The Grubs Ate Our Back Yard and Other Pictures

Last summer most of our lawn was eaten by grubs.  If you haven't experienced these little devils, they are fat worm-like creatures that burrow under the ground and eat the roots of whatever grass you may have.  Then the grass dies and you are left with bare dirt.  At first, we were a little upset, but then the area began to fill in with a variety of plants.  Of course, nature abhors a vacuum!

Some came from nearby flower beds, some probably just appeared when seeds blew in from elsewhere.  Mostly weeds, like the yellow flowers here.  I know they're weeds but I don't care, I think they are rather nice looking!

One of the things that we now have are these adorable miniature violas or Johnny-Jump-Ups.  The larger viola that is in the middle is a normal sized one so you can see how tiny the other ones are.   One of the advantages of our new wildflower garden is it doesn't have to be mowed, my husband likes that!

Close up of the yellow weed flowers.

This picture was taken in the woods by our neighbor's house.  She was out walking and found this darling little fawn.  Its mother was probably away finding something to eat and when Mom tells her fawn to stay put they will not budge.  We took pictures while being careful not to disturb the little one and then we crept quietly away.  At one point I saw the fawn's eye flutter open to look at me, but he/she did not move other than that!

Just a picture of some ground fog that appeared one evening, I like the way it looks kind of ethereal.

I call this Forget-Me-Not Lane.  It's part of one of the walking areas in our town, this probably goes for about a quarter of a mile with loads of the little blue flowers on each side of the path.  I love waking through there!

My latest tattoo! I have always loved the look of bird's nests with eggs and when I saw this picture on The Graphics Fairy, a wonderful website full of vintage images, I knew it would make a great tattoo.  If you haven't been there, be sure and check it out at The Graphics Fairy
This tattoo was done by Erik at Lakeview Tattoo, the same artist who did all of my other ones, I think he did a beautiful job on it!
Thanks for visiting again, I appreciate it!

Another Cottage and Sarah Loves Tigger

I sure love embroidering cottages!  This one was just as fun as the other ones I have done.  I used a wide assortment of threads as usual, including DMC, Cosmo Seasons and Valdani.  Every thread used is a variegated or over-dyed except the bright yellow one in the center of some of the flowers and the French knots over toward the right side, that is a DMC Craft Thread.  

I decided to cover the house with vines, I hadn't thought of that idea before, it reminds me of pictures of vine covered English cottages that I've seen.  

A couple of close ups of the flowers.  What cottage scene doesn't have a lot of flowers?  You can't have too many, I think!

Now, a couple of kitty pictures:

This is Sarah and Tigger.  In case you don't remember, Sarah is one of our newest kitties.  We adopted her and her baby, Pepper, last spring.  Well, Sarah has decided that she's in love with Tigger.  She wants to snuggle with him as much as possible and loves it when he gives her a bath.  She thinks he's just the best thing ever and I think maybe he loves her a little bit, too.

It's so sweet to see these two together, I think they are going to be Best Friends Forever!

Thanks so much for visiting, I really appreciate it!

Patchwork Bag Set

It's been a while, but I finally have something done to show you!  I picked out some of my favorite fabrics from my stash and made a nicely sized bag that I can use as either a purse or a stitching bag.  In the middle is a tiny basket of flowers embroidery.  The pattern for it is yet another one from the Flickr group Hoop Love Vintage Transfers.  I don't know how I lived before I found that place and its huge supply of vintage patterns!

This embroidery only took maybe 2 or 3 hours to complete.  I used some of my favorite Cosmos Seasons variegated threads and the brown thread for the basket is a DMC variegated.

There's a large patchwork pocket on the back as well as two small side pockets.  And since I already had some extra patchwork squares cut, I decided to make a little pincushion and needlebook to go with it.

I got the little pom-pom trim on sale at Jo-an Fabrics and thought it would look nice around the edges.

Here's the inside of the needlebook.  I just love these fabrics and the nice thing about patchwork is having so many favorite fabrics all together on one thing!  The vintage doily underneath it is one that I was lucky enough to find at a yard sale one summer.  

Thank you for stopping in, it was nice visiting with you!

Some Recent Embroideries

When I happened to run across the pattern for this vintage design, I knew I had to have it.  I was thrilled to find that it was available to buy from a seller on Etsy.  I used a variety of variegated flosses, mostly DMC.

It looks like a cheerful place to live, doesn't it?

I didn't stitch it exactly like the original, but I think it still has a definite vintage look to it.

Now, here are a few of one of my other favorite subjects for embroidery;  baskets with flowers.

 This embroidery was done with a selection of Needle Necessities threads that I have in my collection.  This is a brand of floss that is no longer available, although the company was bought by Threadworx and I believe they reproduce pretty much the same colors themselves.

More baskets:

If you haven't guessed it yet, I love pink and blue!

Except for the black on the butterfly, I embroidered this whole design with Caron Watercolors.  I just started using these threads recently and I love them!  They are nice and thick and come in a myriad of colors.

Last basket, this one was done with Rainbow Gallery's Rainbow Tweed.  It's a soft and slightly fuzzy thread that works well for embroidery.  I really love working with various types of threads, I think it makes embroidering just that much more exciting when I can experiment instead of always using the same old thing!  How about you, do you like to try different threads that are new to you?  If so, I would love to hear about your thread experiences!

Thank you for stopping in for another visit, I appreciate it!