At the start of the month I went through all of the photos on my phone and discovered - rather shamefully - that my Henry VIII cross-stitch had remained untouched for over a year. I was sure that it hadn't been that long at all, mainly because I've spent the last 12 months constantly reminding myself that it was sat in a corner unfinished and I needed to get my act together. Well, thank goodness for the Quarter-Life Crisis Challenge as I am well and truly back in the cross-stitch groove!
As with my reading last month, I haven't managed to do half an hour every single day at all - some days I've done less than 15 minutes, but others I've somehow made myself blurry eyed by spending close to 2 hours engrossed in the ridiculous pattern on Catherine Howard's dress. In those instances I went into Mastermind-mode, and having started the pattern / shading using 3 extremely similar colours, I felt I had no option but to finish. I knew that if I left the section half-started, when I came to it the next day I'd spend most of my time simply working out where I had left off the night before.
Red dots for cross-stitch, gold stars for reading...
Progress with this cross-stitch is ludicrously slow. Miraculously, I fell into the swing of stitching again really quickly and, as such, instances of unpicking sections because I was one square off, or if I'd stupidly used the wrong shade were kept to the absolute minimum. The only issue is that the tapestry is so huge and so detailed: it looks like I'll be finished by Christmas at this rate!
In a month I've finished Anne of Cleves' green dress, and brought Catherine Howard to life. There's still Catherine Parr, a red rose border and detailing to complete, and Henry will remain beheaded until the very end (I think he deserves it). I'm not going to lie: I'm pretty proud of this so far!
I've also continued with my reading from May, but it's really dropped off this month as my attention turned to my cross-stitch. I've read 2 months worth of magazines cover-to-cover, a health book I've been dying to read for ages, and the book of one of my favourite films of 2016. I genuinely think I could survive if stranded on Mars after reading The Martian - fans of science, space, comedy or potatoes will love this one!
I'm going to continue to work my way through my shelves of books this month, and I'd like to have Catherine Parr half-finished by the 30th... However, June is a hectic month for me so I'm not making any promises!
It's because of how stressful the next month is going to be that I've decided for June I will be attempting 30 days of yoga. I think I need to relax a little, and maybe a spot of mindful exercise everyday wouldn't be a bad thing.
So, 30 days of yoga...go!
I've also continued with my reading from May, but it's really dropped off this month as my attention turned to my cross-stitch. I've read 2 months worth of magazines cover-to-cover, a health book I've been dying to read for ages, and the book of one of my favourite films of 2016. I genuinely think I could survive if stranded on Mars after reading The Martian - fans of science, space, comedy or potatoes will love this one!
JUNE PLANS
I'm going to continue to work my way through my shelves of books this month, and I'd like to have Catherine Parr half-finished by the 30th... However, June is a hectic month for me so I'm not making any promises!
It's because of how stressful the next month is going to be that I've decided for June I will be attempting 30 days of yoga. I think I need to relax a little, and maybe a spot of mindful exercise everyday wouldn't be a bad thing.
So, 30 days of yoga...go!
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