One of my many ongoing crafts

I've loved cross stitching since I was about 12 years old.  I know, it's such a fuddy-duddy thing to do (no offense to anyone, I'm one of you), but there is something relaxing to making tiny, little x's all over the place (exes, xs?)  I can't even display my cross stitching creations because they just don't go with the decor of my house (way to countrified for my taste)!  But, I thought, a photo that is cross stitched may have some place on my hallway, so I went in search of a program that turned pictures into a cross stitch pattern. 

I found one for free on the web (but I'm not going to link to it yet because I thought the shading came out a little wrong).  I found it at the same time that I was doing a secret sister exchange, so I thought I would try this out by doing a cross stitch of my secret sister's kids. I thought, overall, that it turned out great.  But, the shading the program picked out was not like the picture at all (my one complaint). 

I'm now doing one of Coraline and it is still in the process of being completed.  I used a different program and paid $7 for this one, so I want to see if the shading comes out better.  So far, she's looking a little orange.  I'll make sure to show you the before picture and the completed cross stitch so you can compare yourself.  Did I mention cross stitching takes forever!!  It may be awhile before that post comes out!