A TUSAL, a Hunk, and a RAKing new project

I have a jam-packed post for you today!

Firstly, it's TUSAL time again. Once more my dearest, naughtiest Honeybee brings you my ORT report. Take it away, Honeybee!

My orts just keep mashing down further and further. Of course the Girl-child likes to shake them down, too. I feel like this is the bottomless jar that I could fill forever!

Next up:
I am continually moved by the kindness and generosity of my stitchy friends. I've been sent a bunch of things in the last couple of months, and I've decided to put much of what I received into one great project. Dear, sweet Andie sent me her chart of Maidenhair once she finished hers. It is bee-yoo-tee-ful, by the way! I thought, "What will I stitch her on?" I realized that the fabric hand-dyed just for me by Leslie was not only the perfect size, but a fantastic color for Maidenhair as well. Then I thought, "Wouldn't it be kismet if I could work in some of the variegated DMC that Melanie sent me?" The answer was a resounding "Yes!" One of the colors she sent is a wonderful sub for 3838, which is a large portion of the skirt.

So, not that I really needed another start, (Oy vay!) but I couldn't keep my hands off of it, and I've decided to refer to Maidenhair as my Random Act of Kindness Project.

And, of course, it is Friday!

The movie The Expendables 2 opens today. I can't wait to see it!! I have to remember to post one of my all-time favorite hunks next week, Dolph Lundgren.

But this week I offer to you Jason Statham.

I've been busy, but it's Hunky Friday!

I've been up to stitchy craziness, in a good way. Not that I don't have anything to do, (deadlines, eh?) but I'm starting to get ready for January's kick-off of the Mirabilia Large-Stitch round robin. We decided that we'd like to do an RR in which we can get more of a design in, i.e. fairy wings, mermaid fins, etc. So, we will have a guideline of 5000 stitches, compared to our normal 2500, and we'll have 12 weeks per round instead of 6 weeks.

I decided I wanted to do a "Mermaid" theme. I didn't really want to go with the typical geometric shape for stitch areas. What I really wanted was something softer, less rigid. So I've been working on marking up some charts into soft areas of an appropriate size. I picked a seashell motif to put in the center of my fabric.

Yesterday, I spent a bunch of time on PC Stitch plotting everything out, and here's my result.

Now keep in mind that they won't be stitched as silhouettes, and the boxes around them are just for basting so we can keep the placement where I'd like it. When I had everything mapped out I drew in some seaweed. I think I'll get some Waterlilies for the seaweed. What do you think?


No, I didn't forget...it is Hunky Friday. There's a new James Bond movie coming out in a while, and I was inspired by the opening ceremonies at the Olympics. Here's Daniel Craig...

Parsley's having a giveaway!

Dear Parsley of Seasons of My Mind is giving away an adorable chart that she just finished stitching up. It's Herb-a-licious!

Click here to go to the post. Good luck!

My Fabric page is done. I think...

I took pictures of almost all of my fabrics. They're not completely great pix, but not dreadful. I've posted them on the "Fabrics" tab above. There are links to the different ONSs.

I was inspired by Gina on Facebook. She has a great page there, and tons and tons of fabrics.

I figured this might help someone that is trying to get another view of a fabric they're considering. Well, I hope it helps, anyway. ;-)

Here's my favorite...well, one of my favorites...er, I have lots, but this is a good one!

Polstitches Rustic Rhubarb

And the winners are...drumroll...

I have winners of my 50-Follower Giveaway!

 I don't know how to do a random number generator, so I went the old-fashioned route. I wrote all the names for each package on a little piece of paper, put them in a bag, and had the Boy-child pull one out. (Now I have little folded Post-its scattered all over my kitchen. ;-P)


Without further adieu:

Package #1 (Ribbons)  Winner: Rayeesa
Package #3 (Sweetheart Tree)  Winner: Kathy A.
Package #4 (Mixed Charts)  Winner: Tadamama
Package #5 (Kreiniks)  Winner: Kaisievic (Kaye)

and the hotly contested, most popular Package #2 (Weeks floss & Towels)  Winner: Rahenna!

If you won a package, please email me your mailing info. (Kathy, I know where to find you. tee hee)

Congratulations to all the winners!! I hope you enjoy your prizes.

Thank you to all my followers! I love you and all your comments, and I love reading your blogs, too.

*hugs*
~ Karen

Gold Medal Hunks

I did promise yesterday that I would post a hunk today. Well, it's not going to be just one, but many. If I hadn't been at camp all week, I was originally planning on posting one every day, but it didn't work out.

I'm sure a lot of you have been watching the Olympics and have noticed how many lovely, muscular athletes there are. The first one that caught my eye was a judo wrestler named Josateki Naulu, seen during the opening ceremony carrying the flag for Fiji.

I have only scratched the surface of Olympic hunkiness here. If I haven't included your favorite athlete or country, it's only because that's all the time I have.

Beware...there is a lot of skin showing in this post. Clear the young children. I've made all the pix small, but for your viewing pleasure, feel free to click on them for a larger shot. Enjoy!!

Josateki Naulu-Fiji-Judo

Aldo Montano-Italy-Fencing

Andreas Thorkildsen-Norway-Javelin

Sir Chris Hoy-Great Britain-Cycling

Camille Lacourt-France-Swimming

Clemente Russo-Italy-Boxing

Cameron van der Burgh-South Africa-Swimming

Chinese Basketball Team

Nathan Cohen & Joseph Sullivan-New Zealand-Rowing

Danell Leyva-USA-Gymnastics

David Oliver-USA-Hurdling

Tom Daley & Peter Waterfield-Great Britain-Diving

Alexandre Despatie & Reuben Ross-Canada-Diving

Jordan Burroughs-USA-Wrestling

James Magnussen-Australia-Swimming

Kristian Ipsen-USA-Diving

Louis Smith-Great Britain-Gymnastics

Giuseppe Lanzone-USA-Rowing

Todd Rogers & Phil Dalhausser-USA-Beach Volleyball

Tyson Chandler-USA-Basketball

 

And my very favorite hunk of these Olympic Games...

Ryan Lochte-USA-Swimming

August WIPocalypse and stashing

All through July I kept thinking that I wasn't getting as much stitching time as I wanted to over the summer. However, when I started taking pix for this post I said, "Oh. I guess I had a bit more time than I thought.."

 I finished Steph's little fairy for the Joan Elliott RR.

I did a Sweetheart Tree Heart for Kathy's Band Sampler RR. This one is Morning Glory Heart.

 I stitched Part 1 of the Passione Ricamo Mystery Fairy SAL. (I just received Part 2, and will stitch it after the next couple RR finishes.)

 I don't usually like to show full pix of partial RRs, but I haven't done enough on this one to worry about it. Besides, Debbie already knows that I'm stitching Water Goddess for her Joan Elliott RR.

I put in about another 400 stitches on my Bellydancer for Yiota. Not much, but I'm trying to get at least some done every month. The colors are quite pretty in person.

While the pic gives away more than I'd like, I'm very excited to be almost done with my portion of Kathy's Mira RR. Her theme is Christmas. Do you know what this is?

Lastly, I haven't stitched on her in months, and I have lots of higher priority stitching to do, but I got some kind of bug up my keister and had to pick up Mediterranean Mermaid. Her hair is almost done. She needs some more blue highlights. Speaking of which, I changed the main color of her hair to 310, because the only hair I know of that has blue highlights is jet black. (Besides, when I saw the original pic of her, that's what I thought it was. Not brown.)

I said lastly, but what I meant was the last WIP pic. I did not, however, share a picture of the results of my naughtiness. My postie was very good to me this week. *blush*

 

I ordered two extra Polstitches fabrics to go along with my FOTM. There are also two Joan Elliott charts (Goddess of the Sea and Woodland Goddess), and a whole bunch of beads. Some are the purple ones that I will put on the PR Fairy, and the orange/yellow ones are for JE's Fire Goddess. I'll post about that another time. BTW, the fabrics are left-to-right, Toffee Popsicle opal lugana, Abyss opal Cashel, and Bali Sunset L/E jobelan.

I will try soon to scan my whole collection of fabbies and put them on a separate page here.

For those of you wondering about Hunky Friday, I'm exhausted after camp. I'll post tomorrow.

Hugs!

~ Karen

p.s. Tomorrow is the deadline for entries into my giveaway!