Mushrooms, stitching and growing them

This autumn my husband discovered that you can get kits for growing your own mushrooms and he expressed an interest in trying that.

I checked up on it and decided I would give him this for Christmas. Two kits, I bought, one with brown mushrooms and one with oyster mushrooms. As we were travelling to the UK for Christmas, however, I couldn't take them with me.

I needed a placeholder to put under the tree.

This is precisely the sort of occasion on which I tend to get ambitious, so I decided I would make him a card with a mushroom on the front and an explanation inside.

Luckily there are places on the internet where you can get small cross-stitch designs that don't cost anything and are just the right size for a card. I found this one at http://www.my-cross-stitch-patterns.com/

I could then buy the floss I needed and some blank cards and stitch my mushroom in deepest secrecy. Mornings, after he had gone to work, and on Wednesdays, which is not a work day for me.

There isn't much in the way of nice 'finish' on the card, but I did at least manage to finish the mushroom design. Just! It was quite last minute, as it took longer to stitch than I had thought it would. I didn't even get a photo until after we had returned from the UK.

My husband was pleased with his gift, although I was slightly put out that he had worked out I was stitching on something secret. I thought I had been so careful, but I suppose the lack of progress on my other project may have been clued him in. I just honestly didn't think he paid that much attention to that.