From what I've seen on the web most vintage ladies, and even dog moms, are incredibly crafty. Not me, I've failed at knitting and crocheting and can't even sew on a button, but I think I've finally found the craft for me. Something so simple and basic that a six year can do it well, which means I can do it ok:
Cross stitch.
I decided to give it a try whenI saw that there where lots of geeky sci-fi and fantasy patterns available on Etsy. I started with a really simple Star Trek The Next Generation inspired pattern from the etsy shop Quote Stitching. This pattern was perfect because it referenced my beloved Spot, who I named after the cat belonging to the Android Science Officer Data on Star Trek The Next Generation.
In one of my favorite Data/Spot moments Data explains to one of his friend that Spot is a feline and not a canine and thus does not respond to verbal commands.
(This might not be true of all felines, but it seems to be true of mine.) It took me about 2 days of stitching in the evenings while watching TV to finish my project and I'm pleased with my results.
I bought the threads and supplies at Everything Cross Stitch which I found very reasonably priced with a huge selection and cheap shipping. I tried to take Spot's picture next to the finished cross stitch but you know he doesn't respond to verbal commands. So here is a picture of him playing on his cat tree instead.
I'm really happy to have found a craft simple enough for me to do while I watch TV. I've started my next one, A Super Natural inspired pattern.
My husband often teases me about being a bit obsessed with my favorite TV shows and perhaps caring a smidgen too much about what happens to fictional characters in a fictional world. He's not wrong! When I like something I tend to get a tad obsessed and I've always liked the sorts of television shows that inspire fanatical devotion (though I like to think I'm somewhere in the middle ground of fans, snug between the casual viewer and the fully costumed convention attendee). While I was trying to decide what sort of Christmas garland to make for our mantle I got to think about the geeky valentines from geek crafts and decided to use photo shop to make a garland of Christmas cards from some of my favorite shows. I'm not very good with crafting, to say the least, and I'm not much good at photo shop either but it was still very easy and I really like the end result. To make the garland all you need is a cheapo Christmas foil garland that is not to thick, I used a 2 dollar silver garland from Target, card stock, a single hole puncher, scissors, photo shop, and a color printer:
To make a card all you do is select an image from the internet and drag it into I photo from there you can copy it into photo shop and then create a colorful background and add your desired text. The geek crafts valentines post explains more about how to do it.After making a card you just print it out on card stock and cut it out. In making my cards I was greatly helped by earlier geeks who had created cards with my favorite characters, for example all I had to do was google Star Trek Christmas to get a dizzying assortment of trekmas themed cards.
I made Trek cards from Kirk and Spock and Uhura and the Next Generation Crew
Supernatural cards from the Winchesters and Castiel
Twin Peaks cards from The Log Lady and Agent Cooper:
And cards from Mulder and Scully of the X Files and the Futurama Crew (the X Files art work was created by some other sci fi nerd I just copied it onto the card):
Once I had my cards I punched holes in the top of each card and strung them on my garland and taped it to my mantle.
The whole project took less then an hour and my Christmas helpers napped in their PJs the entire time.
