30 for 30 crafting challenge

so for the month of may i worked on the 30 for 30 crafting challenge. i got to finish a couple of projects and got a bunch of work done of other projects. i'm proud of myself to finishing the challenge this year. here's the best pictures of the work that i did.

i read the book 'atlas shrugged' and loved it so much! i had been wanting to make a cross stitch somehow related to it and so i made this cross stitch. it's on a pre-stretched canvas. took me only a day to create the pattern and cross stitch it.

i've been working on this peacock cross stitch for a very long time. those feathers were a pain in my ass! and being color blind did not make it any easier. the only thing i have to do to complete this is a bunch of back stitching. once this is finished it will be going to my sister-in-law. she asked me to make this pattern for her. this is the only project i didn't fully finished during the 30 for 30 challenge. 

i made this pattern for my cousin and her husband for their wedding. the original pattern was for a baby announcement but i changed it for their wedding. 

this pattern came from a book called 'twisted stitches' it's a great book. this is the first pattern i made from the book. i put it on a canvas tote bag that was pre-holed for cross stitching. i gave it to my aunt who lives in mexico. 

BookCon Chicago was a blast!

So i talked about bookcon before here and i went and so wanted to tell you about my fun! I went to bookcon with my friend Melissa and had a grand ole time. in no particular order here's all the fun i had that day:

-got to meet the amazing Lindy West, the author of 'Shrill'. when waiting in line to get her signature, they passed out these megaphones with 'Shrill' written on it.

-got to meet the amazing Sam Maggs, the author of 'The fangirls guide to the galaxy' and 'wonder women'. i love the stay rad in the book! hehe.


-colored on a wall with melissa. here's melissa doing it and the bird i colored. there was a bunch of coloring books for sale at the con. melissa got one of the books. as part of the selling it, there were a bunch of walls or floors like this that people could color. this was the only one that melissa and i stopped at. for it's harry potter. how could you not stop at the harry potter coloring wall?! hehe.
 

-got some cool book marks. one that says "shhhh. i'm trying to read." hehe. which i just think is perfect to have as a book mark. that way you can hold it up when someone tries to talk to you when you're reading. hehe.

-there were some cool signs hanging around the con. hehe.


-another cool piece of swag i got was an edgar allan poe doll that was knitted. that's right an edgar allan poe doll. hehe. i love it.  he stands on my dresser in my room right now. hehe.


-speaking of edgar allan poe, i got socks with edgar allan poe's head on them. so sweet! hehe.

-here's a picture of all the fun swage i got. i always got a glass of some sort when i go to a con. this con's glass was a tea/coffee mug with a spoon. i really like that a spoon came with it and that it has the bookcon logo on it. all the books i got. my fun 2 sets of socks i got. the poe doll. and my totally awesome atlas shrugged t-shirt (i love that book).


-the con was totally sweet. there were tons of authors there that you could meet (there were panels at the con, but i didn't go so i can't say anything regarding them. though i'm sure they were totally sweet!). and there were tons of booths selling literature and selling literature related things. hehe. overall i had a great time. i would totally go again, but sadly BookCon has already said that they are going back to New York next year. so i'm not going to be able to go to BookCon next year. but if you can go, you really should go!

30 for 30 crafting challenge 2016 update

so i've made an executive decision regarding my 30 for 30 crafting challenge. i've decided that for my challenge i'm going to work on a sugar skull design from the book twisted stitches by phil davidson. this is because i can't post my progress pictures regarding the design for my cousin's wedding. so yeah, i'm working on a sugar skull design from the book twisted stitches. i love the designs in the book and this is the first design i've made from the book. i'm putting the design on a tote bag. i'm really excited about how the design will look on the tote bag. if you'd like to buy the book that has the sugar skull design, please visit Urban Cross Stitch (there are also really cool other designs at urban cross stitch; you should totally take a look at this website!). here are my progress pictures of the work i've done so far on the sugar skull design.

30 for 30 Challenge 2016

A couple things before i go into my regular post:
-turns out my last post was my 200th post! Hurray!
-today is Beltane so Happy Beltane everyone!

ok for my post -
May is the 30 for 30 crafting challenge. i had tried to do this last year, but came up short. this year i'm going to do it and complete the whole month! this year i have a good incentive to complete the challenge, for i have a cousin getting married on June 4th that i'm completing a project for. and so i must have it done for the wedding. so i'm going to use the challenge to complete the project. for those who need a reminder of what the 30 for 30 crafting challenge is: the challenge is to craft (specifically cross stitch for me) for 30 days in a row for at least 30 minutes a day. it doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but when you are tired and just don't want to do anything, it can be hard to want to cross stitch. so this challenge will really help me finish my project for my cousins wedding. the only issue is that my cousin follows me on twitter and so the progress pictures i post will probably be super vague. sorry everyone. can't have my cousin seeing her gift before the wedding. i will for sure post the finished project when i am done and after the wedding. i promise!

Thanks to The Crafting Geek for inspiring me to do the challenge. check out her twitter and instagram to see her progress of the challenge. also you should check her out just to see the totally awesome stuff that she has made!

sports!

Baseball
so baseball season has just started and i can't wait to see how the chicago cubs are going to do! they are supposed to do really well this year. so we shall see what they do. hopefully they will go really far! though already they have lost kyle schwarber for the rest of the season. that's a blow. his bat is a huge bat that we could have used. but i'm not worried, i think we have enough bats that it won't be a problem not having kyle. and honestly i think the outfield will be better with someone else out there. not to say the kyle isn't a good outfielder, he is, but i think there are better outfielders on the team. but that's just my opinion. i really hope the cubs go to the world series. and then they better win! and then i can go to the parade in chicago for the win!!!

Hockey
hockey season is ending and the hawks are the playoffs once again. they had a great season until some injuries that really got to them. and corey crawford being out did not help! crow is a great goalie and we really missed him while he was gone. yes to all the haters, crow is a great goalie. and if you didn't know before, i think our record while he was gone just shows how much we missed him. i don't know how the hawks are going to do this post season, but hopefully it will go well. we have a great team. panarin and kane kicked ass this season! panarin should win rookie of the year and kane should win MVP. but again, that's just my opinion. but the ducks and the kings have a great team also. so hopefully we will go to the cup again and win!!!! four wins in my lifetime would just be amazing! and i'm not worried about the hawks losing the first game of the playoffs.

bookcon 2016

so i live in the chicagoland area and recently found out that there is a book con here! which i think is totally awesome. for those of you who don't know, i'm a huge reader and always have been*. and so for me this is a huge deal and very exciting! the con is run by Reedpop who also does C2E2 in chicago every year and other conventions in the USA (twitch con, a bunch of the PAX cons to name a few).

so i'm totally excited about this book con! it doesn't have the most imaginative name of a con, it literally is called BookCon. but in the end the name doesn't matter. the authors that are going to be there are: the maze runner series, the princess diaries, avatar: the last air bender, the absolutely true diary of a part-time indian, the divergent series - to list a few. i didn't list their names, for i assume people know the books more than they know the authors name. so i'm totally excited about these authors being there!!!!!

so yeah, i'm totally excited about a book con being in chicago (one nice thing about chicago, there's always stuff going on here). these authors listed aren't small time authors. the books are famous books and have sold a bunch. so yeah, totally excited. if i haven't said that enough yet. hehe. TOTALLY EXCITED! hehe.

i have a sketch book that i just bought that i'm going to use to get signatures from any famous people that i meet (authors and other famous people that i might meet at cons and such). and i haven't been able to use it yet, so this will be the first time i will get to use it. i'm excited to see who's signature i can get in it. the book is cool, the cover of the book has wonder woman on it and it says 'not all princesses need to be saved'. when i saw it i just had to get it. so i'm going to bring it with me to the book con and have the authors i meet sign that book.

so for those who want to go, BookCon is May 14th at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL. its only for one day and the cost for the ticket before the con is $30. which i think is totally reasonable. if you get your ticket the day of the con it's going to be $40. so yeah, if you go, send me a message and maybe we can meet up. otherwise i'll make sure i say how it goes after the con! hope to see everyone there!

*i've been a huge reader since i was a kid. when i was a kid, my mom would get me to go shopping with her by saying we will go to the book store. she would literally bribe me by taking me to the book store. hehe. and then she would have to limit me on how many books i can get. hehe. and as i've grown up, this hasn't changed. hehe. you want me to go do something that i don't want to do, bribe me by saying you'll take me to the book store. hehe. or by saying you'll get me a chill-cheese dog. hehe. that always works too.

march cross stitch finished projects

so march was national craft month and i finished two different cross stitching projects this past month (and no this isn't an april fools joke), so i thought i'd share what i've done.

the first project is a key chain i made for a friend of mine. i got the design off of pinterest. and just used the colors i thought my friend would like better. my friend has a couple of dogs and she just loves them so i knew the paw print would be perfect for her! you can't see the back of the cross stitch, but it's just black felt sewed onto the plastic canvas that i used to make the keychain. i'm really getting the hang of making the keychain cross stitch.

sorry my hand looks a little goofy in the photo. 

the second project i finished was a project i had been working on for a couple of months. it's a design of the chicago land area. i got the design from a designer by the name of SatsumaStreet on etsy. i really like the design that she made and i just love the colors that she uses in all of her designs. but it was nice to just have a design just for my hometown, good old chicago.

i haven't framed the design yet, but i'm going to. i'm going to frame it different then i've ever framed before. normally i go out and buy a picture frame and just frame my work. but this time, for this project, i'm actually going to frame it in a hoop. when i do i'll take a bunch of photos and post on here. for i have a feeling it will be an adventure. hehe. this project is going to my mom. she loves chicago and she's been eyeing the design the whole time i've made this, so i'm going to give it to her.