Mixed Media

This weekend has mainly been about making things with Hama beads, banging nails in the wall and moving pictures around. Lots of time has been spent hanging small groups of small things on the walls, in various different parts of the house. Faffing about. Pottering.

I still find those Hama beads endlessly appealing and inspiring; the grid, the counting - it's like cross stitch. I had fun first drawing a Dala horse onto a grid on paper, then recreating my image with beads. The kids love making things with them, and our "pictures" are quick to make and so bendy, wipe-able and generally indestructible as to make them almost useful. We've got quite a lot of "mats" now.

Angus claimed the Dala horse and I hung it on the wall in their bedroom, in between Darth Vadar and Angus's drawing of a diplodocus.

It's not often I am drawn to a Cath Kidston print these days, but I always liked her flamboyant rose motifs and I especially like them in this pixelated form. It makes me want to make a giant patchwork quilt made up of single-colour squares, one huge version of a kitsch rose.

This was an enjoyable little project and they do make handy mats to go under wet vases of flowers. (The other mat depicts a floral cross stitch motif from Alicia Paulson's book Embroidery Companion.)

The collection of pictures in the dining room has been bugging me. I like them all separately but I think they are not right at the moment. Not wrong, but just not quite right. 

Too much white and paleness on the left hand side, maybe. Something needs to go above the lamp, and I'd like to continue this display over the whole wall, maybe even above the door to the kitchen, just to the right of the lamp, but the dining room is a darker part of the house and I don't know if it might all start to look a bit cluttered. 

But there is one gorgeous new addition to my picture wall, and that is this hoop-framed embroidery:

Isn't it sweet? I was lucky enough to win it in a blog giveaway held by Helene of Petite Laine. It arrived over Easter and what a parcel of goodies it was; bunting, stationary, postcards, notepads - so many lovely things.

I liked the look of the fabrics in the bunting straightaway but when I opened it up I realised it said "hello"...

So sweet. Thank you, Helene, I love it, and you are very talented and generous.

Right, I am off to put the hammer away. It's time to step away from the picture walls and leave them be for a while.

Wishing you all a lovely week.