WIP LARGE - Mirabilia's "Enchanted Mermaid"

 

 

This is my (reboot) newest gigantic WIP.  Mirabilia's "Enchanted Mermaid".  I started it in Spring, 2012 but really didn't work on it over the summer, well, because it was summer!  This is my second attempted Mirabilia piece.  The first was "Winter Queen" but I abandoned it.  The reason I gave up was that I was still more of a novice back then but have built up more experience and confidence leading up to this pattern.  This one, though, I cannot wait to see finished with all of the fancy treasure beads and seed beads, etc.  I dyed the fabric but really kept it super light though....I was afraid of ruining it.  Since I am back in University full time now, I can only limit my cross stitch time while I am listening to audiobooks for school to maximize my time.  



Completed Cross Stitch - "Seasonal Fantasies - Autumn" by Katrina Farabaugh

 

 

As a few of us begin to move from the Spring of our lives into the next season, sometimes we just start to…change and change without prior warning.  Hey!  What's up with that???

Now you may or may not be thinking that this solely relates to age but I believe that there could be more. 

Maybe the 'more' is a cross-pollination of thoughts and ideas made from your own eye and ear observations, or others’ opinions massaging and assaulting you, or your own positive and negative experiences producing a different hybrid flowering of your own perceptions. 

Or how about this: it is the accumulation of life struggles that instead looks like a savings account built by pennies of experience locked away somewhere to be drawn from at a later and more convenient time. 

But if you're more favourable to the maturity thing, I know I’ve come across several people younger and older than me that are more insightful than someone double in age from me or themselves.

It’s fascinating what triggers a transitional shift that touches off a new period of where we think we are and where we believe we are going.

Where are you in your life right now?  No, seriously, where ARE you?

Me?  It appears that my life is taking shape based on the late Charles Bukowski's prose.  I recently withdrew my application from a potential government-based position after 14 weeks into the process and remain on the cusp of finishing my degree and have 5 courses left (one full-time term).  Five doesn't sound like a lot but please believe me when I say it's the equivalent of two full-time jobs (and without pay).

Since making the firm decision of going back to university FT in 2012, please believe me when I tell you that I hit every xylophone bar of different emotions between the academic process and the strain of sacrifice for the illusion or real security of a greater good. 

The range moved back and forth from happiness, satisfaction, frustration, exasperation, feeling fed up/beat up, renewed, defeated, broken, healed, "jailed" and "on parole" (from school terms of course and not the penal system), feeling successful, feeling like a failure, satisfied, scared, euphoric, depressed, feeling invisible to feeling seen and recognized, losing self-esteem, gaining insight, and all at the same time it's as if I ran a marathon while standing still for the last few years.

During school, I lost one of my pets due to long-term illness, and for a while almost lost a parent too for similar reasons.  No amount of care, compassion, or support will ever completely stall the status of someone's else life or death situation.  It's a different season that sits just outside the regular calendar (for all of us I guess..).

So maybe you're in the same situation as me where you may be parachuting down from some remote point and the ground is now coming into focus but are unsure which direction you should head into once you land.

After school is complete I would love to move somewhere new and start a unique and different life (been researching 1-2 states in particular).  It seems that I have already done and experienced everything I can where I am now.

However,  I have never been much of a mover from home to home (no really, I should change my name to Stonehenge ha ha).  I feel terrified to make a huge change on my own  and yet all the while worry about the regret from letting fear take the lead keeping my life on ice and do nothing. 

Have you ever felt this way?  Do you know anyone with or without regrets over life changes?  Is there anything that makes you feel fearful that you want to get past?

A small note about the cross stitch, I dyed the linen piece with green, yellow, and blue RIT dye using brush strokes and the fabric count is between 28-32 pt.

Completed Cross Stitch - Luli's "Stella"

 

***
First, I just wanted to take the time to thank you.  You, yes you, sitting there right now reading this--you are awesome!  Thank you for all of your kind words, support, encouragement and whether we have exchanged any words or not, I appreciate your precious time that you take to look at the completed cross stitch pictures and WIPs on this blog.
Thank you for being here.
***

We all need something to look up to don't we?

For some it is hope, for some it is a special person or even someone looking up to their own reflection in the mirror and being either his or her own best inspiration.

I could not tell you the last time I just literally looked up and kept my head up to look up and around.  Maybe my last vacation sightseeing??  But day-to-day?  Not sure about if you do the same as me but I think I'm either looking straight ahead or down....a lot.  A few examples would be like when I'm reading, watching TV, cross stitching, and I was going to say driving but I guess you have to look up at the signals but I was thinking more along the lines of looking up towards the sky.

Some people who come to mind that look up a lot are astronomers (hopefully not at the sun), rock climbers, bird watchers or hey even UFO enthusiasts right?  There really isn't too much that I can think of that makes most people look up very much really (I could insert a Godzilla or Superman joke here but I won't..haha).

But getting back to hope I guess for every positive there is a negative right?  The song by the band The Trews called "Hope and Ruin" comes to mind reminding listeners of this (pretty good song but I'm not a fan of the music video despite part of it being filmed here in Toronto though).

Is hope a disease that keeps us perpetually ill with want or desire that may or may not come to fruition? or is hope that inner drive which gives each day new meaning that feeds a perpetual and renewable interest in life?

One thing that I believe may be true (from my communication studies):  // if you hold your head up your mind and spirit will perk and follow the same trajectory \\  Please try it sometime soon? :-)

This completed stitched piece was made just after spending almost a week at the hospital with one of my dogs (he is doing great now and is back home) and it gave me pause to reflect on just how precious the things that we love in each of our lives just really are.  It inspired the choice of this cross stitch subject.

Details regarding this piece are as follows:  finished size = 5" x 7", stitched over 2 threads on a 32 count linen with DMC B5200 and DMC 816.