Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone. Let's hope for a much better year. Judging by the lack of blog posts many of you like me haven't done much crafting between Christmas and New Year. I have been cross stitching but only went into the craft room to make this cross stitch into a card. I do plan on getting back in there this afternoon after we take down the tree and cards in the lounge.  We took the other decorations and tree from the conservatory on Wednesday. I love them but it is nice to have a good clean and get straight. I can't bear decorations left up after today. New year, clean start.

I really enjoy sewing small cross stitch images and this owl is from a free pattern from Durene Jones. I changed the colours as the owl is purple in the pattern which I thought rather odd. I also like using whatever colours I have and that I feel suit the image.  I made a frame using a stitched square die. Unfortunately I didn't have the right size square die to cut out the centre so had to measure and cut the centre out. The paper is from an old pad by Nikki Sivils called tree love. I punched some stars and made the moon using a small circle die.

I didn't make as many cards as usual last year, though I still made 163 plus various other items. I didn't do as much scrapbooking as planned either. I start every year with good intentions but last year was such a strange year that I didn't always feel like crafting as much. We did 86 jigsaws, mostly 1000 pieces, which is more than we usually do. Many afternoons were spent puzzling and playing music. A good way to forget what is happening in the world along with reading. I must have read around 50 books I reckon.

Yesterday we printed out some photos from our Cornwall holiday and I have sorted them into a new scrapbook along with photos from the previous two years. I will be making a start on that soon and will endeavour to be a better scrapbooker.

 The next two months will be mainly spent at home I think so plenty of time for crafting, puzzling, cross stitching, reading, listening to music, going for walks and watching TV.  Thank goodness for Netflix and Amazon Prime. We have enjoyed some great shows on there since we subscribed last March.

Stay home, stay safe and happy crafting.