I realized today that I never checked in for January on the Theme-a-licious challenge Heather is hosting this year.  Oops!   I’ll try to do a better job in February!  Since it’s also WIPcalypse update time again, I figured I would just combine them into a single post to make things easier for  me.

The first piece I’ll report on is just for WIPocalypse and covers Celtic Christmas.  I spent about a week after the last update just plugging along on her and making some great progress.  Unfortunately, when I was in Vegas with Terri and Annette in mid-January, I discovered I’d made a colossal error in her skirt at some point and had completely left out three rows in the middle of it, so nothing was lining up as it should have.  As a result, I ended up frogging ~600 stitches from her skirt.  This means I actually made negative progress on her this month.

Progress as of January 7, 2012

Progress as of January 15, 2012

As you may notice from the photo caption, I haven’t worked on my Celtic Christmas piece in nearly a month now.  It was so disheartening having to frog so many stitches that I just needed to put her down for a while and work on something else instead.

The something else I chose to work on was Hannah Beeby 1816.  Not only was it on my WIPocalypse list, but it would also satisfy the January Jardin Theme-a-licous goal since I knew there was a flower motif I could stitch.

I started this sampler three or four years ago as a Stitch-a-Long.  So far, I think only two of the original stitchers in the SAL (Carol and Heidi) have actually finished it.   After some serious stitching time over the past week or so, I’m finally starting to make some real progress!

Progress as of 31 December 2011

Progress as of 5 February 2012

In other stitching news, Tracy surprised me with an early birthday present on Thursday!  She gifted me with the Stargazer chart from Mirabilia as well as a $50 gift certificate to Needlecraft Corner.  I’ve had the Stargazer chart on my wish list ever since it came out, so I’m excited to finally have it!  I used a gift card I got for Christmas to pick up some fabric (Angel Dust) from Jo over at Polstitches.  I’m going more for an early morning/twilight look instead of the typical evening/dusk look that many folks do with this design.  Here’s a mock-up of the look I’m going for:

Stargazer on Angel Dust Fabric

Well, that’s my January Theme-a-licious and February WIPocalypse updates.  The current Theme-a-licious goal is Fangirl February which means stitching on designs from your favorite designer(s).  My current designer du jour is Nora Corbett from Mirabilia, so I’m planning to put in some work on my Lady Alexandra WIP.  Since she’s also on my WIPocalypse list, this will be another two-fer month for me.

Until next time …

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I’m a day late in getting my January update for the Totally Useless Stitch-a-Long posted.  I meant to get it up yesterday, but time just got away from me.  So, without further adieu …

The orts in the bottom of the jar are from my new start on Royal Holiday by Mirabilia.  Next up is a bunch of red from work on Celtic Christmas from Lavender & Lace.  Sadly, a good portion of that big chuck of red orts is the result of having to frog nearly 600 stitches from that piece a couple of weeks ago.    The darker orts on the top of the pile are from some recent stitching I’ve done on my Hannah Beeby 1816 reproduction sampler from Timeless Designs.

My little jar has now been emptied into my larger clear paint bucket.  I didn’t bother taking a photo of it this month since it would just be the same orts.  I’ll include a photo of it in next month’s TUSAL update after I’ve added my February orts to it.

Until next time …

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Well, this full moon is here, so that means it’s time for our first update as part of the 2012 WIPocalypse stitch-a-long.  I posted my full list of planned projects on my dedicated WIPocalypse page.  I’ll just post my monthly progress updates here on the main page.

Celtic Christmas

This is my oldest WIP (work in progress), so I decided this is the year to finally knock it out!  I started it in 2007, so it’s long overdue. I didn’t make a whole of progress on her so far given it’s just been a week, but at least it’s something which is more than has happened in a looooooooong time.

Progress as of Dec. 31, 2011

Progress as of January 7, 2012

Royal Holiday

I also (sort of) got started on Royal Holiday.  I can’t say it’s much of a start, but it’s something.  I had planned on stitching on it for an hour or two beginning at 12:01am on January 1.  Well, I actually only made it about 25-30 minutes before I found myself falling asleep in my chair.  Yeah, I’m such a party animal.

Progress as of January 1, 2012

As I said, I really haven’t gotten much done so far this year.  I’ve been busy studying for school, so that’s had me distracted.  I did manage to make it by my LNS on Saturday for our monthly Saturday Stitch.  That’s where I made most of the progress on Celtic Christmas.  While there, I also picked up some Kreinik braids I need for my upcoming Mirabilia round robin.  I’ll use these for stitching the borders for my piece.  This photo also satisfies today’s assignment for the 30 Day Blog Challenge which is to post a photo of the last thing you purchased.

Kreinik Braid

We were also very fortunate to witness an amazing finish from Lorraine who is one of the older women who still joins us most months.  She’s in her 80′s, but her stitching is absolutely breathtaking!  This is her St. Basil’s Cathedral done on canvas.

St. Basil's Cathedral Stitched by Lorraine

Well, that’s it on the stitching update front. Here’s to hoping I’ll have a lot more progress to show at the February WIPocalypse update!

Until next time …

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Ahhh, here we are.  A brand new year, all shiny, clean, and sparkling new.  Can’t you just smell the new all over it?  You know, kind of like the awesomeness of new car smell.  I just love the anticipation of a New Year.  Much like that new car smell, there’s just nothing else quite like it.

For me, this new year means making a new start.  As I mentioned in my post several days ago about Scale Reality & New Year Goals, I knew I was going to end this year at pretty much the same weight I started it.  I was feeling pretty down about myself about it initially, but then my wonderful friend Karen reminded me that there’s no shame in maintaining for a while.  After all, at least I’m not ending the year weighing MORE than when I started.

But, enough of the past!  This is 2012 and I’m all geared up for a NEW START to go with the new year.  Thankfully, my Weight Watchers center was open on New Year’s Day this year.  I can’t remember a time in the past where they’ve ever done that, so  I was thrilled that not only could I get to my regular Sunday meeting, I could get to one on January 1, too.  How awesome is that?!  So, I got myself up bright and early this morning and headed over to my Weight Watchers meeting, by way of Starbucks.   Sadly, the red holiday cups are gone for another, but at least I was still able to get a Skinny Peppermint Mocha still (4 PP for the Venti).

The topic for this week’s meeting was all about “believe” which goes hand-in-hand with their new ad campaign.  Have you see any of the new commercials?  If you were watching ABC’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve last night, you probably spotted one of them.  If you looked closely, you might’ve spotted the awesome @SuziStorm who blogs over at Ok, Just One More Beer.  She’s lost 91 pounds on Weight Watchers and looks amazeballs!!  If you want to see even more Weight Watchers videos, check our their YouTube channel!

Back to the meeting, we talked a lot about what things have caused us to stumble on our weight loss journey in the past.  We then brain-stormed about tools that we have available as Weight Watchers members that will help us overcome those old issues.  Using those tools will help us be successful and we can believe and have faith that we can reach our goals.  We even ended the meeting with an awesome quote seen in the photo which also includes my incredible leader, Jacki (can you believe she was once 100 pounds heavier?!!).  If you can’t read the quote, just click on the photo for a large version which should be easier to read.

As if the quote wasn’t inspiring enough on it’s own, I happened to glance to my left and see this poster hanging on the wall next to me.  It’s the cumulative total of all the weight loss at our center during 2011.  Amazing!!  Hopefully we can smash that total in 2012!

After I left the meeting, I headed over to the supermarket and stocked up on lots of healthy foods, including lots of fresh fruit & veggies.  When I got it home, I decided Jan. 1 would be a great day to get my kitchen all organized again as I was putting the food away.  I feel so ready to go with my healthy eating in 2012!  There’s just nothing quite like being organized to make sticking with a plan so much more manageable.

Once I had that done, I prepared myself a nice healthy lunch (sorry, no pic) and then settled in for an afternoon of relaxation which included a bit of stitching time.  My January 1 new stitching start for this year (yes, I do it one every year) was Royal Holiday from one of my favorite designers, Mirabilia.  I don’t have enough done yet to really post a photo, so I’ll do that in a few days after I have a bit more done.

I had planned on including my goals for the next two months in this post, but I think it’s long enough already.   I’ll save my goals for tomorrow’s post.   I’ll also be writing about an exciting year-long project I’ll be taking part in over at the Sisterhood, too.  I can’t wait to tell you all more about that!

I do have one last thing to share about before I go for today.  I’ve decided to take part in the 30 Day Blog Challenge hosted by Jamee over at A New Kind of Normal.  Since I’m really striving to blog on a daily basis again after merging my blogs, I thought this would be a great way to ensure it actually happens.   It will also give new readers to my blog (hello weight loss resolutioners ) a chance to learn a little bit more about me.  The challenge for today is to post a photo of yourself and description how your day went.  Since I’ve already posted about how my day went, I’ll just leave you with a photo of me taken recently with my sweet kitty, Brandi.

Until next time …

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As I posted a couple of weeks ago, I’m going to be participating in a Mirabilia themed round robin on the world-wide round robin board next year.  Since we’re going to be starting in late February or early March, I decided it was time for me to start earnestly making plans for my piece.  I figure this will give me plenty of time to get my outlines done and my part stitched before it needs to go into the mail.

As a theme for my piece, I’ve decided to go with the lovely ladies from the Pixie Couture collection.  I’m going to be using some 28-count opalescent Lugana for my fabric. These are the charts I have decided to use in my piece (as always, click to biggify):

We set a limit in our RR of no more than 2500 stitches per section to keep the sizes reasonable.  I’ve opted to go with a 45×55 rectangle for each section.  This photo shows the sections of each chart I’m planning to use as well as how they’ll be laid out in the piece:

I still need to decide what I’m going to include in the center area, but it will be something along the lines of the year and all of our names.  For the outline around each pixie, I’m thinking of using the coordinating Kreinik braid that goes with each pixie.  After all, one can never have enough bling and sparkle, right?

I know a lot of folks will be going offline over the next week or so due to the holidays.  For those of you to whom that applies, I just wanted to take a minute in closing to wish you all a very safe & happy holiday season.  Here’s to hoping for a wonderfully & healthy 2012 for us all!  For those who will be around over the holidays, you’ll get another holiday greeting in a few days.

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