swans and mermaids

Happy New Year! 😊 Hope you all had a great Christmas and a lovely holiday. I was in that strange but familiar state for the past two weeks where you barely know what day or what time of any day it is - not to sound all bah humbug but I`m a wee bit looking forward to tomorrow morning when everything is (supposed to be...?) going back to normal. 😉

A couple of weeks ago (I think. Sometime last year, anyway), issue 251 of Cross Stitch Crazy came out and the free gift with it is this gorgeous swan, designed by Durene Jones:

It took five and a half hours to stitch, which is always a welcome change between two big projects; I love when I can start and finish a picture, and a gorgeous one like this to boot, on the same day. And I also love the card that comes with the kit, it complements the design beautifully.

In between two mince pies, I also learnt that issue 6 (titled "Mixtape") of X Stitch Magazine has become available digitally, and in this, there`s a couple (or "wreath"?) of mermaids, designed by Peacock&Fig`s Dana Batho, that I stitched for Mr X Stitch. Here`s my photo of the finished pic, complete with beads... which, I`m just realising now, cannot be seen, so I`d better add photographer Stacy Grant`s professional pic too that you can find in the magazine. Have a great start to 2019, folks, and happy stitching! 😊