Final Flourish

Today is the last day of holidays - back to normality tomorrow.   But I have one last finish to show.
The chart for this languished in my stash cupboard for years until I was spurred into action by Pamela.   I don't have the charms for this but think it is charming without and am mighty pleased with the result.   Instead of a ribbon closure I made twisted cord in Perle #5 and this works a treat.

And the last of the holiday photos are from a visit to a small village near where Little Brother lives.   This small village has the unfortunate name of Bulls - named after the original store owner James Bull.   Nowadays they market themselves with a plethora of puns on the town's name.   Previous signs of "New Zealand gets its milk from Bulls" have been replaced by this one.

The police station is named Consta-Bull, the dress shop is Fashiona-Bull etc etc.   The HD3QBEM and I had a bite to eat at a small café and I thought these were adora-bull!

And today while out this car fluttered its eyelashes at me and I just had to take a photo!

Have a good week.  I intend to.

My 1kg project

Feeling quite colour deprived after some weeks of tone on tone, I paid a visit to my stash cupboard.
Pamela had inspired me with her post here.  I knew I had that chart in my stash so several minutes later chart, linen and floss were all selected ready to go.

Once my needle hit the linen there was no stopping.  This week in spare moments after work I have stitched and have vanquished the "colour deprivation" as well as the "after dinner nibbles" so am well pleased with myself.   An almost complete Miss Kitty's Dragons and a 1kg weight loss - all in one week.   Unusual construction techniques really appeal to me and this one has all four corners folding in with mathematical precision to create a cute little needle book.
Here's the two corners - opposite corners are identical.

 

There is just enough variety that I don't grow frustrated with cross stitch only.   Here there are Smyrna crosses, leaf stitch, leviathans (?!) eyelets and a large-size rice stitch variant.   These pretty colours are not really my usual choice but they sure work well together.   Stitching on this will probably be completed tonight.
Now what project can I choose that will lose me another 1kg this week??
Yesterday morning this greeted me as I rose for the day.   Summer is over here and we are feeling the Autumn cool in the air and the weather forecasts talk about cool southerly winds.   But I love Autumn and the changing colours of the oak trees.   The huge chestnut tree on our boundary is covered in green spiky balls which will hopefully turn into glistening dark chestnuts to go into the cook pot for chestnut rice.  Yum!
Have a good week everybody.