I thought I might update this cute little guy. Even though stitching time has been sparse I always try to get a little done on him on Wednesdays. So here he is.

And just for reference he is stitched 1×1 on 25ct lugana in light blue.

So my favourite time of year (excepting that it heralds it getting a lot hotter here in the southern hemisphere) is rolling around.

Yep Halloween!
Unfortunately this year the pressures of that evil monster the PhD are going to be keeping me from the usual crazy party prep and costume making. The first year halloween has fallen on a friday night in years and I can’t have a party. I have to give a seminar presentation to the research institute my supervisosr sold my soul to for funding instead. This is not my first choice of things to be doing on halloween believe me.

That being said I am determined to make the most of it, and while I am desperately trying to not give in to temptation and give my presentation dressed as a Zombie I have agreed to make some cupcakes for Mr B’s office halloween afternoon tea. This of course means cupcake for my office (lab) too.

I have also volunteered to help out with what appears to be a family type Halloween event that may be happening this year. At least I can provide loads of decorations etc if I can’t have my own party.
So what this means is Google and I have become friends in the quest for inspiration for halloween cupcake ideas. So far I have these and a couple of others.
Being one to never do things the easy way I have also decided to try my hand at a little sugarcraft and make some of my own toppers. Having never done this before I decided to have alittle practice. I made up a little black sugar modelling paste and had a bit of a play.

So far I have come up with these:

So what do people think.. that cat needs some work and both it and the hat need some piped details in other colours like eyes and stuff but I would love to know peoples opinions. Oh and any ideas of other thingamybobs I could mold as cupcake toppers. So far I am thinking the tentacles for a cthulhoid monster cupcake, perhaps a broom and spell scroll combo, pumpkins of course and I may try my hands at a bat though I am really not very good at this so that may be a bit hard… so any suggestions and feedback welcome

A few days late but better lat than never. I have to admit I am somewhat afraid to look at what I hoped to achieve for September. It has been a hellishly busy month PhD wise. Which has both its ups and downs I guess. A lot of those mystery PhD goals I had were actually achieved.. right up until I had a piece of equipment break down again. That kind of threw things off a bit for the past two weeks.

My September Goals were:

• Finish stitching my Halloween exchange piece - Nope but I did start at least a half dozen things.. one of those is bound to be the one I send
• Reach the 55% mark on lost (this relates to about another 2400sts)- I think I feel short on this one too but I should be close I will need to check
• Pick up cirques and get at least on length of thread into it.- I looked at it but no stitches were done
• Reach the 50% mark on Fudgeys RR - ummmm no
• Finish Belladonnas eye and post a wip pic of her finally - Very very close and I did post a pic
• Participate in the Challenge SAL - Yep

I also managed to participate in teh Background SAL and got 1500ish stitches into Violet Sometimes as well as participating in teh 5th weekend SAL. So all in all I at least progressed some of my pieces along this month.

Now for October.. I think I will have to be more focused this time in my goals:

October Goals are:

1. Participate in teh SAL challenge
2. Finish my exchange piece and send it off on time.
3. get the RR done to the point where I can finish it on time (posting date is Nov 5th I think)
4. Work on Belladonna some more
5. Get to the 60% mark on Lost

My focus though will be the obligation stitching I need to finish off. There will be some serious stashing done in october too as the usual gang is heading off to the stitching show again. Nic and I always get in trouble there

So just a few quick pics for the end of september. It was the 5th weekend defunct artists SAL this weekend just past and while my stitching time was a little dis-jointed I did manage about 600-700ish stitches (mostly black)

And finally an update on Belladonna I am very close to having her eye complete … just a few single stitches to go so I thought I would post an update anyway. I would love to spend more time on her but the chance very rarely seems to present itself.

I’ll post how I went with my goals a little later today along with some new ones. I think this month will be mad obligation stitching month.

Thanks for the comments on the new layout. I really like it too I just need to get my percentage bars etc back and fiddle around with it a little more.