Castlemum,
That looks JUST like a photo! Of course you're paying for it in color changes, but it looks like you photographed the finished parts, and the chart picture also looks like a photo.
Really nice work, and you've done a considerable amount already!
Did you stitch the grid on the fabric? Smart thing to do, as it must make counting soooo much easier!
Melanie  (cat slave and Official Feline Can Opener) =^.^=

It is a jpeg photo I changed to a cross stitch. Used 160 colors for I wanted a realistic picture. Not something hokey, you know.
 
Definitely a huge YES on gridding. I used metalic thread in a bright red color. 😆 first time in gridding a counted cross stith pattern. I do not like counted without a grid now. 
As for the chart, when I made it, I couldn't make it with just symbols, it always came out with the colors behind the symbol. I think it was the program in Pixel-Stitch. 

Castlemum,
Certainly not hokey at all! It's as realistic as cross stitch can get...great job!
Seriously, your gridding makes me want to go back and redo all of my larger cross stitch pieces that way! ;D What a difference that would have made!
Hoping the colors behind symbols don't make the pattern confusing. With 160 colors, that's already a LOT. Well worth it, though!
Melanie  (cat slave and Official Feline Can Opener) =^.^=