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.