If Found Please Return

If you find my mojo, for just about everything, would you please send it home?  I really do miss it and am tired of being in this funk.  Stitching and other things are getting done, but I'm not able to concentrate for more than a few minutes at a time.  I sit down, take a couple of stitches and then think of something to do or get distracted by something on TV which is VERY unusual for me and then it's an hour or so before I sit back down to stitch and repeat so while I have stitching pictures to show, there isn't a lot of progress. 

So rather than try to remember what I've been up to since my last post, I'm just going to go right into stitching pictures:

Before:

 And after:

Holly by Mirabilia
Stitched on 28-count opalescent White with DMC, Rainbow Gallery PTP, and Mill Hill and Delica Beads

This one is actually a finish!!!

Before:



Summerhill House by Debbie Mumm for Mill Hill
Stitched on 28-count Bluebell Jobelan with DMC and Mill Hill beads

 As is this one!

Before:

And after:

Summer Mystery SAL by By the Bay Needlearts
Stitched on 32-count Lavender Swirl from Silkweaver Fabrics with DMC

Before:

After:



New England St Nick by The Goode Huswife
Stitched on 35-count Onyx from Weeks Dye Works with NPI  

 And finally:

Before:

And after:

Japanese Octagonal Box by Chatelaine
Stitched on 32-count Light Blue Belfast with NPI, Petite Treasure Braid, Gloriana, Wildflowers and Delica beads

 I have already started thinking about my 2013 stitching plans.  They will certainly feature fewer projects but I am enjoying the structure of my rotation just as I am enjoying all the projects that I have in it, but I would like to see more progress on fewer pieces than just a little on a lot.  It is going to be difficult to decide which pieces to leave and which to put "in the wings".

A Good Week

My birthday week was a roaring success.  Lots of relaxing, lots of reading and lots of stitching were done and I have renewed my obsession interest in Midsomer Murders.  I caught the odd show when A&E was still doing sensible television I think they show NCI-take-your-pick-of-cities and Law and Order 24/7, but was never able to watch it consistently.  One of my birthday gifts came with a free month of "Amazon Prime" which includes lots of free streaming videos, so I started with Season 1 and am working my way through.  I doubt I will be able to finish the entire series before the end of the month, but I checked and Netflix also carries it so I should be able to get "caught up" if watching 15 or so seasons all in a row is considered "catching up". I have only once, so far, figured out the mystery before the grand announcement, but it is fun to watch the "gears turn".   As much as I love the show, I always have the same question, "How is there anybody left alive in that town/county?"  And when you throw in Inspectors Morris and Lewis  and how many others that don't get aired in the US and it's amazing that there is anyone left alive in England at all.  I suppose anyone watching US crime drama would say the same thing about us, I mean Jessica Fletcher of "Murder, She Wrote" had to start traveling to continue solving murders as there just weren't enough people in Cabot Cove, Maine to keep a series running very long.

The only thing we weren't able to do was get out on the boat. The wind this week wasn't terrible but it was steady and kept the Small Craft Advisories up all week they're supposed to calm down tomorrow or Monday.  But as I mentioned stitching took place and I am very happy with my progress.  Debbie Mumm's Summerhill House was on the frame.  Here is what it looked like when I started:

And here is where it was when I took it off the stand on Thursday:

Debbie Mumm's Summerhill House
Stiched on 28-count Bluebell Jobelan from Wichelt with recommended DMC

There is a little bit of cross stitching left, lots of backstitching, and all those gaps are beaded and well as beads in the trees and scattered here and there it wouldn't be a Mill Hill pattern without beads would it?. I am hoping to have a finish the next go 'round in the rotation.

Yesterday I started Chatelaine's Mystery XV - Deep Blue Sea. I didn't get as much done as I had hoped as I got a late start, but I am pleased with what I did get done.

Chatelaine's Mystery XV - Deep Blue Sea
Stitched on 32-count Summer Sky Jobelan from Wichelt with Martina's DMC conversion

The colors are really off on this one just like they are with every photo I take no matter with overhead, daylight bulb or real daylight

Japanese Octagonal Box is on the frame for this coming week.

A Start, A Finish and OH MY!!

Thank you everyone for the nice comments on my stitching.  I think I finally figured out the email notification/reply thing it only took me what 1-1/2 years?

We are now having slightly below average temperatures.  I had frost on my windshield this morning!  Now, I know those of you that live north of the optimal climatic zone as was once written of New Hampshire in a turn of the 20th century travel guide will not necessarily find that unusual, BUT it's very strange here. I don't mind changing seasons but I really would like it to decide which season it wants to be and stick with it.

Stitching wise, here's what I worked on this week:

You saw the kit for this one, here is the roof minus beads:

It's stitched on 14-count violet Aida.  There will be silvery beads in the spaces in the middle of the "X".  I wasn't able to start the house itself as I have to stitch this in hand and my hands can only deal with that for short periods of time.

Yes, you read correctly, I also had a finish!!

Marsh Marigolds on Logan's Creek is now hanging on the "wall of finishes" in the den.  I can not get the fabric color to photograph correctly it is actually a very pale green - almost the color of young celery. 

Last and certainly not least, I got this in the mail today:

Isn't it beautiful?  Jo at Serendipitous Stitching stitched this for me.  The flower is backstitched and then she colored in the background.  I have loved all the others I saw on her blog, but not as much as this one! Daisies and pansies are my favorite flower and it got here just in time for my birthday. which I wasn't going to say anything about but since I just had to show off the card, the secret is out.  My birthday is Sunday - I'll be slightly younger than the dinosaurs.

Debbie Mumm's Summerhill House has gone onto the scroll rods.  I took next week off from work I declared a birthday week and what better way to celebrate? so I am really hoping to make some progress on it.  I do have a few things around the house that I'd like to get done, but pretty much it's a do whatever I want to do week. And part of what I want is to start Chatelaine's Deep Blue Sea but I will wait until Friday to do that.

Feeling better and stitching

Thank you everyone for the well wishes.  I am definitely over whatever it was but it took the majority of this week to feel totally better - the fatigue associated with the bug lasted most of the week.  Welcome to all my new followers and congratulations to all the WIPocoplyse participants.  I didn't get to comment on every one's blogs, but I did read all the posts! I am not sure how well this it is going to work in reducing my stash as I have seen dozens of projects that I need right now would like at some point in the future or that I have in my stash and want to start. 

My stitching focus this week was Debbie Mumm's Summerhill House.  It was designed for and distributed by Mill Hill so there will be a ton of beads on the finished project.  I won't be adding those to the piece until the end so right now there are a lot of blank spaces.  This one is stitched on 28-count Bluebell Jobelan with DMC threads.  I was able to stitch all the green on the left side as well as the dog. This is part of a seasonal series, which I am a huge sucker for, so there are three more patterns in my stash which will be making their appearance in the near future. And that is one of those totally overly optimistic statements that I am prone to make when it comes to stitching.

I started New England St. Nick by The Goode Huswife today as part of International Hermit and Stitch Weekend.  I'll be posting update photos of it and Chatelaine's Japanese Octagonal Box later this weekend.  If you're interested in participating in the worldwide hermitting event jump over to Random Ramblings for all the information.