Ami swap time, a giveaway win and some new makes too

Hello everyone and welcome to my new followers, lovely to meet you :-)

So it's ami swap time again! For those of you who don't know about this, at the end of every month I swap an amigurumi with my lovely friend Steph, if you pop over to her lovely blog she has a giveaway on with lovely dragony prizes!  So there was a theme this month, usually they're just a random surprise, so it was Chinese New Year and the start of the year of the dragon.

Steph sent me these two gorgeous dragons!

How cute is that! The teeny one is a finger puppet and so cute, my kittens are loving playing with that when I put it on my finger :-) The purple one is called Jelly Bean and is knitted from the most fabulous sparkly wool, I love them! Jelly Bean is such a cute lovely thing, look at her wings with sequins....

How cute is that! There was a lovely ball of sock yarn too but I forgot to take a pic of that, lol! Thanks Steph, love my dragons, I think Jelly Bean is one of your best yet :-)

So I sent Steph this Chinese dragon,

He turned out a lot bigger than I'd been expecting! Was fun to make though and Steph likes him :-)

So another fabulous swap as ever, looking forward to next months surprise pressie already! We've been doing this swap for a long time now and it's still as much fun as when we started, I mean it's a present a month for no reason who wouldn't like that, lol!

Also my lovely giveaway prize from Kerry's lovely blog arrived, lots of goodies in the post this week :-) This gorgeous biscornu, I love the thread colours and it's one of my favourite designs too!

and all these lovely goodies, it was impossible to get a pic without Daisy gatecrashing in somehow, she was determined, lol! So pretty coloured bits of aida, two lovely threads, love those colours! Lots of pretty beads and  fab buttons, I love beads and buttons so very happy there. Thanks Kerry for a lovely prize :-)

So onto the makes of the week, there are things I can't show as there's another swap coming up in a week or so but this week I had to make two new mushrooms and a toadstool as they are selling pretty well over on etsy! Oh yes while I remember, I was totally wrong, you can all tell me that and rub it in if you like. A while ago I asked for opinions on the Valentine Cottage with the hearts on the roof as I didn't think it was good enough to sell, you were all lovely and told me it was a good'un and you were right, I've sold four so far. So there, what do I know!

The latest this week are Hyacinth Cottage with French knot hyacinth's around the door...

A new Valentine Cottage to replace a sold one...

and the last I finished off last night. I had an idea for a birthday/celebration type cottage and came up with this, Party Cottage has bunting around the roof and balloons tied either side of the door. What do you think?

Guess it's been a busy week as I also had a custom order for some embroidered hearts with an A on them, so I made these....

I also made two kitty key rings, I'll be making more of these in different colours....

So that's my latest things, hope you like them :-)

See you all soon and I have a giveaway planned as my first blogiversary is coming up on the 19th of February so don't forget to watch for that!

Hope you all have a great week,

Lori xx

Another award!

Well what do you know, this morning I have another award! The wonderful LiteraryLadybug has given me the Liebster Blog  award :-) Thanks so much!

Now here are the Liebster Blog award rules. It is really simple and in a nutshell, pass it forward. You link to the blog that nominated you. Then you choose 5 blogs of your choice to pass the award on to. These blogs have to have less than 200 followers to be eligible for the Liebster Blog Award. Share a link to your chosen blogs and lastly, but not least, display the Liebster Blog Award button on your blog.


Now I passed the award yesterday to all the people who would have got this one so I think for this one I'll  offer it any of my lovely followers who want to take it. You are all wonderful and it's a pleasure to know you :-) 


Back tomorrow with pics of the ami swap  and my makes for the week, see you then! 


Lori xx

An award :-)

Well looky here, an award! I was given this by Ali and her lovely blog. Thanks so much Ali!

Here's the rules,

After receiving the award you then need to:

1. In the same post, add the Versatile Blogger Award.
2. In the same post, thank the blogger who nominated you in a post with a link back to their blog.
3. In the same post, share 7 completely random pieces of information about yourself.
4. In the same post, include this set of rules.
5. Inform each nominated blogger of their nomination by posting a comment on each of their blogs.
6. ooh and forward it to 15 other bloggers.

So onto number 3, can I come up with 7 things........um,

1. I have 11 tattoos, you can see some of them on this post HERE

2. I was a complete rock chick in the late 80's and used to use a huge can of extra strong hairspray up in four days, you could have whacked me over my back combed head with a mallet and I wouldn't have felt a thing  :-)

3. I used to have my hand pierced, the web between the first finger and thumb but it kept getting threads caught on it so I took it out, I mean I couldn't stitch properly!

4. I love loads of different music, I'll let you into a secret, I have the greatest hits of Andy Williams, The Wurzles and Chas and Dave in my collection along with loads of AC/DC, lol!

5. I did fashion design at college when I left school for two years and worked for a fab clothes shop in Newcastle where I made the clothes upstairs and got to wear them for free :-) Unfortunately the shop closed and moved too far away so I left but it was great fun while it lasted!

6. I adore teddy bears and have a house full of them

7. I love Carry On films, the original St Trinians and Police Acedemy films too, I love daft stuff :-)

So yay! That's seven!

So I now pass this on to,

Cute crocheted creations

Cucki's stitching cove

Lucy 'in the sky'

The Dotty One

Ramblings of a biscornu addict

Show and Tell

Butterfly wings

Millefeuilles

Annaboo

loopeyscorner

To any I missed I love to read all of the blogs I follow :-)

I'll be back in a couple of days then when I can show some things I've been busy with (waiting for the ami swap parcel to arrive with Steph first) and the lovely giveaway parcel I won too :-)

Lots of little things.....

Hello everyone, sorry I seem to have been away a while! I've had a rough couple of days this week with the weather being so cold my Fibromyalgia has been acting up and I've been avoiding the laptop as much as possible while sulking and making little felt keyrings.

Sunday was the craft fair I'm hoping to get into so off I went for a spying session to check it out. It looks great, lots of lovely things for sale, great standard of makes too and the prices are good so I know I won't have to drop mine to sell stuff which makes me happy :-) So I'm getting in touch this week with the organiser to see if I can get a table, fingers crossed! So I thought I would have a couple of baskets of small keyrings to sell on the stall  so I have cheaper things as well to tempt people to part with there money. I've got the flower brooches already and had a play with my felt to see what I could come up with.

First heart keyrings, I got a bit carried away with these but they are such fun to stitch so I will be making even more!

Then I tried some birds, so here's the flock so far

I'm sure this will grow too :-)

Also made two mushrooms and a toadstool, here's the toadstool, it's already sold I'm happy to say!

I'm busy with the ami for the monthly swap at the moment, Chinese New Year theme. So I can't show that yet.

Oh I went to Hobbycraft last week armed with my £100 of winning vouchers and had fun! I actually only managed to spend £78 of them as I had a crafty overload and just couldn't think of anything else to get, lol! So I have some left for the next trip.
Here's what I did get,

The cross stitch kit for Frederick the Literate, after stitching Maggie the Messmaker I really wanted to do this one too so I have the pair and was thrilled to find it hiding among the sea of other kits!

Fabulous patterned felt, love the ladybird one :-)

some Gorjuss decoupage sheets, I got a huge pack of 100 sheets of white card too but that's boring to look at!

And this little lot, two big pieces of 22ct and 28ct fabric, two reels of pretty ribbons. The pony beads are for a pirate bunny I have planned to knit, beads in his hair like Captain Jack Sparrow :-)  The d rings for bag handles and the sewing machine bobbins are actually for alloy wheels on a knitted racing car, lol! You'll see what I mean when I make it :-)

So that's my haul so far! It's so good to go shopping with free money :-)

Oh yes I also bought 15 balls of gorgeous Rowan Cotton Denim yarn in a variegated blue shade, this was from the dangerous Kemps Wool Shop, it's so dangerous as it's a ten minute walk from my house and sells so much gorgeous and cheap yarn. I mean this yarn is usually around £4 a 50g ball and they've got it for 99p!! I mean you have to don't you, it'd be rude not to! So this is for another cardigan the same as the one I made at Christmas as I love that pattern and thought I'd have a blue one too.

That's all from me for now then, have a great week everyone!

Goodies arrived!

Hello!

As a few of you will know the lovely Cucki (who's fabulous blog is HERE) Had  a Christmas giveaway and I was the lucky winner, YAY! The goodies arrived so here they are......

A lovely Christmas cross stitch pattern booklet, very sweet zebra notepad, two sparkly threads (slightly unravelled as Poppy stole them and I had to catch her to get them back, lol!) and a very sweet elephant card. Thanks so much Cucki it's all lovely :-)

So I guess I must be having a good post week as on Saturday I got a letter that I wasn't expecting, I was puzzled as it had to be signed for and I wasn't expecting anything. It turned out to be from Hobbycraft, the big craft shop telling me I had won the competition in Cross stitcher magazine a few issues ago and here was my £100 in gift vouchers, WOOHOO!!! So now I'm planning a big splurge when I can get a lift there, oh I'm going to enjoy this one!

I'm hoping to start doing craft fairs this year, there's a monthly one at the beach (inside not out, thank god!) so I started making small things that I can sell for around £3-4 as I have heard that it's tough selling at the moment with everyone being broke. I've been making more little felt brooches so far and have nearly finished some little felt cupcakes for keyrings too. 

I also finished the cardigan I started on Christmas Day, this is knitted from Rowan Cotton Denim yarn in a lovely mixed pink and white and feels lovely and warm too. 

and lastly a birthday card for my sister which after thinking I had ages and didn't have to rush it realised I'd waited too long and actually only had a few hours left to do it, I'm the Queen of procrastination! But it turned out nice, I really like this one. If the writings too small it says I'm sending you this card corsets your birthday.

That's my finishes this week, I have a lot planned for this month!
Have a great week everybody!
Lori xxxx

Happy New Year!

Hello, welcome to my new follower too, lovely to see you :-)

I finally finished the curtain for my kitchen!!! Now some of you will know I stitched a loooooog strip of gerbera flowers about 6 months ago with the intention of making a new curtain but then we decided to re-do the kitchen with new work tops and paint it pink so it got left until after that was all done. Well now it's finished and up, so here it is.....

Poppy did her usual trick of getting in on the photograph! The window is two metres long so the flowers seemed to go n forever when I was stitching them but I love the result.

I have to show the presents I got from my wonderful friend Steph for Christmas! Just look at all these!

The robin is lovely and hanging on my wall now, the teeny snowmen and Santa I added silver threads to the top and they are on my tree :-)

She knows me well, look at all the chocolate!!

A fabulous owl hand warmer and bracelet. Gorgeous smelling soap and wax melt, lovely perfume and chocolate brownie lip balm (it smells divine!)

Cute Hello Kitty and Fizzy Moon stationary, I love stationary!

Two super cute cross stitch kits and the sweetest gnome fabric.

And a Witches Brew mug which is fabulous! A pendulum dowsing set and lovely incense. Can you believe all these gorgeous pressies!!! Thank you Steph for my gorgeous presents!

So now that Christmas and new year is finished for another year it's onwards and upwards for 2012! Happy new year to you all and I hope the year brings you everything you want and more.

Lori xxx