It Runs In The Family

With all the goings on over the past few weeks, I completely forgot to show off one of my best Christmas presents. My elder sister lives in Greece and has access to two amazing bead shops in central Athens. She is also very handy with needles, both sewing and knitting. In my parcel was this wonderful hessian shoulder bag sewn, appliqued and embroidered entirely by her. Cute!


She's lined it and made a pocket too! I can't wait until the warmer weather when I can use this for summer outings. There's more, because inside the bag was this treasure trove....


She has obviously thought very carefully about which beads I would like as I love them all, particularly the ones like little birds' eggs...and the cats....oh, and the shells.....
I don't know what to make with them yet, but very soon inspiration will strike I'm sure.

It's been a difficult week for arts & crafts this week - due to the extra exercise walking through the snow as well as going back to work, combined with a still-mourning-and-restless-at-night dog, I keep falling asleep in the evenings after I've eaten! The lace shawl has made a bit of progress, I've nearly finished a hat, and the one piece of artwork I have done this week is in transit to it's new owner and I can't show it until they've seen it first - it wouldn't be fair. Perhaps now the snow is rapidly melting (hooray, I could drive to the supermarket!!) and things are getting back to normal, I may be more productive over the coming week. But for now, I'm off to lie on the sofa with a cup of tea and the new Yarn Forward magazine.....