Ok so a few weeks have past by since I started the embroidery for my niece so between working shifts over Xmas and sleeping and eating and doing other things except my embroidery I've gotten this far. I'm pretty pleased with it however I'm now thinking I could have approached it from a different way and started machine stitching first and then adding all the detail afterwards as it would have been far quicker and I may have gotten further with it. However I will persist and it shall be finished. 

I'm also getting inspired to work on other art pieces so I need to get this one out of the way as I don't want to end up with 100 things started and none finished... hah.