The Wishing Chair...

Once upon a time there was a girl who read a book called 'The Wishing Chair,' and after she read it, she decided she wanted her very own rocking chair. If it also flew her to magical places, that would be a bonus...

Well as rocking chairs were hard to come by back then, being decidedly "not on trend," and the girl had little means of her own, being very young and without the magic of the internet, she had no luck finding such a chair.

Many years passed and the girl grew up and became distracted by many other weird and wonderful things, but in the back of her mind was always the childlike desire to possess her very own wishing chair.

Finally there came a day when the girl realised that rocking chairs were finally "trending right now" but she realised to her dismay that they were either terribly expensive or cheap on eBay but many miles away and with "collection in person," as a condition of sale.

The girl almost gave up hope...

Then one day she found herself wandering  through a car boot sale when lo and behold, there amidst the dust and the dirt and the all pervading smell of fried onions that always seems to invade car boot sales, the girl spotted, at last, a rocking chair.

 

It was a thing of joy to her although up close she realised it was a little battered and most definitely what could be described as "pre-loved."

 

But no matter, armed with a trusty brush and a tin of so very purple paint, she was able to transform it in to a magical bohemian wishing chair of wonder and if it isn't quite able to physically sprout wings and fly her to mysterious places, at least she can curl up in it with a good book and imagine she somewhere far far away.

 

 

The End

 

Not just for Valentines...

Hearts! Who doesn't love hearts? They're such a pleasing shape, unlike the real thing...

 

I stitched this folk art inspired heart the other day on to a wooden pendant.

I like the contrast between the (literally) soft embroidery floss and floral motif; against the hard background material of the wood.

 

 

Bilbo and the Butterfly

I took a stitching project with me when I visited my parents the other day. Their little foxy dog was intrigued with my wooden butterfly pendant.

Stitching on pre perforated wooden objects is fun because you can immediately utilise the project without having to frame it or stitch it on to something else. This makes it especially good for jewellery and other accessories like key chains etc...

It can present different challenges to stitching on fabric though as there is no 'give' with the material. You cannot manipulate your needle and thread in the same way as you would with fabric. Starting off and finishing off can be a bit more of a fiddle and I think overall, you have to sacrifice a bit more thread to the project.

I'm very happy with the end result of my colourful butterfly pendant though.

 

 

Red or Dead or My Undying Love for Henna

I love Copperhead, one of the new shampoo bars from Lush Cosmetics; created to add shine for darker hair tones with red Persian henna for shine and condition and cocoa butter to soften the hair as well.

Coffee and roasted cocoa extract blend with Fairtrade vanilla absolute and vetiver oil to create a rich intoxicating fragrance, that is equal parts exotic spice market meets decadent chocolate temple.

I've used shampoo bars before, they are great for travelling as they are so light, make no mess and last for ages. However, as my hair is long, fairly thick and quite curly, I've found them a little too drying for regular use in the past. They can make my hair a bit fluffy.
I usually use Lush's 'Cynthia Sylvia Stout,' a liquid shampoo that adds weight and is good for shine but I wanted to try the henna shampoo.

I was initially a little sceptical about Copperhead, the henna aspect intrigued me; I'm a redhead and I use Lush's Rouge Henna to enhance my natural colour, creating a darker but brighter end result; but I wondered how much difference the shampoo bar could make with so little henna going on to my hair for such a short time.

I was wrong and was really impressed from my first use at how shiny my hair was afterwards and the cocoa butter really seems to have helped counteract the tendency to make my hair fluffy. In fact, after a few uses, I was asked by several friends at work if I had recently dyed my hair as it was so shiny. 

It's definitely become one of my favourite Lush products already and I think it will be one of my staple products from now on. 

I just hope they bring out a few more products in that delicious aroma.

More henna love below with the gorgeous mehndi I had done in Pushkar in India...

Totoro To-to-ro

The end of 2014 saw some big changes for me, biggest of all, moving house. Amidst all the upheaval of house moving, house unpacking and work being the busiest it is all year, I didn't find time to work on all the stitching projects I had planned.
However, with the year still fresh and currently rather sunny where I'm sitting, in spite of the rain, I've felt the urge to start crafting again.

What better way to be seduced back in to stitching than with this adorable little guy?

 



I'm a big fan of Hayao Miyazaki films and I love the sweetness of 'My Neighbour Totoro;' it may not be as sophisticated or dynamic as some of the later epic tales like 'Spirited Away,'  'Princess Mononoke,' and 'Howl's Moving Castle;' but it retains an understated charm that bears repeat viewings.
Totoro himself of course has gone on to be the definitive Ghibli icon and regardless of whether or not you buy in to internet rumours of dark, tragic implications throughout the film (denied by the director,) it's hard not to fall for the mountainous ball of fluff.

Bohemian Granny Squares

 

You know, the ones your bohemian grandmother would make, the one who spent her youth in Asia chilling out with Tibetan monks and learning yoga from a guru in Kerala. That one.

Using my new found crochet skills, I used up some bits of colourful wool that had been lying around FOREVER in my sewing basket.

 
 

These squares are all the same pattern but I tried to achieve different looks by changing the colours of the thread in different places and in different ways to create unique looking squares.

I hope to master a few new designs in the near future as I am planning to incorporate all my random squares in to one big blanket eventually.

 

Halfway to Heaven

I haven't been able to do much since I hurt my dominant hand last week while practising yoga. I've watched a few films but it seems odd not to be stitching at the same time.

I watched a film called 'Murder By Death,' on Netflix which is very much "of its time," with some painfully hammy foreign accents and Peter Cook pretending to be Chinese. I thought it would be a murder mystery like Poirot or some other Agatha Christie style of film. It was supposed to be hammy and slapstick but seemed to be somewhere between Monty Python, without the cleverness and a Carry On film. 

I had to follow it with the French biopic of Edith Piaf, 'La Vie En Rose,' to feel better about myself. That was good, if a little bleak. Gerard Depardieu seems to have stopped aging a few years back.

 I also watched 'Ishqiya,' a really enjoyable Bollywood black comedy thriller starring the always wonderful Vidya Balan, she's such an interesting actress to watch and seems to have a good eye for unusual box office success stories. I look forward to catching the sequel.

 

 

 

 

Well this ends week one of the torn ligaments saga, hopefully after a second week of wearing the itchy wrist support of restriction, everything can go back to normal and I can start stitching again.

 

 

 

Here are some progress pictures of a big project I've been working on, I've done over half of the cross stitches but there will be a lot of detailed backstitching and French knots before it's completed.

 

She's an oriental goddess of prosperity, another Maia creation.

 

I loved her the minute I saw her, not least because the image reminds me of a long time favourite film of mine, 'A Chinese Ghost Story.'

 

Incidentally, Xena Warrior Princess owes a debt to that film for some of its plot lines.