March Smalls SAL Check-in

I'm a few days late here, not because I was busy stitching, but only because the dates got away from me! Here we have the third Dragonlet of Christmas...

Mais ouí, eet ees zee Three French Hens! With zee French wine, and zee French bread, and zee French cheese, and zee wee beret!

March Just Nan SAL Check-in

What with March Madness, I am afraid all I can provide for this month is a rehash of Keep a Secret!

But Lady Scarlet's Journey is on the frame as I type, so there is hope for a better update next month. =)

Marching into Madnes

Click now for JiffNotes

I thought I'd post an update of what I've been working on during March Madness so that my month-end report wouldn't be so long it would require a couple gallons of Gatorade for anyone to make it through.

So, the day I got back from vacation, all tired and sad to be back at work, the Sparkly Compote of Decree decided I needed to frog.

Because that's where Magical Night is at this point. I backstitched the wings in the color called for, but I had changed the fabric to a darker shade, so it didn't really show up very well. So, I'm in the process of ripping it all out. I got a good bit done.

Next, Ye Shall Prosper came up.

 

This is the pin keep from the set, and I did some boring chain stitch. This is actually an older picture, since I got so little done, it seemed kind of pointless to take a new one!

Les Rubans was next. Here's a shot of the whole piece:

And the bit I did:

That bit is part of a ribbon that I've already finished one section of...so it will look a lot like this when I'm done with it.

Whew, that's a lot of stitching so far. Let's take a quick break while I announce the theme for April!

April Showers

What pieces can you find in your flood of WIPs that include water? Rivers, lakes, oceans, or rain (and anything that lives within).

The idea for this theme actually came from two people! SoCal Debbie and Shebafudge, but since Shebafudge gave us February's theme, the prize is going to go to Debbie this month. Debbie, please send me your snail mail address!

And now, back to the Madness...

Next, an old class piece came up, a Christmas drawn-thread border piece.

This is just the smaller class piece, but I did almost get one whole side done. The picture doesn't show how sparkly it is...all the stitching is done in DMC stranded metallic floss.

Obviously the SCOD was still in a Christmas mood, as the next thing it spit out was this Partridge in a Pear Tree.

It is possible that I've only worked on this piece during March Madnesses Past.

Continuing the theme within the theme), this Hearts and Flowers ornament was next.

It's a 3-sided ornament, and once I get the middle peyote band done, I will have to learn brick stitch to do the six top and bottom panels!

You'll see the rest of the projects I worked on on April 1st! (No foolin'!)

JiffNotes
In case you missed it amongst all the pictures, the theme for April is April Showers!

The Posts You Should Be Reading

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So! It's been a while since I posted, for which I have several excuses:

• Lack of sleep
• Work cacophony
• Pollen-induced haze
• I was out of town for a week

What? Yup, I was. It was the last week of February, and here's a hint where I was....

Magic Bands!!

How cool is the box, all personalized and everything?? It had been OVER A YEAR since we'd been to Disney World, and I was definitely staring to feel signs of withdrawal. As usual, I took eleventy-thousand pictures, which makes my head explode when I try to decide which ones to share. So, I am going to randomly page down through my photos and click on a picture:

Hey! Not too shabby! That's Spaceship Earth at Epcot (or EPCOT if you prefer it "classic") for those of you that don't know. You're lucky you got this one; just 10 pictures down and all you would've gotten was a picture of the facecloth (washrag) animals in our hotel room.

The pollen-induced haze isn't helping, either, because every time I think, "Gee, I need to blog," whatever the next thought might be immediately sinks into the pudding that seems to be inhabiting my brain, and it all just becomes too haaaaaaard. But! Pollen means things are blooming, and that means I also have scads of pictures from Orchid Daze and Atlanta Blooms to share. Again, let's pick a random one:

And just so Joysze doesn't disown me when I've randomly picked tulips instead of orchids:

The Most Awesome Husband in the World got me a tripod for my birthday...and it is making the macro lens take awesome pictures. I just press the button, folks.

I have tons of stitching to show from March Madness thus far, and I need to pick the theme for April. The problem is, you all are so clever, I am having trouble choosing!! Soon, I promise. For now, here's the first of my March Madness pieces...Keep a Secret...the Sparkly Compote of Decree was very kind to me when I picked the project I knew I'd have to cart down to Orlando and stitch on in the car on the way home on March 2nd:

Last but by no means least, I won two giveaways and did two very undignified but ecstatic jigs when the packages arrived. First, look at what gracie sent me for her Unbirthday celebration:

Packages!! Who doesn't love opening packages?? And get a load of that handmade card!

Here are all the goodies unwrapped. Missing are a couple of champagne poppers (not actually containing champagne) that Michael and I celebrated with. If you've never had these, be prepared for a very loud BANG when you pull the string! We were much surprised; such fun. Gracie even included a candle and balloon there, for a proper Unbirthday. =) That little jar is filled with lovely beads and buttons.

Next came a box from Maggee:

The fabrics! The floss! The wee charms! The rick rack!! But mostly, I'm over the moon about the pincushion (emery) she stitched for me...here's a closeup (with slightly truer colors):

I put the little charms on there, though her stitching is so beautiful it doesn't require any "tarting up"! =)

Thank you so much to both of you!!

OK, there is a freezer pizza calling my name (we only eat HEALTHY here at the Lottloft...seriously, it has arugula on it...that's TOTALLY healthy!) so I will post more later!

JiffNotes
Eventually, there will be posts about Disney, and orchids, and all sorts of lovely stitching. For now, please enjoy this completely disjointed and pollen-induced post.

Theme-a-licious February/March

It's time to show all the progress we made for February's theme, Fantastical Fiction February!

On the fiction front, I did some work on Shakespeare's Garden. The verse on this piece is from "The Merry Wives of Windsor".

AND LET'S NO ONE GO BACK AND LOOK AT HOW LITTLE I ACTUALLY DID THIS MONTH, M'KAY??

*ahem*

This next piece fits in with both fiction AND fantasy.

Dancer, the flying reindeer, inspired by Clement Clarke Moore's poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas". Although I wish flying reindeer weren't fantasy creatures. :)

And of course, there was the dragon, already posted for the February Smalls SAL check in.

Now it's time to share our plans for THIS month, which is...

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March Madness

Work on something different every day...it's madness...of the funnest possible kind.

Now, I know this theme will scare the bejeepers out of some of you. But you don't actually have to work on something different every day. For example, since I'm doing a few SALs, I'm only going to work on something different on the even days of the month, and work on my "obligations" on the odd days. On even days, I will draw a project out of the Sparkly Compote of Decree (SCOD), which contains slips of paper with each of my WIPs written on them (and a few blank "wildcards" that let me work on whatever I want). Maybe you'll just work on a different project every Saturday, or maybe you're a OAATimer and will work on a different project every week in March to shake things up. Whatever seems like Madness to you...go for it!

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So how was your Fantastical Fiction February? Was your stitching a fantasy land, or was your only progress fictional? =) What are your plans for March Madness? Please add your link below (to your latest Theme-a-licious post), and visit some other Themers if you can (everyone loves comments and encouragement!) Another reminder that unlike last year, there will be no check-in post on the 15th, so our next post will be on April 1st (no foolin' ;). I'll post mid-March to announce the theme for April (and the prize winner)! It's never too late to join in or send suggestions for future themes!