The Last Day of April

The last day of April has simply flown by!!! I was a busy little bee at university today and thoroughly earned a coffee in the garden in the sunshine. It has been very muggy hasn't it? I had to go in to town for fabric and photo frames (you will see why in a minute!) this afternoon and it was sweltering!!

The hat had its first proper outside outing as well. I do love this hat, it has a fantastic brim, and, gosh what lovely flowers!

I learnt this afternoon that loveheart sweets do NOT go well with coffee. Don't try it. Eurgh.

We have lots of pink flowers in the garden, although they all seem to be absolutely teeming with greenfly!! More ladybugs are needed around here I think.

Things seem to be coming together for my university work (I hope I'm not jinxing it here), my new business cards arrived yesterday (on a gorgeous textured paper)...

...and I finally finished and framed my original stitched chimney photos! I know you have seen these before but now they are properly finished and ready for display at the final hand in. So pleased with these!!

A Big Cushion!

I have made a cushion! Very exciting I know. This one is just slightly bigger than a normal pillow and the first made for my final hand in at university.

The front is a sublimation printed polyester and the back is a woven linen. I had to make a special inner for it (highly complicated!) due to its unusual size. I just used a plain cotton fabric and stuffed it with toy stuffing (three bags full!).

Hopefully tomorrow will see more cushions being made around here!!

Pink to Blue

Hallo Chums!!! It has been a busy day today- well, a busy day of pootling around doing jobs and university work. One of my jobs was to sort out the Easter decorations- the Easter tree had to be taken down and the flowers sorted as some of them were going over. There are still beautiful flowers left though, so much colour and vibrancy!!

I love these flowers. I forget what they are called now but they almost seem to sparkle in the sunshine!

The garden is looking very summery (and wild!) too. We have one poppy which is a beautiful colour, and some little patches of bluebells amongst our collection.

We are coming to the end of the Easter holiday now- back to university on Monday!!! I am quite pleased with myself as I have met nearly all of my holiday work targets. My sketchbooks are finished, I have come on leaps and bounds in my promotional pack (business cards, CV, personal profile etc) and I have stitched all but one of the samples I brought home with me. Even the most simple-looking of stitched samples took forEVER!! What do you think of them?

A bit eye-boggling this one isn't it?

I am debating on whether or not I should make some of these into cushions to display at the final hand in. I already have the lampshades to be set up (they are arriving on the 5th May-- super super excited!!), and I am hoping to possibly frame the original stitched pieces, so some cushions would fit in nicely I think.
Last night I was working on my promotional pack using the little present The Mother gave me for Easter. I got a little carried away with the stamps and they all ended up out of the box, stacked up like jenga blocks! It was good fun.

And this morning I was playing around with some sticker designs. I think I will be going with the right hand one, with my name on, lest someone forget who I am!!

Herringbone Stitch ATCs

Today I gave myself a day off from university work (especially as I was up until three in the morning last night finishing off a sample!!) and decided to have a play with Herringbone stitches. It wasn't a totally random decision as it is also the theme for one of this month's ATC swaps. Having not done a lot of this particular stitch before I was a bit worried that my stitches weren't evenly spaced- it took a lot of concentration to get them as they are!! Tongue sticking out kind of concentration. I think by the final ATC I had just about cracked it though.

I also mixed in a few other stitches, french knots, back stitch, whipped back stitch and pekinese stitch- definitely my favourites!!

Saying Goodbye

So far this week has been a lot of goodbyes. Apart from my new mug that is, my new mug is a BIG hello!! How lovely is the pattern? And I am definitely all for doing more of what makes me happy (as soon as I have finished uni that is).

The family also departed back to East Sussex yesterday. The Mother hid a 'Red Cross Parcel' in my room (so well I didn't find it and she had to tell me where it was!) full of things to help get me through the last few weeks of my university degree. The final hand in of the chimney project is exactly three weeks yesterday, a highly terrifying prospect!

It was very exciting unwrapping the parcel and finding so many goodies underneath the paper!!

That should keep me going for a while I think!!!

Sadly, the other goodbye of the week was said this afternoon to our beloved Poppy. She was an elderly lady (over two years old) and had what appeared to be a rapidly growing tumour in her tummy, making it difficult for her to manoeuvre around. Poor Lucy had to make the decision to have her put down, which was the right thing to do as the tumour would only get bigger and cause even more problems for Pops, but it was a very difficult call to make and very upsetting.

She had a fab life though (after a bit of a rocky start with some previous owners) and was thoroughly spoilt by various members of two households. She is now safely buried in a new flowerpot, covered in a bed of sweet peas which she would probably have tried to eat but will now always be a reminder of her cheeky personality and sweet temperament. Rest in peace little one.