The Nordic Needle Catalog

I recieved the latest Nordic Needle Catalog in the mail this week and I actually found some things that would inspire me to do some needle arts again.

The Sistine Chapel in 34 printed charts could be yours for the sale price of only $451.50!

These Fractal Patterns are just plain beautiful. Check out this one and this one, too.

And finally, the book "Embroidered Knot Gardens" gives complete instructions on how to make your own 3-dimensional, miniature English Garden using nothing but different types of needlework. Very cool, but what the heck would I do with it afterwards?

Speaking of the needle arts, I feel compelled to mention that over the summer I found out one of my cousins works for the famous Shay Pendray! You know, that woman on PBS that has all of the needlework shows? She had a needlework shop in the Metro-Detroit area until recently when she decided to go into retirement. Ah well. They still show her shows so I'll definately be on the lookout for some of my cousin's work.

Weekend Antics v.9.17.06

This weekend was my husband's birthday weekend!

I bought him a ticket to the Mastadon show on Friday night at the Magestic Theatre in Detroit for his birthday. He met some friends down there and had a great time. Saturday my parents stopped by with a Pineapple Upside Down cake and I believe it was completely consumed by my husband and his buddies by the end of the night. That evening we went to a housewarming party for some friends where good times were had by all. Sunday I took my husband and his friend out to Stepping Stone Falls County Park to do a little hiking. We ended up grilling steak and shrimp for dinner and eating ice cream cake from the lady next door. (It was her birthday, too!) Nest weekend we'll be celebrating with his family and hopefully another road trip is in the works.

Weekend Antics

Saturday morning the husband and I got up early and went to the Flint Farmer's Market, one of the better farmer's markets I've been to, I might add. (it has an indoor and outdoor market. Woo hoo!) While I was there I saw this t-shirt for sale and laughed my butt off. Afterwards we went to a local historical house museum to see a quilt show with quilt's entirely made by men. I was a little disappointed because a.) I didn't know it but apparently you had to buy bracelets and traipse all across town to see the rest of the quilts and b.) only one man made some quilts, the rest were husband and wife teams. To top it off, the theme was supposed to be "black, white and one other color" and I only saw two quilts that fit that description. It was neat how they displayed the quilts by actually putting them on the beds but now, looking back at the pictures, I see colors in the quilts that I had no idea were there when I saw them in person.
Here's an example-

I had no idea there was green in this quilt until I downloaded it into my computer. In person and in the dark historical home it looked black and white to everyone there.

I loved how this one looked like it fit right in at the historical house.

After the quilt show we headed to my in-laws house for my husband's nephews' birthday party. (Two birthday parties for the price of one.) It was fun, a lot of people were there and towards the end of the party we could hear music coming from the blues festival a few blocks away. That was a bonus.

After that party we headed to another party at my friend's house were she served carne asada (I have no idea how to spell that one) and Tequila Sunrises. (I do know how to spell that one.) We ended up playing Pictionary which turned a little pornographic by the end (O.K., it was me turning it pornographic) but all in all we had a great time. More updates to come.

Cowgirl Cabaret

Last week a friend of mine took me to the Firefly Club in Ann Arbor to see her friend in the "Cowgirl Cabaret". It was great! Six different female singers took turns belting out cowgirl-related tunes all while wearing some wild and crazy western wear. Some songs were kind of a stretch while others blew me away. ( "Desperado" by the Eagles would never have crossed my mind but it fit in perfectly. ) This was the fourth cabaret for these ladies and I highly reccommend their show if you're ever in the neighborhood.