May 2023 in all its glory..!
I might be in the most stressful -in a good way!- month of the year for me personally (both of my kids have their birthdays in June and I desperately want them to enjoy every part of it) but to begin with, we're going to chat about the month that we've just had.
How is it a period of time (in this case; a month) can both fly past as well as drag by? It’s baffling. But, that’s sort of what my May 2023 felt like. There was a lot of planning things, activities and stitching. Let’s check out what I got up to..!
Works in progress
I worked on a number of things during May. It really depended on what I was doing as well as how I felt at the time as to what I stitched. I didn’t keep up with the Farming Magic stitch-along - but only by about 2 days. I definitely didn’t complete the prologue for the Greenhouse of Oddities stitch-along before parts one (and subsequently part two) came out late in the month. That one I doubt I’ll catch up with, if I’m being completely honest..!
But there’s a few other things that I worked on, too!
Finished Pieces
I [technically] completed a bunch of pieces during May. Go me! Seven pieces for teacher appreciation week and one adorable little commission which I got to hand off in person (well, almost in person - I handed it off to a front desk…).
Teacher & Therapist Gifts
As mentioned in an earlier blog post, I had seven gifts to make for this year's teacher appreciation week. Not as many as last year and I just did torso-up for all of them, so I was able to get them completed a week before they were due to be gifted. Which was a relief!
The hardest part was trying to sneak reference images for me to work from for all of these people. Absolutely worth it in the end, don't you think?
Finn
Early in the month, I received an order for a pet portrait from one of my kids’ teachers from last year (who received a teacher appreciation gift for the 2021-22 school year!). Pets are “in” it seems this year..!
It was just asked that the piece have only the dog and his name - nothing else. No problem!
Don't forget you can order your own portrait like this (or any make up of characters that you can think of!) right now!
New Patterns
I was able to keep to my schedule and released two new patterns in May - one of them being a freebie. Have you gotten either of them for yourself yet?
One was an adorable piece that could make a good Mother's day gift. In my opinion..! The other, a cute way of displaying a couple of your favourite, spare needleminders in a creative way (this one is the freebie).
Upcoming Products
I've been super busy working toward a huge shop release of new merchandise and apparel, as a celebration of my birthday this year. As of writing, I currently have 20 new things that will be released (which in writing that, feels a bit excessive - maybe I should hold back on something..?).
There's going to be a variety of things available, such as t-shirts, mugs, totes, necklaces, stickers and other stuff. I'm excited - I hope you all are too!
IRL things
Like the month before, where it was a Charlie-heavy month; this past month was an Alex-heavy month instead. These things tend to happen, don't they? It was sort of expected to happen though, as you will be able to see.
It's not been as busy of a month as June will likely be (for obvious reasons) but my family and I got up to a lot of stuff. Which is good, right? Right?!
Martial Arts
Both Alex and I had our belt tests and each went up a rank in belt. We also signed Alex up for the BBC ("Black Belt Club") as she's been hoping to get in and practising a heap so that she could.
So now I'm an orange stripe belt which is the final belt rank where I could be considered a "beginner" and Alex is now a blue stripe belt. Feels good!
Ballet Recital
After 6 months of practise, Alex got to perform her class' recital dance in show 4 of her company that she attends. She looked so adorable! I was having a severely emotional day that day (yay hormones) and silently bawled my eyes out while watching her.
Her Kindergarten teacher came out to watch her (and two of her friends, one of which is her current student, the other was in Alex's same K class) which was so sweet - she got Alex a bunch of flowers too. Put my single rose to shame 😂.
Baseball
My youngest's grade at their school had the absolutely opportunity to sing the National Anthem (not mine, of course 😂) at the beginning of a Seattle Mariner's baseball game. How amazing is that?!
She was nervous about it, of course, but I think it was a 'strength in numbers' sort of deal because she went out onto the field no problems and sang her little heart out along with ~100 other 6-7yos.
Fun fact: she's been singing The Star Spangled Banner every day for about 6 weeks now. Someone send help.
That's everything..!
Thanks so much, once again, for reading this post! I did sort of forget again that it was something I needed to get on top of. Apparently I don't actually have a secret goblin that writes these things for me.
I don't know whether June will be an interesting month to write about for the next monthly blog post, but we shall see.
👋 Kate
Social Media
Yeah, if you do follow me over on Instagram, you'll know that my posts are still ebbing and flowing with consist posting.
I don't really know what's going on to be honest. I want to want to post, but I just... run out of ideas or get in my own head that what I could post is boring and/or unattractive, or I just plain 'ol forget.
On the plus side: it seems I'm staying steady in the 5700's with followers. I danced around that new hundred figure for what felt like ages!
Is there a specific type of post that you enjoy seeing from me? Leave a comment below!