singing penguin and Monarch update

The latest issue (259) of Cross Stitch Crazy hits the UK shops today and the free gift that comes with the magazine is this cute little penguin - the first design this year (by Helz Cuppleditch) that can be considered Christmassy 😲 (although this wee fella still hedges his bets, he could be singing anything after all, not necessarily Christmas carols, right?) 😉

But as I see from next month`s preview, from issue 260 (in the shops from 29 August) it`s full-on Christmas already - so hard to believe when a few days ago, we were still roasting in Rome on our summer holiday. But now that we`re back in Scotland, I`m furiously working on The Monarch of the Glen: two days ago, I finished page 9 of 12:

And thanks to an almost 10-hour wee session yesterday, I`ve got most of page 10 done too (I`ve finished the whole sky and most of the antler since this pic was taken last night).

So when Birthday Boy goes back to work on Monday, I have less than a week (thanks to a doc`s appointment 🙄) to finish this and the remaining two pages of the chart - in other words, I have another 40-50 hours of stitching to complete in 4 days... I`ve already resigned myself to the fact that it won`t be framed for The Big Day, now I`m just hoping it won`t have too much of the left corner missing when I hand it over on Saturday. 🤣 I might have to sneak out to the living room in the middle of the night and stitch for a few hours while hubby`s sleeping... watch this space! 😁