OCD crafting

I'm making a temari ball right now. It's a traditional Asian craft, apparently women would start making them before the new year and then give them to their daughters so the first thing they would see when they opened their eyes on New Year's day was a beautiful embroidered ball.

This website describes them as a "Japanese symbol of perfection"...I don't know if mine is that, exactly. It's my first time making one so I'm learning as I go, but the secret seems to be about 1/2 hand-eye coordination and 1/2 obsessive attention to detail. Oh plus a lot of math, too. The math is what screwed me up a little, which is why it's no symbol of perfection. Plus I'm regretting my choice of background thread color...



Anyway I am sure I will make more of these, if only because I hate not getting something exactly right the first time. Plus it's very intricate yet I can do it while watching movies, which I love. If you're interested, it's a styrofoam ball, covered with a layer of batting, then a layer of yarn, then a layer of thread wrapped randomly around the ball. Then you divide it into sections and embroider a pattern.

It might be a craft in the next book I'm working on, but only if I can figure out how to write the directions for making one!

It really ties the room together

I'm a big fan of "The Big Lebowski". Like, so much of a fan that I actually attended "Lebowski Fest" last year, which in case you haven't heard, is the annual mecca for Achievers (which is the preferred nomenclature, dude).

One of my favorite things about the movie is the dialogue, which includes a lot of highly quote-able lines. "This aggression will not stand"..."Mark it 8, Dude"..."That rug really tied the room together". But probably the best line and the one that sums up the whole movie is "The Dude abides". It's deep. It's so deep, in fact, that I decided we needed it cross-stitched on a sampler. Because every home needs a sampler, but our home is not exactly the "Bless this house" type.



So I whipped up this little sampler and now it hangs near our front door. It was really easy, even figuring out the little bowling balls and pins wasn't too hard. And now whenever friends come over, they know...the Dude abides.

Next I'm gonna do "Nobody F*cks With The Jesus".

the perfect summer bag?

Except for really liking my scotch, and a weird attachment to "Law & Order", I don't think I am one of those people with an "addictive personality". Except in one regard...I kinda have a problem with handbags. I don't even carry that many of them, I just like having them. Lately, I've been dreaming of a big oversized clutch, but one with a vintagey, touristy feel to it...like those bags that women picked up on Mexican cruises in the 60's. You still find them in thrift shops sometimes, but these days most of the ones I find are really sad and beat up. I have several awesome vintage straw bags, but they aren't sturdy enough for all the junk I carry around each day.

So I went ahead and made up the one I had in my head, and I'm pretty happy with the result! I used burlap instead of straw, and I made the flowers using a vintage flower loom. They were super easy to make, and once they were stitched down to the burlap they almost look like really elaborate embroidery. I added a chain handle that tucks inside so you can use the handle or not depending on how much you need your hands.





Anyway, I think it's pretty fab. It makes me want to put on a vintage sundress and go to a pool party and dance a rhumba. Now I'm thinking about laptop bags, and how most of them are so ugly. I know I could come up with something way cuter...