The Joys of Jess

I moved!

2010-04-24T16:57:00.001-07:00

After abandoning this blog and being the worst blogger ever, I've decided to start fresh at tumblr.

You can now find me here. Hope to see you there!

Three billy goats scrap

2009-08-16T06:27:00.001-07:00

Three billy goats scrap
Originally uploaded by thejoysofjess

So here we have my attempt at making the three billy goats gruff. I thought "Okay, so a troll will be hard to stitch" so I made eyeballs under the bridge, That's those white dots there. Then I made the goat crossing the bridge. To be honest, I am going to remove the goat and the eyes. I think they ruin what is otherwise a pretty scene. It was a nice thought though!

Little Red Riding Hood

2009-08-03T09:55:00.001-07:00

Little Red Riding Hood
Originally uploaded by thejoysofjess

Not gonna lie, I'm really proud of this piece. I just think it's adorable. I even painted the hoop to hang it in!

The trees and little red are outlined in stem stitch then filled in. The grass is chain stitched and crayon tinted. The fabric between the trees was treated with glue to give it a sort of mottled, steamy, foggy sort of look.

I love it.

Retro owl

2009-07-26T06:23:00.001-07:00

Retro owl
Originally uploaded by thejoysofjess

My mom called me one day to inform me that owls are very in. She said that a lot of scrapbookers have been using owls in their layouts, so owls must be very hip. This, of course, meant that I had to make an owl.

I always listen to my mother. ;)

I need an ark over here!

2009-07-16T04:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the heavens opened and in about an hour, we got at least six inches of rain. Our backyard is prone to flooding, because we have one corner that is lower than everything else. We built a sandbox there for the dogs, which has cut down on the regular flooding issues, but not when it rains that much that quickly! The ground didn't have time to absorb the water, so it just kept building up.

We took the dogs out, of course, because they love water. Hunter absolutely soaked me, which is what this picture is of. I'm not even sure why I bothered putting on my rainboots. The dogs jumping around splashed the water inside of them, so my feet still got wet.

Luckily this morning it is way down. Now the ground is just squishy instead of flooded. At least the dogs had fun!

Find hope in the negative

2009-07-15T14:20:00.001-07:00

Find hope in the negative
Originally uploaded by thejoysofjess

I had a really crappy day yesterday. I try to be an optimist, but I regret that deep down, I'm pessimistic. I've wanted to work with negative space after seeing someone else do it on etsy. I figured with my mood, what better word to do than "Hope."

So here is my reminder. Find hope in the negative (space).

Today has been better than yesterday in a lot of ways. I hope it keeps up. I also hope I can convince myself not to get down about it if it doesn't, and not to expect that it won't stay good.

Everything will be okay.

2009-07-15T14:12:00.001-07:00

I created my first treasury!

2009-07-05T08:20:00.001-07:00

I made my first treasury! Something Fishy!!! I am very excited. I really do love fish for children. When I eventually have kids, I am totally doing their rooms in a fish theme.

Pink bike

2009-07-04T13:16:00.001-07:00

Pink bike, originally uploaded by thejoysofjess.

Happy Fourth of July everyone! We celebrated yesterday with the neighbors. There was a block party and the whole cul de sac attended. The people we bought our house from came also, and that was nice. They liked the changes we made to the house (mostly just paint).

I made this pink bike yesterday at work. I'm very proud of it, actually. I might even be in love with it.

We went to the Riverside Arts Market today and bought a plant that eats bugs for the backyard. We also bought some dip and I can't wait to get some sour cream so I can eat it.

Bullion knots

2009-06-30T05:57:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I finally learned how to do a bullion knot. I watched the video at Needlenthread.com about 50 times before I felt brave enough. I tore it out at least five times before I was satisfied, and this is what I ended up with. I'm a little unhappy that the seeds in the apple are so uneven, but overall, I am proud of the way they turned out. I definitely will need to work harder at them before I will ever be able to list anything with them in it. I love the look though.

Today my goal is to clean my house. My hours got cut at work, so here I am sitting on my butt 2-3 days a week. I definitely need to be more productive, so my goal is to pick up and vacuum. I also need to do some laundry and finish some embroidery. I'm working on a trio of ties with a different pattern on each one.

Things I want to embroider

2009-06-28T18:23:00.000-07:00

I need to start keeping track of these things, because then I forget and get side tracked. This way when I am stumped for ideas, I can refer back to the list and take care of that.

Planes, trains, automobiles
Squid
Doug Funnie (lol)
Fruits
Birds
Knuffle Bunny

Tea towels

2009-06-28T05:56:00.000-07:00

I want to branch out! I really want to embroider on tea towels. The issue here being is that no one has ever posted pictures of the backs of their tea towels. I'm not sure how to go about finishing my embroidery so it'll stand up to the use that tea towels get. I'm a little afraid to spend the money to buy tea towels, then embroider on them, then have them fall apart when I try to wash them.

Advice, anyone? I will probably end up just forging ahead if I can find a good enough price online, to be honest. Hobby Lobby has them 2 for $5 and surely there's a cheaper way online.

My husband likes to tease me

2009-06-26T07:07:00.001-07:00

He says my latest piece looks like the twitter bird. Mostly I think he is just being bitter because he hates twitter and I have one. I can't help it if I need desperately to update people on every aspect of my life! I don't think it looks like the twitter bird! I think it's beautiful. Definitely one of my favorite things that I've made.

We are a very lucky couple lately. My etsy shop seems to be taking off with a few sales this week. I managed to keep my job when half of the staff was laid off. Yesterday my husband's company laid off a handful of people, but my husband hung on. I am so grateful for everything that we have. We are really very blessed.

I'm excited!

2009-06-25T11:38:00.000-07:00

Today at work, I kept getting a lot of e-mails informing me more people had added me on twitter. I couldn't figure out why, because I didn't remember pimping out my twitter link anytime recently. I got home from work to find out that this flower piece I made was featured on Feeling Stitchy! I am so psyched. I have been stalking that blog since before I started doing embroidery. They always feature the most gorgeous work. I'm absolutely flattered.

Things I want

2009-06-24T04:34:00.000-07:00

I want to make a list of things I want so I remember to buy them as my money comes in.

1. St. Ann Rosary Bracelet. On etsy, by BeadsOfHeaven. It's pretty and I like what St. Ann stands for.

2. A custom stamp with my shop name so I can stamp the back of my pieces. By JLMould on etsy.

3. Moo Cards! I embroider a lot at work and people ask me about it. I'd love to have business cards to give out, and I think I am going to use Moo Cards for that, so I can put pictures of my work on them.

4. More hoops. I discovered that Hobby Lobby is substantially cheaper than Micheal's, so I am going there now.

5. Envelopes. I have a few things to mail. This should really be #1 because I need to get on the ball.

Tossing it out

2009-06-23T17:44:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I just don't like what I've made. This, for example. I loved the picture I based it off of, but when it came to filling in the tree bits, I couldn't find a way to make it nice. I tried a couple of different stitches before I settled on the satin stitch. I don't like how jagged it looks on the edges. I'm putting this piece down for a bit. I need a break from it, because it's ticking me off. I might try adding a border later, if I can get around to picking it up again.

In the mean time, my dog, Olive, is driving me insane. She has this pink ball that she absolutely loves. We love it too, because she can't manage to destroy it. She usually chews everything to pieces. Olive loves this too TOO much though. She keeps bringing it to us. I swear, the other day I threw it for a solid two hours. I didn't even realize I'd thrown it at long until I noticed that the movie I was watching was over. She brings this ball to us 24/7 and I swear, one of these days, I'm throwing it away!

I'm a terrible blogger

2009-06-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

I really am. I don't even know why, because quite frankly I love to talk about myself.

Anyway, this summer is my summer of embroidery right now. I'm currently working as a receptionist for the summer camp that my preschool runs. This is a boring job with a lot of downtime, and my boss gave me permission to do whatever I want, within reason. So frankly, I should have a lot of embroidery to update about also.

So my goal for the summer is to keep this updated. You know what they say about creating a habit? Yeah, me neither, but I'm going to create a habit here and hopefully get on with it.

Out of white

2009-06-09T18:13:00.000-07:00

Isn't it the absolute worst when you are so close to finishing, but you don't have the color you need? All I need is white to finish up this dandelion.

Forgive my terrible picture. I just needed to complain so I took one very quickly.

First attempt at applique

2009-06-09T04:58:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm off teaching for the summer, I have a lot more time to get embroidering and try new things. This is my first attempt using fabric with my stitching and I think I love it!

I'm so bad at updating

2009-06-06T07:34:00.000-07:00

I'm nonstop talking about myself in LJ, you'd think I'd be a master here.

Anyway, this is an item I made for a friend's birthday. She loves this book and talks about it nonstop, so I figured it was perfect for her. I need to find the perfect frame for it.

Mother's Day

2009-05-09T06:24:00.000-07:00

First etsy listing

2009-04-21T15:41:00.000-07:00

So here it is. The first thing I have listed in my etsy shop. I love it. I plan on following with a "C for Caterpillar" as soon as I bother to get it done.

I need to make a banner for my shop

2009-04-19T06:12:00.000-07:00

Apparently I really suck at editing photos to make them the proper size for an etsy banner. I stitched out my etsy name, intending to just crop and use it, but when I went to upload it, OH HORRORS. It looked downright awful.

I do still love the stitching. That's my own handwriting, and I love my own handwriting. ;) I may need to take up stitching quotes soon.

Harold and the Purple Crayon

2009-04-12T15:29:00.000-07:00

So here goes! My first jump into public blogging. After years on livejournal, I've decided to add a blogger because I am opening up an Etsy.com shop! You can find my empty shop here. Hopefully soon it will be full of embroidered treasures that people will be buying. We'll see.

I picked Harold for this entry because that's how I am feeling right now. I have a blank canvas in front of me and it can go anywhere. All I need to do is pick up my ~~purple crayon~~ needle and thread. Wish me luck!