February Year of Starts

Yesterday I spent a couple hours driving around and panicking because I had a nail in my tire and that yellow warning light on the dashboard really freaks me out. Went to the dealership, they said it wasn't covered in my warranty, but if I came back in two days, they could order a tire which would take a few more days. So I drove down the street to another place I know and had a new tire in 20 minutes. :) Easily dealt with, but the loss to my stitching time was sorely missed. Then several hours later, a friend just had to text me a clip of the very juvenile cheerleader movie she was watching (she's my friend, I can judge her tastes all I want). The clip featured that old 80s song, Mickey, by Toni Basil, but redone horribly (in my opinion). That was followed by a half hour of texting each other random lyrics and lots of laughter. And that's pretty much what my week has been like. Lots of stress, but lots of silly stuff that makes life fun.

As for stitching, I haven't gotten nearly enough done, at least not as much as I'd hoped. I'm still stalling on Euphoria, though working late three nights this week didn't help. Right now I'm struggling to finish a tiny little partial page that I thought would take me just a few days. It's disappointing, but I'm not stressing about it. I just wish I could find a better balance between work and stitching.

One project I did get some progress on was Blood, aka my Most Boring Wip (at least to look at). Last year was so crazy I never took a picture of my progress, but I did finish page two last October. This week I got a good chunk of page 3 done, almost halfway:

I always make a mess of the threads, but you get the idea. A bit of page 1 is covered by the frame, but most of it is there. Page 3 is just shy of the halfway mark for the row. I didn't notice until posting this pic, but I think I've got my first barely-there tendril of smoke curling up in page 2. :)

And, since today is the 18th, I got to start something new! This one is a Lizzie Kate design, called When We Do. I've only just started the tops of the W:

This is one of her "Boxer" kits, so it came with the fabric but not the threads. I really wish that was the other way around, but oh well. The included fabric is pretty bad, as in very stiff and scratchy. It's probably Wichelt, but didn't say. But getting the needle through the fabric has been a bit challenging, and very hard on my hands. I'm going to stick with it though, since it's so small. This is meant to be a gift for a friend in May, so I'll have to finish it pretty soon.

Are you tired of seeing my Temperature SAL updates yet? I still love watching them grow. :)

Almost done with another round on the ornament! It's surprising how often the 50-54 range is popping up. I've got 959 for those temps, and it seems pretty prevalent to me. This week started at 22, then warmed to 64, then down to 36 the next day. Last year, we hit 80°F on Feb 22. This year, I'm still waiting to see my first yellow (70°).

Well, guess I should stop rambling now and get to stitching. Until next time!