study in golds & greys

Do you ever get an image or an idea in your head and then have it stay there for days until you finally make that image or idea happen? That's where this, above, came from. I'd been seeing this combination of greys and golds... knowing that I wanted to put it together with those white flowers that are now blooming in our yard, against a dark background of black, and I couldn't go on with normal work until I did it. Phew!

The Stay Gold piece is a new version I did last week or so, from a design I've done before but love so much I can't let it go. :) I'd actually found and bought the frame weeks ago (hello, Home Goods!), and that was the inspiration. I'd long thought about doing this one with yellow-gold stitching on grey -- the same combination as the popular Ring Around the Posey kit. So many people remark on that color combination at craft fairs and such, and I just recently used it for a custom piece -- it seemed like the perfect colors to put in the frame.

The Life is Beautiful piece is actually a poster print. Before I sold the original stitched piece, I had it scanned and then later had a few digital prints made up. I was hoping that this would be an easier process and that I'd be able to do this with a lot of my designs on a regular basis. Other people who make and sell prints make it look so easy; this was not the case with my work! The colors were never quite perfectly right, and I just didn't have the patience to keep on trying. So, I gave up on the business of making and selling digital prints -- but I still have a few left over! Though they never met my expectations of perfectly fancy prints, they are terrific for a *much* less expensive piece of home decor. I actually like them as a more casual decorating option. They do work in a frame, 11x17 - which isn't as common as 11x14, but it is a standard size -- but I like these prints when tacked up on a wall with a collection of other scraps of memorabilia and art. I don't have any bright pink washi tape, but I bet it'd look really cool anchoring the corners!

The top circular hoop piece is my stitched sample of the Ring Around the Posey kit -- available as a DIY in my shop here. The little cloud next to it is one of my one-of-a-kind silver-lined clouds, and it's also currently available in the shop. Right about in the middle is a chippy-yellow-paint vintage metal embroidery hoop with my favourite fabric of the moment dispayed inside. And in the hoop below is a vintage applique that B brought home from a yardsale for me last weekend; I stitched it onto a piece of linen and framed it in the hoop.

Hip hip hooray for making things happen! And now, I've gotta get back to all that work that I was only half-doing while my mind was so distracted with this project. Happy weekend, friends!