My first Etsy sale, new plants, Tast

Hello Folks,

Here it is Tuesday afternoon for us.  We woke up to a gentle rain this morning and it must have rained for quite awhile from the evidence of puddles. We needed it and I hope we get some more.

I’ll be working at my job the rest of the week so am trying to get caught up with blogging for the week.

Yesterday my first Etsy sale happened and I was thrilled to say the least. It was the ecru colored needle case.  Thank you Jane.

Today I worked a bit on my spreadsheet for inventory. Yikes, that is a learning curve for me.  I’m glad DH is into that sort of thing and can help me out.  He makes up formulas too and that’s great.

We went to H.D. this morning because DH had to return something and he wanted to check on some electrical stuff.  I went into the garden dept. and ended up buying two pentas, one a reddish and the other a lavender, and a flax lily.  I repotted them, and was able to split off a flax lily tuber and potted it up.  Later I’ll divide up the plant some more.

Here are the tiny flowers of the flax lily.  Really sweet.

Yesterday I planted some native Blue Flag iris seeds into a flower box and look forward to seeing them sprout.  Susan thank you for the seeds.

I was late on last week’s tast stitch and today the new one came out, the Cretan stitch.  Last week’s was the Feather stitch. and I did it yesterday.  I used a variegated green thread and the little plants I was making reminded me of the asparagus ferns we have growing in the main garden, so I added the red berries that they get.

Here’s how I am storing them.  In a photo album I got for free when DH found boxes of craft items last year. There are three sleeves to each side of a page, and I’ve plenty to use for the 52 weeks of TAST.

I’m moving along on the embroidered heart.  Still have a bit more to do.

DH has cleaned up the tiny fridge from the caravan, painted the outer sides of it even though it won’t be seen, to retard the rust that had started.  He used some oak looking formica that we had in our stash to make a new cover for the front.

He’ll be cleaning away rust from the little two burner stove that was original too and painting it with a grill/stove paint which only comes in black. He used steel wool to get some of the rust off to see how bad it was, that’s when we decided to paint it.  DH had a quart of the paint in his workshop so we won’t have to buy any.

We are going to use some granite looking formica that we had in our stash for the counter top .

I think that about does it for now.

Hope you all have a great week.

Chat with you later ~ FlowerLady

******

We can easily manage if we will only take,

each day,

the burden appointed to it. 

But the load will be too heavy for us

if we carry yesterday's burden over again today,

and then add the burden of the morrow

before we are required to bear it. 

John Newton

 

Better Together

"Chains do not hold a marriage together.
It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads
which sew people together through the years. "
Simone Signoret

The piece above is a work in progress. Many threads, many beads, and time. Like a marriage.

I am thankful for all the many threads, that bind our 42 years together.  Through thick and thin, sunshine, and rain, joy and sorrow, our love is a tapestry, woven by God the Great Creator, the Author of Love.

Here is a happy little love song called

Better Together.

 

***

For our celebration dinner this is what I am planning.  I am working, so the crockpot will cook the main course, which will be stuffed steak rolls. I will fix mashed potatoes and beets when I get home, and we’ll have wine too.  For dessert we’ll have cherry crisp with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.  To start the celebration we will have Margaritas.

***

May we all grow in love and graciousness with each new day that we are blessed with.

Latest Needlework ~ Heart & Flowers

Well, I finally finished this latest piece a little while ago. I started it on the 22 June, 4 different days. It took approximately 8 hours. I try to keep track of my time while sitting here and write it in a little book.

I really enjoyed working on this, and for some reason it made me feel like crying. DH said it was pretty, maybe that’s it. The prettiness of it. I love hearts and I love flowers.

The flowers are all in the purple family.

They are Winter Iris, Petunias, Violets, Japanese Anemone, Penstemon and Periwinkles.

This will be for sale, I just don’t know yet if I will sell it as is, or try to find a frame for it. People may not like what I would frame it in. It can be matted and framed, sewn to a pillow or piece of clothing, depending on the person.

It is approximately 4 1/4” x 4 1/4” square.

The fabric the embroidery is on is more of a soft pale camel color not the gray that is shown here. I need to take a picture in better lighting.

Now I can think about what to do next. More of this crazy heart theme with flowers no doubt.

Have a wonderful holiday tomorrow. We did have some sunshine today. More rain is expected. We have had LOTS but I am NOT complaining.

Embroidered and beaded crazy heart

Good morning everyone. I hope you all had a really nice weekend. Here it is Monday, and we will be doing errands a little later. Next Monday is Valentine's Day and I'm looking forward to fixing our Valentine's day dinner. I learned as a newly wed that I could follow recipe directions for wonderful meals saving us LOTS of money, and the aggravation of going out to eat. We enjoy being home together.

The only recipe I've got planned so far is a tweaked one, Raspberry Tiramisu. So, I'm buying ingredients today. Maybe I'll fix stuffed steak rolls in the crockpot as the main dish. We haven't had those in quite sometime. Then I'll only have to fix the sides at dinner time. :-)

Now, on to my latest embroidery project. I haven't decided yet as to how to get it ready for sale. It took me a little over 8 hours all together, I worked the longest time on it yesterday and my back was killing me, but I couldn't quit. I finally finished it this morning.

I wanted to do a 'crazy heart', and here it is. I used DMC Perle cotton, DMC embroidery floss, metallic thread, beads and a button. The heart size is 4 1/4 inches wide by 4 inches high.

Click on pictures for a larger view.












Here's the piece sitting on my work surface, which I've got to clean up before I start my next project. I'm looking forward to embroidering flowers and framing them up. I received my two wonderfully delightful embroidery books by Diane Lampe in the mail over the past week and am excited.



Enjoy your week whatever you do. I'll be working at my job Wed-Sat this week. Last week was a 4 day work week also and I am thankful!

***

A creative mess
is better than tidy idleness.
Author Unknown

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL