Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone, whatever you celebrate, I hope you had a great holiday.  It’s always a busy work week for me, and them my sister and her family came down, so we have five extra people in the house, not a conducive environment for stitching. I did manage to get the lovely Moonlit Cabin done though, full description on dA

Christmas was fun, no stitching gifts but I did get a Doctor Who mug and necklace, and a photo book by the amazing Chris Hadfield.
Christmas supper was great, Mom cooked the turkey that my sister brought (23lbs!!!!) and I made dessert, a chocolate raspberry trifle

I did mange to get some stitching done on Cindy,
And to start the Haida Frog.








As for what I watched,

The Kittens of Oz - Cuteness abounds 

Table Top - Season 3, I want all the games. 

Love, Actually - Decided I needed to watch this Christmas Day, my computer tried to argue with that, but I won.

Final SFS and Santas

It’s the final month for SFS and I have to say that I’ve loved this challenge, so I’ve already signed up for next year, and can’t wait to start, in the interim I do plan to subscribe to Silk Weaver’s Fabric of the Month Club, but still have not decided which one I want to get. It is also IHSW but being Christmas season, of course I have to work most of it, will try and sneak some stitching in, and I should have Cabin finished by Monday so I’ll do a stitching update then.
But back to SFS, this month I spent a grand total of NOTHING, which I think is a good way to end off the challenge. So if I added right I spent $101 this year minus the one $50 bonus I took advantage off, I’m quite happy with this result.
Today itself was all about the Secret Santa’s, I received my pretty ornament from the Pirates Santa and a gorgeous pattern from the Unconventional Cross
Stitch Santa.





As for what I watched,

America’s Next Top Model E3-5 It’s a guilty pleasure

A History of Celtic Britain  - More Neil Oliver wonderfulness

The Hobbit - Battle of the Five Armies.  - Twas a satisfying  conclusion to the trilogy, can’t wait to watch all 6 in order, and I did go opening night, for all six, my record is intact.

The Kittens of Oz - Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Pitaya

I was supposed to finish two things by Friday, here it is Sunday and just finished Futurecast. I didn't seem to be that busy but first there was work and it’s winter so Mom and Dad are arranging their appointments on my days off so I can drive them, so more sitting in the car and less stitching. My tendency towards large project means that I never got in the habit of bringing it with me.
So here is Pitaya, all pink and sparkly, more so than the pattern called for,  I used a white krenick metallic for the tail, crest and crystal ball, and this cool black/silver krenick for the wings.  I also used some blending filament in the yellow area of the wings just to add a little extra shine. I even had a “what the hell was I thinking” moment when I decided that everyone uses beads where there is supposed to be French knots, so why don’t I do French knots (which may be colonial knots) instead of beads in the border.

 So now it will be back to Cindy, and I've only got backstitching left on the Cabin, so it should be finished by next week.

But I did get stuff watched.
Sleepy Hollow S02 E11-12 And I’ve caught up

Constantine S01 E03-06 And caught up here as well

America’s Next Top Model - S? E1-2This was a guilty pleasure obsession a few years ago and then it got a little to campy and too many sob stories, so I gave up on it.  But now that I have the fancy PVR I decided to record the season and watch again.

The Kittens of Oz - soooooooo cute. And they are getting big. And playful

The Librarians S01 E01-02 I’ve really been looking forward to this one, since it’s a TNT show a channel we don’t get here, I thought I’d have to download it. But a chance remark led me to check not 10 minutes before it started and low and behold, the Space channel was carrying it, lucky me.

Mockingjay Part 1 These follow the books surprisingly well, which of course
means it’s massively depressing, in a good way.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - Can’t have Christmas without it. Cause Bumbles Bounce

Exodus: Gods and Kings - Great special effect, but in no way convinced me to enjoy Christian Bale as an actor, however it was much better that last years Noah, but didn’t have the heart of Prince of Egypt. Also they criminally underused Ben Kingsly.

How did it get to be Friday again

I had hoped to get a finish this week and it’s still possible but unlikely, next week however definitely one, possibly two and then I can get back to Cindy, who is having a nice little break. I now have my work schedule up to the beginning of the year, I’m going to be busy, but the paycheck will be nice, nice enough that I might even splurge on the new computer I need. Though I’ll probably wait for my holiday pay in March. If this computer survives that long.  The other new this week was getting my GISHWHES book and finding that I not only got a picture in it. But a full page pic YAY

While Cindy was ignored, the Cabin was not, just 2 more colours and some backstitching.

Futurecast, now named Pitaya (thanks Carla) is also
almost done, just a few stitches then a bunch of metallic and beading and backstitching,






Watched a lot of the kitten cam

Supernatural S10 E07- Hahahahahhahahaha

A Christmas Carol - As I said, Mom has a ton of these, this time it was the Patrick Stewart version, the man has a wonderful voice

The Santa Clause - Such a classic, number two coming next week I’m sure

Pitch Perfect - I missed this one in theatres, which was annoying as this is my type of movie, and have been waiting impatiently for it to show up on Netflix, it finally did and I loved it as much as I thought I would.

I should have got a lot of stitching done this week, and I kind of did. But not as much as planned. I had four days off so there should have been lots of time, but then there was playing chauffer for Mom and Dad’s appointments, and my own Dr’s appointment, throw in a little grocery shopping and black Friday at Walmart and there goes the week. But I did manage to get the season of Spartacus that I was missing as well as two BBC nature documentaries for $13.97 combined (on Amazon.ca it would have been $50 to get them both, more on Amazon.com).  Also I watch the kittens of Tiny Kittens a lot, like hours for most evenings. They are just too cute not to.

The big news, I finished page 2 of Cindy, just two days after the one year anniversary of her start,

then I put her down and got hooked on Futurecast, I think she’ll forgive me. The pewterish metallic I got is perfect though it's more of a black with sliver sparkle when stitched,

Also got quite a bit done on the cabin, And finished Heartfull Harvey for the Pirates exchange, still can't get the sparkle to show up will, but it is kind of subtle




And this is what I watched, other than the kittens
Doctor Who  - Commentary to the end of Season one

Supernatural S10 E07 CROWLEY’s Blab blab blad, and then blab

The Hobbit Desolation of Smaug: Appendices part 9 - This is the reason I buy the extended cuts of  the movies, I love watching these detailed behind the scenes documentaries

The Christmas Carol - Mom has decided it is time to pull out the Christmas movies,
and as she has umpteen versions of  Scrooge, we decided to stagger them through the month. This is the 1938 version

Christmas Comes to Willow Creek - While this has nothing to do with the Dukes of Hazzard, it does star  the same leads, I think they made this just to have fun.

SFS and Tiny kittens

This, I think, is an IHSW though not so much for me as I’m working, all of it, I’ll try to sneak some stitching in though. Also I just tried to make bread with a new recipe, it was an utter failure, did not even attempt to rise, so now I’m trying to make a naan type bread out of it. Who knows, maybe it will be awesome.

As for the SFS update I decided since I was going to be near a Micheals for a full weekend that this would be the month that I would skip on my Stitch From Stash, but then the $50 holiday bonus was announced so I splurged without guilt, plus I found a great needlework store in Kelowna. Stocked up on some fabric, the Krenik I bought cause it was a cool pewter colour, and the lamp... I finally bought myself a travel size Ott lamp, my first Ott, and I love it to bits.  I wanted it, but didn't’ need it, so I’m pretty sure I have to count it.

Sparkly linen $2.25
Angel Blush 28th Linen $13.70
Fairy Dust 28ct Linen $11.99
Krenik   $3.98
Lamp $27.49
Bobbins $3.49
Floss $2.70
Needle Threader $2.99

Total $68.59, I just made it if you factor in the bonus

This week I finished the secret Santa ornament, just have to wait for it to tell me how to finish finishing it.

Cabin got worked on, not that much left, should be finished by Christmas.






And I tried to finish page 2 of Cindy, but didn’t quite succeed.  The one year
mark on here will be on the 24th, so approximately 3 months per page, should be done next summer, hopefully in time for the fair.

Also I started Futurecast, a Theresa Wentzler freebie dragon for the Stitching Pirates contest. Figured I should finish at least one piece by her for the Year of Theresa Wentzler.








As for what I watched, mainly just caught up on  TV shows, because I found a new obsession; there’s this lady near Vancouver that fosters pregnant cats for her local no-kill shelter,  and she sets up a 24 hour live feed while she has the cat, through the birth and growing kittens until they are ready to be adopted. She does it to raise money for her shelter and raise awareness of spaying/neutering cats.  The kittens are now 4 days old and so fun to watch. Tiny Kitttens

Sleepy Hollow S02 E06-07

Constantine S01 E04

Supernatural S10 E06 Blab Blab Blab Clue Blab

Doctor Who S01 E02-03 plus commentary up to E08

Big Hero 6 - There are a lot of good superhero movies lately and this is yet another
one. And the animated short before the movie “Feast” was so cute.

200

This week the 200th episode of Supernatural was on, don’t worry this does not contain spoilers. It got me thinking about my history with the show.  I never thought I would say a TV show could change my life, but in some ways this one has.  I started watching in the summer before the 4th season on the recommendation of a friend who had been hooked on it by her teenage granddaughter.  And when I get hooked on shows I always go all out, I read the books, the fanfic,  interviews and in the case of SPN, watch vids from conventions.  And from those vids  I found out there was a convention in Vancouver, a 5 hour drive away, my friend’s daughter was also a fan and graduating that year so I offered a ticket up as a grad gift, it wasn't until after my friend said they’d both love to come and it would make a great gift that they told me she had dropped out and I basically gave her a gift for failing. But that was the reason they didn't tell anyone she quit, so that they could get all the grad gifts.
That particular friendship had been getting pretty rocky and I wasn't really sure I could handle spending a weekend with them, so I got another friend, Aaron (actually he was my friend’s daughter’s friend and also a co-worker of mine) hooked on the show and invited him along as a buffer. We had a blast, at least Aaron and I did, the other two complained a lot.  That friendship has since completely dissolved, and Aaron now is

Aaron and I with Jensen and Jared

one of my best friends. and this was not where this paragraph was supposed to go. Anyway I met an amazing group of people there from all over many of whom I’m still friends with. To the point of wedding invitations.
I did the conventions for three years, and have skipped the last couple, hope to get to another some day though, either back in Vancouver, or the Vegas one, or maybe even Rome.  The other thing SPN introduced me to was GISHWHES, which you can read about in my August 11th blog.  So SPN also allowed me to participate in world record breaking events, I have the certificate to prove it.  I think all of that could be classified as life changing.
So not much actually happened this week, which means stitching was done,  no pics of the ornament of course but here’s Cindy

And the Cabin, which almost has a cabin now.

And this is what I watched
Constantine S01 E03 Yup this is definitely a keeper

Supernatural S10 E05 200th Episode BLAB BLAB BLAB It was so amazing BLABITTY BLAB BLAB BLAB

White Collar S06 E01 - The start of the final, and very short season




The Quest for Bannockburn - Another Neil Oliver documentary,

Doctor Who S01 (New Series)  I decided to do a Doctor Who rewatch, starting at the reboot with Christopher Eccelston, before I watched the 8th season, this just reminds me how much I love Eccelston’s Doctor, I became a huge fan because of him, before I mainly watched because my mother was a fan,

What a Girl Wants - A teen rom-com, coming of age thing, it has Colin Firth, therefore it is perfect.

When Harry Met Sally - (including commentary)  One of the best rom-coms ever, who can forget “I’ll have what she’s having” Also I love listening to commentary that was done years after the movie was made

Bring it On Again - I own the first, but it seems there are a hoard of these on Netflix, and I enjoy sports type movies, so I’ll keep watching them, unless they get toooooooo silly.

While You Were Sleeping - I think we all have those movies that get pulled up when we are sick, or feeling down or just bored and unsure what to watch, This is one of those for me, can’t possibly tell you how many times I’ve watched this, but I never get tired of it.

Willow - There aren’t that many good high fantasy movies (LOTR is a whole different story) most either take themselves way to seriously, or are way to campy.  This one gets the mix just right, such fun.