This too shall pass

With more ideas for embroideries than my small brain and limited time could handle, Saturday brought me a most unpleasant surprise: after carrying my sleeping 3 yr old up the stairs to his bed, I realised that my elbow hurt like. a. bitch.

I couldn't fix my hair. I couldn't brush my teeth or put my makeup on. Yoga and stitching were out of the question. The ghost of my broken elbow from rollerblading in hyde park 16 years ago had come back with the miserable weather to seriously test my patience.

I'm a bit better now, but I'm wearing the sling as I type. The stitching (the mesh made it pretty easy) was done half with my right hand and half with my left*. I have to wear the sling whenever it hurts, and in the future try to avoid balancing 16 kilos on my right arm as I fumble for the keys with my left to open the front door.

I believe there is purpose to be found in all obstacles, so for the time tricky stitching like owls and sailor girls will have to happily wait. I'm very pleased to be off to Kefalonia for easter and I may even leave my needle and thread in Athens...but I dunno...I'm such an embroidery nerd. Here's wishing you a most lovely holiday:)


*I added the fern stitch and the skull later, with my right hand. I had originally sewn a button where the skull was because with a dodgy elbow I found the O totally tedious. This post has been written over two days.

sail away

If you live in Greece then you feel it. Summer is just around the corner. The sun is out and the people are out and so I thought I'd take a break from making owls and do...a sailor girl or two!

I love cameos and for a while I've been toying with the idea of doing a stitched cameo necklace or ring. It was bloody nightmarishly fussy. Itsy bitsy bitchy little stitches, and I thought the owls were hard work. After I finished the first (necklace) I said I wouldn't do another then immediately got started on the ring. Whats wrong with me? Am I a masochist? Thing is, I wasn't very happy with the outcome, and thought, ah she'd look prettier in pink*. But then the ring didn't come out quite as I had envisioned either so I'm already toying with the idea of a third one, in black this time. Sheeeeet.

Anyway I do mean well by the sailor girls. I see all the sailor girls by people such as Angelique Houtkamp (do have a snoop around http://www.salonserpent.com/ so you can see what I mean) and think of boats and islands and summer romance. I think you'll see a lot more sailor and island themed stuff here in the months to come...

*Like the pretty pink sailor girl on Liz's arm. It gives you something to admire while she snips off your hair! If you live in Athens and want a great haircut then go visit http://www.lizbumgarner.com/ now.

Parliament decision

I really didn't expect anyone to like the felt owl coin necklaces so much that they would actually want one themselves. I was totally taken off guard and extremely flattered by this. Not to mentioned confused and very mildly panicked. Why? Why would this lovely attention give rise to any feelings of alarm? I thought long and hard about this.

When I was in high school I liked art class. But I was regularly bored out of my brains, as I was in most of my classes, most of the time. The irony that I later became a teacher! Anyway. I was bored in art class because I didn't want to draw the still life. I didn't want to reproduce sections of paintings by the masters. I wanted to draw the things that I wanted to draw. I still remember a friend saying to me 'if you don't copy the masters, you'll never learn their techniques.' Wow did I ever get sniffy and ew whatever-ey at that piece of advice. Now she's a highly accomplished artist so she clearly knew what she was talking about. Not that it would have made a difference had I been given a glimpse into the future. I've always had the attention span of a 3 year old with ADD when it comes to things that don't interest me.

So what was the point of that little meander down memory lane? I think what I realised is that I don't want to replicate the owls. With each request for an owl I was filled with delight which quickly turned to dread when I thought of doing the same owl again. Even once again was too much to bear. So I have decided to make lots of owls, but each of them different. I will make a parliament. Did you know that a flock of owls is called a parliament? I didn't. I will keep making and none may leave headquarters until parliament is ready. I hope those of you who wanted one will still want one when that day comes! It shouldn't be too far into the future as its been a week since the parliament decision (sorry sorry I can't resist milking the parliament thing) and I have already made two. Fingers crossed that you will like them!


Oh and in case you're wondering about the black one, he skipped the country and now resides in Brooklyn.

Flakes of a Frozen Emotion

I had pretty much no idea as to what to expect from the 'Cocoon' album Release Party. We arrived late and frazzled as usual. But as we pushed our way through to where we could see the stage I was feeling the 'bouncing soles' of my doc martens. This was clearly not going to be one of those standing around staring nights. The singing was beautiful and the atmosphere intoxicating in a smoke free Bios and somewhere between 'Cold' and 'Playboy' I was sloshed in a rogue wave of deja vu. It was like an unleashing of that feeling of ultimate possibility that grows from devastating heartbreak. I was sold.

After that night I listened to the album so much my 2 year old had started singing the songs by heart. I knew I wanted to stitch some of the lyrics somewhere. So when I saw my so pretty friend Penny's dreamy pics from the December blizzard in NYC I thought 'Cold!' (forgive me for being very literal) and this little glass ball was born.

The base of the ball reads 'You make me feel so cold' and the title 'flakes of a frozen emotion' are all lyrics from the song 'Cold'. Do go to http://www.myspace.com/tareqsouleiman and check it (and all the other tracks) out it is so worth it. And Penny thank you for being my muse! I hope you like it♥

Domesticated Bee of Athena

On Monday night I couldn't sleep from stomach pain. 'You know what this is?' said Elias. 'Its called nerves.' Damn right. I was sick with terror. I had an appoinment to have a vertically impacted wisdom tooth surgically removed the next day. F**k.

Wednesday morning I looked surreal. My right cheek had blown up to 'wow' proportions. I spent the day avoiding mirrors, popping endless painkillers (oh the pain!) and sitting in a well-lit corner stitching felt owl coins like my life depended on it.

Why owls? Well they are the Athena bird. Since purchasing a beautiful little Joanna Cave owl necklace I've been thinking about them a lot. I've also been thinking about Athens a lot. Poor old Athens has taken a beating lately. Our city has seen better days. Lots of people want to leave, but I don't. I love Athens. Even now it is a rich city with so much to offer. While I stabbed miniscule stitch after stitch I thought about the Athens that saw the original ancient coins that I (very extremely loosely) based my felt coins on. I thought about all that she has seen and how lucky I feel to be part of it.

So now that my face has semi-deflated and gone yellow (I hear thats good!) I am itching to begin a mission to discover an Athens I am somewhat unacquainted with: the Athens of Crafts. With Athena as our patron, there's gotta be plenty out there...

By the way do check out http://www.joannacave.com/ and take a look at her stunning creations. I again (see Going to California entry) apologise for not knowing how to do the things that most bloggers take for granted, like make a name a link. I will do my homework soon I promise! Enjoy!

Heart Felt

DO you remember when Johnny Depp got that Winona forever tattoo? I was very impressed. A side of me was thinking ah what a man she's so lucky he's so cool! But the other side went ooooh thats a bit presumptious how can he be so sure thats ridiculous he'll be scratching at it soon enough.

Again my issues with tattoos come soaring to the surface. My attitude stinks of Gollum. So I have a huge soft spot for the classics. All the classic heart lover mom etc tattoos, lets face it, you do secretly want someone to do one for you oneday. Don't you? Or maybe you don't.














Anyway for our *anniversary* (not wedding) this Feb I supplied myself with my chicken shit (felt embroidery) version of the classic heart tattoo. I won't get into the reasons why I am more than happy to wear it and get picked on by my friends (Gary) and called a cheeseball. But I will say that Elias is the only reason that this blog is ever decorated with photos. And he is so big hearted he deserves to have his name on a heart. And hopefully one day he will finish one of his many abandoned embroidery projects so you too can see how bloody good he is!

Pride comes before a fall?

Pride. Once upon a time pride was a bad thing. Pride comes before a fall, we were told in scripture class. There were even stories of little girls or boys who were too proud and would eventually get their comeuppance. Pride was a definite nono.

But now its good! You should be proud of your achievements. Show some pride in yourself! Now you are destined for a fall if you have no pride.

I don't get it.

As a parent I feel like its so hard to strike a balance between love for your child and for yourself. So hard to pinpoint when you are standing up for your beliefs and when you are being self righteous.

You should be proud of your child! Or maybe not. Can you be proud and have perspective at the same time?

Risky business this pride analysis stuff.

I think I'll stick to embroidery.