Monday, April 15, 2013

In a change from the scheduled program ....

You might remember from a couple of posts back that my next cross stitchy project was going to be the Wildflower piece that Kate recently gifted me the chart for ...... well I'm still planning on starting that but am now taking a little detour on the way.

I have a bit of an OCD thing when it comes to my cross stitch. I can't make myself start a piece until I have absolutely all of the threads I need. Yes, I know this is a bit silly, most of these designs have plenty of colours so it's not like I couldn't get started but somehow I just get all antsy and it makes me uncomfortable if I'm not fully prepared, lol. I have to pick up two colours for the wildflower stitch and I haven't had the opportunity to get to the local craft store yet.

So in a change from the scheduled program I'm going to occupy myself with a little something from the Subversive Stitches book.  Here is the beginning of the border.

I've been playing around with colour.  I'm changing the colours from the ones in the book as I want this to go in my bedroom when it's done.  I started off with the dark blue on the right but decided after stitching a few hearts that it was just too dark and switched to the medium blue at the bottom which I'm much happier with.

The dark blue will get unpicked and then I'll be on my way with this one.  I'm pretty sure that it will only take a few evenings to get done and by that time I'll hopefully have been somewhere to get the threads I need for 'Wildflower'

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Happy Days

I'm back, did you miss me?  What a wonderful week I've had in the company of family and friends.  Just what I needed after a tough few weeks at work ...... I'm feeling relaxed and renewed again.

I'm sure I'll be adding more posts about our wonderful week at some point but for now here is a little snap shot.

We spent a fabulous spring day in the Cathedral town of Wells, check out the beautiful blue skies.
I dusted off my Wii and we had some great competitive fun, so so many laughs.  I'd forgotten how much fun a bit of Wii bowling could be!
We spent an amazing day wandering round Oxford seeing the sights, so many beautiful buildings.  I can't wait to go back and explore some more.

We took a trip to Avebury for a wander round the stones and had a fabulous Sunday lunch in the pub there too.
 
Speaking of food .... well we ate far too much of the good stuff over the last week, good job I joined the gym again recently I think :)
And on the evening before James' parents left my Dad also came for a visit and we all spent a wonderful evening at the most fabulous local eaterie ....... a wonderful way to end a perfect few days.
After all that excitement I think a nice quiet weekend in is order.  I'm looking forward to dinner and the movies this evening with my wonderful man but apart from that plenty of rest and relaxation.

Whatever you're up too, hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Saturday, April 06, 2013

Cross Stitch loveliness

Blogging might be a bit sporadic from me over the next week. James' parents have come down from Yorkshire to stay with us for a few days so we'll be spending time out and about visiting some local places, eating out and generally having a lovely time :)

In the meantime I'm going to leave you with a quick picture of the lovely cross stitch charts that Kate gifted me recently
The blue notecard was lovely too, I'm thinking that might end up in a little frame on my bedroom wall as it will look lovely in my blue bedroom :)

The Wildflower picture is going to be the next one I work on.  So I need to get busy and get all my threads and fabric together.
I love this part of a project, mostly because I inherited all of my Mum's DMC threads when she passed away so when I have to go rummaging in these boxes it always makes me think of her and the time she used to spend in her chair in the evenings in front of the TV stitching away  ..... happy, special memories.

Wednesday, April 03, 2013

Love at first sight

Are you all getting tired of me harping on about my thrifting finds yet?

Apologies if you are but I did warn you this is turning in to my new obsession!!  I have two things to show you today.  Check out this coffee table that I picked up.  I spotted it the week before last pay day and had to wait to see if it was still in the shop when I got paid.  It was only £15 but at the end of last month having had 6 weeks of mortage to pay out of my wages I didn't even have £5 to my name let alone £15 :)
Look at all that needlepoint goodness imagine all of the work that went in that piece of stitching.
When you flip the table over you can see that the panel is by Anchor
I hate the colour that the frame has been stained though so I was thinking I'd strip it back and then paint and distress it in maybe grey or white ...... at least that was the original plan.
I couldn't get the glass panel out as it has been nailed in tight and I'm afraid of breaking the glass or the frame of the table so I'm just working on it as is.  Now I'm sanding it back though the wood underneath is looking lovely.  I think I will hold off on the painting and wait until my living room is decorated and then see whether it fits in.

I also bought this lovely mirror. 
I was wandering along in town and one of the charity shops that I like to visit had a big sign saying it was last day of trading :(  Second hand shopping was not on the agenda that day but I went in and the mirror caught my eye.  It was priced up at just £10 so I knew it was coming home with me, when I got to the till to pay the lady behind the desk said 'I'm going to give you that for £5'  she said 'you're the first person that has taken money out of your purse to pay without asking whether things are on discount as we're closing so I'd like to take some money off for you'.  Wow super bargain ... though I did also empty all the change out of my purse into the collection box so I probably gave about £8 in the end. 

The mirror is now hanging in my hallway, which is the darkest space in my flat.  I'm going to paint the surround orange (once I've finished working on the coffee table) I'm hoping that a nice lovely orange flower hanging up just inside the door will brighten the hallway up a bit :)

Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Play day

On Sunday I had a nice lazy day in front of the TV with my yarn and hook. You might remember back here that I said I want to make some tie-backs for the curtains in my living room.

So I figured it was high time that I got round to playing. I had a bunch of magazines and patterns for inspiration and just sat down and hooked.
The results of my play time ... a whole bunch of flowers, leaves and butterfly shapes.
A while a go I had picked out some wall paper that I wanted to use on a feature wall in the room which was mainly green in pattern, but I found something else recently in the Laura Ashley sale that worked out a while bunch cheaper and I really loved too.  You can see it here.  It has a fair bit of pink in it so I thought I might go with pink butterflies.

By the end of Sunday I thought I had it all worked out.  I'd go with some pink butterflies from a pattern in one of the magazines and some leaves and flowers from these tutorials on Attic24 blog.  All attached to a nice green chord something like this .....
But looking at it again today I'm now not so sure.  I like the flowers and leaves made in that thrift store yarn that I bought a few weeks ago, I think they look nice against the green, but I'm unsure about the pink butterflies.  Or maybe it's the butterflies I like against the green chord and not the leave and flower........ I think I've got that thing, you know when you've been looking at something for so long you can't figure out what's right anymore, lol.  Maybe I need some more playtime.................

Monday, April 01, 2013

Not everything is cheaper online

I was out and about in town yesterday and wandered in to the local bookstore. On their shelves I found this book
I'm sure many of you have seen or heard about this online, I certainly had and had found the concept quite amusing.  So I picked it up and thought about buying it as a little Easter treat to myself.  It's a small hardback book and was priced up at £8.99.  Not a huge amount of money but not a total bargain either so I put it back on the shelf thinking I'd take a look online as it was likely to be a few pounds cheaper.

So got home and went on Amazon to find that the cheapest secondhand price for this book was £25, and there were sellers listing it as new for £90.  I nearly fell off the chair!  So straight back down to the bookshop I went (I'm only 10 minutes walk away) and promptly picked it off the shelf again.

Moral of the story I will never ever again assume that things will always be cheaper on line, research will be done before making future purchases when buying new!!