Fight for Your Right to Party

I was very pleased to read this morning that the succession rules relating to the British monarchy have been changed. In my early teens I was quite the little feminist, without having any idea that it meant more than regularly accusing men of being sexist. I am still a Royalist and am looking forward to the Jubilee celebrations next year when I will be waving a flag, much as I was at the Royal Wedding this year.

I have been thinking about right/wrong type things while awaiting a letter from the Court telling me whether my decree nisi was awarded last week. Plus of course (of course) there is the wrestling, because at Vengeance on Sunday (Vengeance is a PPV - pay per view) John Cena revealed his new range of merchandise.

(Cena is the one on the right)

Now John Cena is the highest grossing wrestler in WWE. He's constantly in one of the main stories and his former t-shirt (bright red with logo on front) could clearly be seen on about 40% of the crowd at any WWE event. So to change his branding has roughly the same impact as if Manchester United suddenly decided to wear green - these t-shirts are going to be big business.

WWE does a lot with the Make A Wish Foundation (granting wishes for children fighting life-threatening illnesses) and Cena in particular has granted more wishes than any other US sports celeb for the last X years running. They've also recently joined the "Be A Star" campaign (whose URL looks a lot like it says 'beast reliance') to wipe out school bullying. There has been some criticism of this since most of their storylines have a mean bully in them. BUT - it is the good guy who usually comes out on top - like Cena. Admittedly he does it by bashing the baddy's head with a sledgehammer or throwing him through a table - but he doesn't boast about it afterwards. Of course sometimes the line between good and bad isn't so easy to see - I know you're all thinking of Randy Orton too - but sometimes, whether or not you agree with the individuals involved, you know the right outcome has been achieved. Which is also how I am thinking about the divorce.

I leave you with this thought:

Mr Button

I came across these at the weekend and had to have some.

Source: johncaswelldesign.bigcartel.com via Alex on Pinterest

You add embroidery thread to give them little eyebrows and moustaches.

So sweet! £5 plus 75p postage from here.

I Love Screen Printing

I had my final birthday workshop at The Make Lounge yesterday. I did some screen printing as part of my BTEC but the screens were done for me using photo-sensitive emulsion and then I just bodged it. This workshop took you through from start to finish. I went for a knitting symbol first and sketched it out before cutting it out with a scalpel. So chuffed with the result!

Those are my first prints drying. One bag the perfect size for sock projects and a red top I had brought with me. Then I wanted to make something for my Mum as a christmas present. They had lots of examples and the ones using paper cut outs were very effective. I set to making some paper snowflakes - something I haven't done since I was a little girl.

The screens were a bit less than A3 so I printed it twice on the tea towel. I'm so happy with my things!

The others in the class had all sorts of ideas and here are some of their creations:

There were lots of others too.

So this leaves me in a quandry. I am already pretty craft-overloaded. I do not have storage room for any other equipment, but I'm totally in love with screenprinting. I have been lusting after an embroidery sewing machine to do text on clothes and things but with screen printing I could do any number of designs on all sorts of stuff. On paper too.

Pause for running hat update.

I need to make a business case to myself. Afterall - what would I really screen print? Apart from everything. Ne speedy pas Byrne. But it is quite awesome!