A New Release...

So much has been going on this past year, and already in 2018! But for simplicity's sake, let's start with the present, and the past can be talked more of in another post.
What is currently in the works, is this fun little witch, now available at my shop, EyeoftheMagpieByKate on Etsy.

 So naturally what follows is stitching the model of this design, and Brunhilda was started on January 15, 2018. And here is her fabric/threads preview...

And what she currently looks l like now...

And now that it's Hermit weekend, hopefully that means some major progress. I'm so ready for Hermitting! So... I will check back with an update on how she grows, but thank you for joining me on the journey with her ☺

At Long Last...

.... and so many of you have been so patient for this conversion. I wish to thank you all for your continued encouragement, and Marilyn for her brilliant job designing her LL Celtic Ladies. The following info is 3 main sections. First is the Conversion of the Colors Used to create the "Arwen" -inspired project, it is broken down into sections of her outfit, as you will see. You will need the original chart of "Celtic Summer" to complete this project. And of course, you may use these pictures here in this post.

Next is the design Modification, or the Conversion of her dress to look more authentic to Arwen's Coronation Gown;  and the Crown she wears.

Last but not least, this page of Info goes along with the Sleeve and Crown. Be sure to read all directions carefully, and I look forward to seeing more of these beauties in the stitchy world

January 2017

So January, the month of Resolutions (Lol I dont have any!) Organization, and Plans... So with 2 out of 3, let's start with the Organization idea....
 My biggest issue with my stitching is that, with so limited a time to work on it per day -if any- it HAS to be organized and easy access. Now add in a very mischievious young cat with lol, no brains, memory or sense of boundaries, well it also has to be packed away at the end of every work session or risk being destroyed. So Im ever on the hunt for a good way to store wips on qsnaps so I can just grab and go, and the materials just live in a bag for whichever project. The trouble Ive run into is more and more of my wips are growing into bigger qsnaps, and a storage solution for that (that wont take over the whole bedroom) is where Im at now. So hmmmm. Perhaps another "under the bed'' plastic tote, but the one I currently have takes up so much room I cant fit 2 there, but if I could find something of that sort it'd work. But I havent yet. And I must. Soon. So that's at the forefront of my January to-do list. What HAS been accomplished in the name of organization is getting some patterns organized- namely the Hannah Alexander Mucha Disney Princess charts, and the freebie SALs from Snowflower Diaries and the Brooke's Books Advent animals. Now that they are all organized and have binders to live in it's much easier to plan out and work on these, which brings me to the Plans stage :) .
Ah Plans.....
That magical little word that holds such promise, plans are always great to have, and mine seem to have the added glamour of always changing due to the "whatevers" that pop up. For that reason I dont usually make long term plans regarding what I'll start (or even, gasp! finish) so usually if I can think a month ahead Im doing great. But what has been on my mind these last few months is I would like to get some things going in 2017. Aside from the demands of the Etsy store I would like to take on 2 specific stitching goals. One is to start doing some xmas type projects, such as ornaments in particular, and use some of the bazillion patterns in the stash for said items, or the samplers and scenes therin also. The other is those Mucha Disney Princesses...

They have long been my collecting goal, and there are only 3 remaining to be charted. I do hope though, that Pinky will chart up other works of Hannah's, because they truly are gorgeous. But if not then so be it, at least I found Disney Princesses in a style that appeals enough that I'd stitch it. That said, I only have Merida started, Esmeralda, and now Ariel and Elsa, are waiting to be started; with Tiana, Kida and Anna the next to collect thier floss. My goal for 2017 is to get the complete set, and thier materials rounded up. Beads, I might go a different route than Mill Hill and get hanks or kilos if that is cheaper (no doubtedly so!)
I plan to keep the tradition of Guilt Free January going, so some of these may see a start in the next couple weeks.
Beyond these two ideas I have not made any other goals or plans for the stitching, it's very much as it happens in my spare time. That said, January has seen some great progress on 3 wips and 1 new start.
  First wip was my Ireland conversion of LLCeltic Autumn.

This was the project for the last week of Dec, and saw the most time on New Year's Eve, New Year's Day morning, which is why I include it here. Already I am glad that I did not jump the gun and release the Horse chart yet. As you can see, my original horse design didnt "fit" with the Celtic Lady, and I had to change the leg accordingly so this horse doesnt look like a giraffe! So it is, the odd perspective of the Celtic Ladies having very short torsos and super long skirts was a challenge to adapt my horse to not look stupid standing next to them, and normal horse conformation had to be re-thought on how it could even work. Simply put, it is much easier to just design a stand -alone thing than it is to mesh things together, but this is where Ireland's horse lives lol, so he'd better look alright ;). Now I just have to fix and frog the leg to look right.

  The 2nd Wip

was Victoria's Sampler's "Gingerbread House" that had a bit of progress and the discovery that I miscounted somewhere, Ugh, no suprise being it was started in Dec when the holiday madness was rampant lol. So it waits to be fixed now. It's stitched on the recommended fabric with DMC instead of silk and I love how it looks so far. Or rather once it's fixed ;).
  The 3rd Wip was Mirabilia's My Lady's Garden. I love this project but had a hard time getting into it this round. I usually work on it when I miss my sister (cuz it's for her when finished) so it saw some progress on Xmas and the day after.

  And the new Start was done on New Years Day, and it is Mirabilia's "Gypsy Queen", on a 28 count linen that I dyed myself with a random mix of all the dyes I had. So it's very "carnival" I think. She has had a modification, and back when I started her in May '16 (but was scrapped due to wrong color fabric) I had decided that she, and several others were going to be a makeshift "set" that I would do, and display together. So GQ is a musician now and has a tambourine. Im still searching for the perfect bling to make it authentic, but it seems what I had in mind isnt in style for jewelry parts anymore, and so I need to hunt or adapt something more easily obtained. But here is what is happening so far with her, and I love working on her.

  So January has been off to a great start in stitchy adventures... and I must needs embark on another.... :)  Thanks for stopping by!

So 2017 has begun, but let's see how 2016 ended...

...and there's so much catching up to do in the Blogger world! Facebook, FlossTube, and Instagram seem to be eating up my internet update time, but yet I do love blogs and thier in depth approach at thoughts.
So 2016-- What an adventure! I started creating my own patterns, opened an Etsy store for those said patterns, (EyeoftheMagpieByKate) and have been crazy busy managing it all on top of the usual chaos of life. Stitching outside of the pattern models took a hit rather, but it was a wonderful adventure with 2 finishes and several others on the go. So here is a pic of finished "Pocketwatch Pixie" by Kate Frederick, and framed also by myself...

And here is the finish of "Hope" also by Kate Frederick. This particular design was done in an effort to show solidarity with Standing Rock, and the proceeds were donated to the Water Protectors.

Thank you to all who have assisted in thier efforts to keep our water clean.
     Other designs released in 2016 at Eye of the Magpie Designs were "King Cedric of the North" , "Hexus Arachnis," "Every Witch Way" and "Princess Aurora of the North." (All designs available at my Etsy store). "Princess Aurora" in particular was alot of fun, because I decided to involve other stitchers to vote on her name in my Youtube channel. As you can see, "Aurora" got the most votes and the voters were entered in a drawing. I really liked how much fun that endevour was so will probably give it another go in future....
But in the meantime, some pictures of these designs....

And they take turns still as projects that need attention, but December did not see ANY stitching happen, it was far too nuts with holiday prep and painting orders the first weeks of that month. However, Xmas day I did work on My Lady's Garden, but only for a few moments. I will show pics of her in the January stitchy post, and then New Years' weekend was very stitchy but I will save all of that news for the January update ;)...

June and the monsoon...

Late again it seems, with an update :/ ! It seems videos are easier to do so thats been what my updates are lately.. But here it has been very hot n humid, followed by thunderstorms every day for over a week here. Perhaps it is monsoon season and El Nino is at work again...? So needless to say with such a scrambled routine there's been no horse training, no gardening, and no work happening that cant be done inside shelter in between deluges. We're rather rained out but I know it makes stuff grow, and July can be very dry so hopefully this acts as insurance...
  Anyway, with so much indoor time I did get to some stitching :D so there was rejoicing in that cuz I have alot of catching up to do. Last month was The Maynia event, which was to start 15 projects during the first 15 days of May, in the Stitch Maynia facebook group. It was alot of fun, although I did not start 15 things. As fun as it was, the challenge for me was to put the new start aside in order to start the next new one- I am used to and prefer to, spending more time on new starts when I get to have them. Now that June is here I hope to spend more time on a couple of the starts that I did do in Maynia. One of them being Mirabilias Sleeping Beauty, stitched on 28ct opal linen by Silkweavers, I hope it works out for her, I should know in the next couple hours of progress if it will or not...

        And then there was also the Snowflower Diaries collection that got started, this one is March. And why it was chosen is simply cuz I had enough colors to do so, but I still need to get some colors for the others in the set. They are so cute!
  The main focus has been a design of my own, and she is the Pocketwatch Pixie. Right now Im waiting for her kreiniks and beads but once they arrive I hope to push her to a finish. She has several sisters that are waiting in the wings so this needs to happen. Here is what she currently looks like, and Id say the hard stuff is done, only her skirt, wings and the watch are left.

  June also features Summer Soltice so Lithia is due to make an appearence for that. True to the nature of the LLCeltics, she'll probably capture my attention for awhile so Im just planning for it now ;).
 Hopefully June has a ton of progress to show at the end, keeping my fingers crossed for that anyway... and now since it is currently raining, again, I hope to see what has been going on in the blogging world since Ive been absent...
  Thanks for stopping by :)

Spring Update

So much happened this spring as far as the stitchin was concerned! For one, the world of Flosstube on youtube is a daily growing thing, and I just keep finding more and more people to discover on there! It's also where the majority of my progress has been posted, which sadly means blogging took a hit for awhile, but I hope to keep up with the 2 ventures.
  But should anyone be interested, here is the link to my channel there  Kowgirlkate Paints Aplenty
and there are plenty of awesome needleworkers to be found on youtube if you search "flosstube" on the searchbar of that site.
 But back to blogging lol. March was a spectacular month of working on the LL Celtics, Ireland and Scotland were the main focus peices, and Lithia got her skin finished, and Samhain got her beads figured out. Ireland had the most progress of all, all the beads in the top motifs are completed, and the horse is finished except for his legs and tail, so that was a major win. Scotland had a major frogging session and a bit of a rechart on the horse there, but all got fixed and sorted and ready for the next session. Of course pictures are needed lol!

Funnily enough, Easter was in March and I didnt work on Ostara, how pathetic is that lol. I had thought about it, but every qsnap I owned was full and for a one day thing, well it just didnt happen. I decided instead to finally start the Merida that day since the fabric mystery was over and I had made a choice what she would get. I do love working on her! The fractionals arent near as bad as what I thought, they are mainly in her belts and her hair, and looking at the other patterns they have some but nothing too serious. And there's hardly any confetti from what Ive studied the charts so far, blended threads yes, but the only confettie is very mild where 2 symbols meet, in order to make the transition look smoother. Very do-able, not like a HAED or TW. I do know that since I am doing mine on 28ct that I will need full size (11 o) beads instead of Petites, which is fine. But here is a pic, and she is on 28ct "Vintage" lugana from my lns, so Im guessing that's from Wichelt or Zweigart cuz they dont order from hand-dyed fabric dyers like Steph or Leslie and such. The color is a cool (not warm) tones similar to DMC 842. And here is Merida so far.

Now that April is here I have so many plans that I hope to get going on before warm weather puts a crimp on my stitching time. I still have big plans and hopes that stitching wont suffer this year though.... Thanks for stopping by :)

MLI's "Celtic Summer" as Mabon/Arwen Conversion by Kate Frederick

Several people have asked me for the notes on this conversion. It was on some older cross stitch message boards but rather than sending people wandering all over the internet or dealing with links or whatnot that may lead nowhere, I have decided to put her here so I always know where to find her, and how to help other people who have asked for the info. You will need the chart of Lavender and Lace "Celtic Summer" by Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum to complete the project, but here is the info of the colors I used. I do grant permission for this post entry to be printed off as people need. Always remember to credit the designer and respect copyrights :)      Enjoy! 

A request. ... Imbolc Hood Rechart

Since I was requested for the LL Celtic rechart of the Hood from my Imbolc conversion, here it is, and I do grant permission for people to print this post for thier own use. Ive seen it floating about the Internet, pinterest, etc. But the original site it was on doesn't link to it anymore, unbeknownst to me till today. I don't have a website  so here is where I will keep it for the time being. You will need the chart of Lavender and Lace "Celtic Spring" to finish this project.  Enjoy!

Fab Feb...

and now it's here. Start-itis is still running rampant around here, but I have specific days for specific new starts in Feb, so no pics of those just yet, but the final new start for January was a cutesy kitty design that will be gifted on

It is sweet and the specialty stitches are always fun. Hopefully it doesnt take long either.

Plans for Feb? Typically it usually is a "finish it" month, but then Ive never been very good about that, so.... hmmm. For what it's worth I did get out the box of wips that have major progress, and maybe one of those could be a contender, but Im not doing any pressure. Since January seemed to focus on HAEDs, Im turning some attention to a different style of project.

Which brings me to my latest discovery and actual excitement to start a project, and they are the Hannah-Alexander Mucha Disney Princesses. Huge, lots of bling, and the quarter stitches/backstitching level of a TW project, but oh the beauties that they are! What I dont like is they are limited editions, boo. Merida and Esmeralda are my favs so it is they who will get the green light. 

I was hoping to start them in a couple weeks but another bomb got dropped in my stitchy universe, and that was a post that HAED might soon drop Laurie Prindle as one of thier artists. Now I suffered to learn afterwards that Nene Thomas was gone, and so many charts I hadnt gotten of hers, that I swore I would not repeat that scenario if I could possibly avoid it! So, if you happen to be a fan of Prindle's gorgeous horses, get em while you can! It would be so great if charts were not limited editions or unavailable, cuz so many times that's happened that I cant get one I just love. 

It has been quite a journey so far in 2016, and I really look forward to what all I can make out of Feb.... but wish me luck anyway ;)

HAEDs and Guilt-Free January

So here it goes, the Challenge on fb was successfully done and here is the pic of "Gypsy Firefly" done as instructed, and the pic has the fabric info so wont repeat it here....

.

Since then there has been a bit more progress and Im keeping it in the go tote for easy access. The other HAEDs that have been enjoying progress are "The Gloaming" by Maxine Gadd, and the New start of "Scale" by Anna Dittman.....

Gloaming is on 22ct Hardanger 'Dusk' from Picture this Plus, and is 2 over 1 Tent stitch. I am only doing the Vampire, and not the background, so just got a hand-dyed fabric for her. This is 4 hours progress and she too will stay in the go tote for awhile. Being the fabric says not to wash it, I cant use a quilt marker to keep my place, so Im using a brown sewing machine thread to grid it and it disappears under the floss so I dont even have to bother taking it out at the end. I might switch to a white thread for her face areas though, so as to save the hassle of removing it. Works for me ;)

Scale is barely started, and her fabric is 25ct Ivory lugana, stitched 2 over 1 Tent stitch. Already Ive run into acres of white stitches for this project, so Im hoping it will be a faster go of it. Since I plan to live to be 300 years old anyway ;). 

Several other Heaven and Earth Designs are slowly being kitted as Im able, though they are huge projects I have to give them credit it's only threads and fabric needed so very basic to kit up; yet they pack such a punch. I am finding they're also getting easier the more time I get to spend on them, and also having them on different fabrics has been educational cuz luckily I enjoy the differences too. There are several here on 28ct though that are rather scary cuz that seems super tiny to me, but they are heirlooms so I must conquer that qualm... Hopefully next round they will have joined the party and scored some progress... 

thanks for visiting, now I must see what bloggers have been up to...!

Guilt Free January... and HAEDs

has been here for nearly 3 weeks and I havent indulged! What is wrong with me??
 But what has been happening is a bit of organization, alot of planning, and alot of revisiting old WIPs that havent been played with since the move. Specifically the HAEDs and to a greater degree the TWs, have been sadly boxed since moving 3 years ago. Now with all the challenges on fb at least the Haeds are coming back to life, but the TWs are still waiting thier turn, hopefully the box comes off the shelf this week.
The Haed bug has bit hard, currently Gypsy Firefly is getting attention for the challenge. Nocturne is also on deck, and of course there's Winter Wings which has the most progress. Im no stranger to having Haeds, but working on them is becoming easier now that Ive made a stitchy place, and will be even better when I get a stand for the magnifyer light.
 In the midst of all this HAEDness are the ones from Kirsten that she never got to finish, and there are several. It was my goal this week to get them sorted and organized, and so far Queen of Hearts is ready to go. I hope it will be a smooth transition to pick up a project where someone left off, but she was very good at keeping her charts highlighted, so there's alot of hope. Next post I hope to include some pics of all this thread enmasse, and hopefully have some new starts to report... Thanks for stopping by!

winter....

has been unleashed! Tango doesnt seem to mind but I was freezing.

This was our first snowstorm of the season and dumped 8" on us, here in this pic it had only been snowing for an hour. All this wintery blast makes a person wanna hibernate with threads for insullation lol. So that's just what I tried to do. Samhain has gotten a bit of time, and now Arwen/Aragorn are out to see what progress they will get, and so far it's green dress this round. So the Celtics seem to be holding steady for all this switching over of projects, and I havent gotten bit yet by xmas stitching but the snow is helping with that. There are some xmas patterns in the stash Ive been waiting forever to do, but havent kitted yet, and hopefully this xmas season wont be so flipping nuts like usual. I would love to actually be able to start xmas projects in the holiday season but it never works out that way. Why is that?? And what do I need to do to counter it?? Lol having them kitted would help alot, and be far easier to grab and go when there is such an opportunity, but kitting xmas stuff isnt much fun out of season, which is why I hardly do. So we'll see on that front, but mostly it's just there's too much rush in Dec and it'd be great to slow it down and enjoy. That's my goal for this year- and not get caught up in all the storms the season brings, weather or otherwise ;) 

Instead...

I will follow the herd's example and find a happy cozy place with some good company and noms to enjoy. I hope to have some progress pics soon to share! In the meantime, I better go keep the herd happy and warm and fed so I can enjoy the same myself!

Time for a change. ..

Only to what precisely?
I've met the goal for the HAED challenge, and thought it would be great to start a new one. Only so much over 1 has me not interested in more of the same. At least for tonight because of the poor lighting in here. Still, mornings are great to get a little done, and there's several I really want to launch, maybe in a few weeks.
     For now, it's a good guess what will get some attention. The Mirabilias, the Chatelaines, and there's always the Celtic ladies vying for a chance.
   My brain is tired because of long days on the farm, and training Tango the Mustang has been the most relaxing thing all week.  (Lol the HAED was confetti, so not very relaxing at that; ) ) So with the challenge taken care of, I will take a break from the genre till it slows up a bit round here.
  But to choose is the best part. ..

kitting adventures....

 I try to visit a great lns a couple times a year. This store was having a XMAS sale today and lots of good bargains to be had! But what does this girl walk out with? Halloween stuff! I know that sounds too funny but Im still in Halloween mode and I found several things I'd been waiting for so what the heck. My xmas stitching mode hits after Thanksgiving, (and for a brief time in July) so until then I dont worry about xmas stitching cuz it's just for fun anyway.This store didnt have the xmas charts I was hunting for so I switched holidays. My hope is that I can start some of these new Halloween projects very soon, and if not then I'll save em for Guilt Free January. My other main purchase was some 25ct hand-dyed fabric for HAED's "Lirielle" by Nene Thomas, because Im not doing the background on that one- pages of the same color would drive me insane. However I will have to sew a grid on this one, cuz of the fabric and not doing the background. Sigh, but it shouldnt take long. Gridding is NOT my favorite thing, but an absolute must for haeds and other big projects like that. I'll get her floss when there's a sale.
 I've been in a stash collecting mode, the last few years havent allowed much of that so I need to catch up, and the discovery of no more Nene HAEDs was a bummer! I dont want to find myself in that pickle again, but at least with the Nene's she's doing it herself on her website. I just wish there were 'crop' options rather than doing the whole giant project cuz it's alot of background before you even reach the lady.
  The new HAEDs have been tough to decide who should be kitted, each is so beautiful, and I must say they pack so much punch being only floss and fabric and huge besides, yet so simple to do. Many smaller projects are so much more expensive.

HAED challenge

 And so there's this week's progress on HAED "Winter Wings " by Nene Thomas. I am really impressed with how the owl is coming to life! I hadn't expected him to be as large as he is,  nor so detailed. However that effect comes with a confetti price tag lol. I also printed off the next few pages in the hopes of avoiding page lines on the project itself, and to speed things up a bit with the background instead of confetti owl.
    My new charts will be shipped soon so once they come i hope to start kitting a start as a reward for completing this  challenge. But which one remains to be seen. ...

Halloween progress...

So my Halloween plans did come to fruition, at least a bit if not all. I did get to a lns and had a wonderful day with my new freind Alice. We had lots of Halloween stash to chose from and brought some new patterns and such home. I didnt get a chance to start anything new over the weekend, but look forward to that day when something witchy needs to be kitted. As it were, Samhain was calling louder than a new start so she was the focus. She has more border done, the motifs are beginning to get thier colors worked out, and so much frogging done of her shawl that had the wrong colors. I chose a different overdyed fiber for that, and you can see it in the border and a bit next to her skirt. These colors seem to work better against the Needlepaints, but there again, if it werent for the deep cold blackish purples of this floss I would ditch for something else. Having done so many of MLI's Ladies I figured it would only be fitting to use her fibers in at least one of them ( I have 2 with them) but I am finding I have to be very particular with the tension to get adequate coverage ( this fabric is 28ct lugana) The very darkest shade has been testy and if I didnt have so much done already I would add another strand for better coverage. But onward and let's continue forward.  

The next area of focus will be the shawl, and after that section is farther along it will time to move the scrolls and get serious about the borders. I'm anxious to bead those up so best step it up a notch. The other project Ive been dabbling at is the HAED "100 Stitches Challenge" from the new fb group. I had a few I wanted to start but in the end it was "Winter Wings" that won out. I would like to finishthe first page of it and that would put me well over the requirements. Currently Im bogged down in confetti of the owl, but it is cool seeing it start to actually look like something. I will take pics onceI get his head done... For now I better go see what my Mustang is up to, so I can stitch some this afternoon before the good light fades....

mish mash

Fall is in all it's glory here, which always gets me in the winter prep for stitching mode! Cold outside/cosy inside means alot more opportunity for stitching and I am very much looking forward to it! That said I try to do some kitting of new projects so that I can have some new starts in January, or whenever, which always leads to alot of browsing websites, facebook groups, and blogs for inspiration. Speaking of blogs, the talented Nancy over at Victorian motto sampler shoppe is having more giveaways and getting everyone in the fun of the season. Her threads are just gorgeous and I hope to buy some after xmas.
 What I have been up to, is the sale at HAED, and discovering Paine Free Craft's site and all the lovelies they have to offer. I havent worked on my Haeds since moving to the new house, for I dont have any place to set up my big mag light. I really should get a floor stand or wheels stand for it! But am gonna try to putter along till then with the little cheapo one. From the Haed sale, I was gifted a RAK by a fellow blogger (hugs!!) and hope they enjoy thiers as much as I will, with a happy little thought or prayer for them in each stitch. That's alot of good vibes isnt it ;). I also added Ex Machina, Fallen Angel, Priya and a couple I cant remember the names of. Since getting back to Haeds though, I was so disappointed to learn Nene Thomas is no longer offered there. Gah, she was my main collection and there were so many I hadnt gotten. Who knows what the future holds so Im gonna do my best to not find myself in that position again, Still wish I had known :/ And it seems I need to get batteries for the light, but at least I did get the charts organized, some anyway.
  Anyway, stitching for real has seen a little progress, mostly on Samhain but not enough to warrant a progress pic yet. This week promises a stitchy adventure with a sassy lady named Alice and we aim to go on a lns tour which will be amazing to run amuck in. Im hoping to find some fun Halloween things to play with on the holiday for my new tradition...

A mini little finish

which really didnt take alot of time and was simple, but packs a cute punch. It is the biscornu from Judy Odell, to match the Nessaire I completed awhile back, also designed by her.  these made great little travel projects to take along cuz there were few color changes and a simplistic design. Im really tempted to do another colorway, but not right now. Samhain is back in progress and I hope to get something significant done on her before Halloween passes us by...! I've been rather tired at night due to a major new "project" Ive taken on, the full details can be seen here but it is vastly hugely rewarding...   Tango's Story     Once the initial training is done, my time will free up more for stitching again. In the meantime, enjoy these pics of Judy's wonderful designing, and thanks for stopping by :)

Now if only The Celtic Ladies would work up as fast.... sigh lol

Halloween bug

and it's starting to bite! However, with all the Halloween patterns in my stash none are kitted or started, save Samhain of course. But that has provided a new tradition for Halloween that I plan to implement this year! Now that my boys are too big for trick or treating, we're too far in the country that no trick-or-treaters come to the door, and hubs never wants to do anything cuz of the crowds that night; well I have to salvage the holiday somehow! So my plan is to get some of these Halloweeny patterns kitted for some fun treats for me ;) ! They will be a fun way to celebrate, albeit in a quiet way I guess, and far fewer calories than raiding Halloween candy stash....
  In stitching, I havent made much progress since last time I posted, family health needs and harvest are leaving me too worn out to do anything much at the end of the day. Lithia still needs her face and now Samhain needs to get her shawl figured out, lol how blessed to have such a to-do list...

The start of Lithia..

As you can see, she's alot different from Summer as originally charted. But I think this scheme suits a Lithia representative alot better, being it's all about Summer Soltice, height of summer, sun god, and all that. Her hair though is Summer's original colors, which are actually darker than what I thought! Still, they fit in great with this conversion. I shall focus on her a bit longer, at least to get her face done. That only leaves Yule needing some fabric and getting started.... and she has special plans so I better get on this if I have any hope of finally completing the set. Still I've come to see that delays were actually blessings in disguise... all good things in thier own time.. Thanks for stopping by, a warm welcome to some new followers, and thank you to those who left comments, y'all are sweetharts :)