Blogging From A to Z April Challenge Theme Reveal Day!

It is almost time again for the Blogging From A to Z April Challenge! For those that aren't aware of what the challenge is, you post a blog entry for every letter of the alphabet on every day of the week (excluding Sundays) for the entire month of April. There are as many different themes as there are participants and even those that pick the same subject matter usually approach it in very different ways. Some people manage to complete the entire challenge, while a surprising number drop off after only a couple of days. Obviously, given the quantity of participants, reading every blog on the list is darn near impossible, especially while you are trying to keep up with your own posts. But I have found some pretty amazing blogs from the challenge and I look forward to finding even more!

It's extremely modest to say I'm Disney obsessed. I have Aspergers and OCD...Disney is more important to me than 95% of the humans I know! So the overall theme subject was a given. The problem was which direction to take it in this year. In 2012, I tackled my favorite things at Walt Disney World, from the parks and resorts, to the rides and shows, and even the food. In 2013, I did actually try a different subject, TV Anorak: An American Intro To British TV, but very early on realized I missed Disney too much and I ended up creating a second challenge post on Disney characters (absolutely madness and I will never do two posts for a challenge again!).

If, for some crazy reason, you're interested in reading my previous challenge posts, they can be found here. But I should warn you that I'm not a writer, my grammar is atrocious, and, despite the moderator's pleas for brevity, most are the length of War and Peace!

But back to the matter at hand, I came up with at least ten or so different Disney directions to fly in, but none of them "had me at hello". On a night when my mind was as far from thinking about the challenge as it could be and I was scouring Etsy for cross stitch patterns (as I often do), the fat lady began a'singin!!

drumroll please...

Keebles' Disney Character Alphabet Cross Stitch

Tada!! Thank you!! Thank you very much!! But seriously, I haven't noticed a lot of stitching-themed challenge posts (or Disney-themed, for that matter) and as an avid cross stitcher, the marriage of the two suits me just fine.

A company I've bought charts from in the past, and who I regularly check for updates, sell character-themed alphabet charts. Granted, my dream Disney Character Alphabet was a bit different then their pre-designed patterns, but they also do custom charting, so just a small series of emails got me exactly what I wanted. If anyone is interested, the company is called CloudsFactory and they can be found on Etsy or their website Cloudsfactory.net and they really are a pleasure to deal with (anyone that can put up with me must be given their props)!

My plan is to stitch a character a day and post its completion before midnight of its assigned day (or at least midnight in some timezone...it's always midnight somewhere, right?). Just posting my stitching progress should help keep my posts brief (unlike this theme reveal post). Whether or not I actually manage to finish a character a day or if Saturday becomes catch-up stitch day, remains to be seen. I'm not planning to reveal the project in its entirety until the final post just to add to the fun! Oh, and please don't ask me for copies of the pattern. There are copyright laws at play here folks.

So, here's to another Challenge finish in April!! Good luck to everyone and I'm excited to see where this year's challenge takes us all!!