March and the Craft Room

We have had a busy week.  On Mon. we went over to Ikea and got the rest of the craft room furniture. 
The SBA worked hard and got it all together. If you know Ikea, you buy the furniture in pieces and you have to put it together.  It is not expenssive but just fine for a craft room in a spare bedroom.  Tomorrow, I'll show you the view, one of my favorite reasons for using this room. I finished Bunny & Co.  Here was my problem.  I used 36 count R and R fabric. I am not at all happy with the coverage.  If this were not a little seasonal piece I would either forget it or do it over.  Two strands were too thick and one was not thick enough. It will fit in an old frame so I'm not spending any more time or money on it.  I almost did it over but decided that that was silly for a piece that would be out no longer than a month. I still love the design so I may do it over another time. I have decided what to so with the Word Plays.  I have stitched them on 32 count so they are a bit bigger than called for.  I ordered a frame from my favorite framers, Valley House Primitives, and I will change it out each month.

 Here is my start on March. The directions called for stitching the word shamrocks in Walnut.  I thought NO WAY so I have started stitching them in a pretty green!

Here is the partially finished craft room! I love putting family pictures on the shelves I am not using yet. The grouping  is made using 3 units that are 4 squares by 2 squares. 

 I love having my wonderful fabrics where I can see and enjoy them. They had all been stuffed in a closet!

 My cross stitch books and magazines are now out where I can easily find them.

One basket is for things I have partially kitted up.

The desk looks empty but won't for too long. It is still a work in progress. Isn't that a great little shelf for my small TV?  The SBA made it for my room.  He 's such a sweetie!

I hope you will all have a wonderful week-end.  We are still dong the spring cleaning so when spring does come, we can be outdoors!!!

Cross Stitch and Craft Room

Thanks  so much to those of you who looked at my UW Arboretum pictures.  Really rainy weather is predicted so I'm glad we made that trip.  The huge Northwest Flower Show is this week-end and we are hoping to go.  We wanted to go on Fri.  but "sideways rain" is predicted.  We would have a bit of a walk from the ferry to the bus so we aren't sure, maybe we'll wait till Sun.  It is always an incredible show.
I'm getting close to finishing my "Bunny& Co. " project.  I have changed the colors a lot because I wanted to use what I have.  It has ended up a bit too pastel but I love the design.
We have started a big project to improve my craft room.  We have lived in our house for 8 years and that room is exactly the same as it was when we moved in.  I have been inspired by the craft rooms that many of you have shown on your blogs.  The dear SBA has been looking for projects to do since he finished the kitchen so this is a perfect one for him.   I don't usually stitch in that room because I stitch in the evening in the family room while the SBA watches TV. I do sew in that room however and I need a place to put all my "stuff". I will show our progress on the blog.

 Sorry for the wrinkles.  As you can see, I just have the right side and top border to finish.

 I used a fuzzy thread on the bunny's tail.  It and the egg show up much better on the real  project than in the picture. 

Craft room, more accurately the junk room!!

 Old builder white paint. Cheap builder trim.

 Step one, empty out the room, add nice trim and paint a warm color.

Much better but not great! Our next step in to get some furniture.  I want shelves with room for fabric and baskets. 

Thanks so much for joining me today.  I hope you are all having a great week!

The Winter Garden at UW Arboretum

First, thanks to all of you for your very kind words about France F and the frame.  She is happily hanging on my wall! Yesterday we had a quite extraordinary day!  The SBA, our daughter, and I went over to see the Winter Garden at the UW Arboretum.  The day was just beautiful with temps up to 63 sunny degrees.  I hope you will enjoy a walk through this beautiful place!

 A lovely entrance to the Arboretum.

Can you believe this wisteria vine??!! All of the posts at the conservatory were covered with these huge trunks! They reminded me of snakes.

 Flowers on an unknown vine at the conservatory.

 A beautiful Japanese Maple.

The air smelled wonderful.  I think it was all the witch hazels.

 The color you see on this path was all the different witch hazel trees.

Camellias were also blooming.

There were several clumps of this colorful cyclamen. The contrast with the orange bark was lovely.

After a fun lunch at the Pike Place Brewery, we were on our way home.  It was so warm, we sat outside on the deck of the ferry, the end to a great day.  Many thanks to our very sweet daughter who showed us all around by bus so we didn't need to take our car on the ferry.

I hope you are all having a great week-end! 

A Gift and A Frame

I hope you have all had a delightful Valentine's Day.  I went to my volunteer  job at the school.  The kids made amazing boxes for their Valentines.  What a fun place to be on Valentine's Day.  Plus, I got more goodies to eat than I need so I brought some home to the SBA who was busy painting my craft room.  I'll tell you about that on another post.  Thanks so much for all your kind comments about my little Spring stitch.  Next post will have an update and you can see the bunny finally.
I was the very lucky winner of a give-away from CasaPearl over at " Stitching in LobsterLand" a really great blog! She took the time to look at my blog to see the kind of things I like.  How thoughtful!!  Plus she did a super job, an adorable Halloween  witch chart, a chart called Quaker Mini Treats(I love to stitch Quaker), and a chart with two historic samplers.  In addition to all that there were some beautiful colored threads and a great piece of linen.  The linen just might be what I'm looking for to do my next project. Thank you so much Patti!!!!
Last but not least, I picked up the framed France F.  I love the way it turned out!
Again, I hope this was a wonderful day for all of you my "cloud" friends!!( the SBA refers to you all as my "cloud" friends.)  I certainly do consider you all my friends!

Notice the cute card in the upper right corner.

 

Thanks for joining me!

Just a Little Cross Stitch

First, thanks to all of you who looked at the Mardi Gras photos.  Since Tues. is fat Tues. , I guess all the dec orating will need to come down on Wed.
  I have had a bug this weekend, cough, cough cough, that is the story of my life! It did give me time to do some reading and stitching.  I have two projects in mind.  One is the sampler,"This is the Day".  When I have more energy I will continue to work at getting all I need to do that lovely sampler.  Secondly, I have wanted to do Slicker Bunny.  In my opinion, an absolute perfect one for the Seattle area.  I went to my only linen source the other day and couldn't find the nice gray I was searching for. The chart says the linen color should say" a rainy day in April".  Carol at "Stitching Dreams " has given me two great suggestions so I will be ordering  linen this week.  Well, I can't be without a project so I looked through my Spring charts and found this delightful one "Bunny & Co". by With Thy Needle and Thread. It is a lot of fill stitching but I love the way it is turning out.The bunny and egg cart alone would make a cute spring ornament but I'm doing the whole chart.
I have thought of those of you in the NE this week-end and hope you are safe and staying warm. I wish all of you a great week ahead!

The linen is lighter than the photo but we seem stuck in a bank of fog so it is difficult to get a good picture!

Thanks for joining me today!

Mardi Gras Photos

This will be a heavy photo post.  Three years ago we were in Southern Alabama at Mardi
Gras time.  All the photos were taken in one of two small towns, Fairhope or Daphne.  They are located across Mobile Bay from Downtown Mobile.  As I said in the previous post, it was a fun time to be down there.  There were many special foods and wonderful decorations and parades.  I hope you enjoy!

 The first few pictures show a parade.  Look at all those beads! This parade was in Fairhope.

 They threw beads and moon pies off the floats.

Wonderful floats!

Many homes had these wreaths in the colors of Mardi Gras, gold , purple, and green.

 Or garlands!

Even mailboxes!

 And fences!

 This whole porch was decorated.

 A side yard!

These folks really know how to celebrate!!!

Have a wonderful week-end! If you are in the NE take care, it looks like a bad storm is coming!!

Valentines and Mardi Gras

Thanks to all of you who joined me on the beach walk.  I think it has been raining ever since so I'm so glad we got out that day.  My cross stitch slowed down just a bit.  Did you ever hear of a trigger thumb??!! I had been having trouble with my thumb sort of cracking.  Then it hurt quite a bit at the base of my thumb.  Well anyway, last Fri. I went to the Dr. He diagnosed it as trigger thumb.  First the bad news, he took an xray and my hand has tons of arthritis!! I had to get a cortisone shot in my thumb to cut down on the inflammation and hopefully that will take care of my thumb pain!! Now the good news,  I'm doing exactly what I need to be doing to keep my hands as healthy as possible  USE THEM!!! USE THEM A LOT! so I'm back to stitching 2 or 3 hours each evening!  Yea!!
Now on to Mardi Gras.  A few years ago we were down in Mobile at Mardi Gras time.  It was so festive and fun.  It seemed like every night a little town in the area had a parade.  In fact,  the Mobile folks say that Mardi Gras began in Mobile not New Orleans.  One thing I liked about the Alabama version was that it was very family friendly not just a big wild party.  So anyway , I bought some decorations.  It looked like Christmas down there.  Most homes were decorated so pretty.  I'll do a post tomorrow to show you some pictures we took.  I suppose my neighbors up here think we have lost our minds since it is not big at all.  We did have fun putting our things up. I hope you enjoy the photos.
My second finish for 2013 is Feb. Word Play.  I loved doing it and have ordered more for other months.  Have a super week!

 The Mardi Gras wreath

These were 1/2 price at Michaels!

Beads everywhere!

I am not sure how I want to finish these.  Right now I am thinking that I will get one frame and change them out each month.  My linen was lighter than it shows in the picture.