Happy Distractions

This year continues to be more wonky and distressing than idyllic. As it becomes more and more evident that it isn't just us, I figured I would share a few idle and entertaining distractions that I have found to help.
Web comics abound, but Girl Genius is a fantastic story, lovely art and very popular with everyone in our house as is Finders Keepers.
I love embroidery, almost as much as I love knitting. It adds color and personality to rather dull but practical items. Urban Threads and Sublime Stitching have lots of less conventional embroidery designs, making them more entertaining to stitch up than standard fruit and flowers type designs.
Food is another creative outlet that the whole household can get involved in and appreciate. Cheeky Kitchen is lots of fun with good recipes. 101 Cookbooks has pictures that make you want to lick the screen, but that could be just me and how I feel about the chocolate cake.
Finally, my favorite thing (still), is to play dress up. I regularly peruse standard pattern sites that I may add to my already not insubstantial collection, with the majority of them being from the late '40's to mid '50's. Which is why I really covet so many of the things from Pinup Girl
and Stop Staring . Though steampunk also brings great joy, so Clockwork Couture has many adored items as well. I also love being able to close the window if the temptation becomes too much, or being able to go back and visit a favored piece whenever I like.
Those are just a few of my favored diversions, please note the lack of mention of yarn, I really do think about lots of other things, sometimes all at once. ;-)

I don't just knit

No, this is not standard flowers and little girls embroidery. While the apron itself needs to be washed and ironed, I was rather pleased with how it turned out. The cupcake was going to be a plain one, albeit purple and green, until one of my friends sent me a picture of another friend's tattoo. We both fell in love with the skully cupcake. So of course I just had to re-work the design so at the very least, I could have a skully cupcake of my very own that didn't involve me running out and getting a tattoo right this instant.
The designs are from Sublime Stitches whose stuff I just adore! My love of their designs vies for my love of good yarn. Which is why the apron is done and a sweater is not. ;-)