Stix on the Beach: Tales From The Happiest Hooker!

Winging It

The reason birds can fly and we can't is simply that they have perfect faith,
for to have faith is to have wings.~ J.M. Barrie

I finally made a mistake in my cross-stitching! Hallelujahs, hookahs, hallelujahs! The best way to perfect a craft is to learn from your mistakes! Over the course of about eighteen hours on Wednesday, I thought my brain was warped. While working the bird on the right-hand side, I kept skipping a row. It didn't matter if I started from top or bottom, I would keep missing a particular line of stitches! The hypochondria terror threat raised to orange. So that's when I decided to go rogue and just wing it.

I am actually astonished that I am thrilled with how it looks! I am pretty sure the mistake was with the left-side bird; it looks as though I missed a stitch on the face which threw things off.  And I am totally happy I did! I had wanted the second bird to be slightly different, but wanted the colors to remain consistant. Because I stitched the second face correctly, it has a fuller appearance than the first. Marissa — my daughter — echoed my thought: the birds have a feminine, masculine contrast.

 
I'm quite happy that I already have the confidence in cross-stitching to do something on the fly! This weekend I am going to change course though — and do some crocheting and knitting — and maybe share the new fun blog feature you can join in on!

A Bird's Nest

 

I've been feeling under-the-weather since the weekend. I knew it was bad when I didn't even want to get up to make coffee (I'm sure there are some who would get off their deathbed for a cup). So I have pretty much been in a fog since Friday night.

And that means I haven't cross-stitched since the weekend either! And ohmygod, I miss it so much! I am even dreaming that I am cross-stitching. The good news is, just before I started swinging back shots of cold medicine on Saturday afternoon, I swung by the used bookstore and SCORED!  Picked up eight needle-art books! I haven't felt up to looking through them carefully, so it's going to feel like Christmas morning once I do.

The most ambitious creative endeavor in the past few days has been separating all the loose "leftover" embroidery floss. The mess was beginning to resemble a colorful bird's nest. I need to get in the habit of wrapping unused floss back around the bobbin it came from.  It kind of drives me crazy to not have an impeccable organized embroidery floss case. I prefer organized chaos.

I have mentioned before how I avoid organizing embroidery floss by hue.  Having floss placed together randomly helps to inspire color combinations not only in embroidery, but also for knitting and crochet projects. Seriously, take a look below and see if you don't envision heaps of tricolor granny squares or rows of ripples!

 

Original post: Shut'ter Down

 

Ah! I hope to feel better soon, 'cause I see several perfect combinations for the not-yet-revealed "classic movie" granny square blanket I have planned! I am going to freakin' love this project ― and I think you will too!

Cross Stitch, Crosswalk, and Cross Process

It has been so cool reading the comments here (and elsewhere) from fellow cross-stitchers! I love crocheting and knitting, but cross-stitching has a different vibe. It's almost like working a crossword puzzle ― you gotta figure out how to make the right letters (in this case, only an x!) fit horizontally and vertically. I love it 'cause it is like a crafty brain game.

Right now, I'm just playing around with different motifs and getting to know the ins & outs of cross-stitching, and having so much fun with it! In the photo above, you can see a black thread running down the center ― that's because I am about to start stitching an actual recognizable thing. The black basting stitch is to help me center the design...I think. I'll find out soon enough.

For those of you who are itchin' to learn cross-stitching, Alicia Paulson from Posy Gets Cozy has written an awesome no-one-is-looking-so-just-have-fun-with-it tutorial. And because I adore Alicia, I don't mind mentioning (on my own accord) that she has a walk-in-the-woods-inspired ABC cross-stitch sampler kit for sale! But if you're like me and don't have that kind of money to spend, relax and know you can enjoy cross-stitching on the super cheap! In fact, I will soon be sharing with you just how inexpensive it is (and truth be told, if it wasn't, I wouldn't be doing it).

Corner of Lincoln Avenue & Citron Street in Anaheim, California

I picked up mom's car from the repair shop on Tuesday — you know, the day I was feeling the most sick from my flu-like allergies. I didn't really mind, because the cloudy and cool weather was ideal and I had the opportunity to drive through a part of town that is a throwback to yesteryear.

A second after snapping a photo of the crosswalk with my phone, I sat staring at the green light against the clouds. Fortunately, there are still courteous drivers who have the willpower not to honk at you for not moving forward instantaneously as the light turns green. The UPS guy behind me may have been taking in the gorgeous sky ahead of us as well. But since I am a hypochondriac, I drove the remaining mile home convincing myself I wasn't stroking out for not reacting to the GO light quicker.

And speaking of things that are going, you all have heard the sad news about Picnik, right? Now before you all jump up suggesting"Photoshop!" — let me tell you this: I will open Photoshop with one photo to edit for a blog post, and ten hours later, have learned a dozen new techniques, manipulated three-hundred images, created a new blog header for a whole new blog, and designed an entire collection of scrapbook paper — and I don't even freakin' scrapbook.

No, I need an online photo-editing site where I simply click, click, click, upload to Flickr, and drop the HTML into my blog post. Thank you, though. So it was off to Google search "substitute for Picnik." I'm always afraid of linking to blogs I'm not familiar with, because, ohmygod, what if the blogger is a hate-mongering bitch, you know? But I found such a terrific and thorough review by Cheri from I Am Momma-Hear Me Roar of the totally free FotoFlexer. 

So last night I gave FotoFlexer a shot using the pic I took with my phone. What I wanted a substitute most of all for is the cross process option — it's my favorite image treatment. I was tickled pink with the result! I even like FotoFlexer's user control of the cross processing better than Picnik (and holy crap, there are even other options within the cross processing option)! I even did a side-by-side photo comparison today with a different picture, and again, I liked FotoFlexer better!

But ....

...if you are one of those people who still believes you can break your computer from pushing the wrong button, don't waste your time with FotoFlexer. It's kind of slow. I have to click on things a couple of times to make those things pop-up and work (I heard you gasp!). And some of the tools for fine-tuning within options aren't clear as day, so you have to feel comfortable looking like it's your first time on a computer after being raised by wolves all your life.

I'm hoping that if FotoFlexer catches on with Picnik refugees, the people behind the site will want to better "the world's most advanced online image editor." But for now, definitely don't cross FotoFlexer off the list as an alternative to our soon-t0-be dearly departed.

UPDATE: Use PicMonkey to go all apeshi...ah...do all kinds of cool things with your photos with!!!

Generation X

On Saturday I sneezed and sniffed and ate sinus mediation for lunch. On Sunday I read the Bible and fell in love with cross-stitching.

Praise the gods that I took notice of Jan Eaton's Cross Stitch Motif Bible: Over 1000 Motifs with Easy to Follow Color Charts just before leaving the library last week! I am reveling in the rhythm of duplicating tiny x stitches until a design miraculously begins to take shape!

The book has a couple of pages of very simple visual instructions to get you started and proves, that at times, less is more. While it's not really a "learn how-to" guide, Jan is so non-intimating in her approach of explaining how cross-stitch is basically easier than the easiest thing in existence ever, I immediately believed I could do any of the motifs as a first-timer.

And with more than one-thousand motifs to mull over, I knew the hardest part would be choosing the first chart.

Oh, the possibilities! It makes my heart burst with happiness! Even as I sit here staring at the photo above and below, I came up with a rad plaid idea!

There is a vast variety of design elements in this cute spiral book! From angels and alphabet samplers to zigzag patterns and zodiac signs! But I wanted to ease into cross-stitch with something simple.

So after doing a practice run of pink cross-stitches, I picked a one-color border to get the swing of it.

OMG! I love everything about it — the tactile of the tools, planning the placement so it comes together like a puzzle, studying the back of the canvas to see where to quickly bring out the needle to the front (otherwise, I never poke the back and come through anywhere remotely near where I am aiming for), checking how to make the stitches on the underside look as clean as the right-side stitches, and the slow, but steady, relaxing repetition of making rows of x after x after x.

And, of course, I love the awesome appearance of embroidery floss against Aida fabric, turning those little x stitches into a piece of art.

I am definitely entering a new era of crafting.

Straight to the Point

I have this insanely, intense, deep desire to learn how to do needlework (embroidery, cross-stitch, needlepoint, plastic canvas, old-school alphabet samplers). But finding really good online sources with tutorials for beginners can be like, well, looking for a needle in a haystack. But like unicorns and gay Republicans, they DO exist! Stick around 'cause I will be sharing the best sites as I come across them.

Thankfully, I possess an ever-increasing collection of vintage needlework books published during a time when editors knew well-written instructions were more important than pretty project photos. My favorite is the Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework from 1979. I bought my copy for two bucks at a library's used bookstore. It's one of those books you'd want to have if stranded on a deserted island. You'll never get bored with this book.

The guide begins with a chapter on embroidery, or what I choose to call, An Entryway to Enlightment. And while my heart skips a beat with thoughts of cross-stitch on gingham and blackwork patterns on blouses and huck motifs on cafe curtains, it's the next chapter that my eye is on: needlepoint.

An online community of needlepointers who aren't hardcore Tebow-loving Conservatives stitching religious crosses or By-the-Book-Hipster-Look bloggers screaming, THIS ISN'T YOUR GRANDMOTHER'S NEEDLEPOINT (let me break it to you: stitching a skull on an iPod case isn't going to turn the needlepoint world on its head) appears to be off the grid.  Except for the one place that I always put so much faith in: Flickr. It will take  time, but at some point (pun!), I will have gathered a group of needle-addicts for you to admire.

Since it is the Nana-style of needlepoint I'm wanting to create, I'm getting down to business by picking up a piece of plastic canvas and beginning to practice the basic stitches because OHMYGOD I NEED TO MAKE EVERYTHING ON THIS WOMAN'S BLOG RIGHT NOW! My reaction to this blog is just about equal to Kristen Bell's reaction to a sloth. I'm not kidding. My chest is actually aching from just thinking about when it comes time to decide what to make first.

For now, I'll just have fun learning the ins and outs of needlepoint. For a quick view of some of the most basic stitches for plastic canvas, check out these diagrams with short video clips. You too may find yourself becoming a plastic fantastic canvas lover!