cross stitch, broken glass and one for Rachel

I already had a frame for my finished cross-stitch but no glass. I went to Peacocks in Mowbray last week and had a piece cut to fit. It cost me R80. Today I fiddled around with getting the fabric aligned properly and thought what a brilliant idea it would be to use a staple gun to keep the folded-over corners flat at the back. So, yes, it worked – but it also caused the glass to break. Anyone else would have thought of that before they just jumped in, right? Tomorrow – back to Peacocks to cough up another R80. What a waste of money – I could have bought two bottles of cheap dry white for that!

 

I’ve made a bit of progress with the new cross-stitch, and am really really enjoying using my own selection of colours. I get to use up stash thread and just generally have more fun with the whole thing :

And while we’re on colour, I had to stock up on cushion stuffing this morning. This bolt of fabric from riiiiiiiight on the far side of the shop starting singing my name, and I didn’t even bother to pretend not to listen. I should get three or four cushions out of it, just in time for next week’s Made in the Cape market (the first one of 2019). It’ll be interesting to see if they sell, or if it’s just me thinking Ohmigod I love this and must have it in my house!!!

And here’s a gratuitous photo for Rachel in her Little Room – a close-up of the bottom row of the bookshelf that appeared in my last post. Nice mix, hey? – needlepoint, Ruth Rendell, some South African stuff, the incredibly funny Carl Hiaasen, even a bit of Salman Rushdie!

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on the shelf

Someone once told me that, if you don’t do the things you plan to do within the first six months of moving into a new house, you never will.  For the most part he’s been right but this time round, happily, I’m proving him wrong.

I was left with a piece of pine flooring from a temporary work-around (so that no-one would fall through the floor when they came in at the front door!); I painted it grey, gave it a sand, had a friend drill four holes in it and then hang it up with rope and the help of reef knots. It’s probably high time I got my own drill and learned to use it properly, but in the meanwhile, well, I’ll just have to take advantage of clever friends….

Blank wall above. Now this:

I’m particularly pleased with the addition of a bracket for a hanging plant (I’ve been following the Instagram ‘boho’ accounts very carefully – plants are key!)

New cross stitch project underway, ‘Guatamalan dogs’ by Mary Norden. Originally stitched with wool on canvas as a cushion cover, but goodness knows I don’t need any  more needlepoint in my life. Cross-stitch is making me very happy right now.

Happy weekend, everyone :)

painting blues

There aren’t many colours I really detest, and so when I inadvertently buy paint that is one of those undesirables….there really is a lot of swearing around here. The sticker said Ultramarine Blue and it looked like a lovely smart navy, but this was the result. To me, this is royal blue and I’ve always steered clear of it.

Like the professional I am, I realised it would be a good idea to finish the first vile coat completely but, while it was still drying, I’d already mixed in lots of white and a bit of grey to come up with a much more acceptable shade of sky blue:

Phew.  And in case you’re wondering why the bench is blocking the front door, it’s because part of my oregon pine floors and the joists in the entrance have gone vrot (vrot = rotten to the point of disintegration = flooring specialist to examine and give quote to repair = major bloody expense!) so, for safety’s sake, the French doors are being used instead.

I’ve also been painting inside the house, to very pleasing results. Pics to follow :)

 

Seven years of NPOW

WordPress has just wished me a happy birthday – I’ve been doing this for seven years. With my history, that qualifies as a pretty long relationship! No itch is registering, I’m just going through a sort of interval period. Since the Christmas markets ended, I’ve been catching up on things around the house and garden that have needed attention, and given myself lots of time off for embroidery, reading, snoozing, resting, shopping, personal sewing, etc.

Patio stuff: recovered the cushions on Philip’s old wicker chairs, sorted out my cuttings, hung up hanging baskets, general tidy-up:

Treated myself to some new indoor plants:

Hung a sweet little hanging shelf thing over the mantelpiece for the Angel Wings to rest on, and stitched a tiny William Morris design for the rustic frame I got on sale for R100 in Kleinmond:

I’m still working on the large cross-stitch design that I started about 13 years ago. I wish I could remember the name of the designer, I’ll have to go back to the library and see if the book is still there.

It’s nearly finished and, once it is, it’ll be time to get down to some proper work. I have a Big Plan for the coming year, watch this space.

Happy 2019 to all of you! I hope it will be filled with as much creativity, satisfaction, energy and contentment as you can handle :)

ScrapHappy November

My little denim market bag has become old and shabby.  I need to have room for cash, cell phone and parking ticket – three things you never want to lose touch with when you’re busy and distracted at a market. I also like to wear it as a crossbody because it’s too easy for it to slip off if it’s just over one shoulder. Goodbye, tired old friend.

Hello, sweet and pretty new patchwork buddy!

Except for the blue lace, these bits were all leftovers from cushions and bedspreads. The back is old denim from a pair of jeans that are happily now far too big for me to wear, with an extra pocket for luck.

Have a look at other ScrapHappy stories, all inspired by Kate at Tall Tales from Chiconia

quick change

Starting with:
one crummy yet very comfortable cane and wicker chair

Doing:
two coats of grey matte acrylic paint and new patchworky-ish seat cover

Ending with:

Done. Many more things lined up for revamping but it seems I only have enough energy to deal with one a week. Not going to get very far before Christmas….!

still with the chair thing

After the success with this one, I moved on to the four dining chairs with drop-in seats (the two chairs that go at each end of the table are made in a different style but the seats didn’t need recovering anyway). They have/had pretty needlepoint seat covers but they’re getting shabby, plus I was still looking for things to STAPLE with the GUN.

Before:

After:

 

An aside: I decided not to remove the original needlepoint covers before recovering with the patchwork, although this is obviously what a professional would have done. There may be a time when these chairs will go and live somewhere else, in which case my fabric can easily be removed. There’s no way that undeserving people will get to enjoy my pretty patchwork stripes and labour (long story,  beyond the scope of this blog post)…

I know I shouldn’t boast but I really really love how these turned out :)