If it's already March… then it's time to wrap up February!
Well, the past month has definitely felt a lot more chill and slower-paced than usual. But once you read on and see what has happened, I'm pretty sure you'll understand why that is!
The past month has also been filled with lots of IRL stuff (as you'll see) which has been a good change of pace. I am, however, hoping that March will bring some big, positive changes to Two Little Kits (ones you'll see, too!) after all this IRL stuff is passed 😂
I didn't get any completed pieces this past month which is unfortunate, and not a whole heap of different stuff happened, but it still definitely feels like it was a busy month!
Scroll to take a closer look at what I've been up to! 👇
New Products
I've still been able to keep up with the promise to myself to release a brand new shop item each fortnight and February didn't disappoint.
Cross-Stitch Pattern
I completed the third of my latest cross-stitch series (which will likely continue to grow in the future!) and I'm so pleased with how these pieces all look together. Obviously, they all work perfectly as individual pieces.
I really love how 'Drink Water' turned out - it warms my heart (for some reason) that the flowers are blue for this one. It was deliberate, of course 😁
I don't know about you, dear reader, but I am in a constant state of forgetfulness that I'm required to drink water. Every day. Not just once off, but all the dang time.
So that's where this pattern stemmed from! Let me know your thoughts and if you'll stitch up this set!
Embroidery Pattern
You will likely recognise this piece from prior monthly posts but I am so happy to announce it is available to stitch for yourself!
I wanted to make sure this pattern release was perfect, given it did not have an accompanying stitch-along. So, as you'll see, I recorded videos to go along with it. This took a decent amount of time to do but I truly think it will be an invaluable source. Not only for those of you who want help with stitching this piece in particular but for anyone else looking for help with a specific stitch for their own work.
Let me know your thoughts! Will you be brave and stitch this, too?
Works in Progress
I am probably even more surprised than you are to learn that I only worked on TWO cross-stitch WIPs. Who am I?! This feels unheard of, honestly. But I did triple check and yep.
There is an embroidery piece that I shared in my latest FlossTube but I made the choice not to share that in this post, as I am likely to completely start over with that. If I don't, I'll share some progress shots in next month's post 😊
Have a look below at my work this month:
Let's see the physical WIPs:
And some digital WIPs:
So I also did quite a bit on my iPad from sketches I have physically done over the previous years (specifically, pre-iPad years). It's been fun! I finally learned a few tricks within Procreate that helped me out a HEAP, so I'm feeling jazzed to do more on this amazing tool of mine.
How-to Videos
For my latest embroidery release, because there was to be no accompanying stitch-along like the others I've released, I decided I wanted to produce a video demonstrating how to complete every single individual stitch itself, so people knew what was expected of them for the pattern.
So February saw me record (after procrastinating hard) and edit the first in my series of how to complete specific hand embroidery stitches.
Check out the playlist below of the currently available "How-to" videos I've created so far:
This is not the last you'll see of me demonstrating how to do hand embroidery stitches, by the way! I have every intention of fleshing this out even more, especially with embroidery patterns going forward.
Stuff that's happened IRL
What happened during February? Aside from the things above, I did other stuff! Here are a few things that happened:
We received our green cards!
After a very long process (which I'm sure you've heard about how long it can take some people..!), my husband, my oldest daughter, and I all received our green cards! My youngest daughter doesn't need a green card, as she was born in America (granting her dual citizenship with Australia), so now all 4 of us are allowed to stay in the States for 10 years before having to renew it.
Previously, we were only granted 3-year stays which we had to constantly renew because of the Visas we were on. This is going to be so much better! During the entire process, we were required to stay in the country. Now we've received them, we will be allowed to plan something like a trip back to Australia..! 🥳️
I wanted to share a photo of something in this post to commemorate this awesome step but I'm obviously not sharing a photo of the cards themselves 😂 So here's the brochure we received, which tickled me. Uhh… we've been living here for over 7 years now, America..! LOL!
Visit from my mum!
For most of the second half of February, my mum has been here visiting! It's such a blessing to have her able to come and stay with us, even if it's only just for 2 quick weeks (she flies back home this coming Sunday). My girls LOVE having their Nanny come to visit and she loves to be able to just hang out and become part of the family during our regular day-to-day.
She timed her trip to coincide with the girls' school mid-winter break and therefore they got to spend a bunch of time playing with her before they went back to school.
I'll be sad to see her go this weekend (no ideas when we will be able to get together again next) but, again, it's been lovely having her stay. Chatting each evening, having an extra adult in the house helping, a babysitter readily available for things… It'll be hard to go back to the norm!
Social Media
I've [still] inadvertently taken a bit of a step back from posting on social media. But a lot of that is due to two reasons:
- My kids had mid-winter break, and
- My mum visiting!
Believe it or not; I'm actually starting to miss it..! So that's a good sign!
Once our family normal is reverted (aka: after my mum heads back home), I am hoping to use this feeling to get back into posting. Especially Reels and using that content to post on TikTok, too! That's a bigger step than it sounds though, as I have to remember how to post over there. Damn, I'm old.
Either way, my growth on Instagram has stagnated quite a bit because of this hiatus. But that's still OK! It's obvious to me what's going on (especially knowing that the Instagram algorithm is a constant ebb and flow on what it prefers) so I know what I need to do -when I'm ready- to fix it.
And that's it!
Thanks so much, once again, for reading this post! I need to find a better system to organise these posts, during the month in question. Chasing up images is less than ideal, I will be quite honest!
Until next time,
👋 Kate
