Monday, August 21, 2017

Blossom Collector - update #2

Been working away on Blossom Collector! I finished her bottom half and moved on to the top. Not too much left now, though I'll have to pick up the two colors of bugle beads because I don't have any on hand at all. I don't think I have any of the other beads, but I don't care about that - I'll just substitute whatever's in my stash that's close enough.


Terrible picture, I know, but I'll be sure to get a good one of the finish. :)

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mindful stitching thoughts!

I feel like this year has been a major turning point for me. I've pretty much stopped spending on my two main vices, stitchy stash and nail polish. What happened? A few things, really.

I've been trying to sell some stash in FB groups, which is the eternal hell struggle of waiting three days to get paid for a $2 chart, etc. In fact, last week I packed up most of the remaining stuff from my mom's old stash (which has been in my closet for EIGHT YEARS now) and hauled it to Goodwill because I couldn't stomach the thought of trying to sell it. So thanks, person who took forever to pay an invoice that netted me less than $1.80. You taught me a valuable lesson about not wasting my time.

And I was buying polish somewhat regularly for a while, but only from one brand... until they sold me a defective product and refused to budge at all on compensating me for it, and then they jacked up their prices a TON about a month after that incident. Yeah, no. I already have about 50 polishes from them, 10 or so of which haven't even been used yet. I'll be working through those before I consider buying anything else in the future. So thanks, crappy customer service, you taught me a valuable lesson about voting with my dollars.

Finally, I've spent the past few months cleaning, testing, photographing, and selling my wife's extensive collection of old school console video games. Now there's a product that's worth the effort! Fast sellers, good prices, happy customers. It's been a pleasure to watch items fly out the door and to reclaim the space those boxes were taking up! Plus we've made enough to rebuild our savings after the mountain of expenses we've faced recently.

Letting go of things has been more fun than piling them up. That feeling of success is absolutely keeping me from buying stuff I don't need. Sure, I'll look at pretty fabrics and threads and feel drawn to them, but I don't feel the need to own them. I can admire them from a distance. :)

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Blossom Collector - update #1

Because when the going gets tough, the tough start a new project, right?

Renaissance Mermaid has been put in time out for a little while to give my eyes a break. Over-one skin looks great, but it's hugely time consuming and can be frustrating. I wanted to stitch, but I didn't feel like working on skin, so I dove into the Mira bucket and pulled out Blossom Collector. I wanted something small and simple, and she fits the bill.

Progress so far:


Not super exciting, but that's her entire skirt complete in three days. I've been stitching a LOT now that I have something simple to work on. I'll probably keep going with her until she's finished, then swap back to the mermaid of doom.

Oh, and I never posted about the swap I did with Kim of Wisdom with Needle and Thread! The swap event was organized by Kaye of Kitten Stitching, and the theme was Christmas in July.

Here's the ornaments we made for each other! I stitched the partridge for Kim and received the pretty holiday house in return. :)


There was also a snack of shortbread cookies, but those are long gone. :p

Working on the swap ornament made me want to finish some of my other smalls into ornaments, but as usual, I gave up on that idea after gluing my fingers together multiple times during the construction process. Whoops. Some day, I'll master finishing skills. Of course, that means I need to stop procrastinating and start practicing... sigh.

Friday, August 11, 2017

Renaissance Mermaid - update #5

This is such a bad idea.


This is... what, not even 20% of her skin? Am I ever going to finish? Seriously tempted to work on something else for a bit to give my eyes/hands/soul a break, but the time I spend on other projects is time not spent on this one, which will make it take even longer to finish.

It'll be worth it in the end. That's what I'm telling myself.

Now if only I actually framed and displayed my stuff, then it would be really worth it! I've been saving up but haven't pulled the trigger on buying frames yet. Mainly because my wife and I do the framing ourselves to save a ton of money, and doing it right is tedious. Like over one skin. :p

Monday, August 07, 2017

Renaissance Mermaid - update #4

Oops, I haven't posted in two weeks! Time flies, I guess. I haven't been stitching as much as usual because I've been busy with decluttering, but I did manage to finish Renaissance Mermaid's tail, including removing and restitching the blue areas.


That fin is a LOT bigger than you think it is, haha...

My goal for this week is to finish up the rest of her hair (I've already done a bunch more since taking this pic!) and then get started on the dreaded over-one skin. Probably. I mean, I'm assuming I'm going to do it that way even though it's a pain, so why fight it? I dunno. We'll see. :p