Oh, hello cross stitch. I missed you.

It had been too long...way too long since I had gone on a cross stitching binge. I'm still in the throes of it, but I thought I'd post a few that I've done in the past couple of weeks.
First up, a custom order for my friend. This was inspired by an actual sign in Alabama (BIBLE BELT REPRAZENT!)

I accidentally made it heart shaped. But ya know, I think that's kinda perfect. Wanna see the sign that it's inspired by? Sure you do!
If there's one thing I love about living in Alabama, it's the hilarious church signs. Fucking priceless. I'm thinking about making another one to add to my Etsy shop...hmm...maybe...

Now here's one that I recently added. I had already done the quote before but I thought I'd do another & change it up a bit. This was a quote from Tina Fey & goddamn, I just thought it was hilarious & so SO true. Check out the skit here. And ok, yeah, I changed "stuff" to "shit". Thought it had a better ring to it. So sue me. don't sue me.

available @ my Etsy for $17!

Going back to the church-y kinda stuff, I took inspiration from one of my husband's old T-shirts & made this little gem. The lesser known 11th commandment!

available @ my Etsy for $16!

I really really love this one. I was going for that stone tablet appeal. Well, for the font at least.

And then I was inspired by one of my all-time favorite video games, Super Mario Bros 3. Now, I think that across the board, gamers hate water levels of all kinds. But man, I really think the water levels in SMB3 are a real fucking bitch. Thank jeebus for the frog suit.

available @ my Etsy for $16!

I cannot tell you how many times my husband & I have uttered these words. Ugh. Fucking HATE water levels.

I'll be listing at least one more cross stitch this week. Keep those eyes peeled!

Knit Fast Die Warm

So it seems I've been in quite the knitting mood lately. It's still not really cold down here, but it's getting there. Alabama kind of has a way of stumbling into the winters...I can't tell you how many times I'll use my air conditioner & heater in my car in the same day. One of my buddies on Twitter was interested in a scarf but she's vegan & most of my scarves are acrylic & wool blends. Well, no longer, my friends. Acrylic yarn can be....not so soft, so I was perusing the aisles of Hobby Lobby and lo & behold...bamboo yarn! So goddamn soft. While it's a little steep in price, I think it's totally worth it. I've already made one in this really pretty cream color.

for sale @ my etsy for $35!

I'll definitely be making more bamboo scarves. I just really love the way the yarn feels!

I also made this scarf & I absolutely loved the colors. It was a mix of red & black with nice chunky yarn (my favorite kind!) This one is not bamboo though.

This one has already sold!

I'll probably be knitting up some more scarves soon, so be sure to keep an eye on my Etsy & if you see one that you like, but would like it in a different color or have any other ideas, I welcome custom orders!

Soon I'll be getting back into some needlework. I've been missing embroidery lately! I'm working on a cross stitch custom order for a friend right now so that's keeping my cross stitching desire satiated for the time being :)

New scarves!

I've made 3 new scarves for the ol' Etsy shop! Guess what? They're also on sale! Only $15...stock up for the winter!




And don't forget, my cross stitch sale ends Wednesday! There's still lots of great items left. Here's some of my faves

only $12.50 till Wednesday!!

The last remaining section of the Christian Bale rant, only $10 till Wednesday!

only $8.50 till Wednesday!!

Today....

My husband & I are celebrating 11 years of friendship, 3 1/2 years of "couple-dom" & 2 years of marriage. I couldn't ask for a better partner in life.

♥
I love you so much, Will!

p.s. I wrote about our 1st anniversary here :)

1st Anniversary Sale!!!

On August 28th, I will officially have had my Etsy shop open for a year! Yep, I made it :) To celebrate I am having a HUGE sale! All of my cross stitches are 50% off!!! Holy shit, that's right! Half off ALL of my cross stitches. You can't beat that with a stick. Also, I'm planning on doing a Twitter giveaway soon too, so if you don't follow me already, there's another reason you should! You can follow me here. It's private, but I accept most requests, unless you're a porntwitterbot haha!

Here are some of the things I'll be selling for half off!


So there you have it! It all starts this Friday, August 28th!

Tattoo flash embroideries

Seems as though I've neglected this blog! I promise it's not on purpose, but life sometimes gets in the way with my blogging I suppose :)

So what's new? My husband & I moved into our new apartment, I've been keeping busy with crafts (of course), and trying to concentrate on building my clientele at the salon..I've been a busy girl!

Shall we get on with the crafts? Let's....

For the past few days I've been busy with a pretty nice sized embroidery. I'm super proud of it although looking at it after it's finished there are a few things I would change, but that's just me being a perfectionist. I don't think it's any secret that I love embroidering tattoo flash, but man I really loved this project. So much satin stitch!

available @ my etsy for $35!

While Will(the hubs) is always complimentary of my work, he seemed especially impressed by this :)

I also did a piece with some color tinting, which I looooove! It really does add a lot to embroidery.

This one I am keeping for myself. Me likes.

And although this last one doesn't really constitute as tattoo flash, it does have tattoo lettering!
I'm not going to say I hate stupid people because, without them, what would there be to entertain me? I will say that I think someone with some intelligence is definitely extremely attractive though, don't you agree?

Yeah, it looks a little dirty. That's because the ink from the brains transfer kinda bled through. A wash & it'll not look...dirty haha.


That's all for now! I have several more projects to post about soon though, so check back. And hey, have you checked out my Etsy store yet? :)

Things I Love Thursday

Passing my written exam! Yes that's right, I have one more exam to pass (the practical) & then I will officially be a licensed cosmetologist! I wasn't too nervous about taking the exam but I was still a little frazzled. I stayed up way late the night before my exam getting my husband to quiz me. After I was giving him the answer before he could get the question out, he called it quits & said I have nothing to worry about. And you know what? He was right! I made that exam my bitch. Basically. I also got a very sweet shout out & congratulations from the Emergency Pants crew. Thanks guys!

Melissa's wedding So one of my good friends, Melissa, got married Tuesday & I got to be in the wedding. I know it sounds weird but I love being in weddings! I'm such a cheeseball about that kinda stuff. I almost cried while we were all walking out to All You Need is Love. It was a gorgeous wedding & a lot of fun. And it was at a castle! How fucking cool is that?!

Children's books I don't know what compelled me, but for some reason I was feeling nostalgic & looked through the most popular children's books when I was a kid. Some of my favorites included The Real Mother Goose, The Value of Believing in Yourself: The Story of Louis Pasteur, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Little Engine That Could, Goodnight Moon, Best Word Book Ever, Where The Wild Things Are, and a whole lot more that I can't recall. I really wish I still had them :(

♥ honorable mentions ♥

learning how to play Dominoes, peach jello shots, baby Oliver, Will coming by my work just to bring me a muffin he made from scratch, business picking up, compliments on my tattoos from strangers, not stressing, my new hair!(I cut a LOT off!)

Love Bear

I've been on an "embroidering super cute things" kick, apparently. I finished this one up tonight!



Isn't he just adorable? It's been nice to take a break from studying for my board exams (I'm taking my written exam on Tuesday!!!) to just relax & craft a little bit :)

Wanna take this little guy home? He's available at my Etsy for only $12!

Things I Love Thursday

Pain No, not the emotional or physical kind, but the band! If you've never ever heard of them, that's ok, because they're a local band. They are basically my youth encapsulated in happy, nerdy, funny music. I can't tell you how many times I've seen them because it feels like every single weekend they were playing somewhere. I've been listening to them constantly lately because they make me sooo happy. Me & Will have successfully spread the love of Pain all the way to Chicago! Bridget, you just say the word (if you even read this anymore?) and we'll send some cds :) And now for your viewing pleasure, a video! Obviously very 90s. Ah....I miss being 13.



Hot chocolate before bed This has become somewhat of a ritual for me lately. Most people drink hot tea. I like hot chocolate. Make it with soy milk & I'm out like a light pretty soon after that.

Moving! Ok, actually I really hate the "moving" part but I love being in a new place. Although we're moving to a smaller apartment ($$$ is tight) I like to think of it as moving to a "cozier" apartment. Although I'll miss our place since it's mine & Will's first place together as a married couple! Yeah, we're super gay for each other, I know.

Will's finished(almost) tattoo! Yay! It's basically done! There's going to be more stuff added to the bottom & a few other touches, but it's basically finished & looks glorious.

I know. I'm jealous too.

♥ honorable mentions ♥

my cute new bangs, getting my hair done for the free, dressing up for work, turqoise eyeshadow, meeting new people & seeing old friends, having the best friends in the world, embroidering, reading Pygmy, my friends having tip wars after I cut their hair ($20 was the winner!), hanging out with Will & the kitties in bed, naked yoga in the morning

Who wants ice cream?

I made this little guy last night & I love him! Like Bridget said, "I get the feeling that he's thinking to himself: "My GOD. I'm DELICIOUS." I figured I'd show him off!



And that little speck you see in the corner was just a little bit of extra thread, it's not there anymore :) I used split stitch, back stitch, & satin stitch.

He's available at my Etsy shop for only $16!

Things I Love..er...Saturday!

My Things I Love drawing from Trey! I couldn't be happier!

You can click on the picture to see it up close and click here to get all the details!
And my horror movie character one!

♥

Things I Love Thursday

Not being (as) scared of clipper cuts! Yeah, so the salon I work in has a pretty big male clientele, which means I'm gonna have to use clippers at some point. They used to scare me (especially fades) but I did 2 in a row today with no nerves whatsoever! Yay for me! And the guys were happy & was told by Tiffany that they looked really good. Woot! Now...if I can just wrangle some chicks in the salon I will be a pretty damn happy camper.

My husband who is the master at totally calming me down So we've run into some bumps in the road as far as money goes & there seems to be a fraudulent charge on my credit report. I won't really get into the details but needless to say, I've been way stressed out about the whole situation & Will has the innate ability to, no matter how upset & stressed I am, completely calm me down & feel like everything's alright. I love that man immensely.

Getting awesome artwork from friends My friends are a talented bunch & my friend, Trey is doing this totally awesome & amazing "things I love" drawing. I saw the progress the other night and wow....I cannot wait to see the finished product. If you have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, this is the one he made for Will. You can check here for the details & notes & such..
The colors will pop more on mine since he's using a white piece instead of a brown piece of cardboard. He also gave me this awesome collage of horror movie characters that I haven't posted to flickr (but will soon!) It's done in ink & definitely a theme that I love.

Keyboard Cat I love this cat, even though it's been dead for like, 2 decades. Keyboard cat makes me way too happy.

♥honorable mentions♥

wearing skirts & dresses is completely comfortable, Sunflower Cafe's organic veggie lasagna, not fighting about money (seriously! I feel even closer to Will, actually), smartwater, goofing off with Joni, Brain Candy only on VHS, Star Trek is fucking awesome!, having people back me no matter what, my dad coming by the salon & cracking jokes, being me, my amazing friends, my amazing family, chik'n nuggets & BBQ sauce, falling asleep cuddling (rarity for me, I need breathing room), my true internet buddies: you know who you are!

Cross stitch Ca-RAAAZY

So it seems that I've completely immersed myself in the last 2 weeks or so in cross stitch. I think I may need a little break afterward so that I can concentrate on you know....getting my cosmetology license & stuff. Important things need to happen soon. So anyway, I had just an urge to continuously create, some are ones I've done before, on those days where I wasn't feeling especially creative but still wanted to do something & the others are custom orders.
Probably my all time favorite word to say AND stitch. The person who ordered these wanted them unframed (which makes it look unfinished to me :( but whatev) & she wanted them to look like a set.

Definitely could've taken better pictures....but she loved them & that's what matters! I totally loved what she actually wanted them to say too. Anyone that's as vulgar as I am is awesome in my book! At first I was confused on the "Jesus Fuck" thing, but from what I understand it's basically a jumble of cursing. I imagine it to be a frustrated curse like, "Jesus....FUCK!" but that's just me.

Now this is still one of my favorite pieces ever. It caused kind of a stir on Craftster (although I think any mean comments were deleted) & even had a few morons show up on my blog post about it. For the most part, I got very positive feedback & it quickly left my Etsy shop & into the arms of Crafty Dame (hope you love it, Amy!)

available @ my etsy for $25!

Fucking RIGHT!

Anyone hate World of Warcraft? I'm sorry, I know millions upon millions of people play & it's just the coolest game in the fucking world to some people but...shit's retarded. I've never been into MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) because I would rather do other things instead. I dunno, maybe I'll just always be a Nintendo fangirl & think other games are totally worthless. My husband plays it so that gives me permission to hate on this game.

available @ my etsy for $25!

I've been wanting to do an atheist/agnostic piece for a while & decided to stitch this cute little guy up.

available @ my etsy for $5!

It's little. The frame is 2 inches, I believe. I like it though! My initial description on Etsy was something along the lines of "men who wear sandals get what they deserve". It's supposed to be a joke, but maybe it's not a very well-known joke? Either way, my own mother didn't see the laugh value in it, so I took that part out. Only for mom! While I do understand that a lot of my stuff is offensive, and I like it that way, I don't want to totally turn people off...am I making any sense? I don't want people to think I'm a jesus hating bitch, I guess. Although I absolutely am against organized religion & I'm very open about being agnostic. Hey, that's what happens when you attend Christian schools as a kid.

Oh! And on a totally different subject, I got my leg finished!

Thanks CW! Hopefully that will satiate my tattoo needs for a little bit because I am a broke as hell.

Now I must go & continue studying for State Board exams. Whoopy!

Things I Love Thursday: Birmingham/Atlanta edition!

NIN & Jane's Addiction! Holy hell, it was such an awesome show! We had a great time, I drank too much, took too many pictures, and drooled over Trent Reznor. Aggghhh he's so hot. And he's less beefy! 30% less neck! I'm hoping now that I've seen him, my obsession will quite down for at least a little while. That, or it will become stronger.
Perry Farrell was in this awesome red jumpsuit, I'm sure high as a fucking kite, and prancing on stage. It was marvelous! Dave Nevarro though...who cares. Seriously.


I estimate that there was a fuckton of people there. That's pretty accurate.

Birmingham buddies Unfortunately we didn't get to see all of our friends since it was a pretty quick trip, but we got to see the most important! They took us to some underground bar that, from what I understand, was literally called Underground. It was cool, it was full of weirdos & freaks & PBR on tap. Some random dude also talked to me about this movie called Cannibal Holocaust. For like..an hour he talked about it to me. I think he was on speed.
This is Tori & Nick. I've known both of them for years & years & years. Nick was a groomsman in our wedding & Tori was the one who actually officiated us! Look at Tori trying to hide...
But she can't....

Eating at Al's within a 12 hour time span If you ever find yourself in Birmingham, you absolutely must eat at Al's. It's this amazing 24 hour Greek place(although they serve chicken fingers, cheeseburgers, etc.) and they have the best motherfuckin' veggie burgers I've ever had in my life. Oh my god, I would probably kill someone for one right now. A place I would not suggest eating? Cosmo's. We waited for an hour and a half for some damn breakfast that wasn't even that good. Also, I got so freezing cold & hungry my hands literally went numb. It was super weird & kinda freaked me out.

This Girl

She made me so extremely happy! She was right in front of us & was just rocking the hell out the entire time. It was a beautiful thing. After a while she sat down but then Will urged her to get up & dance some more. She did :)

♥ honorable mentions ♥

Nick's dog, Bell, spooning with me in the mornings, chex mix, gigantic beers, being in a different place, hashbrown casserole, Will not losing his phone!, sleeping super hard flat on my belly in Nick's icebox of an apartment, hot showers, not smelling like a bar, my car getting it's first boot(seriously!), driving back home

Things I Love Thursday

Margaritas! So we celebrated Cinco De Mayo the only way you're supposed to...getting drunk on margaritas! Me & Will tried to hit some mexican restaurants but they were all way too packed so we said fuck it & got our own liquor. They were tasty as hell & I had a little too much, but hey, my intentions were good.

Will's first tattoo...AW! So my husband got his very first tattoo yesterday & he is no longer the weird one in our group! And he started off the right way, with getting a pretty nice sized piece. This is the 1st session. The original idea was Lady Justice in sheep's clothing but then it turned into Lady Justice coming out of her wolf head. I think it's fucking amazing & the representation is awesome. The coins will also be dripping blood when it's all finished. It's even going to be in a political tattoo article! Done by the extremely talented Sean Herman. If you haven't seen his work GO HERE NOW! His work is absolutely stunning & I'm slightly jealous that Will got tattooed by him (for free!) but I'll be getting a piece from him soon! It's good to have talented friends :)
People taking a chance on me I'm lucky to have had the chance to work at a salon that's not Fantastic Sam's, or Smart Style, or any other "starter" salon's. Seriously, most "high end" salon's don't like to hire people that are fresh out of beauty school so I'm so grateful that I've been given the opportunity to work with such great stylists & learn from them. I'z a happy girl!

LOST nights Every Wednesday, a group of our friends come over & we all hang out & watch LOST like the nerds we are. It's fun! And we've been doing it ever since I can remember! Finale next week, HOLY SHIT!!!

Cracker Barrel Sundays Me & Will have a tradition of going to Cracker Barrel every Sunday when we wake up. Also something we've done for as long as I can remember. Even if that sounds totally redneck, we still enjoy it! I feel like we're an old married couple :)

♥ honorable mentions ♥

Super Mario Bros, our cats being all adorable with each other, watching youtube videos at work ("Oooh! Go to strippers falling off poles!"), getting my hair done for free, catching up with old friends, future plans, custom cross stitches that are as vulgar as I am, cute earrings, frame shopping, holding hands, rainy days