Friday Frolics - Potions slowly brewing away!

Here is Potions over two Friday Frolic periods :)

I was 'bad' and stitched on it yesterday as well since it was a holiday. I am slowly making my way down the pattern. I am currently working on the specialty stitches, I have one more row.....the Queen stitch!?!?!? NOOOOOO!!!! LOL

Just gotta keep calm and exhale....I can do this stitch! (fingers crossed)

Until next time ^____^

New Orleans Antiquing and Dessert at Sucre!

We didn't get out of NOMA until after 2pm so we made our way to Magazine Street for lunch/dinner and dessert. After having an okay meal at Jack's, we went by an antique store to browse. You know me, I had to take a few pictures of the various embroidery/cross stitch items on display.

Late 20th century cross stitch sampler

A Oriental themed vest made from needlepoint?!

Cross stitched tea towels

Stumpworked Boston fern with a creepy doll

Victorian motto sampler

Needlepoint and beaded box

Whoever made this..............? It boggles the mind. It must have taken forever!!! A needlepoint base and a beaded floral scene on top?!?!?! Egads.........

After drooling over the antiques, we stopped by Sucre. No trip to New Orleans if complete without a stop by Sucre.

I had their fraise dessert which had a strawberry gelee, vanilla sponge, and mousse! They decorated the plate with strawberry preserves. Delicious.

I got one of their newer flavors of macarons, jasmine tea. I wish I could have bought an entire box full of them, but I exhibited self control for once :)

Can't wait to see what Sucre will offer the next time we are in town!

Until next time ^___^

New Orleans Museum of Art - Seduction in Venice and Orientalism Exhibitions

It's been a while since I've stopped by NOMA for an exhibition. I think the last exhibition I saw there was several years ago. It was the Madeline Albright brooch/pin exhibition. Time has definitely flown by since then.

Kristina and I had planned to come by the museum in the fall of last year for the Orientalism exhibition, but never made it out to New Orleans. I'm glad we didn't because it gave us a chance to see another exhibition, A Life of Seduction: Venice in the 1700s.

The exhibition featured paintings by Joseph Heintz the Younger and other Venetian artists that depicted Venice as a cityscape and as the location for Carnival, a celebration that lasted from October until the spring.

While I enjoyed the paintings of the city and celebrations, my favorites were the clothing.

A boy's dress

Mourning Gown

This gown in addition to the embroidered vests below was my favorite item in the exhibition. I can't imagine how long it would have taken a team of seamstresses to quilt this gown. The gown was modeled after the French style of dress during that time period as the entire world looked to France for fashion.

Women's high heeled clogs

These clogs were worn by women to protect their clothes from getting dirty or wet when traveling around the city. Apparently this style of shoe wasn't new in the 1700s. The Romans used something similar as well. I wouldn't want to be the woman who had to wear these shoes. They look uncomfortable.

Men's Suit

Close up of embroidery on the coat

Embroidered vests

The Orientalism exhibition while interesting was a small room of paintings, drawings, photographs, objects, and furniture. We were disappointed with the size of the exhibition so seeing the Venetian exhibition made up for it.

Our favorite piece in the exhibition was a beautiful cabinet holding various American ceramics decorated in Oriental themes. Can I have one? Looks like I'll need to win the lottery to buy one :)

Overall, we had a great time at the museum. They have changed their permanent galleries upstairs and have a lot of African, Oceanic, and Native American material on view. If you have time to stop by and see the museum before Venetian exhibition closes, please do!!

Until next time ^___^

Accents, Inc - Cross stitch shop in Metairie, LA

Good morning everyone! Kristina and I took a trip to New Orleans on Saturday to see several exhibitions at the New Orleans Museum of Art. As luck would have it, the museum didn't open until noon because of a race that was going on in the park surrounding the museum so we decided to stop by a cross stitch shop in Metairie, LA called Accents, Inc.

We had a lot of fun looking through the patterns and various fabrics in the shop. It has been a long time since either of us has been to a cross stitch shop because the one we had in town closed along with the ones in Pensacola and Foley......we are in a wasteland for cross stitch shops unless you drive up to Dothan or Montgomery.

Like all cross stitch shops, it was decorated in framed and finished cross stitch projects. I had to take a few pictures of the different finishes :)

I think my favorite finishes were the standing egg and acorn and the cute Halloween tree pictured above. I love how they finished the cross stitch in tiny muffin tins.

Surprisingly, I didn't buy much......partly because I knew I was buying fabric for two projects, which is always pricey. So I came away with two colors of 32ct linen in light mocha and water lily. The light mocha will be for Willow Hill Samplings' Cinderella and water lily will be for CCN London.

My camera doesn't capture the correct color on the fabrics. They are both paler than they appear. I was hoping to get a sand colored Belfast for the Cinderella design, but when the lady pulled it out for me, it was a lambswool..........and you know I hate working on that type of linen....too scratchy and coarse for my taste. So I chose the light mocha instead even though it wasn't as dark as the sand color.

While going through their many patterns, I found Jardin Prive's Eiffel Quaker. I have been eyeing it for a while now and decided to go ahead and get it instead of ordering it online.

Kristina came away with some Aida cloth, some beading needles, and a Mill Hill cross stitch and bead kit :)

We really enjoyed our time at the shop. The ladies that own it are friendly and are happy to help out if you have questions. That friendliness has definitely helped them to stay open for over 30 years. I hope they decide to keep it open as long as possible. You can't beat a brick and mortar store, especially when it comes to cross stitch........sometimes you need to see the real thing before buying :)

So if you are taking a trip to New Orleans, make a side trip to Metairie for some cross stitch goodies. For those of you who like plantation, historic house patterns, or state themes, they have a nice selection of them of Louisiana and New Orleans.

Until next time ^___^

Friday Frolic - Potions ♡

Another Friday Frolic come and gone. I've finished the middle part of the design....now on to the top part of the pattern, all the specialty stitches, and the bottom part of the design :) I'm thinking I might have this finished by some time in May. Fingers crossed!

I hope you guys have a great week! (If you are in Mobile, be careful in this crazy weather!)

Until next time ^___^

March Amigurumi Roundup

I told you Link was adorable, right?! His shield makes all the difference....otherwise, you'd think he was a woodland elf!

Until next time ^___^

March Recap

Hi, everyone! Can you believe it's April already? It doesn't seem like it should be, though the weather does make you realize it is spring and that you better enjoy it while it lasts before the summer heat comes to play.

Another month gone and it's time for a monthly recap.

Read:
1. Sword of the Guardian by Merry Shannon
2. Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear
3. Moon Called by Patricia Briggs
4. Ganymede by Cherie Priest
5. Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs
6. The Edge of the Unknown by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
7. Mirror in the Shrine by Robert A. Rosenstone

Crafts:
Amigurumi!!!
1. Yoshi
2. King Boo
3. Rowlet
4. Totoro
5. Dango
6. Chulthu
7. Ultros
8. Link from Zelda

Stitching:
~ steadily working on Potions, Brews, and Spells

Lots of reading and crocheting this month. I've been working on the Potions pattern for my Friday Frolic project. I've got three more months of crocheting for the convention in July. Believe me when I say that I am counting the days. I really want the freedom to crochet and craft to my heart's content without worrying about looming deadlines.

That being said, my favorite amigurumi, hands down, has to be the Link doll. He's adorable. I love the hat and shield. The shield was a pattern from All About Ami. She did a great job designing it! Usually I have a hard time single crocheting in rows since I'm used to stitching in the round, but I didn't have any trouble with my gauge.....granted I didn't use my size H hook like usual, I used a size G, but I didn't want the shield to be ginormous and it came out to just the size I needed.

Books....and more books..... hmmm......the good thing about books is a visit to the dentist. You may wonder what a dentist and books have to do with one another. Well, my sister works in our local university's library. Since we carpool, if I have dentist appointment, I can browse her library afterwards.

This time around I found a few books on Japan (no surprise there) and one I hadn't heard of by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I'm not sure how many people know this, but Doyle was a strong advocate for Spiritualism. A great many people got involved in the movement prior to the war and even more so afterwards.

The Edge of the Unknown is a non-fiction book written by Doyle in 1930 detailing his thoughts and theories on Spiritualism and documenting accounts of his involvement in the movement along with other people's as well. Interestingly enough, the first chapter was devoted to Harry Houdini. For a time, Doyle and Houdini were friends, but separated due to their conflicting views of Spiritualism. In the chapter on Houdini, Doyle claims (he wasn't the only one to have the same opinion) that Houdini himself was a medium and that his stance against Spiritualism was partly to get rid of the fake mediums in the field and to hide his talent from others.

Doyle mentioned that when Houdini was questioned about his stunts and how they were achieved, he said that he had a voice that he listened to. He said that the times he tried the stunts without waiting for that voice, he failed, but whenever he listened for the voice first, he succeeded in his stunts. A psychic power perhaps or maybe really good intuition? Who knows.

The other chapters go on to talk about various events and mediums who Doyle hoped would persuade his readers that Spiritualism was indeed a real science and that contact with the spirit realm was possible.

Don't you love it when people leave marginalia in books? Well, someone left a comment about one of the chapters about Doyle and his friends being visited by a ghost. Just one word 'fraud'. And, of course, when I tried to look up the encounter on the Internet, all I could find was the chapter itself. How sad...it would have been interesting to see if his friends were exposed as frauds.

I've been rambling, haven't I?! I hope you enjoyed the ramble and that you learned something you didn't really need to learn today. (I can use Monday as an excuse, right?!) Well, on that note....until next time!