Bird House is DONE!

Yay! I finally finished my little birdhouse I have been working on for a while now. I went away for the weekend and found the lighting to be pretty poor for working on linen so I had to put my Christmas Angel aside and picked up the birdies that were done on Aida instead.

Home Tweet Home by Donna Vermillion Giampa (Finished 2012)

My mother had done the matching one in 2001 (Note the time differences lol)....

Next-Door Neighbors by Donna Vermillion Giampa (Finished 2001)

There was a third one but we decided not to stitch it. It didn't really go well with these two and had different colors in it. These ones seemed to have about the same colors and go well perfectly together. I love all the soft purples in them, almost look like watercolors from afar.

I think the plan is to find a local framer in town here and give them these two to see how well they frame. Then once we get an idea of who we can trust with my beloved Emerald Mermaid we will get her done as well. Speaking of Emerald Mermaid, we took her to my nan's to show her and she LOVED it. She almost fell off of her chair when she opened it. Completely in shock my mother and I finally finished one! Now she is off of my case about finishing off pieces I start but now wants us to do another two projects for her! I think I will never run out of stitching projects.

Stitchy Bug has Returned!

YAY! My stitchy bug has returned after going AWOL this past few weeks. I had to put down my HAEDs and pick up my Joan Elliott's Christmas Angel for me to start stitching again. Also helped that the Canucks have been sucking the past week and I have become bored while watching, Sunday night's game wasn't too bad but the two previous games were horrible...Anywho...The past two days I have worked some on my angel and I think I am growing more and more in love with her every day!

I was able to finish the bottom part of her dress and add the red band along a portion of the bottom, I then decided I wanted to work on a big chunk so I went to her wing. The wings are very sparkley in person. All the back stitching is done in #4 very fine braid and when my lamp shines onto the wing it just makes me want to add even more of the sparkles! Close up of wing:

I am going to Vancouver this Friday for a few days to visit family. I plan on taking her and working on her a bit while stitching with my mom and auntie. It seems kind of fitting since I started this project while visiting my nan two Christmases ago. Its kind of funny though how she is on my case about finishing a cross stitching project but little does she know her Emerald Mermaid she wanted me to do for her is all complete! I am so excited to give it to her on Friday night :D Its not framed yet so we are going to look for places down in Vancouver to do that or just bring it back here to get done.

I really have to resist my temptation for starting Joan Elliott's Cinderella though! My nan was able to find the magazine and has it waiting for me at her place. She also has a stash of linens and some DMC that's available for picking over....There is also Micheal's in a 10 minute drive radius of the house! Must control myself!! I will for sure pick up my colors but I have to lock them away!

Useful and Fun DIY Projects

I like using Stumbleupon sometimes to find fun and different ideas. Most of the times I "stumble" I find some very interesting ideas and think "Huh...that could be very handy or very simple to do with stuff I have laying around the house." We have a huge cupboard full of handy useful crafty things that most people would think is garbage, but in our household if it is usable we keep it! So here are my top Five "stumbles" of the day (Clicking on the photos will take you right to the places I got them from with full how-tos):

1. Holder for Charging iPhone

This is a pretty ingenious idea. She took a plastic lotion bottle, cut the shape out and then Mod Podge some fun fabric over it. When done it hangs off of the charger and you can tuck the phone into the little pocket, Now the iPhone is off of the counter that someone could spill something on, or it is off of the floor where it could be stepped on. Save your iPhone and the environment at the same time!

2. Up-cycled Sweater Boots

In need of some cute boots but don't want to pay a fortune? Have some old flats you have broken in but they aren't suitable for public anymore? These are made with a cheap pair of flats, an old sweater some buttons and lots of hot glue!

3. DIY Grocery Bag Holder

Pretty straight forward actually...take an empty cleaning wipes container, wash it out and decorate it then you roll your grocery bags up in a special way and tuck them inside the container. Keeps all of your plastic bags in an orderly fashion instead up throwing them under the sink or in a cupboard. Can easily keep it in the car for those times you need a bag!

4. Wax Crayon Art

Apparently these are all over Pinterest...I can see why though! It is easy art and all you need is a canvas, box of crayons or your favorite colors, hot glue gun and a blow dryer. You can do any color combination you want and its not just for children, it can be for any grown up who remembers the smell of a brand new box of crayons when they were little. This has a lot of texture and could be a fun project on a Sunday afternoon. If you didn't want those crayons there after the piece is done I would suggest attaching them to something study that you can screw into the back of the frame then remove after you are happy with the drips.

5. Thread Lamp Shade

I have been wanting to make one of these for a while now, and probably will once I am living on my own in a bigger place than a dorm room. The just of the idea is you use a giant balloon, wall paper glue and yarn. You end up coating the yarn in wall paper glue and then wrapping it around the balloon and letting it dry. Once it dries you pop the balloon and there you will have a lovely lampshade! I have seen this done with lace as well, where they layered lace on the balloon instead of wrapping yarn around.

New Design!

If you like bling and sparkle you are going to love my latest design that is for sale on my Etsy shop! I like to call it "A Girl's Best Friend". It is heavy with Krienik and Mill Hill beads but it will be worth it once it is all stitched up. If you don't want to do all the work with the sparkles I will be more than happy to adjust the pattern accordingly so it is just stitched in DMC. This would look super cute on a little jewellery or keepsake box!

The border is Krienik with little beads as tiny jewels that accent the frame. The tiny jewels also scatter around the Ruby pendant, Emerald ring and Blue Topaz earrings. Again if you want different colored stones to match a birthstone or someone's favorite gemstone I will be more than happy to make some adjustments. I just went with some of my favorite gemstones!

The finished design measures 43 stitches wide and 41 stitches high. It is available in a PDF format and can be e-mailed almost right away! Feel free to check out the listing here.

If the listing isn't there anymore and you're interested in purchasing it you can either message me on Etsy or leave a comment down below and I will list a new one right away and inform you.

I am Bad

It was so wrong but it just felt so right! I started a new Heaven and Earth Design...hehe. Its a Quick Stitch (QS) by Josephine Wall. It is called Spirit of Winter Faery. A QS is a cropped portion of a painting or a picture that is then turned into a reasonable size for stitching, which is really convenient if you feel over whelmed by the size of some of the other Heaven and Earth Designs. I don't have a work in progress picture yet since it isn't too much to show but here is the picture of the design:

Josephine Wall's Artwork

I really admire Josephine Walls' paintings. There is just so much detail to them and are just so intricate. The colors she uses as well are just so stunning.

I vowed to myself once I picked this up I wasn't going to start any other patterns until one of my current HAED are complete. Even if that means waiting to start Joan Elliott's Cinderella! :(

Here is an up to date on my HAED Cinderella:

HAED Cinderella Painted by Ruth Sanderson

As you can see they are both complete opposites when it comes to color. The Winter Spirit is all blues and purples where Cinderella mainly consists of browns with splashed of colors into them. I will admit though I do enjoy stitching these because it allows me to examine the artwork more. Since I am an artist myself I am using these as studies to hopefully help me understand more about painting and where I should or should not use color.

Pink Cupcake Cross Stitch Motif

It is about time I put up another free cross stitch pattern. This time its a tiny little pink cupcake motif with a delicious cherry on top and adorned with red sprinkles. The icing is a baby pink and looks so good you could just eat it! Perfect for a birthday card or for a lid to a special container.

 This pattern is for personal use only and cannot be made into kits or sold. To save click on the picture and then right click and hit save. Happy Stitching everyone!

Cinderella HAED Progress

After finishing off the Mirabilia mermaid, I picked up my Heaven and Earth Design Cinderella by Ruth Sanderson once again. This is a retired pattern so you won't be able to find it on the website anymore unfortunately. This is the picture of what my finished design will look like:

Cinderella by Ruth Sanderson

I ended up cropping off a majority of the wall and squaring it off so it is solely focused on the dress. I also decided that in the swirly magical dust that surrounds her I am going to add the rainbow sparkle blending filament to it to add an extra subtle sparkle for when you look at it.

I am almost done page two! I think about another day or two focused on her I will be all done the second page and then I will put her down for a few days while I focus on something else but then I will jump right back into stitching her! I think the next page I will do will be her dress! Here is the progress:

Bottom Right-Hand Corner

I wasn't too impressed with the dark colors of the grass until I finished the whole area and can now see how well they blend in together. I am super excited about finishing this one and I already have plans for starting a Josephine Wall HAED! I will admit it I am addicted...