Blackwork & A Dark Mark

Boy, that title sounds rather grim, no? Lol, I crack me up sometimes. Nothing like a good play on words. But this post isn't dark, I promise.

Remember a while back when I mentioned a trip to the Renaissance Faire for Mom's birthday? Yes, yes. Good times all around. This year I decided to take some embroidery along for the day. I didn't want to take just any project though (I was working on the Halloween Pin Up Girl at the time), I wanted to take something that would be accurate to the time period in case the queen happened to peek over my shoulder... as if!

I've wanted to try blackwork for some time, it's gorgeous, and nobody does it better than the always inspiring, Beefranck, and this was the perfect opportunity. I found a simple pattern online, got it on the hoop and packed up a small embroidery kit to take along. I worked on my little piece through out the day. I thoroughly enjoyed stitching in one of my favorite atmospheres whilst laughing with mom (hello, Taming Of The Shrew), and knocking back a good strong cider. Huzzah!

Mom did catch a few snapshots of me stitching at the faire, but after viewing them on the computer screen, which is a whole lot bigger & clearer than the screen on my camera... I vetoed them. Too much boobage, ahem... cleavage, ahem...decolletage. Hey, those corsets are tight! So, sorry -- no pictures from that day. But I can share the outcome of my first experiment with blackwork!

Not too shabby! I love the simple, yet striking graphics of this type of embroidery.

At another Ren Faire, a few weeks later, I met a woman who was working on her own piece, it was also blackwork. She referred me to a couple of books to get me started, and I wasted no time seeking them out on Amazon. Lookie~lookie!

I'm really looking forward to digging into these books, I think I will after the Christmas making/stitching/sewing rush is over. Now... I just have to learn that double running stitch so this stuff looks good from both sides.

And in other news...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!!!

Have you seen it already?

Whad'ya think? Whad'ya think??

I loved it, major big time!! I got to tag along with Jill and her friend last weekend when they surprised me and popped in to a craft fair I was working at. Yay, suprise visits!!

You guys know that I'm a completely unabashed Harry Potter fan, right? Jill is too, thank goodness (She named her dog Hagrid, isn't that great?!?) but I think I might have scared her friend. My Potter love/knowledge/obsession runs deep. It may be too much for some people... I get that.

Hello, my name is Lisa and I'm a Potter-head. Hehe, there ought to be a 12 step program.

Anyway... my niece Alex is a Potter-head too, and in my attempt to hand-make all my Christmas gifts again this year, she is getting what will hopefully be, some pretty awesome Potter related stitchery! Since she doesn't read this blog, I can share a peek at what I'm making for her.

(sorry for the poor picture quality, these all came from my phone...)

For those of you who don't know, this is a Dark Mark, you can read more here if you're so inclined. Basically, it's a sign of the baddies in the books/films. Alex doesn't necessarily like the baddies, but she's in the US Army, so I'm not exactly going to stitch her up some cute little Pygmy Puffs to hang on her wall. She'd get laughed out of the barracks. This is much more suited to life in the armed forces, wouldn't you say? Hooah!

I love this pattern, I bought it from Kristy Kizzee's Etsy store, Bombastitch. I've only been able to work on this about three times for a couple hours each (I'm slow and not very good at counted cross stitch, in fact it makes me cross eyed and a little insane, so I have to stitch this in small doses). I've missed a few stitches already, but I don't think it'll be too noticeable overall. The cool part about this piece, which doesn't stand out just yet, is that the floss I'm using to stitch the Dark Mark is glow-in-the-dark!! I can't wait to see it finished & glowing in its frame! Alex is going to bug out! I'm going to bug out and not going to want to give this away... I do that a lot.

Ok, well before you bug out, I better wrap this post up, it's getting a little long in the tooth. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend! Tomorrow it's back to work! Boo!

 oxo,

Lisa

p.s. There's still a week left until the Fabulous Mystery Giveaway! Don't forget to pop over and leave a comment on this post for a chance to win some really coooool stuff!

Abundant Thanksgiving Wishes

Thank you all so much for your comments on the Fabulous Mystery Giveaway, I've loved reading what it is you all love about the most beautiful season of the year! Great minds think alike, we love many of the same things! I'm excited about the giveaway, I've got good things planned, good things!! And WELCOME to the 7 new friends who've joined in!! I'm so glad you're here.

Tomorrow is the very best day of Autumn, Thanksgiving! Do you all have big plans? Are you up late this evening preparing the big meal? I love Thanksgiving dinner, I look forward to it all year. Want to know my very most favorite thing?? Coffee & pumpkin pie with cool whip for breakfast!! Yeehaw!! And I don't even feel guilty about it... not on T-Day!

I'm sorry that I've been such a boring blogger the last two weeks, as always it's been busy around these parts. Seems like it's been baby season in my neck o' the woods, too. There have been FOUR babies born to my friends and family, just in November! So exciting to meet these new little ones. So much to be thankful for.

♥ ♥ ♥

I'm sending a big bear hug to each and every one of you for a happy, healthy, abundant and joyful Thanksgiving.

Gobble~gobble!

Lisa

p.s. There's still loads of time to enter for a chance at the Fabulous Mystery Giveaway, if you haven't already, pop over and leave a comment here.

p.p.s. Thank you Graphics Fairy!

Fabulous Mystery Giveaway!

It's time for a super fabulous mystery giveaway!

Why? Because YOU'RE rad! Yes, you!!

Since starting this little blog-o-mine, I've met some of the sweetest, most creative and generous people on the planet. Some of us met here, some on Swap-bot and some on Flickr. And I want you to know, I think you all rock! Some of us have become friends, and I treasure that. Having friends who share a passion for creating and who are so encouraging is priceless! I've loved sharing my little creative bits with you guys and your comments and advice are so appreciated and always make me smile. Each and every one is a gift.

Having reached 100 (woo! 104!!!) new friends (not followers, that's just weird) I think it's time to thank you guys, to celebrate and to gift a little something back, ooooh yeah!

(This is one of my favorite ME prints, not actually part of the giveaway, just pretty to look at)

Let's see... (thoughtfully tapping chin) me thinks this giveaway will consist of several goodies!

♥ Something stitchy, naturally. ♥

♥ Something tea-lightful, of course. ♥

♥ Something tasty, yum-yum! ♥

And whatever else strikes my fancy! I promise, you will not be disappointed!



What, no pictures you ask? Well then it wouldn't be a mystery, silly!

Since I'm easy-peasy, no fuss, no muss kinda gal, I'm going to keep this simple. All you need to do to enter is to leave a comment on this post. If you want, you can tell me what your favorite thing about fall is (just cuz that's my favorite season, and because I'm a nosy little bugger).

And hey, if you're new here it's cool, welcome aboard!! Please feel free to join in the fun! Jump right in and leave me a comment, I love new friends! If you want to click that little button over there and follow along, that's cool too. I do my best to try to keep things interesting around here!

I'm going to leave this giveaway open til December 5th, then I'll draw a name out of my great big Jadeite bowl and announce the winner here on the blog. Lots of time to tell your friends and neighbors and maybe even your own followers if you'd like, the more the merrier!

I'm really excited about this you guys, let the comments begin!!

oxo,

Lisa

p.s. Jill, I totally borrowed the name "Fabulous Mystery Giveaway" from you. That was just too cute, and I couldn't help myself. oxo!

**EDIT ~~ COMMENTING IS NOW CLOSED FOR THIS GIVEAWAY ~~ THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR WONDERFUL COMMENTS! THE WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED SOON.**

Witching You A Happy Halloween

Greetings Ghoulfriends~

Are you all ready for little trick or treaters? Only one more day til the hordes ascend your doorstep!

I have a little seasonal witchery-stitchery to share with you today! This is the very last of my Swap-bot swaps for the season. As much as I love them, I gots to get to work on "C" gifts... I can't bring myself to say the word just yet, but y'all know what I mean...

Do you guys remember the Pin Up Swap I did a while back? (refresher link here) That was a good bit of fun, so when I saw that Snifferooski was hosting a Round 2, I signed up straight away. Seeing as how the send to date was coming close to Halloween, I knew immediately that I wanted to do a witch. A sexy, pin up witch, meow!

I loved seeing all the pin up girls that were swapped during the first round, and there was one that I was especially smitten with. It was given to Katy at Sew Lovely Embroidery and it was made by Carrie, who makes LOTS of cute stuff, and is one heck of an embroideress! You can see her Flickr Photostream here, and her blog here. I mean seriously, look at the detail! It's amazing! Very inspiring indeed, so I set off looking for the perfect witch to stitch!

As luck would have it... guess who my "send to" partner was for this swap? That's right, Carrie!! Ack, the pressure was on! This had to be good, after all, it was her piece that inspired mine - in a round about way.

My witch had to have stockings, not the orange & black striped kind (which are remarkable similar to those on my feet right this very instant), she needed some va-va-va-voom stockings!

Let's get to it, shall we?

Firstly, I gave her some seriously hot shoes, then I added the stockings. I used sheer ribbon.

Stitched down, then carefully snipped away with very sharp, very pointy scissors.

Next, I did the broom.

I padded the broom with a lot of different length stitches to get it to look like a real straw broom.

Moving on to her dress...

I cut the dress shape from velvet ribbon and stitched down. I love the result, but I'd use a different fabric next time. Velvet sheds so much once it's cut into that it almost melts away at the edges. It had me nervous, the piece of ribbon that comprised the dress was so small it wouldn't have taken much for it to shed enough around the edges to loose its shape.

Then I started her hair

I used two colors of brown, a light and a dark. I started with the light, the "highlights", then filled in all over the place with tiny stem stitches, two strands of floss.

Seems to me that I remember the hair taking a looong time.

Lastly I stitched on her hat and the bright swath of orange under the brim of that pointy hat. And lastly, I stitched her face.

Oy-vey, that face! Sure it looks nice now. What you don't see is the 3 or 4 times I snipped it out, blotted the water pen off of the fabric, let it dry, then tried again. These two little eyes, a nose and lips took an entire evening... ugh. Faces aren't my strong suit.

Almost ready to ship!  But first, I needed to finish the back.

I stitched my name, and the year on the back of some left over black fabric.

After carefully removing the extra fabric from the hoop (with an Exacto knife), I hot glued orange ribbon down over the back of the hoop.

I added some ribbon to hang the piece from, and viola!

She's ready to fly away to her new home in Oregon.

Carrie sent me a very sweet email when she received it. Apparently her boss thought it ought to become an "office" decoration, even had the perfect spot to hang her so "everyone could enjoy it" but Carrie is fast on her feet, and she snatched this little witch up and took her home... good for you, Carrie!! I would have too!

Carrie was also, very sweet and patient about getting her piece. I'm embarrassed to say that I was shockingly late on getting this piece in the mail... like almost 3 weeks late. (Eee-gads, talk about scary!)

So there you are my friends, a sexy, Pin Up, witchy-pooh!

Have you guys done any Halloween or fall sewing or embroidery? This is the time that weather cools down and I feel more like sitting down and stitching... good times!

Wishing you all 

A VERY HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

oxo,

Lisa

Groovy, Mama!

Hi Again! I know what you're thinking, she just posted yesterday, and yet here she is again today!

 I know, right?!? It's crazy.

Having this new laptop to zip around the Internet is quite inspriring. It reminds me of that Mazda commercial... "Zoom, zoom, zoom!"

So yeah, back in September I had a little something-something in the works for my mom's birthday which was in early October, just about the same time as the "great computer crash of 2010".

Want to see? Ok!

Hmm, what could this little package hold?

Bunting! Tye-dye bunting!!

Because, you know, every mom needs 12 feet of tye-dye bunting.
It's a fact. Ask your mom.

(Uh-oh... my garden doesn't look so nice in this picture. Look away, look away!)

My mom likes to camp, a lot. And when she does, she likes to hang bright tapestries in and around her campsite. It's really cool & groovy looking. I love it, especially when I pull into the campground after she's all set up, it's really easy to find her campsite. I made this bunting for her to use for whatever she likes, but I think it would look especially cool hanging in the woods.

I stitched up this wee little tag and sewed it to the backside one of the flags.

Oooh, swirly colors!

Mom really loved her bunting, I think she got a big kick out of it.

On her actual birthday she and I went to the Northern California Renaissance Faire, huzzah!

Happy birthday, beautiful, groovy Mama! I love you!

Hope you had as much fun as I did.

It's good to be back in Bloglandia, thank you all SO VERY MUCH for all your "welcome backs", you guys are the best! It's been great visiting you guys again (at warp speed). Looks like you've all been pretty busy too!

Holy moly, look at that! Perla makes 100!!

Hi Perla, welcome to the blog!

That's it! I'm having a giveaway!

More deets soon, pinky swear!

oxo,

Lisa

Back In Business!!

Well hello there girlie-whirlies!! Guess who has her fancy~schmancy new laptop up and running???

THIS GIRL RIGHT HERE!!

Yeah, that's right... me!!

Oooo~da~lolly! This is neat! As I sit here on the sofa watching the evening news I'm chatting with you all in Bloglandia, this is so cool! Gosh, too bad it took my computer blowing up to realize that the 21st century is as comfy as my big red couch.

I've been a busy bee these last few weeks while I've been out bloggy commission and I have lots to share with you guys, now I just need to get all the photos off of my camera and on to the computer...

And whoa! Would you look at that? My little blog has almost 100 followers! {although I really prefer to think of you guys as friends, followers just sounds weird to me} How'd that happen? I think this calls for some sort of celebration, whad'ya think? I'm thinking giveaway and I'm thinking some sort of stitchy goodie and a nice cuppa tea!! Hmm... I'll have to put my thinking cap on and see what I can come up with. Details will follow soon, so make sure you come on back and see what I dream up!

Muahahahaha!

Ok! (cracking knuckles) It's time for some blog surfing... I'm coming to visit and catch up with you guys! Ready or not, here I come!

oxo,

Lisa

Soon!

Oh boy, oh boy!! My new laptop computer arrived yesterday. My friend, who is also the IT guy at my office, has it in his safekeeping for the weekend to get it all set up for me. My fingers are crossed that it'll be ready on Monday! I was so excited when he brought it in to show me that I actually "squeeeed" and was bouncing in my chair & clapping my hands like a kid! It's so shiney you guys!! Isn't it purty?!?

I can't wait til I have it here at home and I can spend some time getting caught up on all your blogs. I feel so outta the loop...

"See" you all real soon!
Lisa

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New Computer & Some Crazy (quilting) Talk!

Howdy-doo Folksies,

Good news, good news! My new computer has been ordered and is on its way!!! I'm so excited, I ordered a laptop and I feel like a grown-up now, woo-hoodily-hoo! I just can't wait! By this time next week I'll be surfing' & bloggin' from the couch, yay!

So since this weird little phone app won't let me add more than one picture per post, I thought I'd share a little sneak of something I've been working on here and there over the past couple if months whenever I have a few extra minutes or am in between projects. Go easy on me gals, this is my first go at crazy quilting. I *think* I'm doing this right...

It's kind of neat now that I'm at the adding embellishments stage, placing little bits of this & that wherever I please is sort of fun. I have no idea where I'm going with this piece, or what I'm going to do with it when it's finished. But I think I'd like to do something *other* than a pillow. What do you guys think?

Hope your all doing well and I can't wait to catch up on all your blogs. Have a great night!

Oxo,
Lisa

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Drats!

You know what's sad? A girl with a dead computer who's having serious blog withdrawals.

My poor, decrepit desk top computer has had its last harrah, I'm afraid. It's been trying to go peacefully, but I've been staunchly fighting for its life for several months. Alas, its time has come... and gone. Thankfully, I have one of these new fangled smart phones (a Droid Incredible) so I have some web access, in fact its how I'm posting this blog, but its just not the same. So, unexpectedly I find myself in the market for a new computer. I think am going to join the 21st century and get a laptop (which I will not lie, is kind of exciting!). I'm debating over the highly recommended Mac Book, or a PC... decisions, decisions...

At any rate, I miss you guys so I just wanted to pop in and say hi, so..."hi!" Hopefully. I'll be back in action soon. In the meantime I'm staying busy as usual and trying new things which I can't wait to chat with you all about!

I hope that you're all doing well and enjoying a beautiful fall! It's still pretty warm here in NorCal, so I'm still waiting for my beloved Autumn.

Oxo,
Lisa

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The Stitching Is Sublime!

It really is, you'll see! Ok, this was the last of my Swap-bot embroidery swaps from August. The theme of this swap was Sublime Stitching. Everybody already knows about Sublime Stitching, right? Right!Looking back, I was cranking out some serious stitchery in August! It's no wonder my garden went to pot, I was inside on the couch stitching away the summer... 

I'm excited to show you this one guys! Turns out the partner chosen for me on this swap, was none other than Snifferoski, aka Keni, (Hi Keni!) who was the first person I swapped with when I joined Swap-bot. I sent her this piece, remember?

Check it out what Keni made for me!
First, there's this hot little dish!

Ack! Isn't she adorable?? I want to call her Trixie for some reason. I love her, she's perfect!

And as if that wasn't enough...

Keni also made me something so super special that I had to sit down when I opened the package.

Oh my. Not only do I love mermaids, which I really, really do.

I love Shel Silverstein.

This was my VERY MOST FAVORITE book as a kid.

When I was in the 4th grade, every day after the lunch recess my teacher, Mrs. Diohep, would read to us for a few minutes. Those precious minutes were my favorite of any day. I think she did it to calm us down and return our focus to the classroom after our playground antics. I don't know if teachers still have the time and/or freedom to do such things. I sure hope so, but it seems like they have such a tight schedules to keep. To me, that time was so valuable. Twenty-seven years later, the clearest memory I have of the 4th grade is listening to Mrs. Diohep read to us. I can still imagine it, I'd put my head down on my desk and close my eyes... and just listen... Where The Sidewalk Ends was one of the books she read to us. She also read us A Light In The Attic (another of my favorites) Tales Of A Fourth Grade Nothing, and Indian In The Cupboard. These are classics, right? Even kids today like these books... don't they? I still do.

I'm getting a little sidetracked again, I do that a lot... sorry about that. I was reminiscing...

If you are a dreamer, come in...

The first line, of the first poem in Where The Sidewalk Ends.

Thank you Keni, this means so much to me!

♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥

The piece I stitched for my partner was also from Sublime Stitching's Krazy Kitchen transfer set. That's the same set where Trixie, up there came from. I made my partner, Amanda who loves vintage kitchen goodies and who loves to cook, a pretty dish towel. I also sent her some cute napkins and a new set of measuring spoons that, while not vintage, kind of had a vintagy feel. I love that Tang orange!

{Sorry for the badly lit picture... it really was a cute dish towel, I promise.}

All righty then kiddos, this just about wraps up my summer swaps! Thanks for all your wonderful and always encouraging comments along the way, and thanks again to my bloggy friend Jacquie for turning me on to Swap-bot, in the first place. This has been a fun thing to do. You never know what surprises you'll end up getting in the mail! It's more fun than bills, I can tell you that much! I'm a little sad to say that this is probably the last Swap-bot swap I'll do for a little while... cuz, you know... "that" time of year is coming. Don't get me wrong, I love "that" time of year, but it requires time when you make all your gifts by hand.

Lots and lots of time. 

Speaking of which, it's already past my bedtime, so this happy blogger is going to hit the hay and dream for a while.

Sweet dreams, my friends!

oxo,

Lisa