Cross-stitch Mouse and Blackwork Owl

Here are a couple of little projects I have recently completed, I am only posting them now as one of them was a gift I have only recently given :).

This is the blackwork owl, I have named him Horace because of his angry eyebrows! I have a bit of an owl obsession :) It's about the time of year that my infamous owl hat, Monty needs to come out of the cupboard! Anyway, this little blackwork piece was done from a kit that I bought at a stitch craft show last year, he only took me a couple of days to complete, and is currently framed, hanging up in my little living room :)

Horace

The next little piece was originally planned as a card for a friend and her husband congratulating them on the birth of their daughter, but then I decided to frame it and give it to them as something that they can keep instead :) I decided on a design with a mouse, as these friends run a mouse and small animal rescue and rehome operation, I myself have adopted mice from them, 8 in total I think, but unfortunately I have none left, I miss those little critters, full of personality, but my flat now is just too small to accommodate them as well as the bunny and hamster!

Anyway, back to my mousey cross stitch, this is my first attempt at this sort of thing without a kit, using the supplies I bought from amazon (see previous post "supplies") and a book of cross stitch designs. I used 14 count white aida, and a selection of different embroidery flosses. Unfortunately the cheap floss I bought doesn't have a coding system at all that I could tell, so I just had to select the colours I thought would fit best, and I think it turned out ok. The aida was great to work with, no more fraying than any other aida I have used, and the floss didn't fray either, the only drawback was the lack of a coding system, but considering how cheap it was (£15 for 100 skeins) I am very impressed. Here is the finished and framed mousey:

My nail kit has still not arrived yet, I called up the company I ordered it from and they said it should be here early next week, so hopefully soon I shall have another blog up and running following the progress of learning nail skills :) I am so excited for it's arrival, I've been daily checking my emails for a dispatch notice!

Anyway, my dinner is just about ready to come out of the oven - yum! So I will leave you now, with a picture of my bunny rabbit Bert, just 'cos he's awesome :)

Much love, S x