1 February update

Well, it looks like I haven`t been able to finish my birdies in January... nevermind, it can be my February challenge! And to my defence, may I add that I`m full of something - yeah, I know what you`re thinking, probably THAT as well but no, I meant the cold or, scarily possibly, the flu... plus, on top of all that, whenever I`m not feeling too weak to hold the needles, I started a knitting project as well (more of that later).
Anyway, last night my nose finally stopped dripping like a dodgy tap for long enough so that I could do some stitching and here`s the result:

I`m not sure the difference is instantly obvious so I`d better explain: I finished the knotwork under the two birds and started adding the backstitch at the bottom, e.g. the feet of the blue-headed bird are now visible (I hope! If not, I`m sorry for the photo`s quality!). I`m also beginning to realise that the backstitch will take me absolutely ages - something I should`ve known from the fact that the magazine suggested getting 3 skeins (!) of the backstitch colour, which means I`m going to need roughly 144 metres (!!!) to finish it. Lovely...