deird_lj | Entries tagged with arts and crafts

So, what have I been up to for the last week or so?

1) Christmas shopping. Finally got it all done, and then discovered on the day that I'd bought Alex the same present as Mum had - so I have to return one of them.

2) Christmas celebratoryness. Otherwise known as a church thing, a family thing, another church thing, another family thing, yet another family thing, and an ungainly collapse.

3) SLEEP. Yesterday I was still taking a three hour nap in the middle of the day... but as of today, I think I'm actually back to normal.

4) Nephew-sitting. Which included supervising two little boys, who have decided that the best part of bath time is getting to throw water at each other. (I also had to smack Alex for the first time ever at one point, which made me feel horribly guilty, even though it was the right thing to do. But he started crying, and looked so horrified, and... *guilts*)

5) Watching Josh almost walk by himself. He's so close! Any second now he's going to be walking without any help from anyone.

6) Having my housemate leave. She's decided to move back in with her parents. So I'm by myself again...

7) Trying very hard to come up with a fanfic for this week's challenge. And failing. I am idea-less.

8) Doing cross-stitch. (I am SO SICK of stitching in brown and yellow.)

9) Staying indoors, where it's vaguely cool. Outside, it's 36 degrees (97 F).

10) Watching episodes of Big Bang Theory, and laughing hysterically.

- Kate Lockley is much more awesome than I remember her being.

- Josh is cute, but very frustrating when he won't stop crying.

- Caramel slice needs more crushed biscuit in it, next time.

- Cross-stitch takes FOREVER.

- Terry Pratchett is rather fabulous.

- I should never take BtVS season 4 out of my collection and leave the rest sitting there, because it means I currently have an eyeless Buffy staring at me from across the room... with her disembodied eyes sitting elsewhere, and also staring at me.

- Nephew-wrangling is an elite skill, and should come with a manual.

- There is such a thing as too much chocolate mud cake.

- Angel wearing hawaiian shirts is rather hilarious.

At lunchtime today, my friend K. took me to the best wool shop in the city.

(K. is awesome. She's just started working here, and on her first day I found out that she's a Buffy fan, a Dollhouse fan, a knitter, and very fun to talk to.)

The wool shop is SO COOL. It has many many different kinds of wool, and thread, and knitting needles, and crochet hooks, and cross-stitch patterns, and stuff like that.
I spent my entire lunchtime cooing over stuff I really can't afford, and trying to invent reasons why I actually needed to buy them...

I have a sewing machine!

Okay, so I've actually had a sewing machine for nearly a month now, but I now have a sewing machine and some material, and some thread! Woo!

I spent a lot of time last night cutting up bits of material, and sewing them back together again, and threading things, and stuff like that. 'Twas extremely fun.

My sewing machine also has an Automatic Needle Threader, and a Thread Cutter, and a Secret Drawer For Storing Extra Bits, and a Light, and Much Other Awesomeness.
*grins excitedly and runs back to play some more*

Okay. There were three requests for earring photos, so here they are:

( observe my artisticness )

I MADE EARRINGS!

I am feeling very accomplished. I have just made myself three sets of earrings, in very pretty colours, that all look really interesting and earringy.

Yes, I did this all by myself! *is proud*

I'm having so much fun with my new pliers...

At the request of

lavastar, here are some photos of my cross-stitches.

( photos! )

I've been cross-stitching lately, which generally involves me putting TV shows I know well on in the background, so that I have something to keep me from getting bored with the cross-stitchiness.

Anyway...

Lately, my Cross-Stitching Background TV has been Lois & Clark, season 3. All very fun and entertainingly nutty.

Now, though, I've reached an episode I absolutely HATE. Not because it's actually all that bad - but the emotional stuff the characters are going through is just painful, and unnecessarily painful, and I don't want to watch that episode again.

Except...

I was kind of watching them all in order...

So, instead of SKIPPING the episode, and putting the NEXT one on for me to cross-stitch to, like a sensible person would, I have put the episode on, left the room, and retreated to my computer, where I am frantically reading websites and playing solitaire until the episode GOES AWAY.

...because, then, I won't have watched them out of order. But I'll still get to not watch this unwatchable episode.

Yes, I am indeed a loon.

*continues to avoid my living room for another 20 minutes*

I seem to be really good at shower art.

It's weird, because my drawing usually sucks - but whenever I'm showering, I can make absolutely gorgeous drawings on the steam-covered glass panels. They're really pretty!

I think there must be a correlation between this and the whole singing-in-the-shower thing. Like a scientific principle: artistic abilities increase in proportion to the subject's proximity to mechanised jets of water.

I should really start taking waterproof paper in there with me, and see if my writing improves...

I've decided I need to get some jewellery making tools, just so I can repair all the stuff I keep accidentally breaking.

Latest victim: one of my very favourite necklaces, which is now in two pieces. I am extremely upset by this development, especially because I decided what to wear this morning based on the fact that I wanted to wear this necklace, and now my outfit looks really boring.

Yep, it's a hard life...

( plays, Caleb, cross-stitch, icecream, and Stargate )

Cross-stitch is actually pretty easy, but it does require patience.

I've spent so long adding stitches to this last one, and because it's still in the early stages it just looks like a collection of random dots. Which... doesn't really charge me with enthusiasm.

Plus, whenever people come over, they go "Oh! You're doing a cross-stitch! Can I see?", and I show them, and you can just see the mini double-take as they try to think of a polite way to say "Uh... Is that going to actually look like something eventually? Ever?"

But I persist.

And, last night, I got halfway through one thread, and suddenly looked at it and went "There's his foot. And there's the curve of his back. And that's his hat." And it suddenly looked like a picture!

Of course, from an ordinary person's perspective, it would probably still look like a random collection of dots. You need to be functioning on no sleep and staring at the thing for hours to see the picture. Kind of like one of those posters with the 3D images. But I can see it! And I'm suddenly very motivated to do more.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: in space, heading for jupiter
Current Music: the fifth element soundtrack

The other night I was talking backstage with one of the cast members, and we started discussing what we'd be doing that night were we not in the show:

Him: I'd be at my friend's party, getting drunk, and making out with someone random.
Me: I'd be at home, working on a cross-stitch, and listening to my cat purring next to me. Or possibly I'd be practicing guitar...
Him: Oh. Well, maybe it's a good thing you're here, then.

Hmmph.

You know, if I were living in a Jane Austen novel, people would be calling me "accomplished". Nowadays, they just say "get a life".

Current Mood: grumpy
Current Location: planning a trip to 19th century England
Current Music: soundtracky goodness

I went out on the weekend and bought a stack of bath-bombs. So I can now relax in nice-smelling water.
Unfortunately, I'm being dutifully water-conscious due to the drought, so it takes me about a week to water my garden with the bathwater before I can use my bath again. Showers are all well and good, but they're not nearly so much fun.

I think I'm doomed to do Excel spreadsheets from now until the day I die.

Juno is an awesome movie. And I really want the soundtrack (if only for the "vampires" song they play over the closing credits! It was so cute!).

Guitar is incredibly complicated, but still a lot of fun to play.

There are few things quite as nice as drinking hot chocolate in a warm house on a cold day, with your cat purring next to you.

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: waiting for my boss to get off the phone
Current Music: rob thomas

Three nice things that are close at hand:

- A half-finished cross-stitch, which gets closer to completion every day.
- A long-stemmed, dark red rose, courtesy of one of my favourite friendships.
- A cat, who purrs every time I pat him.

Life is good.

Current Mood: content

I really don't know why I like cross-stitch so much. As best, it's a sophisticated form of colour-by-numbers. I mean, I didn't CREATE the design. All I do is look at a diagram that tells me which coloured threads to put through which holes. And it takes me months, when it would take a machine maybe an hour. So why do it?
I guess there are a few reasons.
Firstly, it's elegant, and ladylike, and makes me feel like I'm sitting in a Georgian manor. I love that.
Secondly, I am incapable of sitting still. You can guarantee I'm going to be doing SOMETHING. Right now, if it wasn't cross-stitch, it would be websudoku. And, really, putting little numbers into boxes to create something that the computer deletes as soon as I finish it is a lot more pointless.
But mainly, because it's something physical. Something practical. You see, I'm not very good at making stuff. I'm a complete klutz, and any arty-farty stuff inevitably ends in a glue-ridden disaster zone. Except when I do this. When I cross-stitch, I get it right. I do it well. And I end up with proof.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Aimee Mann