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.