Perler Magnets!

 I sometimes just get in the mood to make perler bead things and last night was one of those nights.  I made the purple flower into a magnet for my mom, the Jaws poster is a magnet for my nephew, and Pennywise is... well, I don't know yet.  I copied this pattern from a pin I saw on Pinterest- like an actual pin  you would wear as well as a pinned picture on Pinterest.  HA!  No pun intended... anyway, the balloon has a little chain on it attached to Pennywise, and I would like to do that, but we'll see what supplies I have for that and what time I have.  Lastly, the Tardis is for my friend Anan who loves Doctor Who.  They're not like THE gifts, they're just getting stuck in as extras.  I love to put little extra things in my Christmas gift bags.  

I am sort of addicted to these right now so my cross stitch piece has gotten neglected but I'm gonna try like mad to finish it so I can make it my last post of the year!

Not Quite a Year-End Wrap-Up

Well, it's Wednesday and I only have a couple of more days left of work, which means I will probably only post a couple more times this year.  I don't post from my laptop because it's not the best, and I don't use it often.  

So far this year, I have completed 68 cross stitch pieces.  I am working on what may be my final one for the year but maybe not, depending if I decide to do a couple while I'm out at my parents'.  I completed 4 or 5 little diamond paintings and three embroidery pieces!  I did 30 little perler bead pieces!  As usual, cross stitch dominated my crafting this year.  

I finished the bows for my berets and here is an action shot!  I have a black one for my black beret.

And we all know I am a rabid fan of The Office- here is a perler bead sprite of Dwight Schrute that I completed last night.  I'm gonna make him into a magnet.

I'm working on a few other pieces I'm going to make into magnets, and then I may just do some for the heck of it to add to my box of "what am I gonna do with these?"  

I do have two more days, so I may be posting more perler bead pieces or maybe I'll actually finish my current cross stitch piece and post it.  You never know!

Perler Bead Fun

I did some more Perler bead pieces last night.  I am not sure what I'll do with the bigger ones but I will either do magnets, hair clips or pins from the smaller ones.  

The flower in the jar came out a little more melted than I had intended but I think it's still cute.  My favorites from this group are the bow on the upper left, the little Totoro and the cat.  I also love the tiny robot!

I think the next ones I'll do are larger bows to pin onto my hats.  

Sublime Stitching x Julie West

I had a great weekend!  My job is amazing and flew me out for our holiday party.  They also covered my hotel and transportation.  The party was SO SO much fun.  I took some cross stitch stuff with me in case I wanted to do any at any point.  I always take it and never do it, but I guess it's best to have it just in case the mood takes me.  I just don't like answering a ton of questions- it never fails that if I am doing cross stitch or embroidery, I get flooded with random questions from random strangers.  I hate the airport and so it's not the place I want to chat to people.  

When I got home and settled,  I decided that I wanted to do an embroidery piece.  I had printed out the entire sheet of the pattern collaboration between Sublime Stitching and Julie West.  I have done a few little guys from that sheet in the past on onesies, but I just wanted to do one for the heck of it, so I chose the bee flying over flowers.  I'll probably do each one of the characters on the sheet.  

I went to the Sublime Stitching page and the patterns have gotten a little advanced.  I don't particularly enjoy painting with my embroidery floss.  I prefer simple embroidery with outlines and maybe some other stitching styles here and there but I don't have the patience or talent to do a piece filled in entirely, and that's what a lot of the patterns look like.  I'm not AT ALL knocking that... it's just not what I prefer. 

ANYWAY, I went to look at the simpler PDF patterns and a lot of the old school ones are no longer available, which made me really glad I grabbed most of them back in the day!  I still have some of the actual iron-ons I got when Ginger's Needleworks was open in Austin, and I think I got the PDF version of those as well in case I lost them or wore them out.  

I'm babbling... here is my sweet little piece I finished while watching my weekly Christmas horror movie- Silent Night (2017)!

More Perler Bead Pieces

 These may be my last perler beads projects for a little while, but maybe not.  I made the bow for a hair clip, the nesting doll for... something.  I made the little Jaws thing for my nephew because that is his favorite movie.  I think I'll put a magnet on the back.  I think it's super cute.  

Perler Pins

 It's that time of year again when I get the urge to make perler bead stuff.  I cannot explain why I am like this, but I usually only do perler bead stuff in the winter.  

I prefer to do projects with the smaller beads because I often want to make hair clips or pins or magnets out of them and they just make cuter little things!  I get my beads from Perler and Artkal.  There was a really great place to get the mini beads, but they unfortunately went out of business.  They were a US distributor of the Artkal beads, which originate overseas and with tariffs and stuff, I'm sure they've gone up quite a bit on their prices.  Luckily I grabbed just about every color under the sun a few years ago and have plenty left!  

I decided since I am in a place now where the weather allows me to wear blazers and vests more than a couple of times a year, I will make some cute lapel pins.  I love to wear flair on my vests and blazers, and I thought maybe some Perler bead pins would be cool.  I may make some hairclips too, but I'm not sure.  I get all of my patterns from Pinterest, or sometimes I will use a cross stitch pattern I already have. 

I made these last night...

Weekend Finishes

 This past weekend was great.  I didn't do much, which was nice.  I did go to a Stitch and Bitch at this really cool creative space here in Pueblo and had a nice time.  There was one other cross stitcher so I sat with her and we had a good chat.  

Other than grocery shopping and Stitch and Bitching, I finished my scarf!  It's a lot thicker than I expected, but it will be great for really cold days.  

I'm really happy with it and am excited to wear it! 

I worked on this lovely during the Stitch and Bitch and actually finished it during a break from work today.  Pattern is by MutantBunnyInc on Etsy.

Back into the knit of things

 Happy Friday!  

I really want to try Bargello stitching!  I have wanted to for a while but it wasn't popular so it was hard to find instructions and supplies but there is a company out there now called Hello Bargello who makes lovely kits with everything you need plus a pattern and instructions.  They have videos on their site and on YouTube too, and I watched them all last night in bed.  I REALLY want to try it but I hate spending $40 on a kit if it's something I'm not gonna like, so I was looking for supplies at Hobby Lobby since that's the only craft store we have in Pueblo, and of course, they don't carry the yarn you use for it. So I thought I'd have a look at the yarn I have to see if it would work.  I don't know if it will, but in true Jonesy fashion, I got distracted when I pulled out the yarn, as in the yarn box, there was a blanket I started three years ago on a long knitting loom.  I had a look at it, and it's terrible.  I didn't have the right yarn for it and it was really holey, so I took it off the loom and unraveled it and decided to start knitting a scarf, using a round loom.  I'm quite proud of those color switches!

I can't remember if these are the Knifty Knitter looms or the generic ones from Hobby Lobby, but they work just as well anyway.  I find loom knitting very relaxing and a great way to pass time, because you're stitching away and before you know it, hours have passed and you have something cool!  I didn't really intend for this to be a Hufflepuff-esque scarf- These are just the colors of yarn I had the most of.  Since it's a thinner yarn, I'm using a strand each off of two skeins to make it chunky.  Chunky yarn is expensive and doesn't seem to go a long way, so I remembered that's why I got the thinner yarn over the chunky yarn.  I'm really excited to finish this one and then I think I'm gonna make a solid red one.  I'd like to learn a few more stitches as well. 

PS- I have just about decided to bite the bullet and grab a beginner's kit from Hello Bargello...

Christmas Cross Stitches in Action

I was able to decorate this past weekend and display some of my cross stitches!  I have a lot of them and since we don't have the same sort of walls or wall space as we did in our house in Hutto, I can't hang all of them.  I thought I'd display the new ones!

I'm very pleased with how this display came out.  I wanted it simple, but not so simple that it looks unfinished.  I wish the cord for the lights was silver or white.  

Snow Day and Diamond Painting

It is SNOWING outside!  This makes me very happy.  Where I grew up, we got snow a few times in my entire life.  I can probably count them on both hands, the times we got SNOW and not sleet or slush posing as snow.  But in CO, we are actually getting snow!  We got some Sunday night into Monday morning but it had stopped by the time I woke up.  It's been going like crazy all morning!  It's supposed to stop tonight.  Allen wants to make a snowman but I don't want the snow disturbed... so I guess we'll make a snowman!  Afterall, it's not all about what I want.  

Anyway, I had a really rough day at work yesterday, and decided instead of cross-stitching, I'd do a small diamond painting.  I ended up doing two.  I really love this hobby and am soon going to run myself out of these little guys!  

The one on the left is from the Paint Gems Tattoo Edition Kit and the one on the right is their Black Magic Edition Kit.  

Thanksgiving Stitches

 I forgot to post the stitches I did during our cold Thanksgiving break!  

I love stitching in the cold weather, all bundled up with a coffee or cocoa and a blanket.  I used to love it in the woods the most, and I guess I probably still do, but it's sure nice to do it in Colorado where it's actually cold when it's supposed to be cold!  

I finished this one by CryBaby Cross Stitch and I'm kind of mad that I started it too low on the fabric and I'm not even sure if I'll be able to do much with it.  This is a piece of aida I dyed last week.  I think it's gorgeous with the black.  

This is the second one I've done by Noctiflora Designs.  I started it on a piece of dark fabric and got irritated because it was not really conducive to the colors in the patterns and I messed up so I pitched it and decided I'd revisit after making another piece of aida for it, and so I did!  This is another piece I dyed last week.  I love how it looks on this fabric!  

I think I'll post about the jar dying method next, once I have a couple more pieces done.  I was going to also try to do a blood spatter pattern, but when I tested it on a piece of scrap aida, the dye bleeds too much for it to look good, so I just purchased a piece of fabric already dyed appropriately so I can do a cross stitch piece for my sister, just because.  

Paint Gems- Tattoo Edition

 Here are some of the little diamond paintings I did from the Paint Gems Tattoo Edition Kit.  I have only done a few, but I'm sort of getting back into it and so I'm sure I'll have more to post soon.  

One thing I like about diamond painting is that it's similar to cross stitch, and another cool thing is that often, the little gems used correspond with a cross stitch color, so you can make your own designs.  I have tried this without success.  Diamond Dotz makes some little grids but they are so small I can't fit a decent design in the grid. There was also a paint-by-square book I got to see if I could make some of those into diamond paintings by using an adhesive sheet over the page, but the squares are just a tiny bit too big.  I tried these methods a couple of years ago and so maybe there are better resources or ideas out there now.  I think it would be cool to design one of these myself or use a cross stitch pattern for a diamond painting.

This guy is my favorite.  

Paint Gems- Black Magic Edition

I have been doing diamond painting on and off the past 5 years or so. It started with a 16x20 diamond painting rendition of Starry, Starry Night by Van Gogh.  I don't know where in the world the picture of that finished project is.  I worked on it a bit in 2020 when I decided to try out diamond painting, and then put it away and didn't really get back into it until about 2023 or so.  I finished it after months, and ended up donating it when we moved, because I just don't have the room here to hang it up.  It was really beautiful, and I hope whoever bought it loves it.  

Anyway, I found I have more patience for smaller pieces.  Plus, the larger pieces are really expensive since they come with EVERYTHING you need, including the tiny gems that you place in the tiny squares.  I may one day complete some larger pieces, but for now, I'm sticking with smaller ones.  

Paint Gem makes some great kits.  They come with several smaller projects and all the fixin's, and they will run you between $40-$50 a kit, but they do have sales sometimes and BOGOs.  The Paint Gems kits come with between 10-16 smaller projects.   Michael's also carries smaller project kits and I have a few of those.

Here are some I have completed from the Paint Gems Black Magic Kit.  

Aida Dying 101- The Oven Method!

 I don't think I have ever posted about my adventures in dying aida!!  That's shocking... 

Anyway, years ago, I learned a method of dying aida, or cross-stitch fabric, and I have not looked back!  There are so many possibilities and it's a lot cheaper than buying it from the shops online.  It's a little pricey!  I have posted several cross-stitch pieces here for which I have dyed the aida myself.  

I learned the oven method from a YouTube video that I can no longer find.  Luckily, I wrote the steps down.  I use the Rit liquid dye and the powder dye as well.  

Basically for the oven method, you preheat your oven to 275 degrees.  Rinse the aida in cold water and wring it out really well.  Mix your dye- I never measure.  I just start out with a small amount in a plastic or glass cup, and then pour a little boiling water over, and then test the color on a piece of white scrap aida by dipping a plastic spoon into the dye and water and dropping it onto the aida.  A good thing to note is that the color will be a bit lighter on the fabric when it dries.  

When you have the color you want, scrunch your aida into an oven- safe dish.  I just use a casserole dish I have.  The video said to use a specific one for dying only but I have used the ones I also use for cooking and it's fine because... well, you wash it before you cook with it, duh.  

Anyway, scrunch your fabric to fit into the dish.  The scrunchier it is, the more texture you will have in your design.  Pour your dye over the fabric and move it around a bit to get it nice and coated.  Pop the dish into the oven and cook for 30 minutes.  Then you will remove the dish, remove the aida with tongs, and rinse in cold water.  Wring it out and press it in a towel to get the moisture out.  

Some people dry theirs in the dryer, but I just air dry mine, and then iron.  It looks so cool!  Here is a piece I dyed today- I still need to iron it.  I will do a Toadghoul by Noctiflora on this one.  For the brown bits, I sprinkled some powdered Rit dye while the fabric was waiting to go into the oven, and I like the effect it made!

I will post about the ice method in my next post, and then we will talk about the jar method.

Yee Haw!

 Well, it's the last day before our Thanksgiving break and I am having a hard time concentrating at work.  I'm just ready for a nice 4 days off and to eat good food and to decorate!  I may start decorating my office today, at least put the little Yule tree up!  

I saw something about people in North Carolina running ICE agents into the woods because they are tired of the bully gestapo coming in and harassing and abusing American citizens due to the color of their skin.  It's wild this is happening in the US... anyway, someone said they couldn't think of anything more "Yee haw, fuck the law!" and I love that phrase, so I made a cross stitch pattern and stitched it up yesterday.  

I'm quite happy with it and I think it will definitely get a frame and be displayed somewhere!  I have those Command velcro strips I can use to hang things on the wall without damage, so I think I may use those to hang up some of my pieces in my office.  I don't want to cover the walls again, because the walls in here are so nice and it's a small room and I don't want it to feel cramped, but I'll put a few up anyway.  

Lovely Cozy Weekend

 We had an absolutely LOVELY weekend!

Friday night, we went to our favorite bar here in Pueblo.  It's at a really cool food court-esque spot called Fuel and Iron.  We had a couple of drinks and then hopped down to our favorite vegan spot called The Cutting Board.  They have the best sandwiches I have ever put into my face hole.  It was drizzly and a little chilly, which I love!  

Here's a pic of the sandwich I usually get- this pic is of the first one I had back when we visited to look at houses in July and it doesn't look like much but HOLY SHIT- Confit portobello, shallots, pickles, spinach, vegan gouda (this man is a freakin melty cheese WIZARD- usually vegan cheese melts minimally if that), and some special chipotle aoili.  I've had a few other things there and always come back to this.  

Tardis Door and Tree of Gondor

I have been a busy bee lately!  Saturday through yesterday, I painted our new kitchen door.  The reason it took so long was because I painted the stucco patches and the stucco on the frame as well as the outside frame itself on Saturday and wanted it to be completely dry before I started on the door.  Then on Sunday, I painted the trim on the inside of the house and the door on the inside.  I wanted to make sure it was completely dry before taping things off to touch up and doing the second coat.  We were able to leave the door open to let the frame dry and do a second coat.  

Sunday I painted the outside of the door, but it starts getting dark kind of early now, so I didn't have a chance to finish second coat and inside of the frame on Sunday.  Monday is was SUPER SUPER windy and so I didn't do anything to it.  So yesterday, I did the second coat and finished the frame and it just looks so super beautiful and I am so happy to have a door that doesn't squeak and scrape super loud every time we open it and a door handle that's not janky!!  

How gorgeous is this blue?  It's Outer Space by Behr.  It's the approved color for "Tardis Blue".  

Other fun things- we went for a walk yesterday and look at this tree across the street from our house (that's our cute yellow house in the background)!  It's a natural Christmas Tree!  I wonder if they will decorate it for Christmas... I tried decorating a couple of times outside when we lived in Hutto, but it gets so windy that it blew everything all over and some days, we get wind like that here too, so I just have my solar faerie lights on the porch.  

Speaking of, when redoing my faerie lights (I had to move the solar panel on them so I had to totally remove one set and what a pain in the ass that was to get them back up!), I heard this loud squawking, like a goose, approaching me and I was like "What the fuck is that squawking?"  Then I realized it was coming from overhead.  It was a pack of geese flying south!!  In Texas, I never saw that.  Or if I did, they were already too high up for me to hear them.  It was really cool!  I didn't get a pic because I was too busy oggling!  

I also finished my Tree of Gondor cross stitch last night.  It was a pretty easy one, even though I used navy blue as the fabric, and I did it in glow-in-the-dark thread which to be honest isn't quite as easy as regular because it tends to fray a little, but I am happy with how it turned out.  I haven't tested the glow brightness.  

The Witchy Stitcher Cryptid Stitch-Along FINAL INSTALLMENT: Popelick Goatman

 After I finished Bigfoot, I decided to go ahead and finish the entire Cryptid Stitch-along out and ended with the Popelick Goatman!

The Popelick Goatman is one I had never heard of.  Then I got this stitch-along and saw him on there.  I watched a show called Out There:  Crimes of the Paranormal and they had an episode about him.  I thought it was really interesting.  

There is a railroad trestle over Pope Lick Creek outside of Louisville, Kentucky.  The Goatman is said to live there.  There are accounts of him luring people there to fall to their deaths from the trestle.  Some accounts say he jumps from the top of the trestle onto the hood of cars passing over the trestle.  And some accounts say he chases people and they jump to their deaths.  He is supposedly part man, part goat and part sheep.  

Whatever he is, this depiction is awfully cute. I'm sure he's much more fearsome in real life... I wouldn't want to find out. 

The Witchy Stitcher Cryptid Stitch-Along: Bigfoot

This is the next to last installment of The Witchy Stitcher's Cryptid SAL.  This will be the first SAL I ever finished!  I almost finished Lola Crow's Creepy Christmas SAL a few years ago but didn't get around to the last pattern.  Maybe I can do that one next year.  Her patterns are AMAZING but to make them so nice, she has to do big portions of what I call "confetti", which is several different colors in a small area that are similar and hard to distinguish between (apart from the symbols on the pattern, which sometimes my brain mixes up), and that is something I struggle with.  I get easily annoyed.  That's not anything against her or her patterns, and I will still do them no matter how annoyed I get, but that's just why I didn't finish that SAL.  

But I digress.  I technically finished all of the Cryptid SAL, but she included three cryptids to chose from for the final installment.  You could choose for the last one Hodag (which I posted not too long ago), Popelick Goatman or Bigfoot.  I suppose I technically chose Hodag, which I posted not long ago.  Last night I finished Bigfoot.  Like all the other cryptids in this SAL, he is just so cute!!  

Bigfoot is one of my favorite cryptids.  Apparently where I grew up in the piney woods of East Texas is a hotbed for Bigfoot sightings.  I didn't know that until last year and that's a good thing because I would have been terrified to go into the woods had I known that as a kid.  And apparently, The Witchy Stitcher lives in a Bigfoot Hotspot, somewhere in Canada!  How interesting.  

Everyone knows who Bigfoot is.  "The term 'Bigfoot' is used to describe a legendary race of "ape" men all over the world, with sightings back to the 1800s.  A Bigfoot is a heavy, bipedal humanoid ape.  It is believed that Bigfoot stands at around eight to ten feet tall.  It has dense fur, ranging in colors from red to white to brown.  It has very large feet." - The Witchy Stitcher

Weekend Finishes and Frames

I had a nice productive weekend.  We woke up at a decent hour Saturday, and I was able to finish up my "Decorative Gourd" pattern from Subversive Cross Stitch!  My mom decorates really cute for each holiday, and I thought she would like this.  The original pattern says "It's decorative gourd season, motherfuckers!" but this is the one I was talking about that I wanted to make for Mom, and wanted to clean up.  I thrifted the frame from Goodwill and I think it's perfect!  It only cost me $3!  I used the DMC Charles Craft printed aida in the orange color. 

Tiny Swearing

I wanted to start on a cross stitch for my mom, just because, but I have to alter the pattern because it says "Motherfuckers" on it and I wanted it to say "Y'all".  But I really had the itch to stitch, even after I finished my "All I Want for Christmas is Your Soul" piece, so I stitched this little cutie up last night while watching the series finale of Star Trek:  The Next Generation with my cute lil husband.  We have seen it a million times but both love that series so much.  

I am not sure what count this fabric is- it's either 16 or 18 ct.  It's a lot smaller than I thought it would be and it fits in my 2" ornament hoops!  I think it's cute.  My mom disagrees... so I MUST alter the cross stitch pattern I want to make for her!

I Don't Ask for Much for Christmas.

I have had this pattern from The Witchy Stitcher for years.  It was always really intimidating to me, because there is so much going on and with my short attention span, I never thought I'd be able to enjoy and finish it.  Boy, was I wrong.  I think it took me like a week of stitching but I did it!

In our new house, the walls aren't really meant to hang stuff on, I guess, because we have to have concrete drills to make any holes in the walls in most rooms, and in some, there is really cool wallpaper I don't want to hang stuff on, and in OTHER rooms, there is a nice white paneling they have put up that I am a huge fan of... but I plan to frame this and I will find somewhere to display for the holiday!

It's taking me a lot of self-restraint not to decorate for Christmas right now.  I'm usually good until after Thanksgiving but I think it may be because last year, I didn't decorate since we were packing and this year, we're in a new home.  But I'm being good!  I do already have spaces cleared out for decorations, though!  

Early Start on Snowflakes

 I love to stitch snowflakes!  I did these using 16 ct aida so they would fit into 2" hoops for ornaments.  I got the patterns for them from SamplerCrossStitch on Etsy.  I used variegated thread on the one of the left and I like how it looks!  I don't have room on my tree for these this year, I don't think, so I'm not sure what I'll do with them but they sure are cute.

A Blithe Yule

 It's a bit early for Christmas stuff in our household but I wanted to start on some Christmas stitching anyway.  We won't put the tree up until after Thanksgiving, and in the new place, there are far less places to put Christmas decor.  But I will definitely frame this up and hang it somewhere.  Pattern is by SirenStitchWorks on Etsy.  It says "A Blessed Yule" in Scottish.  I'm actually shocked at how quickly it came together.  I finished it in two days while watching true crime documentaries after work and on my lunch break!

I kept my 2024 Ort Ornament out last year so I could fill it after I had done all the cross stitching for the year, and since all my Christmas was packed up, I didn't wanna lose it. I just grabbed it and labeled it with my paint markers and I also found, while unpacking craft stuff, the empty one I purchased for 2025 and painted "2025" on it. I can't remember if I started the ornaments in 2021 or 2022... I'll have to wait to fill the new one until the final stitch I do this year. What will it beeeee....? At least I can hang 2024 on the tree this year! It's a little less filled than I remember... but not to worry, I've done more cross stitching this year than any other in the past and so I feel like 2025's MAY be a bit fuller!

More Perler Sprites

This week has gone by kind of fast!!  

I texted Mom and Dad like I always do in the morning and Mom said they covered the pool today. So the summer days of pool time are officially over for 2025. I don’t think I got into the pool as much as I thought I would when we lived there. And I can’t believe we’ve lived here for a month and a half already!  

The end of another era- I closed out the first UFCU account that I opened back in…2009? So the only account we have left in Texas is the bills one, which we are slowly moving over. I think we should move it all over except what is due soon, with maybe about $100 extra in there, and then we can move that over after those other bills are paid. I’ll figure that all out tomorrow maybe. Then the ONLY thing left I have to do is get my car registered and since I can go to the DMV in Coldspring and get a copy of my registration, I should be able to get that done next week. I hope so, I’m ready to take these Texas plates off and hang one up in the garage. Allen hung his up in there already.  

I found some more pics of some Perler Bead Sprites I've done.  I also can't remember when I did these but I found them on my IG so thought they needed posting!

I did this one a while back and lost the top black bead.  I found it when I was unpacking my office.

This One's Dedicated to the Squirrels

 In Hutto, we had rabbits all over the place to watch and fawn over.  In Pueblo, it's squirrels.

The squirrels around our house are brave.  They will get sort of close to you on the fence.  They will come up onto the porch.  They will chatter at you and then run across the top of the fence when you are trying to nail something onto the boards.  When you throw a hammer onto the ground in frustration, they will laugh at you. And they also respond when you talk to them.

They're super cute, though, and I love watching them.  I completed this cross stitch last night while watching Monk with Allen.  The pattern is by lagodartgento shop on Etsy.  

Perlers Revisited

 I have been thinking about doing some more perler bead art lately and it reminded me that I haven't posted a lot of my perler bead art.  I did post most of it but there are some I didn't post that I did later, or just didn't get around to doing.  

I made my nephew some little minecraft guys'  heads one year just for the heck of it.  One of the zombies didn't turn out so well, so I kept him for some reason.  He's below, along with some candy, pizza, an onigiri and a cute bow I made.  I was gonna make barrettes from them but never got around to doing it.  

I'm not sure what Perler projects I'll do next but I alwasy get the itch at the end of the year and beginning of the next.  Weird how that happens like clockwork every year!

I Survived- Again!

So apparently, there was another rapture that was supposed to happen last week.  They are always going on about "The Rapture" and then nothing happens. Not that I'm complaining, it's just funny.

I did this to commemorate the occasion and finished it last night.  Pattern by Subversive Cross Stitch.

Settling in with the Faeries (Not really craft-related)

 We are really enjoying Colorado!  I am still getting used to the fact that we actually moved here.  I have wanted to live here my whole life but never thought it would happen.  The mornings have been cold and then it's been warming up into the 70s but without the humidity, it's REALLY lovely outside and I have finally been unpacking all of my faerie garden stuff and decorating the back yard.  I'll have to get some pics of it later.  I'm really excited about putting all of my solar stakes and lanterns and lights too.  

The Witchy Stitcher Cryptid Stitch-Along: The Hodag

I finished this one last night.  I think he is so cute. I'm obsessed with his little feet!  This is one of the last cryptids in The Witchy Stitcher's Cryptid Stitch Along.  I have Bigfoot and the Popelick Goatman to do and I'll be done!  These have been so much fun.  Then I will start on the Supernatural Stitch-along!  I think for that one, I'll just use regular aida.  I had to keep getting this oatmeal aida and sometimes it was hard to find, and I did want them to match somewhat.  Anyway, here is Hodag. 

"In the heart of the Northwoods near Rhinelander, WI, lucky visitors may come across a mysterious, mischievous beast known as the Hodag.  The Hodag resembles a large bull-horned carnivore with a row of thick curbed spines down its back.  It was said to be born from the ashes of cremated oxen.  The Hodag is rarely seen but often blamed for cheeky tricks involving missing keys, sunglasses, and helping the "big one" get away from anglers."- The Witchy Stitcher

Nesting... (Not really craft-related)

 Since moving into our little home, I have tried to make it as cottage-y and possible!  I loved our home in Hutto, and it was much bigger and newer.  This house was built in the 1940s and is small.  I adored our home in Hutto.  I really bonded with the house's spirit, and it was gutting to leave.  But I really think that I will bond deeply with this house too.  It has a lot of character and it's small but so homey!  

I have been in the mood to bake and cook a lot lately, and not just convenience food, which is what I often go to after work if I'm tired or have a lot to to. One of my favorite comfort meals to make is Zuppa Toscana and bread.  The soup I made, but the bread in the pic is a take and bake bread.  I also made the garlic butter, but of course, didn't make the butter itself from scratch.  I think this may be the best batch of Zuppa Toscana I have ever made and I think it was because rather than making cashew cream, which tends to get thick when you cool it and then you have to water it down to heat it up and that dilutes the flavor, I used vegan cream, and didn't have to water it down when I reheated so the flavor remained.  This is such a great comfort meal!

I made these hobbit pies for National Hobbit Day, which was September 22nd.  That's Bilbo and Frodo's birthdays.  We ate these while watching The Fellowship of the Ring.  Allen gobbled his up, but I had  half of mine left for lunch the next day!  

And I baked these low-sugar oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  They are so easy and so goooood. 

Happy October!

Well Happy October!!  The move was... rough.  The movers were AMAZING, but there was just a lot of other bullshit to deal with.  If I get into it, this will be a mini-novel so...

But, we are here, and we are settled! We have done a ton of things around town, and found all the good food!  Also, we are not live-out-of-boxes people and we are not procrastinators, so we are mostly unpacked (well, the boxes we are going to unpack for now anyway) except a few personal boxes here and there.  The essentials are unpacked and settled.  I have a few boxes in my office and in my office closet, and we actually do have a ton in the basement but they are out of sight or on shelves until we can get to them,  and we will keep them there until we figure out what to do with the contents.  

One thing that's a bit of a bummer... most of the walls, you can't get a tack or even a nail into.  We had to get a concrete drill to drill holes for screws for hanging pictures, so I will not be able to put all of my stitches up like I had at the last house.  In a way.. I'm not too mad about it because we did have A LOT.  It was a much bigger house, too, almost twice as big as we have now, and I think maybe having the walls covered would make it look cluttered.  Right now, we have big art on the walls, and it looks great.  Nice and clean, and not overwhelming.  So I'm okay with it and one day, I may find a place I want to hang some of my pieces.  for now, they are in boxes or in my art portfolio (Which is just about full!).  I MAY be able to hang a bunch in the bathroom but it has the CUTEST crane wallpaper on one wall, and I don't want to cover it, and the rest of the walls have some sort of covering that makes it look like brick.  I tried to get a tack in... nope.  Oh well!

I finally sat down to do a cross stitch a couple of weeks ago and between still getting settled and having downtime, I worked on it.  It took a while, only because I was also distracted by other stuff.  But with all the shit going down in this country, it sums up how I feel right now.  The pattern is another collab between Subversive Cross Stitch and Very Cross Stitching.

Die Mad About It

 Moving day is quickly approaching!  We are scheduled to load up and leave on September 2nd, which is a week and from today.  This move happened a lot faster than I had planned, and I didn't have the time I'd like to visit everyone before we go.  I did have a couple of visits planned, one with the Belladonnas and one with Amber and Sherry, former coworkers and victims of Sears.  I didn't get to have a final brunch with the Brunch Bitches of Taylor, but we did actually have several in this year, so I don't feel so bad about that.  Everyone else.. well, the road works both ways, y'all.  People who made an effort to see me, got to see me.  Those who made zero effort and wanted me to do all the work... g'bye forever!  

Maybe not forever but.. this move has shown me who really cares and who wants it to be about them all the time.  As if I didn't know but still.. ANYWAY... that's not what this blog is about.  

I finished this one last Thursday and now I have all of my stitchy things packed except for stuff for my next two projects, in case I get to work on them in the hotel while we are traveling or if I need something to do before the movers get to the house, since it's gonna take them longer than it takes us.  I would say it's the last one I did in the house I grew up in but we all know I will do more cross stitching there when I visit.  So I'll say the last one I did when I LIVED in the house I grew up in.  Why do I chronicle these sort of sad things?  I don't know...

This one is by SonOfACrossStitch.  I did alter the patten a bit because some of the colors in the original pattern weren't going to show up on this sparkly aida.  Can you see the sparkles??  I love it when they show up in a photo!  I say this all the time so it was great to find a cool pattern that said it.  I now need to find one that say "Die in a fire", because that's another Jonesey-ism.

8-13-25

 For a busy packing time, I'm getting my stitches in!  I love this one so much by The Gloomy Gremlin!  

I have three of these cozy patterns by largodargento on Etsy.  The first was a teapot I did and posted last year around this time, I think.  There is this cute pumpkin one, and then there is a squirrel one I shall work on soon!  They are the cutest and stitch up pretty quickly!

We have scheduled movers and in THREE WEEKS (oh my God), we will be on the way to Colorado!  We will be loading up on September 2nd and then we are on our way!  It's coming up so fast!  I'm really excited and really nervous.  I will be making the drive by myself because, of course, Allen and I are driving separately.  I'm afraid I'm gonna be a wreck leaving my parents.  I don't know what to expect.  Damn this anxiety!

Everything is going to be okay.  

The Witchy Stitcher Cryptid Stitch-Along: Mongolian Death Worm

I have been plugging away at this Cryptids from the Cryptid Stitch Along by The Witchy Stitcher.  I know these are meant to be on one huge piece of Aida but I just can't do that with my neurospicy brain, so I always do stitch-alongs separately and then one day I can create a collage of all of them!  This is The Death Worm.  

“The Mongolian Death Worm is a Cryptid reported to exist in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, East Asia.  It is described as a bright red word with a wide body that is 2-5 feet long.   The worm is the subject of many extraordinary claims such as the ability of the worm to spew forth acid that will turn anything yellow and corroded (and which would kill a human), as well as its ability to kill at a distance by means of electric discharge.  The main antagonists ni the Tremors series, called Graboids, were based upon the Death Worm.  There was a film released in 2010 based solely on this scary worm entitled “Mongolian Death Worm”.- The Witchy Stitch, Cryptid Wiki

Allen is out of town this week, and so I have been going through boxes, organizing, putting in piles to donate, and making more detailed lists.  We are still set to close around August 20th, and then it will just be a matter of scheduling movers.  Allen is pretty relaxed about all of it but I am on a mad dash to pack because we always have more stuff than we realize and while most of that stuff is in storage, I did unpack quite a bit here!  

Come With Us Now on a Journey Through Time and Space!

Well, it's on!  We (I, actually) have started packing for our move!  I sort of like packing, and I sort of hate it.  I have also started organizing. So we have all these boxes in a storage shed, and in a bedroom here, and they are just numbered, and not really labeled, because we did a system where we had a list of what is in which box and the boxes had corresponding numbers.  So I am going through each box and listing what's in it, and putting where it's gonna go in the house, because we are hiring movers to put the boxes where they need to go.  I am kind of enjoying that bit.  

We don't have anything scheduled quite yet because we don't know when they will be done with all repairs but I'm figuring we will be moving between mid-September and mid-October.  That's a great time because it's hot as fuck here but it coincides with Autumn and they are actually going to be cooling down that time of year!  

I have still managed to get some stitching in!

We LOVE The Mighty Boosh!  I can't find many cross stitch patterns that I like, though.  There are tons of Old Gregg ones but they are super elaborate and I get bored with very stitch-heavy projects.  I did find this one by ShortAndLoudShop on Etsy.

This is a Stundew by Noctiflora Designs.  I have several of her patterns but this is the first one I've actually done.  I dyed this aida myself :)  I stitched it up pretty quickly and it's just the cutest!

Simple Life

I have some great news... we found a home in Pueblo and our offer was accepted!!!  We should close on August 20th!!  EEP!!!  So excited!  There is a lot to be done, but the sellers have agreed to do it- plumbing, electric, foundation, and replacing the entire roof!  

Okay, back to what this blog is about...

I created this pattern because I wanted to stitch this up, but since it's about simplicity, I wanted a simple pattern.  I wasn't really able to find anything on Etsy that wasn't super elaborate, and the point of this quote is to celebrate the simple.  It's credited to Tolkien in The Fellowship of the Ring.  It's not actually in the books, but it's something Bilbo says while narrating his chapter "Concerning Hobbits" in his book "There and Back Again".  I think it's a lovely sentiment, and my goal in life is to just live a simple, peaceful and happy life.  We've had that for the most part for a long time, and I'm hoping that despite the chaos, hate, anger, etc going on, we can continue our simple life.  

I did NOT want to get out of bed this morning.  But... obviously I did :)  I went to Hutto this past weekend to visit friends.  We had brunch at Casa Jalisco in Hutto- Me, Krisy, Anja, and John.  Leslie was out of town and Jules had plans.  It was lovely, as usual, to see everyone.  I also went and visited Laurie and Gene.  They are my ex's mom and stepdad and we are still really close.  It may be the last time I see them for a very long time.  We had a great visit!  Then I came back to Coldspring and I am working on a cute cross stitch by Noctiflora that I will post soon!  

And OH MY HEART!!! I got a call on my phone from my sister's phone this weekend, and it was my sweet nephew. He asked me if I wanted to go see Weird Al on Friday. Awww :) I was like “Yes, I would love to, thank you so much for inviting me!” and then after a few minutes Sam got on the phone and said they had an extra ticket and she asked if he wanted to take his friend or Aunt Joanne and he said “Aunt Joanne!” THIS CHILD. Jason, his dad, said he would give me his ticket, way back in November, and I thought maybe they had forgotten and I wasn’t gonna ask about it, because I felt weird about it. But that was so cool and so I’m gonna work a couple of short lunches this week and leave a little early on Friday. It’s gonna be awesome!  I love Weird Al and to be there for my nephew's first concert is so special to me. Even if he is a mean stinky pre-teen ;) I just adore him.

If More of us valued food and song and cheer above hoarded gold...

It's been a while since I posted but... Pueblo was FANTASTIC!  We explored the city and looked at some houses as well.  We didn't find a house that fit what we are looking for, so we will keep going.  We had one picked out that we were IN LOVE with but it turned out to be a complete dump.  That was disappointing but I know we'll find a place we love.

We found some great food and we can get almost everything we need at the shops in Pueblo.  They have one called King Soopers, and it's Kroger with a different name, and I LOVE me some Kroger so I'm pretty happy.  There was not a lot of traffic.  And everywhere we went, we could get there within a few minutes!  I love it and am really excited about living there.  

We also went to a nature center that was just unreal!  I can't wait to go back.  

I am not sure I have ever lived in a time where we needed this mindset more than now...this is one of my favorite quotes from The Hobbit.  Thorin said it to Bilbo as he lay dying.  It's such a beautiful quote and I want it hanging in my home!  The pattern is by CrossStitchForYou on Etsy.  I actually started this in our hotel room in Pueblo and it's taken me a while to finish but I am really  happy with it.  I finished it last night!

Last night, we went to Chuy's after work.  OMG.  I love that place so much.  Their margaritas are BOMB and they have the best beans and tortillas.  I am going to mess the HELL out of Tex-Mex when we move.  We are waiting on a loan approval so that we will have some buying power.  Although the houses we looked at a couple of weeks ago didn't pan out, there are a bunch more houses for sale that we can consider.  We have found a few we hope to go see soon anyway.  Wish us luck!

Ghost in the Garden

We are going to Pueblo this weekend to check it out and see if we want to live there.  I'm super excited!  Road Trip!  We have off Friday and I am taking Monday and Tuesday off as well so I'll have some time to rest up after the trip and the drive.  Wish us luck!

I finished this one by The Bad Witch Crafts yesterday.  I am not super happy with how it came out.  It's not the pattern or the design, I just don't think it's my best work.  I dyed the aida myself, and I don't think it was the best choice of fabric for this specific piece.  The pattern is awesome and maybe I'll redo it on a better piece of aida later on!

So I think my Mom and I made a turtle friend!  We have been feeding the fish and turtles in the pond and today, when we drove up on the little cart, the same little guy came swimming up so fast!  I named him Tom Bombadil, because I am reading his poems, I love the character, and I love saying Tom Bombadil!  He's so cute.  We saw a couple of big-ish catfish too that we have never seen.  It was really cool.  After the fish and turtles amused us, we had a beer on the patio, and my dad finally joined us after doing some tractor stuff.  It is such a lovely way to round out the evening.  

Also, we are closing on our house next week!  July 8th.  This bit has been a whirlwind.  We put the house on the market, got several showings, and got an offer within a week that we accepted.  All the work we put in was really worth it!  I'm very excited, and after that, we just have to find a house we can afford in Colorado.  Maybe we will find one this weekend!  I have been doing a lot of magic towards this so I think we will be there by October at the latest.