Mailart and Flowers

Hello everyone!

Thank you all for your lovely comments on the last post.  The past few days here have been like summer.  The weather is so hot and glorious I can't believe it! I'm eager to get on my bike and cycle around soaking in the sun.  There are a few things I need to do first before I head out.  

Meari's mailart finally arrived the other day and she loves what I made for her.  Her niece was visiting and thought that the mailart is the bomb!! So cute! For the front of the letter I chose parts of a freebie pattern from the Snowflower Diaries called Tulips with Chick.  I chose my own colours and used an assortment of overdyed threads for the pattern. 

For the back, I used BBD's A Breath of Spring with DMC threads.  I didn't stitch the whole pattern, just parts of it.  

It was fun to make for her and I'm glad we did this exchange.  Thanks Meari!!

Here's a few flower photos from our little bike ride down to the flower store in the farmlands.  It's such a happy place to be!

Beautiful Calla lily

My favourite...lavender

Little pockets of golden sunshine..Marigolds

That's all for now.  I'll have more stitching to share after the weekend.  I hope to get some finishing done to show!! Have a wonderful weekend!

Hugs

Anne

Simple Pleasures

Hello my lovelies!

Thank you all for your comments on my last post.  I appreciate every one! These days have been busy full of work and finding pleasure in the simple things of life.  Regardless of how life may sometimes be difficult for us all, it's important to stop and enjoy what's around us: our family, friends, pets, crafts or little day trips around the city. 

Some things I enjoyed this past week and a half:

Crocheting and reading The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton on a hot sunny Sunday.

Day trip to Queen Elizabeth Park with my husband, where we smelled flowers, sat by a fountain, and walked under cherry trees.

 Cycling with my hubby and discovering a new trail.

 Picking flowers along the railroad tracks.

Cycling again. This time to Fort Langley and taking our time looking at everything in the Antique Mall.

Restarting my granny strip blanket without a curl!

Stitching JCS and finally get to the motifs.

My Nana's magnolia tree.

Last but definitely not least, I had two lovely surprises from the mailman/lady this week.  One was unsuspecting, the other an exchange.

From Jo, a little pouch stitched 1 over 1 of Kokopelli, a fertility deity, filled with jelly babies.  A wonderful surprise that I so treasure!!! Thank you Jo!! You are amazing! Hugs!!

The other surprise is from Meari that I just received today.  We did another Easter/Spring mailart exchange since we loved doing the Christmas one so much.  She sent me the most darling mailart.  She hand dyed the linen and added the neatest little details.  Thank you so much Meari! I love it and it's now displayed by my biscornus!!!

I hope you enjoyed the simple pleasures post.  Pascha is this weekend so I will be back on Bright Monday with pictures to show you all.  I also hope to catch up on my blog reading.  I've been trying to read a few in the morning but my comments may be a bit wonky since I'm just waking up so forgive me!!

Hugs to you all!!

Anne

Meari's Mailart and Deer Box

2013 is almost at a close.  It's been quite the year when I think back on it.  I will most likely do a post tomorrow showcasing all of my finishes and WIP's.  I think it's nice to see what I have done and to look forward to doing more challenges in the new year.  For now, I would like to share with you Meari's amazing mailart she sent to me.  I finally received it on Friday and I squealed with delight!! The designs she chose are darling and she put so many cute little touches on that made it even more special.  It is presiding on my bookshelf and I have a feeling I may not box it away with all the other Christmas decorations.  I just might keep it on my craft shelf with all my other lovely smalls to gaze upon and inspire me.  She used some really cool round circle stamps on the envelope.  They didn't really photograph well with the reflection.  Without further ado, here is her mailart!!

Look at this adorable little giraffe placing a star upon the tree!

Adorable little penguins holding button snowflakes!!

lovely threads, some post its and tea

Close up of those cutie pie penguins!!

I just love it so much!! My husband thinks it's cute and that the giraffe was eating the star! I had to correct him and told him the giraffe was placing the star on the tree!! Silly man! Thank you again Meari!! I thoroughly enjoyed this unique exchange!!

Thank you all for your lovely comments on my last post.  I visited most blogs and loved reading about everyone's Christmas's and your traditions.  It was quite the treat to take time to visit everyone.  

For my dear mama....thank you for your comment.  I was only teasing with that statement but did realize sometimes I may be a tad wordy so I tried being a little less wordy! Love you mom!!

The deer bullet box has been finished.  I have to say it's pretty cool. My hubby is a wee bit jealous and now he wants a box!! Here is the finish.  I used 32 count lambswool linen stitched with Molasses WDW and had to use Gast Espresso Bean when I ran out of WDW!!

I'm sure he will like his bullet box, or whatever he wants to fill it up with!!!

I will be saying adieu for now and be back tomorrow with my 2013 finishes!!

Hugs to you all!!

Anne

Crafty Goodness

Bonjourno everyone!!

I've got lots of great crafty goodness to share with you all so I hope you have something to warm your hands with a good cup of something.   I'm holding a cup of coffee since my hands are freezing.  Perhaps I should put on one of my mug cozies I've been crocheting up?! I can't though since they are gifts for people. The other night, my husband watched me jump from project to project with reckless abandon; stitching, crocheting, pinning, gluing and painting.  I caught the Christmas craft bug in a big way.  I found a great tutorial on how to make crocheted stars and have made three already.  I'm hoping to whip up more of these as cute little gifts for my friends and family.  They take less than 20 minutes to make and all I need now is some starch to spray onto the stars for them to retain their shape.  That and some glitter...my hubby's suggestion.  He's such a great guy!! If you are interested in making some of these charming stars, check out this great blog by Matt: According to Matt. He adds glue on his stars but another blog suggests starch, so that's what I'm going to use.  I still need to attach some bells at the end and then they are finished. I also started a deer silhouette for my brother's bullet box.  I'll be painting the box brown or may stain it.  What do you think I should do?  I've never stained anything before.  Anyone have suggestions?

I find it funny to upload this photo here since I've already uploaded it first to Facebook and Instagram.  It seems there are a lot of us stitchers on both media platforms finding each other more and more everyday.  Is blogging going to be a thing of the past? Although I do enjoy Instagram and facebook, I hope blogging stays because I do enjoy reading people's posts in a diary/journal type form!

Onto more crafty goodness.  I'm happy to announce that Meari has received my mailart!! After the people (rather the young buck) at the post office looked at me like I was crazy and was not helpful at all, I mailed the envelope with some trepidation.  I had visions of people at the letter sorting place pulling it out of the line and opening it or destroying it!! Why, I don't know...I was just worried!! So glad that it made it to her and she told me her parents thought it was really cool to receive mail from BC so they got out an atlas to find me! Check out her post! I can hardly wait to receive mine.  This is my first private exchange and I enjoyed every bit, even the worrying part!

The inside fabric

the back

the front

The design on the back is a freebie from The Little Stitcher. The design on the front is a freebie from Gazette94.  I stitched the tree and a bunch of the snowflakes randomly all around the tree.  I used DMC threads for all of the stitching.  The variegated red is 119 I believe.  I used some sort of evenweave fabric that was in my stash.  I hope to do this again...wink wink Meari!

Finally one of my giveaway prizes has been received. Pat from Southpaw Stitcher loved the pillow I made for her and the treats I included for her to use.  I am happy with the finish too.  For some reason I do "perfect" finishes for others....just not for myself.  Maybe I should pretend that the finish I'm working on is for someone else and then it will turn out ok! I stitched it on 32 ct. Lambswool with DMC threads. Her photos on her blog are much better than mine. 

Prairie Schooler Fall

Still waiting for the other two to arrive...but they have further to travel.  

So on that crafty crazy day, I finished my Two White birds.  Not happy with the finish at all.  It's crooked, the ribbon bow is bunchy, the ribbon around the pinkeep is wonky...sigh.  I'm sure none of you will see any of these flaws, but I do.  Not only is it not what I envisioned, but there's some sort of pink blog dot on one of the bird's tails.  You can't see it in the photo since the ribbon covers it.  

I haven't posted a TUSAL in ages, so here's my year end orts.  The bowl is overflowing and I have to figure out what to do with all of those orts. 

We finally put our Christmas tree up last night! Yay! We listened to Christmas tunes and Loreena McKennitt's Christmas album.  The song "Snow" always makes me emotional and nostalgic for Christmas times past.  I remember listening to this song in the kitchen while making sugar cookies with my mom when I was16 years old.  We listened to the tape on a tape player and stayed up until 1 am making cookies.  That night it was snowing and everything was quiet save for Loreena's voice echoing in our kitchen.  Magical...isn't it?

Take care everyone and thank you for staying with me this long! I appreciate all of the lovely comments and well wishes everyone is sending me and my husband.  He appreciates it too and thanks everyone who has taken a moment to think of him.  

Anne