I have started a new bird picture today and am hoping to show some of the steps in my process. of course, I only thought about the pictures after I had been working a bit on it already.

the background is actually a paper copy of an old deed I have that is written in the most amazing script onto some sort of parchment from the 1800’s

I think it is a land deed

I machine stitched that onto an old piece of white cotton (an old sheet, actually)

I am taking the easy way out and using a copy of a photo of a bird - normally, I draw just the outline.....but am cheating a little bit by using the whole picture - altho I will be stitching over it and tearing off the outer bits so you won’t actually see the photocopy

anyway......here is me using a plain embroidery stitch to outline the bird before I start filling it in with free-machine stitching, which I will be doing tomorrow -

not exactly sure what will be happening next......so tune in to find out!

and here is the back of this piece, which I actually like as well! ok, my knots are quite untidy.......but he still is cute

hm.......maybe I should look into this a bit more......

Exciting news; all three of the valentine pictures I had in the cafe next door, the Buttercup, have sold!

thank you so much for that

I am new to selling my work and this has been quite a boost. My only slight sadness is that noone seemed interested in my stuffed hearts.

Oh well......

I have added more photos to my slideshow, so please take a minute to check them out and am now planning on a few more bird pictures in the near future, I think

Perhaps this will encourage Spring to hurry up and arrive!

At the beginning of May, S and I have signed up for a Dawn Chorus walk. It will be at Sheffield Park Garden in Sussex. We arrive at 5am and walk through the gardens with a guide until 7am, listening to all the birds singing through the dawn. I have always wanted to do this and am very excited about it.

A special thank you to the people who have signed up to “follow” my blog - I cannot figure out how to reach a couple of you to thank you in person, so hopefully you will see this;

Thank You!

oh, and one more thing - I am, again in the near future, planning to set up an etsy site and make my work more accessible for anyone to buy - so will keep you posted on that too

I made this a while ago for my mother in law, but thought I would share it with you as I think I might have caught a glimpse of Spring today!

Hope everyone is having a sunny, productive week. (well, ok, sunny might be asking too much)

Thank you for dropping by - and I also want to thank everyone for their comments

here is the heart I have made......and will slip it into our neighbours’ post box to thank them for the lovely sprinkling of hearts they (I think) did for Valentine’s Day

Hi again

I hope everyone had a nice weekend -

I just wanted to tell you what happened to me Saturday night. I live on a tiny little street with just 4 houses on it. It isn’t really a street, just sort of a walkway.

S and I got home from watching our friend’s band. When we got to our street we saw someone had cut hearts out of different printed papers and sizes and stuck them on all our doors and windows! They also sprinkled hearts all over the ground in front of our doors. It was such a beautiful surprise!

We have had a bit of sadness creeping around us for a couple of weeks, so it was so nice to see this and know someone was trying bring a little love into all our lives.

I suspect it was our new neighbours, so am spending today making a stitched heart to give to them (anonymously) to thank them for what they did.......

I hope it WAS them, but cannot think of anyone else

thanks to everyone who made comments about my hearts, and please, again, go see what Rebecca Sower is doing to help Haiti and how you can get involved

I am adding my heart photos again for the heart sessions started by Rebecca Sower - please go to her site and read about all the amazing things she is doing for the people of Haiti - and see all the beautiful hearts

heart sessions

“Wind to thy wings. Light to thy path. Dreams to thy heart.” ~ unknown

made some teacup soy candles with cups sent to me from Portland!

I finally finished the valentines for the café - I did 3 of them

and also hung my stuffed hearts on a pretty wire heart that was already hanging on the wall

hello and thank you for dropping by

I have been having a difficult time getting back to this - not because I didn’t want to write anything or show some photos - but because I had some very shocking and sad news to deal with

and wasn’t sure if I wanted to write about it or what to do......

a sweet young girl is gone and has left our lives full of sadness

I hope she is at peace now

Hvil i fred, Hilde