Weekly Stitching and TUSAL

First things first...I have once again forgotten to post my ORT jar for the month. This month, it found it's way to my Disney DVD shelf:

There was a specific reason why I chose this location for my TUSAL pic...but more on that later, let's get on with the stitching.

It wasn't a very good week, but I did try to stitch as much as possible. I left off on Maleficent here:

And finished here tonight:

It's hard to tell there are probably about twelve colors in there so far, they all look the same. I've now spent 163.17 hrs on her. I really like breaking it down in time frames versus days or weeks. It shows exactly how much time I'm spending on them (and how slow of a stitcher I am).

I did manage a bit of work on the OUAT Sampler as well, but I'm having to force myself to work on it...I might be a bit Once Upon A Time cross-stitched out. But I've promised myself that I won't start another project I've had my eye on lately until I finish this one. I left Once off here:

and only made it to here in 10.17 hrs:


On the home front, we're doing good considering. It's been storming here a lot lately, so Bam hasn't been that happy and he's been sticking very close.

Poor little guy!

As an aside, I tend to see Hidden Mickeys everywhere, but I saw a blatant one Friday on the wall of my work:

I knew one of my co-workers had a Mickey golf antenna topper on their vehicle, but I've never noticed it in this particular "light" before.

Now, back to the videos. Before Zach passed, I had just started watching Disney movies in preparation for Disneyland. I vowed to not stitch or get distracted, just watch the movie. But, Zach got sick and I stopped and, afterwards, it just didn't seem right to watch Disney movies with my baby dead. My friend Kate over at The Suddenly Kate Show has issued a kind of blogging challenge. She's doing lists, specifically top 10 ones. I'm not much of a top 10 type person, so I was trying to think of another outlet. Then it occurred to me...Disney movies! I could go back to watching one a night, same rules, but following it with a blog post/review about the movie. Honestly, I don't know how many Disney movies I have, at least a couple of hundred or so, as well as several TV shows, documentaries, etc, but for the purpose of this challenge, I'm only going to stick with movies. It will be interesting to see how far I can get and/or how long it will take me to finish, but I think now that might be a nice distraction. So, starting Monday night, I will start watching them again and my first post will be Tuesday at some point. At least that is the plan now. I thought about this all last week and I think I'm ready, but when the time actually comes and I'm absorbed in Disney happiness, I might not be able to take it. If so, I'll start either next week or June 1st. I'll let you know.

Stitching

The days are dragging on bit by bit and I have managed some stitching, but considering this update consists of two weeks instead of one, my progress should be a lot better. I've been trying to stitch as normal, but my attention span is next to nil and instead I stitch a bit, play with Bam a bit, eat, play with Bam some more and sometimes I stitch again, sometimes I don't. For the first week, I was unable to get back in my chair, Zach's presence still weighs heavily, so stitching had to be limited to those projects easily stitched on the couch, without proper lighting or the set up to stitch "right". That means the two projects on 18ct Aida, Tartan B and the Once Upon A Time Sampler were my only options.

Up first, Tartan B...we left off here:

and I'm now here:

I was really happy with changing out the blue for a brighter color, but it's now kicking me...the green and the new blue don't meld as well as the black and the blue. It's too late to start over (again) though, so I'll just live with it.

The OUAT Sampler left off here:

and got to here:

Again, I'm heading into failure territory. I had the bright idea to "sparkle up their fairytale outfits with Light Effects thread, but it's backfiring on me horribly. Again, I'm too far gone to start over, so deal I must.

I did finally regain custody of my chair, but I figure it's why I'm so restless, I feel like I don't belong in it. Kind of like sleeping in the bed again...we did try the bed one night, but promptly moved back to the couch. When I wasn't waking up every five minutes thinking Zach needed help getting on the bed, then I was having nightmares about his death. So I decided I'm just not ready to sleep in the bed just yet. The couch is tolerable and I keep my house comfortable enough that a light blanket is fine (I don't like sheets anyway and only use a bottom sheet on the bed...I tangle easily). At least chair means I could go back to the 28ct projects. I would have never believed it before, but I do much prefer stitching on 28ct.

The project that got the bulk of my attention was Alice and the Bouguereau Princesses. I tried hard to finish the row, but got no where near it. I left off here:

and got to here yesterday:


Today I gave up on Alice and the B's and moved back to Maleficent. If you remember, I finished the row last time:

And in an entire day, this is all I managed to get done:

but you might notice a familiar shape starting to appear in the middle, so not an entirely wasted day.

I've been trying to get back to normal. T and I went to see Avengers yesterday and it was AH-MAZ-ING! Not only was it three and a half hours of a complete brain shut down, but it was really one hell of a movie...quite possibly my favorite of the entire bunch so far. It was nice to get out although I was really anxious to get back to Bammers. Now that we are in storm season, his days are even more stressful (he's terrified of them). I can sneak him into work sometimes, but not all the time and I he needs to learn to fend for himself somewhat (although I did find myself on Petfinder more than once last week and that's something neither of us really need right now...for now, we just need each other). I think Bam is really enjoying having all the attention to himself now. Zach never was the "loving" sort and it was hard to snuggle with him...Bam is the snuggle king, even more than Zander was. I think he'll just react badly to expanding our family, at least right now.

I did get a massive shock when I went to our pet page at our vet's office and Zach has been removed from my account. How dare they. Once I have my real self back, they are going to hear about it. Once I find another vet in town that takes CareCredit, they are getting dumped.

But enough whining...it's time to try to get back to normal (or as normal as I can be). I'm still not ready for Disney Reviews though, just not yet.