Best. Project. Ever.

I've finished the Zenbroidery!  I really thought it was going to take like 6 months to do, and it only took a little over 2 months.  

Let's recap.  This was after I started on February 22.  This was a test of different flosses and techniques just to see how it would look.  

March 1

March 16

April 20

DONE! April 30!

While most of the colour combos are just randomly selected, I did do some in specific colours to represent things that have meaning to me.  You'll find a blue and bronze flower and paisley, for Ravenclaw.  I couldn't get It's A Beautiful Day's song 'White Bird' out of my head while I did that dove.  Gold & red for Gryffindor of course.

There's a green and silver paisley near the black star, for Slytherin.  The dark blue flower with the light blue and white beads are our high school colours.  The black star represents a Grateful Dead song called 'Dark Star'.  

I stitched a white lightning bolt with red & blue in that heart for the Dead.  

Bluebird of happiness.  There's a neon green & blue heart which are for the Seahawks.

There's a yellow and black paisley for Hufflepuff. 

Really enjoyed adding all the beads and sequins too, even though I stabbed myself quite a few times, and once even drawing blood.

Those two stars were the last bits that needed to be done today and I was so eager to finish.

Now I just need to find a frame, although I'm thinking about having it professionally framed.  And now comes the really hard part:  Finding room on the wall for it!

In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lion

Not gonna lie, March really sucked weather-wise except for a handful of precious days.  We had a hell of a howler on the last day of the month.  Roads were flooded, creeks over their banks, etc. Pretty sunsets from time to time.  

Of course we lost that hour switching over to Daylight Savings Time which I have always hated.  Standard time is real time.  People are always kvetching about how early it gets dark.  It's only a period of time of like 60 days tops.  If that.  The light already starts coming back by mid January.

So my peace embroidery has taken over the craft table.  What a mess.  

The floss situation on the other craft table got completely out of control.  I spent some time trying to get it somewhat organized and discovered that I have A LOT of duplicate skeins.  So I made this meme to remind myself to look at what I have before trotting off to the store to get more.

Now I can start stitching again and only pull out ONE skein per colour.  That will keep it under better control.

Started this diamond painting.  It's OK.  It was only $5.  It came in a very flimsy package unlike the more expensive kits.  The plastic sheet over the adhesive surface was ripped and the adhesive is so-so.  If this one is going to be displayed, it will have to be framed for sure.  The other thing is that it's only the peacock design that gets the tiles.  The background is preprinted already.  Finally, the tiles are round, not square. They fit together better than I thought, but I prefer square.  It's going fast though.  At this point I'd put in about an hour at a time over 3 days.

And of course I made my hubby's fave pineapple upside down cake for his birthday.  He loved it.  As did I.  Last year I did it as a bundt but it seems too dry that way so I went back to the 9x9 cake pan.  We don't like cherries so I don't use them.

I finally had a rainy, pajama day where all I did was do some crafts and a few chores.  Besides working on the diamond painting, I did this saturn Makit Bakit kit.  It only came with red, yellow and glow in the dark but I dipped into my stash for the other colours.  This project went sideways the first day I worked on it.  I was nearly done when my arm hit the pan and sent everything cattywampus.  I had to back away till the next day when I started over, carefully putting the crystals back practically one at a time.

I ended up having to bake this THREE times.  I had to fill in spaces with more beads and remelt it. Then I found that I skipped a dark green section and had to put it back in the oven again to fill it in.  I guess all the extra work paid off cause I love how it came out.

I got a ton filled in on the peace sign, now that I can actually locate the floss I need. 

It's really going fast now!!

I really hope we start getting some warm temps soon.  

Well apparently winter decided to make a March appearance this year.  I was hoping we were home free but alas, putting away the winter boots bit me in the ass.

How cute is Sagan sleeping under his stuffed puppy?

Here he is looking very sorry for getting into the trash and eating half a boneless pork roast and some mashed potatoes, plus coffee grounds all over the place including a coffee ground footprint on the rug.

I put him in the craft for about 20 minutes so I could clean up and he didn't make a peep, then spent the rest of the day not looking at me.  The funny thing is, I didn't even yell at him when I saw the mess.  Just said, 'Sagan!  Bad boy!'

Gnomey's had about enough of this.

The flamingoes have just given up.

Did everyone get out to see the pretty full moon?

I didn't make these....I got them in Salem.  They looked pretty in the late afternoon sun.  Man alive my windows need washing....

Most of the eastern seaboard got killed with a huge snowstorm on the 14th.  It turned to rain around here so we actually ended the storm with far less snow than at the beginning.  It was a nice, cozy day, listening to the wind and driving rain.  So I worked on my zenbroidery with some new rainbow floss I just got and just LOVE.  Also added a Grateful Dead themed design in the heart.

Finally got a long overdue day to myself where I didn't have to leave the house at all, so I broke out the beads and started filling in the top.  I was going to wait till the end but I just couldn't stop myself.

The sequins and beads really make it pop.

As of March 16.

Seriously hard putting this one down.

March Projects

Winter has apparently arrived.  We had a couple of mild days but overall it's been chilly.  We had snow the other day and a blizzard's on the way.  Ugh.   I'm still chipping away at a new cross stitch that is very tedius, and I needed a craft that I could do in order to get fast results.  Decided to try the Alum Crystal Candles .  I got the alum off of Amazon, not the food kind but a more 'industrial' kind cause I read that they formed better crystals.  Everything came together pretty quickly and then I just had to wait overnight till it was done.

I used a can lid for my project.  It was supposed to be able to be used as a tea light holder.

It came out pretty but the crystals are really crumbly.  More than borax.

I was kind of underwhelmed with the results.  It needs way more crystals grown inside the lid.  

Crystals grew on the bottom which I didn't expect and it's very uneven.

The paper towel on which it was drained looked pretty.

I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it....the blue crystals are so pretty and sparkly so it's hard to part with it.

I'm making really great progress on the zenbroidery!

This is so much fun!  If you embroider, I highly recommend getting one of their patterns.  Even if you don't, it comes with an instruction sheet of different stitches.

Variegated floss is the best.

I'll be adding beads and sequins at the end, although it's tempting to do them now, but I am afraid they'd break if they get crushed by the hoop.