Lots of stitching

It's been a very long time since I last posted. I haven't done any miniatures lately, although j did get some furniture for Christmas for my large dollhouse, but mostly I have been cross stitching. I finished 3 felt stockings before Christmas and almost got a 4th done. Besides those I have also gotten 3/4 of the way done on my daughter's afghan and worked a lot on my cross stitching. I have multiple projects on the go in the cross stitching department and have a loose rotation of working on whichever one is the loudest. Here is where I am at on these as of this morning.

Pansies is working up fast. I have a very small portion of the chart left that will fill in the vase and one flower and leaves at the bottom.

This is Boreas by John Waterhouse, a Heaven and Earth Design Pattern. I have lost count how many times I have started this one. This one is for my husband.

This one I hope to finish and hang in my office at work. It is titled Hit Any Key by Randall Spangler, another Heaven and Earth Design pattern.

I finished the first page of 12 dancing princesses. HAED, I absolutely love these patterns. I have another one I will be starting called Mini Kathleen and Summer by Hannah Lynn HAED. This one struck a chord with me and I will be stitching it with my daughter in mind. I have two projects that I am fighting becoming UFOs, Moonlit Waters and a SODA pattern that I started as a match to the one I finished of my kids. MoonLit Waters I still love but I have been unmotivated to work on it. The other one I haven't worked in in months, so I dragged out yesterday and put in about 20 or so stitches before setting it aside.

And finally, the embroidered phoenix. An Anchor freestyle embroidery kit that my husband got me for Christmas two years ago. This works up quick. In fact I have most of the stump done and the first section of the tail feathers completed but apparently forgot to take an updated photo. It only took me a few days to do this.

On an non stitchy or craft topic I bought myself a 19" TV for my bedroom so I now have my own TV to watch while stitching. Much better than fighting for the living room. As a birthday gift my parents bought me plugin speakers for it and a bluray player with built in wifi so I have access to all my favorites like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Vudu and YouTube. He speakers are amazing, makes the sound so much better than the TV. I think my setup is now the best in the house. Plus my kids can come sit on the bed and play board games while I stitch. Very cozy. 

Another birthday present to me was a trip alone to Phoenix to spend the weekend with my sister-in-law. It was wonderful. Full of laughs and stitching and shopping. I had my very first professional pedicure and I now know what the draw is. That was relaxing. I also made my first trip to the Attic Needlework shop in Mesa. I have wanted to go for about 2 years now and finally had the opportunity. Oh my! It exceeded my expectations. We ended up spending hours there and I could have stayed all day. In fact we ended up at the checkout counter 11 minutes after their closing time. We didn't realize how late it had gotten and they were kind enough not to remind us of their closing time. I will be going back with a large allowance. So many wonderful things to see and patterns to buy. I bought quite a few things but I didn't take pictures to share yet. Untill next time, let's hope it's not as long a wait.