WIPocalypse Report 1 and Other Updates

Happy Monday to all!  

After a long period of excessive stress, frequent sickness, and very low energy, I am finally feeling like myself again!  I have lived with periods of depression as long as I can remember and I generally just power through.  I have always assumed that people just aren't "happy" all the time, so I haven't really thought much about how things are, but this time my down-period felt unusually long.  Coming out of it again makes life so much easier and a great deal more enjoyable.  General chores don't feel like overwhelming tasks and I can enjoy everyday things again, like hanging out with the birdies, snuggling with bunnies, and I even took a walk for an hour all by myself yesterday - the weather is just too good here to pass any outdoor-time off right now.

Other things are making life pretty great too:

- Littlest Sis started her new job today and seems to have had a positive experience so far

- My mom and dad have bought tickets to come visit us here in KY in May

- I am taking vacation on Thursday and Friday to go for a loooong stitch weekend up in Ohio with a bunch of friends  (I have already pulled out the projects that I will bring to stitch on)

- We finally got to stitch over lunch today!  (I am almost done with Fresh From the Garden)

- I finished my first 2012 project this week - WIPocalypse was a good idea

- I bakes Swedish cinnamon rolls yesterday and they turned out all right!

Well, let's jump to it - here is the WIPocalypse update for this moon, the magpie from Madame Chantilly's Keys collectors.  The progress in the beginning of the year:

First I frogged quite a bit of the wing-stitches that I did not like.  Then I added blending-filaments to the dark blue wing feathers and the key ring - a pain to stitch with, but well worth the extra blood, sweat and tears.  :-)  The border had to be adjusted to fit the frame and I felt that a yellow rose was a better fit with the blue over-dyed linen than the original pink would have been.

And here is the finished piece.  I have collected key charms for a few months now - Michaels had quite an extensive collection of pretty keys.  The frame is a key rack from Sudberry house (for cheap from e-bay) and the hooks were bough at K-Mart of all places...  I love how it turned out, but unfortunately I can't hang it up anywhere, considering all the beaks and claws that fly around the house.

Here is a second finish.  The Swedish wool pin-cushion has finally been assembled.

It is much larger than it looks - it is huge!  Look at it hanging from my kitchen chair (yes, my kitchen table frequently becomes transformed into a sewing station).

And a third finish; I did manage to finally slap together the Mad Hatter black-work purse from Nostalgic Needle (it had been sitting in the finishing pile for 2-3 years).  It was a pain to find the right backing fabric for it and I am still not so sure that I picked the right one.  Once again, I tried to step out of the comfort zone and opted to go with a color cotton print instead of the black and white toile that I originally considered.  Oh well....   I am not planning on checking out the back too much, so I guess that it'll be all right.  Note that I covered up the entire edge using beads - I had bunches of fun finishing up this piece.  (I am planning on posting a tutorial on the finishing work sometime soon, if anyone is interested.)
I started stitching on the companion piece, Off With Her Head, a few years ago, so maybe it is time to dig that one back out again.

 

The latest start is the Folk Art Needle Box by Hillside Samplings.  This was one of the limited edition collaboration kits (number 6) that Hillside Samplings and Liberty Hill released together back in 2002.  This one took a few years and a bunch of luck to track down, so I am super-excited about finally starting on it.

Other than that, things are definitely all right.  After a very warm and sunny weekend, we got a chilly night.  This is how I found one of the flocks when I uncovered the cages this morning:

There are 4 small, cold parrots huddling together in the photo - see if you can find them all!  :-)

DH (doesn't he look evil here, kinda' like Dexter...) still claims that he is the Alpha-bunny.

 

The bunnies don't seem to agree...  Princess looks skeptical and Bubba looks terrified.

Well, that is it for this round! Time to get some stitching in before bed-time.  I am watching Back to the Future II on DVD while writing this - "Manure! I hate manure! " Good times!!! 

Good night and Happy Stitching in your dreams,