Culmination

What a week. Mostly wacky spring weather again apart from the odd day or two and stoppers in the house, gib stoppers, plasterers, tradee's, what ever you want to call them ~ mess makers!!! To be fair they did clean up after themselves pretty good, they had plastic booths they erected around opens areas to minimise dust, but you know plaster dust, it just has a knack of floating anywhere and everywhere. But it's mostly the invasion, strangers in your house for a week. The guy had to sack his lazy worker for not turning up to work one too many times and so he roped his partner into helping with the job but with that things got prolonged. This was what my place looked like for most of the week....

At least they had a meaty size vacuum to clean the floor of plaster bits

I had to uncover my stitching chair, the TV and the cat's chair each night

Most of the mess was up in the mezzanine 

But my bedroom is on the mezzanine

So uncovering my bedroom each night was necessary

It is over though. They have gone and I have started the long process of cleaning all that white dust up....not good for my poor stitching fingers as plaster dust is dry, like rubbing chalk all over your hands loads and loads of times. Still, it's nearly painting time. Things will have to be covered again but at least I won't have to 'super dust'. We are getting there slowly....living this close to a renovation is not so much fun when you are in the thick of it!

Flip side of the week has been fun though. My studio is secreted away in a remote part of the building and has already been renovated so me and the dog could hang out there and create most of the time and create we did. We also spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen, brewing up coffee stain, painting and distressing. 

I decided that I wanted to make a few primitive festive characters this year and since I want to put the xmas tree up on December 1st I figured that I had better get on with it. Besides, I needed something other than renovation to be the culmination of my weeks efforts ~

Using a Threadbare Primitives pattern as my base I worked up the calico/muslin form for Santa. Gingee is a Peach Bottom Primitives pattern ~

What a mess! Coffee stain with a pinch of vanilla and cinnamon to rub in for that dirty primitive look I was after ~ and the kitchen was smelling very festive while all this was going on ~

Here's Gingee after he's been painted, coffee stained, cinnamon'd, dried in the oven and had a rub with the sandpaper for that well loved look ~

Here's Santa undergoing the same beauty therapy at the day spa ~

The two friends exfoliated of cinnamon bits and awaiting costuming and makeup ~

Gingee's good to go on display ~

Doesn't he look like you could just catch him and eat him, just like the fox ~

The pals, already to sit about for the festive season ~

Think I will make him the primitive xmas tree to hold now, all wrapped with rusty wire and bells ~

That was fun, next is a snowman or two and maybe another Santa, you can never have too many Santa's at Xmas ~ Ho, Ho, Ho

Only two sleeps until the 1st of December and Summer!

Finished This And Finished That ~

We've been having the most uninspiring spring. This spring of 2014 has been just one long trawl through weather front after weather front ~ cold fronts too and lots of wind with lashings of rain. This unsettled and unsettling weather has meant that one has had to time tasks like mowing the still growing lawn in between the approaching fronts, the lawn thinks this is a lovely spring and is carrying on growing! Good for farmers but not so good for mowers! It also means that not so much outdoor activity has been desirable as it's not so pleasant weeding & tidying with the wind whipping your hair back and forth. We live on a hill, facing North and the wind has been predominantly North West and brrrrr when South West. There have been several of the fronts pulling the freezing air from the polar Antartic as we are not so far away here at latitude 37.

The glass half full side of this all though is that indoor activities at my house and in my studio have been moving along nicely.

Today I couriered off the commission scrapbook album I created on behalf of my friend. Very pleased to have completed this project and I am very happy with the finished result so hopefully they will be too. My friend commissioned this album for her boss who left to take up a very full on senior position in the public sector in Canberra. I know the subject, who is a very lively and very quirky character with a unique sense of humour so I could have fun with this one. Her colleagues sent me some of her favourite sayings and so I based a lot of the layouts with that in mind. I think it worked well and the whole thing just tended to fall into place as I went. They are looking to gift the album to her when she returns to New Zealand for Xmas holidays. Looking forward to receiving some feedback from them all ~ 

Delaine is definitely one who likes her own way ~

Avery colourful character ~

Ruling the roost ~

Do what I say ~ Do what I do ~

My friend Sharmaine dressed as one of the crew ~

Loving giving the orders ~

And the podium ~

There was never this much dress up when I worked there ~ thank goodness ~

Lots to remember about this lady ~

She was colourful and lively ~

And not easily forgotten ~

By all who knew her unique personality ~

Working for her was an experience in itself ~

Never one to be shy ~

I decided to add my own brand ~

So that's way more scrapbooking than I want to do for a while, on with things that do it for me more than that ~

Mountmellick Part 5 is complete. All those lozenges, all 56 of them are in the past. Here's how it looks now ~ just gorgeous ~

Mountmellick parts I through 5 ~

Blowing in the breeze ~

And here's what's to come ~~~~ part 6 is massive, all those stars! I have the magazine and all the fabrics so no excuses now ~

Busy, busy, busy is this quilt AND what I will be ~

I have also finished a couple of my evening pieces. My Stacy Nash necessaries are all stitched up and awaiting finishing. So pretty and the colours are so neat.

These muted primitive colours are just so appealing ~

My second punch needle to also completed and awaiting being finished into a pumpkin. I know, halloween is over but I was never going to do these things on time so will be saving for next years holiday decorating. I've got a few like that!

I'm just testing some different thread types down the bottom in case you was wondering what that other patch was ~

Jack & Boo ~ Brenda Gervais Design ~

The finishing pile is growing, it's embarrassing I know, I need to address it, there's about a half dozen things in that pile now!!!

Hope you've enjoyed my ramblings and have a great weekend ~

A Ladye's Resplendent Passiflora Vine

One of my all time favourite of favourite flowers is the resplendent Passiflora. It has a mind to be the Peacock of flowers. A meandering & wandering vine that is breathtakingly beautiful from beginning to end. First, those divine and enchanting white and purple blooms, so magnificently complicated, arrive in the spring. Then all through the summer the vines hang with growing green fruit, a mass of waxy green leaves and those wandering tendrils that seem to grow visibly in a day. Then as the late summer turns into Autumn those yummy and vibrant purple shaded fruits ripen and fall and once opened a gorgeous array of black and gold. A true treasure chest of the fruit world. 

What's not to like, Passiflora,  you make this Ladye smile and it just so happens that all shades of that decadent and regal of colours, purple, attest to be my favourite. 

I love seeing these flowers appear in my garden....conjures up visions of warm days and ripening fruit....my life is moving on to nicer places after the past few weeks....

This week I was determined to make a start on the scrapbook album my friend has commissioned. The determination worked and the creative juices are flowing with fun being had back in my studio again after a two week or so hiatus horribilis. Isn't just starting something always the hardest part!!!

So far, an album is covered and three pages are completed....it helps that the subject of this book is known to me and she is a very lively and colourful character....makes the embellishments and captions much more fun to play with....

My evening projects are a duo at the moment. A little bit of this and a little bit of that. Just to mix it up and to feel like I am getting somewhere on more than one project!

Continuing to cross stitch away on the Stacy Nash scissors,needles/pins necessaries. I am just loving these shades of overdyed's on this linen and  am still fully intending to prim up the project with some coffee distressing once completed. It is nice to work with such a simple colour pallete with only four shades of thread selected. 

Before I stitch on the necessaries I am putting a few applique stitches each evening into the lozenges for the four part five borders on Mountmellick. The final part six will arrive soon and it looks real busy. Quiltmania have released the magazine. Better get a rattle on as would like this baby to be a 2014 finish. One border strip done and number two started....loving all those reds!

That sums up my creative week....