I think it's fair to say that I have seriously lost momentum with this project. Progress is sloooooo-ooooow. I will not list the things I blame for this, for fear of sounding like a broken record. But one of the best things about this blog is that I can look back at previous large cross stitch projects and know that I always do this. It flies along really fast and easy, and then it gets hard and I start anthropomorphizing colours and threads and getting into arguments with things inanimate, and then somehow, somewhere, I find my sanity and reach the home stretch and it starts getting easier. And then when I finish, I love the project and seem to forget the moments where I nearly tore it apart. So hopefully that third stage will kick in soon. And at least this time I have outside influences to blame rather than just shrieking about how pale colours are evil.

Here's how Serenity looks today:



And here's a close up where you can actually tell that I've started putting in some of the darker colours:



And while I'm here, my TLDR bag got featured in a green and purple themed treasury over at etsy. I'd always encourage y'all to check these kind of things out cos there are so many amazing crafters and artists on etsy (so much better than me!) and you never know what you might find over there!