the one with Embroidery 101

I recently began embroidering. I love it. I love how many cute little projects you can make with it. Currently, I am no good at the craft. I am teaching myself stitch by stitch. Its going well and Im having a lot of fun planning projects I am going to make once I am confident with my embroidery skills.
I have been using this book:

I love, love, love the pictures that they show and the variety of stitches; it’s the largest amount of compiled stitches than any other book I have looked through. The only problem is that the book does not explain how to complete the stitches well at all.

I also use this book at times:

This book has a lot less stitches, but the ones that they do show are pictured very well and are explained decently well.

I think I just have a hard time reading instructions and would much rather see it done in front of me. So the way I have been learning stitches:
I go through the books I have
find stitches I want to learn
read the information provided
get online and either look up a video (which there are few of) or find a website that explains the stitch more thoroughly.

I have been practicing on felt. This seemed like a great idea at first, its cheap and who cares if you decide to throw it away afterwards, right? BUT, its actually really difficult to embroider on felt. Felt makes large holes easily and the fibers catch all the time leaving your stitch surrounded by a fuzzy felt mess!
Here are my felt practice sheets:

I would recommend that you go to the thrift store or dollar store and find really cheap material, old cloth napkins, table cloths, scrap fabric. DON’T start out with tee shirts, tee shirts stretch when they are in the hoop and then when you take the material off the hoop, your creation will be warped.

Alrighty, so thats my embroidery adventure thus far!

Fact:
In the mid 1800s, embroidered samplers were a sign of affluence in America. Even the poorly made samplers were hung with pride in a very prominent spot in the home.

Chickpeas exists.
I just finished making and munching on this delicious chickpea treat!

1 can of chickpeas
1Tbsp of vegetable oil
1/4tsp each of: cumin, coriander, hot paprika (all ground)—can also add ground ginger!
1/2tsp of salt

Preheat oven 425degrees
Toss chickpeas, oil and spices until evenly mixed
Spread out on a baking sheet
Put in oven for about 30 minutes, shake pan around occasionally
Keep in oven until chickpeas are golden and crunchy
Let cool completely, they are not as good when they are still warm

Easy right? Well it would have been, had I checked on them “occasionally” and not every two minutes… I have a tendency to babysit whatever it is that I make in the kitchen. But they sure are crunch-yumm-licious.

YUM

HAPPY GIRL

Baseball fans exist. The first time I walked into the Baseball Hall of Fame, I was expecting to be bored. Im not a huge baseball fan and I assumed that the museum would just be a huge hall with lots of bronze plaques. Welp, you know what they say about assuming and I indeed made an ass of myself. I walked around the museum in awe. It was amazing. The exhibits were beautifully laid out with cool artifacts in each and lots of fun interactives. It was/is totally cool. I left wanting to sing “take me out to the ballgame” and “the star spangled banner” simultaneously on the streets. I wanted everyone to go there and feel the same passion that was instilled into me by visiting.
SO, now every Tuesday and Thursday I wake up at 6:30am. I eat breakfast in the kitchen, while outside my window the sun rises over the snowy valley of the great Catskill Mountains. I leave my house, coffee in hand, and walk into town. I then board a bus and take the one hour commute into Cooperstown NY. I am dropped off at the beautiful Baseball Hall of Fame!! I am interning there with the Education Department. I am currently revamping their Fine Arts lessons. These are lessons to be taught by art teachers who plan on visiting the museum to see our fine arts collection. I am also helping with the new education center-- its this great new room off of the fine arts gallery. I am working around so many baseball fans and just loving the game more and more. In fact, I think I can officially say that I am a fan myself!

FREE TIME exists. In fact, a lot of it exists in my life. Currently, I am living in my college town, although I have graduated already. SO, until the end of May, my blogs will consist of the fun things I am doing to fill up my time. Feel free, for you four followers, to give me advice on how else to fill my time!