Folksy Friday

It was lovely last weekend to be home without any sewing to do, so I browsed through my mums knitting magazines and started knitting a cute little cat, just because. I haven't knitted for so long! Of course I haven't touched the cat since I got home but I will finish him. I'll have to have him done by next month because my mum's coming over to stay and wants her pattern back!

Anyway in honour of my re-kindled love of knitting here are this weeks Folksy Friday:


This beautiful fabric backed knitted baby blanked is handmade by smitten. I'd love to snuggle under a giant one of these, especially this weekend whilst we wait for an oil delivery!

This Carnival Silkie lightweight scarf is knitted by Edie O'Hara Designs, who has a lovely range of knitted scarves and cowls to suit every season.


This yummy hand dyed yarn is from Knit Cave. You can find yarns of every shade of the rainbow in her shop.


This adorable little hand knitted purse is made by Sarah Elizabeth Designs. Love the cute little buttons!

And finally this lovely machine knitted scarf is from Amanda Sainsbury. I love these colours together and the pattern is so pretty.

Well we've been forecast lovely weather and 17 degree temperatures so fingers crossed we'll make it to the beach tomorrow. I hope everyone enjoys the sunshine and has a lovely weekend.

Easter Weekend

Hello everyone. Well we arrived back safe and sound from our trip to Wales. We had a lovely Easter break, but had one too many a late night and I'm finding it hard to settle back into the old routine. Anyway I thought I'd pay blog land a flying visit before getting on with some making. Here are my weekend highlights:


Finally the Daffodils are in full bloom. After such a harsh winter they're very very late this year. I remember a couple of years ago my dad saying he'd seen some out in mid-December!


Now I'm not a massive chocolate fan but Lindt is my absolute favourite. I haven't cracked into my bunny yet - maybe a couple of chunks will accompany my mid-afternoon cuppa!


And look what I was given - I was visiting my aunt and spotted this lovely little brooch in her kitchen. She caught me admiring it and told me to keep it, as it was made from the spare fabric left over from my dress when I was bridesmaid at their wedding, 19 years ago! What a lovely idea to make keepsakes that mark a special occasion. I'm a very sentimental being so I'm thrilled with it!

Anyway I hope everyone had a lovely Easter - I'm off to find a sketch pad and a pair of scissors. See where the inspiration takes me!

Folksy Friday

Happy Good Friday everyone. And a happy 81st Birthday to my lovely Gran! And a Happy Anniversary to my lovely Parents! Don't we have lots to celebrate this weekend? We managed to make it back to Wales relatively hassle free in the end, and we'll be spending the day with my Gran, Sister and Mum, before my Dad gets home from work. A lovely start to the Easter weekend.

And speaking of Easter, here's this weeks Easter themed Folksy Friday finds:

These Kids Tote Bags, made by CurlyTop are perfect for collecting and storing lots of yummy easter eggs.

This cute little polymer clay chick, made by The Seven Seas, is the perfect Easter decoration.
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This pretty Happy Easter Card is made by Design Rocks. A Happy Birthday to designer Cheryl who's Birthday falls on Easter Sunday this year.

This adorable little bunny is made by The Hunny Bunny Company. Fingers crossed that the Easter Bunny remembers to stop with some Easter eggs at our house!

And finally these beautiful Egg Cosies by Charlotte Macey Textiles. I am a massive fan of boiled eggs and need to get my hands on a pair of cosies to pretty up my breakfast.

Well I hope everyone enjoys their Easter weekend, has a great time with their families and eats far too many chocolate eggs!

I love it when a plan comes together

So earlier this week I finally got an idea for a brooch that I thought was plausible, and after several hours of snipping and stitching the transformation is complete!

From these:

to these:

to the finished article:

So what do you think? I like the way they turned out. I didn't even have to change anything from my original doodling. Now all I need is to get some packaging sorted out and they'll be ready for selling. Happy Days!

Hello Mr Postman

I forgot to show you the lovely goodies that came from Edwina.Simone in the post on Friday:


How lovely it is to have a parcel full of lovely crafty bits drop through the letterbox. After untying and unwrapping I found the penguin is every bit as adorable as his picture!

This teapot pendant has spent the weekend hanging from my neck.


And she even threw in this surprise bear badge - cute isn't he?

A big thanks Abbi!

Just a quick note at the end to say that I've still got a couple of spaces open for the Art Exchange. Read more about it here. If anyone is interested please let me know before Thursday. Happy crafting everyone!

Tell me why I don't like mondays...

Well actually I know why I don't like this particular monday - I woke up sick and sore for the umpteenth time this year, it's miserable and dreary outside and the snow is once more on its way.

Today so far has been one of those days where all you want to do is jump into a big bag of roving,

Or wrap yourself up in yards of yummy fabric.

But I'm resigned to needing to take a pair of scissors to a giant stack of felt,


and cutting out countless flowers ready to be sewn into brooches.


Maybe if I close the blinds and make enough flowers I can pretend that it's a beautiful sunny spring day after all!

Folksy Friday

This week has been so up and down - I can't wait for a quiet weekend! But in the mean time I'll show you a few adorable little creatures to bring a smile on this miserable, rainy day.

This cute little sausage dog (aptly named Miss Sausage) is made by One Shy Elephant. Pop on over for a whole host of sock animals, including elephants, giraffes and cows!


Made by Kate makes a collection of sock hoppers and monsters, and also sells DIY PDFs and starter kits to make your very own monsters.


Rainbow the Sock Monkey is made by Katies Corner, who sells all manner of monkeys and bunnies.

Widget and Friends makes these adorable little bunnies, and also sells the bunk beds too! Perfect for tired little bunnies to snuggle up in.

And finally look at the puppy dog eyes on Miss Angelica. This cute little doggie and friends are made by Hotdog and Me.

Before I go I'd just like to tell you about this art exchange that I've signed up for. Nikki from Nikkimade asked me to take part, and basically I need 6 people who are willing to send one piece of art / craft work - whatever it is that you make - to the address emailed to you, then ask 6 others to send something to the next address on the list, and in return you should receive 36 pieces of art in the mail. It looks like a great way to network and I'll be blogging about everything that I receive. If it's something that you're interested in or if you'd like more info then please get in touch - email, comment here, send me a tweet.

And The Winner Is....Me!!

Little did I know this morning, when I woke up blurry eyed and groggy, that today would prove to be a very lucky day.

First off I opened up my email to find that I'd won this Habitat lapu lapu chopstick set in a giveaway hosted by Bright.Bazaar.


How cute are those fish?? I'm going to have fun learning how to use them. The only time I've used chopsticks is when attempting (and failing miserably) to knit a thong made from strawberry laces as a joke valentine's day prezzie for BF. Turned out disastrously but here's the pattern in case anyone else wants to try their hand. The trick is to use one continual lace instead of trying to tie them all together like I did.

Anyhoo..... moving on from edible underwear.... I got a monthly 02 treats txt and dandered over to the website to hook my duck and win my prize. Usually I get useless prizes like free weekend txts which I already get with my sim card anyway. But today I won 50 free photo prints with Snapfish. They also have a 20 free print introductory offer going at the moment so I get 70 free prints in all. Extremely hand as I've been going on and on at BF for ages that we need to print some of the hundreds of photos we've taken since changing from film to digital.

Then whilst taking a break from uploading photos I thought I'd have a look at what was going on over on twitter when I get a tweet from Edwina Simone saying that I'd won her giveaway too!


Look at her beautiful teapot!! And have a look at the lovely goodies that I've won:


I have been in desperate need of a needle book for ages, as I said in my giveaway entry, all of my pins and needles are kept in tins but always open in the bottom of a bag and I spend ages bloodying my fingers trying to fish them back out again. And the penguin is nothing less than adorable! And as for the teapot pendant - well I may have mentioned my teapot obsession here before so this is the perfect prezzie for me. Take a look at Edwina Simone's Shop too - several of her items are on my "if I had an endless pot of money" list.

I seem to have been extremely lucky with giveaways this year. So I thought that now would be an appropriate time to announce that I'm planning my own giveaway soon. I'm just waiting for my logo and graphics to be finalized, then I'll be launching the shop with a giveaway. Watch this space for more information!

Anyway my great mood hasn't managed to banish the cold that's been lurking around our house for a week and more, so I'm off to snuggle under a blanket with a hot cup of tea, a pair of scissors and a stack of felt. Bliss!