Christmas is creeping ever closer. I plan to get my outdoor decorations up soon, so I devoted my Sunday to finish the painting my on my gnome.

I got the final coats done, and did the outlining with my new paint pens.

I was happy with it. But it still needed a little something.

And that something was…

GLITTER!!! And lots of it!

I glittered up his mitts, the snowflakes on his hat, and even added a touch to his pom pom (and created a little texture there with the paint).

Now he just needs a coat of clear and he’ll be ready for the front porch!

I am happy to announce that I have conquered French knots!!!

Well, not so much conquered as managed to get them to not look like an utter, crappy, loopy mess. They are far from perfect, but I’m far from a perfectionist, so I can live with it. And with that, the first of the 20 embroidered blocks is complete!

It certainly went far quicker than I expected. And learning the stitches is much easier than I expected. Although I did learn I did my stem stitch wrong. Well not so much wrong, just much smaller than it needed to be. Mom pointed it out when I showed her the picture, so I decided to look up a quick tutorial.

And with that new knowledge, Lemmy and I were off and running on block number two.

We got our stem stitch perfected, and added the Lazy Daisy stitch to our repertoire! If we keep this pace up, we’ll probably be managing a block a weekend soon.

The first Mercury sock is done. The pattern has you take the lace down the foot, but I decided to go with a plain foot instead. I’m loving the rusty orange brown of the Alley Cat BFL. It makes me miss dyeing yarn just a little.

The next sock is already on the needles. It’s probably too ambitious, but I’d love to complete the pair by the end of the month.

I’ve been popping out to the bird feeder with the camera whenever I get a free moment.

And that spontaneity has rewarded me!

The finches can be exceptionally hard to get pictures of, as they are very skittish. (The sparrows are used to me and will buzz my head as they make their way to the feeder). As you can see here, I not only have the sparrows – but the goldfinches (in their winter colour) and the red-headed house finches too!

It’s very unsual to see them on the feeder with the sparrows. Sparrows can be the worst bullies and often chase the finches off.

But they were all minding their manners this day! I’m so happy I was there to capture the moment!

Here’s a few random close-ups taken the same day.

Mother Nature continues with her mood swings. Last weekend was cold and rainy, but by the start of the week it was warming up again.

It wasn’t quite summer like, but definitely spring vibes – but by Wednesday I was eating a handful of raspberries that managed to ripen.

All the mums in the porch boxes were blooming again.

As was the Lavender Butterfly bush. And check this out…

The Pussy Willow bush has catkins!

I got pictures of a starling in the neighbour’s tree, and it looks like it’s budding up again!

I potted up a bunch of Dwarf Irises for a spring display.. and they’ve already started sprouting!

Did we skip winter all together… and head right into spring?

Well… no. Because BAM! Thursday morning we woke up to snow. It wasn’t sticking, and it was mixed with rain. But it was still snow. Yesterday rained a bone-chilling rain all day. So I suspect the real cold stuff is just around the corner.

That said…

These guys are still standing…. They look cold and little sad…. but they aren’t dead yet!

Relic… that’s not how you’re supposed to sit in the chair…

There was some sewing this weekend… well sort of. I only sewed one block. But I at least got the pieces cut to make the 30 more I will need.

His Lordship finally decided what he wanted to go with the nine patch bees we showed last week. A good ol’ Dizzy Daisy. And while these blocks are exceedingly easy to make, they do require a fair bit of cutting if you are doing them in any number. I need 31 daisies total. As you can see, one is made, but for the remaining 30 I had to cut 120 of the petal fabric, 120 of the centre fabric, and 240 of the background fabric.

After that, I just didn’t have the energy to make any more blocks. I’m hoping to sneak in an evening this week to get started on them. If not, it will be a weekend job.

This will give you an idea of the layout we are going for. Alternating bee/flower blocks, with black sashing and yellow corner stones. I think it’s going to look just perfect when its together.

It seems not even Walmart is safe for me when it comes to crafty temptations… We went there to get a few odds and ends the other week and I came home with this guy…

Because apparently I needed another thing to add to the ‘to-paint’ pile. As he has a bit of an expiry date (with Christmas approaching and all), I decided to get started on him this weekend.

Naturally, Lemmy had to be part of this process as well. We don’t sit at the table often, so I think he gets really excited when we do. And then when I bring out crafty stuff and put it on top – he just loses his mind with excitement.

I managed to keep his paws out of the paint and the process went pretty well. The wood surface is much easier to paint than the molded pots.

It still took all afternoon. And I’m not quite done. The white needs a second coat, and the details need to be lined in. (I got some new paint pens so I’m excited for that part). But, it was more than enough work for the day, so I put it away for next weekend.

When he’s complete, he’ll sit outside beside the front door to welcome guests.

For the latest tiny needle project, I decided to move onto something a little different than cross-stitching. You may remember a post a few months ago where I talked about the embroidery kits mom and I got.

I decided this weekend was the perfect time to get started. the kit comes with everything you need except the fabric you are going to embroider on. The kit suggests denim, but I wanted something a little lighter.

I decided on a solid mid-grey cotton. This is one of the bolts I keep in stock for background fabric with the quilting. As you can see, the kit also comes with the patterns printed on these genius little sticky papers. You just stick them on, stitch over top, then they dissolve away with cold water when you’re done.

Now – I did consider doing a few practice pieces first.. you know… since I’ve never really done any embroidery (the odd stitch face on a stuff doesn’t really count). But this is me, so I decided to dive right in.

Things got off to a pretty good start. My stem stitch could probably use a little work, but it wasn’t bad enough to rip it out, so I kept going. With Lemmy’s help of course!

Soon enough I had all the leaves and stems done and was already moving onto the flowers. Embroidery was definitely going faster than cross stitch!

Then I hit a snag…. the dreaded French Knot. I do have experience with the French Knot because it comes up occasionally in cross stitch. And I have NEVER been good at it. It took me a full half hour just to get these few little knots done.

And they are far from perfect…. and you can see how many more knots I have to do! Sigh…

It was going so well.

It’s going to sit in a time out this week and I’ll try again on the weekend. I will get those knots knotted if it’s the last thing I do!

I needed another knit on the needles so I dug deep into the stash and came up with a ball of Alley Cat BFL.

Back when we closed up the yarn shop, I dyed up the rest of the leftover undyed yarn. I did several balls in mostly solid colours so I could use the for lacework… just like sock above. I’ve called this colour Ancient Oak because it’s close in colour to the leaves as they fall off my neighbours oak tree.

The pattern is Mercury. It’s a pretty easy lace pattern, and it grows pretty quickly. It’s also nice and stretchy – everything you want in a sock.

I’m hoping to have this pair off the needles by the end of the month. I think I can… I think I can…