Selfie Napkin - WIP 2

The beach was good, guys. I got no embroidery done, and very little reading, but that's okay. 

My goal for this year was to actually fill the serious gaps in my wardrobe at the trove of great thrift stores there (thanks military families!). It's been four years since I've had more than one pair of pants that fit well (and usually a second pair that fit enough to wear but not well). I also have a need to look more like an adult, both for doctors and gaining their respect and so maybe people will stop thinking I'm 18 (I'm almost 29).

So. I bought 7 pairs of pants, 5 skirts, and 13 shirts all for $60 which comes out to $2.40 per piece, which I think I can live with. I'm glad I saved up some money and really made myself do it. All of them are office-dressy things, so that's good. The only shirts I owned were Threadless t-shirts, barring three things two of which were too worn to look very nice.

I also brought books from home to a couple used bookstores and got more than I expected in credit (though gave them some very nice things, including a brand new audiobook from a very popular series). The best part - I got almost all the books for free initially, through the early reviewer program and stuff that was withdrawn from the last library my dad was at! So in the end I only spent $2 of actual money on books.

At least I got the third sketch on the napkin done at the beach, and stitched when we got home. I was always hurting so much at the beach that doing anything other than watching TV was hard. However, we discovered the show Rehab Addict, which is awesome. No massive pieces of linen in the thrift stores this time, but we can't have everything.

Frida - stage one complete

I started on Frida such a long time ago, in 2011, I think. I'd barely done any embroidery, especially not free embroidery. I used the figure shape in a painting and transferred the outline onto my fabric. Then I just drew in the vines freehand, though rather incomplete. 

Planning has never been my strong suit. This is by way of saying, there are so many things I would change about this piece. It is so imperfect and frustrating because of that, even if there's only myself to blame. 

There is a need to finish her, though, and I hope I will. The original plan had been to send her to a friend from high school, as a wedding present, though I also made a quilt block for her wedding quilt. She's an extreme Frida fan, or was. We haven't been in touch for a long time. I couldn't bear to have this on my walls. While I love the piece, the reminder of the friendship and the staring face of imperfection would bother me too much.

Maybe I'll send her off anyone. This friend, she wouldn't think it was too odd, I don't imagine, and I don't think she'd feel guilt over it, or like she owed anything. She was always easy-going and accepting where I was controlled and over analytical.