English Daffodils

Normally the urge to stitch takes me in the summer time, but the spirit has moved me. A daffodils bookmark for a friend's birthday.




















Oh, and in case I haven't mentioned it, I love the autumn weather.

Cross stitch in winter -

It is highly irregular, for me, but I have felt compelled to stitch recently. Normally this is a warm weather activity, but in the last few weeks as the nights and mornings have got so chilly, I have taken to cross stitch.

This is a kit that was given to me by friends a few years ago, and I had been coveting it for a few years before that. It was high time, then, that it was begun.














I slowed up a bit when my fingers cramped in the cold, but I think I have fixed that problem now.

I saw this weird alien/snail/frog spawn the other day.

Ends -

I am debating whether to make this two blocks wider. I am in some serious denial about the ends.














The beauty of cross stitch is that you weave the ends in as you go. I have been wanting to do this one for a long time. I haven't finished the birds, but if I have to do all that bloody backstitch I may never finish them. I think they look fine as they are.

School Camp -

I went on school camp yesterday and today and went to blacksmithing tonight. I am tired and sooty and the pizza shop was shut. I'd like to curl up with my book and pretend that tomorrow is not going to happen.

I finished this in my crazy finish phase:


















There is a glass blowing place near home and he makes the most beautiful pieces. I keep buying wedding presents there because I can't justify getting one for me. Still, he does the occasional little piece, like the whale on the left, and his son made the piece on the right. I like to think it is a sea creature.














Children are tiring, but endlessly amusing.

In the spirit of finishing -

This has been waiting for the white stitching and the borders since 2004. As with most of my cross stitching thus far, I don't know what to do with it now.


















A rooster is good feng shui, I think it wards off gossip. Apparently I need a phoenix at work. I might look into my Christmyth designs from Dragondreams.

I miss having chooks and I have been thinking about frog friendly gardens. There is a vacant block the next suburb over, every time I walk past it I dream of building a small house in the corner and having fruit trees along the back wall, a vegetable patch and the rest set up to provide a haven for native birds, reptiles and frogs. Are you allowed to shoot starlings in the city?