Embroidery for a tea addict

Good morning folks. Just sharing with you another make done in stages and finally handed out recently for a birthday that happened a long time ago. Long distance friendships, what can I say.
The stitches read 'you're just my cup of tea' and the ribbon reads 'handmade with love'. My crafting seems to be improving but my ability to take pictures is not.
I saw this idea in a shop and thought I should give it a go. I drew the pattern on the back of the fabric so you wouldn't see the pencil marks - I'm not a brilliant artist so I knew I would need to hide the pencil marks.
This worked quite well except you have to keep turning the fabric over to make sure you're following the pattern but making sure that the stitches look good on the right side. I wish I had used my embroidery hoop and cannot highlight enough how useful these rounds of wood are. It would've made my life much easier. I used backstitch for the pattern and the words which I think worked quite well.
If you're looking for an alternative mothers day gift and have a little ditty that you and a special someone share, these might be just the thing. I'm really pleased with the outcome, it's a really personal gift that I think my friend likes. I guess I will know if I see it when I next go and visit.

Crap at life, good at craft

I think the title of today's post definitely should be written on a tombstone for me. 

Today I was supposed to get my visa. I was supposed to go to the Indian consulate, prove I'm a person and leave to return one day next week to collect my visa allowing me to travel to Howrah in less than a fortnights time. 

Upon arrival at the wrong building whilst surveying the people around me I realised quite an important thing. I'm an idiot. It was bad enough that I was at the wrong place but the cherry on the cake was that I had driven an hour and a half to produce my passport to the authorities with one minor mishap- I had forgotten my passport.

Oops! Oh well I thought maybe they could process my paperwork without it. So after I wandered listlessly around the jewellery quarter (talk about temptation!) I found the right building and a rather friendly security guard who informed me that I was a dreamer with no hope. He put it more politely than that but the sentiment was the same. He gave me a ticket and pointed me in the right direction and I dutifully waited for the third person to tell me I'm a duffus. I had already given myself a stern telling off.

The tv shouted me to the booth and the security man was right. There was no hope for me. I would have to return a different day. Ah well at least I know where I am going and I had accurately inserted information about my parents- that much they could tell me. But to get the visa another trip was necessary. As I walked and then drove home I must've said 'on the bright side' a dozen times. This put me in quite a good mood - there was no one around to remind me how ridiculously I had failed. As such I thought I would give machine embroidery another try, and guess what? It worked!

I've finished three words and already thinking about the fourth. With a little bit of time and a lot of patience I managed to fix the machine problem. Admittedly I had to sacrifice a needle at the alter of sewing machine Gods but my offering seemed to please them.

So although my journey of self discovery led me to realise I'm still scatty and a little bit stupid, at least I still get my craft right. And let's face it, who wants to be good at life when you're awesome at craft?