Darwin is a big party boy!

The Evolution Cocktail Napkins are done for my Pops for his birthday!


Who says evolution isn't fun?


As I've written before, I saw this amazing and simple evolution pattern on the Coyote Craft blog a while back and I was instantly attracted to it. Bean Paulson designed it for Darwin Day back in 2009. Her original free pattern was the outline of an evolving man, minus the party theme. For some reason, when I came upon it, I thought of a celebration.


I'd like to share a cocktail with all of these creatures. You?


So, to her crisp, clear design, I added a party hat, Mardi Gras beads, a birthday crown and decadent, slightly raunchy elf boots. And I thought they would look nice on cocktail napkins.


Still think the booted man is kind of hot.


Stitched this up in simple, at times messy, back stitch with 321 pearle cotton. I do like the raw simplicity of this design.


Party with festive ardipithecus.
Or party with our erect friend, who I call Lyle.


My Pops is an amateur science nerd, albeit a very cool one. (My friends and I think nerds are uber cool, hot and sexy, even, but he is from a generation that may not appreciate the term.) In the 19th Century, and with a different bankroll, Pops might have been a gentleman scholar. I remember him explaining evolution to my brother and I when we were wee and living hardscramble, in a neighborhood pizza parlor in NYC. 


On the other side of the napkins, The Tree of Life.

I love Bean Paulson's use of the Tree of Life.


Stitched Tree of Life


Darwin's original


Happy Birthday to the world's wildest, coolest pops! (Don't get me started... it's hard to rebel when you have a wild Pops, but I tried!) May you drink many bottles of white while gripping these little napkins.


Wild Pops and The Kid (as he calls me).


And now I move onto my latest obsession: stitching words. Very simply. In red. Nerdy as hell, mofos. Can. Not. Stop.

Stitching Red Hot

Scarlet. Crimson. Vermillion. Cherry. Red is the new black. For me. In 2012.


I'm digging the simple pearle cotton back stitch on my evolution party cocktail napkins (slightly adapted from the wonderful Coyote Craft pattern found here) much better than the colored split stitch I'd been using. (Unfortunately, I lost the napkin that the birthday-hatted monkey was stitched on and I can't seem to find another matching napkin, but oh well.)

The erect man in the elf boots is kind of hot.

Surrounding myself in lots of red this year. I've decided that 2012 will be a red hot one. And I won't be stopped.

Received some fabulous red gifts recently.

Happy princess shoes from mami

The handmade resin necklace is by lulusmith from my foxy squeeze

Even stitching Darwin's Tree of Life in red feels right to me.


Cerise. Ruby. Claret. Rose. I want it all.