It's Done!

My wreath is complete and I'm all hung up on it!

I ended up adding a lot more stuff than I originally expected, but I think it all works well together.  The toadstools where inspired by a tutorial I saw on knick knacks & ric rac.  However, I changed it up a little bit.  Instead of thread spools, I used painted corks.  I used felt for the spots, instead of pom poms.  Gotta work with what you've got, right?!  I liked the mushrooms so much I made a whole bunch of ornaments for our giant tree.  Those are up next!  

I'm enjoying a relaxing day, so it's about cocoa time 'round these parts.  I have one more day of work then a three day weekend with my honey!  I'm so excited.  And lucky.... a 3 day weekend in retail....over Christmas?!  Guess all those weekends in a row with crazy hours are paying off for me.  Oh, and New Year's Day off?!  I'm practically giddy over here.

Christmas Cheer

Hi, guys!  How are you all doing?!  I'm pretty good.  Working my behind off, wish I could say literally, with tons of extra hours at my job to get ready for the holiday.  Although it's been decorated at my job for months now, I'm starting on the house now.  

This may not look like much now, but pretty soon all this stuff will be made into one of the cutest darned wreaths you've ever seen.  I can't wait to finish it!  Can I tell you that wrapping this thing is taking forever?!  Although Dillon did give me some advice that will probably make the next one go a little faster.  We'll see...

Besides being festive I've been busy stitching up a few things for my etsy.  This is a custom request I received, ready to head out to it's new home.

So, yeah.  That's pretty much what I've been up to lately, working and working on embroidery.  Exciting life, I know.  To make it a little more exciting, I think I'm going to give my blog a bit of a make-over.  Any suggestions?  I really want to change the layout so that I can share bigger pictures with you.  These seem a bit small for my liking.  I don't know, you tell me.

Be back soon, hopefully with a wreath!  (If all this wrapping doesn't drive me crazy first.)  Bye!

Quotable

Guess I should have made this a "Words on Wednesday" post, but you guys have waited long enough for me.

As promised, this is the quote I'm stitching techni-color dream style for my shop.  I laugh pretty much every time I think of it.

The lighting is a bit off since it's late here.  So, in case you can't read it well it says, "It's hard to stay sucker free in the land of the lollipops."  My guy and I were watching a prison documentary, one of those terrible "behind bars" type reality shows on MSNBC or Discovery when I heard this.  (And this is why I watch TV with my notebook.)  The interviewer asked an old pimp how he ended up in prison and that was his response.  I couldn't help but think it was hilarious and terrible, all at the same time.  Pretty much classic.

Yeah, I guess I'm pretty ridiculous for stitching the wisdom of a crazy ol' pimp, but seriously.... I love this quote.

Oh, Geez!

My goodness, it's certainly been a while.  Far too long in between posts lately.  I promise I didn't forget about you guys, I've just been busy.  I know that's a pretty lame excuse considering that some of the best bloggers out there wear a million hats at once.  Add to that feeling a bit down, and it doesn't leave much motivation for blogging.  However, there are a ton of things to share with you.

Here's one!

 I've been making a ton of stuff for my etsy, including some more "paper doll" pieces.  As soon as I can get a good picture of it, I'll share here and list it.

Besides stitchy stuff there is lots of other interesting stuff going on in my life.  I'm on the hunt for a new job and a new roomie.  I still have my current job, I'm just looking to move on.  As for the roomie, that's kind of a long story.  It's not working out with the current one at all, she's pretty much a joke.  After her black-out drunk incident that ruined my super nice Calphalon counter-top grill and filled my entire house with thick smoke....at 3 in the morning, we could no longer tolerate her stupidity.  It never ceases to amaze me just how far some people can go on empty.  Anyways, change is in the wind.

Enough about that business, here's a happy looking preview of something I'm adding to my shop.

Intrigued?!  I'll share the rest with you tomorrow.  It's a hilarious quote that I will probably never forget.

Bye for now!  I promise from now on I won't make you wait weeks in between posts.  Pinky swear.  Have a craftastic night, lovies!

Snapshot Friday!

This creepy little kid reminds me of a young Vincent D'Onofrio.

Speaking of creepy, anyone have exciting Halloween plans?!  Mine will be pretty tame.  I think the highlight of the weekend will be trying to dress up my pets.

In a Pickle

 Today's post is brought to you by the word, pickles.  Yay for pickles!  I love 'em, do you?!

When I found out my partner in the Phat Quarter Food swap had the nickname, Gherkin, I knew I had to go with it.  So I made her a pickle jar, with my attempt at a label.  It says, "Leslie's World Famous Gherkins.  Petites with a punch."  Originally it was to be a patch, but I think this came out better.  Now if I could have just got a good picture of it.  Taking pictures of round things is hard!

 I guess the fabric I used for the words was too thin, I've never had it stretch out like that before?  Any suggestions?  It didn't seem like that when it was one the hoop.

 I started by plotting out a pattern on the computer, mainly to play with all the different fonts.  And to get the oval shape even, I'm terrible at that sort of thing.  I transferred it onto the green fabric with my trusty Clover pencil and stitched away.  Somehow my stitching turned out a little crazy in the word, famous.  However, I'm learning not to beat myself up and obsess over every little thing, so I went with it still.  Once the stitching was complete I cut it out with pinking shears and stitched it onto the orange felt.

The jar is an upcycled Trader Joe's coffee can that I covered with vintage green linen.  I couldn't quite get the back seam right, so I used some coordinating ribbon to cover that up.  Not thrilled about that so I didn't take a picture, ha.  I finished up by attaching the vintage foodie trim with tiny dabs of hot glue.  Then I glued the entire patch onto the jar.  Added some felt to the lid, done!  I filled the jar with goodies and sent it on it's way.  My partner, Leslie, liked it, so I'm happy!

Ok, once I share pics of the foodie pieces I've received lately, I promise- no food posts for a while.

Donut Party!

On Sunday, my honey and I had lots of "us" time.  Between sleeping in, eating too much awesome food and watching football, we found time to do a little baking.  We made donuts!

Aren't they pretty?!

We used this recipe.  Despite following it closely, we had nowhere near 58 donuts, which is probably a good thing.  That meant we had too much glaze for the frosting, but oh well.  We had one minor set back, when Dillon kept telling me I was going overboard on the sprinkles.  Is there such a thing?!  It was alright though, I told him he had no idea what he was talking about and promptly went back to flinging sprinkles everywhere.  Thankfully, it was easy to clean up.  By the time we got out the broom to sweep up, our little sprinkle hound, Tequila, had already taken care of most of the floor.

Like I said, we ate too much good food that day, so there was no room left for donuts.  However, I've since tried them and they were yums for my tum.  I think they are excellent paired with a glass of milk.  I'm sure my guy prefers them with coffee.  Either way, tasty!

Hopefully, I haven't made you too hungry!  If I have, sorry!  Feel free to stop by and I will share my donuts with you.

Caturday!

It never fails.  When you are trying to get something done around here, a cute little kitty will come along and distract you.  Or in this case, jump into the laundry you're trying to take care of.

 

Or two may come along.  Either way, their cuteness is getting in the way of progress.

Sorry about the Instagram photos guys, I couldn't resist the convenience factor.  I can smell a pizza in the oven and it's calling my name.  Oh, I'm Mafiosagrrl on Instagram.... like that's a surprise, just call me "Captain Obvious!"  Are you on there too?  Lemme know!

Snapshot Friday!

Someone was obviously impressed by the gams on this gal!

In fact, they were so impressed they had to write it twice.

 A bargain at .25, wouldn't you say?  It makes me curious to see what the rest of this scrapbook looked like.

I'm looking forward to this weekend off from work.  I've got lots of Halloween prep in the works.  It's been hard to get into the holiday mood since the weather refuses to turn into fall here in CA, so I'm going to force it along.  I think it's time to decorate!  I need some pumpkins around this joint.  Be back soon!

I made this kitty for Connie as part of a swap we had.  She was kind enough to send me the largest Q-Snap you will ever see in your life.  It's made to be a floor stand for hand-quilting and I'm going to put it do good use.  Baby quilts here I come!  No, there are no little ones in our near future.  I just want to start small with my new hobby.

I found the canvas on sale at the craft store and fell in love with the circular shape.  I bought it with no particular project in mind, and now I wish I had picked up a few more.  Not for stitching though, it was a major pain as it was primed for painting.  Next time I stretch my own canvas for mixed media stuff.

Despite having a cute little dog named, Girlie, Connie loves cats!  Being a kitty lover myself, I wasn't lacking in cat patterns.  I used a vintage pattern that someone had shared in the Hoop Love flickr pool.  I've long since printed it out so I'm not sure who the original maker was, sorry folks!  Then I lightly tinted it with watercolors and stitched it for more definition.  I used Perle cotton and regular embroidery floss, divided into various #s of strands. 

I'm so glad that she liked it.  I'm always happy to send off things to a good forever home!  Speaking of which, I've got tons of happy mail to post about.  Including a package for a lovely lady from the land down under.  She will love me and hate me by time she get's the giant box of swaptastic stuff.  I decided to create one last goodie to make up for my tardiness and you know how that goes....takes forever.  I feel like the naughtiest swapper ever, I'll probably decline swaps for a year now!  Anyhow, more coming soon!  See you later, dolls.

Current State of Affairs

My crafting area is one hot mess right now.  This is just a small portion of the craziness.   And it feels like more a reflection of my life in general.   Trust me, I can't show you the rest.  I'm too ashamed.  Maybe I'll get a before shot as I attempt to master the mess.

Last time I posted about organizing the fabric into bins, but that's pretty much where the organization process stopped.  I need to get it under control and soon!  It's getting a bit overwhelming.  I tend to avoid the room when it's like this, which also means I'm not blogging and can't really work on anything but embroidery (which I take in the other room.)  Holy Guacamole, I need to get it together!  Be back with some projects that have contributed to this pitiful mess.

Best Pencils. Ever.

Despite telling me that I have enough paper and writing utensils to last me the rest of my life, my honey still indulges my obsession with stationary products.  I guess he just gets me.

These pencils he got me are just plain awesome.

The Shining is one of my all-time favorite movies. 

                      

Great, now I want to watch this movie!  Perfect movie watching weather too, gloomy and rainy outside.  I want to cuddle under a blankey with a yummy coffee.  Too bad that's not going to happen for a while, I've got too much to do.  I'm in the process of organizing my fabric stash into bins.  Exciting, I know.  Well, off to finish up!

Snapshot Friday!

My guy is the best!  He brought me to a place that has enough old photos for sale to have Snapshot Friday for the rest of my life.  Now you guys don't have to look at my boring ol' photos on Fridays anymore....if I posted one, I've been so bad lately.

I'm happy because I've missed the old timey photo Fridays.  I can't wait to go pick out some more from my new favorite store.

Look at the handsome devil I have for you guys today.

Gorgeous, huh?!  Kind of reminds me of Gene Kelly.  And that deckle edge?  Swoon.  This one definitely has me longing for a bygone era. 

I've got a ton of projects to share with you guys, once my sorry butt gets them in the mail.  See you soon!  I have the weekend off and plan on spending a lot of time working on bloggy/etsy stuff.  Hopefully making up for my extreme lack of activity around these parts lately. 

I'm a Bookworm Part III

Well, I tried to share this with you guys yesterday but it didn't work out.  Therefore today's post will be brought to you by the words, Technical Difficulties.  Somehow I've misplaced my card reader so I had to wait until I could use the boy's sexy beast of a computer.

Seems silly posting about a specific day once it's already passed, but here we go.  Yesterday was September 13th, also known as Roald Dahl Day.  Did you know there was such a thing?!  Awesome, huh?  Check out the official site, tons of cute stuff for the kiddos...or the young at heart.  Warning: there is happy music that may scare the heck out of you if your volume is loud.  I know this for a fact.

I absolutely adore his books and read most of them as a child.  To be honest, I'll probably be re-reading them for the rest of my life.  He's also written adult fiction which I can't wait to get my hands on someday.  I'm sure you know most of his children's stories have been made into movies, but if you've never read them- you must!  They're quirky and full of dark humor, but still maintain a sense of innocence...a combination hard to achieve.  For me, it's hard to pick a favorite!  Do you have a favorite Roald Dahl book?

Oh, hey!  Speaking of books, have you seen the new Feeling Stitchy button on my sidebar?  There is a contest for embroidered book covers on now through November 7th.  If you're a stitcher who loves to read, you must check it out.  I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!  I'm going to draw up a few things this week and see if I can get it together in time.

Be back sooner next time, promise :)  Bye for now, I'm off to work.

Big Winner!

Last week I received a check in the mail for my 1st place win.   Wait, what?!  Yeah, that's what I thought.  I had no idea what in the Sam Hill they were talking about.  Turns out, my grumpy ol' Gargoyle DID win at the fair!  I was totally surprised, seeing as how I not only attended the fair, but I had also already picked up my piece and had not heard anything about this.  I guess since it was displayed low, some brave kid took it or it fell off?  Either way, they gave me another one!

Apparently, not only did I win, I won first place.  Holy guacamole, I'm shocked!  Here's my plentiful bounty-

Don't spend it all in one place right?!  Just thought I would share, since I was pumped.  Can't wait to add to my ribbon collection.  I need some big poofy ones!

Oh, on a side note, I'm blogging from my honey's new Mac.....swoon.  So nice.  I think I'm in love.  And he's teaching me Lightroom.  Aww yeah, great photos here I come.  Good thing he's patient. 

Sorry it's been so long.  I've been crazy busy with work and there's been some commotion on the household front looking for a new roomie.  I promise, I'll get with it again soon.  Love you guys for your patience with my lazy butt.  See you soon!  Have a lovely Friday night.  I'll be off to bed soon, ready to pop up at 5am for work- blech.

Words on Wednesday

Have I ever mentioned how amazing Scrabble Cheez Its are?!  I love them.

This should totally be my new blog header!

Are you for or against playing with your food?

It's Been Bugging Me!

It's kind of been bugging me that since getting my license I haven't added any Sublime Stitching stuff to my etsy.  So I took a break from some of my bigger projects and swap pieces, which can get a bit overwhelming, to make some things for the shop. 

Like this little guy!

This comes from the "Garden Variety" pattern.  I stitched it with DMC Cotton, Metallic, and Rayon floss.  The piece is mounted in a 3in x 4in oval hoop and is ready to hang.  Even the back looks cute, with a coordinating felt covering the stitches.  It'll be in my shop later today!  

My guy said I should have arranged it vertically in the hoop.  What do you think, would it have looked better?  Maybe I'll try another one that way.

I'm also working on some bees for the shop, from the same pattern.  I'm just loving how they're turning out, can't wait to show you.  Be back soon, guys.  Have a craftastic day!

Caturday

"No, Dog.  I'm pretty sure you are mistaken.  This is actually my bone.  Now, please stop bothering me.  I'm trying to sleep."

Thriftacular Thursday!

I collect postcards, so I was over the moon when my honey recently surprised me with a stack of super old ones.  They're amazing!  Most of them feature brightly colored images on linen paper.  I just about lost it when I saw these cards.  Yes, I'm a giant nerdy person.

They're just such gorgeous examples of a bygone era.  Sadly, most people don't even send mail anymore.  So not only is the art of letter writing slowly dying, but all the amazing little items and processes that go along with it.  There are still a few people dedicated to preserving this form of communication, however, most people just appreciate these types of things.

These are a few of my favorites from my surprise stack.

I love the old cars in the front one.  That one is of an Inn located on the campus of Dartmoth, in New Hampshire.

Old NY ones!!  Nothing like what you'd pick up in The Big Apple today.

These ones are crazy!  Originally a book of twelve, they feature various areas of a Cabaret in Paris.  More specifically Le Lido des Champ-Elyees.  We have numbers 2-12, and I haven't been able to find much information online.  We may never see what number 1 was.

Oddly enough,  I did find a site selling one of the cards I have.  It shows the marble bridge that spans one of the pools.  Something looked a little funny about it though, so I took a closer look at ours.  It features a ladder, probably used for diving, that the one for sale doesn't have.  Crazy, huh?  Maybe we have some super rare prototypes, the photographers originals?!  Ok, maybe I watch too much Antiques Roadshow, but I just love thinking about the history of things.  Like who did all these cards belong too?

So, have you come across any treasures lately?  Do you like writing letters? How often do you write?  I try to write a few letters every week.  I also belong to Postcrossing and that's a lot of fun, too.  Most of these cards will stay in my collection, but I'm certainly enjoying sending some of these oldies out into the world.  I like surprising people and I'm sure most people don't find a 65 year old postcard in their mailbox very often!  Back to work, I've spent far too much time on the computer already today.  See you later, gators!

Words on Wednesday!

Today's words are brought to you by The Big Lebowski!  For anyone new around these parts, I should tell you, I'm a "quoter" and a fan of all things Coen Brothers.  So naturally, I quote this movie just about everyday.

However, I don't really get the chance to work this one into everyday conversation....if ever.  For those of you confused, do yourself a favor and go watch The Big Lebowski. 

I made this little piece for stitchy pal, Alaina aka SpidersPaw.  She is such an amazing artist!  I highly encourage you to check out her work.  Please be warned some of her work contains sexual subject matter, so don't check it out at work!

Funny story, I found this in a bag of vintage linens someone gifted me.  It was with a whole bunch of other bookmarks that already had embroidery on them, so I was excited to be able to stitch on this one.  My guy saw it and thought it was some sort of fancy pantyliner.  Ha, silly boy!  Perfect quote to indulge his crazy notion, don't you think?

So, this is my third Lebowski piece, I wonder how many more there will be in my future?  I'm also wondering if my post will be blocked by safe filters, ha!  I'm off to cross of some thing off my to-do list before work.  See you soon.  Have a craftastic day!

P.S.  Don't be uncomfortable, Vagina isn't a bad word!

Grumpy Ol' Guy

I recently stitched a grumpy ol' gargoyle.  More specifically, The Spitting Gargoyle from the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.  I've always had a thing for monsters and gargoyles, ever since I was a kid.  When I was younger I had a bunch of small stone statues of them, too.  I think I had three different sizes of this guy.  That collection seems to have been lost in transit during one of our moves.

 It's hand-stitched using black DMC, ranging from 1 strand to 4 strands.

I framed it so that I could enter it in the local county fair.  I love the frame!  This is the best pic I have of it, I'll get a better one when I get it back.

I didn't win at the fair, but I'm glad I entered.  It makes me feel like I'm actually doing something with the pieces I make, instead of them just laying around gathering dust.  This piece also got something better than a fair ribbon, it was featured as a "Stitchgasm!" on one of my favorite sites!  It's chock full of so much amazing stitchy stuff I can't even begin to put it in words.  Check it out.

More monsters and beasts in the works.  I had a crazy lion I was working on but I took a short break  from it and now the pattern I drew is worn off-boo!  I can't decide whether to scrap it or try to figure out a way to salvage it.  Gahhh, I hate that!  I might take a break from stitching for a few days, I'm craving paint like a mad woman at the moment.  Thinking I'll rest my wrist and get the whole arm moving around in front of a nice, big canvas.  See you soon, my dears!

Club 27.

You guys, I'm pretty bummed about the death of Amy Winehouse.  While I'm not entirely shocked about it, it's still so sad.  The fact that the whole world watched her fall apart makes it even more terrible.  They say she was happy and healthy in the end, having beat drugs and finally starting to overcome drinking.  It's good that she experienced happiness again before her death, she was too young to have so much pain in her life.  I don't care what anyone says about her addiction, she was an amazing and talented artist.

This was my ringtone forever!


This is one of my favorite embroideries ever, it's such a beautiful likeness of her.  It's completely hand-stitched by Totally Severe.  You can see more of her work here.  Check it out, she's one of the best!

One of my billions of etsy favorites.

Found here.

Sadly, she joins a long line of musicians that died young.  She's probably on stage, knocking the socks off of everyone in Club 27 as I type this.  Hopefully there she can find some peace.  RIP, love.  You will be sorely missed.

Caturday!

We don't have babies, so I pretend with my kitties.  Too bad I can't dress them up.

He loves being held this way, none of the other kitties will go for it.  Not even Chunky who used to be my biggest cuddle bug!  Oh well, one cuddly one is good enough, I guess.  I'm realizing poor Natasha doesn't get on here often enough, I'll have to change that.  It's not that she isn't cute enough, she certainly is.  She's just a bit anti-social so getting the chance to snap a good shot it rare.  She runs off most of the time.

Snapshot Friday!

Mmmmmmmm, felt.  What more can I say?!

(Well actually, it's Eco-Felt, made from recycled plastic bottles.  Pretty and recycled- Yay for green crafters!)

I'm a Bookworm- Part 2

I realized as I looked at my Happy Hoopy Wall that I never showed you guys what I got in the Phat Quarter Book Themed Swap.  I'm terrible! 

I got this little lovely from Salvaged Mutiny.  She's a talented stitcher who makes costumes while traveling the world on a giant cruise ship.  Find her on flickr or check out her blog!

Check out all the detail in the trees!   Isn't that awesome?  I love fairy tales, especially the dark ones, so this was right up my alley.  I'm certainly a lucky gal.

Well, that's all I've got for tonight.  I'm off to bed so I can get up bright and early for the morning shift at my work.  See you tomorrow for Snapshot Friday!  Sweet dreams, kids.

M-O-M

That title stands for "Man, oh man!"  As in man, oh man, I have to stop writing, "See you tomorrow!" I just look like a flake.  I've been crazy busy with my paper dolls project over the last few days.  I kind of gave up on it yesterday though.  I had washed and pressed it, then threw on a few more beads after tinting.  It was looking great, except for the hoop marks.  I don't know why they won't come out, I've never had a problem before.  Anyway, I decided to submit something else and I'm walking away from it for a while.

Or that title can count for this piece.  You decide.  I stitched this piece a while ago using a Sew Lovely Embroidery pattern, from their Mad Ink set.   

 I used one of those faux wood hoops that everyone loves so much.  This was my first time using one, so I can't really form an opinion just yet.  It's most likely just me, but I had a little bit of trouble with it.  Probably because I didn't stitch the piece it, I transferred it into there.  Let's just say, I need more practice with them.

It's stitched on a vintage bed sheet, the same one that I'm using for the paper dolls project.  I haven't experimented with it too much, but I'm starting to dig stitching on patterned fabric.

Alright lovelies, I'm off to work.  I have no desire to go today.  I'm sore as heck, but I'm going to suck it up.  I'm taking a small project to work on during my break, then back to the big stuff when I get back home.  I'll check in later tonight, this time I'm for reals.  If I don't, I fear I'll never catch up.  Later, have a craftastic day!

Caturday!

Ok, I guess it's not technically Caturday anymore, it's Sunday.  However, I haven't gone to sleep yet, so in my book it's still Caturday!  This being noted, I hope this is the last thing I do on this fine Caturday. It hasn't been going all that well since I came home.

He certainly looks happy though, doesn't he?  My baby Chunk loves his bags.  Whether he's in them or on them, he's content.  And a happy baby is something to be happy about.  Cutie McBiggins, that's who he is!

Be back tomorrow with more of the stitchy projects I've done lately.  There are a lot that I haven't shared here.  Sleep tight, Lovebugs!

Weekend Update!

I wanted to share a bit more of the project that I'm working on at the moment.  It's pretty big, so I hope that I can get it all done in time.  Anyway, here's more!  Not necessarily the best shots, but better than the blurry teaser, that's for sure.  They're "paper dolls" can you tell?

I've gotten a considerable more amount done since these were take, but there's a lot to do.  I'm a bit worried about the hoop marks.  I've never had problems with them in the past, but they seem obvious and dark on this fabric.  It's strange really.  I'm going to wash the whole thing in Woolite when I'm done, but if that doesn't work them the whole thing is toast.  Wish me luck!

Be back later tonight with Caturday!

Snapshot Friday!

In one way or another, I tend to leave my mark everywhere I go.  Today's photo is an example of that.  These were a few of things that my honey found while cleaning out his car a few weeks ago.

What can I say? I like to be prepared at all times.  Actually I know at least two of those needles probably came from noticing them in my pant leg while we were driving around.  I have taken them and stowed them away in the little cubby under the handle in the door.  I'm like a squirrel, I also hide ponytail holders and lip balm there.  Although, this time of year is really not good for the lip balm.  Summer here means opening your tin of Burt's Bees to find the contents have shifted drastically, like the stuff in overhead bins.  

Ok, now I'm off on a tangent.  Blabbering really.  I'm suspecting it has something to do with not wanting to get back to cleaning the kitchen.  Oh well, I have to because I can't stitch until it's done.  See you later, with an update on my current piece!

Words on Wednesday!

See you tomorrow?  Wow, I was feeling ambitious when I wrote that, considering it was a holiday weekend.  I should have known that I would be more focused on stuffing my face with delicious grilled food and maintaining a frosty beverage at all times.  Although the "off to pet someone" part was pretty accurate.  Our babies got a ton of attention this weekend since it was both of us at home.

Last week I missed "Words on Wednesday" because apparently I can't keep track of time and realized too late that it was actually Thursday when I wrote it.  Oh well, turns out for the better anyways.  Looking back at it, it's a bit grumpy and depressing, reflecting my mood at the time.  Trashed it.  This week it'll be happy!

Today's words are, "Officially Licensed!"  I received my signed contract back and I am now officially licensed by Sublime Stitching!  Yay!  

It's crazy to think that years ago a little ol' ad for Jenny's patterns in the back of a Juxtapoz magazine got me started on this crazy embroidery journey.  Now I'm licensed by her company to sell items made from those patterns!  It's really mind blowing to me.  I never would have thought that a little curiosity about a new hobby would turn into so much, it's practically my life now.  I've learned so much and met amazing people, all thanks to embroidery.  It's nuts!

I'm happy that I can share this news with you, it's very exciting for me.  Now that that's done, I'm off to get in a little stitching before work.  Then I'll be back at it when I get home, I've got to get this thing finished by this time next week!  I'll share another picture soon.  I know that last one was horribly vague.  Bye for now!

Caturday!

Out of all the cats, Boris is the neediest.  He demands attention and will not take no for an answer.  When he decides he wants cuddles, you'd just better stop and oblige him.  You're not going to get anything done until you do.  Several times a day, he'll walk up to you and nuzzle until he's asleep in your lap or you pick him up.

This is his favorite way to be held if you're standing.  (Yeah, they're really picky around here.)  Dead weight....prepared to dig his claws into your shoulder the second you attempt to put him down.  Obviously our pet's need to come with instruction manuals if anyone from the outside ever plans on interacting with them.  Until we get those written we'll just have to continue to cater to their every whim.

Off to pet someone, I'm sure.  See you tomorrow!

Snapshot Friday!

There's something wrong.  Maybe I'm in some sort of alternate universe or I'm coming down with an illness.  I'm not myself today.

This evening I left a craft store empty-handed....on payday!  And I also picked this beverage on our trip to the grocery store.  I don't know what's going on, but I'm not sure that I like it.  I'm going to have a shot of whiskey and watch some violent mobster or zombie movies in the hopes of finding the old me.  I stitched all afternoon so my wrist is killing me, time for a break.  Nighty-nite, folks!  See you tomorrow for Caturday!  Meow!

Sneaky Peaky

How are you on this fine Friday?  Happy Canada Day to the readers in the North!  I'm home today and furiously digging into my to-do list.

As promised, a little teaser from the the project I'm working on right now.  It had to wait until today for a new picture, bad lighting last night when I came home from work.  Plus, the ones I already had were much too obvious.  I wanted an ambiguous shot.  So nice of me, huh?

Curious?  More to come soon, it's going pretty quick.  Probably because I'm really excited about it.  I have lots of smaller pieces planned around this concept.  While it's a very specific theme it still leaves room to experiment quite a bit.  That's probably my favorite thing about embroidery there is so much freedom to create different effects.  Ok, could I be any more cryptic with this description?!  You just have to see it to understand, I guess.

I'll be back later with "Snapshot Friday!" bet you thought this was it, huh?  Nope, just a sneak peak.  In the meantime, I'm off to blast records, stitch, clean my house (ugh!) and start a new art journal.  This one will be just for Sam, it's a swap long in the works.  A page a day for a whole month! I can't wait to see what Sam make's me, I love her style.  Anyway, see you again soon.

Snotty.

Howdy, folks!  What have you been up to this past week?  I've been a stitching fool, but that's not really out of the ordinary for me.  All current projects are put on hold pending the completion of a super secret wall hanging I'm working on.  Nothing like deadlines to motivate, right?  Sneaky peek later tonight. 

Oh, speaking of motivation.  There's nothing like being called fat by two different people, on two different occasions in one week to motivate you to get back in shape.  No?  Oh, I'm sure that's what they thought they were doing when they said such random things.  And I should mention they were two complete strangers!  I wouldn't mind so much if it was someone I knew,  I mean, it's sort of true. But geez, a stranger?  Jerkfaces.

Anyway, it got me to thinking, I haven't always been fat.  Well, I was really skinny and then really fat, then skinny again.  You can see where this is going, think Oprah. So out came the photos.  It was either that or a snack to make myself feel better.  And since my pity party was started after being called a fatty, I just thought the irony of that would have been too much.

I saw this one and thought, hey- that looks really familiar.  Which led to more photo searching.  Apparently, I've been perfecting this look for many years.

So, while I haven't always been big, I've always been snotty.  This proves it.  I found this coincidence to be hilarious.  Laughing, I quickly gave up on being upset about what totally rude strangers think about me.  Eff 'em.  Right, Dude?  I'm smiling now just thinking about the whole ridiculous situation.  I'd rather be a jolly fat person than a skinny (insert pejorative term here)  However, that being said, I do reserve the right to express my snotty side occasionally...preferably for photographs.  Thank you and good day, sir.