One of Those Days

It seems like, for me anyway, there is always that one incredibly dull, lame, boring day in late January.  It's always on a Sunday.  I even have specific memories of days like that throughout my childhood and have been kind of tracking it to see if it happens every year and it really does seems to.  There's nothing to do. Even if it's nice out, it's too cold and windy to go anywhere.  TV sucks.  You can't find anything good to eat in the kitchen.  You have so many things to do inside, crafts and chores, but no energy or desire to get up, and at the same time you are so restless you feel like you're gonna explode if you don't get out of the house soon.  I could feel it when I got up this past Sunday.  Facebook and the blogosphere were even dead.  Just a Bucket of Suck day.  I ended up in my craft room, to at least try and make some stuff and salvage the loneliness.

Anywho, I've finally tried to get a handle on my out of control needlework projects.  They are so perfect to do in the livingroom when Russell's home.  I discovered that a few of the floss packs had free designs on their packaging or instructions.  I decided to do a couple just for fun before I got back to the projects that have been started.

OK this one looks nothing like the pattern I started to follow because I made such a huge mistake that I couldn't go back and rip out all the work I'd done, and had to free form it.  This is the first time I've ever deviated from a pattern on my own and just made something up.  The pattern also didn't call for beads but I added them anyway.  The instructions showed that it was to be done in just blue, so I used varigated blue floss.  It was stitched on perforated paper and doesn't photograph well.  It looks much nicer in real life.

I also used my own colours for this peace sign design.  Again, all varigated floss, then outlined in shiny gold. The original pattern had 'PEACE' written on all four sides but I did not like the way it looked on the paper so I just eliminated that whole part of the design.  I may mount these small projects on cards.

OK LANGUAGE ALERT HERE!!!  Over the holidays, Axe & I were cracking up over a cross stitch picture that she or someone posted on Facebook.  It took me off guard, especially when sung, and I thought it was hilarious.  I told her that I was pretty sure I could recreate the cross stitch from the picture because it was a very simple design.  She asked if I could make it for her.  Since I was getting together a package to send her anyway, I decided to knock this out now rather than next fall, so that I wouldn't have to send a second package (believe me, sending to S. Africa can be somewhat complicated, especially for the addressee picking it up so you want to have it all together and just send it once).

This is the picture from her timeline:

I first enlarged the picture so that I could count the stitches, then found my cross stitch graph paper and sketched it out.  It only took a couple of days of stitching to get it done and it will fit in a 5x7 frame once ironed.  The original picture didn't have the words and holly trim outlined, so I added that to make it pop and easier to read.  If I never stitch the word 'la' again it'll be too soon.

Since I had the black floss & Aida cloth out, I did this simple Snoopy design in about an hour.

I made the small ones into cards.

I had another felt peace sign and decided to round up my sparkly pin collection and earrings I can no longer wear anymore due to metal allergy.  I snapped off all the pinbacks and earring hooks and glued them to the felt. In addition to the pins & earrings, there are a few items that I used to fill in the gaps. I love sparkly pins but they are kind of expensive and I don't wear them, so this was the best way to showcase my modest collection.

I love keys....everyone I know seems to love keys.  I like how the craft stores sell new ones made to look vintage and I always buy a package because you can always find something to do with them.  In my case, I broke out the rhinestones and went to town.  Must. Bedazzle.  Everything. 

I posted them on Facebook and got a lot of inquiries about possibly purchasing these or having custom ones done.  There is a craft show coming up in April and I am not really sure what to make for a spring show.  All of my shows have been geared towards ornaments and stocking stuffers, so maybe I'll try and sell the keys.

My bff Michelle requested the steampunk one on the right. 

2 Seahawks themed bracelets and the one in the center is Notre Dame's colours, that I made for Kris.

Do any of you have a particular Bucket of Suck day that seems to happen at the same time every year?  Is is also late January like mine is?