A New Hobby: Cross-stitch

Do you cross-stitch? Cross-stitching has quickly become my new obsession, my craft of choice. But let me back up. I’ve been feeling a little….well, blah lately. This winter – all the snow, the days stuck inside, the potty training toddler, the many, many leaks we have in our house from ice damns – it’s all just too much. Too much! And I am not one to complain about winter, I certainly prefer the cold weather (coats!) and usually think we don’t get enough snow (to ski!), so, I needed something. Something new to be excited about. A new thing for me to spend all my free time doing (ha, free time meaning the couple hours I have after the kids go to bed before I go to bed or just fall asleep on the couch). I had some books I’d like to read all loaded on my Kindle, but then I’d fall asleep immediately. I have a bunch of great magazine subscriptions, but same problem (I also need more sleep apparently), so my search continued.

Until one day I found it. On marthstewart.com by way of the Loeffler Randall Instagram account run by their Creative Director Jessie. She grammed a photo of a cross-stitch in progress of the face of every child in her son’s class and it really caught my eye. Because I’ve cross-stitched a few times when I was little and always did little kits, and honestly any kit you find ispretty lame. But here, this woman was taking an idea from Martha Stewart where you draw your own patterns on graph paper and then stitch them – adorable! I immediately (well, within a week) ran to the craft store to buy my materials. I decided to buy one of the lame kits to freshen my cross-stitch skills, I picked the one above because I thought a little someone in my house may enjoy having it framed in her room when I’m done (purple!). I’m almost done and it only took 3 nights.

So now I am going to practice creating my own cross-stitch patterns and get to work on a little family portrait, maybe based on our family photos? Who knows! The ideas are endless and are swimming in my head right now. If you’re a member of my family or close friend, watch out – a cross-stitch of yourself may be in your future!

What’s getting you through this winter?