Thanksgiving, Making Plans, and Stitching

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates it. I hope you are having/have had a lovely day.
Ours has been quiet but enjoyable. I'm sleepy but I need to stay awake, it is only 7pm! A perfect time to catch up this blog.
I've had a problem with my right shoulder/upper arm for about 6 weeks-2months, it has not affected my stitching at all but then I pulled something in my right upper back shoulder area and wasn't able to stitch for about a week. It is better now but I'm still not stitching as much, just sort of building back up to it.
I also changed my hours at work and I'm loving it by it does take a lot more out of me and impact my stitching time, so I'm still working that out.
But enough prelude.
I manged a bit more on Mini The Black, but found an error on a previously stitched section. It doesn't look to be too bad but I've been procrastinating fixing it for a week or two. I won't post the progress since it was minimal.
Mini Cheshire Cat saw some progress though. I do love working on this one.

It is only another row of 10 down, but I'm pleased to have progress to show.
I had intended to give the lions share of my time to the first page of Anal Nathrach, but it didn't work out that way. I've gone full circle on it and worked my way back to the upper right so that I can work across from right to left, which I find is more comfortable for me.

As you can see I've tried different methods and the left to right is the one I've decided on. I do love the colors in this one.

My secret Santa gift was put in the mail this week. I got the gift from my SS a couple of days ago and it is a whopping big box, can't wait to get in there and see what goodies await me!
I decided to wait until Thanksgiving was over to work on my Christmas ornament kit. I just wanted to do one holiday at a time!
I'm already busily making plans for next year's stitching.
I've joined a SAL that will start in January and my DH has finally picked a stocking pattern, so I'll work on that throughout 2015 and hopefully have that finished by next Christmas.
I've been thinking hard about my 2015 stitching, if you read this blog you already know that I've tried several rotation ideas, with only one of them being really successful. I'm not sure I want to go that route again.
There are a number of kits I have that I want to do, and most are already started, so I'm tentatively planning to give them at least one week a month. I want to work on the sal and start my husbands stocking, those are the only two new starts I'm planning for the first 3 months of next year.
Not only because funds for fabric is limited, but because I want to make a little progress on some of my wips. And frankly, I have too many beautiful charts to choose from and am feeling too indecisive to decide on one.
There is a dark horse in the running, so to speak, for a new start next year. I've been longing to work either a sampler type or a blackwork(I only learned it this year, see my first try here) piece, contingent on finding the right fabric. That will have to wait though, until I can afford something nice to work it on.
It just isn't possible to stitch all of the lovely charts I'd like to stitch, so I'm hoping to be practical and work through some of what I've started before I plunge into anything other than those I've already mentioned.
What about you? Have you begun making plans for 2015? Are you hankering to try something new, have tons of new starts, work towards what you've already got going? I love seeing what others are working on and hearing about their plans. It is very inspiring sometimes to just look at what others are doing and share their excitement.
Until next time, Happy Stitching!
Karen

Progress, Problems and Winter

It seems like a good time to show you my progress.
First is Mini The Black. I am stitching this one between calls late at night when I am working, so I only am stitching the black for now to cut down on confusion. The goal is 100 stitches per work night and I usually make that, though there has been 2 or 3 times when I didn't. It seems to work out though because on a Holiday I worked I got in closer to 300. Anywho, as of 11/01/2014:

A nice bit of progress, now 9.5% worked, so very pleased here.

I also spent some quality time with Mini Cheshire Cat. First with the HAED BB SAL, then continued on with it for a Halloween SAL with my Facebook stitchy friends.

I am falling so in love with this piece again.
It happens every time with a black and white piece.
Oh! I forgot to tell you about the QSnaps! I tried them about a month ago and fell in love. I also love that I can sew huggies/grime guards for them, it just makes it more fun for me.
It was great. I was lucky enough to have just enough money left from another purchase to get these(11X17) at 123Stitch. I loved them instantly but wanted to extend the size for some of my larger projects. My great job sent me a 10 dollar gift the very next day and I applied it to ordering the 3 inch expansions. I want to get an 8" by 8" for smaller things. Just love them.

I got a little holiday happy and decided to begin my Dimensions Christmas Village Ornaments kit. Here is a link to an example of it on Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Dimensions-Needlecrafts-Counted-Christmas-Ornaments/dp/B000W5I4OM/ref=sr_1_3?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1415011228&sr=1-3&keywords=dimensions+christmas+cross+stitch
Here is also where the problem came in. The kit is well put together and the floss separated, but the cloth was so tight I could hardly stitch on it! Not too stiff mind you, but the holes too small for the 4 thread half stitches and the 3 thread half stitches. I was in real pain after only 30 minutes of stitching, and had to use a rubber disc to get the needle through the fabric for every stitch.

Dear Lesli took pity on me and sent me a great piece of 18 count to replace it. Thanks Lesli! It was stitching up just lovely when I realized I was one row off and had to frog lots, so no picture today.

The other problem, some creep got our debit information and made 3 withdrawals so we are spending the weekend even more broke than we would have been. Life happens, I just wish it would happen when we weren't already cutting things so close.

The cold weather seems to have arrived with Halloween. I do not like winter. I want to hibernate!

Anal Nathrach is hopefully going to be worked on this week, along with those ornaments, so hopefully there will be progress to be shown next time.

Happy Stitching Everyone
Karen