Sir David after 3 hours and 15 minutes

Here he is after 3 hours and 15 minutes:

I did the outline of his face in stem stitch using six strands of floss, and I'm doing the details of his face in back stitch with three strands.

Here he is after 45 minutes.

Good night,
Sylvie

WIP: Redwork portrait of David Attenborough

Here it is after 45 minutes:

I'm doing his hair in split stitch using six strands of floss.

Close-up of the face

Here is the photo I used. My original choice was this one of him with a frog, since he looked particularly smiley and kindly (and duh, he had a frog!!) but the Photoshop process reduced the frog to an unidentifiable lump of lines.

If this thing turns out well, it will thrill me to the marrow!

Be seeing you.
--Sylvie

Birdwatching in Britain

• I just read an article, in the November 22, 2009 issue of The Observer, on how birdwatching is becoming even more popular in Britain. The article includes interviews with a number of birdwatchers, including some famous ones. Alison Steadman's enthusiasm is so genuine and may I say, adorable. And, it was nice to hear about another black birder, David Lindo.

• Mackenzie Crook, of The BBC's The Office, is a birder (and a nature-lover in general). He bought a woodland instead of a Ferrari. See this article from the Winter 2008 issue of Tweet, from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Felt Crow

I made this felt crow a few months ago. I used one of my photos of a crow as the pattern. It is made of 100% postconsumer content craft felt, and its back is gray.

I used silver thread to make its bill snazzier.

Good night,

Sylvie

Pure Nerd

Here are the results from my The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test. Well, I'm a bit of all of the above, but since I "scored better than half in Nerd" (65% Nerd, 26% Geek, 43% Dork; obviously, this isn't additive), I earned the title of

Pure Nerd.

The site provides the following definitions:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.

Be seeing you.

Sugar

Gum: Bazooka Joe has new characters, including a nerdy black kid who likes reptiles! When you get to the Bazooka site, click on "Comics."

Cookies: We had Tim Tams (Arnott's) in Australia (one of our tour leaders loves chocolate, sugar, and fat, and he loves to share, so each day on the bus he gave us soda and cookies). I saw them at the grocery store on Sunday; the American version is made by Pepperidge Farms, not Arnott's, and I found a detailed comparison of the two versions here.

On-line Hand Embroidery Exhibition: Living Organisms

Check it out!