As I gaze across the dry packed earth of my garden spaces..........

some with tired, weary looking plants.......

some still filled with early spring weeds........

I realize that although, in early spring, my 

intentions were so great to create beautiful garden areas, 

the high heat......my laziness of not wanting to work 

out in the heat.... and many other excuses,  make 

my gardens.........full of flaws and make

the quote above reflect so much about me.

I also shudder and think to myself......."what was I thinking?" when 

one year, many years ago..............I stayed up in the wee morning hours making homemade place mats..........with 

........of all things.........

appliqued watermelon slices on them............

even worse.........

to give to my husband's family...............

yes..........I really did...............

I really thought they were great.........at that moment.

Can you imagine the look on their faces when they opened the box

to find these very primitive "things" made for them??

And what is worse..............I continued to make

more "handmade things"  

until I started realizing............maybe I should have given "gift giving" 

more thought.  

Thank goodness for loving family and friends, 

.......yes, my friends were not immune..........

who really just took these things and 

did not tell me just how absurd these "works of art" 

really were!!!

So many flaws........with good intentions! 

I think......they really knew my heart was in the right place.......

just not my sense of reality!   

Have you spent hours.........

full of good intentions,

excited as you go creating along........

making a homemade "work of art" for someone........

to realize much later........after giving it.........

how you wish you hadn't??  

I would love to hear! 

For all of you who tried to guess what my embroidered project was.........your guesses were very good......

but no one guessed that 

it is a handbag !

Now I am finished and can show it.

This photo you saw in the last post photo is the front pocket..........

I tinted the designs with crayon because I did  

not want the embroidery to look like "dish towel" 

embroidery.  Tinting fills in large areas and 

allows me to accent it with embroidery stitches.

I had to add a beaded dragonfly.  

and a colorful

assortment of 

butterflies.

I love floral scallops and added this to the top of 

the handbag. 

although the inside of the handbag looks good, I did not want 

the threads of the embroidery to get snagged by keys or 

to get stained by a leaky ink pen....

so I chose a colorful print fabric to line the 

inside of the bag

This butterfly and rose fabric was perfect to use as a liner......

don't you think so?

This is a very sturdy canvas bag and I love the black

bottom and straps. The thick canvas was very tiring 

on my hands to stitch, so I am beyond glad I am finished with this.

Thank all of you for your sweet comments and for playing along

by trying to guess.  

I think I am in the mood for cross stitch now and am 

planning on working on a couple of cross stitch projects that

need to be finished. 

How about you?

What are you keeping your hands busy with?

Painting, gardening, sewing, quilting, or embroidery?

I would love to hear!

My new project started...................

can  you tell what I am embroidering on?

This is just the start............ one section done..............

I have many stitches to still work before I am finished. 

"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly, "one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."  

Hans Christian Andersen