photo circa 1995
My sister and me doing our best Beavis and Butthead impressions in front of my grandparents’ fireplace. Of which, I’m sure they are extremely proud. Notice my sister is so not doing the metal hand right.
I’m going to a Children of Bodom concert tomorrow and I am SOOO excited. Wellll … as long as I don’t forget to pick UP the ticket. Whoops.
In case you didn’t know, these guys are one of my favorite metal bands. They have fabulous guitar, driving rhythms and they are apparently HUGE fans of The Big Lebowski. They released a cover album last year about this time that included a bunch of songs from the Lebowski soundtrack.
Anyway … I am sharing with you two songs. One that I enjoy and one that I think most of my audience can at least appreciate.
The first song is “Are You Dead Yet?”. This song is near and dear to me because it got me through some really tough training when I started running after rehabilitating a leg injury. I was upset that I couldn’t run the high mileage that I used to run. Instead of 5 or more miles a day I was stuck at 1-3 and I couldn’t even run two days in a row. This song reminded me that no matter how far or how fast I run, put my all into it because I’m not dead yet. Not to mention, that album reset my slow tempo to a 2-minute per mile faster pace. So, thanks guys.
Aaand I’m sharing with you the cheesetastic Britney Spears cover these guys did. Oops! I did it again … It’s interesting. And funny. Love a band with a sense of humor!
CHILDREN OF BODOM
is
coming
to
Des MOINES!
October 1 — they’re supporting Black Label Society, who, I’m cool with seeing again, but more importantly:
ALEXI LAIHO is coming to Des Moines. AND it’s a small venue. Which means. I could be. Within. His. Reach.
Oh man.
By the way … for those of you who don’t know me, did I mention that I’m a huge metalhead? I think that needs to probably be in my sidebar bio somewhere.
It’s soooo cheesy, but Children of Bodom are my end-all-do-all favorite metal band (aside from the ‘deth of course, who I’m scheduled to see again in August). They really came into play when I had my leg injury from running the 2008 Des Moines Marathon … I started listening to their album, Are You Dead Yet? and the lyrics from the title track became my mantra: “Should I regret, or ask myself, are you dead yet?” I even did a metal craft swap last summer and received a very cool cross stitch with those lyrics. It was their driving speed that turned me from a jog-paced distance runner into a competitive shorter distance runner (I killed the last half marathon I ran!).
And in case you forgot, I may or may not have a minor crush on their lead vocalist and guitarist … Alexi. Laiho.
Anyway, I’m sure noone that reads this is even close to half as excited as I am about this, but I’m about ready to pee my pants over here waiting for them to announce ticket sales at the 7 Flags Center here!
Hey all!
I’m going to be moving soon, and would like to move my inventory from my todiyfor etsy store. SO, I’ve decided to have a crazy sale! If you mention this blog post or my tweet in a convo, I’ll even give you free shipping.
Here’s all the items I have on sale …
Off the Shoulder Korn Shirt — $10
Murderdolls Tiered Ruffle Skirt — $10
Music As a Weapon Off Shoulder Shirt — $10
Slipknot Iowa Zippered Lace Shirt — $25
Michael Jackson Beat It Necklace — $10
Deconstructed Heavy Metal Punk Quilt — $40
I’m pretty excited about this sale! 
I feel as if I may be neglecting my blog lately. Life has been busy and some surprises have recently caught me off guard.
However, I’m feeling kind of sassy today, so I’m announcing a Post-Labor Day Sale. Right now it encompasses one item: my hard rock quilt.
POST-LABOR DAY SALE Deconstructed Heavy Metal, Rock and Punk T Shirt quilt FREE SHIPPING |
 |
| POST-LABOR DAY SALE Regular price: $125 Sale Price: $85 ——- This hardcore punky quilt is made from a collection of rock, punk and metal t-shirts. It’s embellished with fabric paint and embroidery. A deconstructivist approach was used to create this unique piece of art. T-shirts include: Quilt measures 45×45 inches and the batting is warm and natural. The quilting is a traditional pattern and is in a slate grey thread. The binding is slate grey with a black backing. Fabric (aside from t-shirts) is 100% cotton. T-shirts are vintage and well-loved. |
Sooooo I finally got an awesome package from my craftster.org metal swap partner. I sent my package in the beginning of July so I could participate in the MJ swap. My metal swap package from my partner was almost a month late (minus one day!), but it was pretty rockin’ so, whatever!
I took some pix because that’s part of the deal with swaps — you have to post pix of what you receive. I decided to go all drama queen on the photos to show my appreciation. I took the pix w/ my mac, so some are flipped and some are not (didn’t flip the ones that didn’t need it b/c of words). Anywho. yeah. 
Alexi Laiho towel based on (I’m guessing!) this pic:
what I’ve deemed a Dethpouch (zippy pouch with the Dethklok logo x-stitched on) — so very timely because I JUST bought Dethklok (w/Mastadon/Converge/High on Fire) tix on Friday! They are coming to Des Moines, IA! We hardly ever get anything good (metal-wise). 
Inside the dethpouch. No, there wasn’t any cocaine in there … or Duncan Hills Coffee beans … or BBQ sauce. Just a cool kick-ass pouch.
Nathan Explosion plushie head. I’ve got a few ideas where this guy is going to go…. Might have to figure out a way to get him strapped on to my iPod for when I’m running (motivation people!). We shall see.
Some additional cool stuffs (patch and some beaded safety pins)
AND THE CREME DE LA CREME!
Okay — so I told my partner that I recently had to quit running (I’m nearly a 10-year distance runner… every day… 5-7 miles, this time last year 7-10… marathon last year). Anywho, the only thing that got me through any of my runs when I was able to start running again — and starting from square one again is HARD — was “Are You Dead Yet?” by Children of Bodom. At one point I was only able to run the duration of the song, which was a feat for me when I hadn’t been able to run for 3 months. Now I’m back (kind of) — still injured, but working on it, but back up to 3-5 miles a day, which is okay, but COB is what gets me through.
Coolest thing evar — x-stitched Are You Dead Yet? triptych lyrics!
These are getting put right above my desk so I can see them every day when I get done with my workouts (I always plug in the iPod to download my runs to nikeplus.com) … and when I’m sitting here not wanting to work out or run, I’ll be able to see them. YAY MOTIVATION!
All in all, what a great swap!
I blogged earlier today about the 2nd hardcore quilt top that I made.
Well, I took the plunge ladies and gentlemen. I officially quilted a full-size quilt.
I took photos of the process. One thing I learned — I desperately need a walking foot. I couldn’t find one for my machine (they were sold out in two places, so I gave up since this was just a practice quilt anyway). Also, quilting on t-shirts is difficult when you come across larger patches of screenprinting, especially when it’s a newer shirt.
Here’s what I did: I got some backing and batting and made a quilt sandwich. I basted it with large safety pins. I took tape (artists tape would work the best but I only had athletic tape at home, so that worked) and created uniform lines to follow with my stitching….and I was off. I only had to reload the bobbin once, which was awesome because I hate doing that (I’m lazy. if I had a self-loading bobbin or never-ending bobbin that would rule. also — self threading needle). I trimmed it and sewed the binding on (backwards I believe) and since I’m really lazy, I zig-zag stitched the binding to finish it.
Anyway, here’s photogs of the process.
basting and taping before quilting …
the whole safety-pinned, taped-up mess before I started (note — I taped in one direction at a time because I didn’t want to sew through the tape)
here’s where the bobbin ran out of thread. I took a much-needed walking break and came back an hour later refreshed and ready to conquer the rest of this thing.
ta-da! finished quilt. took me from 1 PM to 9 PM to finish top to bottom (minus 2 hours for supper, walking and errands)
okay… so the back picked up a ton of fuzz from the batting and a bunch of threads that were randomly strewn about my floor. I’m washing this thing tomorrow. Hopefully fix that problem.
And … DONE!
I recently participated in a heavy metal swap on craftster.org. This was the first organized craft swap I’ve done through the site, and I think it turned out pretty well.
For those of you who don’t know, basically in a craft swap you decide that you’re going to make a certain number of items and find out a lot of stuff about what your partner likes. Craftster does a lot of themed swaps like the metal swap (next up, MJ swap).
My partner was really into a lot of the same kind of stuff that I was into…Children of Bodom, In Flames, Pantera…etc. But she was a HUGE Maiden fan. I took this as an opportunity to get to listen to some Maiden since I never really gave them a chance. I got really excited about crafting some Maiden stuff since I got kind of into the cheesiness of the music. I decided that I’d only make her maiden stuff so she wouldn’t outgrow it later (like she might have with some of the newer bands).
We decided that it would be fun to make some über-girlie items with a metal theme. She seemed pretty interested in kitchen items, so that’s what I made.
Potholder set (with Eddie and Aces High lyrics on the back)
Grocery Tote Bag
Grocery Bag Dispenser
I tried to make it cute... but it didn't quite work. The inside is a pink floral (the top too) and I quilted the outside with silver...but Eddie's just so fugly.
and…. Breakfast with Lemmy — the one non-maiden item. Mötorhead. Ace of Spades. (what’s with the aces theme??)
I was the first one to send, and my partner was the first one to post her stuff… apparently I rocked the eff out of this craft swap. :) So hopefully I get a rockin’ package in return (actually my partner is sending late b/c she wants to thoroughly rock the eff out of MY package too).
Sooo I’m switching gears and crafting for my all-time favorite musician… Michael Jackson. (okay, here’s where I almost went on a “to those of you who are now riding the MJJ train… seriously get off it” rant…but I restrained myself) You guys all know how I feel about him (or at least you know now…most of you knew before), so yeah, I’m a little bit upset about the whole deal but on the bright side, I’m getting to experience him all over again and am discovering things I never knew existed.
Yes, even Twisted Sister now has a Christmas album.
Really? Yeah. Really.
All you spandex-wearing hairsprayed glam rock fans now have something to listen to around the holidays. Exciting.
Kasey discovered this album last week on emusic.com and I found a video of one of their songs (Heavy Metal Christmas, what else?) on YouTube. Their official video wasn’t really that great–just them in the studio. There was a fan video that was pretty decent though.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5ktTXGFBm0]
Apparently on the 12 days of heavy metal christmas you get a tattoo of Ozzy, 2 pairs of spandex pants and lord knows what else.
