Catching Up

I’ve been really bad a keeping this blog the last month, I blame summer busyness and will try to do better in the fall. I have given up on the idea of putting Cindy in the fair, she just won’t be ready in time, I have sent Music to a framer and it MIGHT be ready in time for the fair and if not I can fall back on Future cast (Pitaya) she’s small, but she knows kung fu. Cindy will hit the fair next year. I have been working on her and she’s looking great. But all that backstitching is going to take awhile.

I’ve missed two WIPocalypse questions in my lull,
July 2nd: Reality or Fantasy. Which do you prefer to stitch? Figures or Abstract? I prefer stitching fantasy pictures, not so much with reality or abstract designs, though I have both that I love, so it does come down to what I’m feeling like doing for a long time as I do love my BAPs. In fact the next big one I start will probably be a fractal design, though there is a little sea monster that wants to budge ahead in line.
July 31st What makes you pick up a long-abandoned UFO rather than beginning a new piece?  I don’t actually have abandoned projects,
This weekend I’ll be starting the Frosted Pumpkin Halloween design as a SAL with the NCCIH girls , Leonore, Carla and I are doing the same piece and Magical and Ashely are joining in with other Halloween realted things, one of the fabrics I got from the Silkweavers fabric of the month is going to be perfect for it.

As for what I watched, my nephew has moved in for a couple months which has put a kink in my movie project as he has taken over the room I watch the DVD’s in, so I’m relying on Netflix for my entertainment, I can sneak in a couple DVD’s when he’s at work though, also he is teaching me to play Magic the Gathering so less is being watched (and stitched) anyway



Glee S05 E03-20 And unfortunately Netflix  does not have season 6,

Titansgrave - This RPG show was amazing, better than most things on TV and they have announced that there will be a second season

Doctor Who S06 E01-E09

The Guild - Felicia Day’s web series about  online gamers who meet up and become friends outside of the game, it very sweet

La  Grande Boucle - A French movie about a guy who rides one day ahead of the Tour De France

Code Breaker - A very interesting documentary about Alan Turing.

Chronicle - For a low budget sci-fi this wasn’t  bad, though I do hate the hand held camera fad the movies have been doing, it constrains the story too much, and leads to having to always explain why the person is carrying around a camera.

View From the Top - Just a cute unassuming rom/com about following your dreams and finding out dreams can shift along the way.

First phase done

A year and a half later I am finally done the main  cross stitch on Stroke of Midnight, now on to the one over one, backstitch and beading, so yes another month or so of work.

July SFS

July SFS
Spent   $37.49
Earned $26

It’s time for the next round of Stitch from Stash and in a rare occasion, I went over budget, however I also actually finished something, actually two somethings.
My spending was a couple patterns, including the lovely Mucha Belle from Make It Pink,  I was going to get Merida as she seemed more my style, but then the Fabric of the Month club sent the absolutely more perfect fabric for Belle. I know I’ll have more spending this coming month as I’m going on shopping trip on Monday which will include a stop at Micheals to use my lovely shiny birthday coupon.
Finishing has been rare for me this year due to Cindy which I have done very little on this week thanks to all the sports on in July, but everything ends tomorrow, so I’ll be hitting her hard to try and finish in time for the fair, but that’s not likely
I did finish If Music.. Which earned me $18And then had the best birthday surprise ever as I got a Daily Deviation on it, in DeviantArt, my first one ever.

I’ve also finished two of Magical’s ornaments found on the NCCIH website, and the third is almost finished which guarantees me a finish for next month. The ornaments are two sided 35x35 each so that’s 4 sides at $2 which gave me and earning of $8













As for what I watched

The Tour De France











The Pan American Games

Sports fanatic

July is a busy month for me, though most of it involves being lazy watching TV.  Work is steady as everyone else is going on vacation so more hours for me (I take mine in June and September).  But it’s all about watching sports for the next two weeks, I am a fanatic about the Tour de France, which is shown live, which means 5am or earlier starts, which means me going to bed early, even on my days off.  And if that wasn’t enough , the PanAm games have started and I love watching multi sport games. The result is stitching has slowed down immensely, you can’t look at the French scenery if you are stitching.
Of course July means fire season around here and this year has been a particularly bad one, luckily none close by, but we are still getting inundated with smoke, bad for lungs, good for sunrises.

I do hope to finish music next week and will put up the pic then,
I am getting really close to finishing the cross stitch part of Cindy, but am beginning to doubt I’ll finish it in time to get it framed for the fair, it might  have to be next years entry, I’ll have to figure out a replacement piece if I’m right.

As for what I watched
Doctor Who S05 E05-E09
Glee S04 E04 to S05 E02

The Tour De France - My usual July obsession, can only stitch during commercials or I might miss something.

The Pan American Games - GO CANADA

Volcanoes of the Deep - A nature documentary about the hydrothermic animals that live in deep sea volcanic fumes.  One of the ones James Cameron made with the money he made from Titanic,  A great show but too pretty to stitch to.

V For Vendetta - This is a rare movie that I prefer the movie to the book.  I
loved the comic, more so than The Watchmen actually. The world the writers built is fantastic, but the comic got bogged down in details a lot and the movie streamlined the whole thing without losing the plot or feel, Evey is also a lot less gullible in the movie but that’s probably just because of the attitude shift of the world between then and now.

Inside Out - The latest one from Pixar and up to their usual standards, it was funny and sweet and well done.

SFS June

SFS June

Spent $13.61
Finished $0

It’s hot out, I hate heat and would like to spend all of summer hibernating in the cool basement stitching, unfortunately I need to work to pay for stuff and I work in a hot bakery.  Heat make my sleepy achy and cranky, and at the moment cranky is winning.  I had reached an equilibrium at work with my boss, he annoys me greatly but after a year with him I have learned to deal by maintaining calm or ignoring him when possible.  The heat has been making this very hard for me. Hopefully he takes lots of holidays this summer.


I still have some reorganizing to do in my NCC but I did get the cabinet the way I wanted it, Printer on top, fabric on the open shelf, the boxes contain scraps, and notions and partially made ornaments
The enclosed bottom contains all my books, magazines and kits, the Mines of Moria box contains unbobbinated floss and I will soon have a lovely nautical box that will be perfect for the hoops, I think there is room for it under there.

It’s the final SFS for this edition,
I spent $77.86
I earned $12
Which meant I had $84.18 remaining of my $150 budget. Yay me.
There is a lovely LNS in Williams Lake that actually carries some different fabrics, didn’t need much, but I found a nice length of cream 25ct so I will finally get to try that size and I also got myself another couple sheet of perforated paper, can’t wait to try it.

Now onto the next 6 months, where I will do nowhere near as well, as there are patterns I promised to buy (cause they are gorgeous) and I will in the next six months need to get some 18ct black big enough for the fractal pattern I will be starting after I finish Cindy. In this SFS six month period I have had all of 2 finishes, that will not be the case for the next 6 months as I will be doing all of Magical’s ornaments.
And will finish Music

And Cindy.

As for what I watched

Doctor Who - S05 E01- 04  Hello Matt Smith

Glee S02 E20-22 S04 E01-03  Have now reached where I stopped watching originally, it seems to be sticking as a binge watch this time

V: The Final Battle - The second miniseries form 1984 and the finale of the
story. I choose to ignore the not bad but not great TV series that followed and the boring remake from a couple years ago,  Despite the age this show holds up, my only complaint is the fast growing alien child story line, something I’ve always hated

Victor/Victoria - I adore Julie Andrew and this one is hilarious as well as having fantastic music,  It’s about a women, pretending to be a man, pretending to be a women. What could go wrong.

Varsity Blues - I am a huge fan of Dawson’s Creek and sports movies, so
even though this is a football movie it is still a must watch and own for me.  It’s funny, at the time, James Vamderbeek and John Voight, where the big(ish) name stars with a bunch of the standard  unknowns playing pretty/handsome highschoolers, those unknows (at the time) where Paul Walker, Scott Caan from Hawaii 5-0, Amy Smart from Justified and Shameless, and Ali Larter from Heroes. The backup cast for this movie did well for themselves.

Jurassic World - In a word: Fun, just what you would expect from a Jurassic movie including the mind blowing score, I admit to tearing up a little at the main theme, it’s so gorgeous.

Varekai - Cirque Du Soleil - I’ve seen 7 Cirque shows live, Varekai is the only
one I’ve seen twice though, so it’s always nice to pull out the DVD and enjoy it again.

Holidays

This last week I have been on holidays and one of my grand plans for it was to organize my stash better, that hasn’t quite worked out as planned.
Last weekend my parents and I went up to William’s Lake to visit my sister and watch my nephew

Nerd nephew and his dayt

graduate, he’s the one that usually comes up to pick fruit in the summer and we get along great, he won’t be up this year as he needs a steadier job as he goes to college in the fall, so I’ll miss him this summer, on the other hand, his school is in Kelowna, which isn’t that far away, so I’ll get to visit him. We ended up staying an extra day as my sister had Monday off as well, so we all went off for a long back roads drive and found a couple waterfalls and a gorgeous lake.

Crooked Lake

Since I got back I’ve been cleaning out the cabinet I want to store my fabric in, but it has all my CD’s in it, which first have to be transferred to my computer, hope to finish that project tonight. I did manage to snaffle a small book case that had 8track tapes on it and put it to a more properly booky use.  Has nothing to do with stitching, but it freed up much needed space.



I took Music to William’s Lake with me and got plenty done on it while chatting with my sister.

And the last couple days have worked pretty steady on Cindy.

As for what I watched

Table Top - All caught up on the rewatch now I have to impatiently wait for new ones 

Titansgrave - The Ashes of Valkana - Another Youtube show from Wil Wheaton, similar set up to table top but instead it’s an ongoing RPG

Glee Somewhere in season 2 - I’m back to this for a while, until I get tired of it again.

Doctor Who - S04 E15-18 - Goodbye David Tennet 

The Fluffy Movie - A film of a live stage performance from the comedian Fluffy, he’s pretty funny

V - The original 80’s mini series one of my all time favourite sci-fi shows. The visitors are our friends (not)

June (and May) WIPocalypse

Oops I missed WIPocalypse last month, so I shall combine the two months
May question: I would like to know if you look for LNS’s when you travel.  What is the favourite shop you’ve ever found?

For me it depends on the trip, if I’m going to be alone I’ll usually look stores up, but with friends I seldom do. Though if I spot one, I will drag them in. The best I’ve found was in Williams Lake, but a all around fabric craft store but actually had some different fabrics and patterns, and I will be hitting it again this weekend\

June question : Do you find yourself more productive with stitching in summer or winter?

Winter usually, I generally have less hours at work in winter allowing myself more stitching time,  also July has the Tour de France which is impossible to stitch during due to all the beautiful scenery they show.

The blog is a day early this week as I’m once again going away for the weekend, this time to William’s Lake for my nephew’s grad, might try a waterfall stop at some point as well, but I’ll definitely be taking pics of pretty dresses.

Cindy is still going really well and it seems like a good time for a full shot of her.
And I’m back on track with Music, which will be coming with me.








As for what I watched

Game of Thrones S05 E04-08 Caught up again

Table Top

American Ninja Warrior - I can’t help myself

San Andreas - Yay!! New big screen disaster movie, there really isn’t enough of these.  This was a good one, has all the normal clichés, but avoided the one where people are idiots. The people that didn’t know what they were doing, listened to the ones that did. Good special effect and the mandatory things that must be destroyed

were destroyed in fine fashion.

Cowboys and Aliens - I want to like this one more than I do, but I think it will end up with Mom, in I like some westerns but mainly the more lighthearted ones, This isn’t one of them, it’s  a serious western where the bad guys happen to be aliens, interesting premise, but doesn’t quite work for me.

Tomorrowland -  On the other hand this one I really enjoyed, I had to go see it as some of it was filmed around 20km from here and it was fun seeing the local scenery, but it was also a good and original story line as well. Also it never hurts my feeling to watch George Clooney 

Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course - This was made due to the popularity of Steve Irwin and it’s hilarious. Three story lines collide at the end, one is a group of American Spy trying to retrieve some valuable space debris (that get swallowed by a crocodile, two is a farmer trying to protect her cows, and the third it Steve Irwin but done just as his show was,