You're Standing On My Neck

This is my new project, Daria sprites or 8-bits or whatever they're called. This is a WIP picture, with just the outlining left and the text. 

I've also completed the patterns for the Fashion Club and will be doing Jake and Helen as well. There will be three separate patterns, each with quotes, but sold as a set. I'd like to do Britney, Kevin, Jodie and Mac as well, but I think they'll be much harder to do and I'm quite lazy. Stacy's braids were bad enough!

The quote under the Fashion Club obviously has to be "It's cute, but not too cute."

tribute to Father Ted

Here is my first tribute to the show Father Ted. If you've seen the show it's pretty self-explanatory but you probably know the word anyway. I have a second piece that's been almost done for over a month but got shoved under something so I forgot about it for a bit. That should be up soon.

This piece was also made to show off the font, which I created. This font and the one from the "cat's in the bag" piece are on sale in my Etsy shop as a pattern pack, both are included and come with lowercase and uppercase. Given how little luck I've had in finding blackwork fonts I thought some other people might find these useful too, especially since these are wider and not so pointy.

Today was really tiring, but my teacup collection area has a new shelf up, ripe for expansion and some of my books have been moved around. Things look better and I have more room for new books. meaning I went and purchased a few young adult books I read as a kid that I've wanted for a while. That's something at least - I don't actually buy books unless there is a space on the shelf, but when I do have the space I go for it.

As I kid I read a lot, but I also re-read a lot. There were about 15 books at the library, favorites, that I'd check out and read once a month, every single month. Most of the young adult books I own are the ones we owned when I was a kid, I haven't added many to that collection. But I thought I'd like to add those books that I did read, over and over.

Whenever he gets in a fix...

I am too tired to think of anything much to say. My brain and my body are just frazzled.

In any case, here is the finished Felix the Cat. I should have included his bag of tricks, I guess, but thinking on it now the pattern wouldn't be fun to design and wouldn't be fun to stitch either. C'est la guerre.

The Wonderful Wonderful Cat...

Why yes, I did begin work on my Felix the Cat pattern! I'm proud of this pattern. I loved Felix the Cat cartoons when I was a kid and I still quite enjoy it.

I charted this pattern ages ago but there have been so many things to work on. I am slightly OCD and needlework for me is a godsend. It is involved and perfectionistic and I can either be stitching or coming up with patterns or blathering about them on a blog. Three activities springing from one hobby, it's brilliant.

I thought I'd just take a break from Frida to work on Felix and then ran completely out of black thread. Having just come back from a long car trip (which really destroys me) with a sinus infection (or something quite like it) tagging along, I am knackered. Absolutely knackered. So driving way out to Michael's on a weekend when the area is packed with shoppers is not my idea of fun. I have to go out tomorrow though to pick up the mat for the Roman mosaic which I sold to a friend of mine. That's the last time I stitched something in an odd side, I'll tell you.

In any case, here is my progress on Felix. I suppose I could have gone in and done the white backstitching on the head and hands but my brain didn't realize that. Actually it took some hours to realize I could at least do the red tongue. Stephen Fry told me on his quizish panel game QI that if you block the left nostril your spatial and visual intelligence increases and if you block the right nostril your verbal abilities increase. So given that both nostrils and my entire sinus cavity feels as though someone filled it with caulk I will attribute my slow-mindedness to that.

Thank you Mr. Fry for the brilliant excuse, PS please ask David Mitchell to marry me as I'm quite lovely, enjoy history, and generally think everyone around me has been struck with madness.

Puke-a-tronic!

Sometimes there are odd, often made-up, words that strike you as the best thing ever. Puke-a-tronic (as spoken by Amy in Futurama) is one of mine. There are real words that do that too of course, like pettifoggery. Pettifoggery is one of those words that you never need to know the definition of to understand what it means. I enjoy words like that.

I woke up after having a nightmare about being in an electric wheelchair that wouldn't stop and just kept going faster and faster. I was in a Sam's Club type of store and yelling at the clerks who all just stared at me and ignored me. Then when the batteries died I went and asked one clerk if he'd heard me and he just shrugged that he had but it hadn't seemed important. I was storming off to demand the firing of about seven clerks when I woke up.

Destruction and Sunlight

Today has been unusually productive. I took a shower, did some cleaning, put some stuff in the slow cooker, and did some more cleaning. That doesn't sound like much but for me it's enough to end up with extremely sore legs and it means that tomorrow will have to be much more restful. I have rewarded myself with a nice glass of whiskey (wheat whiskey to be precise, good stuff).

I also finished my Dalek. I think I'm finished anyway. My original pattern included a couple of extra "destroys" in gradually smaller sizes, but I think it's best with just the three lines. All in the all I think the actual Dalek turned out smashingly and is immediately recognizable. It was really difficult making the pattern, especially the circles because of the size and angle changing, so I was worried it wouldn't be recognizable at all. Luckily my critiques are often incorrect.

Also find posted: a picture of my Roman mosaic taken in actual sunlight, proving to all that I am NOT a vampire (you have to pronounce it wahm-pier).

Next I think I'll be working on a quotation piece with different borders above and below it in the fashion of a sampler (similar to my blackwork piece but all cross-stitch). The quote is from the Scottish TV show Still Game and goes as follows: "There's nay disease called 'Moody Bastarditis.' " Hilarious!

Realistically that piece may get put off. I feel a need to return to free embroidery for a while. There's a Frida Kahlo project that I've basically finished the pattern for, and a few other things I'd like to try, as well as experimenting to find the best transfer technique.

Here is a picture of my craft table, which is unusually clean. I don't stitch there though as I can't sit upright for all that long, but it's good for those quick crafts that you really have to sit up for. Plus look how pretty my decoupage job is!

Sometimes I forget that I really only like cream cheese in small amounts, isn't that silly? Also, I am craving some sort of food, but I can't put my finger on what kind. It's maddening.

exterminate, eradicate, destroy!

So what am I up to after my triumphant finishing of the Roman mosaic (for which I shall no doubt soon receive my triumph and lictors)? I thought I'd get as far away from ancient Rome as possible (while simultaneously as close to as possible, if you follow me), and cross-stitch a lovely Dalek from Doctor Who.

Should be finished with him tomorrow, just have some more words to stitch. After running a million errands and thoroughly knackering myself I've been fairly lazy. Do you ever just randomly need to watch some old Simpsons? There are a number of seasons which I can confidently say I've seen almost none of since for many years I had no TV service or was at boarding school where the only TV I watched was Saturday morning WV PBS (all British hilarity).

I'm of an age that The Simpsons is one of those super comforting things. I love That Mitchell and Webb Look and Still Game and Waiting for God, all the lovely British stuff that typically makes me laugh more than the Simpsons does, but I didn't grow up watching it with my whole family. Of course, now I've realized that I laugh at the most random little half-jokes and visual things.

I've long suspected that I may be a bit of a goof, and I'm afraid this only confirms it. The fact that I still crack up at Rocky and Bullwinkle episodes which I know by heart was also a strong indicator.