Pulling the Threads Together

Thank you for the lovely comments about my craft room, I'm so lucky to have a small space of my own.

In the spirit of tidying up my crafty bits and pieces, I've been trying to sort out and tidy my embroidery threads. I used these little bobbin cards that came with the storage boxes, I also had some plastic ones I'd found on Amazon that are pennies to buy.

I have this little bobbin winding gizmo to wind the threads onto the cards with, it couldn't be any easier to use.

It slides easily onto the sides of the storage box, it keeps it stable while you're using it.

I have to be honest though, I found it much easier to just wind the thread on by hand, quicker too.

My latest cross stitch project is a Christmas stocking for my gorgeous new grandson, Zackary. I think it's so cute, obviously it'll be saying Zackary at the top.

I've made a start, but have a long way to go, I do wish cross stitching could be a bit faster. I only really like to do it in the daylight otherwise my poor eyes struggle a bit. I do most of my crafty things in an evening so have to try and find some time in the day for stitching.

I think it's time to sit down with a coffee and do a bit of stitching. Here's a photo of our beautiful grandson from when we were babysitting Saturday afternoon, how I adore that little face.

Take care
xxx

Small Craft Room Makeover

I have the small box room in our house as my craft room. Unfortunately it has also been used as a place for items that have had no home of their own or are in transition from one room to another. I do give it a good sort through now and again, but space is so tight as it's only just over 5' by 7', I did a post about it last year here.

I decided the time had come to give it a proper makeover, I've seen other tiny rooms on pinterest made over and looking quite gorgeous as well as functional. I'm so thrilled with it that I have to show it off to you... I have a very wonderful husband who put everything together for me.

This is where my chair is, I have a desk in front of me and at the side too.

This is the desk at the side

Pegboard is so useful and if I had the wall space I'd have more pegboard!

The shelf we bought has hooks underneath, making the most of every piece of storage.

These little cubby holes are full of ink pads.

My little Ikea trolley is so useful and great for attaching my magnetic tins to.

These Ikea drawers are fab for storing all my bits and pieces in and make great supports for the desks instead of legs. The trio of baskets are just the thing for storing ribbons, it means I can see them easily too.

I used to have my cutting dies stored in a dvd tower, but I've streamlined them and arranged them on a shelf. On the shelf below I have jars with flowers and buttons, the one above has things that I don't need as often, such as scrapbooks.

I tried to be really ruthless when I was sorting through everything and put quite a few stamps and cutting dies on eBay and gave others to charity. Checked through supplies that i've had for a long while and threw away items that were no longer of any use or past their best. I'm not always good at throwing things out or moving them on, but I was ruthless (much to Andy's delight).

I still have some bits and pieces to do, I need a blind for the window as it's south facing and I don't want my lovely bits and pieces to fade in the sun. I have to say though, I'm very thrilled with how everything looks and how accessible it all seems to be (I have a lovely chair with wheels on it so it's easy to turn from one desk to another).

Now I just need to find the time to create lots of things and make sure no one uses it to store anything other than my crafting supplies...

 Take care
xxx

Our Sassy

This post is going to be all about our beautiful cat Sassy.

After my last post on Tuesday, when we were settled down for the evening, we had a phone call from one of our neighbours, they were ringing to let us know that Sassy was asleep in their conservatory. This isn't unusual as our other cat, Mitzi, is often to be found one but next-door and I think she sees it as her second home. Sassy isn't as affectionate as Mitzi and prefers to stay at home with us, wary of people she doesn't know.

Our neighbour was concerned because Sassy didn't appear to be responding to offers of treats or anything else. Andrew went round to pick her up, bring her home and check she was generally okay.

As soon as he brought her home, I knew it was serious. Poor Sassy, she was floppy, loose is how I would describe her and her breathing appeared laboured. I held her in my arms as Andrew searched for and rang the emergency vet. It seemed to take forever to get through, explain her symptoms and insist we needed her to be looked at straight away.

I wrapped Sassy in one of her blankets, we raced to the car and to the vets. We had no idea what was wrong, there were no apparent injuries though that still didn't mean she hadn't perhaps been hit by a car, we just didn't know. In the car Sassy rested her head on my arm, she was salivating and smelt bad, I thought she'd messed herself, but she hadn't, she just smelt bad.

We were taken straight into the examining room, Sass was laid on the table and the vet listened to her heart. She would never have normally let someone else take her from my arms, she would just jump away, but she had no energy left. The very gentle, kind vet said her tiny body was shutting down and said he could perhaps try to bring her back, but that she would probably be brain damaged. He was quite sure that she'd been poisoned.

Andrew and I were in tears, our lovely, loyal Sass, only 10 years old. The vet didn't need to put her to sleep, poor Sassy died within a couple of minutes of us going in the room. She was still wrapped up in her blanket and they assured us that they would keep her in it.

As soon as we walked in the door at home, Imogen could see that Sass hadn't come home with us, all 3 of us were devastated.

Goodbye Sassy, we love you very much and will never forget you.

Take care
xxx


SaveSave

Settling in for Autumn

Summer feels a long while ago (I think it may have been a couple of weeks in June) and it's definitely feeling a bit more chilly. I for one am welcoming it with open arms, as much as I couldn't wait for Spring earlier in the year, I now feel ready to fully embrace the autumn and all that comes with it.

The school term has started and we have all slipped easily into the routine that has been part of my life for the last 25 years (that's what happens when you have a large age gap between your children). I started off with the changes on the mantelpiece.

I've put our Halloween globes out, I like to display them from September otherwise it feels like they're only around for such a short time. The dancing skeletons are musical and I do think they're rather beautiful.

The 3 little houses each have a tea light in and give a lovely glow in the evenings as the nights draw in.

Settling down in the evening to watch a bit of TV (I do like the dramas that BBC and ITV show, the second series of Doctor Foster is one of my favourites right now), it's good to have something in my hands to keep me busy. I've started crocheting a jumper for Imogen, just a bit of rib so far.

I love the colour, its a marble chunky from James C. Brett. I picked it upon Hobbycraft as it was a special offer (all the different shades were on offer). Just the right sort of colour to be using in Autumn!

While I settle in to my crochet, Mitzi was busy settling into my craft storage, it looks like she was making a nest to keep warm through Autumn too.

Take care
xxx

Scrabble Tiles

Imogen went back to school today after the summer holidays. It's her last official school year (she hasn't decided yet if she'll stay on for 6th form or go to college). I like to take a photo of her in her uniform before she leaves on the first day of term. Here's the photo from her first day at 'big school'. She hasn't grown much taller, perhaps an inch or two, but is definitely much more grown up.

Here's my baby now, as always it's passing far too quickly.

I've made quite a few things for our new grandson, most of them crochet or knitted before he was born (little Zackary has been here for 4 weeks now). I thought it would be nice to make something that would include everyone, something with everybody's name on it to tie them all together.

I have some shadow picture frames that I'd picked up a while ago when Hobbycraft reduced them, just the right thing to make a scrabble tile crossword in. I chose white as it goes with most things.

I think the hardest part was looking through the papers I already have to choose one as a background. I love this design, I must have been influenced by the approach of Autumn.

Lots of wooden scrabble tiles, I knew I was going to need 3 Z's and luckily this bag had a good selection.

Then to simply arrange the tiles so they all interlink like a crossword, I also added a few novelty buttons to make it a bit more interesting.

It turned out really well, Adam and Holly were very pleased and I'm thrilled to say they have hung it in their hallway.

Only one of our 2 Hydrangea bushes flowered this year, though the one that did was covered in big, beautiful, pink blooms all summer. I snipped this pretty one so I could admire it from indoors too. Most of the ones outside now have a sepia tinge to them as though they have been soaked in tea, quite stunning.

Take care
xxx