Welcome to Autumn

I have to say, for me it's been a perfect summer, lots of rain, cooler temperatures and no smoke filled skies, which is rare the last decade or so.  Hopefully fall will make me just as happy.

The September WIPocalypse question is What finishing style have you never tried but would love to do?
While I have tried (once) the hoop finish I would like to do that more and get a lot better at it, also I don't think I've done a full 3D finish either which seems like fun.

The only update I have this month is on the Angel, my backup piece always gets abandoned in summer when Jeopardy is in reruns, so I've just recently started on it again, so it will get an update next month.

As for what I watched
Critical Role: and Talks Machina 

American Gods - Season Two - It’s weird and strange and fun, just like anything by Neil Gaiman

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance - Wow, just WOW The original movie was one of my childhood favourites and this is everything it should be.

Simple Irresistible - This is an incredibly strange rom/com dealing with a heroine that cooks her emotions into her food thereby becoming a great chef due to a magic crab/lucky earrings/guardian angel.  All while finding the love of her life.  It makes no senses, and I adore it, there’s something so lovable about this one.

Singin’ in the Rain - I grew up on musicals, and Gene Kelley is my favorite, so this is one of my all time loves as movies go.  It’s fun, it’s funny the music is great and the dancing is awesome, and in a rare event for romantic musicals it has a great story line.

It: Part 2 - I don’t really do horror, but  I have a soft spot for this book due to a great friend when I was a teenager (when the book first came out).  The movie is good, though I did find it a little rushed, a strange thing to say about a 3 hour long movie,  but so many good parts from the book were skipped, and now I want to read it again,

Sky High - This one seems really underrated, it’s a Disney movie about  the children of Superheroes and the High School they go to , it seems generic but instead it has solid characters and an interesting villain plot, Also this is the movie that gave me a soft spot for Stephan Strait, who played the character with the awesome name of Warren Peace

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow - More style than substance, but a pretty cool movie, it’s a pulp novel style story, alternate history, evil scientist, killer robots, what have you, designed to look like a late 30’s film reel.

Summer's End

Summer is never the best time for stitching for me, though this one I got more done than usual.  I missed the last WIPocalypse entirely and am a week late for this one so I'll start with the questions

July -  How do you get yourself out of a stitching drought?

I usually just let a drought run it's course, I stitch when I watch things obviously so sooner or later I will want to watch something and the stitching will come back, so really a stitching drought is more of a  I want to do something other than watch movies or TV mood, and that mood has never lasted to long with me.

August - What do you have on your stitching bucket list?  (for example, specific projects, designers, fibers, etc)

With the exception of the BIG projects, I tend not to plan very much and buy things on a whim. I don't actually have a stitching bucket list other than wanting to meed my stitching friends in person.  maybe someday.

So stitching I've got done in the last two months is just the Angel, I've almost finished another page so I'm 3/4 of the way through her, minus backstitching of course, I always leave that for the end as I enjoy it so much.

Speaking of bucket lists I did manage to go on a mini trip this summer and cross something of the lifes list,  I went to Vancouver and FINALLY got to see the Celebration of Lights fireworks show,  and it was everything I hoped for.  In fact the whole thing was a wonderful trip.  I splurged and stayed on Granville Island, which is one of my favorite places and a quick walk to Vanier Park where I went to see All's Well the End's Well at Bard on the Beach which has a special on fireworks night of the play a salmon BBQ dinner and a guaranteed place to watch the fireworks from.  While in Vancouver I also got to visit with my best friend and go to the Aquarium, another thing I've always wanted to do 

So have so pics from my trip as well

As for what I watched

Critical Role: and Talks Machina  

Shadowhunters- The final season, they did really well with this series, didn’t follow the books very closely, just really hit the main plots, but they built the world really well and kept the same feel as the books

American Gods - Watching season one as a refresher before I get to two

The Handmaid’s Tale - I had to read an Atwood book when I was in college, chose this one because it was the only one I could make it all the way through without wanting to kill the protagonist for whining, just.  I heard great things about this series so bought season one when I found it on an extreme sale, got about half way through and will try to finish it at some point, but I won’t be wasting my money on more seasons, As always with this story, the concept is wonderful, the people are just annoying. 

Yesterday - What one man does when he wake up from a crash in a world that’s never heard of the Beatles. This was charming understated and fun, and didn’t rely on the obvious clichés, Nice counter programming for all the bombastic summer blockbusters

The Lion King - The new one, again not sure why it was necessary as the original is perfect, but still an enjoyable way to spend the evening

Sharp’s Rifles - The first movie is a series by Sean Bean, I’ve never seen the rest but someday I want to. It is the story of an officer in the British Army promoted through the ranks during the Napoleonic War. 

Shrek 2: I always think I should like these movies better than I do, think I’ll give this one to Mom, it does have it’s fun moments, but not enough to take up space on my shelves.

The Secret of Nihm - To say this is different from the book would be a massive understatement, however I saw the movie before I read the book so it’s okay I’ve always been able to separate the two and love them both,  I have a harder time doing that if I’ve read the book first. 

She’s the Man - A really cute retelling of Twelfth Night based around soccer in high school 

I'm on Time, Don't Faint

It's WIPocalypse time again, and I'm weirdly on time, the question of the month is
Half-year recap:  How are you doing with your goals so far this year?

And the answer to that is very well, I finished my beloved Narnia, a couple smalls, and have done maybe half of The Angel of the Harvest, Her wings are done now and are sparkly and beautiful.

Also look at these fabulous needleminders I got from ShitPostSamplers 

 


I'm also going to participate in the One-A-Day challenge this month which feels a bit like cheating for me. Basically this challenge is for me to stitch as I have always stitched - at least one stitch daily on the same  pattern. As I'm not a rotational stitcher this is very easy for me to do except for the last two days of July when I shall be away on vacation. So I will actually fail this challenge now that I think about it.

As for what I watched

My watch list is a little small this month because I decided to try playing the Sims as it occurred to me this was like playing with Barbies, and I got kind of caught up for a couple weeks.

Critical Role: and Talks Machina 

Good Omens - I watched this series in a day, the day it released at that, sure it’s only six episodes, but still,  I ADORED this show and am seriously thinking of watching it again soon

 Shadowhunters - Season 2 & 3 Now that the series is ending, I’m starting from the beginning again

Aladdin - I’ll admit it, I liked this better than the original

Godzilla: King of the Monsters - These last two Godzilla movies have been so much fun. Also, this monsters were gorgeous.

MIB: International - I never saw three and but this sounded fun so I went, and it was.

Toy Story 4: Not sure why it needed four, but worth it for Duke Kaboom alone, Keanu Reeves is always good, but I wonder if non-Canadians found the character as hilarious as the Canadian audience did,.

May, and April too

You would never believe that I used to blog once a week, now it seems I only manage every second month, which means of course that I'm doing two WIPocalypse's at a time again,
May's question is  -  Where do you love to shop for stash?
I have a local quilting store that carries some cross stitch stuff and they are wonderfully nice people, but for patterns I usually hit Etsy, there is a world of fun there
April's question was - Talk to us about your longest-running WIP or UFO.
Hmmmmmm maybe this is why I missed April, I don't really have one.  The longest running WIP is the Angel of the Harvest that I started in April, and I don't have any UFO's, I'm strange, I know this.

So here is the aforementioned Angel, this was the very first non-kit pattern I ever bought and it was more difficult than I was ready for at the time, so it got put away and kind of forgotten until I started to put together THE LIST.  Funny thing, when I got it I thought is was so big and difficult but these 10 years later it seems both easy and quick and a lot smaller than I thought it was,

I've also started a new baby thing for a nephew's new boy, the pattern is adorable and from TinyKiwiprints on Etsy

As for what I watched


Critical Role: and Talks Machina 

 Shadowhunters - Season 1  Now that the series is ending, I’m starting from the beginning again

The Slipper and the Rose - An unusual retelling of Cinderella, like most this is a musical and utterly beautiful, perhaps my favourite version

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure - I don’t usually like silly movies like this, but I’ve always enjoyed Bill and Ted, maybe it’s because unlike most of these “stupid men” movies, Bill and Ted are always kind.

Strike - A girls school in the sixties finds out it’s going co-ed, the girls at the school don’t appreciate not being given a say in this.  This seems to be an underrated movie that most people don’t know about despite a stellar cast. It’s very well written and well done in general.

Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey - More of the same and just as fun as the first.

Ant-man and Wasp - Catching up on Marvel movies before Endgame. Don’t know why I always miss the Ant-Man ones in theatre they are fun






Avengers: Infinity War - Pre Endgame catch up

Avengers: Endgame - A very satisfying end to the chapter,

San Andreas - It’s a big budget disaster movie, of course I love it

The Blue Planet - I adore this type of nature series, the only downside is David Attenboroughs soothing voice that likes to put me to sleep

School of Rock - I’m not much of a fan of Jack Black, but this one is a lot of fun, and the kids in it are great

The Story of Seabiscuit - About what you would expect from a horse movie from 1949, It is really more of a light romance for Shirley Temple, but still it’s a cute movie, and uses actually footage of the real races.

Late and VERY late

This is not an early April WIPocalpyse update, but rather a late March, and really really late February update, not sure how that happened, but while I wasn't blogging, I was finishing things, so here we go.

February Question of the Month :  What do you listen to while stitching?
This one is easy, I watch things while stitching, all sorts of things, which are listed in my What I watched section of this blog

March Question of the Month:What newer designers and product creators (fabric or floss dyeing, etc) out there have you discovered and recommend?
I haven't done a lot of discovering lately, but I recently found a great designer on Etsy, called tinykiwiPrints

So as stated I finished things in the last couple months, first the Polar Bears from a Mill Hill kit that I believe was a gift from Carla. 

Next a little baby thing for my cousins new little girl, this was frankensteined together from a Riolis pattern, a random violet freebie and alphabet from Peacock and Fig

And finally one of my favorite things I've ever done, while not as big as some, just 9X12 this is called Mr Tumnus, and is from the scene where Lucy met Mr Tumnus in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which is one of my all time favorite books, I even used my fanciest opalescent fabric from Silkweavers for it.  And sparkled it up even more with a bit of metallic floss to make the iconic lamppost extra special

As for what I watched


Critical Role: and Talks Machina 

The Librarians Season 4 - Final Season - I admit that this was probably the weakest season for me, but still a great series.

Saga’s of Sundry - Dread, and Madness - The site these were on is going away so I had to watch them one final time.

The Sword and the Stone - This is a strange Disney one, it’s not really about much but it’s cute.

Spartacus - Gods of the Areana- The prequel series to Spartacus and the only one I haven’t watched before, it’s mainly about Gannicus and the rise of Crixis and is as wonderful as the rest of the show.

Showboat - Gotta love a Howard Keel musical, this one is a bit more serious than some but still, good story great music and “Old Man River” can’t go wrong

The Saint - The Val Kilmer one, not sure what the thought process was on hiring him, but it a decent heist movie if you are in the mood to turn off your brain, there are a lot of holes in this plot.

Steep and Deep - I think this was the very first Warren Miller movie  I saw, they all follow the same formula, dry humour and great scenery, that has kept me watching them for years, this one is from 1985

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World - I loved the first two movies and the third did not disappoint in the slightest, so much fun and really pretty as well

Stomp Out Loud - An HBO special on the musical group/show Stomp where they hit random things rhythmically, it’s awesome

She’s All That - A very typical teen rom/com, popular boy makes bet that he can make outsider girl prom queen.. But with a brilliant cast which I suppose is why it works

Sidekicks - This is a weird little fun movie,  a boy dreams about having adventures with Chuck Norris as his Sidekick while dealing with bullies at school, \

Shakespeare in Love - Everything about this movie is right, the romance, the drama, the comedy, and as a bonus it always makes me want to watch Twelfth Night

Someone Like You - I don’t think I bought this one, I think it came from someone else’s giveaway pile and I took it wondering if I’d like it better the second time around (sometimes that happens) But nope, as much as I adore Hugh Jackman I cannot get into this RomCom, This one goes in the go away pile.

Staying Alive - I never liked Saturday Night Fever, but I always enjoyed this sequal, though I don’t think it has all the much to do with the first, it’s  fairly typical trying to make it on Broadway dance movie. Which is a genre I love so yeah.

Captain Marvel - The hype was correct, this was a great movie.