Snow White Makes Her Debut

I have been working a little on Snow White, I promise. It is just really slow going during the summer. I am proud though that I have been working on it at all, and I am happy that my stitchy bug is just on his off season and not dead. :) Anyway, here I was last time:

And here I am now:

I'm sorry the 2nd picture is so, so blurry. The point-and-shoot camera I usually use is officially not working any more so I had to do it with another camera I have that does not have a flash or the 'no shaky' feature. It's a great camera for outside and underwater (since it's waterproof), and it takes good video, but the indoors photo-taking is not so good. It also doesn't have a macro setting, which is what I always used with the other camera.

Anyway, as you can I see I started on the rocks by the waterfall and did Snow White's hair and her cape. I actually took this photo a few days ago and have done just a little on her skirt now, too, so I think I will go ahead and finish her up before I move on. It's weird because I left the characters until almost the very end on Beauty and the Beast, and now on this one Snow will be done really early on! There are lots of other elements that I am excited for though, so it's all good. 

In other areas of my life, I have been working out for several months now and not seeing the results I wanted to so that's been frustrating. I could tell I was getting stronger, but I weigh as much now as I did 2 weeks after having my son, which means I have actually gained weight in the last few months. Frustrating. So I decided to work harder. This week I have added jump rope to all of my workouts, and it is HARD! I am getting better at not messing up but in a way that makes it harder because I don't get as many mini-breaks while I re-set the rope lol. It's nice though because I can do this inside. I used to 'run' but I HATED running when it was really hot or really cold out, so I never kept with it for very long. And this way I get to do intervals of jump rope mixed with strength training and what-have-you. I am excited, hopefully in the next 6-10 weeks I will be seeing more of what I want to see. 

Also, I am going to go to my first ever Anime Convention in a few weeks! I have some friends that are going and I said, what the heck, let's do this! So I am going to go as Katara, she's the Water Bender from Avatar: The Last Airbender. I have to start figuring out my costume, so I have been looking at pictures all morning to get an idea of what I need. Nerdy-excited about it! 

Alright, that's enough for today. Keep on stitching, I have to keep reminding myself that every stitch counts! :)

A Win at the County Fair!

Waaaaay back around the midway point of Beauty and the Beast, I got the crazy idea that I could maybe enter it into the fair when it was all done. I have never entered anything into any sort of contest, but I figured that Beauty and the Beast might just be worthy. I didn't get it finished in time for the fair that year, but I did get it finished in time for this year's fair. I almost missed the deadline to enter it, but thankfully they allowed me to still enter it with a $5 late fee.

The judging for our fair is open, which means they have chairs set up for people to watch the whole process.  It was really interesting to see how they score, exactly what they are looking for, and how closely they really do look at the pieces. The judges don't know who stitched each piece, and it was fun when they pulled out B&B to see them say 'Oh my gosh look at all of those stitches! Oh! Look at this over here! Would you look at all of those french knots? They are so even! OH! Look at the rose!' and just to see their reaction to the overall piece :) I made the right decision entering it for sure. One judge said, 'I know we don't usually give bonus points for kits, but this is such detailed, intricate work, and she did such a good job, can we give her bonus points for it?' The point that I lost on my score sheet had to do with the framing - they said it was very square and centered in the frame, but it doesn't look quite as flush up against the backing as it could be in some areas. I guess if I were to put a piece of light batting behind that it would help to mask some of the areas with lots of thread on the back.

Anyway, overall, here is how I did:

I took first place in my class (medium-size wall hangings), won Reserve Champion (2nd place) in overall counted work, and received a Special Award for Outstanding Work on 18 count or smaller :) Woo hooooo! And I think, after looking at a lot of what was entered in the Needlework area, that I am going to enter a few items next year, too. I don't know if I will have Snow White finished in time or not (maybe!), but I want to make a biscornu, and do a flour sack towel or something with other embroidery stitches. My mom said she is going to maybe enter something into machine work (she makes the CUTEST kids clothes for her grandkids!) and my mother-in-law said she might enter something in machine work, and possibly a baked good, too. 

It was just such a neat experience, and I encourage everyone to enter something you finish in the next year into your county fair. It would be great to see lots of awards for you all!