A month of Monday Monday

Happy monthaversary!

Technically the first one was on the 8th so you could argue that next week would be the anniversary of the posts but as it's a retrospective wrap up sort of thing I'm going to call it good.

It would probably be a good idea to do my weekly blogging on a weekend day when I've gotten more sleep but then the series would be named Sabado Sabado Sabado! and that would be really misleading as this is not a Spanish language blog.

Wow, yeah, I really *did* sleep like crap last night.

I digress.

First things first:

Someone in a cross stitch group tipped me off that Jo-Ann Fabrics is having a MASSIVE online sale on cones of DMC floss and has a cheap shipping coupon, so you better believe I snatched up a cone of 310. The entire background of my current project is columns of unrelenting 310 (black) so I've been considering this for weeks. Not sure how long that's on so jump on it while you can.

I got a message last week from my stylist Fran Nordstrom at Waves Salon (here, have a Groupon deal!) that she had a color refresher thing for me so I picked it up and tried it this weekend. It came out of the tube a bit more purple than it shows on my hair but the end result was spot on for the powdery, denimy blue I really wanted this time around.

I don't think the first pic shows the yellowing I was starting to get as well as it could, but the refresher definitely made a difference in the overall tone without changing the color or staining anything (on my bathroom or my anatomy). It was easy, fast, and pleasant as hair dye experiences go. My only complaint about it is that it has a fairly heavy lily sort of scent which I find a bit much even after a day, but I'm specifically sensitive to that sort of thing so I suspect most wouldn't have a problem.

I have no idea of the general availability of this product but I would definitely give it another go.

This was my main project start this week and so far I am enjoying the HECK out of it. My mom had some medical stuff going on this past week so I stayed overnight last Monday at my parent's house and brought this project with to keep me busy while we waited for updates (long story short: my Mom is all good so far). I had a bit of a false start (that entire top row of stars had to be redone) but once I worked out a counting snafu and got used to working over two again I was golden. Per my post from mid last week I learned a new (to me) stitch and as a result will be starting that #yearofstitch project hopefully this week.

I've stopped on that piece for the time being to focus on getting a page finish in on Shades of Red, but will be setting up to start #yearofstitch and possibly prepping fabric for the upcoming Bowie project this week as I think I've decided on my fabric. Now that I've gotten away from the relentless black stitching of the background of Shades of Red it is of course confetti city and is sloooooooow going ,no middle ground there. 

OH!!! I FINALLY GOT MY FABRIC FOR THE MOST RIDICULOUS EPIC SEVERAL YEARS LONG PROJECT I COULD POSSIBLY IMAGINE!! Look at that thing! I think I have sheet sets that take up less real estate. That is a 55x55 inch square piece of 25 count Lugana from Heaven and Earth Designs and for size reference I am myself all of 62 high x *mumble* wide inches.

The end result will be the design above - Four Seasons by Jacek Yerka as charted by Heaven and Earth Designs. The design is considered a supersize piece in max colors which will be about 40 inches square and contain 234 colors. The pattern is OVER ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY PAGES and at current speed a single page takes me about a month.

I don't know, I might be crazy but I just sort of fell in love with it, lifelong commitment to a single cross stitch project be damned.