XO Mom

One of the cooler things about my mother (other than giving me life) is that she loves to stay current with music. She likes to listen to what I listen to and when I got into Elliott Smith she fell madly in love. One year later she got an XO tattoo on her wrist for her favorite album.  So this Christmas I wanted to make her something that had some of his lyrics on it.

Well I started it ....and finished it like yesterday. Here is it!

If you've never heard the song, shame on you. 

Listen to it now. 

BAM.

Tweedledee and Dum

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

    Agreed to have a battle;

For Tweedledum said Tweedledee

    Had spoiled his nice new rattle.

Just then flew down a monstrous crow,

    As black as a tar-barrel;

Which frightened both the heroes so,

    They quite forgot their quarrel

Ah! Alice's Adventure in Wonderland, perhaps one of my favorite stories of all time. I have a large collection of books and figures all placed lovingly in a china cabinet in my room. The little old lady inside of me loves it. I have two Alice in Wonderland tattoos as well. The badass 22 year old that I am, approves. My collection features most of the characters from the story and it's sequel but not Tweedledee and Tweedledum. So in a moment of exaggerated self confidence I made this: 

Because of all the different colors and details involved in this it's taken me a long time to finish these two brothers. Technically they're not even finished seeing as they are floating in a sea of white, a dimension without space or time...

I'll post an update whenever I get around to sewing the twins a home. For now, they're just one more piece to my every growing collection. 

How Kafkaesque

My very good friend Becka Cohen came over last week. She too, is a crafter as well as an artist. Along with a lot of other things, she makes rugs and seat covers by wrapping yarn over plastic bags, creating a spiral effect. Here's one she gave to me a awhile back. MARVEL AT IT.

Keeps your buns happy and comfy.

So in the spirit of giving I made her a little present. Like most things, I started this  awhile ago and stopped after pricking my fingers one too many times. Once she was over, though,  I figured might as well finish it for her.

One of the things me and my buddy have in common is that we both like terribly tragic books. In high school we were all about Franz Kafka's the Metamorphosis. We also we really into sitting in a taco bell for hours with friends and trying to win a free taco by dropping coins into a water jug. Memories.

Any way this is what I made for her:

If you're not familiar with the book, the line above the bug is the first line from the Metamorphosis. Also if you don't recognize the line you should read the book and start getting into some existential shit. Impress your friends with your new morose outlook on life! Any way what's great about having creative friends is that you get to have some of what they make so hopefully me and Ms. Beckalaroo will continue trading cool stuff back and forth. HINT HINT BECK. 

Thread and Jellyfish

In my first post in this blog I talked about how I hoped that blogging about certain things I was making would   act as an incentive to finish old projects. One craft I had long abandoned after finishing a substantial piece was my embroidering of a jellyfish on a bread cloth. After finishing the first and largest jelly fish I didn't know where to take the piece. I tried adding seaweed but they looked more like undersea boogers. Well a week and a half ago I picked up the project again and am happy to say that now it feels finished.

I'm not the best at embroidery, things don't look as clean as they could but making a picture of of colorful thread was something I wanted to try. I love when I see masterful embroidery on vintage clothing and after doing this I have even more appreciation for it. 

So there you have it. My first embroidery project completed, though I'm not sure I'll do another one. Do you know how many times I pricked my fingers making this? Let's just say I wouldn't rule out there being any blood somewhere absorbed into the cloth. 

After our bathroom is being done redecorated I'll probably frame these guys and hang them out and look at them every time I take a bath or brush my teeth.