More progress on the WIP and a card

Got a bit more done on Hazel's Wardrobe this weekend, here it is....

I'm loving stitching this one, it's such fun! I love her knickers hanging in the wardrobe :-)  I't's my sister-in-law's birthday in a couple of days so I made this card for her too.....

Been busy making the amigurumi for the swap this month too, all done but not showing pics until it's been received of course! I got mine from Steph yesterday as she's been way more organised than me in getting posted before the bank holiday but I'll keep the reveal for when I can show both of them :-)

A surprise monstie, a spooky WIP and some sunflowers :-)

The postman brought me a surprise yesterday from my friend Laura to thank me for the bride and groom ami's. This is Hattie the hug monstie....

Isn't she adorable!! What a gorgeous little monstie she is, I do love getting surprises in the post :-) Thanks Laura!!

I started a new stitch last Saturday called Hazel's Wardrobe by Sue Hillis Designs. I've had this chart for a couple of years and I'm thrilled to find I have finally started it! So here's the progress so far...

It's about half way there at the moment and I'm loving stitching this!

Well, this year I thought I'd plant some sunflower seeds so back in around May I got me some little pots and compost and planted twelve seeds which sat on my kitchen windowsill in a row. Then began the waiting!

After about six weeks I had eight little shoots which I thought was pretty good going. I separated them and re-potted  them and waited a bit more. Well five of them flaming gave up and died on me! I'm good with flowers and plants when they have actually grown but I guess the seeds are a bit of a different matter! So, after the three remaining plants were about five inches tall I thought they were strong enough and the weather had improved enough for them to venture outside. I carefully planted them in the yard and immediately we were hit by three weeks of gale force winds and rain, one more died as it was snapped in it's pot :-( But never fear the other two survived!!! So they grew taller and stronger and then after all that they were hit by beasties which seemed determined to eat great big holes in all the leaves. So the bug spray was used more than once (they were tough little buggers!) and we were good again :-)

Yesterday morning I looked out the kitchen window and saw this!!!

Yippee!!! One big flower.....

and one about to bloom!! I was thrilled and very pleased with myself that two had made it past my curse of the seeds :-)

It's rained for the last two days solid here but I have a little ray of sunshine in the yard!

Bride(s) and groom!

My good friend Laura (check out her fabulous blog here) is getting married next month :-)  I decided to make a knitted ami bride and groom for a pressie for her and her future hubby. So the story began........

I was really pleased with myself for being totally organised and getting them finished well in advance and here they are:

then, oh no! I found out that Laura's wedding dress is burgundy!!! What was I to do? So I made a new bride and changed the grooms cravat and flower and viola.....

Problem solved :-) I used cream lace for the veil on this one as the knitted one didn't seem right with the dress but I love how they turned out. I couldn't just make a new dress as the bodice part is knitted into the doll so a new one was the only way to go! It means I now have a spare bride sitting on the shelf (literally!) waiting for me to knit her a second husband after being jilted, lol! I will make her a lovely groom and hopefully I can sell them :-)

I made this card too.....

She got the parcel today and I'm really pleased to say she likes them :-)  So that is some of the secret stuff I've been making the last couple of weeks, the rest will appear shortly.

3D flower shop :-)

So I made another little 3D shop this week, a flower shop. I do like making these! This the front of it.......

The first side, I love the little bike against the wall.....

the back wall with a bench and a bird house.....

the second side......

and the bottom has a watering can on it! 

I finished it off with a twisted cord and two little silver bells and attached a clip to make it a bag charm. This now lives with my Craftbubble friend Ann. I have two more to make yet and these I'm keeping! 

Another busy week....

Been busy this week with things I can tell you about and things I can't! There are a couple of occasions coming up and the people involved read this so have to keep them under my hat until then. But I can tell you about this!

Now I have a rule, I NEVER stitch Christmas before Halloween. It's a hard and fast rule.....usually! But this year two of the categories in the village show are Christmas decoration and Christmas card so I'm having to make an exception. I have to say it's strange stitching holly in August even if the weather is rubbish and very un-summery.

So this is the decoration I stitched this week, it was going to be a biscornu but I changed my mind, partly so I didn't have to stitch both sides I admit :-)  I added loads of beads both around the edges and the tassel which I made for it too so it's really sparkly! So next the card and I won't forget to put pictures of the other stuff up at a later date, it'll be around two weeks-ish when it's safe

A pretty sampler and a pirate card :-)

My Dad's birthday is next week so I made him a pirate card! No idea why I went for pirates apart from the fact he likes sailing (don't think he robs anyone while out at sea though!) but it worked out great :-)

I love how it turned out! Hope he likes it :-)

The local village show is at the start of  September. I'm always roped in as a bit of a ringer for the local Townswomen's Guild which my Mam is a member of, they aren't actually that interested in crafts and baking but hate getting beaten by the WI! So I'm kind of a honorary member for the weekend. Nothing like a bit of one-up-manship  to get the ladies going, lol!  So this year the categories I'm entering are the cross stitch picture, Christmas card, Christmas decoration and crochet item, I'll make an ami for that. This week I stitched a sampler for the picture, it only took three days which surprised me  as there are quite a lot of beads in it. So here it is....

Just need to go to Wilkinson's and get a mount and frame for it now. The chart I used actually didn't have the bottom green and pink band on it but I added this to make it the right size for a standard shop bought picture frame, it's worked out the perfect size and saves a fortune on framing! So I need to get cracking with the other stuff now, no idea what to make yet!

Bakery bag charm

Made a mini bakery this week! This was a little thank you pressie for a friend.

It's a bag charm or a keyring whatever you want to hang it off.

So the sides are all around 1 inch square so a teeny bit fiddly but I love to make these!

I'll be making another one as I had a request for one in a trade. Need to decide now whether it'll be a cafe, a pizza restaurant or a florists.....I've made a florists before so maybe one of the others.

Been busy stitching and knitting this week too but it's all stuff for birthday pressies and I can't post pics yet as they will be seen by the person they are for, so they'll have to wait for now :-)