Monday, October 31, 2016

smalls SAL & monthly goals!

Just like last month, I'm combining these two posts into one. :)

It was a successful month for smalls, though I haven't stitched much at all since my last update, so I don't have anything new to show. Still, I finished five smalls and that's not too bad! Here's a collage since showing them all individually again would be overkill. :p


And more to come next month, of course!

~~~

On the goals front, things were not quite as successful...

- blog about progress once a week - NO
- finish Bride's Tree Ornament #10 - YES
- start/finish at least three other small projects! - YES
- NO craft/stash shopping - NO

I'm glad that I got all the stitching done earlier in the month so my goals wouldn't be a total bust!

I haven't been posting because I haven't been stitching... and I haven't been stitching because I've spent most of the month moping around while my wife was away on an international business trip. I didn't have the energy or drive to do anything, really, so... yeah. Bit of a letdown there.

Also, I had planned to break my shopping ban, using only money earned from selling things from my stash, but... yeah. I didn't do that badly on the stitchy stash front, to be honest (even returned an expensive item that wasn't right for me) but there was other recreational shopping going on, and that can't be allowed to continue.

So, I've joined the warmup for the Stitch from Stash FB group, which means my no-buy starts NOW instead of at the beginning of the year, and it extends through June 2017. I'm also on a no-buy for nail polish and makeup items for the remainder of 2016. These are my three problem areas, and since moderation isn't working for me, time to go cold turkey. Wish me luck! :)

My new goals for November!

- blog about progress once a week
- finish Bride's Tree Ornament #11
- start/finish at least three other small projects!
- comb through stash again and pull out things I no longer want to stitch
- NO craft/stash shopping, for real, NO exceptions, even if I sell things!

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Bride's Tree Ornament #10

Yet another little finish for the month! Here's the tenth Bride's Tree Ornament, one of my favorites so far! I love the look of this pretty pinecone.


Sorry about the relatively awful photo, it's late here.

As always, I'll be adding the beads later on, so I'm calling this done for now! :)

Monday, October 10, 2016

four little finishes!

I haven't been posting as much as I'd like, but I'm definitely stitching! I've started and finished four small projects since the last time I posted, which already meets my monthly goal of finishing three smalls this month, so I'm pretty happy. :)

Here they are in order of completion!

Celtic Jewel Keyring (Textile Heritage)

Betsy's Butterfly (Elizabeth's Designs)

Charming Christmas #7 (Paw Printings)

Autumn Bounty kit (Mill Hill)

 At this point, I think I'll bounce back to my Brooke's Books ornament for the month and get that finished off, then I'll start on the next little kit in line.

Oh, but speaking of goals, I won't be keeping to all of them this month. I've decided to back the Ship's Manor Kickstarter project, so this won't be a zero spend month for me by any means. One of the rewards is a preorder for a fabric of the month club for next year. Ooh! :) If you want to check it out too, here's a sample image and a link!


I also joined the Ship's Manor Beautiful Sea Quaker SAL because... I can. :) I'll be making a start on it as soon as the thread pack arrives.

I've been selling stash on FB again (mostly things left over from my mother's stash, which I inherited over seven years ago), so I'm allowing myself to use those funds to pick up things from my wishlist. Now, before you think I'm going to go nuts, I already signed up for a Stitch from Stash FB group for the first half of 2017, and my budget is set to $0 per month! I'm only going to allow myself a small amount of credit for finishing pieces, and my ultimate goal is to buy nothing but DMC needed to complete active projects.

And, of course, I will carry on with my "go nuts and stitch a lot of smalls" project for the rest of this year, because it's already been such a success for me! :)

Saturday, October 01, 2016

Smalls SAL & monthly goals!

Going to roll a couple of posts into one to save some space! :)

First up, the 2016 Smalls SAL hosted by Heather of Stitching Lotus. I didn't quite manage to completely finish my small in September, but I just finished it up tonight, and that's pretty close! Here is the ninth Bride's Tree Ornament by Brooke's Books.


Er, that's an awful picture, I know, but it's late here and the lighting in my house isn't all that great (except the stitchy lighting, of course!) so use your imagination. :) As always, no beads have been attached, I'm going to add them all at the very end once all twelve ornaments are done.

~~~

Now, goals! Here's what I had for September:

- blog about progress once a week - YES!
- blah blah Ghost Story progress blah (possible finish?) - YES, finished!
- NO craft/stash shopping - YES!
- and a stretch goal: finish Wintry Blooms Biscornu - YES!

I think it's safe to say I'm fairly pleased with myself! And Solo September hosted by Justine was a big success for me - I finished four projects! Well, technically three, but let's pretend I finished this ornament yesterday as planned, okay? :p

So here are my October goals:

- blog about progress once a week
- finish Bride's Tree Ornament #10
- start/finish at least three other small projects!
- NO craft/stash shopping

I recently went through my entire stash and discovered tons of hidden gems I'd forgotten about, so for the rest of the year, I'm going to work on getting some of those small projects finished! There's no reason for so many cute things to be sitting around gathering dust, when many of them would only take a few days of stitching to complete. So I'm going to shop my stash and use the excitement of fun things I already have to squash the temptation to buy anything new. :3