HAED SAL weekend

This past weekend was the HAED SAL Challenge weekend. Yeah, that's a mouthful. It gets better though. This is KMB ACEO QS by Tate that I stitch on during the HAED SAL weekend. Take that, Army!

That translates to Kimono Butterflies Mermaid ACEO by Nadia Tate. I adore it. Didn't get a whole lot of stitching time this weekend because I had other things I needed to do, but I'm still very pleased with the amount of progress I made. I need to do a confetti session next month. Ugh!

I survived my first day completely intact. And I am exhausted! But it's a good kind of exhausted, one that I can live with. I discovered, much to my surprise, that I get an hour for lunch when I'm working an 8 hour shift. Thought it would just be 30 minutes.

So, I'm going to become a lunch knitter. None of my stitching projects are conducive to pulling out for 30 minutes at a time. So I'm going to get my sock finished, and then I can finally let myself order the yarn and pattern for the Ivy Trellis stole.

I just LOVE the pattern, and I've gushed about it before I think. I love ivy. I mean I really love ivy, my dishes for my kitchen are th Corelle ivy dishes. The yarn I'm using is Knit Picks Palette Iris Heather. It is a lace pattern, but done with fingering weight yarn instead of lace weight. Since I love the look of knitted lace and want to learn how to do it, I figured a heavier weight lace project would be a good place to start. And I can use the leftovers from my pair of socks to practice the new stitches. See, I do have a plan!

Lunch time

I'm always on the lookout for good excuses to add stuff to my Little Mermaid collection. (say it like Ariel!) The Disney Store online has an Ariel lunchbox that is just the cutest thing, and I've been looking for a really good excuse to get it.

Well, I finally found it. I need a lunchbox to carry my lunch in when I'm working. Plus it has a matching water bottle, another something that I want. I'd rather buy one and just fill it up every day than go through dozens of bought ones. My tap water tastes just as good as any spring water anyway.

So that's the first thing I'm buying when I get paid. An Ariel lunchbox.

Spring Cameo

Here she is! My first page is complete. 1 down, 24 to go. To be perfectly honest though, about 9 of those 24 are half pages or less. She is oval-shaped after all. I can't decided which way to go when I pick her up next though. To the left and fill in some more of the cameo? To the right and do her cheek and hair? Straight up to forehead and her eyebrows? Northeast to her hair and the beginning of the flowers? I only know I'm not going down to do her neck just yet. For some reason, that's kind of a creepy thought right now.....

I'm moving on to the next slot in my rotation, after the HAED SAL weekend. Next up is Part 2 of St. Pete!

I finally figured out why my Vikki Clayton silks haven't arrived yet. Even though she received my payment, she never got the order itself! PayPal's fault. It was still sitting in my shopping cart. Vikki is a sweetheart though and we got it all straightened out in about 5 minutes.

It's pink silks. I want to do the Ink Circles Breast Cancer Ribbon mandala as a biscornu for my Mamaw, who was recently diagnosed. But I want to use silks, not the Carrie's Creations that it's charted with. I'm a silk slut, of course I have to use silk!

Most recent stash acquisition happened yesterday. Lori told me about the matroishka doll pattern in the latest issue of The World of Cross Stitching, so I set off in search of the issue. I don't have a local source, so I ended up buying it from a lady on eBay. It's an adorable pattern! Very bright and Russian. I like it a lot.