i have eleanor shellstrop's file. i do not have a cactus.

i cannot believe this day has already come...
the SERIES finale of the good place is tonight!
how i've come to adore this show the past 4 years and shout from the rooftops that EVERYONE NEEDS TO WATCH IT.
while cruising etsy, i found myself searching the good place, and landed on this perfect gem to add to my wall.  my first attempt was a fail, something about my fabric's count size was off, which made the pattern not fit on the cloth i had cut.  i started again fresh, and finished it this past weekend, just in time to make this post.
plus, i found the super adorable janet funko pop i had preordered (that wouldn't ship until the END of february from amazon) in store at box lunch, so she had to come home with me :)
i won't lie, i'm absolutely going to miss new episodes of this show.  between eleanor's arizona trashbag self, jason's antics and janet's not a girl/not a robot life... i'm just always entertained by it.
it is most certainly going to be regularly binged on netflix along side parks & rec.
and now that this is posted, maybe... just MAYBE i'll get my janet halloween costume posted... but that might not happen until summer time when i wear it again :)
welcome! everything is fine - pattern by IrisRaeStitches

the bridal shower cross stitch collection

much like my quilting & sewing phases, my desires to cross stitch comes in waves.  though in this case, the waves are few and far between.  i don't know what gets me in the mood to do such things, but once i have an idea, i go for it.  in this case, i started off with one idea.  then two.  then i think it turned in to five or six before i finished my last one.  i wanted to add some nerdy themed/quote decor to the bridal shower in a way that could be used for home decor in the future without being to blah.  i had made aileen 2 cross stitch pieces in the past for various things, and so i decided for some reason she needed more.  i started with lord of the rings, then rolled in to star wars.  followed it up with a little binary & parks and recreation.  lastly, i topped everything off with a classic princess bride quote.  these all sat on a glass case, each in their own frame (as seen in the previous bridal shower post) with all the photos of ben & aileen surrounding them.  the positive responses were great, and absolutely made the time it took to make them all worth it.  half the patterns i found on etsy, while others just appeared on pinterest and i had to graph them out on my own.  without delay, here's the cross stitch parade!

classic winnie the pooh cross stitch wall art

i'm so super excited that i can finally share this project... and it's not even a quilt!
my dear friend meagan got married back in 2011, and this past spring welcomed a new little baby bundle in to their family.  when she first announced she was pregnant, she tried to keep the gender a secret, but i was able to finagle a theme of their nursery to go with to make her a little something.  they were going with classic winnie the pooh, and considering meagan is a disney addict, nothing could be more perfect.  i decided to super go for it, and found this adorable cross stitch pattern on e-bay.  it was from a magazine in europe, so the floss brand & colors were different than what we carry here in the US.  thanks to google, i found a conversion chart and went on my merry little way converting the colors to what we have here.
now you should know, i am quite notorious for leaving cross stitch patterns unfinished, so the fact that i got this one done WITHOUT any oopsies was quite a feat.  and SO HARD to not post a photo on instagram proclaiming that to the world...  it's quite difficult when you make things for people who follow you... let me tell you what.  i know there is a photo of the balloons on there, but that's about as subtle of a post as i could pull off.  this was also my first time using french knots in a pattern, and i'm quite pleased!  well, i'm sure they would have been in other patterns that i have done. they just remain unfinished in the drawer... someday...
so there you have it.
one finished cross stitch, signed (not really), sealed (eh), delivered (yes!) and off to be loved.
other than hand cramping, i enjoy cross stitching quite a bit, and hope that i can convince myself to do more of them sooner.  or at least finish one of the ones i've had started for quite some time now.  it's even on my scrolling frame and everything (i loathe embroidery hoop marks...)  seeing a real end result (besides the ones i made aileen) is quite a feat.
wait... you think you see something in that last picture?
something... something that could be quilty?
consider it a hint at what is coming next week ;)

bazinga cross stitch sampler

yesterday my sister turned sixteen. you know, the same little sister that would come to my basketball games in 7th grade and eat goldfish crackers with her Sissy cat. yeah, she's the one. weird that she is officially legal to drive (if she only had her permit...) and all that crazy "sweet sixteen" dating kind of stuff. As you could tell from her christmas gift, she leans towards the nerdy things in life. she's big in to science & star trek, and wants to do something involved with science after high school. well, insert big bang theory here. i'm by far no way at all interested in the star trek side of her television watching, but when it comes to big bang theory, i am all there. something about the posse of nerds living out their social awkwardness just makes me smile. of course between my sister, my cousin & a few others in my family, i feel so much like penny on a regular basis. i made this cross stitch for her on the drive to vegas, altering the original pattern i based it off of a little big. i used the same colors from her starship sweet starship cross stitch so that they can hang side by side in all their nerdyness. it sounds like she's planning to redo her room next week over spring break, so between those two things i made her & the sheldon poster lisa & brett gave her on sunday, she should have a good starting out launch pad for room decor. and following along with her christmas gift theme, i also had to get her the "soft kitty" t-shirt so she can alternate with her "bazinga" shirt when she's in a big bang theory mood for school. or maybe it will be for her sick days... since that's really the only time that soft kitty is an appropriate song.
original cross stitch: big bang theory swap rnd.2 by edie22

love at first bite cross stitch sampler

i wanted to do a good star wars quote, but nothing i found online was anywhere near jenny's favorite quotes... so i thought i would be out of luck. but then on pinterest, i clicked on the "geek"tab, and the idea of pac man jumped out and got me! although every sampler i looked at had NO patterns to share... so what did i have to do?
4 sheets of graph paper and a bunch of scribbles later, i had my own pattern laid out. a few things were off here and there, so i had to make adjustments that i thought would be suitable... and they were. framed that little sucker up, and it was ready to go! and well appreciated at that :)
original i rendered my pattern from: road to the heart
other pac man pattern that i WISH i had time and patience to do: sprite stitch

starship sweet starship cross stitch sampler

somehow, my sister became a trekkie... don't know how. don't exactly remember when... but it happened. i decided to compete for the coolest sister awards with this year's christmas gifts for her by busting out my cross stitching skills. mind you, i haven't finished a cross stitch in years, so things were a little sketchy if i would break the trend or not.well, the trend was broken, and i busted out this thing in two sittings. i probably could have done it in one, but my fingers decided they needed a break instead. so two sittings at my computer... because that is the ultimate place to stitch? i don't know... and that sucker was done! i changed the colors around from the original sampler that i saw online to make it a little more star trek colored with the red/yellow of the show's uniforms.i have recently picked up a liking for hello kitty, and since she isn't as in to the "normal" hello kitty as i am, i stumbled across this shirt online and had to get it for her. it was a little bit trekkie, and a little bit kitty, paying homage to her past as a cat obsessed child. two birds, one stone. bam!
and here are the fun links as to where i found these items for inspiration and/or purchase:
starship sweet starship: on etsy
next generation kitty: on redbubble