I know diamond painting isn’t to everyone’s taste, but I’ve found it very relaxing and quite addictive since I discovered this hobby in 2021. I’ve just finished a floral design – no idea what flower it’s meant to be but
I love all the greys, pinks, and swirly bits. I’m about to begin one of the cheap kits bought in Noz last month.
This one is not full coverage – it’ll be interesting to see if it makes the pandas look more 3-dimensional or not.
I haven’t been very talkative this month – still seem to be spending my days nipping outside with Tali, and doing lots of K9 education, but it’ll be worth it once she’s fully grown. Above photo taken on 16th Jan when she was 13 weeks. She’s now 15 weeks, tips the scales at 10.5kg and is still keeping us on our toes.
I tried to get a photo of Tali & Ziva together and ended up with this: blurry cat and blurred dog tail lol.
We’ve put a little gate across the bottom of the stairs, more symbolic than anything else, to stop Tali going upstairs. Ziva doesn’t mind being in close contact with Tali, but the other cats still prefer to keep out of her way.
Out in the hen coop, the hens are continuing their go-slow . . . the three of them seem to be taking it in turns to lay, and I only collected 44 eggs for January.
As for crafting . . . I seem to be on a go-slow too. I’ve got a sweater that’s waiting for raglan seams to be sewn so I can pick up and knit the collar. I’m currently working on a pair of crocheted slippers, following the basic pattern from one of my new books (photos soon) and I’ve also been doing some diamond painting because that doesn’t require much brain power. My current project is looking like this
Something floral, for a change! But I suddenly find myself with a diamond painting stash because there were lots of cheap kits in a local shop the other week, and I couldn’t resist.
These are only partial coverage, but for the price, I’m happy with that. 3.99€ for the 30cm x 30cm ones and 4.65€ or the 30cm x 40cm ones.
Trying to get in a few more finishes before the end of the year. Today, some diamond painting for me, and some painting for the husband. We bought these two kits a few weeks ago in a local shop
in an attempt to get into the festive spirit lol. They kept us out of mischief for a couple of hours.
This little wooden kit has 4 different layers which give it a 3D effect. And the little snowman runs on batteries to turn him into a little night-light
which I won’t leave switched on for long, but he was quite fun to make.
I also completed the larger project I began in November.
Life has been a little chaotic here recently and I haven’t felt up to spending many hours working on needle craft projects, like knitting, crochet, cross stitch etc. However, I have felt the need to keep my hands busy, therefore I’ve been having regular sessions of diamond painting.
Earlier this month I showed the canvas of a new project about to be started.
That has been finished, and I’ll admit to being disappointed with the result.
It’s the colours and marking on the tabby cat which don’t look right and all those different coloured blotches on the background, but hey ho! It kept me amused several evenings and I only paid 4.20€ for the kit, which has now been slipped inside my A3 folder. I’m about to begin another design (another 4.20€ one) but am feeling more optimistic about this next one.
Not sure if it’s a leopard, jaguar or panther, but I’m going to say it’s a leopard.
Whiskers look like they’re going to end up way too bushy, but the general choice of colours looks fairly good. Time will tell.
I’m a bit of skin-flint when it comes to diamond painting – an activity I took up only a few years ago. I know there are dedicated on-line stores where you can buy kits but I tend to buy mine on either @m@zon or eb@y, and haven’t paid more than 10€ for a single kit yet. Anyway, way back in February of this year, I splashed out the grand total of 6.97€ for a dreamy fox design. Diamond painting got put on the back-burner this year, but a few hours here & there, and I’ve finished my canvas.
Dreamy foxy looks much better from a distance, but I’m really pleased with how he turned out.
As with all of these cheap kits, the size printed on the design is the total size of canvas, and the actual picture finished up at approx 30cm x 40cm. That’s fine by me. I’m not going to frame this piece, but will slip it into an A3 folder I bought to store my finished DPs. As always, I had lots of drills left over.
Some diamond painters throw their excess drills away. I always keep mine because these kits come with DMC colour references, and I feel it’s a good idea to keep them for “spares” just in case.
I’ve already sorted drills for the next DP project. Again, a really cheap kit. I paid only 4.20€ for this one, in a local shop called Noz, and I already know it’s not going to look like the photo on the package.
That’s the photo, and the reason I bought this one is because the colouring of both cats looks very much like our Le Bleu and Abby, who do sometimes sleep together. However, after sorting drills, and having a closer look at canvas and DMC colour refs
I reckon everything is going to look rather sepia. Not to worry! I enjoy the process of DPing, and for the price, I have a kit which will give me hours of enjoyment. Just in case you’re curious as to how I organise myself . . . drills usually come in heat-sealed sachets, which aren’t practical at all, so I have a supply of small zip lock sachets. I prep the kit first, transferring all the drills into zip-lock sachets.
And I have a plastic box (double sided) where I store all the little bags, plus plastic trays, wax & the plastic “pens” that are always supplied in kits.
It’s an inexpensive way of keeping things organised.
I am a very lucky lady. Postlady dropped a plump envelope in the letter box the other day, with an un-birthday gift from Jacqueline.
Jacqueline is a very talented needleworker who also makes lace. I feel very honoured, because it must take forever to do and need very good eyesight. I was sent, my intial in silk thread, a bookmark in cotton thread and an embroidery kit . Many thanks!
Also feeling lucky because I nabbed myself a vintage bargain at the weekend. A local family were having an “everything must go” sale, selling contents of their mother’s house. Rest assured, not deceased, but moved into a nursing home where she can’t take all her belongings. Anyway, I went along and saw this.
Couldn’t resist, and paid 30€ so it could come home with me. It was made by a local furniture-maker, late 60s/early 70s. I love the style, and the legs. Reminds me of the furniture my parents had during my early childhood.
And before I sign off for today . . . I’ve been busy knitting and xstitching, but also sticking a few drills on my fox DP project every now and then. So I’ve progressed from
to
A bit of this & that today . . . first up, Ziva!
Feeling very at home here these days (and it’s less than 2 months since she joined us). Here she is, enjoying the wet food I put out for Ducky, leaving Ducky to make do with the dried food. Ziva had her third vaccine this morning, and her micro-chip. She weighed in at 1.850kg, so that’s +300g in 3 weeks. She’s not quite 4 months old . . . next visit for her will be at the end of the year to be spayed.
Ducky is the only one of our three cats who is prepared to be in close quarters with Ziva, and only when food is involved. The rest of the time, he’d rather be outside, enjoying the dandelions . . . along with Le Bleu and Abby who won’t come indoors until they know that Ziva is shut away for the night.
Ob (Mr & Mrs Tattoo’s cat) is the only cat who puts up with Ziva during the daytime . . . and even then, he doesn’t like her too close.
I doubt she’ll be allowed in the Tattoo’s bedroom again soon though, because she had another “accident” and peed on their bed AGAIN!
On the crafting front . . . my poncho knitting project is growing, very slowly. Has progressed from this
I’m past the 43cm mark, and have placed markers for the start of armhole section, and have to carry on knitting straight for a total of 70cm, so quite a few rows to go. It doesn’t look very wide, because it’s all scrunched up on my straight needle, but it’s 171 stitches across.
Oh, and after enjoying the instant gratification of completing the diamond painting kit of 4 Mandala design cards, I have picked up a canvas I began way back in February of this year, and been working on a larger design.
While crochet, knitting & cross stitch is what keeps me busy most of the time these days, I have been diamond painting a little too. Recently bought a kit to make 4 cards
Bargain price, only 1.49€ for the pack which contains 4 cards, 4 enveloppes, drills, etc. I’ve done three so far, which kept me quiet for a few hours.
And a photo of little Ziva . . . who spends her days charging up & down two flights of stairs; annoying all the adult cats; hissing at the dog; sitting patiently by the French windows in the hopes that she can sneak out into the garden (no such chance! she hasn’t had all her vaccines yet, nor her micro-chip!) . . . and occasionally sitting still long enough for me to take a photo.
Summer is here! A good excuse as any to post a little un-birthday gift to one of my followers: Jacelia.
A cross stitch kit: “le coeur fraises” by Isabelle Vautier. And a “diamond painted” bookmark.
I’ve been concentrating on two projects these past few days: my knitting and some diamond painting.
Knitting is coming along in leaps & bounds, but not quite finished.
My “Shavo” sweater in pink. It looks finished because the sleeves are now done. They’re knitted by picking up stitches and knitting directly onto the body which gives a great, almost seamless, finish. However I haven’t yet tackled the job of sewing up the sleeve & side seams . . . so be patient, and I’ll get that done soon!
What did get finished was my lion diamond painting.
I thoroughly enjoyed sticking all the little drills down on this one, and loved working with all the bright colours. Have already ordered in two new kits because I find diamond dotting quite addicitve!
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