Sunday, Crafty Sunday: Thrifted frame rehab!

I am typically my craftiest on Sundays. Whether that's because sometimes I'm hungover (sometimes) or because I tend to sleep in the most on Sundays, I always just want to wake up and want to knit everything in my house together, or turn on the hot glue gun and glue my cats together. That's never happened, but you know what I mean. I also enjoy eating at Cici's Pizza Buffet every Sunday for lunch. This week it didn't happen, and last week I went so late it was like a Chuck E Cheese's, but perhaps I'll keep it going next Sunday.

A couple of weeks ago, I woke up on Sunday morning and decided to go out to the thrift stores I like, since I'd taken a day off of work and gone up to my hometown of Green Bay, spending an entire day with my mother going to garage sales and church rummage sales. I had the fever! At the first shop, I found a beer glass from one of my favorite Milwaukee bars, the spy-themed Safe House. I'm sure this won't be the last time I talk about this thrift shop, but let it be known that the USA Thrift Shop on Highway 100 in Milwaukee is plastered in Barbie dolls stapled, nailed, and affixed to the wall everywhere. I know that I have a photo, just can't find it.

Anywho, I went to my second shop - a Bethesda Thrift Shop, run by a local church - and struck gold! I am always on the hunt for two things: religious iconography (usually wall hangings depicting Jesus, Mary, or anything of that sort), and ornate frames to use for my finished cross stitch projects. I even had a couple of them finished at home that were just aching for an awesome frame. Even better, the shop was running a special with everything 50% off, so what should have been a $17 total wound up being closer to $9. Struck oil! In total, I got 7 frames for cross stitch projects, and 1 Last Supper image in a cool oval frame. When I found them, I of course headed straight to the craft store for acrylic paint, and the hardware store for spray paint.

my thrift and craft store finds!

My first order of business was to remove the random photos and dried flowers from the frames, as well as clean the glass. It seemed a lot more difficult than it actually wound up being!

After this step came my combined most/least favorite part of this entire project, and that was COMPLETELY violating my lease by turning my bathroom into a spray paint booth. Don't do it. I just do it because I don't have anywhere outside to spray, and I do wear a respirator when I remember. This, of course, being so I don't wind up passed out dead with my cats eating what's left of my muscles and skin from my bones when they run out of food. So, Russian landlords, if you're reading this, please don't evict and/or chop any of my fingers off. It's all for the love of crafting!

For primer, I used a gray spray primer that's good for wood, metal, or plastic. I picked it up at Menards, but I'm sure a Home Depot, Lowes, Ace Hardware or something similar would have it as well. Once that part was done, I was finished with most of the frames, spare two of them, which I had finished pieces for. Those two, I decided to paint using acrylic craft paints from Jo Ann's. It took about a million coats, and it wasn't much fun. Once that paint dried completely, I sprayed a clear coat over them and called 'em done.

Danzig skull and PBR stitches, ready to go!

Since I was ready to frame finished stitch projects, I got out my craft iron (AKA my mom's old iron from the 70s/80s), ironed both pieces flat, and took to putting them in their new frames.

And there they are! Come back next Sunday and see what else I've got up my sleeve!

Conquering My Aversion to Blogging...

or: "Saying 'Fuck You' to Margaret White."

On a daily basis, I read the blogs and Tumblrs of people I've never met. I have always been interested in, and completely enthralled by, life stories, and reading blogs have been a great way for me to get my fix in that department. I've even gotten around to talking to a few bloggers in order to get myself some confidence, bloggers who I idolize in a way (the lovely Erin Dawn has been helpful in ways I can never put into words or thank her enough for).

You may ask why I haven't been able to do it myself. About seventy percent of me sees an ability to do the same, to share the story of my life, the things I love, and what I like to do. Ideas float through my head every day. The other thirty percent has held me back, and has been holding me back, for years. I call that thirty percent 'Margaret White'. You may know her as the mother of Sissy Spacek's "Carrie" in 1976. Hold please, an explanation is coming!

As a heavily tattooed woman, people see me and automatically think that I'm a fearless broad who'd punch you for looking at her sideways. Sometimes, I'm confident enough to feel that way, but most of the time I find myself keeping my feelings so deeply hidden that nobody gets in. Don't try it - it's a really shitty defense mechanism. I have been crippled by my own mind, my own 'what if's' for far too long. I'm ready to get back into life, get out of the dark, and lose the obnoxious fear that has been holding me back for the better part of the last four years, at least.

My fear has a name, and that name is 'Margaret White'. In the original film "Carrie", her mother was a super-Christian, abusive and atrocious woman. In one of the most memorable quotes of the film, she states - "They're all going to laugh at you." Instead of having a positive voice in my head pushing me to do things when I have an idea, or even just to get through the every day, I have had that. My own 'they're all going to laugh at you'. I have had nothing but misgivings about both people I know and strangers, thinking that if I write down what I feel, that I'll be chastised. I'll be made a fool of. That has put a stop to me writing on a more regular basis for at least the past three years.

Another part of it is that about ten years ago, a person I used to hold particularly close to me violated my trust and read very personal writings without permission. Since then, I have been crazy vigilant about being private with my feelings, especially with my writing. Nobody reads it unless I want them to, nobody knows about it unless I want them to, etc. I think it's about time to put that one to bed, too.

It's time for it all to stop. If I think about it, I have nothing to lose. I can't hold myself back or be dishonest about who I am and what I love anymore. It is no way to live, and my heart has been too heavy for too long because of it.

Breathing in, breathing out. I feel better already. Prepare for the entertainment to follow.

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The first piece of the puzzle.

the saddest little scarf i ever did see.

A starting point is just that. With knitting, that starting point is fumbling with a pair of needles for a long period of time and winding up with a misshapen, hole-ridden hunk of fabric that not even a mother could love, much less wear.

This scarf took me two years to knit. Yes, seriously. You would think that it was an intricate piece with cables and intermediate stitches, but no – just plain garter stitch on plain needles.

Every once and awhile I would pick up my set of needles and Red Heart variegated yarn and do a row or two, but get frustrated at how the finished product was working out and throw it in a drawer or closet until I re-discovered it. My knitting was a joke to my friends, seeing as most of them knew that this scarf was years in the making.

I will keep this scarf forever, as an indication of how far I’ve come. Looking at it now, it’s far too short to wear and the fringe is laughable, but I keep it at the bottom of my finished project box anyway.

Once in a great while, I’ll pull it out, run my hands over the scratchy fabric, and smile. After that, it’s folded back up and put back with the other finished pieces. There’s a history to everything.

My knit-story.

Knitting was not something I ever saw myself getting into in a million years. I remember sitting in the car on long trips with my mother, or in the living room with her while I watched television, where she was always knitting a scarf for either my sister or me. For years, I watched her work her magic with those two needles and make me colorful scarves that may have curled at the edges, but were still mine. One afternoon when I was about twelve, I went into her craft box and got out a pair of knitting needles and some yarn, casting on a bunch of stitches and desperately trying to remember how she’d made the first one into an actual stitch. Frustrated, I’d give up, and it would continue on that way until just a few years ago. She would have taught me herself, but as a mother with a full-time job and an unruly teenager, it didn’t happen.

At nineteen, I decided to pick up my own set of size ten knitting needles and set out to knit myself a scarf. At Wal-Mart, I picked out a skein of Red Heart variegated yarn in a muted rainbow tone, and at twenty-two, I finished it. It became a running joke between my friends and I every fall and winter, with them questioning if I would ever finish the scarf, and if they’d ever see it. When I finally finished the scarf it was admittedly too short, but it didn’t stop serving its’ purpose – I taught myself to edge scarves with fringe using the too-short scarf.

From scarves to blankets and most recently dishcloths, I have found something that I really love to do in knitting. After that scarf and with the power of the Internet, I have been teaching myself many new knitting projects and stitches, and am always working on something or another, or looking into my yarn stash for a new idea. I’m going to use parts of this blog to chronicle my story as a knitter - among other things!

A little random positivity.

So, I originally posted this two months ago, but it has been stuck in draft hell since. Yes, I'm working on coming back. But until then - here goes!

For a couple of weeks, I'd been having an issue with a program I use at work to do one of my weekly duties. I e-mailed my contact who had no information, e-mailed the department that should have been able to help, and finally e-mailed the IT people in my department in the hopes I could get my issue solved. It had to do with a login and pings and other random nerdy verbiage that doesn't hold much weight in the real world. But IN ANY CASE.

One member of our IT department, Jason, went above and beyond to try and get my issue taken care of. Sure, I came back from breaks a few days with my computer completely restarted (and sometimes, multiple times a day), but since my issue was taken care of, it was all I cared about. So, since it had taken about a week, I just sent him an e-mail to thank him:

Hey, Jason:

Just in case I didn't get a chance to (I was pretty frazzled most of last week), thanks for going prettymuch above and beyond to make sure my problem got solved. Even if it did mean I came back from breaks to a restarted computer, it works great and without you, it probably never would have happened!

So thank you. Happy Monday!

I wasn't expecting a response (just wanted to send a simple thank you), but he sent me a response that actually made my day last Wednesday, and a few days after that as well!

Hi Liz,

I was out of the office Monday and Tuesday. I just read your e-mail-You are very welcome! Thank you so much for your appreciation.

More people should have your type of work attitude(and positive energy). Thank you  again for your kind words.

A positive attitude can go a long way.