Boxes

I like boxes, all shapes and sizes. They are so useful from trinkets to papers, memories and more. I even have boxes that are writing slopes which my Mum gave to me so are even more precious. Wood, shell, china or fabric, I don't mind. This lovely hand carved box was given to my grandparents by my great uncle when he returned home from serving in India many years ago.

Mind you it's an absolute horror to clean lol, have to resort to toothbrushes to reach the intricate patterns

Inside the lid is an inscription to Beck and Sam from Tom with the Middlesex Regiment emblem, its one of those family heirlooms, Mum passed it to me and it will eventually go to DS. It is home to an old family bible with momentoes slide between the pages, mainly by by Mum and include flowers, tickets little notes etc, also diaries from the 1940's - certainly a little bit of family history. My Mum traced her side of the family back to the mid 1700's where our ancestors were sail makers in London, facinating.



A while ago I made loads of fabric boxes - including tissue boxes which are great for coordinating with the decor of relevant rooms, the large central box holds serviettes and has a stumpwork needlelace motif, same as the smaller middle one, the handle was made from beads threaded onto wire then twisted, making it slightly different. Most house little bits and bobs, especially those little things you don't know where to put.



Enjoy your day
xcx

Blooming

I mentioned a few weeks ago about the strange goings on in the cactus garden and how one of them had sent forth this huge stem, well this is what has happened since.......


It has continued to grow, must be about 20 feet tall now and clusters of yellow flowers have
appeared


Being so tall it is difficult to see them, but the birds and the bees certainly like whatever is going on up there


Here is the start of the new project, a spanish style scene

designs are evolving as its taking shape with quite a few minds being changed along the way.

Enjoy your day
xcx

Flower bed

This is the main feature for the garden, quite pleased with the result. Amazing what an old spray cannister top, a bit of clay, some threads, dried flowers, oh and a little patience can be turned into.....

Cut out the flower beds, just need to shape, paint them then cover with 'dirt', will use tea again as last time the result was quite effective.
What a contrast today in the weather, its so dark and our mountains have disappeared under low cloud, oh well a good day for crafting
Enjoy your day
xcx

Busy

I know I haven't posted for a bit, but we have still been busy. Saturday we set all the gear up for DH's gig, they had been decorating the venue using uv backdrops, unfortunately I only had my phone with me so the pics are not great.


Although it was hot, there was a cooling breeze which made it very pleasant and brought out quite a few people to the event. The fire show was cancelled at the last minute, such a shame as I was looking forward to the display of poy, which meant DH had to fill in, resulting in him performing for about 3 1/2 hours, to say he was tired afterwards is a bit of an understatement. By the time we packed up and headed off we didn't get home till almost 2 am.



I did find some time and inclination in the kitchen, this is a spicy pork pie


Tried a new receipe - chocolate brownie, this was made using rice flour and as we try to keep our wheat intake to a minimum it was a good alternative. Have to say none of these hung around very long.........


The good old quiche - ham, goat cheese and spinach


I have started on the other front garden for the original house - I use 22 count canvas which gives a good basis to many stitches and a firm base for additions. Here I made a 'slip', as you would in Stumpwork, by blending the colours and using french knots it resembles cascading flowers.


Next came the hedge work - using a plushwork anchor stitch it creates a loopy mess - until......



all the loops are trimmed and the hedge shaped, snipping tiny amounts off until it resembes a soft plush hedge - this stitch seems quite wasteful on the tapestry wool and alot of it is trimmed, but I keep all the offcuts and blend them into the 'grass'. The grass is in fact a wool jumper that had shrunk and matted, the picture hasn't caught the colour very well as it is more of a green


These plants are created by making picot's using needle weaving and blending threads.


It's easy to make them any shape or size and are great for filling in flower beds


xcx

Gardening

Too hot to do much yesterday, did go grocery shopping but nothing more exciting than that, some days are like that aren't they?

I finished my embroidered garden ages ago but I left it on the frame put up high to protect it from the furry friends as they love to pull the flowers out. Thought it was about time to set in up in front of the original house made in 2009.


Mounted on its own board so that it can easily be removed to open the house front I think it looks really good, but then I'm biased lol, just have to make a garden for the other side with the bay window.

So many 'to do's' hard to know what to start with (g)

xcx

Relaxing

It has been really hot the last few days and most of our furry friends just find a place to flop, Benji is no exception as he relaxes taking full stretch advantage of the seat covering having fallen on the floor, comfy or what?

The plastic tub holding some of my pins split so I transferred them into this little Stumpwork box I had made earlier, don't know why I hadn't thought of it before as this is much nicer and more practical.


Thoughts were afoot for a new room box theme, so I decided it could be a gentleman's outfitters. I made a few items, the waistcoat is made from leather which meant I could cheat and glue the seams :-)
The shirts need to be in little boxes really so will have to make those too.


Well it's a start, I will slowly build it up adding coats and accessories.

xcx

Pandamonium

As I've probably mentioned before we have 8 cats, all with their own personality, quirks but beautiful furry companions that give us alot of love and fun. They also return the love and kindness by bringing us all sorts of presents. Now I don't want to appear ungrateful but their choice of presents are certainly not what I would choose, in fact usually gross and of course here there is a wider range to chose from, tree rats, lizards, huge grass hoppers to name but a few.

Yesterday I came into the craft room, which is the first area from the front door, to find Amber intrigued with something under the curtain. Now I didn't know if it was a present for me or whether she had found a new playmate and brought it home to show us. Anyway upon lifting the curtain to see I was presented with a large poisonious viper sitting ready to strike in its defence, after a scream from me, yes, yes I know, but I can't stand snakes even on the telly, it lundged at Amber just missing her but then sped off deeper into the room.

DH realised what it must be as apparently I only scream like that when its a snake, we blocked the exits and began the hunt - carefully! I'm sure your craft room/area is like mine full of bits and bobs, drawers shelves etc, well as you can see it turned into a bomb site, everything was moved but we just couldn't find it, freaked out or what? Amber had long gone curled up outside leaving us to our task, perhaps she was miffed that we were playing with her new friend rather than her. Anyway I'm sure you are gettinig the picture..... after a long search we spotted it in the furthest corner, so armed with a long broom handle and a lidded box DH tried to capture it, nope it wasn't interested so squirmed off and away again, now I know snakes react to vibration and dont have ears as such so I'm sure he wasn't offended by the choice words DH had to say to him, anyway second approach Got Him, in the box, lid down, then a strange noise from DH, not a scream as such but just as tummy turning, it had found a hole in the lid and was up and ready to stike DH who reacted in the only way possible for safety. After it was disposed of then came the task of clearing up, next time that area needs a spring clean I think I would rather choose a nicer way of deciding when and why.



I've had a little word with the furries and requested a bit of restraint in the present department, now the question will arise did they listen to me?!
xcx

Diamonds

No sorry, not the hard rock sparkly ones just these little fabric ones, ready to sew together. These are quite nice to have ready when you want something easy to do without thinking, unless you sew one round the wrong way like I did!!!


Getting quite a collection of them now and have realised that the fushia fabric I recently bought would look good to bring them all together, as the fabric came from the stash I will keep going until I run out so that will determine how large (or small) it will be



Our lavender plants have matured enough this year to produce nice flower heads, I cut these and now have three vases of sweet smelling blooms, certainly one for the bedroom anything to help with the sleep



Enjoy the rest of the weekend
xcx

Quiet day

Quiet day yesterday, all the goings on have caught up with me, we were supposed to go grocery shopping for the last two days but for all sorts of reasons never got there. It's amazing what you can conjuer up from the store cupboard and the last bits of the fridge.

Hubby has been reinspired by doing all the brick works on the exhibition facias and decided to continue on with a project that has been waiting in the wings for some time now, so all the bricking and chimneys were done. This will be a deli/grocery downstairs and a cafe upstairs.
I remember a few years ago visiting Tavistock in Devon uk, the minute you walked into the shop you were transported back as all the floors were highly polished wood, individual counters for tea and coffee all weighed and packaged as you waited, the staff all in long black aprons, the whole shop kitted out as Edwardian but with a modcons twist ie the deli and refrideration.
It will be quite good fun to research the products from yesteryear to stock the shop, with printable labels and a little piece of dowling the shelves can be bowing with tins, boxes of this and that oh and he has put in a request for more gardens!!...


We have also had some interest from another Cultural centre about the exhibition, this time Calpe, have to wait and see what happens.

xcx

Strange goings on.....

.....in our cactus garden. One of our large cacti put out a long thin stem, we have been watching this develop and this is what it has turned into.


It has to be about 20 ft tall, very different, someone told us once the plant puts one of these out it usually dies afterwards, we shall see. The cactus themselves are lethal with long spikes all along the leaves and at the end and they spread like wildfire. They take an absolute age to rot down when cut and most people including DH are allergic to them. Nice huh? but they do create a very thick protective barrier on the perimeter fence, I certainly wouldn't like to force my way through them..



I surcumbed..... Doughty's of Hereford (UK) were offering some cotton materials for only 3.99 (sterling) a metre, I used to use them when in the UK and were always pleased with them and the shipping charges to Spain were very reasonable. Not necessarily any rhyme or reason to the choices or any planned projects - yet!



I have made a tidy for hanging behind the cupboard door, for storing all the dusters, polish etc, very functional, a bit boring actually as I used plain furnishing fabric from the stash, well no one is going to see it but it has 9 pockets and it was amazing how much space was created under the sink when I started filling it up. Not sure it will encourage me to polish more often but at least I will find things(if) when I do.

When blog hopping I come across clever people who write a word then score through it for emphasis, can I find out how to do it? nope, so if any of you clever people would let me in on the secret I would be very pleased.

xcx