Are you a plant killer?

If then, this forever green cacti garden would need even easier to take care of than real cactus...

All you need to do it yourself is:

• Felt
• Ric rac trim
• Embroidery thread
• Filling
• Terracotta pots

It's really easy to make! The pots I've used are around 11cm diameter, so not a mini size, but you can use smaller ones if you want to finish faster :)

Let's take a look to the first one:

All you need to do is draw over felt in shades of green different lenght "stick"shapes and cut 2 pieces of each one. I've used 8 to fill the pot.

Then, sew the ric rac trim all along the perimeter of one of the pieces.

This will be the "right" side. Then you have to sew together the 2 identic pieces but on the wrong side. Once you have the 2 pieces together, you have to turn the stick out and then stuff it with the soft filling.

This other one is maybe the easier to be made:

You only need to draw 2 different shades (a big one for the main bodice of the cactus and a smaller one for the part with the flower), cut 2 pieces of each one and then add some thorns made with embroidery thread. Then, sew the ric rac all along the perimeter, joint the 2 pieces and turn it out before filling it. 

To make the flower, just cut a circle of felt in a bright colour (the finished flower will be half the size of the circle diameter). Make a knot in a  long strand of embroidery thread in another colour and stitch it all around the circle and then pull the thread (without cutting it). Stuff it and then sew long stitches from both centers as a loop, pulling the thread tight, equally divided. I've used 5 loops to create the shape of the flower.

The last one, needs a little more work, but it's really easy to make it too, believe me...

I've used 12 identic pieces like this to make this ball shaped cactus, sewing all together with ric rac between each 2 of them:

Then you can use a beige embroidery thread to sew the thorns to the cactus. When finished, you'll need to stitch together the corners at the bottom of the shape as shown in the picture.

Now you'll need to stuff the cactus with the filling, giving it a ball shape:

And that's all!! This is how it will look finished:

Los tiempos verbales en inglés

Parece ser que hay bastante gente a la que le ha gustado una pequeña "chuletilla" con un resumen de los tiempos verbales existentes en inglés que le hice a mi media naranjita para que tuviera siempre a mano. No sólo españoles que quieren aprender o mejorar su inglés, sino también me la han pedido ingleses aprendiendo español, profesores de español para angloparlantes y profesores de inglés para hispanohablantes, que a veces no encuentran la manera de aclararles cuando se usa y cuando no un tiempo verbal correctamente.

Para entenderla bien, sólo hay que tener un poco claras tres cosas.
La primera, es saber que hay, igual que en español, verbos regulares e irregulares. Los irregulares siempre aparecen en una lista que se compone de tres columnas:
- la primera, es el verbo en infinitivo
- la segunda, es el verbo en pasado
- la tercera, es el verbo en participio

La segunda, es que se utilizan verbos auxiliares, igual que en español. Los tres son irregulares, así que es necesario saberlos conjugar todos correctamente:
- el verbo TO BE (ser o estar): I am, You are, He is, We are, You are, They are
- el verbo TO DO (hacer): I do, You do, He does, We do, You do, They do
- el verbo TO HAVE (tener o haber): I have, You have, He has, We have, You have, They have

Y la tercera y última, es saber que, igual que en español, hay 6 personas distintas que ejecutan el verbo:
1°, 2° y 3° persona del singular ---> Yo / Tú / Él, Ella, Eso = I / You / He, She, It
1°, 2° y 3° persona del plural ---> Nosotros / Vosotros / Ellos = We / You / They

Bueno, pues aquí os la dejo, la podéis copiar, imprimir y lo que haga falta.
(Cómo ejemplo, he decidido usar el verbo irregular TO EAT)

No soy profesora de inglés (ni lo intento), así que estoy segura de que este resumen podría mejorarse o incluso corregirse, así que por favor, si alguien ve algún error o algo que necesite mejorar, que me lo diga en los comentarios y lo arreglaré. 

Creative Stitches & HobbyCrafts Show

EventCity, Manchester

6-8 February

Opening times: 10.00 - 16.30 (17.00 on Sat)

This weekend there's a show here in Manchester I can't miss!
I decided to visit it on Friday, expecting to be less populated than on Saturday. I arrived around 12pm, time for lunch, but it was still very crowded... until 14.00 pm, it was really hard to take a look in detail to some of the materials I was interested in because there were a lot of sewing bees trying to do the same: fighting to be the first to find a treasury fabric or ribbon. 

Not only there were the exhibitors, also there were several workshops, demostrations and shows running all day. Apart of having the chance to see in detail the amazing Les Miserables costumes and some awesome pieces of textile art. Here are a few images of them:

I was very expectant to discover new fabric and haberdashery shops in the surroundings of the Greater Manchester area, but most of the shops I fell in love with, are very far from here. So, although I bought there wonderful fabrics at a very good price, unfortunately I will have to continue buying online what I need, although probably I will save some money in shipping...

My new fabrics, all of them with a retro look