Embroidered maritime magnets!

Woo hoo! The gift I wrote about earlier has made its way to New England! Now I can reveal to you the embroidered sea creature magnets:

I made these magnets for my fabulous friend Jen, who has been one of my dearest friends ever since we met one day in Earth Science class way back in 8th grade.

Jen is a life-long lover of all things aquatic, which is why she co-founded the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation. Blue Ocean Society protects the Gulf of Maine through research, education and conservation activities. I think their beach clean-ups are especially amazing: in 2008 alone, Blue Ocean Society involved 2,969 volunteers in removing 9,866 pounds of marine debris from beaches on the New Hampshire coast!

In honor of Jen's dedication to all creatures of the sea, I made a whale tail:

If you go on a whale watch led by a naturalist from Blue Ocean Society, you're likely to spot some incredible whales, like the beautiful "Flask," shown here in a photograph from July 2009:

photo via Blue Ocean Society's Facebook photos

I also made a little crab:

Blue Ocean Society's awesome touch tank program was the inspiration for the little crab. Check out the touch tank and you might meet a hermit crab:

photo via Blue Ocean Society's Touch Tank Blog

Our final magnet is the starfish:

I won't lie. Part of the reason I wanted to make the starfish was because I wanted an excuse to create a sandy beach out of french knots! (But by now you know that we can thank Blue Ocean Society that it's a clean beach made of french knots!)

Happy birthday, Jenny-girl!

Mulch!

You know you're a little too obsessed with your yard when a huge mulch delivery is the highlight of your day.

They're calling for sunshine and warm temps this weekend. I can't wait to get out in the yard, yank up some weeds, and spread some of this mulchy goodness around.

*ALSO,* I'm pretty sure I accidentally, momentarily published a very unfinished post a couple of days ago. I thought I successfully unpublished it, and then was quite surprised to have it appear in my feed anyway. So if you read this blog on a feed or Google Reader and you see something unfinished there, just ignore, please! The completed post will be up very soon.

Genesis lyrics -- framed!

I took advantage of the yucky day yesterday and curled up on the couch to finish my Genesis lyrics embroidery project.

Duchess is one of my favorite Genesis songs; it's from their Duke album which was released back in 1980.

Here are the lines of the song that I chose to stitch. I set them in a typeface called Fling. (You might recognize Fling from Martha Stewart's now-defunct Blueprint magazine.) If you love Fling, you can download it for free here.

Next I placed my fabric on top of the printed lyrics, and traced over the words using my disappearing ink pen. You can see the blue pen marks on this in-progress photo.

I just had to spritz the piece with water when I finished stitching and these marks just vanished! Those disappearing ink pens are so handy.

Here are a few close-up shots:

And here's the finished piece:

Next up: I'm working on a design with a dancing crane theme for my very amazing acupuncturist. More soon!

Mama and baby whale

Maybe it's because of Earth Day this past week, but I've had environmental themes on my mind a lot lately. I was suddenly reminded of a project I stitched up a few years back when my girlfriend Jen had her gorgeous little girl, Teagan. Since Jen is a Co-Founder of a non-profit that protects the New England coast (more on that VERY soon!), I made a whale design for this project:

Here's a close-up of the mama and baby whale:

This design was cross-stitched on some plastic aida, which was inserted into a little sippy cup. My photo of the final project came out way over-exposed, but you can get the idea:

We're having a very gray and rainy day here in Beacon, so it may be the perfect time to hunker down and finish up my Genesis lyrics project. More on that soon!

Phil Collins

If you saw my recent post about the Genesis lyrics I am stitching up these days, you may have already figured out what I am about to confirm: I am a huge fan of Genesis and Phil Collins. And even though Phil has put out some absolute rubbish material in recent years (yes, I'm talking to you, Testify!), I am still pretty much shamelessly and rabidly into his music.

Which is why I am sitting here on this beautiful Saturday morning, glued to my laptop, awaiting 10 AM when I can log in and purchase tickets to see Phil at Roseland this June. Phil is doing these shows in connection with his forthcoming album titled Going Back, which will include the Motown and soul covers that influenced him as a young man.

Phil as a young man. (image via livenation.com)

This will be my sixth time seeing Phil in concert, and I'm just as stoked to see the mind-blowingly talented percussionist Chester Thompson at this show as well. I'm off to get the tickets now!

(Belated) birthday gift sneak peek

As I mentioned in an earlier post, last week I was working on a little birthday gift for a childhood friend. I can't reveal the gift itself yet, since it's just going into the mail today. But I can show you the gift all wrapped up as a little tease in the meantime...

...and yes, the background and the wrapping do hint at the subject of the gift inside...!

Genesis tribute

For some reason, I've had Genesis songs in my head all week, so I decided to stitch up some of my favorite lyrics. Here's a peek at some of the progress I made today:

Even more springtime blooms

I've been working on a needlework project that I really enjoyed this week, because it's a gift for a dear childhood friend. I'll be sure to get the photos up here just as soon as I know the gift has made it to her in the mail.

In the meantime, here are some pretty shots of the blooming that is still going on around our house. We've got a row of purple leaf sand cherry shrubs in our back yard:

I love the pretty blossoms they grow each spring. They have the sweetest smell!

Last year, these plants were a popular gathering place when a wave of Japanese beetles hit town. They munched the whole hedge into swiss cheese. I couldn't find any beetles today, but I'm afraid they may be around, since I found this:

Maybe we'll have to dig out our beetle trap and hope for the best again this year!

I think the recent heat wave tricked my lilac into producing these early flowers:

I grew up in Rochester, NY, which hosts a Lilac Festival every May, so these make me feel right at home.

We have some new rhododendron flowers this week:

And the eastern red bud is getting prettier every day:

Ironically, I don't remember these little forget-me-nots from last year — aren't they charming?

Tag sale treasures

One of the great things about living in the 'burbs is the abundance of garage sales, yard sales and the like that pop up in the spring and summertime. This past weekend we stopped off at a tag sale that was held at Beacon Studios, an artists' workspace in our town's old high school.

For a dollar, I picked up a remnant of this cool yellow and grey cotton fabric. I think this might make a nice little purse or tote bag lining. Might be fun to embroider, too...

(Please forgive me the lousy cell phone photo.)

Steven is just crazy about silkscreens, so he was psyched to find some silkscreen artist proofs from the 1970s by an illustrator named Lloyd Birmingham. He chose this nude:

...and this radish. I think this would look great in our kitchen.

But the find of the day, in my opinion, was $2.00 for Needlework, a book by Adolph S. Cavallo, which is billed as "...an enchanting introduction to the history of decorative needlework in different parts of the world."

I just love this American sampler from 1773:

I had always thought of cross-stitch and embroidery as an American craft, but the truth is that embroidery and decorative needlework have been practiced in cultures across the world for centuries.

I'm pretty excited to have this resource to help me learn more about the roots of my little hobby!

WIP embroidered star

Here's a little star from a project I'm working on these days...

Second Saturday

Last night was Second Saturday, and Steven and I had an excellent evening out on Beacon's Main Street.

First we treated ourselves to dinner at Cafe Amarcord. My goat cheese and beet terrine appetizer was so pretty that I snapped a photo of it. You can see Steven's creepy octopus starter in the background.

Next we stopped by the Superfood Citizen Cafe, which was having its opening. We were still stuffed from dinner but we made room to try the yummy "Eartha Kitt" chocolate truffles. Me-oww!

Our final stop was the fabulous opening reception for Polly M. Law's Word Project which was held at Hudson Beach Glass. Polly's work is inspired by odd and obscure words, which she illustrates using a bricolage style. I was amazed by the fine details in Polly's work and the incredible expressions on her characters' faces. You really have to see her work in person to appreciate how wonderful it is, but here's one of the pieces that I especially enjoyed to whet your appetite:

via: http://buttonwoodart.com/WP/WPA.html

As a needleworker, I loved Polly's illustration of the word "thrums" which had some lovely chain-stitch in it. (Thrums: a. The fringe of warp threads left on a loom after the cloth has been cut off. b. One of these threads. via thefreedictionary.com).

I can't find a photo of "Thrums" online, so you'll just have to stop by the show before it closes on April 27 to check it out in person!

More springtime blooms

This last weekend was so gorgeous here in Beacon! We spent the better part of Easter Sunday enjoying the fresh air and working in our yard. In between yanking weeds and hauling mulch, I took a few moments to capture some of the new blooms around our house.

These first two photos are of the Forsythia bush in our neighbor's yard. This bush was smashed under a ton of snow when the huge storm hit back in February. I'm thrilled to see how it has bounced back since then:

This Eastern Red Bud tree doesn't look very exciting right now, but before the month of April is over, it will be blanketed in the most gorgeous purplish flowers. I'll be sure to post new photos when it's in full blossom.

I can never remember the name of the shrubs that grow on the side of our house, but their buds came out this week as well:

I hope the lovely weather holds so we can get back out and enjoy our yard again this weekend!

Celtic spiral cell phone case

You may remember that I was having some ambivalence about the Palm Pre that I got in February. I'll admit that there are some features that I have started to enjoy about the Pre, but I still have my moments when I'd really like to chuck it out a window.

This week I decided that I would stitch up a hand-embroidered cell phone case in the hopes that if the Pre has a nice place to hang out, she will be less likely to act a fool when I'm using her. (Yes, I'm anthropomorphizing my cell phone. Just work with me here.)

First I needed to decide how to construct the case. When I raided my craft stash, I realized that the wool sweater that I had picked up at the thrift store and felted would be just the thing. It even had a pocket that was a perfect fit for my phone -- I just had to cut if off the sweater.

Next I started thinking about what to stitch on the case. I have always been really drawn to celtic motifs, so I decided to do a celtic spiral pattern of some kind. I consulted my copy of Courtney Davis' Knotwork and Spirals for inspiration.

The triple spiral, or triskele, has always been one of my favorite images. Some view the triple spiral as a representation of the three stages of a woman's life, referred to as "maiden, mother and crone." More generally, the triple spiral can stand for rebirth or transition, which is probably why I would think about this imagery during the spring.

I've been collecting spirals for awhile now. I think I picked up my ring first:

This necklace was next:

Then my bracelet:

I was really psyched when I found this spirally Swatch watch:

I got started yesterday morning on the train, and here's what I came up with:

And here's the Palm Pre with her new home:

I think she looks happier already!