I know, I’ve shown pictures of this embroidery project before, but…
It looked so pretty in the sun the other night, I couldn’t help but take more pictures.
I loved the way the silver candlestick sparkled in the light. And that you can really see the three-dimensions of the girl’s braid.
Not to mention every french knot in the trailing Christmas cactuses.
This picture, you’ll remember comes from my very favorite Carl Larsson painting. Called, I believe “Girl at Desk,” or something like that. I’ve had it on a greeting card since I was in college. Then, the card was pinned to the wall next to my desk, but a few years later, I decided to do more. I traced the outlines of the picture onto tracing paper, and then blew it up on a copy machine. Then–I don’t remember exactly how–I transferred the outline to a piece of something like very fine needlepoint canvas, but something which had a very distinct weave which made straight lines easier to sew.
I went to a local embroidery store and browsed through assorted silks and threads of all kinds, to find the right colors, the right textures for the different elements. And then for a year, I sat with a stitch dictionary and my picture, filling everything in, matching just the right stitch with each piece. I even made up a few, like that staggered satin stitch for the wood panelling.
Really, it was enormous fun. It’s just a pity that there isn’t a single other painting that inspires me to try the whole thing all over again!
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So, I’ve had this little pot of bamboo for four and a half years. It was a wedding favor at my sister’s brother-in-law’s wedding in August 2005. Ever since, it lived in my bathroom. Three stems died, but one of them hung in there and made the move with us last November.
It didn’t seem to like the new bathroom, though, probably because there was no natural light. And one by one, its leaves turned yellow. Even when I moved it to the hallway … yellow, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to throw it away.
Then, this morning, Mom pointed out the single, green leaf sprouting from the top.
There’s hope yet.
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