For the curious and impatient...

...a peek inside my new book! First, here are the maidens.

The Dark Sorceress is on the left, the Fairy Queene is in the middle, and on the right is the Earth Goddess. After poking around a few websites, I'm considering Silkweaver's new "Tanzanite" for the Dark Sorceress. It will be one of their weekly specials in October, and I have a gift certificate, so it will be guilt-free stash!! I have an opalescent white lugana that the Fairy Queene could work on, and possibly Sugar Maple's "Butterfly Kisses" or "Fairy Fields" for the Earth Goddess? Hmmmm. Even with different fabrics, I think I could still hang these 3 on the wall going upstairs without it looking strange.

Kerry asked about dragons. Yep, there are 3 - all Oriental style. Here is a pic of my favorite, the Dragon of the Sea. The other two are a mountain dragon and a fire dragon. The styles are similar, just some changes in color and dragon positioning (the mountain draggie is more browns and grays, the fire one has reds/oranges). You can't really tell from the pic, but there are beads and metallics in the designs (the maidens use some DMC Light Effects, too).

In addition to the maidens and dragons, there is a pheonix (on the cover), a pegasus (I think it is by the same designer as the pheonix - and not quite my thing), a mermaid (not great - although I could be biased since I'm working on Nora's mermaids right now!), and a cute little magic scene that looks like the aftermath of a Hogwarts' all-night study session - books, a hat, potion paraphenalia, and a little owl and kitty. Oh, and last but not least, Sleeping Beauty.This is by Joan Elliott, and while it isn't as subtle and "dreamy" as Mirabilia's design of the same name, I like it. Joan also did 4 sweet little "story panels" that show 2 views of the castle, the princess just before she is pricked by the spindle, and the prince riding up to the castle. Those could make for a neat little round robin, actually.....

So there you go, pics and my book review. The one thing I DON'T like about this book is that all the charts are in color. Blech. Some of the colors also have symbols in the middle, but some don't, so it could get confusing if you try to make working copies - or even if you work from the book. But I liked the patterns enough that I was willing to overlook that.

(And yes, I've posted all this to distract you all from the fact that just one week after committing to "miles on Monday with the mermaids," I've failed miserably. I didn't stitch, AND I didn't exercise. A friend and I decided it was time for one of our shopping trips/scavenger hunts at the local thrift store. We spent a happy hour or 2 pawing through other people's cast-offs....I spent $23, and got 2 pairs of black pants, a NICE tailored black blazer, and 3 shirts. Then we went to Panera and had yummy panini sandwiches for dinner.)