And the stitching goes on....

From a crafty perspective the beginning of 2012 seems to be all about embroidery for me...I haven't been near the sewing machine the last couple of weeks. Maybe the ongoing bedroom/craft room make over is to blame? It's all a bit messy and dusty right now but once it's finished I will have a separate room with enough space for  at least two tables (for my sewing machine and for drawing/cutting) and my fabric cabinet!

So for now it's mainly embroidery that I keep myself occupied with. Mr. T (Rex) above is part of a piece I'm making for an embroidery swap. I think it is turning out really and will show you the whole thing when my swap partner has received it. Even if it's slightly stressful it is great to make a piece outside your 'comfort zone' so I'd like to encourage everyone to take part in one of these embroidery swaps!

Oh and in case you missed it, I left the Feeling Stitchy blog (see my goodbye post here) and I was touched by all the kind comments here, there and everywhere. :) Incidentally my &Stitches partner in crime Carina also said au revoir.  However we are planning some fun things for the &Stitches blog so please consider following us there. :)

Good times for a change

For the past couple of days I've been working (quite fanatically I must add) on this cross stitch piece. There was a reason why I started it and a reason why I chose this particular quote (from a song by the Smiths, only this particular line was appropriate the rest of the song -however lovely- not so much...). I will fill you in on the details in a couple of days time...  read more here.

The lettering was stitched with a lovely teal coloured floss that came from my untidy box with bargain Anchor flosses I bought on Ebay. For the birds and the line above the text I used DMC flosses, one is regular 6 stranded floss and the other is either a DMC colour variation or DMC variegated floss (I always forget which is which). I wanted to add something to the lettering that was traditional and chose the Danish Birds from a vintage cross stitch book. I didn't stick to the original red/blue colour scheme (the teal lettering was already stitched) and added a orange (with a lot of red) which I think works really well. Clearly it's not finished yet and because of some miscalculations regarding the size of Aida I needed I have lots of extra space to add stuff!

Wolfboy and a grumpy Bear

Things got a little bit hectic after the launch of the &Stitches ezine last week. The attention for and response to our adventure has been great so far and we are very grateful for the support of course. Time to take a step back now and get on with the next issue! Today I'm jotting down some ideas for future issues, in this cute Wolfboy notebook.  I bought it here.

Photo and artwork by Cate Anevski

Last Friday I wrote about an awesome piece by Cate Anevski on Feeling Stitchy. I just couldn't resist and had to add the original version of this grumpy fellow to my small Embroidery collection! You can stitch your own bear (and 6 other 'Animal Expressions') because there is a pattern set available (I actually purchased that as well). I named the Feeling Stitchy post 'Because Bears have Thoughts too' and I might just stitch those words to hang besides mr. Grumpy Bear...

&Stitches e-zine launch party!

I'm so excited about the long awaited e-zine Carina and I have launched today! I could tell you all about it but then I would be repeating myself.  So please go check out our launch party post here, for the oh so secret discount code (15% off Issue 1!) and a giveaway (2 day only so hurry) as well! Can't wait to hear what you all think of the e-zine. :)

The Cat's Paw

Is there anything better than a white furry cat paw with pink toes? Tijger has been with us for about five months now and she is probably the weirdest cat we ever had. She likes to hang out in our damp shower cabin right after we have used it, sometimes for an hour or so. She is scared of vacuum cleaners but luckily for her we don't do a lot of vacuuming around here.;)

And luckily for us she is less of a hunter/attacker than before (but still does that from time to time).  She does like to follow me around the house though, which is fine by me as long as she keeps those adorable white paws to herself!

Cozy

We visited our 'Zoo-that-is-just-around-the-corner' yesterday and stumbled upon this tree-cozy. You could even do a bit of knitting yourself (with help of volunteers) surrounded by the Zoo's snakes and lizards (safely behind glass). I didn't though. I don't know how to knit and I might start to like it if I tried it. And I definitely don't need another hobby. Embroidery and a bit of sewing is quite enough at the moment. This year I'm going to try and do a bit more drawing as well.

This month I already have some nice crafty stuff planned: one is to finish this embroidery and the other is stitching a piece for my swap partner in the Phat Quarter Embroidery Swap! In my last Feeling Stitchy post I also pledged to 'stitch something neat on a doily' but I first need to find some vintage doilies to stitch on. Oh and there is of course the launch of the &Stitches e-zine too! What are your crafty plans for 2012?