Oh, screw it...

Ok. So I tried to do a little Daily Ditty on here, and it's just not working. The intent was to force myself to write daily, but with the seemingly endless stack of homework in front of me, I have just been making shit up to fill the space. There are only about two of you who occasionally read this anyhow, so I hope you don't mind if I change it.

New structure: no deadlines, no themes, just writing. I will still be The Royal Stitch, but I will be writing what I like to call "short plays of various types." That will mean different things on different days; no rules, just writing. I'll post the words and images that flood my mind on a daily basis.

So, it will probably be a hot minute before I can actually post something (this sill gradschool final is consuming me at the moment), but I already have a few things in mind, including installments of a play I am going to write (I will, by god!) this summer. So! Thank you, Maggie and Areli, for reading this. This is what I am going to start doing. I thank you for supporting me and my silly little dreams. Please let me know what you think!

Love you!
Lindsey

On the Interwebs: Gardens!

I just realized most of what I post on here is from the internet, but whatever.

So! It's getting to be that time of year again; the time where I tear up a small plot of earth in a tiny little corner of our backyard, plant as many seedlings as I can fit in the shallow little bed, and curse at the squirrels as they eat my newly ripened tomatoes right off of the plant. It's fun, it's stressful, and it's ridiculously rewarding once everything starts to grow and produce. I love gardening significantly more than I am talented at it, but I keep trying anyway.

My grandmother was a freaking fantastic gardener (and cook, and seamstress, and wine maker, and life-liver...). Like with her culinary talents, I am nowhere near her level of ability but she instilled in me a love for making a garden grown. This past year was my first attempt at making one (from scratch, I might add), and I am really excited to get started this year.

To help me out, a friend of mine showed me this cool little site. It's a place where you can virtually design your own garden! I should have looked at it weeks ago, considering it's way too late to start growing my own seedlings, BUT! it will be helpful to me now nonetheless. 

If you are starting to put together your own little garden, check this place out. It'll help you get started!

-Linds

Bibliophile: The Intro and the Posters

Okie dokie. So. Mondays will eventually be a place where I yap at you about what I am reading. BUT! Since I haven't been reading recently (thank you grad school and my finals...), I don't have anything to share at this precise moment.

BUT! Please check out this fracking awesome site: PosterText.  Coolest. Idea. Ever. The creators have taken classic, public domain books and typed out the words in just a way that illustrates an iconic image from the book. I NEED TO OWN ONE A MILLION OF THESE. I really really really want Dorian Gray, Alice in Wonderland, and the Wizard of Oz. And if they make an Atlas Shrugged one (which the probably won't...), I will be the FIRST person to buy it. :)

Enjoy!

-Linds

Short Plays of Various Types: The Elephants

One of my favorite memories was when my family and I drove the moderately painful trek from Phoenix to Tucson to see my aunt when I was six years old; a trip my mother insisted on taking at night so the relentless heat of Arizona Summer days wouldn’t kill her sad and barely drivable Honda Civic. I remember sitting in the backseat, staring out the window at the endless void that was the desert landscape. I could see shadows of creatures darting across the sand, mountains rolling in the distance, patches of saguaro cacti here and there, and an occasional shooting star cutting through the sky. It was beautiful. My favorite part of this drive, however, was the elephants.

About halfway through, in the distance I started seeing groups of trees silhouetted against the mostly empty horizon. Relatively rare in the southern part of Arizona, these large anomalies seemed to have risen out of nowhere and, with the dark masking the pertinent details, I was a smidgen confused as to what they were.  Before logic and reason kicked in, my 6-year-old imagination went to town.  Trunks began to bend into pillars of roughened grey skin; branches curved into curiously long and twisted snouts; and leaves shuffled into the full, flapping, and friendly ears of my favorite pachyderm. Though no one else in the car had noticed, the world around me was suddenly filled with a circus of elephants, gently trudging together through the desolate desert alongside my Mom’s tiny Honda.  There were hundreds of them, they were everywhere, and it was magical. I stared at them for miles and miles until the lights of Tucson illuminated the mystery and the trees were trees again.

Crafty crafty! Weddings! Roommate!

So, I guess I've reached the age in life where ALL of my friends are getting married. Like, for shizzle, my roommate Jinni has counted nearly twenty (TWENTY!!) couples that are now engaged, and lord knows there are several more knots to be tied on the horizon. As happy as I am for all my lovely, happy, blissful friends, I can't help but think of all of the plane tickets, dresses, and wedding gifts I am now stuck buying for them. I love you guys, but I work in theatre; I is poor. :)

Jinni, a creative crafting connoisseur and my awesome roommate, has found the perfect way to work around one of those pesky wedding obligations-- she makes the wedding gifts instead of buying them.

Our dear friends Mark and Dina are getting married this July, and Jinni, as her gift to them, is making all of the bridal bouquets and the guys lapels. And I don't mean she's buying fake flowers and throwing them together into tastefully designed bunches; the bouquets are tasteful, but she is making most of the flowers by hand. Those roses up there? Made of ribbon, hand wound by the roommate. Yup, that's right, they are kind of awesome.

And there are more:

Made out of the pages of a Midsummer Night's Dream script.

Ok, so these are the premade fakey flowers, but they look pretty damn cool next to the others...

Aren't they AH-FREAKING-MAZING?!? I think the book flowers are my favorite.  I tried to help her make these once (translation: I watched her make them one day and decided I should never try to help for fear I'd ruin them...), and they're pretty tricky to make. Jinni has a knack for picking some pretty tough projects that end up looking BEAUTIFUL. You should see her jewelry (for those of you in KC, check out the Queens Rocket store in Blo Salon. She's got some of her work there!); it's just as awesome!

I'll try to finagle a photo once she is done putting the bouquets together. If any of you are going to Mark and Dina's wedding, be sure to check them out! And tell Jinni how much you love them!!

From Niko: Keep Calm

My life motto at the moment.

Thursday Eats

Ooooook. So. Usually this will be for something that *I've* cooked, but with the ridiculous amount of homework I am cranking out at the moment, I am just going to share other's recipes with you until I am done with school for the semester. Deal?

There is this blogger I follow named RadMegan. She is pretty, well, rad. Crafting, cooking, gardening, life? She does it all and does it pretty damn well. She posted this recipe for a cake that looks so flipping fantastic, I am pretty much drooling all over myself right now. I am definitely going to try this this Summer. It's a lemon cake with fresh lemon curd. Ohmygod, love. If you try it before me, please let me know how it goes!

Check out the recipe here!

Until tomorrow...

-Linds