February 2025

February is a chilly month, so often misty and damp, scarf and wellie weather! Today I picked a few celandines from the churchyard opposite our cottage, there are masses of them, so a few will not be missed. I put these with some of our own snowdrops in a small vase for the breakfast table, a bright spot of loveliness beside the toast and marmalade! Even the littlest things can bring happiness.

I have been working hard on cards for a variety of occasions. Having been focused on Christmas for months, January and February are a time for catching up, re-stocking the website and fulfilling gallery orders. Good progress is being made…it is cheering to be stitching spring flowers, rabbits and lambs!  

January 2025

As I write this the sun is sinking fast and there is a pink glow lighting up little puffy white clouds low on the horizon. The pale blue sky above is clear; soon white crispness will enfold itself around every leaf and molehill, and we will put a big log on the fire. Early January is a mysterious time, when we peer forwards into a new year whilst still surrounded by the bits and pieces of Christmas, the stuff of the old year, now no longer with us.

This time the new calendars bring with them a shift in temperatures; a reminder that real winter weather is just beginning. When I was a young teenager, prompted by the sight of my parents hanging up a blank calendar, I wrote a poem which contained the words ‘all those un-lived days’ which expressed something I still feel even now. Every one of those days will be a big day for someone, a birth, a death, a birthday, an engagement, a wedding. As I stitch my cards I often think of the person who it is intended for and the special time in their life when they will open the envelope.

I hope 2025 will bring you many blessings and happy days.

December 2024

Advent is here, and the countdown to Christmas begins! The Christmas department is well-stocked (Tab on Home Page) and the small framed embroideries make a unique and lasting gift. Happy browsing!

Every year I try to remember that there are no rules for celebrating Christmas, and although I am a bit of a traditionalist at heart, change is fine too, as situations alter and I get older! With all the glitter and buzz everywhere it is easy to become distracted and miss the natural wonders that December brings as we dip deep into the darkest time of the year. This sunrise a couple of days ago stopped me in my tracks; the colours and brilliance behind the silhouetted trees just so beautiful. Teatime brings the sunsets across the fields behind the church, another glory to bookend the day. The old year is fading; a time for looking forward and looking back.