New start and new experience

So my husband's 30th birthday is next month (I can still remember his 19th birthday when I ate so much pizza I got the shakes, gosh time flies) and I'm making him two cross stitches, one that I'm designing myself and one by a lovely lady who designs under the name Scarlett Stitches on Etsy.

Today I went to spotlight to take advantage of their 40% off fabric sale (which thanks to a feisty Facebook campaign by a few ladies, was expanded to include cross stitching fabric). I purchased my first lot of Belfast linen, 32 count. I love the look of it! I want to stitch everything I do from now on this type of fabric, it looks fabulous and a lot less blocky than aida.

I was so excited I began working on my husband's first birthday cross stitch.

It took me a little while to figure out the extra counting required for stitching "over two" but with the help of a diagram from a web page I got the hang of it quickly enough.

I don't think there'll be any looking back from this experience and I look forward to acquiring another form of stash - the fabric stash!!