Top 5 Tuesdays - Water-themed charts

Kate keeps coming up with some great topics, but boy have they been hard ones! Obviously, I've already shown quite a few water-themed charts in previous Top 5s, so I'm going to try to find different ones to show from my stash.

Obviously, I love Neni Designs and anything Disney, so I have several variations on the Haunted Mansion Stretching Portraits theme:



I also have a couple of her classic Mickey versus modern Mickey with a water theme:



On the HAED front, despite the couple I've already shown in previous Top 5s, there are several in my stash that are water-themed, most notably Dennis Lewan's Mystic Manor (my IDEAL home location):

And, although not truly water, but rather liquid-based, The Perfect Poison by Annie Rodrigue (which has been on my mind lately due to the annoyance of several co-workers):


I have all the DoNa Stitches Princesses (so far), but I would consider three of them water-themed (especially if I think like Kate and count Frozen):



(I prefer the version with Anna facing Kristoff simply because it at least makes me feel better about the whole Disney feminist movement crap)

And finally, I have all the Disney Dream kits (excluding Rapunzel, but it's just a matter of time), all of which have water in them somewhere, as well as their Etsy counterparts (along with ones not released in kit for yet), but I don't think I need to list all of them here since I kind of got carried away with the other four pics!

Stitching Update and Stuff

I so wanted to get a ton done on Night Wish this week, but it didn't happen. I left off here last week:

And barely made it to here:

I had such high hopes. I started back on Happy Haunts on Saturday, but again, my brain wouldn't stop long enough to get any real progress made and I didn't even touch it today. I do have a couple more days until the end of the month though, so I'm not completely screwed for the New Stitchy Start Blog. Then, I guess it will be time to go back to Maleficent for a week or so.

Life-wise, all my hard work paid off...I got a long-overdue and much deserved raise! But everything always comes with a price for me because they've decided they don't like my title...one I've had for four years, and since they haven't bothered to upgrade my job description back when I left the transcription department, my job title is now on the debating table. I almost just want to tell them that they can keep their raise if I can have my I.T. Director title back. Right now, I'm pushing for I.T. systems Admin, but I'm not sure it's a go yet.

I also had another life-changing event happen...my Sister and Brother-in-Law offered to give me the money to pay off my trailer so I can focus on my credit cards and get even closer to getting a new/real house. I was going to tell them no, but I received an unexpected visitor that reminded me that as long as I'm living here, I'll never be really safe. That is a story for another day, so I accepted their offer and FedEx'ed the check on Friday. My Scottish pride has taken a big kick, but sometimes I have to try to focus on the bigger picture (and maybe if I keep repeating that enough, I'll actually start to believe it). I'm so grateful to them and ashamed to face them at the same time.

Since the April A to Z Blogging Challenge is going Facebook-based this year, I may not be participating in it. I haven't missed being on FB since I started blogging and I have no desire to ever get back on it again. Besides, with the way work and life has been going, maybe it should skip it this year, although I did already had a project picked out to work on. I like traditions and the April A to Z has been one of my favorite ones for the past several years. Maybe I'll just do it on my own without the FB participation.

There is so much crap running through my brain right now, I just want everything to stop for a while. Good thing I go back to the shrink on Tuesday.

Top 5 Tuesdays - Food-themed charts

I don't typically do food-themed charts simply because I have enough trouble controlling my food intake, I don't need a constant reminder of what I "could" be eating. I guess most Disney characters are edible (ducks, cows, mice, chipmunks) but since that's pretty much a cardinal sin, let's just not go any further in that line of thought!

Initially, I had decided that the mice-themed charts were kitchen-bound and Kitchen Fun hung in my kitchen for years until my ex-husband broke it:

But I did complete the second one, which is also food-themed:


At one point, I decided that my kitchen had a "wine/grape" theme, so I did have a couple of charts/kits that were meant for kitchen use:

And, of course:


Other than the numerous charts that have pumpkins in them (due to my Halloween obsession), about the only other food-themed chart I have is one of my newest acquisitions, Pomegranate Girl by Addict2CrossStitch:

Good thing we are only Top 5'ing instead of 10's! I do have some food-themed charts on my HAED wishlist, but I'm in no hurry to get any of them right now.

Stitching Update

Talk about your crazy weeks! So much happened both professionally and personally, it definitely affected my stitching. I picked up Night Wish, which I haven't touched since May of last year:

I should have gotten a lot farther, but I only managed to get here:

I'm going to go ahead and keep on working on her this week and then switch to Happy Haunts for the weekend and the rest of the month for A New Stitchy Start Blog. I need to at least feel like I've made a full week's worth of progress on Night Wish and I'm just not feeling it now and, considering everything, I'm not sure I can do much better this week either.

As far as work and personal, I'm in avoidance mode right now. Everything is just blowing up my brain. I guess I need to focus on the really important things:

Top 5 Tuesdays Catch Up - Stitching BAPs

When it comes to BAPs, I think they are a matter of opinion...what constitutes too big? At one point, before super-sized, max color HAEDs, I had tons I thought of as BAPs, but now those projects are just routine! When it comes to my stash, I've got TONS of BAPs, and it was hard just to pick five...so technically I'm not, but I am going to divide them into five groups.

The Disney Haunted Mansion Stretching Portraits (the Disney World versions)

One of these days, when I find the perfect cross stitch software, I'm going to chart these up and stitch them as big as I can and it's probably my ultimate cross stitch goal. I have technically charted them dozens of times, but I just haven't got them "perfect" yet, so I keep trying different software.

HAED Impossibilium

I've had this in my stash forever, but when the super-sized version came out, I knew I needed to replace my version. This is just one of those pictures that needs to be large for detail purposes.

ZAnna Cross Stitch - World of Disney

I had already purchased this pattern from Neni Designs, but this one was bigger and more detailed (sense a pattern here?). What I didn't realize until I downloaded it is that it's 222 pages worth of bigger!

HAED Little Dreamers Tree

Don't let the title fool you, this is a SS/MC chart and it's HUGE!

HAED Aimee Stewart Bookshelves
I don't have all the bookshelves, but I have the ones I like. Problem is, I started buying them before the SS MC versions, so I've had to start to replace them with their SS/MC counterparts so that they all match. I kind of wish I could trade in the older versions for the ones I want so that they don't go to waste, but I guess that's what stash buying is all about. Here are the ones I have in both SS/MC versions:
Museum Shelf:

A Stitching Shelf:


These I have in SS version, but I still have to replace with the SS/MC version (and not all of them have a SS/MC version yet):
Heroes and Heroines:

The Secret Garden:

Treasure Hunt Bookshelf:

and Wine Shelf:

Even if I buy a house in the future and I have tons of wall space, I still seriously doubt that there will ever be enough wall space to fit these bookshelves on! Maybe I'll have to rotate them out over the mantle or something!

Top 5 Tuesdays Catch Up - Romantic Charts

I got a bit behind on my Top 5 Tuesdays, so I want to make it up to Kate by doing a couple of catch up posts! It's hard for a long-divorced person to be the romantic type...my version of "romance" tends to lean in the forlorn type or the Disney Princess type (back before the whole "independent female princess" mentality...don't get me started). My stash tends to reflect this. I have a ton of Sleeping Beauty themed charts and all the Disney Dream kits (well, I haven't bought Rapunzel yet, but it's just a matter of time and money), but there are some of the forlorn nature as well.

My HAED stash is only rivaled by my Neni Design stash, so obviously, let's start with those:


Another Neni Design chart showcases all the legendary Disney romances, so I had to have this one as well:


I initially bought this chart from Neni Design, but Addict to Cross Stitch had a much bigger (and more detailed) version, so I bought it again from her:


It's no secret that my favorite Jane Austen is Persuasion (yep, I'll take Wentworth over Darcy any day) and, for some reason, this HAED chart by Chris Ortega, The Darkest Hour, makes me think of Anne Elliot pining over her lost Wentworth:


I also have a huge thing for Hamlet's Ophelia...I related to her a lot as a young girl, so I'm always looking for Ophelia-themed stitches, and my favorite is HAED's Jasmine Becket-Griffith's Ophelia:


Tomorrow, I'll do the BAP Top 5 and then I think I'll be caught up!

Top 5 Tuesdays - Animal Charts

I've GOT to do a Top 5 catch up post, but until then, I can at least do today's theme...Animal Charts. To be honest, I don't tend to buy animal charts, unless they are something to do with an animal in the Disney character catalog, but I still have some in my stash (although not many). I debated on a wishlist-type list of animal charts, but again, it's still along the same lines, so I might as well deal with what I already have.

Can a genetically engineered alien be considered an animal? I'm not sure, but since he "hides" as a dog, then he is in my book, so I'm going with A Neni Design - Stitch Vacation:


I'm not a cat person (I'm very allergic), but I have always had a thing for Lucifer from Cinderella (Lucifee...zoom zoom). But once the live action Alice in Wonderland came out and Stephen Fry (whom I adore) voiced the Cheshire Cat, I've had a new-found affinity for that one too, hence yet another Neni Design:


One Christmas, I tried to get my mother and Sister involved in stitching, so I bought them both a HAED pattern...it backfired because neither one of them was interested, but I got two new items to my stash. My mother has a thing for Teddy Bears, so I thought this one would be cute - HAED Feeling Better:


Obviously, any chance to stitch something Disney appeals to me, and the second I saw this pattern from Neni Designs, I had to have it...my favorite man surrounded by my favorite animals:


One of the first kits I ever finished as an adult was the Design Works Mice series Kitchen Fun. It's gotten old and my ex-husband dropped the frame and broke it, cutting the fabric in such a way that I am literally going to have to do it over to be able to reframe it anyway, but I'm still pretty proud of it considering the hell that was happening in my life at the time:

I also have most of the other matching kits, one of which I've finished - Tea Time:

Christmas is Sew Special:

Sew Mice To Be Your Friend:

Have A Mice Day:

And a replacement for Kitchen Fun:

The goal is to finish them all and get them framed altogether (so they match perfectly), but who knows when or even if I'll ever get them done!

Granted, that's more than five, but I couldn't very well split up a set, right?

Stitching Update

This week was a bit easier work-wise (and yes, I'm well aware I probably just jinxed myself), so I did manage a bit more stitching. I left off here last week:

And ended here tonight:

I'm not a huge fan of the sparkle thread in her eyes, but I'm afraid that the fabric is too soft to frog it, so I'm letting it sink in a bit to see if it's worth the trouble or not.

Next week I'm going to start back on Night Wish. I know I've got to get back to Maleficent, but I'm just not ready for all the dithering just yet.

At least Bugsy FINALLY gets a haircut this week. Maybe by next weekend, the new brothers will look more like brothers!

Stitching Update

I've posted my update on Happy Haunts over at A New Stitchy Start Blog. I didn't get as far as I wanted (thanks to work), but things have to calm down eventually, right?

I picked Snow White back up again last night and she'll be my rotation piece for the next week or so. I left off on her last June:

And didn't get very far, but it's been hard to focus this weekend:


All is fabulous in pup-ville...Bugsy got a clean bill of health (well, other than the heartworm problem) and he and Bam are getting along great!