happy halloween, blessed samhain, happy day-when-you-can-legitimately-eat-lots-of-lollies!

i hope you have some kitties around to keep you safe from evil! mine are definitely on duty.

well… mostly…

essie xoxox

a rose from our garden…

essie xoxox

oops! i left the treasury a couple of days late this week! never mind, i got there in the end!

now, i don’t know if i’m in a ‘monarch of the glen’ kind of mood, or if i’m just reverting to my love of woodland creatures for this treasury, but either way the theme is deer - it hope you like it!

(click on the image to be taken to the treasury)

essie xoxox

i’m not a one-handbag-girl. i have many favourites, and i use them all. the latest addition to my collection is a cath kidston mini saddle bag, in my favourite of her many beautiful prints…

it’s practical, compact, and pretty. so perfect.

i bought it on ebay, so keep your eye out there if you’d like to get one for yourself!

essie xoxox

yesterday, while stitching on the couch, my dear siobhan and i decided we wanted cupcakes. so we made some. we used the magnolia bakery vanilla cupcake recipe, which yeilded quite delicious results.

we had grand plans to make different colours of icing, but i was on autopilot by the time we got to icing stage and defaulted to the pink food colouring before i could stop myself!

they were nommed with tea and grins.
i can’t think of a better afternoon pastime than sharing cupcakes with friends.
essie xoxox

one of my aunties has been having a bit of a tough time lately. she lost her mother earlier in the year and they were very close. she’s also been really unwell in the last few weeks. so to cheer her up i stitched up a sampler for her.

i took the text and most of the motifs from linda calhoun’s heirloom sampler favorites, but rearranged them for my own purposes (i can highly recommend this book - i have made another sampler from it, and i really like it).

the text says “and now abide faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love”. i’m not an especially religious person, but i can get behind the meaning of that verse.

i hope she likes it!
essie x

winding floss onto cards or bobbins can take aaaaages. especially when you’re an obsessive completionist and have almost the entire range of floss colours in your collection!

that’s why i think stitchbows are completely awesome. you just hook the skein onto he stitchbow, and slip it into it’s little slot in a protective sleeve.

the sleeves are transparent so you can flick through them easily to select colours, and they fit in any folder so they’re stored easily in your craft room.

penelope waits is now stocking stitchbow starter kits containing one storage sleeve, and 15 stitchbows to put in it. you can find them in the “notions and supplies” section of the shop.

who doesn’t love a product that saves you more time for actual stitching!
essie xoxoxox

my little swap package has arrived in holland, so i can finally show you all the things i made for my partner!

the theme was samhain/autumn, so i went with a leafy motif, and also included some australian treats (with instructions on how they should be used!).

(click the image to be taken to an annotated version!)

my swap partner said she liked teal and amber, so i brushed off my rusty jewelery-making skills and made her a pair of earrings

she said on her wishlist that she needed a pincushion so i made her an embroidered one with acorns and oak leaves

i had fun stitching the little acorns. i might make something with a similar motif for my own house one of these days…

one of the other things on my swap partner’s wishlist was a set of coasters. i showed you a glimpse of these the other day, and now i can show you the finished product

it was such fun to craft for someone on the other side of the world. and now i get the pleasure of looking forward to a parcel arriving with surprises in it for me!
essie xoxox

today is a home day.
i am enjoying the company of a little tailless cat…

… and the beautiful posy of flowers that my mum picked for me when i visited her yesterday.

i hope you’ve got some equally beautiful things to enjoy today.
essie xoxox

my friend sara (who belongs to pais, the only cat i know with her own webcomic) sent me a parcel the other week, so i recently sent one back. she is a very creative and artistic person, so i decided to stitch up leanne beasley’s “stitcher’s keeper” for her, because i thought she would like the hand-drawn quality of the flowers.

i modified the design a little - there was a saying (”let’s just stitch the day away”) on the original design that i chose to leave off, allowing the pretty flowers to speak for themselves.

i also used slightly richer, deeper colours than leanne’s bright, bold ones, because i thought they would suit sara better.

i lined the keeper with a plummy purple print, and tucked a needle keeper and a hoop inside, so she’d be all set to start on the kit that i tucked in the parcel too.

presents are the best!
essie xoxox