~ Hello and Goodbye :) ~

After giving it a lot of thought (and also consulting with my shadow, Ben), who has been my faithful partner here on Just Me and My Shadow since we started this blog in February 2008, we have decided not to continue our blog.

Just want to say thank you to each and every person who has visited us here over the past six years and for the lovely comments you have left us.

I will not delete my blog but just won't be updating any more so from Ben and Chrissie....."Thank you, take care and signing out"

~ Hello..... ~

Hello.... once again I looked at my blog and was shocked to see it had been a couple of months since I updated anything.  Now, that isn't to say I haven't been crafting. Just that my crafting has evolved a little and at present I am enjoying working with fabric, lace and doilies and creating projects that hopefully have a bit of a 'time worn' look to them.  I have conjured up an imaginary place in my head where a lot of this crafting takes place and it is 'the attic'  - Grandmother's Attic'to be exact and if you are interested in finding out more about my imaginary place you will need to head over to my YouTube channel 'Chrissiecrosser' I have lots of videos there and this is where I tend to post more about what I have been creating these days.  I hope you may find time to visit me there and subscribe to my channel and hopefully leave me a comment. 

Here is a little sample of what you will find there ....

Oh,  I remembered my shadow Ben hasn't made an appearance here in a while either.  He had his ninth birthday earlier this month and I am so pleased to say he is doing great.  Right now as we are experiencing gorgeous Autumn weather he is spending a lot of time outside enjoying the autumn temperatures....I will just pop out and see if he is lazing out there right now....I'll be right back...

Okay, I'm back.  He was quite co-operative and here are the photos I took of him.  Yes, he is a little whiter around his beautiful face but still a gorgeous boy don't you think....:)

And to finish up with..this shrub (can't remember the name)  is a picture right outside our front door. It has the most subtle fragrance which seems to hang in the air in the evening.  So beautiful.

Wherever you are, I hope all is well with you and thanks for dropping by my blog.

~ Just had to share:) ~

I just had to show you this little blessing that I received yesterday....
I was photographing a little project I made ( if you are interested in seeing more you can see it here ) but I will show you here what happened.:)

This is my little Pocket Full of Posies.... but look closer....

Yes, it is a real live little bee that had come to check out the flowers LOL!!
I think it is a Blue banded bee.  Isn't that just so special and a lovely blessing from nature :)

If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere.  ~Vincent Van Gogh

Thanks for dropping by

~ Family ~

On my last post I mentioned I had several projects to share with you and so here is another of them. This one, I cannot take any credit for as this is a creation of my daughter and I have to say how proud I am of her making this.  Over the holidays while she was home, she decided she was going to buy herself a sewing machine.  I thought this was a great idea so was behind her all the way.  She bought the machine and then raided the fabric drawers to find some pieces of fabrics to start her sewing journey.

Here is what she created for her first project and I think she did an amazing job  of creating something out of odd bits. .  

She has since produced several more great projects including a journal cover, a book cover an organiser for her car... I am very impressed :)

Here is little cross stitched project I did.  This is a Sweetheart Tree chart and I changed the colours from amethysts to blues.. It was a gift for my sister and her colours are blues so here is how it turned out.

Summer is still here in Australia and I have to say I am actually looking forward to the temperatures getting a little cooler when beautiful autumn arrives...Ahhh autumn,,,,,I think it might just have to be my most favourite season!!
Thank you for taking the time to drop by my blog .

~This and That ~

Well, my posts here seem to be a bit few and far between these days and I need to try and be more vigilant at updating my blog. I will try and do better :)

So here is my first post for 2014....thank you to all who take the time to drop by and leave me comments.

I do actually have a few projects to share and would you believe some is actually stitching!

I completed this project last year after it being a WIP for a VERY long time.  It actually started out to be a SAL with a dear friend, Mary, and Mary actually finished her version ...quite some time ago (probably a few years ago in fact) but mine sat unfinished in my stitching box just because I had a hard time with the satin stitch.  I am not very good at satin stitch and don't actually like doing it so...when my dear friend visited from New Zealand (who is a stitcher extraordinaire)  late last year, she completed the dreaded satin stitch for me and I added the beads and finally and thankfully got it completed, framed and hung on the wall.  I love the sentiment in this piece.

It is called Blessings and is a design from Wild Heart Designs

If you are a reader of my blog you will know I love the birds visiting my garden.  My dear hubby made me this beautiful gift for Christmas .....well I did tell him I wanted him to :)

So far no-one has taken up residence but is a very nice addition to our garden.

I do have a few more bits to share with you but to avoid this being a very long post I will leave those to another time...... so from 'Just Me and My Shadow'.....bye

  

~ "The View from My Garden....continued" ~

This is a little mini album I made from envelopes and I use it to showcase photographs I have taken of the birds that visit my garden and also some I see when I am out walking in my neighbourhood.

Some of the stamps I used in my book are from Crafty Secrets Birdsong set.
I also used some pages from the Crafty Secrets Birds and Botanical Images and Journal Notes Pad which I have used in different ways throughout my book .

If you are interested you can see a video of my journal here

Sewing Card

I made this little card using some digital downloads I purchased from Crafty Secrets.

Digital Bobbin Cards T-14
Digital Printable Button Cards T-13
Digital Sewing papers DP-07

I made a pocket and tucked in some cards. I sewed some buttons to the button cards, dyed some seam binding to match the colours , added some co-coordinating ric-rac trim and some pretty buttons, a piece of tape measure tape.  I also made a felt and gauze rolled flower and cut the ticket and spool label elements from one of the papers.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog.

Little Sewing Pocket Book

I made this fun little Sewing Pocket Book by following a tutorial by Dar's Crafty Creations Blog

I used some digital downloads that I had purchased from Crafty Secrets..
Digital Bobbin Cards T-14
Digital Printable Button Cards T-13
Digital Sewing papers DP-07
and my Clear Art Stamp Set Material Girl

here are some photos of my little book....

Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog.

More"View from My Window"and...

Just a little bit of this and that...

Not sure if I ever mentioned but I am undertaking a little project this year to endeavour to take a photo each day of the year...
It has been going very successfully and although there have been one or two days when I have slipped up and forgotten, I have managed to get a photo every day. I am finding  it is a great way to open my eyes to what is happening around me, nature and life in general.
I made up twelve little albums..one for each month of the year and at the end of each month, I print out my photos for the month, stick them in my book, write a caption and on the last page a little re-cap of what has been happening during the month.

It is amazing how quickly the months fly by and I have just completed my album for August...only four books to go!!

Now, what I really started off to write about today is what my photo happened to be for today.
This amazing bird was our visitor to the Grevillea this morning...

....it is a Black Cockatoo

Isn't he amazing... he is so big!!

Another 'view from my window' is this amazing fruit which I noticed in our garden this morning!!

It is growing on our orange tree and somehow has forgotten that oranges are supposed to be 'round'!! Very strange!!

Ben reminded me too that it has been a while since he made an appearance on our blog!!  So I need to put that right so here is a beautiful photo I took of him recently at his favourite place, the beach. He is almost 8 and a half now and a little whiter around his gorgeous sandy nose but ever so handsome don't you think??

Oh and just one more thing before I go and this  may surprise you....I actually finished a stitching project recently!! Yes, I am happy to announce that I actually did.  Here is my Shepherd's Bush In My Garden needle roll.  Quite appropriate really I guess since I have been talking a lot lately about the view from my window and what is in  my garden!!

" A good snapshot stops a moment from running away"

~ Eudora Welty

~ The View From My Window ~

With Spring only days away here in Australia, activity in our garden has been amazing.  I just love to watch the birds ....so busy right now as the weather warms.  We have actually had an early Spring really with quite high temperatures.  A few weeks back we noticed a little brown honey-eater taking a great deal of interest in our front garden and just by fluke as I looked out the window I saw this....

Nest ~ "A structure that birds make to keep their eggs and babies in"

Well actually, I saw the nest before she had taken residence. It must have still been a work in progress at that stage and then she was sitting in it... So cute and what a lovely little mother. Mr Bird helps with the babies and they are now chirping..ever so quietly, but enough so I can hear them and they are already growing feathers.  This has happened really fast as it was only July 25 that I first spied the nest (I know this as I wrote an entry in my journal) .

I love writing in 'The View From My Window'...my little book where I journal about just that :)

  

Here are the two little babies...ever so sweetly cuddled up in their little nest.... 

We are fortunate to have a big old Grevillea tree in our garden and it is a hive of activity right now and is a virtual Airport..with birds flying in and out all day long.  These are just a few of the regular visitors at present..

These two beauties make such a colourful picture

I love this shot of Nature's colour palette

.........Now it has been a few days since I started writing this post and just didn't get around to getting it finished so I was amazed today to see the little nest empty and the babies gone.  They were there this morning when I looked early and gone a few hours later. We have since seen the little ones trying their little wings.... 

"Jump, you little birdie!"

Hark! the mother sings:

"Fly, you little birdie,

Try your little wings"

See! the little birdie

Jumps from off the bough:

cunning little birdie,

Do be careful now!

You're so very little,

On that tree so tall,

That I tremble birdie,

Lest you get a fall.

Look! He's flying safely,

Flying without fear.

Ah!the little birdie

Knows his mother's near.

 What a wonderful thing Nature is... Keep safe little ones!!