June TUSAL

Just a quick update as I think it is about time for a TUSAL update. May have missed one or two over the last couple of months but don't think I've done enough stitching to make a difference to my jar. 
This months background is my rather ugly carpet. Need to start finding decent places to take these pictures.

Normal Service Will Resume Shortly

So I know I've been neglecting my blog over the last few months. I was away at the end of April to see Placebo and again the next weekend for reenactment and never got back into posting afterwards. I think it has something to do with the  fact I only ever update on Mondays and the last few weeks has seen me busy on just about every Monday. That and I've been so busy I have had nothing of note to update on. Hopefully will have a lot more time on my hands after next week for more stitching. This week I only have the one update for you - my latest progress on Eternal Promise.

As I don't have much else to share I thought I'd include a couple of pictures from my trip to Edinburgh Zoo while I was away in April.

Insert Clever Title Here

My main project for last week has been the 2011 HAED BB SAL piece QS Little One Lost. This is the one I started for the SAL and never got much done on. Managed to get in about 950 stitches on him this week, would have liked that to have been more as there are lots of big blocks of colour on this one but I just didn't seem to have the time to stitch last week. I did manage to go out to a Shire Horse center and a castle as well as  going through a load of stuff stored in a stable where I managed to track down most of my camping equipment, some lost games and a live rat!

 My other project for the weekend has been a unicorn piece from a book called Fantasy Cross Stitch by Julie Hasler (it's the unicorn on the cover). This is yet another one that I felt compelled to restart for various reasons, having already completed a large portion of it previously. Managed about 600 stitches in this over two days although it really doesn't look like it. Mostly worked on the fore leg and part of the back. I'm hoping the next time I work on it I can get the back looking more horse like as the whole thing looks a bit abstract at the moment.

Sophie - Dyfed Shire Horse Farm

Cilgerran Castle

More Progress Than Normal

This week I have been back working on Eternal Promise. I've had some more time to stitch in the past week because of the Easter holidays. Managed to get nearly 1000 stitches into Eternal Promise, although it doesn't really look all that impressive on the fabric. 1/8 of the page should look a lot more than it actually does. Still really enjoying this one at the moment but looking at the lower portion of the page not sure how long that will last. Looks like lots and lots of confetti to come.  I am looking forward to finishing the border and getting onto the picture proper though, even if the amount I can get done in a week takes a massive hit.

I have also been back working on the SAL SK Blue Moon. I have the top row of 10x10 blocks done now and managed to put in about 350 stitches over the weekend. Seemed really hard going for most of the weekend, lots of confetti and the headdress parts plus lots of mistakes on my part and lots of knotted thread on that need to be re-done. Luckily at the end on Sunday I finally got onto some of the bigger patches of colour which made a nice break from all of the frustration of the rest of the weekend.  I have made some changes from the charted colours. I've swapped the 032 sparkly for white and the winter white for snow white, just so I don't have a girl with sparkly skin (insert own Twilight joke here) and hopefully keep the shading.

Love Amongst Ruin

I'm currently taking part in an Easter challenge for a band that I street team for. Today's task is to write about the band so I will be sharing a little about them with you.

Love Amongst Ruin  is the 'new' band from Placebo's old drummer, Steve Hewitt. I became involved with them before I have even heard the first music by handing out flyers at shows. When I did hear the music it was not disappointing. I once heard them describe as 'like Placebo - only better' which I can only agree with! LAR are one of the bands that I follow I think I've seen them 10 times or more - even heading over to Belfast and Dublin. (76) I think my favorite show to date was the one at Leeds Cockpit, a really tiny venue but the show had a great atmosphere and really showcased what a good live band they are. I could write more but I suggest you check them out for yourself at http://www.loveamongstruin.com/

Fantasy Horses

Now after the excitement of my award back to cross stitch! This week is week number 3 working on Enchanting Pegasus. I don't feel like I've made much progress on Pegasus this week. Have done some more of the wing but not as much as I would have liked. Don't really have an excuse either. Uni assignments are in so that wasn't taking up my time. Maybe it's just been the nice weather outside distracting me! Think it will be a couple of months before I work on this one again, I was hoping to get all the full x done this year but it's starting to look unlikely now, although hopefuly the main body will stitch up faster as there a bigger blocks of colour.

My other project for this week has been a unicorn piece from Near North Treasures/Kustom Krafts called Call of the Unicorn. This is another one that I started a long time ago and had to re-start. When I started it first time round I started in the center. When I came to work on it again several years later I decided to work from the top left of page one. So I counted up and out from the middle and checked it several times. Happy that I was in the right place I started stitching. All was going well until I noticed that the tops of my new stitches were going in the opposite direction to the tops of my old stitches. So everything in the middle had to be frogged -  which took up about a day of stitching. Not much to actually see yet. I'm enjoying this one more than my Mystic Stitch from last week. The chart has proper symbols, although the colours do seem a bit odd - I think it could do with a few more to make the changes look more blended.

Liebster Award

I have been awarded an award by a fellow stitching blogger, Cleejoow. These have been doing the rounds on the x-stitch blogs for a while now but never thought I'd get one - didn't think anyone was ever looking at mine!

Some background: Liebster is a German word, meaning favourite, dearest or beloved and the Liebster is awarded by bloggers to other, newer bloggers, who have fewer than 200 followers, to spread the word and help the new(er)bies gain wider recognition. The award comes with four conditions that each recipient must satisfy when accepting:

1. Choose five up-and-coming blogs (with fewer than 200 followers) to award the Liebster to. (This has been very difficult - most of the stitching blogs I read have already been nominated!)

All of these are other stitching blogs, with a variety of lovely projects and pretty pictures!

1 - Brandon at TheStitchingWino http://thestitchingwino.blogspot.co.uk/
2 - DizzyTiggy at Tiggy Cross Stitching  http://tiggycrossstitching.blogspot.co.uk/
3 - Mimi at Stitchy http://x-stitchgirl.blogspot.co.uk/
4 - Lynda at Nothing but Cross Stitch http://nbutxst.blogspot.co.uk/
5 - Jennifer at Twinkle Stitcher http://twinklestitcher.blogspot.co.uk/


2. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.

Thank you to Cleejoow from  http://cleejoow.blogspot.co.uk/ for nomminating me

3. Post the award on your blog. List the bloggers you are giving the award to with links to their sites. Leave comments on their blogs so they know about the award.

4. Share 5 random facts about yourself that people don't know about you.

1 I like the band Placebo. I mean REALLY like. I've seen them about 100 times now and have tickets for another 6 shows this year.
2 I'm studying Archaeology at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David in Lampeter. I'm a late starter i'm 26 and this is my 1st year. I'm part time so will be 32 if I ever finish and get my degree.
3 I enjoy video games - Wolfthryth is the name of my first character from Lord of the Rings Online.
4 I really, really hate spiders!
5 Thinking of 5 things that are intresting and people don't know has been the hardest thing I've had to do in a while!