Happy Valentine's Day

VALENTINE’S DAY

Each year on February 14th, many people exchange cards, candy, gifts or flowers with their special “valentine.” The day of romance we call Valentine’s Day is named for a Christian martyr and dates back to the 5th century, but has origins in the Roman holiday Lupercalia.

We've had the pleasure of this little monkeys company - he stayed for a sleep over.  We enjoyed making some Valentine desserts for today's tea as little monkeys family are coming for Sunday roast this week.  We also had fun playing with Plasticine and watching Logan's mums favourite film as a child - The Labyrinth.

Logan is making a Plasticine pizza.

On Friday evening I managed to complete February of the Joyful World SAL.  Thankfully the frogs stayed away this time - having said that there are a couple of misplaced or miscounted stitches in this month but I had gone too far to put them right when I realised my errors.  They're not major so I can live with them and it still looks good to me.  The ducks beaks don't really show up in this photo but they do in real life.

I have printed out March's chart but I won't start that until the month of March.

I've also managed to add another couple of motifs to the baby sampler.  With Logan monkey being with us and family coming down later in the day I will only get a short amount of time to spend on the Cornwall Cottage Sampler.  Spending time with family is far more precious than stitching - just about LOL.

I'm so weak-willed

weak-willed

adjective

1. lacking the ability to resist the influence of other people or to control one's own impulses.

Once again I have given in and bought some more rubber stamps.  While on one of my quick visits on Facebook I saw a post on the Rubber Dance Stamps group.  It combined a set of stamps from Bibi at Rubber Dance Stamps and a set of tutorials by Helen Allen.  I've been a follower of Helen's blog for quite a while now after having attended a workshop at Scrapbook Magic where we made a wonderful Pyramid Mini.  Her design and her tuition were top class.  I completed the pyramid at the workshop and have since purchased another kit ready to decorate.  

Well the outcome of this visit on Facebook was that I purchased the stamps and workshop tutorials - the stamps arrived yesterday from Bibi's company in Norway and Helen e-mailed me all the wonderful tutorials to create some amazing products with the stamps.  I am so looking forward to having a play with this unusual set of stamps.  Helen has used them in so many ways I wouldn't have thought of and certainly shown the versatility of the stamps.  I'm always amazed at what other people can see and create - every day we can learn something new.

I love the way the envelope came decorated with stamped images and included a lovely tag too, thanking me for my purchase along with some sweet little heart confetti.

Back stitching - what a difference.

backstitch

ˈbakstɪtʃ/

noun

a method of sewing with overlapping stitches      

Backstitch is not my favourite part of cross stitching but I appreciate just what a difference it can make to the images you stitch.  I have been merrily working on several motifs of the baby sampler this week.  Here is how they looked before the backstitch was added.

The top one you can make out is going to be an elephant but the other two without backstitch would look pretty meaningless.

But now they are defined as a bootee and a nappy pin.  So this week I have easily achieved five motifs, admittedly one of them is only a tiny heart but it's two more than the target I set.  I should get a couple more done before the end of the week too.  There are fifteen small motifs left and then three large one which go on the bottom of the border pattern.  Ideally I would like to get all the small motifs completed by the end of February which is achievable if I put the effort in.

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Book Haul

This paperback is very interesting, but I find it will never replace a hardcover book - it makes a very poor doorstop.

Alfred Hitchcock

Fortunately I don't need any doorstops so I am happy with my latest paperback haul.  I finished my Carole Matthews book The Chocolate Lovers Club and so was in need of some new reading material at home.  While out with mum I picked up a couple of books at one of the local garden centres and then picked up a few more while I was waiting for mum to do her food shopping today.  This little lot should keep me going for a while.

As far as I am aware I have never read anything written by these authors so I am going into unknown territory.  Fingers crossed I will like them.  Now the big decision is which one to start reading first?

WOYWW #349

Well another week has flown by and it's time again to have a look at what has been going on around the world as crafters share their work space on Julia.s Stamping Ground blog

On my work desk this week is the final colour in the Tim Holtz range that came out during the course of 2015.  I picked my collection up last week from Margaret at Scrapbook Magic.  I also have a packet of Ripple chocolate bars and some cardstock which I will be making gift boxes for the chocolate to go in.  I found a great tutorial by Linda Parker on You Tube for these.  Other than these there has not been much paper crafting this week again as I have been concentrating on my cross stitch projects instead.

Now I'm going to make a cup of coffee and go and see what other crafters have been up to this week.

Baby sampler progress

sampler

ˈsɑːmplə/

noun

1. a piece of embroidery worked in various stitches as a specimen of skill, typically containing the alphabet and some mottoes.

 I have managed some progress on the baby sampler over the past week - the blue border is now complete on the right hand side.  I shall now start working on the smaller motifs on this side during this week.

I think I will set myself a mini target of trying to get three small motifs completed each week if I get more done then it will be considered a bonus.

Another page complete

A hobby a day keeps the doldrums away.

Phyllis McGinley

Today is Cornwall Cottage Sampler day and it was a great way to beat the doldrums as once again for most of the day it has been raining.  I did manage to get out with Max for a walk this morning but from midday it has done nothing but rain and with gale force winds forecast tonight and tomorrow stitching is a great hobby to have.

I managed to complete the internal green border on left hand side and was able to turn a page and have now started work on the motifs of page nine.  So eight pages completed with four more to go  There are a couple of large motifs on this page along with a couple of smaller ones.  I managed to complete one of the small motifs and make a start on one of the larger ones.  I think this page will take a few weeks to complete but it will be nice to see me turning the corner on this one and it's so nice to know that I am a page nearer to completion.

Thank you to everyone who comments on my blog, I try to reply to those I can but for those that are no reply I do appreciate your visits and your comments.