Look look! My DB sent my valentines box and he has wrapped it in the prettiest paper and it even looks like the lid is wrapped seperatly (this is very impressive for him)! Next to it you can see my (as yet unposted) valentines box, and on top of it you can see all the letters I've gotten from him in the last few months, I've got all sorts of scrapooking plans for those :) Apart from the book I'm reading (The name of the wind) which is brilliant, the other 'great book' in the photo is 'the gentle art of domesticity' which I read on a flight from the UK to Iraq, I read the whole way and finished it a few minutes before landing! What a brilliant book, full of inspirational pictures and writing and it makes me want to learn to knit socks... which I've never wanted to do before!
This cross stitched card I found in our free cards box. Let me explain, lots of lovely people send stuff out to us which ends up in 'free' boxes. We have a room full of books free to take and even take home, boxes full of toothpastes, shower gels and soaps, cup-a-soups etc and a box full of cards, a lot of which are handmade. I've used a lot of stuff and it definately makes a diffence having 'goodies' to look through :) I love this card, it is so bright and cheerful. Someone has obviously spent a long time on this then kindly sent it our way, without saying who or expecting a thanks, so THANK YOU mystery stitcher, I hope it isn't somehow a dissapointment that another stitcher has taken it?! I'm half afraid to send it anywhere, most of me wants to put it in a tiny frame and put it on the wall, just incase someone doesn't appreciate it enough!
In other news... I've just been stitching on the biscornu exchange, making 'sketchlings' and writing lots of letters and 'e-blueys' to my DB who went to Afghanistan last week. Writing to each other is now the only real way we can communicate so it has gotten me quite depressed. There is a way of using his 'welfare' phone minutes to call a phone here but I have to be on night shift and he has to be able to ring at a pre-planned time without having been called away for some reason! It is a nightmare! I can't wait to be back in the UK just so I can put all my attention onto him and he can call me at any time.
In the last post I believe I mentioned about samplers. I've come to a bit of a decision. I think I will try to not ever stitch a 'designed' sampler, I think I'll stitch samplers in the 'old-fashioned' way they were originally intended for i.e. to test and practice stitches and see how they work on various fabrics / in various threads. I intend to still make them look nice, even worth framing, but I think they'll mean more to *me* in the long run! And theres no rule saying they can't still be 'artistic' or have a certain element of 'design' to them :) I've been sketching various 'designs' where sampler bands are worked into the design as a texture i.e. only within the outline of a dress, wings or a scarf. I don't know if that makes sense, I'm sure I'll put a sketch up one day :)
I've still been doing loads and loads of browsing, I'm loving the blogs and inspiration I've come across. There have been too many to list so I won't even try :)
