Driving in Britain

My camera is still away (hopefully being fixed) so I don't have any recent pictures. But I wanted to do a post for Bradley who misses driving in Britain. These are some clips from our holiday where we drove from Edinburgh north to Inverness, over to the Isle of Skye, around the Lake District, through a bit of Wales, Dartmoor, then ended up in London. I miss it too!

sheep in the road

cows in the road

through the hills

into Wales

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Craft dinner

I almost forgot to tell you about this! I'm participating in this Craft Dinner craft sale. It's tomorrow. It's a combination of craft-related flea market type things and the usual handmade goods. It may tempt you to know I'm going to get ruthless with my fabric stash tonight and make up some of the popular scrappy packs of fabric.

Here are the details:
CRAFT DINNER on June 13, 2009 @ The Imperial Pub (noon-8pm), 54 Dundas Street E

This is a glimpse of my jewellery display. I used some pieces of lace to display the jewellery. But you can't see it too clearly because as you may have detected in this photo, my camera is slowly dying. In a suprisingly cheery way with a stripe of pink at the edge of every picture. The good news is that I found a service notice online about it, and it's a flaw that Canon knows about and is willing to fix for free. I just have to mail in my camera. Ahh, the internet. Before you we were in the dark.

Hope to see you tomorrow! The first person to visit and mention this blog gets a free present from me.

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Robin pendant

Thank you guys for all the nice comments about my last post. You really made my day! I have the best commenters ever.

Karyn from the workroom gave me this lovely pendant for a birthday present at the last craft sale. They're handmade little wooden discs that come in different shapes and have little holes punched in them so you can cross stitch a picture for decoration.

I had an odd little miniature performance anxiety about doing mine and couldn't decide what to do. Mainly as I've never done cross stitch so I wasn't sure exactly how it goes. I learned as I went along, and probably made up a few things.
I started by sketching out my design in pencil right onto the pendant. In case you're wondering, I used pearl cotton for mine, in size 8. Last time I went to Sunday Market I found a big bag of old pearl cottons for $20. It was very exciting.

My initial idea had been a bird, then I thought a bird was too obvious - something I draw and embroider all the time. Then I was inspired by Anabela's prettiest ever flower, and decided to get going. And still I somehow ended up doing a bird.

Here's a detail

I think I went too far adding a white background. What do you think? It kind of ruins the pretty lacy aspect of the pendant. I just thought the warm colours I used were kind of blending into the wood background.

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Apartment Therapy - I have to take the shame

I even updated the house... this is our old living room

I was asked by an Apartment Therapy editor if she could post one of the pictures from my blog. Of course I said yes since I'm a huge fan. I checked out the post several hours later to discover I am not a hit.

In my defense, I can only say that it was a pretty old post. I did update the fabric to one I like better too, a Marimekko print. I did resew the panel so that it's more snug. And the cabinet does have glass doors which didn't show up too clearly in the photo. (as for how I get the cds out - a bit mystified by that comment - I open the door and take them off their shelf.)

But as for ripping all my cds - there are 100s and I'm just too lazy so I have to take the shame. I do dream of a future with a neat little Tivoli system. In the meantime, my nephew also had a big laugh at my old-fashioned cds so I knew I was behind the times. Although he had an even bigger laugh at the old cassette tapes I gave to my sister to play in her car... (and an even bigger laugh at the black and white TV at my parent's house)

But most importantly of all, I have to say that I'm grateful that I have friendlier commenters - at least you guys just ignore me when you don't like what you see! And I love you for it.

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Bedroom rug

Option A: I think this is my favourite, colours work very well with what's in the room, it has a nice traditional and pretty pattern but the colours don't contrast too much so it's subtle. This one will blend in with the dark floors in a nice way.

As you may recall I had a lot of trouble buying our last wool rug. The store had it online only and for delivery to U.S. customers only.

Option B: The colours in this one work as well and the pattern is really pretty

So now that I'm looking for one for our bedroom I'm glad to say I've found an alternative.

Option C: I like the simple two colour scheme in this one, the colours work perfectly with the rest of the room. The pattern is nice but a little "pointy", maybe not restful enough for a bedroom?

The place I'm getting my bedroom rug is online at csn rugs which now delivers (for free!) to Canada. There are so many great choices, but I've managed to narrow it down to a few favourites.

Option D: I love this one so much. The grey and white work pretty well with the rest of the room, and the pattern is my favourite. So pretty!!

I like traditional rugs, but lately I've been loving all the contemporary rugs I'm seeing in decorating magazines. So when I was searching I narrowed it down to "wool", "contemporary", "floral" & "geometric" and price.

Option E: Again, great colours for the room. I like the modern and geometric pattern, it's a bit more playful. Not that it matters too much, but this one goes nicely with our duvet cover which has ovals in dark brown and blue on a white background.

I'm going to just get a small 2 x 3' rug to sit beside the bed.

Option F: Good colours, and a nice simple graphic pattern. This one will look nice against the floors. It's feminine but not overly so.

I'd like to get your opinions! Here's what the room has already:
• wall colour is Benjamin Moore Gray Mist with white trim
• bedframe is a traditional brass bed painted with Benjamin Moore Cloud White
• chest of drawers painted Cloud White
• dark stained oak floors
• IKEA Stockholm curtains with several shades of brown, grey and sand on a cream background

Option G: Last but not least, this one has a nice gentle colour scheme. Bradley loves this one. But it is going on my side of the bed...

I've shown my favourite choices throughout this post, with comments underneath. Please comment and let me know what you think! I'll show pictures of the rug in our bedroom once it arrives.

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