Summer pleasures (and a mystery solved)

I like to take pictures while strolling in my garden... and then I forget all about the weeding that needs to be done.

I haven't given up on my sampler, the alphabet is almost finished after week #5 and #6, I only need to stitch the W, X, Y and Z!



And now back to the garden: I kept finding these shells of snails, all broken and only on hard surfaces. Not a few of them, but a lot!


And this little movie explains it all:

I really treasure this garden companion!

Week#4

One day late, but here is the result after a week of cross stitching: I finished the upper right corner and 3 letters of my alphabet.
Working with fonts and calligraphy wasn't quite my thing at Art School, but that doesn't mean I don't like typography.


The layout and lettering of a page is very important, and I can tell the difference between a good and a bad layout... but don't ask me to do it myself. It's really a skill, and not an easy one.



So I'll keep to embroidering my alphabets and enjoying blogs or websites like these:
-ilovetypography
-Typefaces that capture a particular period or artistic movement.
-book covers
-a lovely paper collection

Week#3

In this warm weather, we spend a lot of our time in the garden, especially in the evening. I work on my cross stitch sampler, until it gets too dark to see the stitching properly.


One of the pleasures of the blogging world, is receiving surprises by the mail. About a month ago, I sent a few scraps to this fellow blogger of ambiance. A week later, I found a letter in the mailbox with these nice scraps of fabric! I will use them for my scrap quilt, for this quilt I use only swapped fabrics.

I bought this book on Amazon UK, I can use the inspiration for making quilts with the fabrics I already have.

Looking for shade

Busy bee

And yet again it was a busy, busy week, with a trip to Brussels, for the opening of this exposition.


On the one day I was home this week, I found the time to bake a mascarpone cake roll with raspberries, picked in my own garden. Normally they are all eaten by blackbirds, but not this summer!

Yesterday, we went to Ghent, to visit the Art School where my son studies. We saw a lot of promising art work.


And then we took the yellow brick road to...

...an information day about bees and beekeeping at the university of Ghent. We were invited by a good friend who works there.

Today, the summer holiday is starting. I hope it will be two months of reading, working in the house and the garden, crafting,....
I begin my week with a moment of meditation by the pond. And you?

Week#2

A week of school exams (my children, not me), a museum visit and a trip to Ghent, and a lot of work at my computer is not very good for my cross stitch project. This is all I managed to do in a week:

Cross stitching

1. Bon appétit !, 2. cross-stitch--redwork cube, 3. Thread And Ribbon Winders, 4. Old Sewing Susan book, 5. 1973 Cross-Stitch Pattern book, 6. cross stitch book, 7. Rowyn's Round Robin Finish -Strawberry House, 8. I Vautier, 9. Vogart Sampler 1119B, 10. Vintage embroidery thread, 11. needlecraft, 12. waiting time, 13. wee sublime sampler, 14. cross stitch, 15. abécédaire, 16. where my heart blooms


Whenever I have a little moment, I am looking for my cross stitch Christmas sampler or another cross stitch project. It goes terrribly slow, it's a lot of counting and it's bad for my eyes, but I'm addicted...
I'm going to post a picture every week to see my work progress.
So here you have week #1!

Sunny Saturday, rainy Sunday

Saturday was a perfect sunny day, so I finished my blue granny blanket. Immediate inspection by one of the cats.

Then it was time to work a bit on my Christmas sampler.

I was in good company...

and I captured this moment of intimacy.

Today was quite the opposite of yesterday, it was raining cats and dogs (ha, I love that expression!). So, instead of working in the garden, I rearranged my cupboard with China and little statues.



Although it's springtime and almost summer, this is my soundtrack for a rainy day:

New books and a visit

More new books in my collection:
A Beatrix Potter embroidery book, found here



Japanese embroidery book, bought on ebay, a very nice Japanese shop, go here and take a look!


When I saw a ray of sun, I hurried outside to work a bit on my embroidery...

when unexpectedly, my brother-in-law from Brasil arrived.
So I made us some tea, and managed to make these rhubarb and strawberry crumbles in a hurry!

Spring girls

We are having the most perfect spring days at the moment, and what is nicer than sitting in the garden, and embroidering a bit? There is a lot of work to been done in the house: painting and decorating, ironing, cleaning, clearing away the clutter,... But all of that can wait, I just sit in my garden and read, embroider, look at the flowers, have a sip of tea...
Being lazy is something I'm very good at!