Almost broke my dog

So it turns out my string of "breaks" wasn't quite over, as last Wednesday my Murphy decided to chew through the cord on my (lit) lamp and electrocute himself! I came in from my walk and found a big mess on the floor (since he lost control of his bodily functions), and only after I cleaned it up and tried to put a new bulb in the lamp did I realize that the cord was chewed through and that was why the lamp wasn't working. A few hours and $200 later we were back home from the emergency animal hospital with a pain reliever for his tongue and instructions to monitor his breathing for the next two days, as the shock can cause fluid to build up in his lungs. I'm very happy to say that he has been fine, and I'm so grateful that he made it through relatively unscathed--it could have been so much worse!

Needless to say I didn't get much stitching done for a couple of days, but by Saturday I was able to get caught up on two current SALs. This is part 10 of Cecilia Votta's seasonal SAL:

Part 21 of Tempting Tangles Dragon's Blood Mandala was nice and small:

The next charts in the Amy Bruecken SAL probably won't get here until the end of this week at the earliest, so for now I'll continue with the Mirabilia model, which is starting to take shape nicely now.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Gearing up for more SAL parts

Last week I finished up Heart in Hand's Halloween Tiny Town and Halloween Frill, adding the Frill to the Town:

This is probably my favorite Tiny Town so far, though someday I might stitch it again with some more colors added in. I was hoping to get this sent to the finisher to be made into a drum, along with Blooming Tiny Town, but apparently this is her big Christmas-finishing season so she said to get in touch with her in November--kind of bummed about that.

Once that was done I stitched part 20 of Dragon's Blood Mandala:

I was planning to use the top row of the chart to finish the bottom row but my time is probably better spent on the model for now, so I'll just continue to stitch each of the last five parts as they are released.

In preparation for the release of the final three charts in the Amy Bruecken A Little Batty SAL I spent a day stitching the bottom checkerboard base, so I'm ready as soon as the charts arrive:

I've spent a few days on the model now, and plan to continue with that until later this week, when there will be another part of the Cecilia Votta SAL released on Wednesday, Dragon's Blood on Thursday and A Little Batty probably either late this week or sometime next week.

I did see in a newsletter yesterday that a model I stitched for Rosewood Manor last year is going to be released soon, called Dreaming of Poppies:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Only a small "break" last week

I'm very happy that the part I bought on eBay did the trick and my car window is operational again--yay! And only one minor breakdown last week when a light fixture broke; after going to all three big hardware stores here in town and not finding a replacement I found one online and a couple of days later all was well again--for now! I'm at five now, so if things go in threes I'm still due for one more...

Last Tuesday I finished up the HOD Costume Party SAL, which turned out to be a very cute design:

This also came with four little costumed characters to be stitched on perforated paper, but those will have to wait for now, and I have no idea when I'll get around to doing the finishing on this--when I do maybe I'll do the Cookie Exchange finishing as well!

I intended to get back to the model after this was finished, with a day or two to get caught up with the Dragon's Blood SAL but then Heart in Hand's Halloween Tiny Town arrived in the mail Tuesday evening and I couldn't resist starting it. I've been working on it since last Wednesday, and didn't even get to the Dragon's Blood release yet because I love this one so much. I was thinking of adding some purple floss to the design, but decided to stitch it on purple fabric instead and I'm really liking the combination; here it is as of last night:

Cecilia designed a complimentary Halloween Frill that could be stitched alone or added to the town, so of course I had to get that as well and started that part last night. The chart called for Onyx for the windowpanes but the model shows Snowball so I asked Cecilia about it, and she said she changed from Onyx to Snowball but forgot to change the chart. Since the house is already white, I decided I liked the black windowpanes better to add a bit more visual interest. I'm hoping to get this done this week, as well as Dragon's Blood, then get back to work (for sure this time!).

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

When things start breaking...

...they go in waves--I can now add a laptop and a car power window regulator and motor to the list of casualties. My wonderful husband got me a new laptop for my birthday, so that was an easy fix (aside from the two days spent making sure I had all my files either on a flash drive or my new laptop!), but the car window problem not so much; the car is 32 years old now, and the car place couldn't find a replacement part so I ended up having to buy one from a seller on eBay--not the most confidence-inspiring situation! The part came last week and I have an appointment set for tomorrow for the shop to install it, so fingers crossed it actually works.

Things almost always go well in the craft room, though, where I've been working on Hands on Design Costume Party SAL; the third and final part dropped this morning so I'm hoping to get it stitched up today. Here are the first two parts, released on 9/1 and 9/3:

I bought the suggested fabric for this, but I had this piece of Silkweaver's Halloween Haunting on Wexford linen that went really well with the colors so I decided to use it instead. The finishing instructions will be released in a couple of days, but as I still haven't done the finishing on the HOD Cookie Exchange that came out at the end of last year I'm thinking it will be a while before I get around to finishing this one!

In between the parts of this SAL I've been working on Nora's Rogue Dragon, which now has a face:

I'm going to put this away for now, as I plan to spend at least the next two weeks on the model--well, except for maybe a day to stitch part 20 of the Dragon's Blood Mandala when it comes out this Thursday; I finished part 19 last week:

I hope those who celebrate it are having a relaxing Labor Day long weekend, and to everyone a great stitchy week!