallery. Keep in mind that I am still learning! I am nowhere near perfect or a good painter :)

I have been doing some stitching too. Here's my update on the mermaids.

I haven't been stitching this piece for weeks now as I didn't have a good green for the plants around the mermaids. I have now ordered one and hopefully it will be a good one.

I also got an awesome birthday gift from my fiancé! He bought me a gift voucher to Sew and so! Ooooh happy day! Here's what I bought..

There's a bear kit by RTO, Meerkats (<3) by Heritage and Cupcakes by Bothy Threads. All of those are full kits. Two charts from LHN and big piece of white Jazlyn (28ct) and white and black DMC as those two colours are always missing! yay! Ofcourse I have already started something, hehe..

Here's my start on the Celebration Cupakes. The fabric on the kit was 14ct white aida but as I really, really don't like white aida, I changed it to white Jobelan (28ct) instead.

This is really fun to stitch! :)

He also brought me some stitching magazines that I have asked him to get for me as I can't get them from where I live.

So many nice charts that I wanna start right now! One of my favourites is Jayne Netley Mayhew's wolves of Cross Stitch Collection. I also plan to stitch Joan Elliott's Victorian Lady soon. Soonish..

Now I will make myself a cup of tea and strat reading other people's blogs! I haven't been reading them for ages.. :( Gonna catch up a little now, hopefully!

Back again!

First I am so sorry I haven't said a word for ages! That doesn't mean I haven't been stitching though. So this time I do hav few pictures to show you :)

First my "wild animals" round robin. You have already seen it, but without my own part. It is done now. It was actually my first finish of 2013! I chose to stitch a bear. For some reason I love bears now. When I waas younger I was scraed of them! I was always afraid they would attack and kill us all. Why? Well.. my favourite cartoons as a kid were about wild dogs who fought against bears which were real killing machines. I know, sounds stupid, but hey, I was a kid :) And those were good! Maybe not anymore.. but I loved them.

So here's my bear :)

Here's also the whole round robin with my bear.

I was a bit afraid it would be too dark for it as the other animals are not that dark coloured. But I think it is fine. Me likes :)

Next is a birthday gift that I stitcher for another stitcher. On this picture the band is not attached to the towel yet. Forgot to take a picture when it was finished..

I also stitched Pollyanna Pickering's Zebra a bit. I added some more black on it. What bothers me is the fabric, 14ct white aida. Not really huge fan of it..

Here's before and after pics.

I do wanna finish this one day ofcourse, even though I don't like the fabric.

I also managed to put few stitches on the "Joy-ornament" by Dimensions. I didn't find the picture of it though. Maybe I didn't take one. I am still not sure what's wrong with it. As earlier I said it looks a bit messy cause the cross stitches and half stitches are going different directions. I mean the top stitches. On my cross stitches the top stitch goes like this \\\\\ and on my half stitches it goes /////. However, on "Southwest Mesa" I have the half stitches exactly the same way as on the ornament, but there it doesn't look bad at all. So, the problem may be on the fabric/floss. The fabric is 18ct aida and I stitch with two threads as was told in the chart. It looks a bit.. bulky to me. Not sure what I will do, if I just keep stitching or what.. Time will tell :)

Then.. ta daa! More finishes!! Whoooo!!!!

Here's my Joan Elliott's Witch that I started on January 2012 during the CrazyJanuaryChallenge. It's finished, finally, lol! The fabric is actually orange. The picture just doesn't look right and I didn't manage to capture the real colour. It's 28ct linen by Silkweaver, called "Inferno".

I left out some backstitches (swirls and border) that I didn't really like. Eyes are all french knots but I tried to do french knots on the dress too. Oh, what a disaster! They were all different sizes and it just looked really bad.. After I was whining about it on a Facebook group, I was told to try a colonial knot. I tried and I fell in love :) Those are so, so much easier than french knots and I managed to make them all same size too, whooo!! :)

There's another finish coming! It's Lizzie Kate's "Snowman '10" which was also started during the CJC. I think.. It was my laptop project but I noticed it wasn't really getting any stitching time, I decided to stitch it and finish it, asap.

I stitched it using DMC. The fabric is.. not quite sure, I once bought it from a real shop. Its 14ct aida by Zweigarth, that I do know. It is marbled, brown. Buttons (which are soooo cute!!) are by Papermania :)

Ofcourse now that I have finished sooo much ;) I had to make new starts, too!

First start of the year was a Quaker. I bought the pattern from a stitchy friend. I LOVE it. The fabric is Silkweaver's 28ct Lugana "Goldspinner". Here's a pic of the patterna and the fabric and how far (not far) I am at the moment.

The first picture of the fabric is quite accurate. I LOVE the colour. And this is fun to stitch too, but sadly, not getting that much stitching time at the moment :(

Here's another start! I started this yesterday as I got the fabric (Silkweaver's 28ct Jazlyn "Seaside melody") earlier this week and it was calling for a mermaid! I was first planning to stitch a Mirabilia mermaid on it, but I did some research and lots of them have tons of bling bling which makes them pretty expensive. So I skipped them.. Maybe later :) But I realised I do have another mermaid pattern and it's perfect! Here's my "Mermaids" by Country Cottage Needleworks :)

Oh how I love it! And the fabric too. It's Jazlyn and even though it is not my first Jazlyn-piece it is my first time stitching on it. Ohhh, soo sooo soft! I seriously love stitching on it. Might be my new favourite. Plus the colour is nice too. I stitched one of the mermaids yesterday and I plan to stitch another one today. I am not using the colours given on the charts as I don't have them. For the mermaid's tails, the ones that change colours. Instead I am using my DMC variegated thread that I bought years ago and never used them. Found some pretty nice colours :) Here's also a pic how the final result will look.

Isn't that lovely??? :)

Lots of stitching and I do love it. I didn't stitch as much as I wanted last year because of my backproblems. I hope they are gone now and I can really enjoy stitching again :)

Have a lovely Sunday everyone, all the mums in UK: Happy Mother's Day! :)

*hugs*

Quick update

Hey all!

I am at my parents at the moment. They are on a holiday and I am looking after the cat. Their internet is not working for some reason.. So, I can't really update my blog with pics at all. I have been stitching a bear which is my part of my RR. I will add a pic of it as soon as I can :)

I also stitched the Joy ornament for a while. I have a little problem with it though. It has half stitches and cross stitches. I stitched the half stitches the same way I would stitch my first stitch of cross stitches: from bottom left to upper right corner. But as there won't be another stitch on top of them.. they are kinda wrong one. And it looks a bit messy.. So I am wondering which to unpick: half stitches or cross stitches. There's less cross stitches so that might be easier, however, do I remember to stitch "wrong"? I don't mean there's a wrong way to stitch, but for me it would be kinda wrong.. *sigh* oh well.. not the biggest problem of mine lol

I hope everyone is having nice time with their stitching :)

Turtle trot 2013

I joined a Turtle trot 2013 and you can read more about it here or on my Turtle trot page which you can find on the right.

So, for this I need thirteen (13) UFOs. That's not a problem at all! Sadly lol. I have lots of UFOs although not as many as some people have. I have heard rumours of over 60 UFOs! Most of my chosen UFOs are from last year's Crazy January Challenge. I started 15 new ones and I think I finished maybe three of them? Anyways, not enough! This is a good way, I hope, to continue stitching those projects. Although I am sure I will start new ones too every now and then.

Here are my thirteen UFOs, names and pics. Most have only the stitches on them that I managed to stitch lat January, lol.

1. Autumn in my Garden (Mirabilia)
I would love to finish this soon and my goal is to finish this before December!

2. Loved you yesterday (Gold-magazine, can't remember the designer atm)
Again something I would like to finish soon. The pattern is beautiful with two blue love birds and a lovely text (Loved you yesterday, Love you still, always have, always will). 

3. Always Welcome (Kit and Bixby)
A beautiful house! I love houses.I love this pattern. I wanna finish this one soon too, lol. Surprise :P

4. Oriental cranes (Joan Elliott)
Yes, I love this pattern too but I also LOVE the fabric. It's by Polstitches and it is amazingly soft and nice to stitch on. Plus the colours are pretty amazing for the pattern too. Yes, I do wanna continue stitching this soon too. *sigh*

5. Victorian Charm (Sunset)
This is a kit by Sunset. I got this years ago. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it and I still love it very much. However, I find it a bit tricky to stitch on dark blue aida, especially now that it's winter! So I think I will be stitching this one during the summer. Wish me luck!

6. Daisy Lane Cottage (LHN)
Lousy start :D I do like LHN patterns, but this is not my favourite one. I am not in a hurry to stitch this although, ofcourse, I do plan to stitch it this year too. Or at least put few stitches on it :P

7. Nefertiti (Lanarte)
Even though this is stitched on linen, I do like it. I even bought a frame for her already (last year) and for her pal, Tutankhamon. 

8. Joy ornament (Dimensions)
This is a new one that I started on November. Or December.. Not sure. It's a small ornament kit by Dimensions. Not that big, so I think as soon as I start stitching it, it will be fast finished. I hope ;)

9. Southwest Mesa (Sunset)
This is something that I might not finish for a loooong, long time. A kit by Sunset or maybe Dimensions. Well it's a same company anyways. Lots of tricky colour combinations and stitching with 4 strands, doing half stitches etc. I started this years ago when I wasn't that experienced stitcher yet. Bad choice back then. But I do like the kit.

10. Butterfly and clematis (Sunset)
I bought this kit years ago as well. Planned to stitch it for my mother but got this far.. lol

11. Zebra (DMC by Pollyanna Pickering)
I am not quite sure why this is an UFO. I stitched it this far pretty quickly!

12. Winter watch (Dimensions)
Old kit as well. It's a pretty tiger and it has some specialty ribbon too! For the snow around him.

13. Witch (Joan Elliott)
I guess this will be the first one to be finished as it is already this far! The biggest reason I haven't finished it yet is the round robin I joined last year. As I only seemed to stitch those (as I didn't stitch that much).

So, lots to do! But can't wait :) Enjoy Turtle trot 2013!

Round Robin 2012

I got my round robin back home last week. My theme was wildanimals and oh joy! I got nice animals coming back home :) Thank you everyone who participated (Outi, Mia, Kaisa, Jaana and Tarja)! Only one animal missing and that's mine.. I finally decided what I will stitch on it! Yay! :) But I know you wanna see the pic now and not after I have finished my piece too, right?? :D

Aren't they cute and awesome??? The fabric is by Sparklies and it's 28ct Lugana. Colour is Barely Bronzed.

On this picture you can see a cow that I stitched for aaaages. It was for Outi's RR and she was very patient with me :)

What next? Well.. I decided to join Theme-a-licious this year and also Turtle trot 2013. You can read more about those from my pages (on the right). There should be links to both blogs, at least I hope so! If not, I do need to change it..

First theme was flowers, gardens etc. I do have some on my turtle-list but not sure if I feel like stitching them (LOL). I was actually thinking to stitch a small flower freebie-kit which came with Cross Stitcher few years ago. It's by amazing Sheila Hudson. I have started it and I changed the fabric (yellow aida to green lugana) Hmm.. ye, I think I might continue stitching that. But not today, as soon, it's Downton Abbey time, whoooo!!!

Have a nice evening/day! :)

Happy New Year!!!

Hello everyone!

I am sorry I haven't updated my blog for ages. I have been busy and I haven't been busy lol. I didn't stitch that much so I really didn't have much to show.

Christmas was nice, my fiance was here and I got nice presents. No stitching presents though, but it's fine, I can buy those myself!

Round robin is now finished. I finished my last part late though. I will send the RR back home on monday. I don't have picture of it yet though, I will add it after I have sent it to her. However, here's picture of the previous RR part. Theme was teacups and I loved it!

The pattern is from an old Cross Stitcher-magazine. Well not THAT old, couple years perhaps? I thought it's really nice and would love to stitch this for myself too.

I made one stitched Christmascard this year! Whoo! Usually I don't stitch any cards, but use all kind of paper and embellishments. But this was for a special family :) (my future in-laws)

Here's also a picture of a card I made for my friend. She wanted me to make a card for her friend, who graduated. She gave me free hands BUT! I had to add a fruit fly. What a nice challenge! I loved making this card and she was happy with the results. Yay! :)

More pics later!

Crazy January Challenge 2013 started again on 1st January. I was first planning to join, but then I realised that I haven't finished most of the crazies that I started last year. So hell no! I won't start 15 new ones and end up having 100+ WIPs one day. I will just continue stitching my WIPs and start something new every now and then. I would love to set some goals though so I could finish more this year.. Hmm need to think about that a bit more. Maybe there's a new Themealicious this year? I have to check that. Missed the one last year..

Now I am off to stitch! I got my own RR home last week. I didn't stitch my part on that yet, but now I finally know what to stitch. So I will be stitching that and as soon as I am done, I will post a picture of the entire RR.

Have a lovely weekend everyone :)