Week 18 Beauty and the Beast

I am through 18 weeks of stitching on this, and I'm still going strong! (Knock on wood...) I was able to get way more done this week than I thought I would. I'm not quite sure how that happened... Next week I'm not sure if I will get as much, because my husband will be working during the day and I will be working at night. I finished the green on the hillside and started on the first overpass. I also got some of the pool-things done. I'm not exactly sure what they are, but they look neat :) I love this more and more and more as I stitch it. Here are pictures of my progress from this week:

I have also run into a tiny setback. I have come across a symbol on the pattern that is not on the key, so I don't know what color to stitch. I am going to be writing an email to the manufacturer tonight to see if they can help me, but in the meantime if anyone knows what the symbol is, let me know! It is under the first overpass, here is what it looks like:

The case of the missing symbol! :)

Disney Dreams Beauty and the Beast Falling in Love

EDIT:

They got back to me very quickly and I have the answer! It is one strand of 6263 (Medium Grey) and one strand of 6297 (Medium Grey Pink). I also asked in the email about the purple dashed lines as the backstitch symbol on the overpasses because that was not in the key, either. She said that is stitched in 1 strand of 6237 (Dark Yellow Grey). Now, on with the show! :)

Week 17 Beauty and the Beast

I was so close to how much I wanted to get done this week. I have less than 100 stitches to completely finish the water up until the first overpass, but alas, there is housework to be done before my piano students come over tomorrow. I played harp in the pit orchestra for a local production of Camelot this last week, so that took up 5 evenings. All of the stitching I did was during the day, mostly while my little girl was sleeping :) Anyway, here are my pictures for the week, an overall and a close up (sorry the overall is a little blurry):

Don't expect too much from me this next couple of weeks. I will still post, but my Mon-Fri 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. will be taken up by my new part-time job. It should only go for a few weeks, as it's scoring tests and school will be out for the summer soon, but I gotta do what I can to help out right now. *Sigh* Why does being a grown-up suck sometimes, what with money and bills, etc. etc. etc... Oh well, life goes on :)

Week 16 Beauty and the Beast

16 weeks. Wow that seems like a long time, and yet I most likely have at least that much more to go, probably more. I gotta say, if you are looking at fun value per dollar, cross stitch is the best value! Lol these kits cost about $42 before a coupon (which come on, Hobby Lobby and JoAnn's always have coupons), and this is providing entertainment for hundreds of hours. Add to that the fact that this was a Christmas gift so I didn't even have to pay for it at all, and it's a way better value than going out to a movie! Lol now I just have to not buy more stuff until the stuff I have is done... Hmmm... :)
Here are my pictures for this week, I got the gate and the bridge stitched, and the other side of the river. :)

Inspirational to Me

I am totally inspired when I see the work other people do, especially if it is on a similar project to the one I'm working on. I look online all the time to see if other people are posting WIP pictures of any of the Disney Dreams kits, so here are some projects I have found so far:

Here is a link to crossstitchforum.com, where someone is working on Beauty and the Beast. She is doing an amazing job, and I love that she is doing backstitch as she goes along. It gives so much definition, and it really gives me something to look forward to. Here are a couple of her most recent progress photos:

I love how the flying machine turns out!

Here is a link to another forum thread for someone working on Beauty and the Beast as well. She started in the middle and worked in a different direction, so it's really super fun to see this picture. I haven't done almost any of what she has!

Yay!!! Seriously, looking at this makes me want to stop typing and just go work on it. 

The Tomboy Princess is also working on this piece. She has made some great progress, too. 

Ambitious Stitches is working on Cinderella, and it is really pretty!

And last time I talked about CraftySasha starting The Lion King. Last I knew she hadn't been able to do much more on it because there was a little confusion with some of the thread colors, but I think she got it worked out now :) 

Anyway, like I said it is totally inspiring to me to look at the work other people are doing. I hope everyone is able to keep posting and keep working on their pieces - they are soooo pretty!

Week 15 Beauty and the Beast

Fifteen weeks have gone by since Christmas Day when I started this pattern, and I am so close to being halfway done. I figured out that I have just over 30,000 stitches finished on this out of about 63,000. I suppose that is an average of about 2,000 stitches per week, and I think I wasn't going quite that fast at the beginning. Maybe I'm getting faster? :) Wouldn't that be nice...
Anyway.
"Little town, it's a quiet village. Every day, like the one before. Little town, full of little people, waking up tooo saaaaaayyyyy... Bonjour!"

I got the town base-stitched this week! I love the little columns of smoke coming up from the chimneys. I was also able to finish the balcony and all the flowers on it. That was a lot of confetti! Here is a close-up and an overall picture of my progress this week:

Also, even though I have all of 2 followers right now and one of them is Sasha, a fellow stitcher has started the Disney Dreams Lion King project, and will be posting stuff on her blog. We all like encouragement when working on a big project! 

Week 14 Beauty and the Beast

I have been working on this pattern for 14 weeks now - I suppose that's not too crazy long, but I know I am still a long ways away from finishing. Mark my words though, I WILL finish this. :) I am still super motivated and having so much fun. It's bad when the weather is as nice as it has been and I would still rather be inside stitching! Don't get me wrong, I have spent lots of time outside, and I have the sunburn to prove it.
Anywho, I have reached the bottom! I am so excited about that. I was hoping to complete the whole bottom corner but what is left has lots of thread changes, so that will have to wait for next week's update. I also hope to have the town base-stitched. We shall see :)

Also, here is a close-up picture of the left side that I have been working on for the last few weeks. I need to figure out a better way to take these pictures - my camera just isn't doing what I want it to.