Despite all the problems with post we're having in the UK at the moment 2 really exciting deliveries popped through my door this week.

It is a long time since I have done any bead embroidery which is  a shame as it was always a real love of mine. After my recent purchase of some frames which I wanted to do some embroidery in, I decided to get all my bead embroidery books out and also browse some websites of designers I like.

One of these is Robin Atkins who does beautiful work and whom I already own two books by. So imagine my delight when I saw she had new books which I didn't own. I immediately set out to correct that and now that they are here I'm looking forward to get the chance to snuggle down and lose myself in them.

My other purchase was prompted by a couple of conversations I had recently about working with threads and my yearning to get back and make some more temari.

It is years since I made any and even then they weren't that great I have to admit. Still, I love them and wanted to make some more.

But I only ever made them with polystyrene bases but wanted to see how they were with with soft bases and laid out correctly so ordered some from here.

They've now arrived and are beautiful and I'm itching to play with them!