Ami swap time again :-)

So it's the end of the month again which means..........amigurumi swap time!!!

This time Steph made me this fabulous bee.

Isn't he the cutest little bee? I love his bee button and his hat comes off too :-) Soooo sweet!

I made a unicorn for Steph, she was fun to make and I've been told she's been called Willow. I like that name, it suits her :-)

I love the surprise of the ami swap, a parcel arrives and it could be anything! There is something wonderful about getting presents every month  too :-)

Been busy this week knitting but I can't say what as I know the person it's for reads this! I have a load of birthday cards to do for August so I'm going to be really busy for a while, it's such a mad month with all sorts of occasions in my family. I'm sure they deliberately have birthdays in a big lump! It's also the local village show at the start of September so I have a sampler to stitch and frame, a Christmas decoration to make and a card to stitch too for that. My to do list for the month is enormous.........

I owe a big thank you to the local council today. This weekend is the Airshow here in Sunderland, it's huge, the beach and the seafront will be packed with people paying too much for a bag of chips and watching fighter jets flying overhead. Anyway, this has been happening every year for what must be about 20 years now and FINALLY they seem to have changed the flight path from above my house!! Only two planes have gone over me all afternoon and it's been great, hopefully tomorrow will be the same, fingers crossed!

I see I have a couple of new followers in the last week or so, I want to say hello to you and welcome to my ramblings. Oh well, better get back to the list if I want to stand a chance of getting everything done in time!

Fabulous quilt squares and a simple cat design

In the last two weeks I've been stitching a couple of squares that will go toward a quilt. An online friend asked if I would stitch one for her and I'm having such fun I've finished two so far :-) The designs were drawings on the theme of a heart drawn by disabled children in the school where her daughter attends. This is the first one by Jessica.....

This one is Shannon's as you can see, aren't they fabulous!! I love the way the hearts and flowers on this one are smiling :-) So I'll send off the second one tomorrow and see if any more need stitching, they are so sweet and really fun to do too!

After finishing the square last night I thought I'd stitch a cat design I had found somewhere on the internet (can't remember where now but it was a French website). It took a grand total of two hours to do and I think it looks great. No idea what to do with it but it'll come to me, maybe a small cushion?? Who knows!

Anyway busy now making an amigurumi for the monthly swap, not telling what yet!

A few finishes :-)

So last Friday I was busy knitting the second sock for this pair of bedsocks.....

when I came to shape the heel and reached for the pattern and it had vanished! I searched the house and realised I must have accidentally thrown it out while sorting out some magazines the day before, ooopsy! Luckily for me the ebay seller I bought the pattern off still had some so I had to buy it again to get them finished, lol! So after all that here they are.... I say bedsocks as that's what the pattern calls them but I wear them for lounging around the house to keep my feet cosy. This is my second pair and more will follow as they are lovely and warm and comfy :-) 

Also made some more cards this week, these three are made with different sizes of the same image.....

This one is the strawberry girl and she's going to be my sister-in-laws birthday card.....

and what I'm busy with at the moment is the flower panel for my kitchen curtain. As I've said before it needs to be 69 inches long so it's a lot of flowers!! However I think I might be on my last one, YAY! Need to measure it after this one and make sure but I'm so happy, getting a bit bored of flowers now......

Of course now it's almost done we've decided to do up the kitchen so the curtain I made a few weeks ago for this to be stitched on is going to be no good as I want to change the colour of the walls! But I plan to make a white half curtain and stitch this along the bottom so it will be used anyway. I'm going to add coloured ribbon to it to match whatever colour the walls end up........maybe green? Still undecided but if the curtain is white it won't matter :-) I'm finishing the final (orange) flower today and then I plan to start something new, I have a few charts that I'm planning on just need to decide which one first. 

Made a couple more things.....

Here's a set of bookmarks I've made this week. The butterflies are so pretty! Still having fun with this, I made a card too of a cupcake.

I've been stitching a bit and knitting a bit too so should have some more pictures soon of other stuff. Just thought I'd post these pictures for now. :-)

Been playing, having a go at card making!

I decided that I was spending way too much time stopping the bigger things I really want stitch to stitch cards for all occasions that come up. I do like to do cards but there just seems to be too many of them now! Figured making cards as in paper crafting would be useful so I've bought a few odds and ends and thought I'd have a go, nothing ventured and all that...... My first ones were fairy cards, I've got some more of the fairy papers left and will make more of these as they turned out cute :-)

Yesterday I had some more fun and made a card for my big brothers birthday next week, he's always loved motorbikes so thought this was a good one,

Made this owl one too,

And a book mark and case,

I'm having fun with this and have more ideas for things to make. Still slowly getting there with the stitched flowers for my kitchen too, around five left to do and it should be long enough :-)

Tattoos, some pictures for those who asked :-)

I've had a few people lately ask me about my tattoos and can they see pictures of them so thought I'd post a few pics on here. Not all of them as that would take up too much space and be really boring for anyone who isn't into tattoos too, lol!

This is my back, a big set of butterfly wings;

This took six months of pain to finish but I love it the most :-) It was done about  seven years ago now and still looks bright and new. This one is my arm, a half sleeve with a Japanese theme;

I love my purple and pink dragon! This was a cover up of an old tattoo, I'd had a band of barb wire around my arm which I got done a couple of weeks before Pamela Anderson did...........typical! Everyone thought I'd copied her and they became really common so I hated it, it's now under the green swirly band in the middle of this :-)

My feet, the right one with an Indian henna style design that I designed myself;

The left, my Chinese foot with cherry blossom and kanji that read peace, love, spirit and happiness;

I have flowers that go up my thigh and right across my hip and round my belly button but I'm not putting pics of me starkers on the internet, lol!

My cherries on my left inner wrist, I've zoomed in on this so much my wrist looks really fat!

Anyway that's all folks! I do have more, a few are really old and look faded and not very good so I plan to get them re-done and there's one on my left arm which I'm not happy with now, it's a tribal style one that I want to get lasered and then get another half sleeve done. But all that has to wait until the money allows! There's also a couple in places that I won't photograph for public viewing, lol!

Before anyone asks, yes they hurt a lot, some more than others. I've found the kidney area and around the belly button to be the worst but I like the results more than I hate the pain so it's worth it.

I've been given a blog award!!

Thanks to my lovely friend Laura for giving me this award :-) I love to read her blog and it's lovely to know that mine is appreciated too!

With this award I have to give seven random facts about myself so here goes;

1.  I'm a pagan and I'm happy to be called to witch
2.  I have 14 tattoos and want more when money allows (they are very expensive when they're large and  one of a kind designs)
3.  I love music, rock and blues mainly but I also love Andy Williams, Barry Manilow and country music (don't laugh too loud now!)
4.  I have Fibromyalgia which means I have pain in my joints and muscles but do okay with medication and crafting keeps me busy and happy :-) 
5.  I love watching MotoGP, World Superbikes and British Superbikes. If it's got two wheels and races then I'm watching it! 
6.  I hate marzipan and love strawberries and chocolate.
7.  I've been with my boyfriend for 19 years and engaged for 12 years but we have no intention of getting married ever!

I now nominate bluebertie for inspiring me to start blogging in the first place, thanks Lauren! I also give it back to Laura for having a great blog :-) 

Ami time!

So everything is now at it's new home so I can safely show pictures :-) It's ami swap time!! I sent this to Steph for this month's swap.......

My little pudgey bee  :-) The pattern for this can be bought on Etsy at this shop. He was fun to make and looks cute! The antennae are made from pipe cleaners wrapped in wool with beads on the end which worked out well. My parcel arrived with this fabulous Strawberry kitten.....

How cute is she!! Love the little fuzzy strawberry bag in her hand and her pretty dress, gorgeous! The swap gets better every month, thank you Steph!! :-) I also made her this, thank you to Laura for reminding me about the pattern! 

Also it nearly Laura's birthday, check out her fabulous blog here, it's not for a few days yet but I said she could open her present early and it didn't seem to take any persuasion, lol! So this is Big Blue the monster...

He looked cold being so blue so I made the scarf to keep him cosy!