Bullriding!

Finally, Justin McBride won the PBR Bullriding Championship! Right down to the wire too--he finished up his 8 seconds nearly upside down on that bull, but held on to the end. You might wonder, what does Bullriding have to do with crafts? Absolutely nothing except that I crocheted while watching it for the last year, so that I could root for Justin (he was the leader last year and broke his leg just before the finals). Now I can move on to other things on Saturday night (especially since my Netflix account has reactivated after vacation).

I spent most of the weekend looking over digital pictures to decide what to print as well as working on my cross-stitch of Thoth. That is going very well. I'm a scrapbooker as well as needleworker, so many days are about to be spent at Archivers, getting these photos into a book pronto. I don't have table space at home to spread out, so I get page packets together and just work on them at the store. Although I own most of what I need, sometimes it helps to be at the store when you find you don't have just the right thing.

I stitched on Thoth while watching the bullriding. Here he is in his current state. I've done all of the figure and just started on the backstitching. I also have the pedestal started. This is quite a fast project, but if you hate color blocks, skip this project! This particular one comes from Julie Hasler's Fantasy Cross Stitch: Zodiac Signs, Mythical Beasts and Mystical Characters. If you really like Egyptian designs in cross stitch, I would recommend purchasing Egyptian Charted Designs by Julie Hasler (printed by Dover). These are lovely, uncomplicated designs that can be done by any cross stitcher on either Aida or some other fabric (over 2 threads). If you prefer more detail, Teresa Wentzler has a great design. As for the book, Fantasy Cross Stitch, I don't recommend it for a beginner. It happens to have some beginner projects, but most require more experience. I bought it mostly for the phenomenal (and complicated) Zodiac designs. I plan to start on Leo (my sign) sometime next year.