Starting cross stitching

I have always been interested in pixel art and, perhaps by extension, cross stitching.

I did try pixel art at one point but I thought everything (not very many) I made resembled abominations (granted, that wasn't the theme), so I gave up pretty quickly.

I also thought I'd pick up cross stitching a couple of years ago, told a friend, who also gifted me a few starter kits and floss. But, again, I never got started and came out with fifteen million excuses to avoid the hard work that I needed to commit to become remotely decent at it.

Yesterday I decided that it's not okay to keep delaying it. The fact that I've told someone and gotten materials for getting started was also a constant reminder that I wasn't keeping myself accountable.

My fingers hurt, and I've already made a crap tonne of mistakes already: but I started and it's fun!