All the Spooky stuff

Anyone remember when I used to update this once a week, now I struggle with once a month, if it weren't for WIPocalypse I'd never update at all.

So this months question is
How do you keep your stitching stash organized?
I have managed to keep it mostly in one room, the office, which is where I watch Netflix and Critical Role.  The office is where I do almost all my stitching because it has the best light in the house. The floss hiding in the desk, but most everything else is in this lovely cabinet that sits behind me.

My printer hangs out on top, the middle shelf hold all the fabrics, and the black boxes hold scraps and notions and my nail wraps.  The bottom has beads in the tower, more notions and floss in the boxes and pattern and magazines behind.  As you can see I don't have a huge stash.

September has been a good month for me aside from the killer cold that kept me doing anything for a week. The month started off with the Mandala, can't believe there's only 3 more to go.

Then it was time for the fair,  I work with the fruit but enter in photography and stitching,

I won third in photography for this shot of Emerald Lake in the experienced catagory, the hardest place to win so I was really pleased with that.

I made the Celtic Cross into a wall hanging so that I could enter it as well as the Fractal,  and both won first place in their categories,  Fractal also won best in show, I had a good fair.









Other things I worked on this month were these adorable little Spooky Critters from Brooke’s Books.  I also started a Polar Bear Mill Hill kit, but there is no picture as it is nothing but white on white at the moment.

 Carla and I worked on the Carla and Leonore's Halloween SAL on Tuesday and Thursday nights, and I finished both the Boo Cat and Velcome from Lucky Star Stitches
The big(ish) piece I started this month is Mr Tumnus, but Lesley Teare from the March 2013 Cross Stitch Gold Magazine. The Narnia series are my favorite books so I've been wanted to find time to do this one, and I found the perfect fabric for it hiding in my stash.

As for What I Watched

Critical Role: and Talks Machina 

Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 and S3 Ep 01-06- This is a really well done series

Salvation - Season 1 - Disaster TV show, the only question is why it took me so long to get to this.  Lots of fun, decent story line and some really good characters, on to Season 2

Fantasia - Less of a movie, more an experience, an amazing one that I can rewatch again and again

Fantasia 2000 - As good as the original but this one includes two of my all t
ime favorite pieces of music. Gershin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Stravinsky’s Firebird

Downsizing - I missed this one when it came to theatres, interesting concept, people willingly make themselves small to save the environment, some parts were really predictable other parts very original

Fantastic Four - The one from 2005ish this one is definitely elevated by having Chris Evans as the Torch,

The House With A Clock in it’s Walls - The screenplay for this was written by the creator of Supernatural, he was saying the book was one of the inspirations for Supernatural and was asking fans to check out the movie, until he did that this movie wasn’t on my radar at all, glad he did as it was excellent.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - Typical in every way, but not a bad way to spend the afternoon

Double the Fun WIPocalypse

I kind of missed last months WIPocalypse. I was in the middle of GISH (An online scavenger/treasure/do good things hunt) and completely forgot about the blog, so this update will be long

July question is Half-year recap: How are you doing with your goals so far this year? 
My big goal this year was to finish the fractal, which I did, Smaller goals include the Mini mandala of the month which is coming along great, I got the border finished and am keeping up with the monthly mandalas without problem. I also wanted to finish the Celtic Cross, which finished at the beginning of August. August to October goal is the Carla and Leo  Halloween Stitch-a-long which is coming along nicely  and hope to do a second one as well.  Final goal of the year will be to do a bunch of Christmas ornaments
Here's what I managed to get done in July and August,  First the Mandalas

Jul

July

August

I finished the Celtic Cross,info on my dA page

I did a super secret project which cannot be shown yet.

Started the Carla and Leo SAL with the Boo Cat from Lucky Star Stitches 

And since Carla and I are only working on Boo Cat during Critical Role related things, I am also doing some of the Spooky Critters from Brooke's Books

GISH even had an embroidery challenge this year,  specifically Create a handmade replica of a widely-known website homepage in needlepoint. I had grand ambitions, (hence missing the blog in July) and got this far

before I realized there was no way on earth that I would finish in time, we only had a week. So I restarted on the opposite corner of the same fabric, it was the only black I had and managed to get this done with about 5 hours to spare.

August question is Which is more satisfying to you and why – the process of stitching a piece, or the finish?
A bit of both for me, though specifically I'd say the most satisfying part is when I finish the cross stitch and move on to the backstitch, I love backstitching.

I think I've managed to stitch more in August than usual this year, while there are no major fires nearby, we have been blanketed in a cloud of smoke for most of the month, as a result I've spent most of the summer just hiding in the computer room watching shows and stitching.

As for what I watched

Tour de France - My annual  “Look at all the roads I want to drive” sporting event. Also the reason I don’t get a lot of stitching done in July

Critical Role: and Talks Machina

Sense 8 - S02  Love this show  how dare they cancel it

Frozen Planet - I can’t stitch watching these, they are too beautiful to see

The Shannara Chronicles  - Season 1- The Shannara series of books was the
fantasy I grew up on, so I watched this with a bit of trepidation.  But it was well done and sort of followed some of the story.  Also Manu Bennet made a fansastic Allanon,

Avatar: The Last Air bender Season 1- I have always had a fondness for Anime and this one comes highly recommended so I finally got around to watching it, the accolades are deserved

Penny Dreadful - Season 1 - My brother lent this to me knowing it was my type of show. It has a great cast and story and a few good cliff hangers as well, here is hoping he already has the second season

Allegiant  - This one confuses me a bit, they said they were making the last book into two movies, (which is never going to happen now) but ended this movie where the book ended. Still enjoyed it though even if they deviated from the book immensely

Jurrasic World   - Dinosaurs and volcanoes, why wouldn’t I love it

The Incredibles 2 - Pixar wins again

Christopher Robin -  Took my mom to this as she’s the Winnie the Pooh fan in the family, and this was sweet as it should be.

June WIPocalypse

Once a month seems to be the best I can do blogging this year,.  But so much to show,  to start
I FINISHED FRACTAL

this beloved thing is done and currently stretching nicely to get ready for it's pretty frame for full info go to my dA page
Since I got this done I've been able to work on the borders for the mandala

And the Celtic Cross has been proceeding nicely as well

This month question is Tell us what you think the ideal stitching retreat would include.
This one is fairly easy, my stitching friends and a cabin on an ocean beach, kinda like this 

We've actually talked about this place, that or a castle in Germany







As for what I watched

Critical Role: and Talks Machina

Weave  - another RPG show from Alpha

Shadow hunters - S03 E01-E12 Can’t wait for the next half of the season, though I hear it will be the last, too bad, they’ve done a good job with this series.

Sense 8 - S01 E01-  Rewatch of the first before watching the second I forgot how much I enjoyed this, such a smart concept

American Gods - Season 1 - I love all things Neil Gaimin and this did not
disappoint, can’t wait for season two

Hamlet - The Benedict Cumberbatch one, I love that you can go to the movies to watch live(ish) theatre,

The Greatest Showman - I still adore this movie

Solo: A Star Wars Story - I enjoyed this far more than I expected to, when all is said an done it’s just a fun heist movie, and the guy who played Lando was awesome

Treasure Planet - One of Disney’s more forgotten animated movies, but it’s a
lot of fun with good music.

Ocean’s 8 - I love a good caper movie and this one definitely qualifies

Divergent - Rewatch as I now have all three movies, still my favourite of the ream of teen fiction from the last few years, I love this world

Insurgent - Rewatch continues