The Introverted Crafter

I'm on a few Facebook groups that are cross stitch themed, and one of them asks you to post your WIP every Wednesday. Someone posted their Holiday Village (the one I've put aside for now) and they managed to almost finish it in ten weeks!!! I could say I'm not jealous but I'd be lying... Anyway, I've found that having very few tasks left to do has left me a little directionless strangely. I've only got the two left to complete now; the book plans and the savings target. The savings target is something that I can only influence once a month so that will take a while (on 65% now!) so the book plans are what I need to concentrate on but I'm finding my energy dissipating in general at the moment. I've had my two days off work this week and neither day was productive in any way, so the only thing I have to show for this week is my progress on the cross stitch. So I'm feeling a little annoyed with myself this week but I suppose we all have o...

Before I go into the crafting side of the blog, I want to talk a little bit about how I'm feeling at the moment. Specifically; getting dressed. Now, when I have a day I'm working it's easy, I put on my uniform. The problem is, when I have a day off it is so much easier to stay in my pyjamas. Choosing an outfit is simply exhausting when you have depression, and a lot of the time you think 'why bother' especially when you are not going anywhere. A couple of years ago I took care of my appearance, at least in what I was wearing, but that seems to have disappeared at this present moment in time. So, from today, I've decided to wear everything in my wardrobe (not literally everything at once). I've started small, wearing a dark dress and tights. (Wearing dark clothes is also something I do when depressed, finding it easier to hide away) Anyway, onto the crafts. First of all, here are the updates on the sewing room stitch After that initial setback it...

I know I said that I would be decreasing the number of stitchy posts, but I thought this one would illustrate perfectly something that is fundamental to stitching. After where I got to last time, I decided to start stitching the window, as there were plenty of whole stitches. Progressing well Starting the foliage More foliage. Looks good doesn't it. There are 59 rows between the first line I stitched (the multicoloured bit) and the top of the window... Started the dress...get to a row and realise I've not counted 59 rows. I've counted 60. Fuck.  Decided to unstitch the bottom part rather than the window. Cue snagged threads, a lot of cutting, and wasted time and skeins. Here is where I am now. Obviously I have been very careful with the counting now!  Here endeth the lesson... Ems

Another t-shirt today, but it's for me! I bought a red t shirt when I bought the others, but had no idea what to do with it. I kept entertaining ideas, like cityscapes and birds but I only had a certain amount of soluble canvas, so was slightly restricted. A couple of days ago I found an Egyptian cross stitch pattern, and decided to do that. So here it is It's only small, so the irony is I still have more canvas spare! I do have a blue and white striped shirt that I may add an anchor to. As for the Egyptian theme, maybe I was inspired when I was looking through my old holiday photos... This was taken during my first holiday to Florida back in 2009, in the gift shop for The Mummy ride. I've also been working on one of my other stitches, as I was having a little trouble with the holiday village. It is a sewing room, and here is the progress so far. I'm aware that my blog is predominantly stitchy at the moment, but as I have explained before, ...

This is the final t-shirt, which means I've already made next years birthday presents! If you're a Disney buff like me, you will have guessed what the subject is by the title. If not, here it is I found this pattern on pinterest. The person who designed it has loads of designs (including the phoenix from earlier) and is unbelievably talented. The reason I chose this is that the recipient is my unofficial little sister (mum's friends daughter) and the first present I ever bought her was a replica of the Belle dress. She's also the little girl I took to Disney last year. This was the hardest to stitch not due to the design but the size of the shirt. I couldn't put it over my hoop so had to stitch it free hand. The only t shirt I have left now is my own. I have an idea for which design I want but I'm not 100% yet. I keep changing my mind! Spending wise I spent £10.07 getting food for work next week and some cat food (notice I've stopped listin...

Another t-shirt down today, this one for my younger brother who is gaming mad. Only one more to do as a present before I get to do my own! I've also been using dominoes again this week, this time to make magnets.  Finally, here is the update on the holiday stitch. As you can see there hasn't been much progress at all. Spending wise I have been doing very well, not spending anything aside from rent, phone and sky bills, and £9.64 on food for work for the week. I'm also coming very close to finishing two of the tasks. 1. Starry night cross stitch (DONE)  2. Project book (DONE) 3. Book plans (no progress) 4. Read and review 100 books (91/100) 5. 14 christmas presents (DONE) 6. 11 birthday presents (DONE) 7. Calendar, box and tags (DONE) 8. Minimum savings target (53%) 9. Kili stitch (DONE) 10. 50,000 words (40758/50,000) Happy crafting! Ems

Now that I have completed over half the challenges, and am nearing the end of two more (will finish by mid July at the latest on these ones) should I set myself more? And if I do, should they be along the same lines as the other ones, or should they be something completely different? The reason I ask is because I don't want to get back into the habit of spending for spendings sake, and, for the most part, the challenges have been working. What do you think? Anyway, this is a crafty blog first and foremost so here are today's makes. The first is the second domino box I had. I started off by painting it blue, then adding some G45 blueprint paper. I have to admit I was at a bit of a loss for what to do then, so I looked around for some inspiration, finally deciding to do this. The doves are wooden, painted black then coated with gold and blue perfect pearls. The filigree behind the heart was brass but I coated it in silver distress paint, added some black distress powder ...