Balls + Cross Stitch = Romance

It happened by accident. Seriously. I mean, not the first one... but the second one, that was a surprise. But I guess it makes sense that ball-related stitches would come in pairs.

The first one is pretty self-explanatory, I think. It just makes sense:

Then I saw the youtube video for the new Flight of the Conchords song SugaLumps and I had to make something from it. When I heard the line "All the ladies, they hustle to ruffle my truffle" I knew I had a winner. Mostly because "Honies try all kinds of tomfoolery to steal a feel of my family jewelry" was WAY too long.


I didn't realize this before, but apparently balls are quite romantic. Some lucky lady is getting the first stitch for Valentine's Day. Other fun Valentine's sales from my etsy shop: the masturbation blackwork sold within an hour of being listed. The First of May sampler sold as well. Sometimes I'm kind of sad to see them go, but if it means that I'm going to help someone express themselves to their partner, it's worth it. It's a public service. It's my way of helping people say, "Hey. You and I both know I'm really dorky, incredibly weird, and also perverted. Thanks for sleeping with me anyway."

Happy Valentine's Day! Also, if you didn't already know it, you can catch me posting over at MrXStitch's site now, too. Come and check it out, won't you? Thank you!

You can almost smell the beer

My husband Jim and I have very different tastes when it comes to music. Jim loves Gackt, Muse, X-Japan and Malice Mizer. I love Richard Cheese, They Might Be Giants, Ben Folds and the Violent Femmes. One thing we agree on is Pat McCurdy, a local guy who sings at bars and festivals in Illinois and Wisconsin. He's playing somewhere almost every night.

I did a couple of stitches recently inspired by two of our favorite songs. The first one, I Like You Best, starts off sweet and then changes midstream. It goes from "Let's sit beneath a shady tree and read romantic poetry" to "I promise not to break your heart, I'll wheel you home in a shopping cart." I kind of made this one to even out a really mushy stitch I made for Jim recently. Depending on his mood he can decide which one to display on his desk. :)

The second one has been on my mind for awhile. I always thought it would make a great subversive stitch, but I wasn't sure how I wanted it to look. It's based on my absolute favorite song by Pat, I Like Everything. I really wanted to try doing some more blackwork, so I thought this would be a good chance to do it.

I'm happy with how it turned out, but my Catholic schoolgirl childhood has made this stitch the most embarrassing of all my creations. Well, next to this one.

Selfish Stitching - I thought

I had two gigantic weeks off over Christmas and New Years, and it was awesome. I got my Omaha fix the week of Christmas, thank goodness, and then the next week there was absolutely NOTHING on our schedule. I've been working incredibly hard this year, and when the time came to relax...

I decided I wanted to stitch my ass off.

I would stitch whatever came into my head first without any concern about whether or not anyone else would find it amusing. I was thinking of it as Selfish Stitching - stuff only I would get a kick out of.

I started with a quote from You Look Nice Today - not a surprise, it's my favorite podcast and obsession of the moment. Hubby Jim and I listened to several episodes while driving through Iowa, including the episodes guest starring Jonathan Coulton and John Hodgman.

*nerdgasm*

Ahem.

Anyway, the quote comes from the end of each episode when Scott Simpson read a plug for Hodgman's new book, More Information Than You Require:

"Go buy a copy. Ostentatiously read it in front of your friends and co-workers. "What's that?" they'll ask. "Nothing. Nothing _you'd_ be interested in," you'll say. Then show them the dog poop you have in your other hand. "This is probably something _you'd_ be interested in. You look more like a dog poop person to me."



Then, I did a REALLY selfish stitch, this one from my own podcast - Emergency Pants. My co-host Shane asked this question:



There was a funny story after that, but this question is what I remember the most.

Last but not least is a quote from the Stars and Tartan podcast. I only recently started listening to it, but I LOVE IT. It's no wonder, considering that in episode 4 Derek called a mean neighbor this name:



It was a fun week. And when it was all said and done, the stitching wasn't selfish after all - lots of people seemed to find some amusement in them. Maybe I should just stitch whatever comes into my head more often.

Big Boys

Oh yeah, my blog. Where I should post stuff 'n junk. ^_^

I finished a couple of large projects, so what the heck - wanna see?

The first one is old news, both the stitch and the subject. I'm not rubbing it in or anything, it's my Mom's Christmas present.



The pattern for this is available at Subversive Cross Stitch and I highly recommend it.

I also put some recent ebay goodies to good use. I bought some sampler pattern books from the 70's and 80's, kept what I liked, tossed what I didn't, threw in a Jonathan Coulton song and this came out:



If you haven't heard the song First of May, check it out at JoCo's site. You can listen to it for free on his Downloads page.

I think my fingers need some time to recover. Maybe I'll take a break... We'll see how long that lasts. :)

Homesick

I have a confession to make. I really, really, REALLY miss Omaha, Nebraska. One would think that the Chicago area would provide enough distractions that I would forget about Omaha and move on with my life, but not living there has created a hole in my soul that I've never figured out how to patch up.

I've been picking at the scab recently by joining this flickr group. Pictures by waitingline and BoomerangThang specifically have been particularly wonderful and heartwrenching. While you're there, check out BoomerangThang's super cool retro house and photos from a zombie walk in Benson. I'll be at my desk, daydreaming about Homer's Records and Tapes and the Bemis Center for the Arts. Oh, and LaCasa's pizza. YUM.

Small Stuff

Since I've started making my own patterns, my projects have been getting a little too big for their britches. I love dramatic fonts, but that means hours and hours of stitching - so I decided to give myself a break and do a couple of cuties this week.

Inspired by the show Firefly:



and this is just an old chestnut that I heard most recently on You Look Nice Today, but they used to use this line on Mystery Science Theater 3000 A LOT. It never failed to make me laugh:



I'm about to start working on the Obama pattern from Subversive Cross Stitch for my Mom's Christmas present. Anyone who heard the story of the Obama sign in episode 16 of Emergency Pants knows she'll love it! I'm also still working on a portrait that beelisty put together for me, and I have some plans for some modified samplers in my future. My fingers are gonna HURT.

Secure (to do my thing) Area

I work in a profession that asks for friendliness without actual friendship. You need to be personable without actually ever knowing anyone personally. Recruiting means one day you might be offering someone a job and three weeks later you might looking to replace them again, so a certain amount of professional distance is needed just to stay sane.

Also, I'm pretty sure Human Resources is the only corporate profession whose trade magazines have articles on what to do when someone takes over your office with an automatic weapon.

Due to these factors, I leave about 90% of my personality at home when I go to work - where I swipe my badge 3 times before I get to my desk. I feign interest in American Idol and local sports franchises. My freak flag is securely stowed throughout the day.

So when I heard Josh Weinstein, while being manhandled by guards, say: "Ok, ok... the sign said "secure area" - I thought it meant secure to do my _thing._" in the Wasp Woman DVD from Cinematic Titanic, it really struck a chord with me.

This may not make much sense, but then I rarely do. :)