3 Finishes and a Float!

 I did a big recataloging and recalculating of my stitching.  I had previously figured that I needed a finish every 11 days in order to finish all my stash before I was dead. So 26 finishes later, I somehow need a finish every 6 days....I'll have to start running and be a vegetarian again because I just need to live longer...it's my only hope, don't tell me to stop getting stash lol. 

I did get 3 summery finishes to round off 2023! First off is a kit from CrossStitcher, it was supposed to be a stuffed hanger with some stuffed strawberries dangling from it, but they lost me at "catch stitch the edges" - I gave up and did a running stitch because that's as fancy as I get, but I'm deeply in love with how it came out:

My next finish is Tending the Hollyhocks by Calico Confectionary:

And then my last one is a Mill Hill kit called Lizard. On our honeymoon, we stayed in Mexico in this wonderful, gorgeous former Spanish monastery with peacocks wandering around and a gecko that kept crawling across our roof, and I've had a soft spot for geckoes ever since.

I took Lizard on our trip to Pasadena, we came up for a long weekend while I helped decorate a float for the Rose Parade again.  My job was taking a tray of cut up statice and pulling out anything brown with a pair of tweezers:

The float this year has a Hopi Indian theme, and the pictures on the baskets are all organ donors:

My shift was cut off early because the florists arrived, and volunteers aren't allowed on the floats until the florists are done.  It was amazing to watch cart after cart of flowers get rolled in, and some volunteers are on mister duty to walk around half the night spraying the flowers to keep them fresh for the parade.  Someone else had the job of filling about a million vials with water for all the roses.  

 I had a chance to walk past a graveyard of past floats - they try not to throw anything away. These scrap heaps are scattered around the parking lot.  The dumpsters have big signs that they're for compost only - none of the plants go to a landfill. The dumpsters are provided by Miracle- Gro, so maybe you're buying ground up float if you buy a bag of compost?

This is the closest to the parade I've ever decorated, so I got to see the big tent city set up at the front for people from all the floats to check in.  I took a picture of the Louisiana tent because my family lived in Gretna until Katrina.  They moved to Miami, which in my opinion is a stupid place to move if hurricanes are your problem, but they won't come to California because of the earthquakes, lol. Aside from a nod to my kin, I also appreciated that while every other float had a generic white tent and food in foil pans, Lousiana had a full building with an awning and a patio and a menu of proper southern food and some beauty queens circulating.  Classic Southern!

Since my shift ended early I went back to the hotel and picked up the pack and we went for a little nature hike. We saw our first bobcat:

And Kuna took a nice early bedtime.  She spends most of her life like this now, this is what retirement is like for dogs lol.

Chugging Along

DH went rock climbing for Thanksgiving and Auntie's in her new place so I spent the weekend watching "Murder She Wrote" and stitching.  Angela Lansbury was such a wonderful talented lady - they don't make them like her anymore!

I almost finished "Tending the Hollyhocks":

"Bigfoot in Winter" has most of the characters, he should be ready to visit for Christmas:

and Paddington has most of his hat:

2 Finishes for Debbie!

 RIP Debbie - your beautiful spirit and love of cross stitch is never forgotten 

This is Nunavut Santa from Mill Hill.  I grabhed it because Auntie needed to go to the emergency room and I needed something compact to work on.  I ended up taking it on vacation and finishing it in a lovely mountain inn. It was my first attempt at "turkey work " and my second try at beading:

The other finish was also from a kit, this came with Cross Stitcher magazine. I don't know which issue because they've stopped putting dates on magazine pages.  The designer is Susan Penny.  It's supposed to end up as a needlebook, we'll see if it ever gets that far, haha:

I also got some progress on Era of the Dinosaurs:

And in honor of Debbie I started Candy Feliz Navidad by Ursula Michael.  I saw this piece on Debbie's blog and fell in love so I thought it would be a nice way to remember her. The design:

I start in the top left so I started the border and the top candy:

118 days until Christmas!

I'll finish with a picture of Kuna on vacation.  I couldn't believe there was still snow on the mountains at the end of August:

Just Made It!

 I had my last post on June 1 and this is July 31 so I guess that counts as posting once a month, ha ha.  

Auntie has started low level hallucinating and she set her yard on fire, so we've moved to professional caregivers and no smoking and she just has to deal with it.  The silver lining is we don't have to go to her house every day and I feel like I can plan more than 5 minutes of my life at a time.

On the stitchy front I finished a bookmark kit from Just Cross Stitch, of a lovely giraffe. It came with a card stock thing to put it in to make a proper bookmark out of it:

I got a couple of more leaves on Zinnias.  I've completely lost it since I took this picture; it isn't anywhere in my house or Auntie's or my car. I've never even heard of someone losing their stitching - maybe I need one of Auntie's caregivers too!

Autumn Mandala has more of the corner:

and that's all folks! I'm off to see if I can find my lost stitching and possibly my mind is laying around somewhere I'll find that too, haha.

 Kuna is pretending she's asleep and not at all trying to eat my giraffe bookmark:

Bookmark Finish!

This is some perfect spring color to balance all the rainstorms we're having.  I'm in heaven with this weather, I shouldn't say anything with all the flooding we're having but I wish it would never stop!

Here's "Blackwork Bookmark" by Susan Penny in from Cross Stitcher Magazine, April 2019.  Stitched with leftover threads from a kit.

DH had a very reasonable question about why this was called blackwork, haha.  It's funny that the    technique is named for the color, I guess backstitched bookmark would be a better title.  

In other stitching news, I'm glad I take pictures because otherwise some of these I wouldn't know that I had gotten anywhere at all!

Dinosaurs has more sky:

Zinnias has more leaves and flowers and it almost says Zinnias now instead of Zinntas:

Aliens has more of the stuff around the blast zone:

Triskele is almost done:

Celtic Angel has more wings growing - this is being stitched with the charted threads but it's on ivory aida instead of the blue in the picture.  It's amazing how much more purple the model looks!

And Octopus's Garden joined the rotation, there's a little more seaweed and border done:

Auntie thinks people are sneaking into her house and smoking her cigarettes and turning her lights on and off - she's definitely getting more suspicious in general, I think just because she can't remember anything at all now.  Sigh.  I'm meeting with a lawyer to get the conservatorship going and she may be ending up with a stranger coming into her house to take care of her.  She hates the idea but we're getting right up to the edge of what I'm willing to undertake in the caregiving line.  Double sigh.  I love her like crazy but I am so looking forward to going back to my proper job!!!

Bilious Birds Finish!

  This is Grave Fellows by Lindy Stitches.  The brownish birds were supposed to be gray, but it was too gray so I switched to something that I thought looked more autumnal but now that it's done it looks a little baby poopy.   It makes me laugh so I guess I'll keep it! My poor birds!

In more uplifting news, Dinosaurs has more sky:

Aliens are sucking up another human:

There's a branch growing through Autumn Meditation:

And my Zinnias are starting to bloom:

We had a break in at my church and had to cancel Ash Wednesday services so I don't feel like my Lent has gotten off to a proper start.  I haven't even decided what to give up.  But it's supposed to be a wonderful rainy weekend so I'm hoping to get more into the spirit.  Who would ever break into a church? Even if you aren't religious you have to know that's some bad juju. The mind boggles.

Two finishes and a Sweetheart!

 I'll start with the sweetheart - Jo at Serendipitous Stitching is hosting a Valentine's blog hop. We all sent her a picture of finish for Valentine's, and she assigned it to someone else's blog, so now we have to hunt it down and figure out who our secret sweetheart is.  This is the valentine I received, I haven't found who it's from yet:

I'm hunting for the one I sent!  This was a design from Tiny Modernist called "Elements of Love".  I was a science teacher before I became a pastry cook, so I have a lot of science-y designs in my life:

My two finishes:

"Harvest Sampler" (just in time for Thanksgiving, haha)

Just Cross Stitch December 2020

stitched on Oatmeal Aida with threads from a kit (one of those big plastic envelopes glued to a magazine that says you can make 25 cards or something and it has a bunch of threads and ribbons and felt in it)

The colors aren't as charted because the threads weren't any brand, they just looked autumnal and I wanted to use them.

"Fruity Gift Tags" from The World of Cross Stitching, it was from 2022 but it doesn't say the month.  This was a kit that came with the magazine. I'm supposed to cut it up and make little gift tags with it, but I kind of like how they look together; once I'm done stitching I lose interest anyway so they may stay together as one fruitastic team:

I still have my dream of finishing a WIP every 11 days, and this puts me exactly on track right now - 4 finishes in 44 days,  Now I have to find something I think I can finish by the 24th!

A Cardinal Finish!

 My first finish of the year, Mr. Cardinal:

This pattern came from Cross Stitch Crazy, it was part of a series of birds.  I don't know the year, the issue, or the designer because at some point magazines stopped putting all that on the pages. I love all reds and the bird was backstitched in white, a first for me!  

In the meantime I've been loving all the rain we've been getting in California, it's great stitchy weather! I cued up Inspector Morse and got some more sky done on Age of Dinosuars:

  

More of the black outlining on Aliens:

Some of the corner on Autumn Meditation:

more of the top of Harvest Blessings:

and I got to the bottom of Zinnias:

First week down!

I've been kicking 2023's a#%  so far!  New Year's Eve we took our traditional sunset photo, we celebrate at sunset so we can go to bed haha.

We knew it was sunset because of the time, but some rain was rolling in.  

Kuna looks like she's not looking forward to this year - I thinks she could tell it was going to rain and she wanted us to get inside.  I love love love the rain and she has suffered through some wet walks with me!

My final TUSAL result for 2022:

This beautiful creature won the "Sweepstakes Award" for the most beautiful float! This is the float I worked on for the Rose Parade, in all her glory! Some of that yellow was made from flower petals cut by me, and I couldn't have been more proud that we'd won if I'd designed and built the whole float myself!

My stitching has been diligent! I got to the bottom of "Zinnias" from Leisure Arts Magazine, year unknown but I'm guessing the 90s.

Got a flower started in "Autumn Meditation":

Started the letters in "Harvest Blessings":

"Winter Cardinal" has a chest:

 

"Sistine Chapel" has some of the border - there are four colors in this space, believe it or not:

I have a picture of "Reversed Sampler" so I did something but I don't know what:

And I finally took a picture of Aliens:

I'm trying to stick with a finish every 11 days, so I'll probably be stitching Cardinal like crazy to finish him by the 11th - fingers crossed!