writer
This week’s quote is from Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. I loved the characters in that book, and I love love love the parties they throw. The whole town shows up and to a raging party–but was anyone actually invited? It doesn’t matter. It’s the talk of the town, and everyone is going. See more of my thoughts on Cannery Row and the charming people of that story here.
Continue reading “everyone was going (embroidery no. 8)”
For #familybookclub this quarter, we read Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. (We’ll plan a video/phone chat soon to discuss!) In Middlesex, our narrator tells the story of a Greek family over three generations and a rogue gene that shows up in the youngest member of the Stephanides family and changes his fate.
Our narrator Cal is born as Callie. He is intersex, and has both male and female genitals. His family raises him as Callie, a woman, and later, after learning more about himself, he becomes Cal, a man.
To tell how Callie became Cal, he begins the story of his ancestors, starting with how his grandparents, who are brother and sister, fall in love. As Cal learns more about who he is, he visits a doctor, who calls him a hermaphrodite. Cal is young, and still Callie at this point, and doesn’t understand the word. So Callie looks it up in the dictionary. And to her horror, finds the words “see synonyms at monster.”
Continue reading “see synonyms at monster (embroidery no. 7)”
I can have oodles of charm when I want to. This quote is also from Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. I love his writing because there’s a darkness and a kind of rambling that has these brilliant quips and nuggets of truths.
Continue reading “oodles of charm (embroidery no. 6)”
No new embroidery this week–instead I got everything I have already done ready to put on the wall above my bed. A few weeks ago I was struggling with what to do above my bed, and I think this might be my new solution.
To get the hoops ready, I first had to paint them.
Then I placed the embroidery back into the hoops and loosely sewed up the back. And then it was time to hang them up!
#fatcat helped.
It’s been really great to take a step back and see all the work I’ve done so far. I’m really proud of my progress as a new embroiderer and excited to see what I’ve made displayed in one place. I think I can easily add more as I keep going, which was important to me, too.
Back to a new quote next week. After my vacation I’m really inspired and am excited to get going on some new quotes!
This is part of an embroidery project I am working on to sew some of my favorite quotes from books and post the images here each Sunday. Let me know if you have any quote suggestions! You can see the other quotes in my embroidery project here:
I’m home! I had the best vacation in Chicago. I am still not quite recovered. So instead of cleaning my house or making my lunch for tomorrow like a responsible adult, I updated my project life album from the weekend. You can see my first post on project life here.
I love looking through this album. And we’re only three months into the year. I used some quote cards from Elise Cripe’s blog and included the key from our hotel room and a playing card in a pocket. I also included screen shots of some texts we sent each other. But mostly I used the pictures we took from the weekend. I’ve been trying to take more pictures and really try to document 2013!
I am still obviously obsessed with project life, and I hope to keep going strong. With the fun things that are planned, it should be easy!
I’m obsessed with this blog, Enjoy it by Elise Cripe. Completely obsessed. I love her crafts, I love her writing, and I love love love Project Life.
I’ve tried scrapbooking before when I was younger, but never kept it up. But Project Life makes scrapbooking really easy. Using photo pocket pages, you can easily stick in photos, decorative paper, or anything else that can fit. To me, this makes it more about documenting every day life and less about organizing the layout, which is wonderful but never something I’ve been able to do consistently.
So, I’ve finally gotten some project life supplies and jumped in. My friend Jewels at Oven Lovin has started on this project, too. You can see her project life pages here. With all this inspiration, I’m really excited to have gotten started.
And here’s a page I haven’t quite finished yet
My plan is to do this for all of 2013. It’s been a really great year so far and there’s more really fun things coming up. Like family vacation! And my best friend’s wedding! And my upcoming trip to Chicago this week!
Have you ever noticed how in TV shows and movies, everyone is always on some sort of quest? The characters have to find all the horcruxes, go battle vampires (Buffy, not Twilight in this instance), or escape from a terrifying reality show and certain death.
Real life, for me anyway, is nothing like that. Real life is slow. Real life is researching at a desk instead of running around the world. Real life means planning, and meetings, and slow, constant frustrations.
That’s why I like making things. Each project is an adventure, even just from your own apartment. It’s a little way to create something, to do something new, and to accomplish something even when all the other frustrations seem like they won’t go away.
I had a week like that this week. Nothing big–we are all healthy and happy. But little frustrations have made it difficult to get things done. And it’s made me feel kind of like this week’s quote.
Continue reading “gibberish (embroidery no. 5)”
Embroidery no. 4! We’re really hopping now. This one is also from the Dark Tower series, and from one of my favorite love stories. It’s from the book Wizard and Glass (Kindle version here) and you can see more of my thoughts on it in the posts on youth and echoes.
Continue reading “if you love me (embroidery no. 4)”
“Go then. There are other worlds than these.” These words echo over and over throughout the Dark Tower series, and first appear in the first book The Gunslinger (Kindle version here). I read Stephen King’s series for the first time last year and fell in love. I love the characters, I love the crazy plot twists, and I love how much fun these books are to read. I’ve written a lot about them and have enjoyed all seven books up through the surprise ending.
Continue reading “there are other worlds than these (embroidery no. 3)”
You know when you’re really frustrated or super excited and you just hit your keyboard in a rush of emotion? That’s what inspired this screen printed notecard. Also my love of punctuation and the way people swear in comics, of course.
Since I took a low-tech screen printing class at the Brooklyn Brainery I’ve been interested in experimenting with screen printing and learning more about it. After I got my very own screen for Christmas, it became a lot easier. My first project was a print of Elvis that is now hanging on my wall. This project is on a smaller scale but I was able to make more prints because I had almost 20 notecards to work with.
I started by sketching a pattern on freezer paper and then cutting out my stencil.
Then I set up my screen printing area so I would be ready to make all the prints at once. I love freezer paper, you guys. I put it down on my table and clean up was so easy–I just threw away the paper! I am also using it to make stencils and it is working great for me so far. Freezer paper stencils, however, are probably not going to last after one use, so if you want to keep your stencil I’d recommend something a little sturdier (like this overhead transparency).
I made a few test prints.
And then I printed away! Here they are drying on my table.
I love these. They are a quick but personal way to send a note to friend (just in time for Valentine’s Day). Plus I think the design is simple and cute. I can’t wait to make more prints!
On a related crafty note, over the weekend I set a goal to accomplish one embroidery quote each week. This weekend I’ll be out of town, so I’ll post more not this Sunday but next. At least that’s the plan, anyway.
Rae Nudson 
