a bit of this and a bit of that

I'm still nursing the aching back, but the DH is moving right along on projects

he's been going out early in the morning while it is still cool and working for a bit before breakfast

it's looking wonderful --- where before there were weeds, scruffy tufts of grass and patches of bare dirt because the big pine tree "poisons" the soil for growing grass -- now there is an artfully curved red brick edging, some stepping stones and a thick layer of red chipped mulch

he'll be adding a bit more white rock there under the juniper bush to finish off the area that is under the faucet, and more red mulch where the rest of the weed block cloth is, and I'll be cleaning up the little concrete animals I have to add to the look

nice!

 after last week's Epic Fail it was back to the drawing board on this project

the DH designed a new block for me, and because it was so much easier (no funny shapes or odd angles) being made up of squares and rectangles, I was able to whip together both of these backgrounds in no time at all

the next step is to create the witch hat and shoes that will be appliqued over this background

I've decided to create that as a whole piece and applique it in one step

the light weight backing material has been marked, so I can start on that project today

cool!  maybe I will be able to get these all done in time
and time spend in the chair with the ice on my back gave me time to work on this piece

around the the top edge I've used the dark beads and a lot of the three dimensional texture, while the bottom edge is a smoother technique and I've used the lighter color there

and I'm seeing this piece has having a sort of picot edge around the top half, some lush fringe with some amethyst dagger tips and a thick bead woven "chain"

it's actually been a while since I started a piece with nothing more than the stones as inspiration and had such a clear idea for where it was going by this stage --- nice

usually on Monday morning I'd be deep in the weeds of laundry by now, but this morning I'm not -- the DH suggested it might be good to rest the back for at least another day, and I decided he had a good point, so aside from some other small kitchen projects today I'll be doing more ice and more ibuprofen and more rest to try to get back to "normal" again