A UFO and a SAL

Just in case anyone was wondering I did take part in Tuesday UFO Night and Thursday SAL Night this week....... I just got distracted by other things and struggled to find the time to post pics, so I'll make up for that now.

This week, as I didn't want too much distraction from watching Most Haunted Live, I chose the easiest cross stitch piece to stitch: Night Watchman. OK, so he's not strictly a UFO but it's been a while since I last picked him up, putting him in severe danger of becoming one. It reminded me how much I love this piece, so he got an outing on Wednesday night as well. Here's where I left off:


The plan is, next time I pick this up, to infill the background up to the start of the owl then make a start on the owl himself - a nice reward for persevering with all that background first. :0)

Sea Stars went very smoothly on Thursday night with only one brief frog visit, mostly due to becoming engrossed in a scarey bit on MHL - I miscounted and was one stitch out on one section but it was quickly spotted and only involved around a dozen or so stitches, so soon sorted. That'll teach me! LOL Here's where I left off:


Not a great pic as it had to be taken in artificial light again. As I thought, I got the left hand motif completed and also managed to do a little more on the octopus as a bonus. Don't you just love it when things go to plan like that? :0)

Last night was Samhain. I lit my candles and incense then settled down in front of the TV to watch the final night of MHL and the stitching piece that got some attention was the Ozark Mystery Sampler. I really like the central motifs and how this is stitching up. There's still one more bit to stitch before this is completed so I'm afraid you're going to have to wait a little longer for a pic of that.

The Yule/Christmas season is fast approaching and I've signed up for the Stitched Christmas Card Exchange and the No Stash For Christmas Exchange over on the JA/S&S Forum and am also debating whether to join the Christmas Ornie Exchange too or if that would be putting too much pressure on myself.
Normally I'm extremely reticent about joining exchanges as I worry so much about them I bottle out of signing up. You know what I mean: will I choose the right piece for the person? Will it get there OK? Will they love or hate it? Is it good enough? Should or shouldn't I send extras? If I do, will the extras be OK/enough? If I don't, will they think I'm mean? Knowing I'm not the only one who worries like this doesn't make it any easier, so I usually just avoid the stress. It wasn't helped by my first ever exchange last year taking so long to get from here to my partner in the USA I thought it had been lost, so hurriedly stitched and sent a second so they wouldn't be disappointed. The second arrived within a few days and the first one finally turned up on Christmas Eve - talk about cutting it fine! It definitely made all the initial worries worse and put me off signing up again...... until now. Can't think what's suddenly changed (maybe the trip out has gone to my head? LOL) but hopefully the worry will keep to a minimum this time round so I can actually enjoy them as they should be enjoyed!

My DH booked the day off yesterday. We went to a local garden centre for dinner then to Tesco afterwards, as I wanted to have a look at some mobile phones without having any pressure from salesmen. The battery on my old one is fast giving up the will to charge, as well as being on a lousy package, so it's in need of replacing. While we were there we decided to get a bit of shopping done. Bad idea! It was heaving........ not only was it heaving but half the people in there seemed to have left their brains at home....... added to that most of the aisles were cluttered with trolleys of stock and staff refilling shelves which made it even harder to get round......... and there were several demos on. I could actually feel my blood pressure rising and my worry stone almost got a layer rubbed off it in the process. Back in the car and making our way slowly out of an almost grid-locked car park I asked: which bloody idiot suggested coming here on a Friday afternoon? DH: Errrrr, you. Me: well if I come up with any more bright ideas like that just bloody well shoot me, will you? It took me a couple of hours to settle down again but, despite this, was glad at another sign of improvement: though I was decidedly wound up and actually verged on the edge of a panic attack a couple of times, due to the busyness of the place, I managed to keep the lid on it and get out of there OK. :0)

The seven nights of Most Haunted Halloween Live finished at midnight last night and I must admit I breathed a sigh of relief......... my stamina just ain't what it used to be and after all those late nights I'm well and truly knackered! It was good while it lasted but I so hope they don't do a session like that again. DH and DS were overjoyed to hear that the new series starts next week....... NOT! LOL

As it's brass monkeys out today it's not tempting us to venture out further afield, so it's a jobs at home day. DH is having a play with his new toy and blowing the tyres up on The Tank. It's a compressor unit thingy (sorry: I don't do technical/mechanical speak) and it's one of his birthday pressies from me. It isn't actually his birthday until the 17th but the tyres need doing, he feels the need to try it out, to see how good it is......... and it gets him out from under my feet for ten minutes, so I'm not arguing. LOL I shall be off to put some ironing away in a minute and am sure I'll manage to find the time to get the Ozark piece out again - it's so close to a HD I can taste it! LOL

Many thanks for visiting and for all the kind comments on my bellpull, they're very much appreciated. Hope you are all having a lovely weekend. :0)