End of year stitch summary and 2018 not-really goals

Sorry I've been MIA for a couple of weeks, I've been on vacation and have been on computer strike...happens to those of us in the IT biz when we get time off. Just needed some good 'ole decompression time sans what I deal with 60 hours per week with at work. So I've spent the week at home, in my nightgown, eating like a pig, binge watching TV and stitching like crazy with as little human contact as possible. I did get my haircut and colored this week...the purple is gone and I already miss it. It will be a while before I can go back blonde because of the purple residue, but maybe by summer.

It may have been a rough year personally (maybe my roughest ever), but it was a pretty good stitch year, at least towards the end of it. This might be a long one, so sit back and get ready for it!

I left off on Maleficent in Feburary 2016 at the end of row 3:

And I completed my goal of a row finish on June 11th, putting in 116.56 hrs in 2017 for a total of 504.63 hrs overall:

For Alice and the B's, I left off at the beginning of row 3 on December 30th, 2016:

And left off at the end of row 4 on November 8th, putting in 276.15 hrs for 2017 (98.28 hrs in October alone), for a total of 697.92 hrs, also with a completed goal for the year:

For Snow White, I left off in June of last year with a goal of the current row and possibly one or two more rows:

And I did manage to finish the current row on November 12th, putting in 58.03 hrs, for a total of 115.67 hrs:

Oh Night Wish, the all purple project that should be a joy because, well, it's purple, but it's been a bit of a pain because of the combination of the confetti and the mind-numbing white moon. I left off here back in May of 2016:

My goal was just to finish the current row, which I did on November 24th, 80.48 hrs in, for a total of 131.2 hrs:

When it comes to the proverbial thorn in my side, Suteki, I gave myself no goal because I wasn't sure whether or not I was even gonna continue on her. As of now, I'm still not sure, but I keep going on her for some reason. I left off here back in May of 2016:

I managed to finish the current row in March of this year:

And made it almost halfway into the second row by the end of November, putting in a total of 79.74 hrs for 2017, for a grand total of 168.82 hrs:

The last official goal was also a maybe finish - Tartan B. I left off on it way back in Jan of 2016:

And I put in a whole two days this year, the last of which was just December 23rd. I don't keep time on this since it's older than before I kept time, but I don't work on it for very long because I can't focus on it for more than an hour or so at a time for some odd reason. But anyway, here's the progress:

I didn't touch the other two pains in the tush...A Summer Ball and Disney's 35th Anniversary Celebration (which is funny considering 2017 was Disney World's 45th Anniversary). I hate both of those projects and it might take an act of the heavens to make me finish either one of them.

The first of the official new starts of 2017 was Happy Haunts and I didn't have a goal for it. It became my New Stitchy Start Blog subject, but since I stopped working on it faithfully pretty early on, I can't say I was too successful on that front. The total project will look like this when finished:

I put in 90.77 hrs for 2017, finishing the first row on December 5th. It's a lot harder than it looks! Lots of confetti!

The other new start for 2017 was Sleepy Hollow Mural. I've had it kitted up for years, but decided it was finally time and I decided to test out Q-snaps for the first time. I'm not enjoying the Q-snaps at all, but I'm doing fairly well on it. Here's the project in its whole:

Before I moved the Q-snaps over, I was here, tossing between pages 6 and 7:

And I barely made much more progress once I moved the snaps, putting in a total of 117.57 hrs for 2017 and last stitched on December 20th, about one-third of the way through the row, although it was nice to see a purple bat appear in the muted forest:

I ended up buying a surprise kit, The Bride Dollmaker by GeckoRouge (although there is some confusion to the name...some of the documentation says The Bride Doll Making, but it's just semantics):

I started her July 16th and stopped just tonight in the middle of page 4, 71.08 hrs in:

Her face is just absolutely gorgeous close up! It was touch and go there for a while because I couldn't even see it until I was almost finished with the page. I also lost a color...either I lost it or a dog stole it. I'm hoping a dog didn't eat it because that means a very expensive trip to the vet, but I would think if that was the case, then there would have be thread shavings around, so I'm not too worried about that (at least not yet, but I'm still on poo patrol just in case). It had to either be me, or maybe it was the chair...again, either is completely possible. I keep looking for it, but I've already got the conversion specks from GeckoRouge and replaced it. I've actually never lost a bobbin before, at least not for longer than 10 minutes.

I'm going to continue on her until I finish the row and I really only have about a page and a half to go. After that, I'm not sure where I'm heading back to. Maybe Maleficent since its been so long? Or maybe back to Happy Haunts...maybe row 2 will be easier than row 1. I want to finish at least one of these puppies by the end of next year and Happy Haunts would be my best choice. Tartan B is a lost cause I think. Besides, I want to finish it into a pillow and I still don't know how to do that. I don't want to start anything new until I finish at least one of my current projects. I have so many going now, it's just too much. There is no way to make any real progress with so many projects in tow. I often wonder how stitchers with dozens of WIPs ever finish anything.

I did have one finish this year, but I'm not sure it counts because it only took me two days and 9.02 hrs. I wanted to have at least one finish for the year so I picked a small one...Supernatural Exorcism:

I still don't have it framed, but once I do, you'll be the second to know! It was a nice distraction to stitch a project while you are binge-watching the show. It makes it more personal.

And that's it! All my stitching for 2017. It's roughly about 899.40 hrs for the year (still can't count in the Tartan B totals, so it's hard for accuracy). I might be down from previous years, but in my defense, it was a rough year, a REALLY rough year. I'm not going to set any goals for next year because I'm kind of flying by the seat of my pants right now and I'm just not sure where life is gonna take me. I don't think I'm gonna have any new starts, if I'm going to join any new stitchy groups or if I'm going to continue on with my current ones, or where next year is gonna lead me stitchy-wise at all. It's obvious that the New Stitchy Start Blog isn't keeping me in check, even on one project, so I guess I'm definitely dropping it next year.

I am still keeping up with my orts though, even if I'm not posting it. Here is the jar for the year, in villains world:

I'm down from previous years, so either I'm getting better about frogging (doubt it), or I did stitch less this year:

2014 and 2015 are still my top years since I've been keeping up with orts. I still contest that OCD is nothing but organized hoarding.

I will say that my stash is through the roof from last year. If I had the money to kit them all up, I could probably easily do a year or two of starts, but I can't imagine how much it would cost to do that, let alone how I would store them in my tiny little house overrun with Disney crap.

I'm probably 60 to 70 lbs up from last year, I didn't read one single book this year (although I probably binge-watched numerous shows a multiple of times a piece), I'm still just as much in debt this year as last (if not more due to all these hospital bills), I'm isolated from just about everyone and everything, but hey, at least I have my stitching and my pups, right? So this year wasn't a total bust! Got to remain optimistic or I'll just crash.

What I can say is that for 2018 I'm gonna TRY to loose some weight, I'm gonna TRY to read more, I'm gonna TRY to pay off some bills, I'm gonna TRY to better myself, no matter the outcome for me or my family...that's all I can promise for next year. I think, after the year I've had, I'm through promising myself or anyone else anything (at least for the moment). I can probably say with certainly (although no promises) that I probably WON'T be going back to any therapist or shrink, I probably WON'T be going to my 30th high school reunion, I probably WON'T be going to Disney anywhere, and I probably WON'T be building a new house in 2018.

So here's to a MUCH better 2018 for not just me, but to all you guys, who have stuck with me through thick and thin, although I'm not sure why! A lot of my bloggy besties have some exciting things in store for 2018, so if I can't have a good year, maybe I can live vicariously through you guys!

And since I mentioned it in the intro and it's been ringing in my head through this entire post, let's ring in 2018 with a little Take That, a few years old and the video doesn't jibe at all since it goes with the first Kingsman soundtrack (but seriously, how hot does Mark look?), but it's how I'd like best to enter the new year, on a positive note looking toward the future one day at a time:

Gotta go now, time for Disney fireworks!

Weekly Stitching

Well, I didn't have a two day interruption this week, but I finally stopped fighting that expensive American Dreams lap stand and just held the stupid Q-Snaps in my hands. It slowed me down, but I was still able to stitch two-handed, I guess since they are long ones and able to sit in my elbow bend. It's just a shame that Q-Snaps won't fit in my regular lap stand. I worship that thing! I left off here last week:

Along with the slowness, I'm also getting extremely bored with this piece, but I did make it to here:

I'm not sure if I'm going to hold out with it until the end of the year or not. I've almost finished two of the eleven left in the row, but I seriously doubt, at least at this rate, I'll ever make it. The Bride Dollmaker is calling me again too, but I don't think I have a snowball's chance with that one either since I have four full pages on that one...but four pages are better than nine. Guess it will depend on how I feel tomorrow.

This week was also Christmas bonus time...we don't get a lot, but it's better than nothing. If I was smart, I'd use the money to pay on that stupid massive hospital bill or to pay down my credit cards, but instead, I hit up my Amazon wishlist like it was Christmas! I wish I could say that I regret it, but I don't. I'm so far behind on my figurines (and don't get me started on the Funkos and books), but the odds of me ever getting caught up is next to nil.

I had initially planned to use the money to take a little trip down the coast to some Florida shelling beaches, but I still don't think I'm ready for that just yet, although I seriously want to. Who knows, maybe I can save up a few bucks between now and then and see what's possible.

Weekly Stitching

It took me exactly two days to finish up the row on Happy Haunts...the two days I missed last week due to missing bolts. I left off here:

And shined it off easy-peasy:

I immediately started back on Sleepy Hollow Mural, but then I ended up with a massive headache that lasted...wait for it...two days. So I ended up yet another week with two missing stitching days. I left off on the Hollow back in May about in the middle of page 3:

And stopped Saturday night here, wandering loose in about page 6:

I didn't stop because I got bored and I'm obviously no where near finishing the row...the end of the grid row is just the halfway point. I have eleven pages to go on this row. This project is really hard to work on because of the stand. I have to keep my arms held up really unnaturally high and they hurt after a while so I end up taking more breaks than I want to. But the real reason I stopped is because I realized that I haven't finished a single project this year and had no hope of doing so on my current path.

I had been binge-watching X-Files for the Dec 3rd premiere of the new season, but I was blowing through it too fast, so since I also picked up Season 12 of Supernatural the other day, I decided to take an X-Files break. I started on Season 1 of Supernatural Friday night and I'm already in Season 3 (when I say binge-watching, like everything else I do, I do it on steroids). That reminded me of a cool chart I bought off of Etsy. I had found it a long time ago and it stayed in my wish list for a while, but when I got ready to buy it, it had disappeared. It took me forever to find it again, and once I did, I snapped it right up. I haven't seen it again since, so I'm glad I got it when I did.

I started it Saturday night and despite a few hiccups with thread choices and whether or not I was going to do the Impala, I give you Supernatural Exorcism:

The white thread wasn't called for, but it was supposed to be stitched on white and, since I used 18ct Shale (I was going for that earthy, down-home boy quality...or graveyard dirt...choose your poison), the whitish areas looked weird in shale, so I stitched them. I just left the windows blank because, well they're windows. I also ended up outlining more than called for because it looked weird. I used Aida for the white, but I used 12 Cotton Pearle for the black and I really like how it worked for the letters (not so much for the car). I also flipped the car (it was originally pointed the other way and it just looked weird to me).

I wanted to check the wording for the exorcism and thank goodness for wiki fandom! I discovered they've done numerous worded exorcisms throughout the seasons, but they have used this one at least twice so I was OK with it.

I need to find a really cool gothic frame to put it in, but I think I'll take it to work. I like to keep my co-workers on their toes (or scare them, again, pick your poison). But hey, now I can say that I've had at least one finish for the year! I'm gonna start back on Sleepy Hollow again tomorrow and continue on it through the rest of the year (unless I manage to finish the row and I'll move on).

Hope everyone else had a good stitchy week, or just a good week in general!

Weekly Stitching

I know it seems like my posts are a bit mundane lately, but I am soooo grateful for mundane it's not even funny! I'm still in hiding from the world, barely leaving the safety of my nest, but I feel so much better on the inside that I don't really care much about the outside world. When I can't get out of doing something social, I've been shutting myself completely off to get through it, but every time I do this, it gets harder and harder to turn back on. I had to go out of town twice last week for work and by the second time it took me a day and a half to straighten back out. I have to work on that. But for now, I'm stitching like crazy, trying not to deal...which is how I deal, if that makes sense.

I tried to work on Suteki, but she's driving me nuts. I left off on her here last week:

And after one day of stitching, I decided I needed a break and left off here:

But there was another glitch I wasn't counting on...this past week, the bolts that tighten the clamps to my lap stand got stripped and wouldn't tighten. I've stitched with scroll rods since my teens and most all my projects are kitted up that way. I have a floor stand, but I've gotten so used to the lap stand, I'm almost useless without it now. I couldn't get to the hardware store fast enough...so much so that I ended up stopping at one on one of my work trips to get replacement bolts. I wouldn't stop at a strange place in a strange town on a normal day, let alone right now, but I needed to get back to stitching and with my new-found talent of shutting off like a light bulb, it makes it easier to do things like that, even with the consequences. I just have to master turning back on like a light bulb.

Once all was back to normal, at least stand-wise, I decided to hop back to Happy Haunts. It was supposed to be my A New Stitchy Start project for the year and I should have it finished by now, but I've had trouble with it too. It's not a HAED, but it was another project I could finish the row for before the end of the year. I left off on it back in June:

And despite my two day respite, I made it here tonight:

Oh, if I had those two days I lost, I could have finished the row this week. Oh well, at least I have next week! I'm not sure if I'll go back to Suteki or Sleepy Hollow. There is NO WAY I could finish the row to Sleepy Hollow either...since it's horizontal, a row is like 30 pages, but at least it's not dithered confetti, it's just normal confetti and I could use some of that right now. And who knows, since I'm off the week after Christmas, maybe if I stitch the entire week straight, I could finish the row to whichever one I choose after Happy Haunts (and I could go back to the Bride Dollmaker too, although since I barely got started on that, that's a ton of work for a row finish). We'll see where the stitching takes me I guess.

I had to stop binge-watching Charmed. I decided that since the new season of X-Files starts January 3rd, I'd better start binge-watching X-Files to get myself ready. Those Charmed DVDs are looking at me though, waiting for their turn again. Since I'm behind on Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, and Heartland, it might be a while before I get back to those particular witches. But that's the joy of DVDs...binge-watching whatever and whenever you want.

Here's hoping for another quiet week.