A little of this and a little of that and a (2) new starts

I've been busy, busy, busy.
And I've barely left the house!
I've been stitching Mini Soul Mates. I really need to give this project more time. I was bad and decided to start stitching down the middle page in hopes I'd eventually get to something more interesting. Time will tell. 3 over 1 on 14 ct. aida.

Inspired by Marti, who will be stitching a chart only during the holidays, adding to it each year, I decided to start something for those late nights at work when I sometimes have 10 or 15 minutes between calls.
So, yes, a new start. My goal is to try to get 100 stitches a night in on this on the nights when I have slow times. I've been pleasantly surprised with the progress. I introduce you to Mini The Black, an RAK for my birthday from Teresa back in 2012. I had meant to start him long before now.  2 over 1 on 18 ct. aida.

I will try to remember to update you regularly, though at the moment I haven't technically kitted this up, I'm only working the black bits, of which there are a lot!
Both of these are HAED charts btw.

The other piece I started is a gift for someone so I won't be posting about it for some time to come.
In sewing news I finally got the energy up to try one of those tank top dresses. I had an almost new tank that I'd stained near the bottom and was about to toss out so I pulled out some old fabric from the stash and the elastic thread I bought to play with. It worked up in a flash and made a great maxi. I'd run take a pic for you but I'm wearing it right now. Next time I will make fewer gathers, or maybe do pleats, and it definitely needs a belt of some sort. Not the most flattering garment if you are wide around the waist, but I just threw it together to see if I could. It is uber comfy. I could live in these for the rest of my life, it feels so good. Here is a link to the blog with the tutorial I (mostly) followed. http://asmallsnippet.com/2011/09/wanna-make-dress.html

That is about everything for this time.
Happy Stitching this weekend!