Bead spinner in action

Nose to the grind stone again today, in the nicest possible way of course

Finished the gardinia and started another rose.

Fiona asked for a peek at the bead spinner in action so here it is

The main thing is to have plenty of beads in the spinner

and play with the angle of the hook, but it´s amazing how quickly they travel up the wire

I´m using 28 guage which is a little soft but ok for my hands with the fibro

There are many items on Youtube and google that show you how to make your own from a plastic container and dowl, I did make one of these until I was given my turned one. However if you just want to have a play it´s a cheap way of experimenting.

There is a difference between French beaded flowers and Victorian beaded flowers. For the first, all the beads are strung upon a continous wire and wrapped around a base line, where as for the second the beads are stranded across in individual rows, increasing or decreasing as you go. You cannot use the spinner for this

The complicated bit comes when you want to add interest beads i.e. for the centres or edges.

Years ago I found an interesting article on its history

but do you think I can find it.....No, never mind I´m sure it was some ingenius person looking for a quick way to embellish some Tudor´s costume and to incorporate flowers in unseasonal times

Something I find facinating exploring the techniques of yester year with no lighting, and limited resources yet such wonderful and beautiful garments, wall hangings and accessories etc

Still learning and playing and enjoying

but that´s what crafting is all about

take care

xcx

French beaded flowers

I mentioned that I was making French beaded flowers for Rebecca´s wedding.  They are rather time consuming and I have already got through 7 reels of wire, so have had to order more. I found some on ebay for a really good price and shipping wasn´t too much either.  I think I shall have to see just how many I can make before deciding on whether they will be just for the bouquet or some of the table decorations. They will be a nice keepsake where ever they get used.

A rose

The flowers are extremely difficult to photograph, hence the videos, these ones have another round to go yet

I will not put leaves on them just yet as it may not be necessary, need to talk to the florist

Small roses

 

The collection is growing, slowly! but now it seems achieveable rather than daunting

I am lucky enough to have a bead spinner that was turned for me by a friends husband. You make a small hook in the end of the wire put it into the beads and spin and as if by magic the beads travel up the wire. Clever huh!

I´m so glad that I don´t have to individually thread the beads on, that would take soooo long to do. Although when I want to put a different colour around the edges that is what I do.

Right, back to it, in the middle of making a gardinia flower

take care

xcx

Mixed bunch

Temps moving up to the high 20´s, time for the pool.  We just had this months delivery of water, 8000L for the house and the other 2000L goes in the pool.  We have quite a small deposito which is a bit of a pain and means we can only last between 3-4 weeks. Luckily Jose usually comes up quite quickly to refill

I try to be quite frugal, putting reasonably clean washing up water on the garden and collecting the 6L of water it takes before we get any hot for the shower, shutting taps off between rinses etc.

It was the same at the farm, we had a well which used to get quite low in the summer, so I put a bore hole in and it was much easier, especially with the visiting guests.

Chris has been drawing up plans and making another miniature house, although I´m not sure about the miniature bit as it looks more like a mansion

 Pelmets, wainscoting and sliding floors

 Sorry the photos are out of sequence and it wouldn´t let me move them!

I spotted this on the courtyard wall this morning. Now I´m not particularly fond of spiders, but this was so unusual I just had to capture it. Obviously I have seen the mother and babies but never a group of adults.

Google tells me a group of spiders is called a cluster or clutter.  As long as they stay outside I don´t care what we call them lol

Have a great weekend

Take care

xcx

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