The Art of Saturday Morning

Formal tea ceremonies fascinate me. Every little movement in the preparation and presentation of the tea is meaningful, graceful, and highly respectful from the subtle way a finger lifts a tool to the repetitive entire ritual of it. Just the fact that it is also called "the art of tea" and has been around since ancient times speaks volumes. The whole display is meant to take a moment in time, pause, and adore something simple and beautiful amidst the sordid everydayness of life. I feel that way about my Saturday mornings sometimes.

My morning yoga moves...the making of my coffee...pouring...stirring...sipping...stitching...breathing the fresh air and feeling the sunshine as I take the next sip.

Minnie...sleeping cozily next to me...reminds me that I'm not in a hurry today. I don't have to put on makeup, figure out what to wear, or make a lunch to go. It's Saturday morning. And I'm peaceful, relaxed, and stitching in my happy place. It's a bit meditative. I could call it a little ceremonial, because it happens often and makes my day better. But we'll just make it simple, and call it the art of Saturday morning.

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch

Organizing a Cross-Stitch Project

 Remember when big cross-stitch projects were all the rage? I know, it was decades ago. And at that time, I think floss was 20 cents a skein or even less. And I actually bought a set of over 350 skeins in some cross-stitch magazine (before the internet) for $18! It formed the base of my DMC collection, and I still work from it a lot.

But...*sigh*...the world of cross-stitch has changed for me and many others.

I don't really work on huge projects anymore, simply because one giant project could take a year or even more. And I have so many crafts I love to do. Cross-stitch is a form of yoga for me though, so I could never give it up. I just tend to do more quick, small projects. And afterall, how many giant cross-stitch framed pieces do you need? I make things now like pillows, cards, bookmarks, and banners with other media stitched and mixed in. That's what I like.

But this year, I found a dollhouse project I love. El Blog De DMC features one room a month, and she started in January. I think I could handle stitching one room a month, so with a great coupon because I can't stand to pay full price on floss now, I bought the 37 colors for the project. I already have the aida cloth I need, and I'm  ready to go.

I don't think I have the patience to sit and wind 37 skeins, and I don't feel like using the bag system, but the Stitchbow sysem is very easy. You just pop the whole skein right on there. I have a large Stitchbow bag--which is quite full right now--and then I have a smaller one which had plenty of space for the floss for this project.

 And since I was using a coupon on the whole purchase, I couldn't resist treating myself to my favorite gold needles! They slip in and out as you stitch so nicely. I wonder if Egyptian sewists had gold needles way back then?

The colors in this project are gorgeous. Each Stitchbow page in my mini bag fits five skeins on each side. I didn't have to buy any extra of those, yay! 

But I am jealous because now they have some really cute colors...I just have the original navy bags--but that's okay. Navy's good. I'm trying to use what I have this year...so it's bad enough I bought the floss without looking in my stash, right?
I have a good excuse. It was Mother's Day. This bag is small, so if I'm on the go with this project it will fit in a tote bag along with my aida cloth canvas and the room pattern I'm stitching. 

It's good to have projects!

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch

WOYWW 310 - New Crafty Corner

Well I did it...changed the places where I land to do my craftiness. I'll have to post all about it soon. But in the meantime, I've moved back into my big ole desk with the cubbies, and I like all the new space I have now, compared to before.

My cubbies were a mess too and I cleaned those out.

On this early morning, before heading to the office, I'm having my mug o coffee and sorting out 37 skeins of DMC floss. I'm in love with the dollhouse pattern on El Blog de DMC. She is sharing the 12 rooms, one month at a time. We are now done with the top floor (and no I haven't crossed one stitch yet), and of course you can retrieve them all anytime. But the point is, I was lazy. Hubby and daughter treated me like a queen on Mother's Day, and that included a trip to Michaels--which I had been trying to avoid excessive craft shopping. Maybe I've watched an episode of Hoarders? Anyhoo...it just seemed so much easier to use a fabulous 25% of the entire purchase coupon and get all the skeins I needed for the project instead of trying to dig them out from everywhere. Also got new stitchbows in that discount, and I'm getting the skeins popped on them and the project will be ready to go! They will be organized in a little Stitchbow bag I have.

At the back in the catchall tin bowl is a bag of 25 stamps I won from Unity! Can you believe it? I participated in one of their Facebook contests and quickly received a bag of 25 random stamps in the mail one day. I am so excited to sit down and explore and get them all categorized and put away nice and neat as I choose the first ones I want to use. I may put some of the sentiments on blocks--I have a whole box of old jenga style blocks I use for that. They usually stick on pretty well.

A little closeup of the bag of 25 Unity stamps I won.

I'm really enjoying my more organized, prettied up space. Here's a little peek at my drawer.

 Am I all organized or what! I just used everything I had, and this had previously been a messy drawer, and then this tray was full of disorganized bits and bobs on a shelf. Now it's serving this drawer to my craft desk very well, and I can find things. Yay! I consolidated most of my sewing stuff though at my new sewing table, and I will post about it all when I can get the photos done.
In the meantime, Joseph is behind me on the floor poof--which he thinks is a cat bed--and he says hello!

Visit the other work desks at What's-On-Your-Workdesk-Wednesday

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch

Upcycling a Photo Tree--A Place to Hang Your Stitching

Here we are...almost mid May...and guess what. I'm still working on my busting my stash! Today's treat is this Hallmark photo tree. Original purpose: to hang these teeny...very teeny tiny photo frame ornaments with your teeny tiny photos inside. Obviously, for some, this turned out to be a logistical nightmare, and I'm sure these photo trees are laying around in storage closets all over the country. I was in fact, reorganizing, cleaning out and throwing out when I found this ole thing. But, I can't pass up on things with hooks, considering all the little hanging stichery I do, so I upcycled my photo tree into a fun little art piece for a cute table on my sunporch.

Of course when I found the metal tree, the little tiny hanging ornaments were nowhere to be found. I don't even remember them! Terrible, I know. So this was either going to be sold, thrown out, or upcycled. I happened to have a lot of felty frippery I've stitched for ornaments, and for fun, and this is exactly what I needed to display some of it.

But then, it needed something more. Beads! So out came the beads, wire, and lots of fun.

I made up several little fun twisties with copper 18 or 20 gauge wire, big acrylic beads, and little glass seed beads.

These are also cute to twist around little glass bottles to use for plant starters on the sunporch. I think I could make these all day!

The light dances through my wire tree now, and I have a cute place to display my stitched ornaments. You could repurpose any photo tree this way. Happy stash dashing!

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch

Happy Monday Crafters

Happy Monday! I hope you enjoy your day--don't ever take any day for granted...even Monday. Have your favorite coffee and a bowl of strawberries and bananas drizzled with a little honey. That'll get the day going right!

I am getting a lot of upcycling, repurposing and organizing done in my craft room, so I'm having breakfast at my craft desk and watching some of my favorite creatives on YouTube! I watch crafters, and lifestyle/decor people to inspire me. I hope to share some of my creations with you this week. And I hope all the wonderful mothers out there had a great Mother's Day yesterday. I had a great time with my family, good food, got some beautiful hanging baskets, and even a special trip to Michaels! You know, I've been avoiding my craft store haunts this year and trying to bust my stash. So yesterday was special. For one thing, I had good coupon to get all the DMC colors I needed to start the cute dollhouse cross-stitch over at El Blog De DMC. As my sweet husband was helping me get all the colors on the list, I started realizing what gorgeous colors are in this amazing pattern. So I can't think of a better way to start the week than with a new bouquet of embroidery floss to look at and be inspired by. Enjoy!

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch

WOYWW 308--Spring Crafty Corner Reorganizing

Visit crafty desks around the planet at What's-On-Your-Workdesk-Wednesday.

Thanks for stopping by my crafty corner of the world. Everything is about to change. Right now I have my cross-stitch organizer out...I'm going to make a pillow with this sparkly angel I stitched a couple of years ago. It's a little dark in the morning...photo not great! Then, I have work to do. This white gate-fold, cute stenciled table I have been inhabiting is going next to the window, the leaves are going down, and it's transforming into a sewing table. Then, the big ole green desk in the corner with the cubby shelves is going to be my craft desk. I'm cleaning out every cubby in that set of shelves, and reorganizing the drawers. This is a job. But I'm suddenly inspired from some YouTube desk tours, so I guess that's all it took! Spring is a great time to reorganize and clean out, and I know some people don't believe a craft space can be "pretty" but I really want to pretty things up. And I'm just needing more regular desk space combined with space for scrapbooking, paper crafting, and art journaling.

I'm just happy to be around this week! I had the first of two laser sessions on my eye last week. The second one is next week, so I'll be out again. I'm doing fine, and hopefully my eye will continue to heal and do better! Thank goodness for the medical technology we have. Yes, it does hurt to have this done, but the procedure only lasts a few minutes, and I have an amazing eye surgeon. Very thankful! Have a good week.

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch

Gardening & Journaling About It

Years ago I took a patterned paper tag pad I bought, and used the papers to make a garden journal. Snapped pictures, posted about it, and then kind of forgot about it. When it came time to use it, I couldn't find it! Classic me, in the crafty corner, putting things away and losing them. So recently, I accidentally found it, stuck in the wrong cubby and covered with envelopes. So now what? I'm using it this year to journal about my garden. Guess it was just meant to be.

First there'll be the baby pictures of my baby garden--seedlings on the greenhouse.

I'm also going to use the journal to draw my garden plan, plot where I'd like to put starts, and plan ahead where I will sow seeds straight into the garden. My spaghetti squash always seem to do better when the seeds are sown right into the open garden, the pumpkins too. And I plant basil seeds all summer.
 

I love putting beads or buttons on journal covers.

I'll use a couple of pages for the canning recipes I'm going to make with the tomatoes, and my favorite garden recipes like bruschetta, roasted cherry tomatoes, and fresh pasta sauce.

 I think I'll do better this year at keeping track of where I've planted different varieties of plants.

A day in the garden last year

I hope the journal will wrap up the gardening season with some beautiful pictures like this (my ongoing harvest last year). And I might press a couple of zinnia blooms into the journal. Hopefully it will be packed and so will the garden.

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch, Grow