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Since I am funemployed I have quite a bit of time to do crafts. (Which is amazing, by the way!)

I crossstitched a sprite on to one of Scott’s hoodies using waste canvas.

The trickiest bit is pinning the waste canvas in the right spot, with interfacing on the back, and then setting it in a frame without everything getting all out of place. But once it’s all set up you just cross stitch like normal, although you have to use a pointy needle and it’s way harder on your fingers to get it through all the layers.

Finished. They are apparently characters from Final Fantasy VI. Iunno, he picked them. :P

Then you get to do the best part, pulling the white strings out. I dunked the whole thing in water to soften the fibres, and then pulled out each strand out the side with tweezers. It takes a little while, but it’s satisfying.

All done.

What the back looks like. I also cut out another rectangle of ironable interfacing and ironed it on top, in an attempt to seal up all the loose ends. I don’t know how well that will hold up, but so far it’s working.

I used DMC threads, so we can launder it like normal, the only thing is that I told Scott to make sure the zipper is done up when he puts it in the washing machine so less chance of something like a tooth catching and pulling something out. It feels pretty secure in general though.

Pretty happy with how it turned out. Now I want to monogram everything!

I got this metal tuk tuk kit in Thailand. All the pieces came in two small flat sheets. You just punch the pieces out and follow the instructions, bending pieces and twisting tiny tabs with needlenose pliers that lock everything into place. It took me a good few hours to finish and I stabbed my fingertips many many times. I definitely made some mistakes, as the instructions weren’t super great, but I think it turned out pretty neat. It’s about 7 cm tall, by the way. I would totally like to try another kit!

I finished my koala in a funny shirt crossstitch… I will post a picture soon. Next project, a matching sea otter in a woolly sweater.

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And here are some of my paper-based projects lately.

I started a new recipe book, reserved for my all-time favourite recipes. Things we cook all the time. I’m not that good at lettering yet, mostly I just find cool fonts online and then copy them. These are a few of my favourite pages. I’m hoping this book is something that we will keep for a long long time.

Adult colouring. Broke out my set of Prismacolors that my mom bought for me in high school. They’re still good! This colouring page was photocopied out of the book* I gave Rosemarie for Christmas. It is insanely intricate so you’d better have a pencil sharpener handy! I found it very relaxing.

*Not an affiliate link. I don’t know how to do that.

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OK wow, I knew I had been procrastinating doing another Crafty WIP post, but I didn’t realize I’d left it TWO YEARS! Holy moly. I have a lot to show off, so I’ll have to do two posts! Here are some crossstitches I finished over the last couple years.

Papa and me in Fiji. My first photo pattern. I used My Photo Stitch to make a pattern out of a picture. I was so skeptical it was going to look ok because it was asking for like green and purple to stitch our faces, but it does!

The back was a little crazy.

The cloth is filthy and warped so not quite sure how I should display it yet.

Quick little Nintendo controller. I added the letters and the arrows to the pattern myself.

My spirit animal/life motto? Not sure what to do with this one as I didn’t leave enough extra room at the top. I might cut it out if I can figure out how to keep the cloth from unravelling, and then sew it onto something like a patch?

This one was fun to stitch. So cute. I do <3 Canada.

This was a huge project from last year. It’s a Frosted Pumpkin pattern, but I switched all the months around to fit the Southern Hemisphere (particularly Melbourne) because at that point I knew we were moving. I actually purposely didn’t show it to people in case they figured it out before I’d told work. Perhaps I was a little paranoid, haha.

Now I just have to get around to ironing and framing all of them!

My next crossstitch projects are either going to be a 22 page black and white Escher pattern that will probably take 80 years to finish, and/or experimenting with crossstitching on clothing using waste canvas.

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June 4th – June 8th, 2016

After Elche we caught the bus to Valencia for one night. We did a nice DIY walking tour based on the recommendations from our hostel. We tried Valencian horchata, which is made from ground tigernuts. There was lots of cool street art. Scott tried Agua de Valencia (OJ, champagne, vodka and gin) and I had a mediocre mojito. Then we went to bed before the pub crawl group had even left because we are old and boring. :P

I love Barcelona. We crammed as much as possible into 3 days, but it totally wasn’t long enough. I think it would be very easy to spend 2 weeks there and not run out of stuff to do.

Day 1: Park Guell. I had been there before but I don’t think we climbed to the very back of the park last time. Spectacular views. The park is awesome as well, but it was filled with hordes of people. We still got some nice pictures though.

Day 2: Port Aventura. I love going to amusement parks in new countries. This one only had a few roller coasters, but the few that they had were good ones.

  • Khan: 8 loops. A bit violent on the ears. Standard. B+
  • Shambala: Giant up & down speed coaster. Fun! Painful in the rain (like needles to the face!). A-
  • Furious Baco: Super short, but SUPER INTENSE ACCELERATION & SPEED! It was especially fun the first time we rode it when we had no idea what to expect. My eyes watered and Scott drooled, hahaha. A+

Also amusing: Spanish bumper car culture is very different than Canadian. Everyone was just driving around avoiding the other people!! I felt super overly aggressive because most people were not trying to bump into each other. I may have traumatized some children.

We went out for a really nice dinner at La Vietnamita that evening back in Barcelona. We had banh mi, sticky shrimp rolls, and the most delicious ceviche ever: white fish, lime, cilantro, cabbage, tomato and PASSION FRUIT.

 

Day 3: Mega tourist day. We walked around for the whole day. We went to the Sagrada Familia, other Gaudi buildings, Las Ramblas, 2 markets, the cathedral, the city beach, the Picasso Museum, and much more that I am forgetting. We also went to a few of the remaining bars that still give out free tapas with drinks.

The Picasso Museum was great. We especially liked the temporary exhibition of 156 engravings. They were… interesting. Lots of boobs and buttholes, and most of them had a creepy Degas looking in from the corner/window. Very strange. Scott and I liked trying to guess what the titles of the pieces would be, since they were quite literal once you figured out what was happening in the picture. Ex. “Prostitute Eating Grapes”, or “Prostitute With Parrot with Degas as a Voyeur”. Ha.

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Harry Potter alphabet is done! This one took me ages. About 2 hours per person!!! I love how it turned out. My favourite characters are Dobby, Umbridge and Ron Weasley. I also love that James Potter looks exactly the same as Harry, except monochrome dead colours.

Still plugging along on my blanket. It’s so big I can’t even lay it out and take a picture very easily! I didn’t work on it that much over the summer because it was too hot, but now that it’s cooling down it’s really nice to drape over my feet while working on it (and watching tv). I think I’m going to keep going until it is square.

Jessie gave me this cute Canada pattern for my birthday. I didn’t work very much this week so I’ve been working on it a lot lately. I don’t think it will take me too much longer to finish. The fabric has bigger squares than the Harry Potter alphabet so it’s been easier.

Lastly, something different. My mini version of the mutato print that I love so much. These were heirloom tomatoes that I got at the Vancouver farmers market. I made the prettiest and tastiest bruschetta ever with it. I still can’t get over how cheap and amazing the tomatoes were this summer.