Progress!

Sometimes cross stitching seems very slow. I can sit there for hours, and think I've gotten loads done but then when I look at it from a distance, it looks like nothing has been done.

That wasn't the case this weekend... prepare yourself for pictures!

Here is Mischief on Friday night, missing most of his face and one ear.

And here he is again on Saturday night, with almost one eye and no nose.

And on Sunday? He was (almost) complete! Just the backstitching to add detail.

I was away most of last week, and was in need of serious relaxation over the weekend, which is why I managed to get so much of him done. Surprisingly, I also managed to do a bit of baking.

Last week I was at an exhibition for work, in Paris. I happened to be next to a stand with several Itish companies on, and ended up chatting to a few of them. They supplied me with whiskey (neat, at 3pm) and Baileys, and even invited me to join them for a trip to Versailles! (Sadly I couldn't go due to flights and work). As it's St Patrick's Day, I thought I'd make these tasty treats (plus I've been dying to try the recipe for a while now). Guiness cupcakes with Baileys icing. Ok, so it's not real Baileys, but it's a decent equivalent! Very tasty, although my icing skills definitely need a bit more work. I was tempted to make some floodwork royal icing shamrocks, but realised this would leave me with a spare egg yolk, so I would have to make cookies of some sort, and as I'm trying to eat better this wasn't a good move. So no floodwork decorations this time.

Relaxing weekend over, I now have more exams to prepare for, and those socks to finish off. I've found numerous projects that I'd like to tackle (including illusion knitting and double knitting) but am refusing to start another one until the socks are done, and the backstitching on Mischief is complete!