April A to Z Challenge - Cross Stitch "K" x 2

We are now at "K", my favorite letter of the alphabet next to "B" (for obvious reasons) and for two really great characters in both my charts!



Project #1: Once Upon A Time
"K" is for Captain Hook/Killian Jones.  Next to Charming and Phillip, Killian is my favorite Once man.  He's gone from being a dastardly pirate, to the most dedicated and romantic of heroes.  I like to call him the "bad prince".  He didn't really start out bad but, like a lot of Once villains, was made that way (in his case, by Pan tricking Hook and his brother which resulted in the brother's death). Hook stole Rumple's wife Milah, which technically makes him Henry's step-grandfather (sort of).  He took care of Baelfire for a time as well, so that sort of makes him Emma's sort-of foster father-in-law although they are now quite seriously involved, so that's a bit creepy if I think about it that way.  He's dealt with Pan (of course), had run-ins with Tink, worked for Cora for a time, kidnapped Jiminy, tricked Ariel, stole Ursula's singing voice, and has even pee'd off Blackbeard...dude gets around in more ways than one!  But you just absolutely have to LOVE the facial expressions he cuts from time to time.  I swear I swoon everytime he raises his eyebrows!


Project #2: Veronica Mars
"K" is for Keith Mars, Veronica's father extraordinarire.  Despite that all her problems are technically due to his decisions when he was sheriff, he's still the very model of the perfect father.  I think I can safely say I'm not the only "marshmallow" in the world who wishes they had a daddy like Keith!

April A to Z Challenge - Cross Stitch "J" x 2

"J" is a weird mix, on the Once front, it is one of my favorite characters, but on the V Mars front, it's one of my least. Let's ramble on with another letter, shall we?




Project #1: Once Upon A Time

"J" is for the Mad Hatter, aka Jefferson.  There was definitely NOT enough Jefferson on Once!  Sebastian Stain played the Mad Hatter like no one else has in a Wonderland adaptation before and it is just a shame he didn't have more screen time.  The Mad Hatter became mad when he was trapped in Wonderland by Regina, lost his head at the hands of Cora/The Queen of Hearts, and was forced to try to recreate his magical hat that was a portal between lands (interesting twist on the hat, I thought) instead of going home to his beloved daughter.  Although Jefferson was in on the curse and was granted immunity from it's amnesia, his knowledge of who he actually is and his separation from his daughter (who is under the full curse), added to his insanity.  Granted, he and Jennifer Morrison were dating at the time, but their chemistry was extremely palpable and I did secretly wish they would get together on the show.  Oh well, c'est la vie.


Project #2:  Veronica Mars
"J" is for Jackie, Wallace's on-again, off-again girlfriend.  She starts off as a mega bee-och, and just when you start to like her, you find out she's been lying about who is is the whole time!  I was glad to see her go.

April A to Z Challenge - Cross Stitch "I" x 2

Project #1: Once Upon A Time
"I" is for Ingrid aka the Snow Queen aka Sarah Fisher (the ice cream lady).  I'm still not sure where they were trying to go with this character.  Were they trying to right the "wrong" Frozen did to the Snow Queen story? (if that was the case, they would constantly be busy righting wrongs since all Disney fairytales are variations of the stories...don't get me started on Pocahontas).  I was probably more bothered by the constant views of her boobs more than I was with her lack of character depth...but uber-prude here, so that was to be expected.

Ingrid was Anna and Elsa's aunt who got "erased" by her sister Gerta (Anna and Elsa's mom) because she accidentally killed their other sister Helga.  Sarah was a foster mother of Emma's.


Project #2: Veronica Mars

"I" is for Mars Investigations, Keith and Veronica's detective agency.  Really nothing exciting to say about it, well, other than it's the location of my #3 all-time favorite Logan and Veronica kiss (yes, I have a list).

April A to Z Challenge - Cross Stitch "H" x 2

Project #1: Once Upon A Time

"H" is for Robin Hood. Robin is a bit of a sore spot for me.  The first time the character appears on Once, he's played by Tom Ellis, one of my favorite British actors (and Miranda's other half on Miranda).  But due to scheduling conflicts, he was unable to reprise the role when it became permanent (and I bet he's kicking himself now after the flop that was Rush). But a new actor was cast and I've tried to not imagine how great Tom would have been in his interactions with the Evil Queen.  I also initially had qualms with Robin being Regina's true love counterpart, but Marian is so awkward of a character (probably more actress problems than character problems), you don't mind it so much.

Project #2: Veronica Mars

"H" is for Neptune High School, or Bully Central as I like to call it, for Veronica during season's 1-2.  I went to a school with very similar students, so it really hits close to home.

April A to Z Challenge - Cross Stitch "G" x 2

How have we managed to get to "G" already?  Hope everyone is hanging on OK!  I'm gonna jump right in because "G" is big for my Once Upon A Time Alphabet.




Project #1: Once Upon A Time

"G" is for Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold. I don't think there is a more varied character than Rumple...he's the son of Peter Pan (LONG story), Henry's grandfather, Baelfire's father, husband to Belle (aka her Beast), Hook's crocodile, the dark one, the bottler of Snow and Charming's true love, the creator of the dark curse, and no telling how many other monikers he has or how many fairytale lives he's invaded!  He trained both the Evil Queen, the Queen of Hearts, and the Wicked Witch of the West in magic (and again, no telling how many others although he hint that he trained Ursula, Maleficent, and Cruella) and became the love interest for more than one of them.  He's even worked with the Mad Hatter and Victor Frankenstein in a ploy to trick Regina into renewing her magical training.  No matter how many times he tries to be upstanding, he usually fails at it miserably because, as he's fond of saying "magic always comes with a price" and he seems to pay it more than your average magic wielder although he never realizes it.


Project #2: Veronica Mars

"G" is for "Gia Goodman".  Although featured more prominently in the movie, Gia was an important character in series 2.  She was the airhead daughter of Woody Goodman, the "mayor" of Neptune and a very bad man (you'll have to watch the show to find out why).

April A to Z Challenge - Cross Stitch "F" x 2

We are now at "F" in the April A to Z Challenge and, although there was a lot of stitch work on this letter, the descriptions should be a lot easier than previous, so here we go!

Project #1: Once Upon A Time
"F" is for Blue Fairy/Mother Superior. She was also referred to as Reul Ghorm for a brief time but it was later discovered that it was just Cora "body snatching" again (and for those that don't speak Scots Gaelic, Reul Ghorm translates to Blue Star...an interesting bit of trivia for those of us with Scottish heritage). It's kind of ironic that the fairies all pretty much became nuns in Storybrooke...I'm really curious to know the writers thoughts behind this!

The Blue Fairy is pretty much the Queen of the Fairies in the Enchanted Forest just as she is Mother Superior in the "Fairy Convent" (as I like to call it).


Project #2: Veronica Mars
"F" is for "We Used to Be Friends", the theme song in the show, by The Dandy Warhols. Those that know me know that I have been a diehard Duranie since the age of 10 and I was aware of this song long before I ever heard it on the show. Nick Rhodes of Duran produced several tracks on the album, Welcome To The Monkey House (including this one) and Simon LeBon sung backing vocals on a song from that album (just not this one). Courtney Taylor-Taylor (the lead singer for the Warhols) guest starred as a karaoke singer in an episode of Veronica Mars as well (singing "Love Hurts").

April A To Z Challenge - Cross Stitch "E" x 2

So, how did everyone do in their first week? This is usually the week when participants start dropping off like flies, so hopefully everyone is still going strong!  I think I'm having withdrawals from my regular stitching projects...I never thought I'd say this, but I miss Maleficent!


Project #1: Once Upon A Time
This will be my last one-character letter for a while, so rough times are ahead!

"E" is for Emma (who doesn't have an Enchanted Forest alter because she was only there for the first couple minutes of her life and, when she was there as an adult, she was already established as Emma).  She spent her childhood as an orphan in foster care, including a brief stint in the care of Sarah Fisher (later on her).  She's considered the Savior because she is the product of "true love"...the daughter of Prince Charming and Snow White, which is why she also possesses magical powers (although she has trouble using them).  Since the Storybrooke characters were under a curse for 28 years and didn't age, Emma is the same age as her parents (which gets weird at times).

She's the birth mother of Henry (who she gave up for adoption while incarcerated in prison and now co-parents him with his adoptive mother Regina) and who she conceived with her first love, Neal Cassidy (more on him later). She almost gets engaged to Walsh while she and Henry were living in New York during the second curse (but Walsh turns out to be a flying monkey, so it didn't work out obviously).  She's currently in a relationship with Killian Jones (again, you'll find about him later).


Project #2:  Veronica Mars
"E" is for Logan Echolls, son of Aaron, best friend of Duncan and Dick, and on-off love of Veronica.  He's a bad boy trying hard to mend his ways, but winds up accused of numerous crimes...some he committed, some he didn't, but he's always saved by Veronica's detective skills in the end.