I know it's hard to believe but I actually do cross-stitch things that don't involve cats! This is Northern Lights by Sweet Annet on Etsy. It's a small piece, 2"x3" (5cm x 7.5cm) and I chose to stitch it on 14 count plastic canvas because I thought it would make a neat little magnet. My pine trees are flat-topped because you were supposed to do a stitch in the middle of the square to get the peak which is totally doable on fabric, not so much on plastic canvas! We'll just assume there was a very strong, very horizontal wind that blew by. Also, the original pattern called for French knots but fuck French knots. I hate them so I used shiny little beads instead.

I'm working on the cutest little pattern right now. I think it'll be ready for showing off next blog post. I'm used to working with the cross stitch fabric I could easily buy locally, which is usually Charles Craft. It's very stiff and hard to wrangle in a hoop when first starting a project. With this one, however, I'm using fabric I bought online. I think it's Zweigart and it's so buttery soft and just a pleasure to stitch on! I'm also using one of my fancy new Tulip needles but, honestly, I can't tell much of the difference between that and the last one I was using, which was probably a DMC needle.

Last week one of my links was to an article about a 16th century artist who did beautiful drawings of insects. His work is part of an exhibition at the National Museum of Art in Washington DC called Little Beasts: Art, Wonder and the Natural World. I can't go to the exhibit so I bought the exhibit book from the Museum site and just got it yesterday. It's so beautiful! It features many artists and there are so many beautiful drawings, both in color and black and white. Take a look!

I didn't realize there were going to be little critters in the pages, too! I must admit, I eeeped when I was flipping through pages and came across this fuzzy little guy! The edges look gilt until you fan them and then you can see hidden things!

Listening

Some podcasts I've listened to this week:

I listen to a lot of podcasts but I should listen to my own music more often. I have a 5th gen iPod Nano but I wanted to get away from the Apple walled garden so I bought a Surfans F20 a while ago but I have yet to transfer more than a few songs over to it. I also need to go through my YT liked music list and figure out what I like enough to spend money on in order to actually own it.

Reading

I have finished Deeds of the Destroyer and am taking a break from that series. I'm currently reading a book I found out about from the meowsoleum called The Life of Nuns. It's all about the lives of medieval German nuns. I know, that sounds as dry as stale toast but I'm about a third of the way through this book and it's really interesting! These nuns had vibrant lives and even got up to things like having to find a devious way to get rid of their provost, who was using his position to further himself and not the nuns. The nun who kept the diary is never named. It's kind of sad that we'll never know exactly who she is but it's so wonderful that her words were saved after all these centuries.

Even if I'm not reading books, I'm usually reading other stuff! Here are a couple of interesting articles I read recently, both about ancient Mesoamerica:

And this is the latest blog post from Going Medieval, On Crusades, or how not to identify with losers.

Watching

I have finished season 1 of Babylon 5. Tubi decided to wrap up the season with the original pilot movie, which I didn't realize when I first started watching it, so I was confused at first - no Ivanova! Different doctor! Then I realized what was happening. So, good stuff! I'll start season 2 this week.

I also finished Grantchester on PBS. There will be one more season and then the series will wrap. I'll miss it but sometimes a series you really like ends up going on far beyond what it should. I feel that's what happened with Father Brown, as much as I loved watching that. The last few seasons were just so ... meh.