Done and Dusted.

I am pleased to announce that Midi 1 is complete as of December 25, 2007. My beloved husband allowed me roughly 42 minutes of stitching time last night to finish the final jessica windows, bottom border beads and all the bi cones.

I wish I could say that I am thrilled at the moment but it feels a bit anticlimactic at the moment. Maybe because I've been struggling to finish her for the last three months. I just have an overwhelming sense of, "Finally!" and a deep sigh of relief that at least one of my big projects will not be carrying over into 2008.

No photos right now. I didn't take a picture at work today (it's usually too dark when I return home in the evening for a decent picture so I take photos on my lunch break. She is lovely and I am looking forward to showing her to you.

I'm working on a few ornaments at the moment (well obviously I'm typing now but your get the idea). They are for Angie's teachers--how tacky is it that I didn't finish them before the break (be honest, I'm actually soliciting your opinions). We did contribute to the group gift for the teachers so we didn't completely ignore them, but I just wanted to make them something as well to show how much I appreciate their work with my daughter. I'm also trying to stitch ornaments for Kian and Angie. Right now I feel that I'm in ornament purgatory and stitching is losing my love at present.

I would have liked to have completed my twenty five project challenge this year, but I suppose I will endure if I don't finish the last few projects until the new year. Poor Amethyst is languishing for the want of a few crystals. Perhaps she'll be the first finish of the new year. With Midi complete I am pondering a new start, or should I just focus on another WIP and knock it out as well?

It's the end of one year and the start of another so I'm contemplating goal setting very soon. 2007 was very successful as I can see many finishes in the sidebar--especially when compared to my paltry three finishes in 2006. The goal setting and this blog have been enormously helpful in motivating me. I'll try to maintain both in the coming year.

I'm wondering if I should add other tricks to my stitching repertoire to fool myself into finishing more projects:

Should I use some variation of Nicki's one motif per week?
Should I have a focus piece?
Should I try a regular SAL on one project (yes Nicki is a huge inspiration to me)?
Should my next challenge be larger or smaller?
Should make 2008 my Stitch from my stash year?
Do I craft a new rotation? (and can my serial starting ways allow me to stick to it?)

I have lots of ideas tumbling around in my brain, we'll see where I land in a few days. I might try to mix it up a little bit to maintain my excitement about stitching.