March Madness is almost upon us....

It’s the last day of February and I think I am ready for tomorrows start of my own personal March Madness, at least I thought I was. I have a box (see pics tomorrow) full of 31 projects, and each is numbered from 1-31, this was the hardest part or at least would have been if I had left it to my own choice. In the end, I put the numbers in an envelope and randomly pulled a package and a number and that was how I got to have the order that I do. I apologise for the lack of glamour of my project box – hehe.

I was feeling really pleased with myself at having got 31 projects and all numbered and ready to start, but when I checked my electronic patterns (a mix of free patterns (quick stitches) and larger HAEDs) I realised there was possibly others I wanted to stitch on! I have decided that should I finish any – highly unlikely this month – but if I do then I can replace it with one of these that I have waiting.

My plan after March is to take April off (stitching only if my mojo demands it) and then starting on May 1^st which happens to be the 18^th week of the year, start a weekly rotation based on the March WIPs, which will take me to the beginning of December when I will probably want a break to enjoy the season. I do have some patterns that will easily be finished in a week so that’s pretty exciting to think that I will see some finishes this year J and also a chance to swap in some new starts.

I have included my frosted pumpkin SAL and ELE’s abc’s stitchalong and am wondering if maybe I shouldn’t include SALs? What do you think? Yay or nay?

I have noticed that my patterns tend to fall into a theme of ladies from various ethnic backgrounds or street scenes! When March gets underway you will see what I mean, that is also filled in with randoms which were gifted to me and randoms which I bought on a whim so it should be an unusual month. Is there nothing in my life that doesn’t reflect my erratic nature? I guess not.

I have also realised that as much as I don’t like the holes in the background on a larger count fabric, you can’t see this so glaringly when framed, and I prefer the look of larger stitches than smaller ones…which means I need to find the perfect project to do on a very large 18ct piece of aida I have…hmmm.

March Schedule for Top 10

The schedule you have all been waiting for...


Many of you may be aware that the April A to Z Blogging Challenge will soon be upon us…what with it being almost April!

It was decided informally amongst us Top10 peeps that we would put our Top 10 lists on hiatus for April as we all seem to have bitten off more than we can chew for the challenge, we shall see!

In addition to the hiatus I have made the (self-appointed) executive decision (*cough*) to reduce the Top 10 to be the Top 5 during March and again in May as we recover. I hope that Keebs and Tiff are happy with this?

I was thinking up some list ideas and have decided to be influenced by the ‘date’, we are happy to have more people join us and maybe with only five you might be willing, but here is the list for March…

1st March – Top 5 things I love that are Welsh.

The first of March in the UK is St Davids Day, represented by a Daffodil, and the patron Saint of Wales. The people who are from Wales are Welsh and they have their own dialect which is also called Welsh. There are many things to love that are welsh and although of not familiar, twenty minutes on the internet will probably help!

8th March – Top 5 female role models.

The 8th of March is International Women’s Day and why not celebrate us wonderful ladies…although I think there should be an International Man’s Day (for equality to be equality)…but its not this day, so lets pick five female role models, maybe they were writers, musicians, scientists, characters in books, friends or family but whomever they are, lets share how they influenced us.

15th March – Top 5 shops/stores I love.

The 15th March is World Consumer rights day, so what better list than this? Share the shops/stores you love/like a lot/hate and why, whether they are physical shops/stores or online.

22nd March – Top 5 things I love that are French.

The 22nd March is International Francophone Day, I speak the smallest amount of French that I learned about 30 years ago now and I am surprised I haven’t forgotten, but I love things that are French and do you?

29th March - Top 5 things on my bucket list.

The 29th March 2016 is the 30 year anniversary of the London Marathon. Many people have ‘run a marathon’ on their bucket lists, I am one of them although I am not sure how likely that is now but there are other things on my list both big and small, and maybe you don’t even have one, but we all have an idea of things we might like to try and so…share five of those if you can….they don’t have to be sport related.

Let me know in the comments if you are taking part so that I can add your link to the left-hand side bar!

Top10 Tuesdays: Top 10 YouTube channels you find yourself watching,

Hello! And yes, I so realise that my date was wrong before, for some reason it said the 25th February but thats not a Tuesday! So here we are...the last Tuesday in February and what a topic.

I do not spend much time browsing YouTube and the majority of the videos I have ever seen have been the voice blind auditions from around the world - I can't explain my love for these, and YouTube videos that people share on Facebook.

There are some exceptions...band YouTube pages, TV show clips and Floss tube videos! So let's begin...

1. The Stash Queen (Stitching)
Now, I have watched a lot of floss tube videos but there is something about this woman that keeps me watching, and I am now at the point where I look forward to Sunday evening when she posts! She has some mannerisms and habits that are weirdly hypnotic and she is in part to blame for me thinking I could handle a single month of stitching everyday...here is her latest video...

2. Nikkie Tutorials (Makeup)

I don't know how I came to watch this girls make up videos as I am not really a make up addict although I am impressed with what you can do with it. There is a British girl - the equivalent to this one - but she just plain annoys me!

3. Button Poetry (Poetry) I stumbled across this via it appearing on the sidebar when watching a different video and I really love the channel. Its great to see young people embrace poetry, performance poetry also makes it more accessible to all, in some ways it days steer the readers interpretation but I really like this. 4. Alonzo Lerone He generally makes fun of comments or status or trends on social media. The clip below is about 'Go Fund Me'. I find it quite funny! Sometimes shockingly so..

5. GubeTube

Mainly because I love Matthw Gray Gubler! But he posts something hardly ever, which is good as it means that it takes very little of my time :) But how adorable is he??

6. Jimmy Fallon

I like this as i find Jimmy is super hyper and positive and a whole show of him is too much for me, lol!, and we don't have him on TV here anyway - does Spike count?, anyway I like his game bits and so every month or so catchup on those. Here is a cool adele clip.

7. TED

The videos are always interesting, sometimes educational but they do make you think, and usually about stuff that you might not have done already.

8. Red Letter Day I like this - spoofy! - and its pretty funny too, I think its for Geekheads but I loved it.

9. AVbyte

This is the first of the two disney clips that I love to watch, if I am on YouTube then why not? First the villains....

and now the princesses... 10. Randoms Ok, this isnt a channel but remember how I mentioned blind auditions from around the world...
Please share your favourite channels!

From March Madness to Spring Fever...

Hello!

'Tis I...I am just preparing for the creative groups latest meet up this afternoon and am quite looking forward to it...each time there have been different people turn up but the creative energy and enthusiastic is always very high and I leave excited and inspired.

This week we are experimenting with Cold Porcelain - I prepared some yesterday (first time ever!) and its as close to cooking as I am liable to get...hehe...although with my writing class having the last session next week I have been contemplating a cookery class of some sort to do in its place.

Anyway, I have gone off track, mainly because I wanted to tell you about the great idea I had...or as some people might call it...the not so great idea! Its inspired by all those people doing the crazy January challenge, or the crazy January and February challenge or those insane people who are doing the year of starts!

I have decided to embark on my own stitching challenge, to hop hop hop my way through either a work in progress or a new start for each day of March. I am sure I am not alone in embracing March Madness or Spring Fever but I haven't had the time to google yet, but I will and I will let you all know who else has lost their marbles.

I decided to stick to patterns that I had in hard copy in my house already, by way of a kit or booklet or previously printed design, along with my WIPs. I was surprised to see patterns I had clearly forgotten about, but what surprised me most was that I had 31! I actually have a few over that, one is a HAED (I think its called Green Dragonling), the other is my father Christmas kit (I have had for umpteen years now and stitching his beard puts me off!) and the other is a blackwork piece that I started whilst visiting Keebs but when I left I also left the pattern and so that has been a pretty good excuse for not finishing it! (as you can see below)

So I am going to label all my pieces at random with a number from 1-31 and stitch the corresponding piece on that day and who knows...I might stitch on each of them on the same day the next month and the next and the next and the....maybe not! But...I am all set for March Madness as its the prelude to Spring Fever when the A to Z blogging challenge begins!

But first I have 8 days left in this month when I am guessing I go crazy and stitch on whatever takes my fancy...mmm....i think i need another pair of hands or twenty seven.

I hope you are having an great weekend! 

Top 10 Tuesdays: Top 10 Movie Heroes

So...I thought this would be easy and then  remembered my terrible memory and so with that in mind I went off in search of someone else's list...and have provided feedback on their suggestions...but what happened was, it made me compare some of them to people who i thought were better heroes ..heheheh...So here goes...

Top 10 Movie Heroes

So I found a site that had not 1, not 5, not even 10 movie heroes but 100! Yep, that is way too many and in spot 100...

1. Karate Kid's Danny LaRusso

Now, I don't know about you but he does not need to be at 100, when I was a kid watching this movie he was great. He got the girl, he won the fight, he made best friends with the old dude and he won the respect of the other Karate kids with that funky crane move. Admittedly, he is no Mr Darcy...we'll get to that...but he doesnt deserve to be 100, childhood heroes are hard to come by.

2. Mr Darcy (as played by Colin Firth)

Now I know a certain person (heres looking at you keebs) who may lean towards Matthew McFadyen for this honour but the brooding of one Mr Colin Firth is unbeatable and also I get two for one as he is an awesome crumpled leading man and Bridget Jones anyone...

3. Captain America

When I thought of this topic I thought of this guy first...mainly because he is the clichéd all american hero but also because he is (unashamedly) easy on the eye. He is my favourite avenger.

4. Aragorn from LOTR

I guess movie heroes can be interpreted in so many ways, the unsung heroes, the obvious heroes, the i dont wanna be a hero heroes...but this another in the swoonsome variety and i am starting to think I may have a problem...doh!

5. John McLaine from Die Hard

I need an action hero, and back in the days of the TV show Moonlighting I must admit to having a small crush on him, but in Die Hard - he just makes me laugh! But he saves the day and thats what its all about :).....ohhhhh hokey cokey cokey...

6. Bond....James Bond...but the only bond that matters played by ...Sean Connery.

My...he was something, right? Sexist, sure. Misogynist, sure. Arrogant, sure. Swarthy, sure. A hero...double sure. I am glad to say that the character is slowly working on all of his flaws but it is a slow ongoing process.

7. Rooster Cogburn from True Grit

I have a confession to make, I do like a western, and I like John Wayne...even though I have probably seen the John Wayne version of this, I can't remember seeing it! But I did see the remake as it stars one of my favourite actors Jeff Bridges.

8. Lassie

There has to be an animal hero, and there are so many in animated movies that I could have picked one of those, but back before the movie going market was over flowing with animation, it was interspersed with such classics like Lassie. (I am a sucker for any animal movie, Homeward Bound, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Beethoven etc.)

9. Wonder Woman

Growing up, there was one female hero who I wanted to be and that was Wonder Woman  - do I need to explain this? I think not. She was awesome.


10. Inspector Clueseau from Pink Panther

The Pink Panther movies are just classics (I am talking the originals with Peter Sellers) and if you havent seen them you really must! I have them on DVD and am now thinking that I must watch one of them tonight.


There are so many different ways you can work this, that I am thinking maybe I should have been more specific, but maybe next time! So who is your favourite Movie Hero?

Preparation begins for April and September....

Hi Everyone,

Guess what? Go on...have a guess...that's right! I have signed up again for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge and you can check out the link in my sidebar and join in too. I have failed twice now I think, mainly due to my poor organisational skills when it comes to scheduling, but...I did succeed the first year that I took part and so based on that I am giving it another go.

I shall be blogging here about the original entries I made the first year that I took part in the challenge and looking at whether I succeeded or not and I hope to add something extra stitchy but we shall see - a test run will be occurring tonight - but I shall keep you posted.

It seems to be fate as I am number 676 this year...and being born in 76...you know, how can I fail?

I took this on board and decided to enter an A to Z for my music blog which I am re-birthing over at 'Look Listen Love Music' where I have announced today my topic which I hope you will all enjoy if you have time to stop by there in April.

Shockingly I have NOT STITCHED all week....I have carried my stitching around with me mind, in the hope that I would get a chance to do some. I spent last week at my course, and I went to a writers group (which was quite fab- an in person one no less!). I hope to rectify this and spend Sunday stitching.

The September preparation is the plan I have to get my bum over to Canada - so if you fancy meeting for coffee or lunch or something then drop me a line! I shall be travelling east to west and thats about all I have planned so far! Time to get a move on...or at least by April.

So...join in the fun of the A to Z Challenge....we might have to put Top 10 Tuesdays on hold for the month (what do you think Keebs? Tiff?)...

Top 10 things you would do if you won the lottery (£75 million)

What would I do? What would I do? If I one 75 million squidoolies....hmmm...I change my mind a lot.... so I asked my naughty nieces....

Layla aged 9...

1. Buy a mansion
2. Decorate with gumball machines
3. Get a massive rollercoaster
4. But a hot tub and put it next to my double bed and have a flat screen TV in the room
5. Get a candy shop in the house
6. Go to New York and visit lady liberty
7. Buy top designer clothes
8. I would wear the latest fashions to impress everyone
9. I would go to Hollywood and meet all the people from The Voice
10. Buy my own recording studio and hire all the greatest musicians to help me and make music videos.

Ebony aged 4...

I would go to the shop and buy all the toys.

Naomi aged 6...

I would just do gymnastics.

lol! What would you do?

Rotation, rotation, rotation!

Hey there!

So after the weekends stitching I wasn't sure which to continue on, then in the wee hours of this morning I went through my wips as who needs sleep...I think it might be my new Sunday ritual to see which project is calling out to me and stitch on it that week. 

What happened was this evening I stitched on my HAED...anyone remember me starting this? It's faces of faery 66 I think...and last time I left it off here...

And after today...it's here...

So mainly focussed on that bottom left corner...not bad...I'm excited to see how much I have done by the Saturday night before I choose the next project :) the changing is helping my mojo a lot and I'm enjoying it so far. 

I hope you're all enjoying your stitches too!

Saturday stitches

It's 3am and I can't sleep...nothing new...so I thought I would post a small update on my weekend stitches.

I opted to spend the time I had on Saturday stitching in Noahs Ark. Can you see any difference? 

Before...

After...

I'm happy with that for now :)

I hope you've all enjoyed your weekend stitchy time! 

Mini-week stitchy update

Helloooooo!

I thought I would post my small stitchy update. Rather than rotating more wips I stuck with the sampler and the Noah's ark. 

I spent about an hour on Tuesday on the sampler ..,

And I stitched that alphabet in purple on the right.

I didn't stitch Wednesday :( but yesterday I managed another hour of stitching but this time on Noahs Ark...

All in all I'm pleased for two hours worth. I hope to get some stitching done this weekend but I'm off to London today to a gig (Skunk Anansie) to see a band I have seen before and really like. I'm seeing them in a venue I haven't been to before so that will be fun and instead of battling the night train I booked a hotel room way back in October! I am pretty excited because the hotel is two minutes (literally) from Paperchase! I will share any purchases next week...hehehe

Sunday I will be hiding in my house and hopefully stitching! But in what? Sampler or Ark? I'm stuck in sampler because now I have to pick a new colour and some of you may remember my sampler colour woes...I am still contemplating frogging the o, p & q on the left-hand side but will most likely leave that till the very end. Colour suggestions welcome! 

Ark wise I am heading towards the elephants as they are large blocks of one colour so great for doing with the TV on.

I hope you all have some fun stitchy things planned :) 

Kate x

Top 10 Tuesdays (on a wednesday! Gulp!) of Phone Apps

Hello!

So this Tuesday evening course is messing up my Top 10 Tuesdays and I am not organised enough to schedule...but I shall try for next week...

My top 10 favourite apps...in no particular order...

1. Whatsapp - is whatsapp an app? Well it has app in its name so must be!

2. Banking App - it means I can move money between accounts and transfer cash to people if I borrow some when out and I can do it instantly.

3. Meetup - the app that has led to me starting my own creative group and which I am excited about, this means I can stay in touch with the members and keep an eye on any events up coming.

4. Cineworld App - so I can check out what is on at the cinema in case i take a detour from work.

5. Booking.com app - my travel companion and oh so handy! I was going to elaborate but you'd need a good hour and a pot of tea.

6. Feedly App - so I can keep up to date with you guys!

7. Songkick App - so I can keep up to date with my favourite musicians and when they are touring.

8. National Express App - ive found this to be quite handy for check bus times between larger towns (national express is a coach service that quick and easy)

9. Layout App - this app lets me select some photos and create a layout of them. Its very simple and so are the results but I use it for comparisons - and i used it for the last alphabet sampler post.

10. Wildcard! - I don't know what app ten is...but I am looking for one to help me with being organised but that isnt a calendar, or a list app or a reminder app but one that sort of can be manipulated to do all three but my way...what do you mean it doesnt exist? lol! I am off to check Keebs and Tiffs posts to see if they have an app for that....

What in the WIP!

Hi Everyone...it seems I have a Wipology...a certificate in WIPs.

Admittedly it isn't as much as some, such as those who do Crazy January starts or even a YEAR of starts....but I have become quite addicted to Floss Tube of late and rather than worrying me it has inspired me to look at my WIPs and add some stitches. I counted them and I have TWELVE wips! Which is a large amount for me but not too bad…I haven’t included the projects I have but haven’t yet started.

Why am I telling you this? Well…on Saturday I stitched on one of the WIPs and on Sunday on a different one and I actually quite liked the idea of a daily rotation and so that is my plan…to rotate all my WIPs…but each day all the time I spend stitching will be on that one WIP. I couldn’t possibly remain sane if I was stitching on several for only 15 minutes!

I can’t decide if I should include new starts or if I should not make any new starts till these are done…if I tell myself no new starts then I am pretty sure that I will only want to do new starts so I will play it by ear and if I feel like something new then I shall and if not…WIP away!

Here is my alphabet sampler...top...and beneath is the progress I made. I don't know why I was worried about the purple on the right, I'm loving it now! Lol