A Parade of Creatures

Recently I've been exploring a new craft; embroidery. I've always kind of thought of this as an old lady craft until I picked up a book called "Doodle-Stitching" which made it look very fun and cute. Sooooo . . . . I went out and bought my first embroidery hoop ( a cheap wooden one) and then soon went out and bought my second embroidery hoop(a much better, plastic one) and began stitching away. So far I only know how to do one real stitch but it seems to be working for my current purposes.

I've been working my way back and forth through my encyclopedia of animals trying to capture the ones that are both embroidery friendly and cute. My first attempts were an owl, a fox, and a narwhal. Yes, I said it, a narwhal. I'm going to reveal my stupidity here, but until about a year ago I thought narwhals were mythological creatures akin to a unicorn or a hobbit, but they're real. This fact blew my mind. It would seriously be like if someone told you that of course unicorns are real, haven't you ever watched the Discovery Channel?! I just had to try my hand at creating one of these guys and embroidering him on a pillow seemed the most practical way.

We're also preparing for an upcoming tour of our band, Captain #1. We'll be traveling up the East Coast and then toward Michigan where my sister lives. Tim's an old hand at this tramping around the country thing, while I'm relatively new to it. I am looking forward to seeing new places.

Well, that's all for now. I'm going back to eating popcorn and watching bad TV.

The Long Wait Part 2

So, you don't have to tell me that it's been a ridiculously long time since I updated my blog, though some of you already have. The good news is that when I wait this long I usually have more to say and more pictures to show you. I'll start with the more recent . . .

This past Sunday we awoke (in the early afternoon) to find gobs of snow on the ground and still more spilling from the sky. A week earlier we were in Detroit for my lovely sister's birthday and saw snow there, but any snow at all is a rare sight in Georgia and this was a positive blanket. Being from the Midwest (El Kansas, to be precise) I've seen my share of snow, but Tim (the bf) and basically everyone I know down here is from the South. Tim didn't get to see snow until he was 17! He just kept walking around saying, "This is blowing my mind!" To the left you'll see the slightly retarded but endearingly lovable snowman we made.

All in all, I'd say we got about a foot of snow. In the north this wouldn't be such a great big deal and people would pretty much go about their normal lives. But this is the South, meaning two things: 1) No snow plows or salt trucks, and 2) No one realizes the importance of cutting down dead trees. We were most effected by the latter, as our street became strewn with fallen limbs, and one especially monstrous tree that fell across the entire road and took out the electricity on our block. We survived by candlelight for about 36 hours until about midnight on the second day, when I had just finished a candlelit shower (luckily our hot water heater is gas) and flipped the wall switch out of habit, only to find that our electricity had miraculously been restored. I definitely don't think I could have survived before the late 1800s without complaining a lot.

Though the snow was a bit inconvenient, I think overall it was a nice change from the routine.

In other news, I have been a total bum about my Etsy shop which I guess isn't really news so much as lack of news. I have all these new ideas for really cute pillows with some embroidery, but I can't get myself motivated. So, I've decided that today is the day. I finally posted my first new item in a while. It's a cute lacy little scarf. I love this goldish mustard color a lot. I think because it looks kind of vintage. Also, it makes me want to wear shirts with poofy sleeves. Don't ask me why. This me trying to look all fashion-y and stuff. That's not what I really look like though.

Tomorrow we'll be heading down to Florida for the Harvest of Hope Music Festival. We'll only be spectating, not participating so hopefully it will be a stress-free weekend with some good music. We'll also be camping which is always both fun and irritating. Like I said, I like modern conveniences. I like to think I can be a little rough and tumble when I need to be though.

Thanks to anyone who has been willing to wait for months to read a new blog post. I hope you weren't holding your breath.


This is our cat Rilke, looking positively pissed that we've decided to let here experience snow.