sweet dreams are made of this

Yeay, an update! I've finished some stuff during Easter (a weekend spent on Öland with my cousin & aunt, doing nothing but eating & crafting & visiting yardsales) so here goes:

My first encounter with feminism was probably through music - the angry screams of Kathleen, Corin, Tobi, Allison, Jennifer, Carrie & all the other riot grrrls. It was through them I got my first insights about issues like sexual abuse, female empowerment & sexuality. My first analysis of patriarchy was definitely soundtracked & fueld by the pure force of songs like Double dare ya.

We're bikini kill, and we want revolution, girl style, NOW!

So, I made a pattern for the classic jumping cheerleader with the text on it, but then decided to go another way. & I think it turned out pretty good, the plan is to make a pillowcase out of it.

Speaking of pillowcases, this is one that my cousin made last summer. I love the expression in the boy's face:

I'm to tired to make this into a proper update with text & all, so you just have to do with a crappy photo of another patch I finished in the car on the way home today.

she's a man-eater

I wish I had something to say, but apparently I don't. Had a friend over for dinner earlier & now I'm sitting here drinking tea & listening to Victor Jara by myself. The crafting is still going strong, but i don't have any finished pieces to show you, so you just have to hang on for a while.

In the meantime you could watch yesterdays edition of Uppdrag Granskning on Swedish television. For those of you who don't speak/understand swedish, here's a short summary: The meat industry is one of the biggest pollutioners world wide, mostly due to methane gas & the fact that tons & tons of soybeans are grown to feed livestock (often on land that used to be rain forrest in south america). Last year the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United nations (FAO) published a report named Livestock's long shadow (download it here), where it's concluded that 18 % of the harmful pollution that adds to the greenhouse effect comes from the Western meat industry. That's more than the whole sector of transportation all together (even if you don't count the transportation of meat & animals).

But still no one is willing to talk about this. All you hear when it comes to climate change, the greenhouse effect & the fact that we have to do something about it now, before it's too late, is that we need to cut down on transportation, use less energy & promote "climate smart" products. Take Sweden for example, here you get a discount of 10 000 skr if you buy a environment-friendly car & it's discussed if we should inforce higher taxes on for example flying. But no Swedish politician is ready to say that the food people eat, their desire to feed on the meat of other living creatures, is slowly (or nowadays, rather quickly) killing our planet. Why is this? What's the deal with the meat? It's pretty interesting that people are willing to cut back on other things & maybe change their way of living in many ways to stop global warming, but when you start talking about what they eat & why, it's all just a big fucking taboo to even bring the question up for discussion.

& speaking of eating, last saturday was march 8, the International Women's Day (a day that was established in 1910, at a meeting in the same house that later became Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen which was torn down just a year ago) . I wasn't too involved in the celebration this year (well, it's no celebration - what do we have to celebrate? not much) but I did go to a friends house to have brunch & eat the MANBREAD that she made especially for this day.

The slogan of the day was of course If you can't beat them, eat them!

being paraniod doesn't mean you aren't followed

Oh I almost forgot, I got tagged by a french girl! Can't really read the blog though, since my french stops short after the compulsory voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir? I actually did study french in school back in the days, but never learned anything useful (except maybe the frase "I'm gonna fuck your mother with carrots" which I unfortunately forgot rather quickly). Anyway, if I got it right the tag is about telling y'all six things in my life that i'm manic about... so, here goes:

One: I can't stand fireworks, backfireing cars, barking dogs or any other loud, sudden noice. This also means that I'm terrified of balloons ('cause you just know they're gonna go BANG at any moment). The combination balloons + kids on a bus (or any public transportation) can send me in to panic & I have to get off the bus before I start crying.

Two: The most disgusting thing I know is the sound of other people brushing their teeth.

Three: I very often find myself thinking "why are you all staring at me?!" when I'm in a public place & when I do I have to check that i have clothes on me about a thousand times.

(Hm, this does more & more sound like a list of paranoias, right?)

Four: I rarely leave my home without taking at least one book with me. You never know when you're gonna get bored.

Five: I guess the cross stitching fit in here. I'm often sort of manic about a new project, or finishing something that i've been working on - sometimes to the point where I cross stitch until my hands hurt & I cant use them properly.

Six: I need people/friends to answer me as soon as possible everytime I send them a textmsg or e-mail. If they don't, I (loudly) accuse them of hating me.

Well, I might change this list later. Makes me look like a complete idiot... But right now I don't have time, have to go & meet friends & drink beer. See ya kids!

poison in a pretty pill

After months & months of searching for the perfect frame for the Wolfbrigade x-stitch (I wanted a big golden one) I finaly gave up, so since yesterday it's in the hands of it's rightful owners. Here's Dadde showing off the new backdrop & Micke channeling his inner emo kid...

(the photos aren't bad, they're PUNK ROCK, haha)

I've made some changes to the pretty punk embroidery since last time I posted a photo of it. Had to put som skulls & bones on it, so that the boys wouldn't feel too intimidated by the quteness. Then I accidentaly spilled some coffee on it, but i rationalize the stains as punk... & if you live in Stockholm, don't miss Wolfbrigade playing at Kafé 44 on Sunday March 9, (together with Imperial Leather & DSB).

here be dragons

I've spent the weekend visiting friends in Gothenburg - yes finaly, after months of planning I got my shit together & actually went there. Almost cancelled the trip this time too, 'cause of a bad cold that had me floored during the whole week (or more correctly - horizontal on the couch). But I'm glad I didn't, had a great time going to club Koloni, drinking beer, bying records, eating vegan pizza & thai food, hanging out with the best people & trying to figure out the difference between a tram & a bus. It's kinda funny that I once spent a whole day at the international airport of Dar es Salaam without money, passport or a ticket to get out of there, without being too worried - but to go to another town in Sweden & try to figure out the public transportation system there totaly freaks me out.

Except everything above I also managed to visit the exhibition TAKE ACTION that I've written about earlier. It was pretty good, some stuff that felt a bit "been there, done that" but all in all well worth a visit. Especially since it got me thinking about som new cross stitching ideas. As you probably noticed I've been slacking off a bit during the last couple of weeks. But not totaly, I'm actually working on three different things but they're all pretty big & will take some time to finish (thus the lack of updates here).

A part of the exhibition covered the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, illustrated (amongst other things) by posters from the ANC. They might be on loan from the Apartheid Museum in Jo'burg - a museum I really recommend visiting if you're in the walled city. Anyway, they also reminded me of political posters from Mozambique & Angola during the fight against colonial opression & the years after independence. It's something about the aesthetic expression of these posters that I like, so I'm thinking about doing something similar in cross stitch. Found this site that has a big collection of posters to draw inspiration from & here's some examples: