Stitching Like Mad

It's been a lil bit since I posted.. I've been stitching up a storm over here. I wish I could do that literally, maybe it'd bring some relief from this heat! MY GOD THE HEAT!

I've got what seems like a small list of stitching to do this month, but I have a feeling it will snowball into a frenzy of floss and yarn. Save me.

I was the winner of the EtsyNEAT team challenge this month! Whee! I never win anything, so I am super pleased. And quite frankly super surprised. I was up against a lot of talented people and entries. The prize was to pick the category for the next month's challenge. Which I have done. It hasn't been announced so I won't give it away here. Suffice to say it was a super cool idea in my head. Now, of course, I'm wondering what I'm going to enter because I wasn't cool enough to pick an idea for my piece and then pick the theme. Good work, Jen.

I've also entered into two ATC swaps. These will be my first swaps and I'm looking forward to them. What's an ATC you ask? Well, I'm happy to tell you!ATC stands for artist trading card. You can read about them in detail on the wiki if you want. Or you can trust me when I say they are 2.5" x 3.5" works of art in various forms of media that artists trade with one another. Remember when you were a kid and flipped and traded baseball cards? Kinda the same thing only now it's art. I've heard it becomes quite an obsession in regards to collecting them. Just what I need..something else to obsess over. :)

The swaps are for the two stitching groups I belong to, which you can see over there on the right. --------->

The first is with the  Hand Embroidery Network . The theme for this group is music. I wonder if I can fit 76 trombones on an ATC. Hm! But I digress. My swap partner is a graduate of the Royal School of Needlework and has worked in the National Gallery of Victoria. Yea! So I'm a bit nervous about stitching something for someone that's a complete expert in needlework. You can check her out here. Be sure to see her gallery where she's got silk shading which is to die for.

The second is for Stitchin Fingers.  For this swap we're doing a round robin and the theme is local wildlife. I'm thinking Black Bears and/or raccoons. This one feels like less pressure to me since I'm not receiving a piece from the person I'm sending to. Both groups have equally talented people though and I'm sure that I'll be getting something amazing, which I'll be sure to share with you.

In other projects:I'm also helping the hubby with the biz closing for the beading/jewelry biz over on Etsy. There's lots of destash beads and findings yet to list and at some point we'll be knocking percentages off on the jewelry. Head on over there if you want a good deal.


In addition I'm the hubby's resident photographer and/or photographer's helper when it comes to his food blog. You should check it out if you have time. He makes the most amazing food and is the reason I will never lose weight no matter how hard I try. His latest gourmet delight was a lemon streusel. To his credit he took the photos of the final product. Here's what I did while he was mixing and rolling and pinching and measuring.

Egg. A Study.

I took 167 photos during his baking extravaganza, of which 25 were actually useful to him. The others were similar to the above photo. He callously deleted all except two! I had some really awesome retrospectives on crumbs and knives!  I even managed to take photos of actual photos that were hanging on my fridge.  Like this....

Spider Queen 2010

As you can see, I get up to quite a bit when no one is paying attention.  With that I will leave you so I can go taste the homemade salsa that is now occupying a rather large bowl on my kitchen counter!

xoxo
♥