NOW FULLY REVISED AND EXPANDED Mountmellick embroidery is a highly texured form of whitework embroidery, originating from the town of Mountmellick in Ireland, around 1825. While it is sometimes referred to as Montmellick, Mt Mellick, Mountmellic, or even Montmellic, Mountmellick is the correct spelling as it is taken from the name of the town in County Laois (pronounced leash) in Ireland. Mountmellick embroidery uses floral motifs and heavily knotted and padded stitches. The plants featured are traditionally those that grew in the township of Mountmellick itself, such as oak, blackberry, dog rose, and ivy. Mountmellick embroidery is highly textured with many knotted and padded stitches used. Part of the fun of working Mountmellick embroidery is playing around with the stitches and working variations of them. On some historical examples of Mountmellick, there were only a limited number of stitches used. However, due to all their variations, the effect produced was highly patterned and varied.

Fitting in. Being different. Growing up. Staying a kid.A "Zits" is a comic strip about the funniest, most painfully emotionally charged, physically demanding, mentally challenging, and colorful times of our livesa "adolescence. Those who are living it can relate. And those who have been through it cannot remember the time without smiling, or at least wincing at the arrogance and ignorance we all mistook as maturity during those few eternal years.
"Zits: Sketchbook #1" is an inside look at life from the point of view of Jeremy, a private 15-year-old who is desperately hacking his way out of childhood and into maturity. He labors in the shadow of Chad, his perfect older brother who is away at college. Jeremy is a freshman in high school whose main pastimes are hanging out with his best friend, Hector Garcia, forming a garage band, and being amazed at his parents' spectacular ignorance about almost everything. Impatient, self-absorbed, emotional, and bored silly, Jeremy is the essence of adolescence. "Zits" resonates with its fans because the strip contains so much truth and insight, wrapped in an uproarious context that's all too familiar to everyone who's been 15 or has parented a teenager.