I'm setting myself the challenge of blogging a minimum of five days a week. I was thinking of the goal being a blog post every day but I prefer to be realistic and to have fun rather than feel pressure.

My posts will take the form of a quirky art diary of my everyday life, of things that thrill my senses, stir my passions and fuel my curiosity.

What's more, these arty celebrations of the simple things in life are available for you to buy if they sing to you! To find out more all you need to do is click on the 'Art Prints' button above.

While walking home from visiting a friend I popped into my local sewing cafe to browse the books-for-sale shelf and found a gloriously inspirational book: 'The Embroiderer's Workbook' by Jan Messent. The ideas and exercises in it have been rolling around my head, a bit like that 'rolling boil' stage of jam-making!

Yesterday, while I was cleaning the Big-House-on-the-Hill, I took this photo on my phone with a view to putting some of Jan Messent's exercises into practice.

Her's is a very different way of working to mine. Mine is 'wing it and see, adapting and changing as it goes' and hers is methodical with very thorough preparation using drawings and experiments.

Of course, both approaches are equally valid but I'm curious to feel what Jan's is like and I'm hoping that as a result I will be able to create with more depth and less mistake-fixing in the final piece!.

The window display and the name of a new shop in town enticed me in to explore. It's called 'Junk and Disorderly'!

As I stepped inside I was brought to a stop with an 'oh' of delight on my lips. It looked like a grotto, a true emporium, far from its tongue-in-cheek name. While having a thorough look around (talk about firing my creative synapses!) I came across this piece of material:

My project that started with the stitching group is finished! Yeeha!

It's my second hand stitching project and I'm rather chuffed with it. It took what felt like a long time as I have been learning how to tie off, put a knot right at the very end of my thread and execute stitches. The instructions I've been using have been for right-handers (I'm a leftie) so reversing them has taken a bit of practice, but with the help of my fellow stitchers who taught me to 'sew towards me', I've created this fellow:

This is the first side I created. I was finding my feet with it and working with the 'what if...' principle in mind.

This is the second side. A bit less 'what if..' and a little more planning and a little more confidence.

I layered fabfics and ribbon and used water soluble stabiliser with yarns as a base, then embroidered and beaded and stuffed.

The seahorse now lives happily with two of my good friends.

There seem to be a few long skirts with elasticated waists in my wardrobe. That style isn't flattering to me but I love the fabrics so I've been trawling the internet to see what I could do with them. How about turning one into a dress?

Here it is!

I cut off the waistband in a straight line, opened the side seams from the top down to make armholes, made a casing at the top edge and threaded a ribbon through for the straps.

It's loose and very swishy and looks great with leggings and boots. I'm looking forward to warm weather so I can wear it bare-legged, with sandals.