Xstitch Magazine

so as some of you might know i'm a huge cross stitcher. i cross stitch all the time. i'm so glad that i found cross stitching. i say all the time that cross stitching helps me fight my depression and anxiety. i've completed big and small projects and just love doing it. little by little my cross stitching world has expanded from just making things for friends and family but to also get paid for my work. i've even had a piece of work up in an art gallery that was later sold (woot woot!). if you want to see the projects i've completed and are currently working on, check out my instagram.

recently i've started writing articles for the cross stitching magazine XStitch Magazine. now i don't get paid, i actually pay for the opportunity to be able to write the articles. through patreon i pay the magazine a monthly fee (which helps fund the magazine's expenses) and i get the perk of writing an article for the magazine. (Check out the XStitch Magazine Patreon here). i get to write about whatever i want, but since it's a cross stitching magazine, i make sure to write about cross stitching/embroidery in some way. i've written three different articles and i'm actually pretty proud of them. if you haven't read XStitch Magazine you should totally go out and read the magazine. right now it's digital only, but as they make more money and are able to fund more, they will go back to making a print version of the magazine. it's a great modern magazine of cross stitching. (i'm not being paid to plug this magazine, i just really like the magazine and i'm proud to help fund it through patreon). 

the first article i ever wrote for the magazine, i wrote about craftivism. 

the second article i wrote about was finishing a project that took me over a year to complete and celebrating the completion of it. 

the third article i wrote about being colorblind and cross stitching. 

so go out and check out this great modern cross stitching magazine and see my articles in the magazine. already have an idea for the next issue of the magazine and can't wait to share it with everyone. 

Abortion

as i'm sure you have already seen/heard/read how different states in the USA are trying to control people who can have babies (women/non-binary/transgender) by having their constitutional right of having an abortion taken away. this is a bunch of crap.

ABORTION IS HEALTHCARE.

it doesn't matter why you are getting the abortion. it doesn't matter if you are getting your 5th abortion or your 1st. abortion is healthcare and no one can tell you how to take care of your body. you can think of abortion however you want, but don't you dare tell me or anyone else how we should take care of our body.

this is completely about control and not about 'life'. if it was about taking care of life then what about undocumented immigrants, people killed in interactions with the police, school children that are shot, addicts who overdose, death row inmates, people who need health insurance - all of these people have lives also. but the same people who cry 'it's about stopping murder, and life is so special', don't care about those people. all they care about is controlling the people who can have children.

how this is about control, sadly there are many examples of this. 1)by making abortion a federal crime, any person who has an abortion and/or the doctor who preforms the abortion get convicted of the crime, when they are out of jail, they will not be able to vote. 2)when the law is written that the people who rapes me goes to jail shorter then the doctor who does the abortion. 3)by having the laws written that not only is it against the law for me to have an abortion, it's also against the law to have birth control. 4)when the law is written that there aren't any exceptions even for the life of the person who is pregnant. so if i'm pregnant and i'm dying (for whatever reason: cancer, pregnancy its self), i cannot have an abortion. these are just a small sample of the laws that have been passed by different states in the USA.

my feeling for all of this is just rage. who do these people think they are to tell me and other people how they can take care of their body. its my body not theirs. so in my rage i found an image and just knew i had to embroider it. it expresses everything i think about these laws that are getting passed. stop telling me what to do with my body. i won't tell you what to do with your body.

i'm back!

ok i'm back! i will be posting again about my adventures in the world. sorry i was gone so long. but i'm back!!!! will have more later. much love!

cubs are world series bound!!!!!!

holy crap - in my lifetime after over 70 years, the cubs are going to the world series!!!!! they are going to play the cleveland indians. this all starts on tuesday. i'm so excited to watch it all! i've seen my blackhawks win multiple times in my lifetime. and the bears technically won in my lifetime too (i was born in '86 and the bears won the Super Bowl that year). now the cubs just need to do it!!!!!

LETS GO CUBS! GO CUBS GO! HEY CHICAGO WHAT DO YOU SAY?!

End Gun Violence

so there's a local cross stitcher by me that is totally awesome! her name is shannon downey or her crafting name is badass cross stitch. and she is totally awesome! i've taken an embroidery class from her and learned how to do french knots!!!!! (sorry i had to share that for i could never do them until she showed me how to do it). she also has some really cool patterns that you can download for free and that you can buy. so check out her etsy shop!

so in the awesomeness of shannon she is in Chicago IL and is doing a craftivism project to help end gun violence! the point of the project is: raise awareness and money to help end gun violence. so shannon put a message out on her website and asked everyone to make an image with a gun regarding gun violence in some way. then you send the finished project to her and it will be part of a gallery show that all the proceeds go to Project F.I.R.E. (Project fire is a chicago group that is an artist development employment program that offers healing through glass blowing to youth injured by gun violence in Chicago. Project F.I.R.E. combines glass arts education, mentoring and trauma psychoeducation in order to support trauma recovery and create employment opportunities for young people who have been shot or witnessed the homicide of a loved one.)

so when i saw that shannon was doing this i just knew that i had to make something for this project! shannon has been posting on her instagram some of the stuff people have sent to her and it  is amazing! so go see the images everyone made for this project. check it out here:

here's the gun that i made for the show. 

so head to the show and check everything out! i know i'll be going. i don't now if i'll make the opening reception night, but i know i'll be going to see the awesome gallery show! so you should check it out too! 

my recent cooking adventures

so these last couple of weeks i've had the chance to cook a little bit. and lets just say cooking and me do not go together. hehe. both times i cooked i set the fire alarm off in the house. hehe. so needless to say i need to cook more so i don't set off the alarm. hehe.

the first adventure isn't me fully cooking. a woman at work makes these amazing rolls and for some money she'll put them all together and all i need to do is fry them in oil. well that's what i did. and by doing that i set their alarm off. hehe. but the food turned out really good in the end. these rolls are super tasty. i love them! so every time i get to see her at work, i ask her to make them so i can cook them and then stuff my face with them. hehe. here are the rolls finished.

the next cooking adventure i had was baking a blue berry cobbler. my mom asked me to make it for her for her birthday. first let me say that cobbler is a diabetic coma just waiting to happen. hehe. almost two whole cups of sugar and a whole stick of butter. but in the end it tasted really good. of course while it was sitting in the oven, the cobbler went over the sides of the pan and burned at the bottom of the oven. and that of course set off the fire alarm in the house. hehe. it didn't look the best when it was done cooking, but it tasted great!

this first picture is after i put the last of the sugar on the top of the cobbler before i put it in the oven.

this picture is when i realized it was going over the sides and burning at the bottom of the oven.

this is the finished look. again, doesn't look the best, but it tasted great!

the last cooking adventure isn't fully a cooking adventure, but it's close. i had gone out for a girls weekend out with some friends and a friend of mine told me to combine vanilla cake icing and teddy grahams. and if i do that, it will taste like dunk-a-roos. remember those? on man those were the best. so i got the products and man, she was right! taste just like dunk-a-roos. hey at least with this one, i didn't set off the fire alarm. hehe. 

here's what you need to get for the dunk-a-roos!

Craftivism

Craftivism - activism using craft (cross stitching, knitting, etc) as the way of protest.

So i found this website called craftivist collective and they are totally sweet. they combine the idea of activism with the awesome craft of cross stitch. the idea behind it is the idea of gentle protest. for example: if there an injustice in the world that you don't like, say equal pay for workers (meaning a company isn't paying their workers equally/fairly), go to the store that isn't paying their workers fare wages and sit outside that store and cross stitch a message for them. not blocking the way to the store or anything, but for sure in front of the store. then when you are done, you can mail the message to the CEO of the company so that they have the message you made. like a handkerchief that says 'don't blow it. pay your workers fare wages'. the gentle protest in this is that you are sitting outside the companies store and people might come up to you and ask what you are doing. so you kindly tell them. you aren't shouting in peoples faces what you are protesting. but you don't shy away when being asked what you are doing. after your 'sit-in' at the store, mail the handkerchief to the CEO and they have a gentle reminder that they should pay their workers fare wages.

i really like this idea of the gentle protest. you aren't shoving your ideas into peoples faces, but you still aren't backing down with what you believe in. and using cross stitching to do this just makes it even better!

Craftivist collective has a bunch of starter ideas/projects on their website to help you get going with how you can gently protest what you see in the world. i bought their starter kit, which gave you a book, some stickers, a button and the project Footprint kit. here's a picture of all the stuff i got in my starter kit:

the idea behind the footprint kit is this: "helping you find the wisdom that inspires you to walk through life as the best global citizen you can be." (from the craftivist website). and with this you get a piece of cloth cut and dyed to look like a foot, some string, a needle and a booklet to help you with inspiration to create your foot. what you do is cross stitch a quote onto the foot cloth and then frame it however you want so that it is on display. so when it is on display the person who has the foot thinks about their impact on this earth.

so for my footprint kit project i used the quote "when people ask me where my roots are, i look down at my feet, and i see the roots of my soul grasping the earth." by rudolfo anaya. i really like this quote.

here's some pictures of me working on my foot.

now another part that the craftivist collective talk about when making your projects is what your thinking about when making your projects. your 'crafter thoughts'. when i had tweeted to craftivist collective that i had picked my quote and started my project, they asked me what my crafter thoughts were. my crafter thoughts for this project were this: 'my feet make an impact on this earth and it should be a positive one. since my feet impact this earth i should help take care of her and all that are on her.' and i believe those things. my feet do impact this earth and so i should take care of the earth and take care of the people who are on this earth. this is where my quote comes into play. my soul is connected to this earth. and if i treat mother earth badly, i treat my soul badly. it is all connected. 

i really enjoyed making this project and enjoyed the thoughts it put in my head. i'm going to keep this project that i made for myself. i need to remind myself that i am connected to this earth and she is connected to me. this is a gentle protest to myself. i need to never forget my impact on this earth and how i can be a better citizen of mother earth. here is a picture of my finished work. i really like how it turned out. 

so overall i really like this whole idea of the craftivist. i really like craftivist collective and all that they stand for. i really suggest you check them out! i for sure will be doing more projects inspired by them. i'll make sure to share what i make and to who i send them to. i already know the next projects i'm going to get and who i'm going to send them too. so more to come for sure!!!!!