East Cameron Horseshoe Throwdown

Yesterday was the first East Cameron Horseshoe Throwdown. A horseshoe competition with required partners costumes supporting East Cameron Records.
I have spent the last month slaving over these Champion’s jackets for the winners.

The embroidery was incredibly hard through the super think denim the blazers were constructed from. Also I had to remove the jacket lining in order to do the thing.

The flaming horseshoes on the lapels are embroidered with glitter floss that was almost impossible to get pull through the denim…I do not recommend this…seriously.

I also helped make Maddie and Elizabeth’s costumes. They went as Gracie Law and Miao Yin from Big Trouble in Little China.

I dressed up as Jack Burton…you can’t go wrong.

Other competitors

Denis and Ashley hosted the event at their home. It was amazing time. Troughs of Lonestar, BBQ and lots of crazy late 60s housewife style appetizers.

-Regulation Horseshoes Only
-Costumes Required
-Feet May Not Pass Box when Throwing
-Must Talk Shit to Opposing Team
-Single Elimination 
-30 min. Time Limit w/ 2 point Grace
-11 point Games
-Ring the Tree = Instant Win
-Link from Pin = 1 point
-Lean on Pin = 2 points
-Ring Pin = 3 points

Checking to see if the point is good.

Mike Belzel at Diablo Rojo made the prizes for second and third place.

First Place Winners

Crochet Skulls

I’ve been working on some valances for my windows made of connected rows of these adorable cotton crocheted skulls

For some reason these are easily the most annoying pieces I’ve ever blocked. You really had to work on pinning them correctly to get the look you want on the skull’s face, its quite simple to mess up and get something too goofy.

I’ve crocheted and blocked about thirty of these skulls in varying shades of off white. I’m still working out the pattern that allows them lay correctly when they are attached. My first attempt was no good, I underestimated how much the weight of the yarn would pull down and distort the skulls. I need to create a solid top with hooks. It shouldn’t be long now

I’m very excited…I’ve decided to open an etsy shop. So, start saving your pennies to purchase my prettys. I’ll let you know when I’m ready.

Zombie Jesus Day

To celebrate the day Jesus came back from the dead, as zombies do, I had a Zombie Jesus Day barbeque on Sunday. I roasted a cuban style pork shoulder and cooked a ton of food. Unfortunately my landlord hasn’t had our lawn taken care of in months, so the grass was way to long for the planned bocce ball. Sad.

I love themed pastries so I made some stigmata cookies. I used a hand shaped cookie cutter on some lofthouse dough and then cut a hole in the center before baking. I played around with the size if the hole in a test batch to find the right size. Topped them with a prepackaged rolled fondant and then squeezed in some buttercream icing colored with red candy coloring.

I baked my first layered cake. It actually made me cry. I made a basic lemon cake with a filling made of lemon pudding and raspberry preserves. The cake cracked terribly twice. After the second one cracked I stuck the pieces back together as best I could and then just iced over it. It wasn’t the prettiest thing I’ve ever made but I thought it was still quite delicious. I racked my brain for days trying to come up with a cleaver idea for cup cakes and as the tears fell on my cake it finally came to me…crown of thorns. Oh, how I wish I would have thought of it just three hours earlier. So I edged the cake with a squeeze icing like a crown of thorns…next time cupcakes. It would have been better.
 

You should checkout Boots In The Oven for their awesome (and quite flattering) post on my Easter events, complete with way better pictures. They keep my favorite food and travel blog,.

Flash Math

I just got this back from framing.

I don’t know why it is so amusing to me. I laugh every time.

Glitter and Luchadores

This is a piece that I had completed quite a bit ago. I fell in love with the glittery embroidery floss, I made several cross stitches and some embroidery works completely in this glittery goodness. It is such a headache to work with, but I can’t stop. 

Everyone loves glitter. Everyone loves lucha libre. Right?

Robot Vs Dinosaur!

My friend Maddie and I have spent a bunch of our time making this merch case for The Van Buren Boys. They are close friends of hers and I am easily recruited for large craft projects, especially with one of my favorite people. I forgot what it is like to collaborate on a project. It has been a very long time, but since it was Maddie’s baby, I made a lot of  suggestions but didn’t push for anything.

Maddie found this suitcase at Room Service, one of my favorite vintage stores in town. 

We ripped out the inner lining and used spray adhesive to attach a new fabric. We left in the original purple ruffles. Maddie was worried it was going to be too girly with the rest of the plan, but in the end I am sure she was happy we left it in.

The shelf was probably the biggest pain. It is made out of balsa wood. We wanted to put some fancy, ornate trim for the edge, but we couldn’t find anything affordable. Walking around the craft-store I spotted some cording for upholstery and we glued that on the edge and the spray painted the whole thing gold. It is not exactly what I had in mind, but it works…it’s better than the plain edge.

I whipped out a cross-stitch for the sign, and Maddie crocheted a background for it.

This robot versus dinosaur diorama was the second most fun. I love fun. Maddie was so cute, she kept stressing that no one would recognize that they were fighting. I had to keep reassuring her that when robots and dinosaurs are together, they are automatically fighting. I stand by that.

We made the background with polymer clay. Maddie made the palm trees and I made the volcano.  It is hard to see in the picture but Maddie found glitter red clay for the lava. Yay!

We were originally going to make the prices sign match the band sign, but we didn’t. We made photo corned with fabric instead. 

I love the Martin Van Buren portrait. I love the frame we found for it. I love the gold paint. Love.

Rawr.

We already have more requests for merch cases.

Crochet Circle Scarves

I’ve picked up crocheting in the last month. I figured that I needed yet another fiber based hobby to spend all my time and money on. My mother has been crocheting for my entire life and I waited until she moved half-way across the country to pick up the craft myself. I spend a ton of time calling her and trying to explain stitches and snags I am running across to her over the phone. She does her best to help but it is something easier done in person.

My first three projects were scarves. After completing a very basic long double-crochet scarf with fringe, I made these two loop scarves with a very basic V-stitch.  I didn’t find any instructions on making a loop (or circle) scarf, so I just made a very  long straight scarf  and sewed the two ends together. I flipped it over on one end before attaching so that it would lay nicely in the back.

This bulky brown tweedy one was actually the second I made. They are both wool and  I had absolutely no business spending as much as I need on these yarns with my skill level. I bought two skeins of each, but the scarves only used one apiece.

This white one ended up being a bit too long to keep my neck very warm but it is pretty none the less and so very soft. It’s merino with a touch of cashmere.

I have found several yarn stores here in Austin that are amazing:
Gauge
Hill Country Weavers
and The Knitting Nest

Unicorn’s Revenge

Here is another peice of embroidery I’ve completed recently.
I love the laser eyes of death.

I spent most of Saturday at Staple! The Independent Media Expo. A small press comic convention here in Austin. It was great. Stan Sakai and Jeffrey Brown were the guest and both of the panels were great. I happen to be a huge Jeffery Brown fan so it was fun to get to meet him. I am super shy and dorky and I totally chickened out and Chris, who is the creator of Staple, came to my rescue and I got this gem of the three of us.

Embroideries

I haven’t posted in quite sometime but the double unfortune of my camera breaking and the lack of a computer had prevented me from sharing my new projects.  I found a camera to use, although the quality of the photos are not as good they are certainly better than nothing.

I’ve been working on my embroidery. My first big piece is the sugar skull that I did with mostly silk-stitch. I just sketched out the design on a scrap of broadcloth and practiced some new stitches.

I really have learned to love traditional embroidery but I still feeling like I am cheating on my first love, cross-stitch. Creating a cross-stitch is so time consuming. The planning stage always seems to take forever. Embroidery is so fast, just draw in fabric and stitch on over it. It isn’t as satisfying but I do love how quick I can complete things.

Free Comic Book Day

I was visiting my friend Doug in Los Angeles this past week. I woke up on Saturday to realize it was Free Comic Book Day. Doug was kind enough to drive me to lots of the Comic Stores in town he knows, and a few others he had heard of. We hit up Meltdown, Secret Headquarters and HideHo Comics.

We have a really awesome comic book store here in Austin with a really nice indie selection, but I was blown away by the comic stores we went to . Especially Meltdown, which was gigantic and had an amazing selection of everything. I was especially impressed with their local mini comics and the small press stuff. I haven’t been in a comic shop that large since Chicago Comics.

About forty blocks up on Sunset we went to The Secret Headquarters. This place is tiny but beautiful…all dark wood and nice lighting, more like an old library than a comic shop. I was amazed at the amount of books they were artfully and comfortably able to cram into their small little space. Plus, did I mention that it was mostly European and Small Press Titles? I was really impressed, really.

I found the parking signs at Hideho amusing.

Instead of just being happy with my free comics. I went out of my mind buying tons of comics that I could not afford. I suppose that is part of the point.

“So, Jennifer, what did you do in L.A.?” “Oh, I bought comic books for a week…and ate.”

Here is a small glimpse at what I got…

I hope you got your free comic books this year.