Look What I Did!

In and effort to help me fight the winter time blues I’ve been trying to think of as many ways as I can to bring my love for gardening indoors. I’ve tried to do house plants, and we do have some, but for some reason I can NEVER remember to water them. If it weren’t for the vigilant efforts of Jamie they would all surely perish. You would think that seeing them every day I would have no problem remembering to give them a drink. I do good to remember to (I started to say water the fish, the coffee hasn’t kicked in yet) feed the fish. At any rate, I’ve been searching and thinking of things to do.

Well, Christmas came along. I’m sure you have all experienced the same dilemma, there never seems to be enough money to buy everyone a gift that you would like to buy for. If you buy for your sister Suzie, you have to buy for your sisters Elsie, Paulette and Daisy Mae, and what about their husbands? If you come from a broken family, you may have eight sets of grandparents if your parentals have remarried. It’s the same with work; it’s a never ending cycle of if I get this one I have to get that one. So I started thinking if I had a craft I could make gifts for them all through the year and it would be much better than a store bought one anyway. So I set out to decide what to learn.

I thought, well if I’m going to do this it will have to be something that involves bright colors and I should be able to incorporate my love for our garden in with it. The first thing that popped into my mind was the tattered old flour sack pillow cases that my mother has tucked away in a drawer somewhere. The older ones of you that are reading this probably know what I’m talking about. A large portion of my mother’s dresses were made from flour sacks when she was a little girl. Somewhere in the house are two of the prettiest bags you have ever seen. One has a yellow rose border on it and the other has red roses on it. We used them as pillow cases when I was a child. So I decided, that’s what I can do, I can embroider pillow cases, towels and what have you as gifts for Christmas. Who wouldn’t love that? I use to be amazed at the hand stitched designs on those old pillow cases. No one does that anymore.

Well, I don’t have a clue how to embroider or cross stitch. I’ve never done anything like that in my life. Off to Wal-mart I go to find me a book, thread and stuff. It turns out they have little kits there to teach you how to do those and other things. AND, they have looottttttssss of garden themed stuff! Perfect! Well here is my first little project.

Last night, right after the stroke of midnight I completed my first cross stitched garden scene. I’m so excited. I know it’s a simple thing to do, but I’ve never done it before so I am very, very proud of myself. The next one I do will be a very difficult one that is 16 by 14 inches. I will probably be working on it forever, but I really enjoy the bright colors and bringing the garden to my lap. Before I start that big cross stitch project, I’m going to do a little embroidery kit that I bought the same night. For the remainder of the winter and on those summer months it will be too hot outside, I will be working on next year’s Christmas gifts!

The only thing I don’t like about the little project above is the humming birds have X’s for eyes like little cartoon characters that have been knocked unconscious. Jamie says we are going to frame it since it is my first one. :-) Okay, I have to go prepare a New Years Day lunch for a few guests. I’ll post the embroidery project when I start on it, if that is something you all would like to see. I hope everyone has a wonderful day.