Friday 1 November 2013

Happy Halloween!

Hi Stunners!!!

Happy Halloween to you all. I hope you have a ghoully, ghostly and witchy time! I'm stuck at work tonight dressed as Morticia with a Princess twist (namely pink bling shoes, and metallic pink eyelashes - Hee hee!) I just couldn't do the full black.

Thank you to everyone that left a comment on my previous post. I wanted to reply to you all but when I sat down at the computer to send reply emails they were all gone! Not sure what happened there. I just wanted to let you all know that I appreciated all of your kind, funny and awesome comments. You guys so rock! 


Ok onward to the stitching!

Here is how I have been spending the latter half of October. I needed to complete page 3 of Guardian Angel for a HAED yearly goal. And I did it!!! Woo hoo. I'm using bling thread Petite Treasure Braid PB23 in lieu of DMC B5200 on the Angels wings to give them a little bit of heavenly sparkles... 

Before

After
I'm not sure why the pic came out so shiny but I kinda like it. I can't wait to work on page 4 as the Angel himself makes an appearance. 


And here is my SAL piece that Kim and I are completing, the beautiful Rose Cerise by Karen Middleton (HAED). Kim is starting from the top left and I'm coming from the other end. 


Before

After


The before pic was taken with my old camera that's why there is such a marked difference between the two, and what a difference 10 pixels make!  I love working on Rose! I'm stitching her using Victoria Clayton's HDF thread. Stitching with silk thread is absolutely brilliant. It just glides through, no thread heaven required and the stitches just sit so neatly on top of each other. 




This week I will be working on the freebie SAL piece from HAED. I will get that damn first never ending page finished if it's the last thing I do!!!!!






Oooh I can feel my sugar crash about to kick in. I guess I had better go and refuel on some Halloween candy...Maybe it will also help me to stitch faster! Anythings worth a try! 


Take care my beautiful, supportive and stunning followers and guest stars! Have fun in everything you do.

See you soon
Alicia xoxo 


Tuesday 22 October 2013

IHSW - October

Hey stunners!!!

I actually participated in the IHSW this time round instead of just intending to and I almost managed a page finish!

I currently have some family from overseas staying with me so it's a little hard to disappear into the Entertainment/Craft room and stitch. Which mind you is all I want to do at the moment. 

I worked on Faery 2 for the IHSW, this is page 2 and a bit of page 3. I'm still not happy with the level of detail as I thought the Castle would be absolutely enchanting but it looks a bit blobby to me.  But it's a lot of fun to stitch. And let's face it stunner's  with a 46 wip rotation and 31 of them considered to be BAP's (big ass projects) then I'm going to have to be content with the journey rather than the final destination, LOL! I'm going to make this one of my 4 focus pieces for HAED BAP's.


Before 

After



Charts Charts Charts Charts Charts

HAED had a recent 50% off sale so of course this Princess had to stash enhance!!

Halloween
Enamorte - Halloween



Space Traveler
Space Traveller - David Hoftrichtter
Zen Duck
Zen Duck - Gordon Fitchett


Dana Dragonheart who is HAED's newest freebie fairy recently visited my WL and sprinkled some fairy dust on it and Treasure Hunt Bookshelf by Aimee Stewart appeared in my email inbox!

I was so surprised and so excited as I really really wanted this chart. I even downloaded the floss chart and started collecting the threads whilst waiting for the next sale to come so I could buy it. I guess it was one of those situations where if you wish and love something long and hard enough, it appears in your life. So thank you Dana Dragonheart you are a star!!!

Once I get the fabric she will be a new start, woo hoo!


Treasure Hunt Bookshelf - Click Image to Close
Treasure Hunt Bookshelf - Aimee Stewart

Speaking of new starts I have 15 planned. I will reveal them as I go! Once these new starts are worked into the rotation, there will be no more new starts until I get some finishes in. (smirk)

However, my next post will be of my Guardian Angel progress, plus Kim and I are working on our SAL piece Rose Cerise this month. So I will post progress pics on November 1st.


Happy Halloween!

This year I will be going as a witchy-poo! I managed to find a pink silk witches hat which even came with a fascinator covered in plastic lil spiders and a spider web cape...so cool!!



  



I know what most of the people are gonna be dressing up too. #drunk #funny #ecards #Halloween






























Have a great week my gorgeous and supportive followers and guest stars. I  wish you all happiness, rainbows and hours of free time doing something you absolutely love. Personally I hope it's stitching so that I get to see all your Wip updates! Boo yah!

Lots of scary creepy love and hugs to you!

xox Alicia

Sunday 15 September 2013

New Start - Fail!


Hi Stunners!!!!

Welcome Meggie and Shauna Locke to the blogowship of the Crafty Princess and thank you for joining us. 


And to Nina L from Pistellen-Stitching thank you so much for the lovely package I received in the mail. Nina sent me some chocolates from Finland, a bag of Salmiakki (which is a salty liquorice lolly) , and a Star De-Tailor which is awesome as you can use it to grab those lil short tails and finish off the thread and I also use them as needle threaders. I had just snapped my turtle de-tailor as I can be a little heavy handed with those pesky short tails so it was such a lovely gift as it's just what I needed. Thank you Nina that was such an amazing gesture. I can't post pics of the chocies as they were consumed as soon as they came out of the parcel...hee hee!
Star De-Tailor
Star De-Tailor
 
I know I said in my last post that I would be showing off my new starts...well....

New start 1 - Into the Deep Passione Ricamo Mystery SAL 2013 - All kitted up and ready to go. I stitched the first page and was just loving it, until I realised in my excitement to get started I must have turned the square frame  around and started in the wrong corner. So after an hour of frogging I took it off the frame and put it back in it's bag.

New start 2 - Apocalypse Princesses - Paine Free Crafts (oh the irony of that name as it was far from Pain free). I completed about a third of the first page and didn't like the colour I had chosen for the background stitches so I started to frog them (sigh - my unpicker was working overtime) and as the thread was white and I was stitching on white aida - yep you guessed it I frogged the fabric and the thread.....d'OH!!! So mega big hole. Luckily the fabric was large enough to be chopped and still fit the entire project... I took it off the frame and put it away too as I just didn't have the heart to start all over again straight away!

Decided it may be safer to stick with current wip's so I picked the sunniest one I could find to try and cheer myself up and so up first was....

Spiders Queen - Enamorte (HAED)


Before

After 

Page 1 completed on my Beautiful Queen! Yay. I'm stitching her on 18ct White Aida using 2 over 1 full crosses but using 3 strands of DMC for the black in the mask. It makes it really stand out against her hair and looks a little 3D but it's hard to see in the photo. I think I'm going to go down the chart and stitch page 7 next instead of 2 as I can't wait to get my needle into the mask bits. 


And den...





Lost In You - Rachel Marks (HAED)
Before

After


I really missed working on this one. I think I will concentrate on it for a bit longer...well that's today's decision what happens tomorrow will be another tale again! Once again the evidence of the improved quality of the photos with the new camera. Love it!
  

And den...


Purple Orchid - Drazenka Kimpel (retired chart -HAED)


Before

After

I worked on my lovely Orchid as part of the HAED retired chart/artists BB SAL so that's a weeks effort, though I only really got to work on it sporadically over 3 days. I'm slowly buying the thread for this as I stitch page by page as it uses Anchor thread and has 3 and half pages of required colours. So I bought the first lot of purples and couldn't wait to get to the bottom so I started working on her very bodacious purple collar. Ooooohhhhh!

 

 
And den....
 
 



QS Theatre of the Absurd - Ciro Marchetti (HAED) Freebie SAL 2013

Before

After

Page 1 of this chart has been dubbed "the never-ending page" I just can't seem to finish it. I keep plugging away and there's always more to do. So after a week that's where I am.


And den.....
 
 
 
No more and Den!!


And what would a post from me be without some stash enhancements!!!

HAED 50% SALE - STASH ENHANCEMENTS



Mini Eros - Rachael Marks


Nightwing - Renee Biertempfel
Nightwing



Carnival Moon - Aimee Stewart
Carnival Moon


Inspire - Lisa Steinke
Inspire

Garlic - Lisa Steinke
  Garlic

Next week I'll be working on Guardian Angel as I had another Angel visitation which was really cool. So in honour of him I will stitch the 3rd page. See you soon stunners and have an awesome week!

xoxoxo
Alicia

Monday 15 July 2013

Attitude of Gratitude

Hi Stunners!!!



As the end of last month was my birthday month this post is all about gratitude! 

To start with I would love to thank and welcome my lastest 5 followers. Welcome Randi Martin, Marcy, Kathy Denehey, Linda and Nurdan Kanber. Thanks so much for stopping by and joining the followship of the Crafty Lunatic Princess.

By the way if any of you received a scam email from my email address neon_princess33 stating that I had been robbed in the Philippines and to send me money. I truly apologise as my email account had been hacked. I'm ok and still in Australia and thank you to all that offered to send me money. And to Kim (scullys cross stitching) who knew it was a scam as she stated on my fb page that if it were really me I would be asking for fabric and thread...You're such a scream Kim and you know me so well LOL! I have changed the password and security questions and lodged a complaint with Yahoo mail so it should be safe now.


And to the following people thank you for your lovely Crafty gifts that I have received this year.


Mrs Dibble was at the Salvation Army store recently trying to acquire some old furniture to refurnish as a project and came across this old DMC thread sample chart for 50 cents!! I would have paid 50 bucks for it. Which she gave to me as a "just cos your my friend and I thought you would like this gift"!


 

 
Jo (who can't think of a clever nickname - Serendipitous stitching) designed, stitched and sent me this card for Chrissy. It just made it into January so it still counts. Isn't it too perfectly cool?? I'm working on something special for Jo at the moment but it's a surprise so please don't mention it to her.



 
 

 
My mum busted me gazing wistfully at the Needle Needs website at the Millennium Frame and then to my huge surprise I also received the Millennium frame with 2 lots of stretcher bars for Christmas AND a Bottle of Chardonnay. Princess parents rock! (It counts as they ordered it in December but I didn't receive it till March!)


Millenium Needlework Frame 

Nina (Pistellen-Stitching) honoured me greatly by awarding my blog the AGI Award. Thank you Nina you really keep me motivated and love my stitching even more. Plus you've inspired me in other areas of my life with your thoughtful emails. Thank you again stunner xo

Unrelated fairy pic that I like.

And thank you to my Bff Lori "Angel" Marlow for my lovely birthday cake. It's not cross stitch related technically but cake making is still a craft. How cute are the little icing Princesses? And the candles indicate my mental age. Bless you Angel cakes. You can't even see the bit that Zac (her beautiful doggie) licked. Somehow he managed to get a tongue under the cake cover and lick all the icing off one side. Ha ha! and Yes we didn't eat that bit...
 
 


Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You stunning stunners for my beautiful gifts and award!


And for my self gifting I bought a few new stash enhancements from the 50% off HAED sale



Darkness Falls MG
Darkness Falls - Maxine GADD

Hidden
Hidden - Bente Schlick

Primrose JG
Primrose - Jessica Galbreth

The Dreaming Tree
The Dreaming Tree - Aimee Stewart

QS Tarot Fairy 12 - Babette Vanderberg

  

Tarot Fairy 12

I was going to buy the full size chart (as above) but I thought she looked a little weird. By the position of her left leg it kinda looked like her head was on backwards and she should have been walking forward. But the more I looked at the QS the more I liked it better anyway. Does anyone else see this in the full size or is just me??

Candied Apples and Candy Corn
Candied Apples and Candy Corn - Jane Wooster Scott
Isn't Candied Apples wild? There's just something going on in every part of the picture and when I get a little weary of confetti - there's that lovely chunks of colour in the sky!


Mini Steampunk iThing - Chris Down


Cherry Blossom Lake
Cherry Blossom Lake - Gordon Fitchett
This is possibly going to be my next SAL with Mrs. Dibble.

and last but not least from Paine Free Crafts



Apocalypse Princesses - Tess Fowler

 

Baby Dragon with Hot Sauce - John R Wohland

OMG how cute is he??? This is exactly the same pose I strike when I receive Crafty Parcels in the mail...

and this is the expression of my postman after he hands them to me!!


 




Now for the stitching progress:


 
I've decided to abandon all stitching schedules, rules and other restrictive wahoos. I find that I spend so much time devising them and then stick to them for a whole 10 minutes and end up just stitching what I like anyway but feel guilty about it. I really do have the attention span of a tiny tiny gnat. 

So I think this is the best practice for me and it means I stitch more as I don't feel compelled to, the only side effect is that I am constantly starting new charts. But hey ho. Remember my motto stunners - "To achieve a finish, one must first make a start" Sounds a bit Yoda-like I think the force is with me on this. 

I have 6 new starts in the wings. So in the next 6 posts or so I will feature the progress on each. I'm hoping to get a least a page finish on all before I post but I will see how that goes!!!

After that I will have 37 charts in my rotation and I will stick to these like glue until I get some substantial finishes. This isn't a rule as such more of a Princess promise to myself.


Here are the WIP Pictures!!!

Faery 2 
 
Initially I was working this chart one row at time, then it went to 10x10 blocks across the entire chart. Now it's "bugger it I'll stitch the bits of the pic that I love first". So as I couldn't wait to reach the Castle, I just...stitched the castle. Man it was so liberating to do this!! I have no idea why I have restricted myself all these years to just do page by page in chronological order. Silly Princess!

I was a little disappointed when working on the castle as I thought it looked quite blobby and wasn't capturing the detail of the original art but then I guess it looks ok when you step back a bit. Hmmm.




 
 
 


 

Where is my Valentine?



 
Once again - how awesome is my new camera??? It makes such a difference.

 

Purple Orchid
 


 
 
Ok the fabric isn't as vibrant as all that, I've been mucking around with the settings but it's much closer than with the old camera which looks like it's just on plain grey fabric. And that my friends is a page finish for Purple Orchid..woo hoo!


 

That's all from me stunners. Now that I've abandoned that ridiculous schedule  I will have updates more frequently and therefore my posts won't be as huge.  I didn't like to post unless I had something worthwhile to show you and as the schedule was only stitching 400 or so stitches before moving on it didn't make for great progress pics.  So as I'm stitching something when I like, for as long as I like in the rotation I should have quicker progress pics.


 
Love you all and thanx for stopping by!

Have fun in everything you do.

xox Alicia