X is for (Sassy) Cross-Stitch

Are you ready for another round of Alphabe Thursday? Let's go!

A little while back Paige included a sassy cross-stitch in one of her Pinterest picks posts. I proceeded to spend way too much time looking at more sassy cross-stitch offerings on Etsy. Some of you know that before I got serious about jewelry making, I spent the better part of five or six years in a counted cross-stitch obsession. I kind of burned out on it, but I hope to get back to it someday. There are so many amazing patterns out there.

Today I'm featuring just a few of the sassy cross-stitch options on Etsy. As this is a family-friendly blog, I've only included items that don't have excessive profanity. Believe me, they are out there.

Beauty is but a light switch away by katiekutthroat

DIY OR DIE by KatieHeartsYou

Sassy Lady Nurse Retro Cross Stitch PDF Chart by PinoyStitch

Set of Seven Naughty Nan's SASSY SAMPLINGS Cross Stitch Charts by neverdyingpoet

Mitzy the Duck Cross Stitch Picture "Not Queen of World, Grand Empress...maybe" by TravelByBubble

I Have a Disease Called Awesome. Finished Cross Stitch w/ Frame by wordtoyourgrandma

Quote about love, destiny cross stitch PATTERN by Odiosyncrasy

Check out what the other Alphabe Thursday participants posted for the letter X this week right here!

in progress/life lately

I got a few questions yesterday about the grid pictures. I don't really have a good picture of the entire structure, but it's a trellis that supports the sound system for the pavilion. You can see a fairly complete picture of the lawn, trellis, and pavilion right here.

I have been taking pictures of so many different subjects lately and have gotten out of the habit of shooting "in progress" pictures of my work. I made a point to get a few of them this past week.

Here are a few of the non-crafty things that I've been doing this month that I haven't already included in one of my Scavenger Hunt posts.

Check out all of that farmers market basil. I wish that I could capture the smell in a picture. I made it into pesto.

I took a bunch of pictures during the most recent Museum After Dark event at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Apparently they change the outdoor lighting sometimes. I don't ever remember seeing blue lights before.

This is Jake's favorite.

In case spending time by Lake Michigan in Chicago on Thursday and then at the museum on Friday, I insisted that Jake and I walk over to the lake while were in Kenosha at an event six blocks away from it on Sunday. Heaven.

Check out the front moving into the area.

You can see it even more in this picture. We did make it back to the car before the rain started. I'll have a few more pictures from Kenosha in my next Scavenger Hunt post. Stay tuned for that on Monday.

Now that it's finally cooling down to 60 degrees at night, we've been able to use our new fire pit that Jake got for his birthday. Since we don't have a working fireplace, the next best thing is that fire smell right in our own yard.

The one failing in all of this is that I didn't take very many pictures of people at any of these events. I do have some from the event in Kenosha, but we also saw a bunch of Jake's family while we were in town and ran into friends at the museum. I don't have pictures of any of that. I am not one to jump in front of the camera so I feel awkward asking others to do it. They are both things to work on I suppose.

What have you been up to this month and/or what have you enjoyed photographing lately?

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works in progress

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I've been working on some more ambitious beading projects lately.  It's not even that they're more difficult most of the work that I do, but they're more time consuming.  I have a ton of inventory to list already and want to focus on some bigger projects that I've been planning for a while.

I got the red and blue flower beads over a year ago.  (I have way more than what I put in the shot above.)  When I had them out with a bunch of other new beads, they ended up next to these espresso bean delicas.  I decided that they would make a perfect base.  So far I'm still confident that this will work well.  But I grossly underestimated the number of delicas that I would need.  I got a couple more bags from Art Beads this week.  Let me know what you think of the button I have paired with it in this picture.  I think it would be neat to use something slightly metallic without going too shiny.

Also, I've been promising to take a picture of my current cross-stitch piece in progress, and here it is.

There has been some confusion from people who glance quickly and think that it's Santa.  It's not.  It's a wizard.  I'm always amazed how much detail you can see without any of the back stitching or other final embellishment.  I have my cross-stitch on our newly decorated table in our living room.  Our living room and kitchen are all one big connected area and the table is in the living room.  For the last couple years, it has mostly looked like this.  I finally packed the castle up this week and put a table cloth, place mats, napkins, and candles on it.  Jake couldn't believe the difference.  I'll have a shot up sometime when I post my final condo organization shots before/around when we sell our place.

Finally, this is the view that I see through my camera when I set it down next to my light box.  I got inspired to take a picture of it over the weekend.

Valentine's Day

I listed my two Valentine's Day items this week. I think that will be it for this year, especially since I haven't found a balance between cross-stitch and jewelry making yet and have been only cross-stitching the past week. You would think I'd be super excited to dive right into all of my new supplies! I have a little bit. I tend to get fixated on one or two hobbies at a time, though. I'm certainly not done with jewelry making to say the least haha.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I hope that everyone is having a wonderful holiday. Jake and I went to midnight mass at St. Mary's last night and exchanged presents when we got back. We're spending tomorrow with his family and Sunday with my family. The rest of the break we are HERE in the Iowa City area relaxing together.

I'm working my way toward 100 listings on Etsy. When I get there, I'm going to slow down a bit and alternate jewelry making with cross-stitching. I finished this cross-stitch piece over the summer:


I started another one, but by then I got into jewelry making and was burning out on cross-stitch anyway so I haven't done much since. I'm getting back to the point that I want to again, though.

Here are my most recent listings. The first one is another one from my yellow kick.