Heh. So much for updating my blog more often! ;-)

I'm now living in beautiful Traverse City, MI, having made the move from Chicago burbyland. It's beautiful up here & my new job is working out well so far. I'm starting to get involved in things around town, so will hopefully develop some new friendships along the way.

Beatrix Potter is still getting a bit of work; just a couple motifs left to go before it will be finished.
While ignoring BP, I've been doing more knitting and learning a lot along the way. I finished my first little sweater (for my Cousin's little boy). I started a little burgandy neck gaiter for my sis, too.

This weekend was beautiful & I got out for a hike with Abby the Dog & Dad. I also got around to dying the lace for my sister's bridal veil. I was worried about something going horribly awry, which caused me to procrastinate on doing anything with it, but I'm happy with how it turned out (cream. not horribly yellowed or tan). Next up will be attaching it to the tulling (is that a word?). Wish me luck!

Geez, you'd think I'd be better about posting more frequently, but I'm not!

Just a few updates of things I've been doing recently...
I grabbed one of the motifs from the Beatrix Potter sampler and made a cover for a journal using Loreta's awesome notebook tutorial. I gave this to my Mom for Mother's Day (she loves pink!).

I've also been working on Primitive Needle's ABC Hornbook. I'm using the recommended 40ct "Earthen" linen from PTP and gob and gobs of Week's threads. Really, I don't know why I don't use threads from my stash that are close to the colors they call for. I just feel compelled to use what they call for, even when my wallet doesn't like it!

Lastly, I'm still plugging away on the Beatrix Potter sampler that I'm doing with the SAL group. This month I've made a lot more progress and I think I'm a little less than half done, so I should be on track to finish it this year!

I noticed two things on the software that came with my webcam: one was a motion detection program, which may finally answer the question "What does Abby the dog do when I'm not home?", and second was a time-lapse option. I tried it out while I was stitching on the ABC Hornbook. I think it would be cool to show the progress on a whole project, but in reality I think this will be the extent of my foray into time-lapsing my own stitching. (c:

Goodness, it's been almost 2 months since I've updated my blog! Lots of crazy things going on the past couple of months - the biggest that my BF/fiance of 3+ years and I broke up...that's my big excuse & I'm sticking to it!
So I've been engaged in reading lots of self help classics & holing up, you know, the standard post-breakup fare.
Now I'm doing pretty well and stitching a bit more.
Saturday I went down to meet my sister & her guy in the city. Arriving home in the afternoon, it started raining and with the evening temperature drop there was about an inch of snow on the ground. This morning I woke to a beautiful blanket of snow! It was a nice last taste of winter.

By early afternoon the sun had come out and I got to watch dozens of birds hang out at the bird feeder while I stitched.

I finally got the chart for the last section of the Mystery Sampler from BBD, so I started working on that this week. Poor Beatrix Potter has been much neglected, but I did finish one big motif this month. The last pic is of a finished DT "Woodland Walk". As part of my recent re-decorating, I put up a wire curtain rod in the 2nd bedroom from which I can hang my stitched pieces and watercolors. It's kinda fun to see some of the finished things I haven't gotten around to framing!

I'm having so much fun working on this project! I didn't get started until Jan 2, but I sat down with BP & the movie "Miss Potter", which was kind of cute (Rene Zellweger & Ewan McGregor). Beatrix comes off as a bit of a kook in the movie, which was really different from the impression I got from her biography. She was an advanced amateur naturalist, making many watercolors of rare mushrooms & even posited a theory of lichens & fungi that turned out to be true years later.

So back to the stitching (c: ...I chose a 36ct Creme Brulee linen from R&R with WDW Lancaster Red. I think I'll use GAST "Nutmeg" for the accent (all the colors have a bit more of a yellow tone than the picture does).

I started with 2 threads over 2, but it was too chunky looking, so I frogged it & went with 1 thread over 2. I've asked over at the HP SAL (http://nbpq.blogspot.com/) whether people are using their own initials, or those in the chart. I'm still noodling it over, but I'm leaning toward using those of our family.

I have 3 pages of Cirque des Cercles finished (plus some parts of the last 3 pages). So I just have the border circles on the bottom half to go! I have almost 2 full skeins of thread, so I'm hoping that will be enough. If not, it will be a dye lot crap shoot since my LNS is out of this color (Waterlilies "Monsoon").
In other stitching news, I got my e-copy of the Beatrix Potter Ackworth School sampler to work on with the SAL group, come January. Not sure what colors I'll use, but after all the blues, aquas in CDC, you can bet it won't be in the blue family!
Drew & I hung out at home for a few days last week while he recuperated from foot surgery. I pictured stitching the time away, but we rented Fallout 3 & I have to say, I'm kind of addicted to that game; Drew & I have been taking turns with it all weekend & it's a very intense game (creepy to play at night!). It's set in the post-nuclear wasteland of Washington DC a few hundred years after a war. You're trying to find your father after leaving your bomb shelter & run into all kinds of creepies along the way (mutants, ghouls, irradiated scorpions, etc.). If you're near water, these crab men "Mucklurks" come after you. A couple came out while Drew was playing and he yelled "Aaah! The crab cakes are chasing me!" and, after blowing them away, "I don't like it when food chases me. You should be crab rangoon."