I had the idea to do this stitch over a year ago but struggled to come up with an idea for the pattern (what else is new). While I was in Seattle I picked up some new pattern books and was inspired....



I took the original pattern and changed the girls to give them more of a 60s feel- inspired by Mad Men. The green dresses are an ode to Joan. The blue/pink I took from the cover of the Doll Parts single. I left the shoes as is and imagine them being Doc Martens as a reference to the 90s. Overall, I wanted them to be doll-like but not in the obvious blonde/Barbie/Betty Draper type of way.

Note that the one with the scissors is left handed. Haven't decided who or what she's cutting.

I chose the song because I enjoy changing the lyrics...

I am...doll parts...big boobs...small heart

So that plan I had to spend the long weekend crafting up a storm? Yeah, not so much. My car battery died last Wednesday and screwed up my plans for a few days. Then my laziness caught up with me and I spent the weekend doing the following things:

• watching reruns of House
• watching Bones
• rewatching season 3 of Mad Men (the season finale is one of my favorite eps)
• watching The Mighty Ducks
  
• playing Civilization Revolution

Needless to say, I'm a nerd and I wasn't as productive as I thought I would be. But I did work on some patterns. Still haven't finished the pattern I've been struggling with. For now it's on the backburner until I figure out how to finish it. I also worked on my spool knitting. It's about 3 feet long now and still has no purpose in life. I also started stitching something new finally...



This may or may not have something to do with LL Cool J...
I think I'm going to do 2 versions of it, so no finished pictures until I get them both done.

In honor of tonight's finale, I made sure to finish this in time.


"The Bear" Station

I saw this on the back of a shirt at the Radiohead show I went to last August. I never saw what was on the front, but Lost + Radiohead = win in my book.

Apparently most of the Dharma station names are related to Apollo. His twin sister, Artemis turned one of her nymphs, Callisto, into a bear.

Favorite Lost characters:

• Desmond
• Daniel
• Sawyer
• Locke
• Juliet (Because she wants Kate to die almost as much as I do)
  

Least favorite Lost characters:

• Kate (I was REALLY hoping the Others shot her in last week's ep)
• Jack
• Sun (Living off the island didn't do her any favors)
  
• Michael

Reading: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, which is basically what it sounds like...the zombie apocalypse in 19th century England. Normally I'm not interested in the bastardization of my favorite book, but most of the original text (thus the plot) is intact, so it was an interesting reimagining of the story. I can't wait until they turn it into a movie.

Listening to: Pearl Jam (who I've come to like in my old age), Live, Soundgarden, Sonic Youth (who I need to spend more time with cause they're pretty awesome), The National (Alligator, which I definitely enjoy more than Boxer).

Watching: Slowly making my way through the Best Picture nominees, so far I've seen Slumdog Millionaire and Frost/Nixon. Also watched Rachel Getting Married, which is like Margot at the Wedding but FAR better.

TV shows...Castle and The Unusuals which are both growing on me and will probably be cancelled. Dollhouse, which is seriously being held back by Eliza Dushku's total inability to be versatile. And of course Lost.

Making: I hurt my hand which has prevented me stitching as much, but I'll post a picture of what I'm currently working on tomorrow.

• Still working on Atonement, last week I took a break and re-read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, which I've really enjoyed both times I've read it. It's a mystery told from the perspective of a 15 yr old with Asperger's syndrome (or high functioning autism)

• No work today, so I was able to watch quite a bit of Wimbledon finally. Of course they didn't actually show Federer's match, But i got to see both Williams sisters' matches even though I already knew the outcome. One of them has to win, I can't imagine anyone else winning. I find it amusing that the top women's seeds have all lost. I think it just proves how inconsistent they all are. I think there will be lots of different top ranked players for awhile. Oh, and I've been impressed by Andy Murray. He totally crushed Tommy Haas the other day. It was like watching Federer play Roddick (or Hewitt). Total domination. I haven't seen him play all that much cause he normally loses early on, but it seems that he might have gotten his shit together. I hope he beats Nadal. preferably like the way he beat Haas.

• Got Wii Fit yesterday, I suck at everything except hula hoop. Go figure.

• Watched the first season of Californication. There are alot of boobs in that show. But David Duchovny is funny. Also saw Be Kind Rewind, pretty good, definitely better than The Science of Sleep.

• Before i get to this month's albums, a quick recap of June's picks (Something About Airplanes- Death Cab for Cutie & Songs For Polar Bears- Snow Patrol). It was nice to listen to both albums after such a long time. It actually took me a listen to remember all the songs again. Took me another 3 or 4 listens to stop wondering what the hell happened to Death Cab. But now I want to listen to We Have the Facts & We're Voting Yes. Snow Patrol was a little different because they went "downhill" quicker, so I wasn't as into them. So I just enjoyed hearing the songs again. But moving on to this month's albums...

July is Canadian month apparently, fitting that July 1st is Canada day. Both of these albums are mortal locks to be on my personal classics list that I am sloooooowly compling for my own music nerd purposes. I'm also looking forward to new albums from both these artists this year.

Public- Emm Gryner
    Back in the summer of 99, I had to stop listening to this album for a week because I was absolutely killing it. That being said, it's probably been a couple years since I've listened to it. someone I hardly knew gave this album to me back in 98 because they thought I would like it. I listened to it once, thought there was something weird about emm's voice and didn't touch it again for months. Inexplicably I pulled it back out around the end of my senior year of hs and fell in love with it. So that's what the album reminds me of.  It's still my favorite Emm album,  really because it was the first I heard and it has a bunch of nostalgia attached to it because I listened to it so much.

Little Songs- David Usher
    Since moving to California, one of the best things I've had the opportunity to do was to see David Usher live a couple of years ago. His albums aren't released here so he never plays in the US,  but he played one show in LA at a tiny little club which was awesome. One of the songs he played was "St. Lawrence River", which is one of my all time favorite songs (I'm a big believer in getting to hear your favorite songs live because it's always special), so that made the show perfect. I listen to this album fairly often, although it's probably been close to a year since I last heard it. This is my favorite David Usher album, and I think it's an example of how great and special debut albums can be. Great debut albums capture the rawness of the artist that can never be duplicated. Before there are any expectations, before songs get overproduced, before drugs and booze become legitimate problems, etc. Little Songs is one of those albums- acoustic, recorded in a kitchen, raw. not to say his other albums aren't good too, but there's definitely something special about this one.

• Finished Rant last night. I enjoyed it, although there was some pretty messed up stuff going on. But from what I know about Chuck Palahniuk that's par for the course. I'll be starting Atonement this week.

• The best part from the otherwise boring spelling bee

• Yet again, new month means new albums. I enjoyed listening to both Placebo and Spoon. I had some serious nostalgia going on while listening to A Series of Sneaks. That album reminds me of Austin so much. Without You I'm Nothing, even though I can remember when I bought the album, doesn't remind me of anything else. Nut listening to it for a month reaffirmed that it's not my favorite Placebo album. Since those albums have 2 of my favorite album covers, I thought i'd make a proper list..

In no particular order...

Joe Jackson- Look Sharp!


Placebo- Without You I'm Nothing


Keane- Under The Iron Sea


The Police- Ghost in the Machine


Spoon- A Series of Sneaks


This month's albums are similar because I used to really like these 2 bands and then they started to completely suck and sadly, I've abandoned them to the point that I don't even listen to their good albums anymore. So this month I'll be constantly wondering what went wrong and thinking how good these bands used to be. I've actually been looking forward to these albums.

Death Cab For Cutie- Something About Airplanes
    I'd guess it's been 6 or so years since I listened to this album. I gave up on death cab around the time Transatlanticism came out and Ben Gibbard did all that horrible electronic crap known as The Postal Service (which in my opinion is what ruined his ability to write good songs). But way back in 98, I was just hearing about Death Cab and for 3 albums they were really fucking good. So it's going to be hard to listen to this album without wanting to curse the music gods for turning Ben Gibbard into a complete toolbox. No doubt I will like it as much as I did back when it was new.

Snow Patrol- Songs For Polar Bears
    Um....I last listened to this album maybe 6 years ago as well. Unlike Death Cab, I think this is Snow Patrol's only good album. Their second album had some good songs on it, but overall kinda sucked. And then after that they decided they wanted to turn into Coldplay (who now wants to be U2, go figure), changed their sound and got successful. For the record, it's not the success that bothers me, it's the turning into Coldplay. Anyway, I think this first album is pretty good, and it's sad they've changed so much from what they used to be.

It's been awhile since I've had a "proper" update, so here's some random stuff....

• Watched "Margot at the Wedding"....uhhhhhhhhh....was the point of the movie to show how well Nicole Kidman plays a nutjob?
• Bought a bunch more cross stitch supplies, finished my latest project (pictures soon), hope to finish my newest "masterpiece" before Monday
• I can't believe how much baseball is already starting to dominate sports shows/sites. granted, I can't believe the season is about to start either, since it feels like it ended only a month ago. Give it a week and the daily Yanks/Sawks stories will have arrived
• It's almost March Madness time, that time of the year when I give a shit about college basketball in hopes of winning some free meals. yay! (seriously.....when did I become such a sports freak?)
• Lost was goooooooooood this week. The Desmond episodes are always interesting because they pull things out of left field...first he's a precog and now he's a time traveler?
  
• Since it's March, that means new 1998 albums. All I have to say is thank god. I was never really in the mood to listen to Massive Attack, and Garbage seemed too fresh in my mind, but not entirely unpleasant. Anyway, this month's albums are Moon Safari (Air) and Strung Out in Heaven (Brian Jonestown Massacre). I haven't listened to Moon Safari in at least 3 years, but I was listening to it practically everyday the first 3 or so years after it came out, so this will be a real walk down memory lane. I'm excited to hear they're releasing a 10th anniversary edition next month. I will definitely pick that up. If I ever made a list of my personal classic albums, Moon Safari would be on it for sure. I last listened to Strung Out in Heaven about a year ago(?) after I saw Dig! It's a good album, it's just never been one of those that really sticks out that I want to listen to frequently.

The start of a new month means 2 new albums for my 98 flashback, and not a moment too soon. I am definitely sick of Prolonging the Magic. Listening to it one last time was painful, I couldn't wait for it to be over. and yet, I like the album. From the Choirgirl Hotel never got old though, maybe because it had been so long since I last listened to it. Anyway, this month's albums are Version 2.0 (Garbage) and Mezzanine (Massive Attack). Version 2.0 was an instant favorite of mine when it came out and I had a major Garbage phase there for awhile. It's been awhile since I've listened to it though. I'll probably hate it like Prolonging the Magic by the end of the month. Mezzanine is the complete opposite, I've barely listened to it since I bought it. I vaguely remember liking it though. I anticipate wanting to watch a lot of House (yay it's back) this month.

Speaking of tv, Lost was pretty good, although watching last season's finale on Wed was pretty annoying with all the stupid comments popping up. It was like Lost for dummies. If you don't know what's going on, get the dvds! The season premiere though...I kept thinking of the Suicidal Tendencies song "Institutionalized"....I'm not crazy, you're the one who's crazy.

Still in no particular order.....

Fluke- Christopher Moore

The Book of Joe- Jonathan Tropper

Dexter in the Dark- Jeff Lindsay

Love is a Mix Tape- Rob Sheffield

How to Talk to a Widower- Jonathan Tropper

Girl with a Pearl Earring- Tracy Chevalier

A Dirty Job- Christopher Moore

Rant- Chuck Palahniuk

The Time Traveler's Wife- Audrey Niffenegger

2 additions....

Me and Mr. Darcy- Alexandra Potter (just bought this one today cause I need something to do during class and I forgot the bookIi meant to bring)

The Gun Seller- Hugh Laurie (on a side note: I already like this season of House better than last)

I read Love is a Mix Tape in one day (it's pretty short), I really liked it. It was nice to see someone look back on 90s culture and say positive things. Just further reminded me how craptastic this decade has been in comparison.