Visitors

Little grey friend all fluffy and cute,

Scampers about in his little grey suit,

Gathering nuts and other tasty stuff,

hiding it away ready for when there's not enough.


Hanging upside down and doing all sorts of tricks,

Getting into feeders the birds' food he nicks,

Running amuck all over the place,

Such a loveable rogue, such a loveable face.


Some say he's a pest and should be got rid,

But not our friendly Squirrel heaven forbid,

He lives his own life and is entitled to that,

He just needs to watch out for the big neighbours cat.



We love to see him and all his grey mates,

They visit us daily and empty the plates,

We don't even mind if he scoffs the lot,

There's plenty more in the bird food pot.


How would it be if he stopped coming to feed,

We won't even mind that he has a little greed,

He's always welcome on our feeding tree,

There'll always be food for the birds and for he.


You keep on coming our fluffy little friend,

We'll make sure you don't meet with a nasty end,

And come the Spring when your family grows,

Bring them as well and we'll be glad it's us you chose.

- Author Unknown

Isn't he a darling? This is actually one of the babe's, one of three, who visit our bird table each day. They are young enough to be less shy than their mama. Our bird table sits right in front of our dining room window, so we have breakfast together, the squirrels and my family of 6, and dinner, and at weekends, lunch too!

Happy Weekending to you :)

Lovely people

Lovely lovely blog friends, you are so sweet, thank you so for your supportive words and good wishes! It certainly lifted my spirits to know there are so many kind souls in this big world holding me in their thoughts right now.

The whole burglary debacle was quite horrible, finding ones entire life's belongings (or at least what is left of them) tipped on the floor is quite a sight, and not one I wish to remember. It took four days to pick up the pieces.
That said, it was lovely to return to France and visit some very dear friends. We ate, we laughed, they cheered me very much and rallied round en masse to help list all the missing items and deal with the Gendarme.
I drank rather a lot of homemade Sloe Gin and rather too much Eau de vie, the rip your head off after one sip kind of apperatif that I generally avoid, but as they say, when in Rome.... or France, as it were.

So, I returned to England with my heart a lot less heavy and with a good deal of our family treasures (thankfully not treasure in the eyes of nasty burglars).
After a tiring 16 hour journey, I arrived back home to find the most prettyfull parcel of loveliness to greet me, all the way from Australia no less.



These treats are from my very sweet friend Dot, what perfect timing Miss Dot, you are such a peach!
I am bowled over by her darling collage birdie, which I have adopted as a kind of good luck charm and have thus been carrying to and fro from home to office each day. Oh yes, this little birdie is so far very well travelled, never mind that it has come all the way from sunny Aus, it now looks over me as I set about my daily tasks. Whilst I sleep, it sits soundly in the dining room waiting for my little family to troop down to breakfast, where it greets us with all it's vibrant, twinkly cheer! I do love this birdie so, Thank you SO much Dot!

Miss Dot also included a delicious stash of colourful fabrics, a postcard featuring one of her collages and oh my, that trim, I am so in love with the leafy trim, I have a thing about leaves at the moment....



This is the third oh so sweet, and all together kind, gift I have received from lovely blog friends, in as many months. I am so moved by the kindness this community has shown me, you all rock so hard!
Alas, my crafty little hands have been working overtime to prepare wee treats to send out, seeking little treasures here and there, stashing them away until the packages of pretty things are just so.

I have also been sneaking a few minutes each day to stitch my woven cloth, progress is slow on account of sheer lack of any real time to dedicate to this project right now, but those few minutes each evening feel so good, so indulgent and very satisfying.

The wee caterpillar has appeared in his rightful place.....



and the prettyfull butterfly has been dancing amongst some newly added flowers (some not yet stitched down), as butterflies do...



I do love the colours in this cloth, I love the story, I love everything it means to me right now, a journey of sorts, and a jolly nice one at that.
Big love to you all, and thank you again for being such perfectly awesome and wonderful blog friends! <3

Catching Up

Gosh, has it really been three weeks? What can I say - work has been crazy, 4 kids and two parents in full time employment makes for much mayhem, it is a real juggling act. Whilst I have found time here and there to stitch, I have struggled to find the time to photograph my work and post it here (the dark evenings do not help!), alas, I am back for now, and will be posting a few updates over the next few days.

Anyhooo, I am feeling much better, MUCH better, and before I prattle on too much about this and that and my stitchery, I simply must show you this....



This is the Peace Angel Cloth, stitched completely by hand by my very dear friend Jacky, in Australia. I have been following her progress on this cloth for some weeks via her blog, and then lo and behold, it landed on my doorstep, courtesy of Mr Postman.
To say I was surprised would be somewhat of an understatement, words cannot even begin to explain how honoured I am to own this beautiful piece of art, and the gratitude I feel for the generosity and kindness that Jacky has shown in sending it to me, what a sweet treat she is, and oh what a lucky girl I am.









I simply cannot stop staring at it! It is incredibly tactile, every tiny stitch is absolutley awe inspiring, it is so very, very precious to me, I will treasure it always. It now has pride of place above the mantel in our living room, which has until now, remained very forlorn and bare. The Peace Angel cloth was just what the doctor ordered for this rather sparse spot in the house.

Jacky also included this beautiful hand dyed embroidery thread, the colours make my mouth water, it is so eye poppingly yum I just want to lick it.



I have stitched with it a little already, on a secret project which I shall reveal shortly! (oh I do love a good secret!). Thank you Jacky, you really made my day and put a much needed smile on the faces of this family of 6! <3 My woven cloth is really taking shape, progress is slow but progress is progress and I am pleased with how it is coming along. Jude's workshops are incredibly inspiring, though if I am honest, I do feel somewhat overhwhelmed to be in the presence of such an extraordinary talented group of artists, I have very much been a lurker, watching, listening, learning....



This cloth is taking on a life of it's own and it's story is unfolding in my minds eye one stitch at a time. I have added curly branches and some more leaves....



One wee nibbled leaf...



What have you been creating lately?

A Hoola Fairy for Katy

Katy has received her wee pressie, so I am able to share it here.



I first made one of these fairies a couple of years ago for a swap, this one is complete with ginger hair and twinkling butterfly polka dotted skirt (I want one!), her little wand is fashioned from a tiny branch of elder, and her shoes are in felt with dinky buttons.





Hopefully she will bring lots of good crafty vibes to Katy. I love the colours on this one, her body and skirt are both favourite fabrics from Kaffe Fassett.

I must dash, a second woven cloth awaits, I am oh so busy stitching, will share more in this space soon <3

2 YEARS in the making

When I was pregnant with Miss Boo, I wanted to make me a quilt for the new babe. Back then, I had not been sewing for very long, and had not yet become acquainted with the sewing machine, actually, it is debatable if we are yet good friends.
I bought some scrumptious Lecien fabric with matching polka dot cotton, and looked at it for a while, stroked it lovingly and after much deliberation, realised that if Miss Boo was going to have a quilt before she left home, let alone before she arrived, then I probably needed to get someone else to make it.

In steps the lovely Miss Katy, she was my first and only choice, because not only is she a marvellous quilter with an eye for colour, but she is also charming and her dead pan Yorkshire humour always tickles my funny bone.
Anyway, Miss Katy did make the most lovely quilt for Boo, and it still sits atop her bed today, she snuggles it every night. It is a most perfect and prettyfull quilt. Miss Katy really is a super sweet treat.





Almost as soon as said quilt arrived in my posession, I set about making something for Katy. A stitch here, a stitch there, on it went, and on and on and on.
I have asked Katy for her address twice, in very bad form I have even promised to post said treat, alas, it has sat, rather lonesome, waiting to be completed, for over two years.

Today was a dark day. Sometimes I wake up and it is like someone has drawn a veil over me. I feel heavy, sad, fuzzy headed and often quite tearful. Today was one of those days, though I am thankful the good days are becoming more frequent and the dark days less so. Despite my inner darkness, outside was to be the first sunny, blue skied day I have seen in weeks, the whole house lit up under the soft glow of the low winter sun, and when I finally dragged my sorry ass downstairs, I noticed a pop of colour atop the dresser. There, twinkling in the sunlight, vibrant against the sunlit white background, was Miss Katy's treat.

It is difficult to sew when I am having a bad day, inability to focus or concentrate is a common symptom of PND. I can sometimes manage the sewing machine, but hand stitching becomes very laborious. Even so, I realised, right there in my dining room, admiring the colour and sparkle of this project I had started so long ago for Katy, that really, it could not wait one more minute. It represented, to me at least, a huge personal failing and indeed a failure to show grattude to a very sweet friend, and one failure I could not live with, one I felt I must address with immediate effect.

I gathered my tools about me, my beads and trinkets, scraps and a wee stick from the garden, and slowly, oh so slowly, I stitched.
As I stitched, I thought about the kindness Miss Katy had shown me in making a lovely quilt for Boo, the patience she has shown in waiting so long for a promised gift which never arrived, and she never complained and never asked, and really she ought to have the most lovely gift, and the more I thought about it the more I stitched, the more I embellished, until it was just so.

I even managed to catch some of the remaining afternoon sun in the garden, so that I could take a few photos of Miss Katy's gift. Once it was all done, I felt lighter and not quite as low, and pleased that Miss Katy will wait no more. I will post photos another time, as I would really like it to remain a surprise for it's intended recipient.

Thank you Katy, again, for the lovely quilt, and thank you also for unwittingly lifting me out of the fug today. It is true, I am getting better, slowly, surely, one stitch at a time.

One I made earlier

Ok, these aren't recent creations, but since I not yet been able to take photos of my recent work, here are a couple I made earlier.

The first is my first ever commission, a friend asked me to make a Russian style doll for her daughters birthday, her daughter is called Honey (isn't that the cutest?) hence the name on the front of the doll. I ended up doing it free of charge, it was so nice to make this and I really feel that this particular doll shows a huge improvement with my embroidery skills. This one is also quite a lot bigger than others I have made, around 10 inches tall.





The little baby is attached to the inside of the tummy pocket, so she doesn't get lost.



The second is, to my shame, a ridiculously late Russian Doll swap. Monda was so so very patient, it actually took a year for me to get this to her, which is um, quite pathetic really. These are Monda's photos, thank you Monda for letting me pinch them to show here.





I do not have photos of the sweet little Russian Doll Monda sent to me, as it is in France, but I will share as soon as I am able to take a few pics next time we head over there.

Egg on Legs

That's how I feel, like a great rotund egg on legs. Never has the following dedication been more appropriate....







This is the charming work of Green Phoenix, dedicated to yours truly, how sweet is that? FankOoo muchly Miss Phoenix for thinking of me, and my hormonal woes, it certainly brought a smile to my face!

Now I have so so so so SO much to tell you all, lots of super exciting news, but I am very tired and haven't prepared the photos, but I will be back, I promise I will be back, very soon!