New Hairpin

A non-blue peacock feather hairpin from etsy.  Yes, I really do wear these in my hair!  This one's very pretty.

Another Flower Row Done

I have one more row of flowers done.  Yay, that means I have one less to do!  I'll have this done soon.

In A Blue Phase

I seem to be stuck in a blue phase at the moment with all these little humps.  I'm almost done with the horizontal part of them now, though.

Scenic Vistas

This top photo is a panorama with the ocean in the background.  The next two are of  the landscape at the bottom of the cliffs.  Yes, that's a dirt road.

These last few are a bit more distant views of the cliffs.

Three Leaves

Yay, three leaves about done.  One quarter of the first part is getting an appearance.

Little Flowers And Big Cliffs

This is more Miradouro.  These little yellow flowers were growing everywhere.  I'm not sure what they are.  They remind me of mallow.

And below are more views of the cliffs.  They look so majestic and imposing.  I know I did not want to fall down one.

A Couple Flowers

I've noticed a problem with this piece.  It's got a registration problem on the printing.  The farther down the piece you go, the more obvious it becomes.  I will not be buying another Orchidea kit because of this.

All Sucked Up

Yay, it's done!  And it came out pretty well, too!  Now to mail it off to its recipient.  This is one of her favorite phrases.

More Miradouro

There is this beautiful landscape only a few miles outside of Luanda.  There are developer signs for a subdivision at the top of this - but nothing else.  It's gorgeous, and they're going to build ticky tacky boxes on top of it that will fall down in twenty years if/when the economy improves.  Instead of preserving the beauty and making this into an attraction to escape the city, it's going to become part of the city.  It makes me sad to see somewhere like this turned into another wasted opportunity.

A Different Approach

Instead of doing the cross stitch first and then the beading, I decided to do the cross stitch and beading together.  So far, it's worked out all right.

Trying To Tree

This is from last year's crazy January.  It's  time to finish it and get it off my list.  So far, a fairly good start.  I like the look of this color of Wildflowers on the rough linen fabric.

Back To Brown

This last set was back  to brown and filling in more of the peahen.  I am thinking of making this my daily project for a month and seeing how far I get.

A Hairpin!

This is what happens when I accidentally point my husband toward etsy for something completely different.  It's beautiful, though!

Feeling Good

I'm still feeling pretty good about the progress on this, even though I didn't finish another row this time.  The piece is coming together pretty well, I think!

Two Sections Done

I've got two whole sections done.  Things are progressing!

New From Etsy

Since there aren't many places to shop for earrings here, Andreas has started enabling me by buying some off of etsy.  These are my latest addition.

Now He's Seen

The second badger is definitely visible now.  I'm pretty close to being done with this!

New Bowls

Andreas decided we needed more bowls for our good green dish set, and that I needed egg drop soup bowls.  Voila!  Two birds down with one stone.  Or porcelain.  Or whatever.

One And A Half

I've got most of one and a half leaves done now.  I'm keeping with stitching them according to my "mistake."  The instructions call for doing all these leaves around before tackling any other part, but I don't know that I have that much patience.

More Background

I feel like I'm not doing anything interesting on this.  It's just more and more background.  At least this time it was a little tree trunk, too, but still.  Maybe this is why I originally stopped at this point - no interesting stitching happening.

Watches

My watch died here in Angola.  It was the battery, nothing serious.  But when you don't know the language and it's an expensive country and there's a resale market ....why not buy a new watch, sell the old one, and let the battery be someone else's problem?  That's exactly what Andreas did.  Except, instead of buying one replacement watch, he's bought three.  So far.

Sunflowering

This is currently my daily stitch.  It's coming along, although I've begun to notice a lack of registration on the printing.

Barbecue!

Oliver, one of my colleagues in consular, went home for holiday last month.  When he returned, he brought us all barbecue rub.  Yay!  Thank you Oliver!

Pinkeeped

I finished the stitching on the pinkeep!  Time to put it away for a bit before making it into an ornament.  I think it came out pretty well.

Surprised

Sometimes I'm surprised by progress.  This is one of those times.  I suddenly completed several rows at one go.  It feels good to see so much real geography stitched.

On To A Flower

Yay, I have flowers now!  Things are going much faster now that I am done with the queen stitches.

Second Rectangle Done

I've got the second section done.  It's coming fairly quickly.

Blue Bumps

The dragon's blue bumps have become very prominent after the last stitching session!  I hope they don't dominate everything as I go.

See The Second?

The second badger's pretty well started, except you can't see much.  That's because it's mainly white.  More dark appearing in a photo here soon.

April's Done

I finished April, and the yellow wasn't as bad in the end as I feared.  You can still see the chick.  Now I put it to bed until May first.

Bits Of Backrgound

Lots of background to fill in at the moment, so doing that.  Hard to see except for the backstitching on the top.

Sucking

I have gotten pretty far on this.  Soon the whole phrase will be seen!

Spiral Gift

Andreas knows how much I like spirograph, so he bought me two!  I think I will take the little one with me back to the States next month.  I have an idea on how to use it for temari making.  Yay!