Doggy Treats

At Lajuana´s request, and with her assistance, Doggy Treats has recently been added to the kits in my store. Although not a recent kit, it´s one that´s dear to my heart because I made it with Dora in mind and anything tailored to fit Dotty Dora has got to be fun, not only to design but also to use. I particularly enjoyed creating all the crunchy frames and bits and pieces which I think add to its overall light-hearted effect. 

Judge for yourself.

You´ll find larger previews of Doggy Treats in the store and among my other kits here, and if you too have a lovable pet who deserves a treat, keep an eye open for a crispy crunchy freebie QP which I´ll be adding soon. 

WOOF!

Reminders Of Happier Times

Contrary to appearances – or non-appearances – I´m still here though not necessarily chained to my computer these days. When our national poet, Robert Burns, said that “toothache´s the hell of all diseases” he´d obviously never suffered from sciatica. But enough of that.

I´ve received lots of lovely cards today and just had to show you a couple which mean a lot to me as they feature two of my very favourite creatures. This one from my husband reminds me of summer when this butterfly, along with its sisters and its cousins and its aunts, fluttered brilliantly among the buddleias on our patio.

This one also brings back many memories of summer, and to those of you who know me, requires no explanation at all.

Thank you, Herbert and Pauli, for cheering me up on a dreary January morning and reminding me that happier times are just around the corner.

Happy New Year

Wow, while this Christmas elf was having a late Christmas this weekend with her family, Helen and Dora have been busy decorating for the coming year.  I have always loved this extraction of Helen's very elegant aunt in this lovely setting.  Nice way to start 2013 when I opened the blog this morning.  And those gorgeous flowers remind me that Valentine's Day is just around the corner with spring to soon follow!  

Now, this elf is headed to take down the Christmas decorations at the store and make some room for more kits to be added to its shelves this coming year.  And then, I must download the Christmas Carol QP Freebie and scrap a few pictures taken of my grandchildren this past weekend.

Welcome to 2013.  Hope it is a wonderful year for all of you out there and so hope Helen's upcoming clinic stay will bring brighter days ahead for her.

Christmas In Bloom

All winter my living room looks like a small jungle as all the plants which spend the summer on my patio are hibernating there. Well, I thought they were all hibernating but it looks as though my giant – and normally very ugly – cactus which usually only earns its keep by flowering in the summer has decided to surprise me by suddenly bursting into bloom. It couldn´t have chosen a better time as I´m still suffering from severe backache and needed something other than my Christmas tree to cheer me up.

I created this page in honour of this lovely floral Christmas present using the Christmas Carol freebie QP which you´ll find here.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

A Feast For Everyone.

As some of you know already, I´ve been laid up for the past few weeks after I put my back out and I find it hard to sit at the computer for any length of time. It looks as if a stay in the orthopaedic clinic is on the cards for the new year. In the meantime I´ve been trying to keep my spirits up which isn´t always easy when the sky is leaden and my beloved garden is slumbering under several feet of snow and summer seems so far away. It´s then that I´m glad that I kept a record of how it looked when everything was blooming under a bluer sky.

Last spring Diane sent me a packet of sunflower seeds little knowing how much pleasure they would eventually give, not only to me, but also to some of the creatures which visit my garden. Most of the sunflowers “only” reached a height of about 6 feet but the ones I sowed in the fertile soil of my vegetable garden grew to an enormous height and seemed intent on proving that everything from Texas is bigger than elsewhere. Here´s a photo I took of them towering above my garden shed.

And this is a page I made using the Nature Notes freebie QP to remember them by on a dismal dreary day when winter seems unending. 

Journalling: “Sunflowers are a feast for everyone. In summer I feast my eyes on them while the bees and hover flies feast on their nectar. In autumn the sight of the birds feasting on their seeds gladdens my heart and makes me less sad to think that summer is over.”

The photo of the finch was a lucky shot taken through the screen on my kitchen window which is why it´s not as clear as it might be.

If you´d like to have the freebie QP, you´ll find it here.

Thanks again, Lajuana, for helping to make the blog look festive with A Christmas Carol...and if I´m not around for a while, I´m sure you´ll understand why.

Shhhh...Helen's Asleep and the Christmas Elf is decorating her Blog!

The store is all decorated and is now featuring Helen's Christmas kits.  My goodness, I had forgotten how gorgeous these kits are...you must click on the MY STORE sign and go take a look at these festive kits!

It's been awhile since I have played around in Helen's blog...but I couldn't resist surprising her by doing at least a little decorating here for Christmas.  I wanted to save some of the decorating for Helen and Dora.  So, they can add the jewelled Christmas tree to the table and replace the flowers on the shelf with some Christmas decorations and cards!  Oh, don't forget to hang the Christmas stocking, too!

Merry Christmas to my very special friend!

Making Christmas Cards

For the past few weeks I´ve been making Christmas cards, something which would normally take only a couple of days, but these are a little more complicated than most because they´re stitched rather than printed. Well, the motif is stitched but the layout is printed. Stitching is the fun part as I can plug myself into my iPod and lean back and relax during the day without that nagging guilty feeling that I´m neglecting other more important tasks. But all good things eventually come to an end and once all the stitching´s done I reluctantly unplug myself from my iPod and get on with the more tedious parts of the project. First the motifs have to be washed and pressed then stiffened by the addition of an ironed on backing. After that comes the part I enjoy least, namely designing the layout which entails some very precise measuring...not my strong point. The following screen shot may give you an idea of what´s involved.

 

As you can see, the layout is in 3 equally sized parts, (designed to fit onto an A4 sheet of card) the back of the card, the aperture and the flap which covers the back of the motif. By the way, the little corners within the frame are my guidelines for cutting out the aperture. For that I use a steel ruler and a sharp knife. The 4 vertical lines are for scoring the card in order to fold the flaps neatly and the large rectangle is the actual size of the card. If I´m feeling lazy I only print the card once and write the greeting by hand after the card is folded, otherwise I have to create a new layout with a printed greeting on the right side which will be on the inside once I´ve turned the card accordingly and printed it. Does this sound complicated? Believe me, it IS! However, it only has to be done once as I can alter the layout and change the aperture and the greeting for any similar cards. After printing I score the folded parts, cut the card down to size using – thank goodness – my trusty paper cutter, then all I have to do is cut out the aperture and stick on the motif using double sided sticky tape. I also use the tape for sticking down the flap to cover the back of the motif. TADA! One card down, a whole pile more to do...No, not really as I only make these cards for a chosen few.

Having said all that, here are some I´ve already finished. 

I enjoyed stitching this Christmas pudding so much I made a batch of them, some on cream linen and some on green. I think I prefer the contrast of the green but I like both variations. It´s just a pity that the glittering thread and the shine on the beads don´t show up on these scanned images.

I forgot to say that although the second pudding is smaller than the first, it´s only because it was stitched on finer material.

This angel is very glittery because I used lots of sparkling threads. Again, the effect is lost when it´s scanned.

 

The following 2 motifs were really intended by the designer of the chart to be stitched using black thread on white linen but I think they look more effective and dramatic the other way round. By the way, I stitched the house motif before I realised that it was too wide to fit into a landscape layout and I had to create a portrait layout especially for it. You can imagine how I enjoyed doing that!

I´m off now to start a new project using this chart.

I stitched this motif many years ago and gave it to a friend. This time I´m going to keep it and frame it and hang it in my living room so if I´m not around for quite some time, you´ll know where to find me. I´ll be sitting comfortably in my workroom plugged into my iPod....with a Do Not Disturb sign on the door.

Things That Go Bump In The Night

Today is the ancient festival of Samhain which marks the last day of the Celtic year and the beginning of winter. The Celts and Druids believed that in the night before the New Year, the wall between the living and the dead was open, allowing spirits of the dead, both good and bad, to mingle among the living. Some of these spirits were thought to possess living people, cause trouble, ruin crops, or to search for passage to the afterlife and many of the rituals performed in order to placate these evil spirits are best left shrouded in the mists of time. Halloween, as it´s now called, is a sanitized child-friendly version of that pagan festival, now mostly practised in the USA. We would certainly rest uneasily in our beds if we knew exactly what the Celts regarded as suitable tricks and treats. I know I wouldn´t like to spend this evening, or any evening, in THIS room! (although it was fun putting it together.)

To quote an an ancient Scottish prayer,

From ghoulies and ghosties

And long-legged beasties

And things that go bump in the night

Good Lord, deliver us.

Amen to that.

Nature Notes Freebie

Here´s a set of 5 grungy elements which coordinate with my recently released Nature Notes.

If you like them, you´ll find them here.

And if you´d also like a quick page created from the same kit, watch this space...

Season Of What?

John Keats called it the “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” but to me it´s always been the season of colds and chills and cough syrup and a plentiful supply of Kleenex. In case you haven´t already guessed, we both mean autumn but either Keats was immune to the dreaded virus or he was using poetic licence. As for me, only the first line of verse 3 rings true, namely “Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?” I know exactly where they are. They´re six months into the future, that´s where, and the way I feel at present they can´t come fast enough!

Still, all isn´t doom and gloom. At least I´ve got my autumn blog header to cheer me up while I write this though that open fire and cup of tea look so inviting I could nod off in the process. But not until I´ve announced the release of Nature Notes which, with it´s subtle greens and browns, seems to me to reflect the more appealing side of autumn with a few glittering little reminders of summer thrown in. The sight of it gives me hope that once I´ve recovered from this beastly cold I may again take pleasure from walking through the forest crunching autumn leaves beneath my feet “While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue.” 

Ah. I´m beginning to feel better already.

Here´s Nature Notes.

 

There will be a few freebies to go with it once I´ve fully recovered.

Thanks for looking.

PS If you´re interested, you´ll find Ode To Autumn here.