My miniature garden

The furries have disgraced themselves once too often, so we have cat proofed the dolls houses by making Perspex cases (what took us so long?!)

So at long last the gardens that I made can now be displayed as intended 

The base was 22hpi canvas, which allowed me to embroider straight onto it

I used a mixture of stitches to get the different textures

The crazy paving was made using fabric covered card

I also created components separately and added them afterwards.

Threads and beads for the flowers

It took many hours, but I was very pleased with the results, then had to make a garden for the other side

A woollen, felted jumper made the lawn

The delphiniums took ages to make, using tiny circles of tissue paper

The planter started out as a well but changed my mind, a good use of a aerosol cap

then covered in clay and using a brick stamp

What I can´t believe is that I made these 5 years ago!

Have fun, take care

xcx

New addition

I have great pleasure in introducing  you to the newest member of our family

Meet our new granddaughter

She was born 1.23 pm on Wednesday 25th May, one day earlier than the elected birth date

Weighing in at 8 lbs (3.5kg)

With a skype connection we were able to meet her about 4 hours later.

Daniel was in theatre and participated as much as he was allowed and Shine is recovering well

Leocia just wanted to hug her

Happy little family

take care

xcx

More than we bargained for

Last night I asked Chris to straighten out the bed clothes just before turning in, I find this a very energy draining chore so usually get him to do it. Omg am I glad I did, because we had a visitor and a very unwelcome one at that. This is what was hiding in the bed clothes, just think if I had done what I sometimes do and just smooth things out and hop into bed, Ugh doesn´t bear thinking about

This is an escolopendra, bit like a centipede but it has venomous fangs so if stung a visit to the pharmacy or hospital is advised for anti histamine etc

Not kidding you, it was at least 6¨ long and with its legs about 3/4 - 1¨ wide and boy do they run

Unfortunately it ran straight under the bed, and could we find it? No!

so out came the craft knife and Chris literally split the under side of the divan, still to no avail

then suddenly it ran up the wall, so with a half can of spray to slow it down and a dustpan and strong brush to hold it, it was transported outside and ´dealt´with, how it got there is another dilemma

Did have a bit of a restless night, not sure why!!

On a happier note, we were given some freshly picked lemons

No wax, the smell is divine, the flesh is sweet and the aroma from the peel is heavenly

So a wonderful marinade using the peel and juice with garlic, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and a little ginger will tenderise the turkey for kebabs perfectly

I remember putting a post ages ago about our lemon tree not holding onto its fruit, perhaps it was just an immature tree, but I am so pleased to see that we have, fingers crossed our own little crop

My Mum loved taking seeds, pips etc and trying to grow them, she was quite successful, she even managed to germinate a date, very impressive, but this little tree in the foreground is one she nurtured when she came over her with us and now it has grown so well. Needs a bigger pot now but a bit loath to change things, if you know what I mean.

  

  

On the craft front, I managed to get more thread from town and continued with the ring cushion

This is the design that Rebecca and Antoni chose for their wedding invitations so I thought it would look good on the cushion

Next step, iron our the crease! then add the organza trim and embellishments, oh and of course stitch it together. 

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, enjoy what ever it is you are doing

take care

xcx

A real treat

Antoni came home at the weekend and couldn´t wait for Saturday morning to give me a ring.  He wanted to thank me for helping spring clean and rearranging décor etc, how lovely was that, much appreciated.   We have a good relationship, friendly banter and an easy way of communicating and more importantly I listen and give them space! He asks my opinion over some matters, even if it is not taken it doesn´t matter, so I´m pretty sure that all those MIL jokes won´t apply at the wedding.

On Monday I went for another float, the theory is that with regular sessions it may help the fibro, well I´m not convinced on that as it is just as bad as ever, however the relaxation is good. What I didn´t expect was to find Rebecca and Antoni waiting for me with plenty of hugs and the suggestion of a drink by the beach.

We sat in an ice cream café, not a place I would normally frequent, but we found they were selling soya ice cream yeah......so Rebecca and I had a wonderful treat of chocolate soya ice cream, Chris had a normal mint choc one

   

This was our view

 I thought I would share with you a very special and rare plant, they need lots of nurturing and special care, its a Cat-cus

Growing nicely in the sun lol

I mentioned finishing off a WIP

This is it, a little jacket

I only placed the buttons, but I don´t really like them as I think they are too big

I managed to buy the embroidery thread in town, so back to the cushion now

take care

xcx

Birds nest

Todays project was to take the design that has been floating around in my head and to actually commit it to fabric.  White satin, purple organza, purple stitching and embellishments. This will be a wedding ring cushion, but I ran out of purple thread so that was put on hold till I can get some more.  Luckily the shop in town stocks Anchor, hope they have the shade.

So, what next, ages ago the online yarn store I use were having a sale and out of pure interest I bought some different yarns that I would not normally purchase, just for research sake you understand! and popped them in my stash

This was one of them, a sari ribbon, recommended needle size of 8mm

It´s really pretty and is quite tactile

I untied the hank and looped it over a chair back, then proceeded to experiment, after a couple of attempts I decided what I might like to make with it and gaily began knitting away. I like the way the ribbon twists and with the gentle colour change and silver running through it was looking good. The ribbon was falling from the hank nicely, then disaster struck.........

This is what happened

A complete and utter birds nest, as you can see I had already unravelled quite a lot before the photo, but I did have a little helper who I have to say was more of a hindrance than help lol

What a waste of a couple of hours potential knitting, oh well, all sorted now. Note to self wind into a ball first!

What do all you other knitters out there do with your hanks?

I did finish off another WIP before starting this, but forgot to take a photo so I´ll leave that for another day.

take care

xcx

 

Ancestry

I really enjoy researching our family trees, (when the internet connection allows!) and this weekend found someone that was researching similar names.  I emailed them and found out she is a direct cousin as we share the same 2nd gt grandfather.  My gt grandmother being her gt Aunt.  We have corresponded a couple of times but she is off on holiday to the US visiting her daughter, so I shall have to sit on my hands till the end of the month before we can swap stories.  I know very little of that side of the family, apart from some hand me down tales which may or may not be true. Exciting though.

Talking of trees, we went to Miniature Club yesterday, this is held in the Casa de Cultura in Pedreguar, a multi roomed public meeting place where groups can meet with no charge.

This month Chris made up kits and plans for a bird table

There were only 5 of us this time, but here is what we created, just need some tiny birds

In the courtyard someone was exhibiting their collection of bonsai trees which were just perfect as a back drop.

Off to do some outside painting.........

take care

xcx

Spring clean

We have been having some totally different weather patterns, really warm and sunny then plunging into cold and rain.  The rain is still much needed and certainly allows the weeds to be pulled out easier than the usual concrete. 

Found this very pretty grass sparkling with rain drops

This was interesting too

Spent a lovely couple of days with Rebecca, girlie time, but we were very busy.  She wanted help in decluttering both in her home and the outside space as she felt it was a huge mountain.  Bit of a mission, we ended up with two trips to the recycling, made executive decisions, cleaned and polished and ended up with a very nice relaxing back courtyard using some wall art and added touches in the décor in the house.

Much lighter, brighter and a great feel good factor.

All ready for her guests next week and Antoni´s return

A good spring clean all round

take care

xcx