Merry Christmas!

Today I have stitched...

 

 

and wrapped...

 

 

I have baked and cleaned ...

have written Christmas cards,

and finished my Christmas shopping.

I am ready :)

 

And a very merry Christmas to all :)
 

I have to say that
this has been the most extraordinary year.

I'm fairly sure that I have experienced

every possible emotion this year :)

The good,

and the not so good...

 

New friends,

and new experiences.

Times of delight and fun,
and plenty of laughs.
But,
 in all honesty, 
 there have also been times
that have been incredibly physically demanding.
And...
times of pain.
 
I have learnt so much about myself this year,
but I have also learnt there is much
about
human nature that I am sure
I will never work out.
Well...
I guess that's what keeps it interesting.

So ...
I can't wait for Christmas Eve -
my favourite part of Christmas.
It just feels ever so slightly magical
and if you listen
very very carefully ... :)

Merry Christmas :)
Jenny xx
 



Pretty nice :)

I'm just going to pretend

that it hasn't been months

and months

since I've written ?!?

Can't pretend,

though, 

 that I've not missed

my stitching,

but

life has a habit of changing

and change is good :)

 

But spring brings renewed enthusiasm

for all sorts of things,

and one thing

that never fails to amaze me

is

how the garden here

delights and surprises me

year after year.

The bluebells and tulips have been and gone,

and now it is the turn of delphiniums,

foxgloves and

granny's bonnets.

 

 

The brilliant blue delphinium spikes

are so prolific this year -

I'm picking bunches of them for inside.

 

 

And so far,

fingers crossed,

there have been no full blast winds

to break them down.

 

 

I decided that I really really needed

to stitch some little pretties

again.

And Christmas is coming,

so yes,

I thought,

if I start now,

I can make some little gifts.

 

I made this little heart,

just for fun,

and just for me,

to kick start my stitchy mojo again.







 

 

And today I played,

with my favourite things -

linen and lace

of course,

and a few little words ...

 

...live, laugh & love...

 

...friendship...

 

...happiness ...

 



 

... and a few notes of music :)

 

I'll decorate these now,

with a little bit of embroidery maybe,

some buttons and hearts -

a bit of this and a bit of that.

 

It's nice to be stitching again.

And it's nice to watch my garden grow.

And even though it's ridiculously busy,

life is pretty nice too:)

 

Jenny



 

A little stitched dress...

So this is what I am working on

at the moment.

It started with a little dress 

that I stitched onto linen,

about seven or maybe even eight years ago!

I remember which house I was living in

when I stitched it,

and it certainly wasn't this one,

or the one before:)

 

And then,

as so often seems to happen with me,

it sat for a while,

but it was never covered up,

or in a pile.

It was always in view,

'cos I loved it.

It just took a little while

to do something with it.

 

 

... I added some buttons,

beads,

and stitches...

 

 

... lace,

of course...

 

...added some borders...

 



 



...and I'm going to pop it into

a gorgeous old oak (I think it is) frame.

It's taken a while

but it's nearly finished

and now I can get the next half completed project

back on the go.

I need to go now -

need to figure out how to make it fit,

(and stay in)

the frame :)

See you

Jenny

 

So I wondered.....

...and I have been wondering

for a quite a while now,

what to do.

You see,

I have all these

''samples''

from my shop days

and

what do I do with them all.

They could sit folded

on

shelves

as they do now

for another few years,

but I've been thinking

that maybe I should just try

and let them go.

Find them homes :)

 

 

Some will be hard to let go of

cos they have memories attached to them,

but

seriously,

the time has come.

So,

if you are at all interested

then pop on over to

facebook,

the Makers Studio page,

see ... it's on the sidebar,

or the Makers Studio blog

and have a look.

Or email me here -

I don't mind :)

I'll just do bits and pieces

over the next few days,

weeks,

whatever:)

I'm not all that fussed

about prices.

Make me an offer :)

I would just like to see them go somewhere

other

than sitting on my shelves.

 

See you

Jenny :)

 

Chairs and chocolate :)

I bought these chairs

nearly a year ago,

for just a tiny few dollars

at auction.

They were covered in dust and dirt

but I knew they had good bones:)

 

 

Well...

the other day when I was making

my little heart block,

and pondering what to do with it,

I had a thought.

It happens sometimes,

the thought bit :)

I wondered if I could make it fit

the chair.

Thought it might make

quite a nice addition

to my bedroom if it worked.

So....

I've had a go...

 

 

...and I'm loving the chair.

 

 

Really happy with it :)

 

 

It is the most fabulous

glorious

autumn day here.

Not a breath of wind,

warm and mellow,

and I'm thinking (again:)

that just maybe

 it's time for an afternoon

coffee

and a little treat or two :)

 

 

Have a lovely relaxing

chocolately

Easter.

See you :)

Jenny

 

 

My little linen heart

Maybe two years ago,

maybe more,

I stitched this little heart

onto some linen.

Loved it then,

and love it now:)

 

 

I wasn't sure how or where I would use it.

Thought about a cushion,

but really,

I do not need another cushion.

 

So I pulled out bits and pieces of linen

and lace

and other little treats ...

 

... and I stitched up a random log cabin block

around my little heart.

For a few days, now,

 it has sat

 on the end of my kitchen table.

Every time I have walked past it

I have thought "what should I do with you".

 

 

.... and now I know ....

See you soon,

and I will show you.

Have a lovely week:)

Jenny

 

Vintage Eggs?

I've been making :)

Vintage inspired easter eggs.

Have had such fun and,

yeah,

I know there's not a stitch in sight,

but there is lots of lace,

and ribbon,

and buttons

and other bits and bobs

that were lurking in the sewing room.

So,

I started with some polystyrene eggs from work,

covered some of them with pattern tissue

and some with just plain tissue ...

...I collected up some ''stuff''

to play with ...

... and with glue in hand,

( but not the glue gun, mind you -

me and glue guns absolutely do not get on -

I end up covered from head to toe in glue,

I usually have several finger burns

and nothing stays where it is supposed to stay -

some time ago I figured out

that PVA is a much much better option for me!!!)

So with a paint brush and a dollop of PVA at the ready,

I started to add a bit here and there to the eggs.

...some of Barb's gorgeous buttons...

...little heart trinkets...

... lots of my gorgeous vintage lace ...

... bits of ribbon and twine ...

... buttons and bows...



So there you have it,

my take on vintage inspired

decorated easter eggs.

I've sat them in a little wire basket 

in the hallway,

a little early perhaps

for Easter,

but

I really like them

so I want to enjoy them for a while.

I will, however,

be fully expecting a decent haul

of the real chocolately thing

come Easter.

 

And...

I've been knitting.

We got the most gorgeous yarn in at work this week.

It's a wool alpaca mix called Perfect Day

and I had spied the perfect pattern on the shelves

a few weeks back,

so I simply could not resist.





I've even started a little cross stitch project,

and

I have some crochet on the go as well!!!

It's good to be back in the stitchy place:)

Have a fabulous week :)

Jenny



The Perfect Day :)

I had a lovely wee day out

last Sunday.

Admittedly it was an pretty early start,

out of bed at 5.30 (yuk)

and on the road by 6.30.

Off to Queenstown for the day.

It was a bit of a last minute decision...

just felt the need to get out

and away

for a day.

Jake had a race on up there

so I decided I would go with him.

The day couldn't have been more perfect.

You know how sometimes they just happen,

those perfect days.

Not necessarily because it's anything

fantastically

out of the ordinary

or amazingly different

or incredibly exciting,

but just because it's just perfect

and in a sense it is all of those things:)

 

 

The sun was shining all day,

hot and clear,

and I took off with my camera for a walk

through the bush

while Jake did his practice runs.

 

It's been a while since I've had some serious

camera time.

So I just wandered and snapped.

 

 

 

 



 

 





 

 

After the race we went into town,

found the most amazing bakery,

bought fresh bread and cakes,

coffee and juice,

and found a patch of grass

beside the little creek that runs through the town,

where we sat in the sun and ate our lunch,

Perfect.

I have to say that the chocolate fudge was so

 perfect that I just had to go back and

buy some more.

It was as close to chocolate heaven that you will ever get.

Unbelievably perfectly perfect chocolate fudge.

 

All too soon it seemed like we had to start

the drive home.

 

 

 

But yeah :)

It was the perfect day,

and what's even more perfect

is that I think I have found my

stitching

mojo

again :))))

A very very sweet friend

was visiting this week.

She gave me a gorgeous magazine

absolutely filled with

very sweet ideas ...

and I am inspired.

I will be back to show you the first one soon.

It's all to do with easter:)

See you later

Jenny.

 



Having fun :)

Yep,

time does indeed fly

when you are having fun!

And I most definitely have been having fun,

but I have been working hard as well:)

And in between,

I've been enjoying our summer

which seems to have returned

in full force

these past few days.

 

It's lovely :)

 

 

Been out in the garden this evening

after coming home from work,

and brushing past the lavender

made me think

that I should cut swathes of it

and bring it inside.

Often I forget to do this

until it's almost too late

and the color is fading.

 

 

I knew the perfect place for it.

Jake made me this fabulous trug

for Christmas.

Isn't it gorgeous.

In all honesty I was so surprised

as I did not realise he possessed

such skills.

He has built it so beautifully

and

I think the lavender looks amazing in it.

 

This pic is taken underneath our plum tree

which has a ridiculous amounts of fruit

on it this year.

 

 

Last year I think we would have been stretching it

to say

we had six plums on the tree.

This year ...

more like six hundred!!!

Go figure.

How does that work?

 



 

The plums are delicious

and I'm at the stage where I try one each day.

They are still a few days off tasting amazing.

At the moment we are still in the

take a tentative bite stage,

wait for it,

yep,

still sour,

(and boy, does that taste wake you up!!)

I reckon just a few more days

of this fabulous sunshiney weather

and we will have more plums

 than we will know what to do with.

 

I have the day off tomorrow

so I am hoping for more glorious sunshine,

and I fully intend to spend

the whole day,

every single part of it,

in my garden.

 

The two stitcheries in this post

are from many years ago.

They were among the first I ever stitched,

designed by Cathy Penton.

I have quite a few of her designs stitched

and they remain some

of my very very favourite pieces.

 

Have to leave you with this quote.

I love these words.

 

I'm off to make some dinner,

and to start a little

cross stitch project!!

See you later

Jenny :)