My first stitched card, and...... snow!

Well, they did forecast it, and it started yesterday afternoon, right on schedule!

Here's the view from our front garden about 2pm, the first of a few snow flurries. (It didn't start in earnest till the sun went down)-
The snowflakes revealed a spider's web against the window:

And the back garden?
The birds had been nibbling, quietly, casually... then the snow began and they all suddenly switched into top gear! Suddenly there was an urgency in getting as much of the food eaten as possible- as demonstrated by these starlings!
Now here's an oddity! This is actually a carrion crow, which, of course, should be completely black! I saw him the other week. I'm glad I managed to get a snap of him this time! I've seen blackbirds with a smudge of white here and there, but nothing on a bird this size.-He has the same on each wing, and some patches on his back. Rather than avoiding him or attacking him, which you might expect from his peers, the other carrion crows seem quite ok with him.

OK. Here is the same back garden about 90 minutes ago! Erm.... guess I should have put that washing line away, huh? :)

I stuck a ruler into the snow on top of the table out there.
It's blurred :( I suspected it might be, but it was far too cold to hang around for more shots!! It's actually over an inch deep, and still snowing.
...And here is the front of the house 90 minutes ago... I just opened the front window to take these. I love the way the shadow stretches out in the light from the streetlight.
Well, the idea of taking pictures this time of night was to get the snow undisturbed. It carried on snowing after I took them so I looked out again just a little while ago to see if I could take more. But look! Something has walked across our garden!!!!I wander what it was?!!

We do get cats walking about- but I hope it wasn't a poor pusscat out in this!!
The footprints look bigger than a cat's, though it's hard to judge because of how the snow drags as the foot lifts out of it. And of course, it's still snowing more, on top of them.
We do sometimes get a fox round here. I wander if it was him? RATS! I may have missed a photo of a fox in the snow!!! AArgh!

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OK here is why I was up and about late anyway. This is my first attempt at a stitched card. A wee little fieldmouse.


I really like how the colour of the mouse came out. I didn't have any brown thread, so I used one strand of dark red and one of yellow. Amazingly, combined they look just like golden brown. I'd never have thought of using this combination if I'd had brown!

If you would like to have a go, you can download the pattern FREE from Form-A-Lines Stitching Cards. The download comes with diagrams and instructions, too.

Here is a link straight to their free downloads. They also sell a wide choice of patterns for £1 per download, or £2.50 for a set of 3. The idea of the freebie ones is so you can have a go before parting with any cash, to make sure you can do it without going insane.

I found it harder than I expected, to be honest! But once I got into it I was ok. It's one of those things that, once you get the knack, you can go on quite smoothly and quickly. But I think I was thinking about it too much and getting in a tizz :)

I'm going to use this as the main part of a birthday card I need to make this month. I'm not saying who for cos she might read this.

Keep warm, people!