Greenman Embroidery, Crocheting and Roses too!

 February is flying by in a rush today is Saturday the 18th, one step out the front door and I know the air holds a chill 46 the daytime temps are expected to be low 70's,  ah winter in Florida. It's been a busy month on the 6th I celebrated with my son's for his 36th birthday, gee when did he get so old?

very Floridian Cake

On the 15th  my great niece Tessa turned 4 years old, she was happily surprised with a total bedroom makeover in top to bottom Minnie Mouse, her absolute favorite Disney character.

We had another day with gusty winds that toppled over the trash can and a few plants though luckily no real damage, odd a few weeks ago we had tornado strength winds and nothing toppled over, life is a mystery.

Early in the morning on the day before Valentine's Day my rose buds all began to open the next day

Valentine's Day morning I was given the gift of some beautiful blooms, they put on such a lovely show.

The hand embroidery on the Greenman is slowly progressing I need to raid my supplies for some new needles I've noticed the one's I'm currently using have grown a bit dull making it harder to poke the needle through the stitch and wash product I printed my pattern on.

Just off the crochet hook is a swiffer cover for my aunt who recently posted a photo of one and inquired if I could make one.  So I bought some Peaches and Creme cotton yarn and an "H" hook and began to stitch.

The end result came out quite nicely if I say so myself, I changed the stitch from the original pattern, I used the single crochet stitch. I'm not thrilled with the yarn at all I am going to have to wash it

before I  send it  because the dye was all over my hands while I was crocheting, I've never had that happen before though I know other people have experienced it.  I'll be making another one for my sister later today. I may wash and dry the yarn before I start the next one.  Here is a link to the pattern
http://onceuponbaby.blogspot.com/2012/04/crochet-swiffer-cover-pattern-and.html

Update February 19th:  stitching update on the Greenman hand embroidery, I will say I like the

sketch much more then the stitched piece, I sure hope I feel differently when I complete the embroidery.  I'm linking up to Kathy's Quilts today for some Slow Sunday Stitching, here's the link:
 https://kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/2017/02/slow-sunday-stitching_19.html

Slow Sunday Stitching and Some Beads

This is my first Sunday stitching post for February and my first Slow Sunday Stitching since the eighth of January.  I posted other post with some stitching updates but for one reason or another the post were not on a Sunday.

I don't know about you but there are days when I just don't feel like posting to my blog, or I'm busy or I just don't want to sit at the computer, which for me is more often then I like to admit and some days I find myself with nothing to say.

Today's post will be linked at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching  https://kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/2017/02/slow-sunday-stitching.html 
And on Monday at http://www.supermomnocape.com/vintage-embroidery-monday-stitchery-link-party-96/

My Brigid's Cross hand embroidery was finished just in time for Brigid's Day which was Thursday 

Brigid's Cross

the photo shows the piece after it was removed from the hoop it has since been pressed and finished.

I have started the hand embroidery on a new greenman project, I think this is the fifth greenman so 

greenman

 far or maybe the sixth.  I have also started on the winter goddess though progress is slow going I like how the few leaves turned out, I always had trouble with the satin stitch but these look okay 

On the last day of January I attended a wire wrapping jewelry class and had a great time, I have done lots of beaded jewelry over the years but wire wrapping was something I tried a few times and it didn't work out to my satisfaction, I think in part because I wanted to wrap some stones I have and I just couldn't get the wire to stay put or the wrap to be tight enough.  Cue up me at the local bead shop hunting for my supplies and having a chat and finding out if I had used half round or even square wire my results would have been different. Ha who knew? obviously not me!  There are lessons every where and I learned one that day, when you don't know simply ask.  All those jewelry making books and magazines I had read over the years, all of them at one time or other mentioned half round, square wire knew what they were talking about. (don't even get me started on half hard or soft wire).

For the first class we made earrings, I used silver wire and pink bicone crystal beads I was thinking

Spring time, I think they turned out nice, they look sort of Victorian in style, I even made the ear wires, I may remake the ear wires smaller. Oh and I did realign the spirals after the photo was cropped I noticed they were off. I don't wear long dangling earrings but I know the perfect person who does so I am going to gift these to her.  Here is a close up the loop on the bottom allows for

a dangling bead to be hung there most of us in the class opted not to add the dangle, I did make them so I will let my friend decide once she sees them.  There are four other wire wrap classes coming up in he next few months I'm not sure if I'm going to take them all, I do know I plan to take the class on March 21 we will be wrapping a cabochon to make a pendant.

There is also a beaded jewelry class coming up on the 22nd of February I have to check my calendar before I sign up.

All the supplies are included in the beaded bracelet class which makes it so much easier not to have to hunt through the beading supplies or shop which can lead me to add so many more extras then I really need.

I added a new rose bush to my garden, it's a bi-color rose in lovely pink shades. I resisted buying 

more of the rose bushes for now because I really have to clean up the garden before I add any more plants.