Monthly Wrap-Up: June 2024
Monthly

Monthly Wrap-Up: June 2024

Oh man what a busy month..!

It might be noticeable that this post has taken me some time to write and publish..! That's because it's taken a while to collect and organise my thoughts about everything that happened during the month. Plus, writing it during the month of July is just difficult because of the summer holidays - lol.

June is always a crazy month for our family. End of the school year and both of my girls' birthdays (which include two parties, naturally!) makes for a fun but busy month.

So let's get right into it!

A photo of Kate cross-stitching while one of her cats, Milo, lays on her chest, making her have to work around him
Sometimes you need to be cuddled while you stitch. Apparently.

New Pattern

As you saw in last month's post I finished the test stitch of -and released the pattern for- my latest cross-stitch pattern, "Neurospicy Brain". It's based on the cute name given to people who are neurodiverse (such as myself!) and shows spicy-ness in the form of fire and chillis.

I've had this design in mind for quite some time now and finally completed it digitally during May. After stitching the entire black brain part 10 squares too low on my cut of fabric - *insert exasperated facepalm* - I whipped up the test stitch for this relatively quickly. It was fun to stitch! Big blocks of colour plus the use of Étoile floss (optionally) meant it felt like a bit of a break from "harder" stuff.

If you or someone you know is also "neurospicy", this is a great design to stitch up and proudly hang to show-off your neurodiversity!

A close-up photo of the cross-stitch design "Neurospicy Brain"
A close-up photo of the cross-stitch design "Neurospicy Brain"

Commercial Use License

Almost since I initially first released cross-stitch fonts back in 2018, I've been asked a number of times if someone can use said font (mostly Celeste) of mine within a cross-stitch pattern they were planning on designing.

Historically, I was reluctant to say "yes" to those people. But after always considering each request for a bit and thinking about where I was personally with my own business, I said they could -as long as the entire alphabet was not in the pattern- up until early-2022 when I changed my stance and began saying "no" to those requests.

Then, back in April, I was looking for inspiration for things my kids could get my husband/their dad for Father's Day, Etsy showed me a "Commercial-use License" that someone was selling. I believe it was of X-amount of SVG files from their store, or something to that effect.

But it got me thinking - hey, I could do that, too!

License for Fonts: Commercial Use Now Available!
A whole bunch of pangrams stitched up, lain out together

Read about this

So now you can get a commercial-use license for use with any of my fonts (including the free ones!) and I've adjusted all of my font product pages to have a license selection (which is defaulted to "personal use" - being the license to grab if you don't plan on selling a pattern).

If you have any concerns or questions about this, hit me up and let's chat!


New Merch Design

"Quiet Mind"

My latest collection; "Quiet Mind" was designed with people who love cross-stitch and embroidery in mind - naturally. And because it was made with both cross-stitchers and embroiderers in mind, it comes in two different (but similar) design variations. It is featured on three products; t-shirts, stickers and a ceramic mug and each piece celebrates the serenity and mindfulness of crafting.

Perfect for any crafting enthusiast - whether that is yourself or for a friend/loved one that loves stitching!

Check out the design on the products below and put something in your cart today!


Works-in-progress

Same old, same old - mostly. I did start [and almost finish] a new piece that was a commissioned pattern & finished cross-stitch but otherwise I continued work on the same three previous works-in-progress that you will have seen in last month's post.

A work-in-progress cross-stitch of a custom designed 5"x7" piece
A custom requested cross-stitch design.
A work-in-progress cross-stitch of my DIY Flower Field pattern
"Flower Field" DIY cross-stitch pattern: Jan-Jun
A work-in-progress cross-stitch of a pattern called "The Deadly Aquarium"
"The Deadly Aquarium" Stitch-along by Lola Crow Cross Stitch.
A work-in-progress cross-stitch of a pattern called "Village in the Valley"
"Village in the Valley" by Flossy Fox Shop.

If you would like to discuss a custom cross-stitch piece like the one above (or something completely different!), request a quote today and we can chat about what you're looking for and how I can assist you. I love doing custom pieces and I don't get to do them anywhere near as much as I'd like! 😂

"Flower Meadow" WIP

The home stretch of getting "Flower Meadow" out to the world, I didn't manage to make it ready before July hit. But I got photos ready, at least! As of writing, the pattern is available though. So that's good!

It's kinda tricky writing a document and being the proof-reader for it, too. If you do purchase this pattern and find any mistakes, let me know!

Mock-up of the "Flower Meadow" DIY pattern
Mock-up of the "Flower Meadow" DIY pattern
A row of DMC flosses in rainbow order
All of the coloured flosses used in the "Flower Meadow" pattern.

IRL

With June's hectic-ness (is that even a word?), balancing work and personal life became an art in itself. I did my best to find solace in my daily cross-stitch routine, which helped maintain my mental well-being amidst the busyness. But a lot did happen during those days, so let's see what happened!


Birthdays!

If you didn't know, my girls' birthdays are one right after the other (And before you ask no; we didn't plan that!) with my youngest being the day before my eldest's birthday.

One year, a few years back, I set up their presents in this corner of our living room (see photos) underneath a big number balloon and ever since they've asked for it again. Both of the girls had great days and I can't believe I've been a parent for TEN years now!

A bundle of presents underneath a large, gold-coloured number-eight balloon
My youngest's birthday is first...
A bundle of presents underneath two large, gold-coloured balloons that read "10"
...and my eldest's birthday is the next day!

...and Parties!

This year, my girls both wanted their own birthday parties. I tried to organise them both to be outside of our home but

  1. A was adamant about it being at our house, and
  2. I booked C's in, sent out invites and then promptly got a phone call from the location cancelling my booking. So we had to fall back on it being at our place.

In the end they weren't as bad as I anticipated and both girls had a blast. And that's what counts!

Five young girls in a living room playing with helium balloons

Ballet Recital

A had her third ever ballet recital which was -as always- adorable. Her class size was really small and one of the girls was absent for the recital itself, but the five girls were dressed as ballet-cats and performed to a "kitty cat" song (I cannot for the life of me work out the actual name of the song...)

She did amazingly and the three of us were super proud. Big sister insisted on walking her back to the car after the recital was done.

Five girls on a purple-lit stage sitting on the floor in ballet costumes (with cat ear headbands)
Two young girls walking together after a ballet recital; the older of the two has her arm around the younger one who is dressed up as a ballet-cat.

Learning cross-stitch

My youngest asked to both learn to cross-stitch (She's done "embroidery" previously) and to work on a design of our three cats. I said "Of course!" and designed her a beginner-friendly pattern of our three cats (no fractional stitches/backstitching//french knots, basically).

She only tried a few times and got frustrated easily. Taught me that maybe cross-stitch is hard for some people..?

My youngest daughter doing her best at learning how to cross-stitch
My gorgeous little girl focusing intently.
The pattern I designed for her to stitch based on her request to make our three cats
Pattern of our three cats together that I designed for her.

Off to the movies

The four of us went to the movies to see "Inside Out 2". It was my first outing to the cinema since having my WLS surgery (movie popcorn is totally my kryptonite) and I reckon I did really well not overstuffing my face with food.

I highly recommend the movie, by the way! Their depiction of Anxiety was really well done, especially for a kids movie. It also made me realise that puberty is seriously close for C and I am terrified. Hah!

A photo of a movie theatre's concession stand

Post-WLS-surgery update

Things have been going well, I guess.

I'm having trouble with meat-proteins still (get really full really quickly) so I'm getting my required protein intake from a lot of dairy and protein supplements at the moment.

I've had to buy a bunch of new clothes (which I knew was going to happen, but dang it costs a lot, doesn't it?) and I've inadvertently started to love leggings, rather than my usual jeans. Which I'm surprised about 😂

But overall, I don't feel any different. I notice it by different things randomly but overall I don't feel lighter or slimmer.

A photo of a bowl of ice-cream held up in front of a TV that you can see will be playing an episode of Doctor Who
Visual Update

Feeling a tad vulnerable posting this, but I was shooketh when I made this comparison photo during June to share in a chat I'm in with other Bariatric WLS friends of mine. So I wanted to share here, too. I did a front-on "before" and "after" but it wasn't as impressive, in my opinion.

A "before" and "after" of Kate's weight transformation
Here's a "before" (from ~Nov 2022) and "after" weight-loss transformation.

Social Media

If you follow me on Instagram, it's possible you've noticed I haven't been as active as I've said I want to be.

I desperately want to get back to daily (or every-other-day) posting, I just struggle with feeling like I'm coming across as too salesy, or not having ideas for funny content, or posting too often about the same thing, etc. The reasons are abundant and intrusive.

It also doesn't help that my engagement on the platform is super low. I try to follow the suggestions given by professionals of social media to help boost engagement but it never feels like it works.

So yeah. my follower count has stagnated majorly and is slowly lowering over time. But thems the breaks, eh?

Instagram phone mockup - July 1st 2024
July 1st stats for Instagram (5,759 followers).

Thank you for being here, reading through this post, encouraging me along my tracks and until next time..!

👋 Kate

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Monthly Wrap-Up: May 2024
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Monthly Wrap-Up: July 2024

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Hi, I'm Kate 👋

About the author

In a previous life (AKA: pre-kids), I was a web des/dev & photographer who loved to dabble in numerous arts and crafts. Now, I'm a cross-stitch & embroidery pattern designer and full-time mum to Charlie & Alex, with adult-diagnosed ADHD. Closet nerd, self-proclaimed hermit and professional procrastinator. I have a secret crush on modern architecture, brush calligraphy, sweets, pretty nails and pastel colours.

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