On the north facing fence outside my backdoor I have a winter jasmine in a tub. Every winter it flowers beautifully, it loves the really cold weather and this winter it's been the perfect weather for it, I can't remember when it was last so cold.My blog friend Melissa is having a give-away, why don't you pop over and leave a comment, you might win the lovely prize she's giving.
Today my DH has gone walking with our DS, this means I can do just as I please. My DH retired just over a year ago and I love having him at home and I can do as I please any time but it feels different when he's not here! So, what do I do when I'm just pleasing myself? The same as I do normally - stitch. I'm either hand stitching or making something on my sewing machine. Another thing, my DH bought me a little radio, it's a DAB whatever that means, don't ask me! I've got it tuned to Bird Song Radio, apparently this station was supposed to be temporary but so many people listen they've left it broadcasting - it's very relaxing. This little cross-stitch I'm doing is from here, I'm being very French at the moment, I love their style. Also, I'm stitching on 32 count Belfast Linen, the colour is Dirty Linen. I've never stitched on this fabric before.
My kitchen and my dining room are very dark during the winter so I like to have some cheerful plants in the window boxes and tubs. From December until last weekend I had pink cyclamen that really were a sight for sore eyes! Now I have primulas, they look so cheerful. I love to sit in my kitchen having a cup of tea and see these lovely colours each time I glance through the window. After they were put into their planters we had a vicious hail storm so they did get a bit bruised, there are lots more buds so they will soon recover.
My craft room is not a tidy place! Recently I've been making a big effort to get it organised but, it being my creative space, I keep getting distracted by the things I find and ideas for using them. This bag is one of those things. I've got a lot of those useful plastic drawer units that I bought in a panic a few years ago when my craft stuff started to really get out of hand. Gradually they've been stuffed with things in my occasional efforts to 'tidy up' One unit had lots of embroideries that were finished but not used for anything. They needed a place of their own so that I could find them easily and this bag is just right. I used one of the embroideries as decoration, the bag measure about 10 inches by 12 inches. I have it hanging from a shelf so that I can enjoy looking at it and can just pop things into it without hunting the whole room looking for the place my reorganisation meant I couldn't find!
The stitching is finished, pressed onto some iron-on interfacing and glued to the jar lid. It's looking ok - just got to decide what ribbon/braid to put around the edge, I'll think about that for a while! I'm pleased at how the piece of fabric stuck so well to the lid, it was a fast grip, quick set craft glue. I squirted blobs of it onto the lid, patted it with a finger to even it out and kept pressing the fabric in place until it stuck, and it was fast grip glue!
This pattern is a freebie from here. I love these little projects and this afternoon I decided to sit and stitch this one. I've only fairly recently started cross-stitching, at first I used Aida then last summer decided to try even-weave. I much prefer the look of even-weave and I find it easier to count for some reason. This piece that I'm stitching is meant to be for the lid of a glass jar, thought I'd keep buttons in it but who knows, it might turn out to be something else!
Not sure if a stencil could be called a gadget but the stencil I've used on this card is well worth getting. It's from one of the Dutch designers and called Mery's Stencils. There are three stencils in the pack, graduating in size. The booklet I ordered from said there would be an 'ideas leaflet included' but there wasn't! Anyway, I managed to work out how to use the stencils, it was a bit fiddly but well worth the effort I think. In case you are not sure what bit I'm talking about it's the purple pointy thing with the silver stitching!!!