A Nice, Calm Month (Before the Storm)
April was met with keeping busy with family, a bit of frantic stitching (more on that later), a new merch release and still more attempts to build up the practise of posting more to social media. Nothing seriously huge to share, but new things nonetheless!
I do, however, feel like I'm missing something that either happened or I worked on here. Maybe I'll have to come back with an edit..?
Jump to:
Leading image: Milo decided to "help" me while we were playing "Wingspan" one day.
Finished Pieces
I put the final stitches in a number of pieces during April. Always a good feeling to finish one project, let alone three.
Let's check them out!
Stitch Portrait
The first completed piece was in the works for a number of months. It began just before Thanksgiving, when a stitcher friend of mine held her annual "Friends-giving" giveaway. I like to ask for the stories she receives when my stitchy workload is easy, so I can help another family in need. After reading the story of the Sherrills, I knew I wanted to make them something.
So here it is! Completed a fair few months slower than I would've liked, but worth every stitch nevertheless.
I plan on writing a full post about this piece in the near future with more details, so stay tuned for that!
Want your own piece like this?
If you or someone you know is interested in ordering a stitch people portrait as a gift or for a special occasion, don't hesitate to reach out to me and let's chat!
"Greenhouse of Oddities"
The second finished piece was this gorgeous, huge stitch-along I began last year by Lola Crow. I told myself as I purchased the pre-sale of her current stitch-along, "The Deadly Aquarium" that I couldn't begin work on that until I completed one of her other stitch-alongs.
So I got cracking! It helped that I only had one final section to stitch (the biggest section, mind you) but it was easy to get it complete.
You can get this pattern for yourself right here.
"The Gamer Tarot"
If you remember from my March 2024 wrap-up post, I completed a piece called "The Stitcher Tarot" and was working on a companion piece to it. Which was this piece in question!
I enjoyed working on this piece with its bright colours, simple-to-stitch design and cute imagery. Now I just need to hang the two pieces up [no, I still haven't!].
You can get this pattern for yourself right here.
Works-in-progress
Remembering that I completed three pieces during April (meaning they were a work-in-progress, too!) I touched on a number of projects this month. Six of which were new pieces that I began work on after quickly realising that May was just around the corner.
So as you will be able to see, because I completed my Greenhouse piece, I got started on the Aquarium, I did a little more work on my own family portrait from 2022 and -of course- more flowers in my Flower Field.
Let's see the progress!
New Merch Design
"My Therapy"
Keeping on-brand with my business theme of stitching + mental health awareness, April's merchandise & apparel design came easily to me. Getting it looking nice on the products themselves was a little tricky and finicky, but it was worth it in the end!
IRL
No big ticket items or show-stopping events happened during April; just lots of day-to-day living, enjoying my little family.
Solo Parenting Week
One week during April had me flying solo when it comes to parenting. My husband had a trip to Texas for work-related things and it was down to me to do it all.
I both enjoy and despise these sorts of weeks when they happen. It's nice to have the house to myself when the girls are at school/in bed, but otherwise I'm reminded that my husband and I are truly a team when it comes to parenting. We can help each other tap out when needed and bounce ideas off the other when things get sticky.
The week went by without a problem, so hooray for that!
Day-to-Day Shenanigans
Playground outings, ice-cream from the local shop, three separate trips to the vet for all the cats (they're all fine!), setting up sensory-seeking activities and a wide variety of TV-show watching were all had. Amongst other somewhat mundane things.
What is your favourite "mundane" activity to do with your family? Leave a comment below!
The Pond
Near to our home is a water catchment that my youngest daughter likes to call "The Pond". It's her favourite place to take a walk to and we usually get to see some kind of animal there whenever we visit. Things like rabbits, ducks, frogs and once we even saw a deer!
I just wanted to share "The Pond" with you all because it is a nice little retreat that's close to home for us.
New Blog Posts
As you are all likely aware, I've been slowly migrating all my old blog posts from my pre-shopify website to here. It's a process that's taken me over 12 months to do, but I'm on the home stretch!
Aside from that though, I've been writing newer posts, too. Maybe you've missed them.
In saying that; here are new posts I published during April!
View the stitches
Read & Watch Here
See Photos
Read more
Social Media
Growth (or lack thereof) has made my interest in posting on Instagram stagnant and hindered. I have the want to post, but not the drive to come up with ideas on what to post. It's extremely frustrating!
I have noticed though that in posting on my stories almost every day (thanks to my Flower Field), my connection with some followers has strengthened. A surprising and lovely change that's occurred!
Anyway. Here's hoping I can make May more productive and full of ideas when it comes to posting on social media. Fingers crossed for me!
Thank you for being here, reading through this post, encouraging me along my tracks and until next time..!
👋 Kate
Keep up all the great work!!