Latest Finish - Christmas Card

This is my latest finish.....

I stitched this Christmas card for the Craft Bubble "Crazy for Kitties" Christmas Exchange.  This little white cat will be winging it's way over to "Catdragon" in the UK tomorrow.

The exchange brief was to stitch a kitty card for Christmas.  I spent a couple of evenings going though all of the Christmas magazines that I had and found a couple of kitty designs, but decided to do the "white cat" from the "World of Cross Stitching" issue 39 (Nov 2000).  Just as well I keep all my old magazines! 

The design is from a set of four cat & dog cards designed by Julie McLaughlin.  It was a reasonably quick design to stitch and used gold and silver Kreinik thread to add some shimmer to the ornaments and presents!

The card was one that I had in my box of freebies from my craft magazines and I chose the shiny red one as a base and cut up a small gold one to frame the stitching.  Then used green glitter brads on the corners, and added the Seasons Greetings sticker rather than trying to write on the foil card.

All in all not too bad a job given that I am not normally a card maker.....

Til next time

Cats sleep anywhere

How true is this....  I found this little saying on a website this morning while looking for cat sayings.

Cats sleep anywhere, any table, any chair.
Top of piano, window-ledge, in the middle, on the edge.
Open draw, empty shoe, anybody's lap will do.
Fitted in a cardboard box, in the cupboard with your frocks.
Anywhere! They don't care! Cats sleep anywhere.

Eleanor Farjeon (1881 - 1965)

And I have the perfect pictures to prove it!





Oscar is in the bin, Felix is lying on Daddy's quilt block!







Felix sleeping in the filing tray!



'Til next time,



The wonder of Mother Nature

One of the wonderful and amazing things about life on this planet of ours is the beauty and tenacity of Mother Nature.  Last year I had two Californian Poppies growing in pots on the patio.  They flowered but not very well and unfortunately they died....

But at some point they dropped their seeds and we now have a beautiful orange poppy growing in the patio!  That's right in the patio.... or rather in the dirt around the patio support!  Certainly not where I ever thought one would grow!

Isn't it funny how I couldn't get them to grow when I wanted them to grow but Mother Nature has worked her magic and one tiny poppy seed has grown to produce a mass of stunning colour!  I am looking out the back door while I type this and I can see them sitting up proud as punch in the sunlight.

I took the photo below yesterday and since then all of the other flower heads have opened up to show their faces to the sun.  While I was outside with the camera I also took a photo of our roses in the front garden as they are in full bloom at the moment as well.

The wonder of Mother Nature..... 

  

There is also a small catnip growing in the
same spot - this has also grown from seed!



Life imitating Art.... or something like that!

I have been sitting here this afternoon using the laptop to update my blog, upload some new cross stitch photos to my online album, stitching forums and Facebook while watching the movie "Julie and Julia".  So in a sense it has been a bit of a "life imitating art" sort of afternoon.  I might not have been cooking but I was blogging!

Julie Powell's idea of blogging and cooking her way through 524 recipes in 365 days is quite intriguing, don't know if I could do it though!

I have to admit that I quite enjoyed watching the movie - wasn't too sure about it as I am not a real Meryl Streep fan, but it was a good way to spend a lazy Friday afternoon!

Bon Appetit!




Image from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_&_Julia

 


Image from
http://www.abebooks.com/books/mastering-art-french-cooking-cookbook/julia-child.shtml

 'Til next time,

Round Robin has come home

After many months away my Chatterfox Christmas Round Robin has come home.  It is simply gorgeous.  The six other ladies that stitched on my RR have done such a beautiful job.  It has been such fun doing this RR and I am going to miss the monthly parcels coming to the post box.

Thank you to Brenda, Helen, Luella, Andi, Yvonne & Kirsty for stitching on my RR and for letting me stitch on yours.  I look forward to our next RR.

Chatterfox Christmas Round Robin 2010

'Til next time,