New growth...

We bought this tree a couple of months ago in readiness for our new garden... It's still waiting patiently in it's pot as we decide where we will put it and get it's new home ready.

I'm very pleased to see it covered in lovely broght green shoots though... It's a deciduous tree and was bare when we purchased it. I was a bit nervous buying it like this as I had no idea if it really was alive or just a stick at that point... I was pretty excited when I spotted the first signs of green!

Blinds...

I've been plodding along getting the blinds made... 2 down, 4 to go!

ARGHHH!!!!

I was productively sewing the curtains on the weekend and was nearly done altering the pair of ready made curtains for the spare room (making 3 into 1 and shortening) when I lined up a seam, put my foot on the pedal and ..... nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the machine that was away for over a month getting the noisy bobbin repaired (and yes that is working) and now there seems to be no action from the pedal. It clicks and then nothing.... Here I was trying to get the boring stuff out of the way so that I could get on with the fun and creative stuff that's swimming about in my head (must start sketching said ideas before I lose them) and once again this ***** machine is working against me.

I'm now very glad that I haven't yet given back the machine I've borrowed from my friend - I will just have to rewind those bobbins again....

Some colour!!

CIMG6515
Originally uploaded by artstitches

These little beauties have come into flower in the last few days and have been brightening my view from the office. This morning I noticed a yellow one poking through as well.

Studio is evolving...

Ok so the studio is mess... but in an effort to force myself to get it sorted I'm going to puclicy humiliate myself by posting pictures *grin*....

I promise you - it's not pretty... and I'll understand if you need to look away :)



I have managed to find homes for some things...

Here is the wardrobe nicely packed up (arghh!!! no shelves - should have thought of that in the planning stages of the new house...)


I really need to get the bookshelf finished so that I can unpack the rest of the boxes and find the floor and the work table. I need to do this so that I can set the sewing machine up and get cracking on the blinds and THEN I can maybe start something more fun and creative!!

OK so enough domestic stuff... onto something semi-creative. I'm intrigued by pattern and texture and have found that when you're building we are surrounded by interesting patterns and textures.

I'm here!!!

As someone kindly prompted recently (thanks JanS)

"5 years! You need to keep it going"

I have been blogging... but over there (look to the left) on my house blog. As you might know, we've been building a house and a month ago we got the keys and moved in... As a result my attention has been drawn away from my art and towards the build,, the decorating (if you could call it that) and the packing and unpacking (such a futile activity - you pack, and then a week (or so...) later you unpack it all?...).

I have been sewing... I did a bag workshop over 5 weeks with Nikki which I really enjoyed. I made (well worked on - not necessarily finished...) several bags which I will attempt to photograph when I work out where I have buried them....

Since I posted last my sewing machine died and was sent back to the manufacturer for repairs (happened after the first of my 5 classes with Nikki) and I picked it up the day before we moved into the new house. In the meantime I borrowed a machine from a friend so that I could continue sewing the blinds for the new house.

I finally managed to get the first of the blinds hung on the weekend and I'm pretty pleased with the results!












I also made this (no textiles at all in it!!) last night and after it's stained and varnished it will be moved into the sewing room (I'm still not quite comfortable referring to it as a studio...) where I'll fill it with books. I'm thinking that if I build another (ambitious I know) and put it beside it, I might even have space to display some of my work as well!


(I can't wait to see it full of books!!)

And lastly... for those that are interested... The "Supervisor" (aka Tyler) is settling in well to the new house - it took some time and some food strike protests (she would eat eventually, just not when first offered - which is VERY unusual for the Supervisor!!). Here's a picture of her in her new environment.... (that's a piece of rawhide in her mouth)

It's my Blogaversary!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to Teena in Toronto for the nudge! On this day five years ago I started this bog.... 5 years! I can't believe it's been that long! The sad thing is that I have nothing to show that I've been working on. I'll try to rectify that in the next few days.