tangled threads: A good stitchy day, if nothing else

Today's been very slow. As usual, my body decided that it still hated me when I woke up. Noticing this, I decided to sleep as long as possible, but a string of phone calls by different people, all looking for my dad (who wasn't home, and hadn't taken his mobile (he always forgets it) and no he hadn't told me when he was getting home - wonder how long until he pays me to be his secretary) kind of interfered with that. Finally I gave up at about 10ish, and dragged my laptop up onto my bed again.

I've discovered that cyberspace is an incredible place to waste time. Seriously. I don't think I got off the net for another two hours, despite almost noone being on (and the one person who was on was only on for about twenty minutes), and then read a book for a couple hours, and plonked myself on the couch.

Like I said, slow. But I did settle down to work on A Restful Night, and got 300 stitches done, which I'm very pleased with, especially since most of them were confetti - major confetti! I've finally finished the head of the grass stalk that she's holding, which looks incredible but has more colours than I like to think about in it. Aside from that, and finishing up listening to GP Taylor's Shadowmancer (which I thoroughly enjoyed, almost more in audiobook than I did in book form a few years back) I didn't do much for the rest of the day, though I did get referred to sewandso... and realised that buying from them was cheaper than buying from Australia...

Remember that Waxing Moon chart I bought that I'd decided to do in just plain DMC and buy the buttons only? Somehow that all flew out the window when I realised that WDW and GAST (which I've never had reason to use before now) were both variegated threads. Drat... 20 pounds later and I've got a nice big fat parcel being sent over to me. At least I can keep most of each skein (there's quite a few colours and it's only a small design) for later projects...right? I told my sister how much I'd spent offhandedly, and she went 'mmhmm' like she normally does to any talk of stitching (or Orthodoxy) and then a beat later 'you spent WHAT???!!!'

The reaction was priceless, and made my day.

I'm loving working on A Restful night at the moment. I've only got another 200ish stitches left before I'm 35% done, which is very encouraging, though I feel like it should be more since I've only got another 18 rows of the current pages left when I'm finished with this row of blocks.

Much as I love my HAEDs though, I think I should make something else a focus when I finish her. I'd like to keep a QS in my 'rotation', and I still plan to do Cat Nap Fae next for Meg (I promised her it ages ago) but I think I'll keep it for QS Wednesdays and other random 'screaming' times. It's only 2pages, really, with a few rows left over as change (about 10?) so it shouldn't take too long, and it's nice and small, just big enough to tuck into a letter and send to New York to its recipient. On the other hand, it has a lot of glitter thread. Yetch. Definitely subbing glissen gloss for the kreinik, and I might leave the sparkle until last, we'll see. Most of the sparkle seems confined to the sky though, so it's about 1/2 page worth at most. Thank goodness for small mercies? She's adorable, I'm just not so fond of sparkle.

On the other hand though, I have so many things started and not finished. And I really can't justify starting something new as a focus - if I start something new it will be in the background, and not as a reward for finishing - not this time, I've got enough started already!

Candidates include:

White Musings - about 25% done. This is, of course, if it's not finished by then - and if I aim to get at least a few rows a week done, it will be.
Froggy Frog World - 1000 stitches done of goodness knows how many (20 pages!). This would keep Troy happy, but I couldn't keep it as focus indefinitely. Maybe if I set the goal for it being focus at four pages or something, it might work.
Noon Basking - unsure as to how much done. I'd really really love to get back to working on him seriously, he's so beautiful. He's currently winning. He's also not as big or as complicated as most of my others, even though I used to think he was really big - he's not. The chart's just complicated, but I'm used to reading it now.
Mystery X - About 4.5? parts of 12 done. Again, hard to keep as focus, though it might be fun to try and catch up again. Those houses are beautiful, and I really want mine caught up.
Japanese Octagon Box - 1.5 parts of 12 done. Would be fun, but I'm SALing with Tash and I'd kind of like to keep it as a SAL piece. Especially since the borders start to drive me nuts after a day or two's work!
Tranquility Mystery Sampler - I really have no idea. 5%? This one would be a fantastic candidate, it's beautiful with lots of colour changes between monochromatic designs. And its something completely different. On the other hand, I'd only really be able to work on it if I was concentrating, given my tendency to get really really frustrated with it if I have to frog.
TGOSM countries mystery - not started - yet! I'm planning to keep this one as one of my screamers for a while, knuckling down on it every now and then. It seems pretty straightforward, and I really like it - and it's stitched over 2 in Dinky Dyes. How could I not love it?

So, any votes/opinions/advice welcome :)

By the way, here is White Musings with five rows done (the top row is being cut off by my q-snaps) and row 6 half done: