I'm so great at starting things...

I'm not so good at finishing projects. Starting a project is always so exciting: picturing the finished product in your head, gathering the required supplies, the first cut/stitch, seeing it grow before your eyes. Then I get halfway through and "oooh pretty things on Pinterest" or "oooh new nail polish" or "oooh Mad Men is back" (hey, I didn't name the blog "Look! A Distraction" for no reason) then before I know it, I've started something else.

Most of my cross stitch projects remain unframed or unfinished.
My amigurumi Kirby still doesn't have a face.
I've painted a whole bunch more beads that I haven't turned into jewellery yet.

Recently, I started two more projects:

This blanket I started while we were in Melbourne for Easter. I find keeping my hands busy helps my anxiety, so I packed some wool and a hook. I didn't end up getting it out on the flight, but it was so cold in Melbourne that I thought having this on my lap would help keep me warm.

It's currently about scarf width. I love how obnoxious the multi-coloured wool is - it's really overcast here today so olive green didn't really come out in the picture.

This bookshelf-style nail polish display shelf was born out of reluctance to spend too much money on something that wasn't exactly suited to my needs. There isn't a great deal of affordable storage available that will precisely fit nail polish bottles while still displaying them. 

I finished the building stage 3 weeks ago, and loaded it up with polishes to take a photo straight away. I still haven't painted it as I had planned to. From a distance it doesn't look so bad, but I'm no carpenter - there are some minor gaps and imperfections that will be hidden with a coat of paint.

I also need to make another one ... or maybe two.

Then there's my eternally time consuming Community cross stitch, which is still only a little over halfway done. Now that the weather is cooling down I'll be far less reluctant to have it across my lap constantly, so hopefully I can pick up the pace and get it finished before the show gets inevitably cancelled.

Here's to never finishing things!

Community "Digital Estate Planning" WIP (Cont.)

(10 Apr 2013) Here's a quick shot of where I'm at - Troy is done, almost time to start on my absolute favourite - Britta! 

(19 Feb 2013) I've made some decent progress on this over the few months considering how much time I've spent away or otherwise occupied. I'm currently sitting at 48% completion! I aim to be halfway by the end of the week, which is a pretty achievable goal.

So we have one-and-a-half new characters since I last posted an update which is super exciting! 

Back to windows today, which is less exciting, but repetitive in a relaxing way. But first - it's getting a good iron today to get it back into a reasonable shape as the hoop is really taking its toll. 

There goes October

All quiet on the blog front lately huh? Seems I've been busy, though looking at what I've done  craft-wise in the last 6 weeks it really doesn't seem like much!

I think my problem is my growing nail polish addiction - wet nails are not really conducive to getting things done. This morning 6 new Essie polishes arrived at my door, I scored them for $7 a pop! Bargain!

I did complete one new project in October - revamp of an old unloved corkboard with a splash of paint and bonus features.

It is now our 'life organisation board', with a menu, mini whiteboard shopping list, calendar, and regular old corkboard space for bills and other reminders.

The headers were done with paint on foam stamps and the menu/calendar sheets are ink stamps (I think I developed a thing for stamping after making this bag), the calendar weeks are mounted on magnetic strips and can move at my will.

I'm planning on making up for my October laziness though - Lincraft were having 30% off storewide this weekend so I stocked up on some DMC floss and picked up some flocking powder and a glue gun. All of that only cost me $40! I just need to find a reason to try out that glue gun...

I haven't used flocking powder before, but I hear it's used for scrapbooking and creating a velvety texture on surfaces. My interest purely stems from this post on xojane - textured nails! If I hadn't just done a new design this morning I would be getting straight into it, but I'll just have to be patient.






Aaaand finally, an update on my Community cross stitch - Jeff Winger complete! Finishing another character has totally renewed my enthusiasm for this piece (not to mention a recent rewatch of Season 3) so I'm hoping to show you all Annie Edison soon. Until then, here's the current progress:

Welcome, Pierce Hawthorne!

Community Digital Estate Planning cross stitch returns! Finally, a character! 

My progress up to today:

• 12909 stitches done
• 44691 remain
• 22.41% complete
• 1 character done!

Community WIP

See my new WIP post!

Update (1 Dec 12): It's been a while since I've updated (again), but I'm making some good progress. Two characters complete so far, 22,000 odd stitches done! 

Update (1 Oct 12): Terrible news everyone! The computer my pattern was on died last week, so I've been slowed down somewhat. Hoping it can be repaired next week as I (stupidly) don't have a backup. I have been able to make some progress working on the repetitive bits like the horrible, horrible carpet, which breaks my brain if I work on it for too long.

So, fingers crossed for me please that I get my pattern back soon. I swear to make a backup if I get it back!

Update (9 Aug 12): Moving the stitching down the left hand side of the study room window - taking the fast track to start on Pierce. Only just over 1100 stitches til I can start on my first character! Sounds like a lot, right? Well so far I've completed approximately 10500 stitches... that's now 18% complete!

For reference, what I have left to do!

Update (23 Jul 12): Finally on to the study room window, 14% complete! Moving a bit slower than I'd like - hoping to get to 20% by the end of the month.

Quick update on my Community 'Digital Estate Planning' stitch :D The wall of the Greendale study room is ever so slowly expanding, almost time to move on and start on the window. Doing the characters seems so far away at the moment!
Currently at just over 5% completion.

Community 'Digital Estate Planning' Cross Stitch

(see my current progress here)

As soon as I saw the first screen cap of the pixelated study group from Community online several weeks ago, my first thought was I have to stitch this!

A couple of days after the episode aired I picked through some hi res screen caps, and created my ultimate Community cross stitch. I cheated a little and manually added Pierce in - I really wanted the Greendale Seven all together in the study room.

In total, 57600 stitches. My last major project of under 40000 stitches took me 9 months - here's hoping this doesn't take as long! An up to date progress shot is coming soon, meanwhile here's a .gif of my progress as of about a week ago.

Presenting: The Greendale Human Being

Last post for my power run of completed projects is the ever creepy, irrationally difficult to complete Greendale Human Being.

If you don't recognise this human being, then I suggest you go buy yourself a Community DVD and familiarise yourself quick smart. By far one of the funniest, smartest and craziest TV shows in recent memory.

This was meant to be an Xmas present for my boyfriend, but it took such a long time to complete he ended up getting it over a month later. I hunted high and low for an iron on 'G' or ready transfer (I don't have a printer to create my own), but gave up after 6 weeks of scouring stores and embroidered the 'G' by hand. Utter madness I tell you - took my inexperienced hands almost 2 hours :/

Now s/he might look a bit awkward and proportionately-challenged, but I think my totally hand sewn mascot turned out better than the ones on sale in the NBC.com store, and more like the actual Human Being. I will at least keep telling myself that...