2020 Truly Sucked

 2020 Sucked in more ways than one — as it did for many.

Life took some hard punches that have affected me keeping up with this Blog.  They first being that I admitted myself into an intensive inpatient program for binge eating.  Two months of group therapy and doctor appointments.  I’m now recovering (and always will be recovering) and my relationship with food is in a much better place.  My weight, however, is really affecting my life and I’m exploring how to safely do that without “dieting” or “eating healthy” as determined by social norms.

The biggest hit came in November.  Eighteen years ago my husband and I met our best friends.  They had small kids; we had small kids.  None of us had family close by so we were each others’ families.  We raised our kids together, went on vacations, and did all the things together.  In the summer of 2011 they’re 9 year old daughter became ill and went into heart failure.  The following October, at the age of 10, she received a heart transplant.  This past October, 9 years after her initial transplant, she went into rejection.  she fought for over a month for her life and it looked like she was going to make the transplant list for a new heart.  She took a turn for the worst and her body never recovered.  It was just too tired.  On November 6, we lost her.  She was 19 years old.  

Her loss has taken an immeasurable toll on my family and I. Of course it was devastating for our friends.  They are grieving deeply and it’s hard to know what to do for them.  My heart aches from her loss and it aches for them.

In the New Year I plan to keep up with this Blog.  I believe they will be shorter than what I had been doing.

My plans (at the moment, ha ha) is to do new starts and finish some of my WIPs.  Right now I’m working on Ann Morison c.1830, which is the limited edition sampler created by Hearts Across s the Sea for the 20th Anniversary of Traditional Stitches.  I’m actually keeping up!

Until next time.  Stay safe and keep stitching!

 

End of June 2020 Update

Today is the last day of June, so I am going to review what I worked on for this month.

Chicken Joy by Stitching with the Housewives.
Looks like a finish, yes?  Alas, I decided to use a button for the star on the tree.  Just as I’m about the go shopping at my LNS, guess what happens? Covid-19 surges and we’re being told to stay home again.  Sigh.

I used 28ct Watercress Jobelyn  (picture doesn’t give this beautiful green justice).  I made the following substitutions: pine for streamed brocolli and charcoal for the chicken’s eye and the light strands.  I also used Mill Hill beads for the lights (42013, 42011, and 42040).

Close up so you can see the beads

Candy Corn Ghost Mouse by Just Nan.
I have finished stitching this one.  It’ll be a FFO soon.

Cottage on the Corner by Bunny Hill Designs
This is just a nice relaxing stitch — not a lot of color changes, large areas of the same color, repetition....  Hopefully this will be a UFO for July.

Bloom Topia by Fat Quarter Shop
Loving the colors on this one.  I’m about 13 sections behind on the stitch-along. Ha!  I think I’ll make good progress on this one in July as well.

Cardinal Biscornu by The Tiny Modernist
Cardinals are one of my favorite birds.  I’m thoroughly enjoying working on this one.  I’ve made  enough progress on this one that I’m having to make sure my project is turned the right way!

Secret Snowdrift by The Trilogy
Barely started this one for Maynia, made great progress this month.  I started in the middle and have finally made it up to the top left corner - my preferred place of “origin.” I’ll start stitching down.  Probably won’t get back to this one until August.

Lady Death by Gecko Rouge
My new start for the month.  It’s one of those multi page full coverage charts.  I’m stitching on a strict diagonal, meaning I do one stitch at a time on the diagonal.  I find that my stitches look sooo much better.  I’ll probable finish it next century.

LORT Project

Quaker Sampler: A Secret Sky by Modern Folk Embroidery
This is my LORT project.  Have I introduced you to LORT?  LORT stands for Long Ort.  When I have an ort that’s too long to throw away but not long enough to keep,  I leave it loaded on its needle and then stitch on this.  You can really see Easter Bunny House and Bloom Topia in it.











So my goal for next month is to add one new start and one old WIP to my active projects (those listed above).  We’ll see how that goes.  I’m missing about two weeks of stitching because we’re trekking across the USA to help my daughter move.  And I’m never able to stitch on trips.


On to the gaming.....

I always forget to get pictures.....

We tried to beat Frankenstein and his Bride, Dracula and the Wolfman in Horrified.  THREE TIMES!!!  No, we never did beat them.  I took a close victory in Terraforming Mars and was whooped in The Quacks of Quedlinburg.  My pot kept exploding.  We also tried out Roam, which is a quick filler game with some strategic thought.  I was squashed in Ancient Worlds.  I made the mistake of thinking that my starting ability should be part of my strategy.  Nope. Big mistake.  I’ll be ready next time. It was a good gaming weekend.

The next weekend started off with Trash Panda.  Chad and I played this while waiting for others to arrive.  Chad took a garbage pail lid and hit me this way, that way and ground me into the dirt.  It was a brutal loss — 26 to 9.  (The garbage pail lid is for imagery, the game had nothing to do with beating each other with lids.)  I played a decent game of Terra Mystica.  I’m usually last but I came in third our of five.  Not bad.

And then COVID-19 put a damper on all our gaming fun with friends. After the City strongly encouraging everyone to stay home, my hubby and I turned back to the Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game.  We decided to do the Saga expansions which follow the books. We’re not doing too bad. We avoided the Black Riders and made it through the Old Forest. We also managed to escape the barrow wights.  Now on to the next one...

What the Heck Happened!?!

Well, hello there, mid-June.  Didn’t expect to see you so soon.

In mid-May, I lost my stitchy bug. Maynia went kaput. 😢

I did find my stitchy bug about a week ago.  Woo hoo!  So here’s some progress on some pieces.

Candy Corn Ghost Mouse by Just Nan.  Squee!!!  Ain’t it the cutest thang?  I can’t wait to finish it.

Cottage on the Corner by Bunny Hill Designs.  I’ve made quite a bit of progress on this.  Hope it will be a finish for July.

Chicken Joy by The Real Housewives of Cross Stitch. This should be a July finish as well.













I have signed up for the Brenda Gervais's Coming to America - The Women of the Mayflower which starts in September.   I’m also thinking about participating in The Fat Quarter Shop’s Mistletoe Lane Mystery in July.  I’ve also got my eye on The Housewives Jolly St. Nick and Rudolph.  I may start that one in July as well.

Now for the gaming....

Pandemic Season 2:  We are on our second (and last) game in December. There’s no way we’re going to win this.  No spoilers but damn, Matt Leacock. Really!!!???!!!

In Black Orchestra you take on the role of a German conspirator trying to assassinate Hitler.  History is not my thing but according to my friends, the game is historically accurate.  In my first game, my husband and I barely won, killing Hitler in the final stage of the game.  In my second game, which included friends, we assassinated Hitler about mid-game.

We also got in a game of Root.  I was the Corvid Conspiracy (crows).  I was theeessse close to winning, having several murders on the board and the stinking Owl vagabond stole my victory.  Darn you, Addy!

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day.  Mine was peaceful with a walk, gaming and stitching.

Maynia Report:  It was an okay week for Maynia.  Two of my projects were disasters and I didn’t stitch on Saturday.

My two disasters were Rain and Cardinal Biscornu.  If you recall, I wanted to do Rain over one.  I had chosen a stormish looking linen.  I couldn’t see the holes well and the chart wasn’t easy to read. I’ve decided that it does need to be worked over two and on an evenweave. I’ll probably go with a light blue Lugana.  Rain has been placed on hold for now.

I had a very difficult time with Cardinal Biscornu because I couldn’t differentiate between the symbols in red. I contacted the designer and she very graciously sent me an updated chart.  My second try should be a better go.

Spooky Boos Halloween Drum pincushion from JCS 2019 Halloween Special challenged me because it’s been a very long time since I’ve worked with blending filament.

You can’t tell from the pic, but it’s very shiny.  I’ll need to look up some tips on using blending filament.














Cottage on the Corner by Bunny Hill Designs — LOVE IT!  I’ll probably work on this one a lot this month.

I’m using DMC but I’m thinking that a variegated floss would look amazing.  I may have to do it again!













My third new start this week was Secret Snowdrift by The Trilogy.  It’s super cute.

I misread a symbol on the chart.  The dark stitches need to come out. Seriously, does that look barn grey to you?  Nope.  Advice: if you question something in a chart, double check and then double check again.  At least it’s just a few stitches that need to be frogged.











I also have a finish:

Easter Bunny House by The Tiny Modernist.
It probably won’t be turned into a FFO until next year. I don’t have anything on hand to frame it and I’m not going out until I think it’s safer.  Stupid pandemic!












I have a near finish too:

Candy Corn Mouse by Just Nan
Isn’t she adorable!  I need to add beads and then she can go into my projects to FFO for the month.  I LOVE these mice!















On to the tabletop gaming...

Journey’s in Middle Earth ended very badly for us.  Coalfang finally found her opportunity.  She killed and feasted upon our bodies.

 

The Thain’s son died and then Shire was plunged into Darkness.  We are definitely not the heroes The Shire was looking for.

So on to Pandemic Legacy: Season 2.  So far, so good.  The world didn’t end in January or February.  As this is a legacy game, I’m going to do my best to not post spoilers.

That would be London that’s hurting up there. Best get them some bandaids.

Stitch Maynia Update

May the Fourth Be with You!



Unfortunately a frog visited me on the last day of April and I was not able to finish Easter Bunny House.  I only have the Easter basket, the chicks and some grass to complete.  I’m sooooo close.

I accomplish very little when my husband is off. Since he took off last Friday, May 1, I only managed to work 30 minutes Each day on my Maynia projects.  

On May 1, I started on Ruby-Throated Hummingbird Birscornest by The Cricket Collection.  I plan on giving this as a gift to a friend so no pictures until she has it.  Sorry.  I’m very pleased with the coloring of the nest.  I’m a bit confused on the eggs, I’ll have to study the main chart and the egg chart more closely to see how it fits together.

On May 2, I began Bloom Topia by the Fat Quarter Shop.  This is their charity project for 2020, benefitting Make-A-Wish.

Bloom Topia

This is my first time using AuriFloss.  I’m loving the colors and it covers quite nicely.    Can’t wait to get back to this one.  

On May 3, I started Candy Corn Ghost Mouse by Just Nan.  I love these mice!  

I did quite a bit of frogging on this one.  I couldn’t get those white lines on the side right if my life depended on it.  I love how the “boo” came out.

I substituted 3865 for the B5200.  B5200, IMHO, doesn’t have good coverage and you would not be able to see it. Not saying you can see the 3865 very well but it shows up more!  

Today I’ll start on Rain by WellStitches on Etsy. I was going to start it on Saturday.  After looking at it, I decided that I wanted the final piece to be smaller.  I’m now going to stitch it over one.  I need to remeasure my fabric.

Now on to the gaming.... (I really need to remember to take pictures for this)

It took us six tries to find the sword, Wormsbane, in The Ghost of Framsburg.  As with most LOTR games, we were either overwhelmed with locations or with enemies.  We finally had a game with a nice balance of both.  

We went on to seek and defeat the dragon, Dagnir, in Mount Gundabad.  It only took two tries to defeat this quest.

The third LOTR quest, The Fate of this Wilderland, had us defeating the treacherous orc Urdug and his army who were determined to claim Dagnir’s spoils as their own.  Typical — we do all the work and they want all the reward!  It took us three tries to complete this one.

We moved on from LOTR to Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth, starting the second campaign The Hunt for the Ember Crown.  We completed four chapters on Saturday. In a nutshell, we are on a quest to find a special flower, the Ember Crown, grown by the elves.  This flower can be used as a cure for the Thain’s son.  All the while being stalked by a large Warg, Coalfang, who wants revenge for us killing her kind after they attacked a defenseless hobbit.  On Sunday, we finished the fifth chapter.  It was a long quest and we did not complete the final objective.  However I do believe we managed to stoke a little bit of goodwill will with Coalfang by properly burying her brethren, whom again we killed because they were attacking people. 

Let’s Get This Party Started

Hello!

My name is Hayley and I’m starting my first blog. I love to cross stitch and play tabletop games. My primary goal is to focus on my stitching with a dash of tabletop gaming and personal info.

My current project:

Easter Bunny House by Tiny Modernist.

I had purchased this hoping to have it completed by Easter 2019. That didn’t happen.  I have been working on this monogamously for the past month.  Didn’t finish it by Easter this year but maybe by the end of the month.

On May 1st I plan to participate in Stitch Mania, my first year although I have been stalking the Facebook group since last
year.  I have 11 projects kitted up.  My plan is to work on each for at least 30 minutes/day on at least 2 days in May.  What will I do with the other 9 days of May?  Not sure yet.  I plan to be flexible so if one project has really grabbed my heart, I’ll focus on it. I also want to give a shout out to The Tinsmith’s Wife in comfort.  Wendy hooked me up with the missing supplies for my mania projects.






That’s all for the stitching part of my blog.  If you’re not interested in tabletop gaming, you can stop reading now.

During this quarantine time, my husband and I have been playing the Lord of the Rings: The Living Card Game by Fantasy Flight Games.  LOTR is one of the BEST designed games out there.  The play for the scenarios perfectly fits.  If you’re trying to sneak past a bunch of Orcs, well you had better go slow; trying to reach a city to warn them of an Orc army coming to attack them, well you had better go fast.

Our current quest is The Ghost of Flamburg. The goal is to find the famous sword, Wormsbane, to help defeat the dragon Dagnir.  My question is: why would I go searching for a sword in the middle of the night in a haunted keep?????

In other personal news, I have purchased some blue light blocking glasses to help with my chronic sleep disorder.  I wear them at night starting at 7 pm.  They’re supposed to block the  blue light that prevents the creation of melatonin in the body.  I do believe they are helping.  The problem with them?  I can’t tell the difference between certain colors (i.e. green and blue).  That means no stitching after 7 pm.







That’s enough for now.  Until next time.