Seeya 2009

Playing along with Curlypops, some of the stuff from my 2009:

• New Kitteh tatt
• Me
• Puppy party - 14 November, their 1st birthday
• Baileys in glass from oppy
• Someone's awful Britney tatt...saw her live in November
• The girls in Brissy
• My Xmas tree!
• RIP Gatsby cat, Dec 1996 - May 2009
• Babysat Beeper bird in Nov
• Ate lots and lots and lots of 2 minute noodles!
• Housesat Stanley banana's place back in February
• Doin' in nanna style at teh Stitches and Craft show
• Cherry tatt, new in March
• Granny malarkey, WIP
• New place to live, Oct
• My mate Lamby xx

A quick stitch

If you know me, you'll know I arse around on Facebook a lot. And love an application called "Courage Wolf", where it gives you a "random" piece of wisdom. Lately every time I click it, it gave me this one, so I figured it was a sign. And embroidered it up one evening...December 11 to be precise.

Love you orange

I've always had a bit of a thing for orange. My kinder boyfriend was a redhead, I liked a ranga in high school, and I married one too. Maybe it was meant to be that my rented kitchen has very orange tiles. And I *heart* them. Which gives me a license to orange up the rest of the place. After Christmas there'll be another orange boy in my life...the furry kind.

In the meantime, here's some orangey Flickr'd goodness:

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And you can imagine how much that prententious side of me loves the fact that the Popular Penguins are of course, orange. Hooray for good design!

5 and 10

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While I was going through my photos looking for a new header image this morning, I found the old 5 and 10 cent store poster that I'd saved. This took my brain on a little nostalgia trip, to a place I've never been for real. "5 and dime stores"...so American, so before my lifetime. I do know most of them evolved into the standard variety stores of today, but a couple of things have fixed them in my mind as a symbol of retro goodness.

Firstly - the scene in the movie version of Breakfast at Tiffanys (where they sneak out wearing masks):

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Secondly - many of my vintage embroidery transfers still have the price tags on them from the shops where they were purchased. Labels like "Kressages 10c" and "Sprouse-Reitz 15c" suggest to my mind a shop full of treasures, available to take home for mere pennies.
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Of course that's just me being misty-eyed about a past that was probably nowhere near as sweet and easy as my retro embroidery shopping brain pictures it. Sigh. But at least I can look at pics:

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This one is my favourite :

Oh you know I so want this shop to be filled with thirties things again so I can shop there! And the red tiles and deco lettering...swoon!
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In a similar vein, I also love the idea of the "drug store"...but that's a whole other post.

PS. The Tiffany's image is borrowed from this FANTASTIC blog post. GO READ IT.

Reconnect

I've been going through a bit of a self-imposed exile. Sometimes it feels like Facebook is my only link to the outside world, those of you who know me well am aware how much time I spend on there. It helps keep me sane. I'm still not sure where I'm at, I have times where I miss my husband dreadfully, I miss all the little things like having our own vocabulary, and the fact that someone "gets" you. Oh, I've met a few people, the bad and the bad, and the okay-ish. I've been cursing distance, wanting a cuddle, and wishing and thinking. I've been op-shopping, bookshopping and reading, and trying to stitch my troubles away. I've jumped for joy at my independence, loved having my own uncluttered space, pined for the cats and staffies and drunk too much bourbon. And I have met someone new with lots of potential, but I worry about my baggage.
I'm just trying to work out what's important.

Pressie (rude word warning)

After a brief silly FB chat one evening, I offered to stitch up a pillowcase for a mate. This was his suggestion for his affirmation. And an 'I heart'... well cause he does heart them.


Lettering from Sublime Stitching Craft Pad, girlie bits from their Vital Organs patterns. The rooster is from Vogart.

Now he just better appreciate the effort, or I'll kick him in the bag.

PS. How SUPER COOL is this?! I just rushed and bought the meat and roaring twenties patterns. Mmmm embroidered meat.

Bedroom

Just a shot of some of my embroidered pillowcases. I haven't been blogging much, or doing much or anything useful, but I have been stitching. Latest one is the kitty in the left foreground, from a vintage pattern. She's dreaming of the perfect boy...aren't we all?

And a current WIP, another pillowcase with a Sublime pattern: