Hello again :-)

Hello to all my lovely friends and welcome to my latest follower too, woohoo that's only one away from the 100 and a giveaway now then!

This week has been very soggy, has anyone started building an ark yet because with all this rain and floods I think we might need one! I was at the Spirit of the Sea craft fair on Sunday and it was very appropriate to have a water theme as it absolutely chucked it down for most of the day, unfortunately this kept the buyers away as they were no doubt hiding indoors. At around midday it was looking quite good, lots of people around outside and dry and then a sudden downpour and you could see them all running for their cars and leaving, bugger! Guess you can't win them all though!

Pictures from the day then, for the sea theme I just made two things and it's a good job as neither sold! A mermaid ami, with her sea shell bra she's cute!

and a baby octopus, I used one of my favourite coloured yarns for both :-)

Here's my stall all set up,

Been making secret stuff too, I'll be able to show it next week but as it's for birthdays and ami swap then until they have been received I'm saying nothing! I won a giveaway over at Steph's lovely blog  too, woohoo! It's a fabulous book of knitted meerkat patterns :-) I'll take a pic and show you all next week when I show the other stuff too. 

This week has been a busy one with lots of making going on and not much time spent on the laptop. I'm trying my best to not spend too long on here as I can waste hours if I do! So I need to catch up on blogs and  see what everyone has been up too :-) 

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

Mushrooms everywhere :-)

Hello everyone!

Well I've been lost in the land of the mushrooms this week and had great fun :-) I started out with making cottages, three of them in fact!

Ta-da!

First up is the 4th of July Cottage with the American  flag flying outside the door. The flag has 6 French knot stars as I couldn't fit the whole 50 on an area that's so teeny! 

Next I made a replacement for the Celebration Cottage as it sold at the last fair I did, so this is the new one.

The third one is a new one which I named Marigold Cottage. I got a new hanging basket full of lovely Fuchsia's which hangs outside the window near where I stitch, I guess it inspired this one!

Then a hanging mushroom too in the Jubilee Cottage style,

 After that I moved onto some more needlecases. Two new ones are done so far and one more is ready to embroider and stitch together.

I've had a busy week of mushrooming :-) The cottages and needlecases are now in my Etsy shop.

Oh yes and two Father's Day cards appeared too,

Now I'm onto the sea! I have a craft fair on Sunday at the quayside in north Shields and it's themed Spirit of the Sea and it's International Fairy Day too!  I'm just finishing off a baby octopus and next on the list is a mermaid so that'll be fun.

I have found what looks like a great fair at a garden centre not too far away which will be every month on a Saturday. It looks so promising that I rang up to book for next month and ended up booking in for the rest of the year, lol! I don't do things by halve and the dates were filling up quite quickly so I figured why not. Since the last fair I did every month finished I've been looking for a new home which suits my makes and me to be my regular place and this fits the bill nicely and I admit I have a huge love of garden centres :-) It's a craft and food fair so there'll be cake too!

Well I better get back to my seaside makes. Have a great week everyone!

Hello, hello I'm back again :-)

Now who sung that......it's going to bug me now!

Well I thought it was about time I updated this little blog of mine before people think I've dropped off the face of the earth :-)

Firstly and most importantly thank you all for the lovely comments and support I got last week, it means so much to me that you are all there and are so lovely, so applause and thanks to you all :-) The positive thinking may have done me good or maybe it was just the fibromyalgia went back to sleep but I'm good now. Relatively pain-free which for me is as good as it gets and the stupid amount of tablets I take are back in control of the pain again so YAY!

Right, a buy week or two of makes for me which has kept me pretty busy! First off cards, these I told you about last week but they hadn't all arrived at their destinations so I had to wait. Thank you cards for the wonderful and fabulous birthday pressies I got deluged with!

Now I'm happy with all these but I so love the cat ones, I admit I didn't want to give them away, lol!

I made a new spring bunny as the last one sold and it's just so adorable I had to have a new one for my stall.

I love the pompom tail :-)

I had an custom request on my  facebook page that I admit I had never thought of but what a great idea! A lady asked if I would be able to make her two needle cases with my mushroom cottages on them. Now it was really fun to make these and I think I may be making more to sell, a new line is born!

It was nice to have the extra space on the front to embroider a it of a garden without it having to fit on the cottage itself. On the the backs I added a little bow and handmade charm as I thought it looked too bare!  inside there's four felt pages for parking your needles.

Now I don't know if you all of know of the fabulous blog Annaboo's House which you can find HERE  but it's a gorgeous place and worth following, there's even a free pattern for a crochet mushroom house! :-) Well a few weeks ago a CAL was launched on there for an ami that Sarah had designed. It was a fun one as the same basic figure could become a monkey, cat, bear, rabbit or even a doll depending on what extra bits like ears and tails you added! I started out thinking a cat, really planned to make a cat, even bought the wool for cat............then I made a doll, lol! I realised I make a lot of animals and just thought a doll would be cute :-) Now I didn't quite play ball with the CAL as I had been so busy for a few weeks that I ended up starting her as the last part was published and making her in one go! So here's the pic of her before she was completely decent,

You'll notice I was protecting her dignity! Well I made her a little dress last night so she's not cold and flashing everything any more!

I used the wig method of adding her hair as suggested, I've never tried that way before and it works well. I usually stitch the hair on like a ragdoll and stitch lots and lots of strands on down the parting. Both ways work though so a new method for me :-) Thanks so much to Sarah for a fabulous pattern that I've really enjoyed making.

This week I've realised that it sees ages since I made a mushroom cottage so this is officially mushroom week. I have three cut out waiting for embroidery and have plans for a new theme too which should be fun so I'll be unveiling that on Etsy in a couple of days and I'll show it here next time too.

Well I'll be catching up with blogs in the next couple of days, sorry I don't get round quite so much these days but I do like to catch up on what's going on when I can.

See you all next week my lovely friends :-) Oh heck I've just thought, it's not Gary Glitter who sang that is it, yeuck!

Ami swap and this week is going to be a good one :-)

Hello again, the title of this post is me putting out positive thoughts!

The last week has been a bit rough for me as my Fibromyalgia has been flared up and I've been in a lot of pain. People say to me you've had it for eighteen years so you should be used to it but sometimes it does get me down and I think if I can be happy and positive 99% of the time then I'm allowed to be fed up and moan for the other 1%........ so there! If they lived with it I bet you they'd complain occasionally too :-) Anyway, I'm feeling a little bit better and this is me getting set for a good week of positive thoughts and being back in action!

For the first time in years this has actually stopped me crafting, shock horror! First time in...... well probably ever, that I just couldn't be bothered and had no inclination to make much but I did make a couple of things. I made some cards but they have to wait for next week as they aren't all received yet.

It was ami swap week with the fabulous Steph, I'm sure most of you know this is a monthly swap we do of amigurumi and is always fun. So this month Steph made me a gnome!

But not just the one gnome look at the teeny one too! He was in Jumbo gnome's beard, Steph says that apparently that's where little gnomes come from :-) Isn't it sweet?

I sent Steph this snail

He's been named as Roger by Steph who has been busy eyeing up Roger Federer in the tennis this week :-) Thanks for another fabulous swap Steph, long may it continue!

Finally the last couple of present pictures too, I'm sure you're all a bit bored of me showing off all these but they are just so fabulous I have to!

These were from the lovely Chris Above is the cute card she sent and the fabulous box all this came in, I love that box!

there was threads and ribbons, a pretty tape measure, cute cross stitch kit and lovely stitched bookmark.

Chocolate!!!!!! A fabulous Little Miss Sunshine and a Little Miss Chatterbox dangly :-) Thanks Chris it's all fabulous!

From my friend Jeanne in Canada came this lovely box of goodies, now this took sooooo long to arrive we thought it was lost but thankfully it showed up last week, I think it walked! The felt card above is just fabulous, I love it!

A cute stitched hanging and a mushroom felt needlecase both made by Jeanne, love those :-) Scented candles, two little kokeshi doll erasers although they won't be used as they are too lovely! Pez, yay!

Fabulous felt, love the patterned one!

All these fabrics, so lovely I need to think of something fab to make with these.

An ami pattern book and a pattern for a crochet cake stand which is brilliant!

and finally all these lovely bits, buttons, ribbons, brads etc......

So that's it for the birthday presents I'm sure you're pleased to hear after being bombarded with pictures all week! I love all my presents and I love all my friends, thanks very much to you all and that includes all my followers too, for being so lovely.

I'm only two people away from 100 followers I see which means time to start planning the giveaway for when I get to the big 100 :-)

See you all next week and remember it's going to be a good one. I'm determined of that!

More birthday pressies :-)

Hello again! So this is three posts in a week from me, some kind of record :-) I'm back to show the fabulous presents that Steph sent me for my birthday this week. Such a lot of lovely things!

First this fabulous ami which is a Hedgepig Faery Creature and all Steph's own design, is it the cutest!

Next  is the mushroom momiji girl, the doll and a keyring, love this one!

A lovely book of Fairy Charms which has the most beautiful illustrations too, a gnome notebook and a gemini cross stitch kit,

This is just fabulous! Painted just for me is the most lovely mushroom mandela! You can see all the black is sparkly with green glitter, so pretty! It's hanging in my craft room :-) I'm always honoured when Steph paints or draws something for me as I know the work that has gone into it!

 
Lots of lovely stuff, a Hello Kitty hair tie, goddess earrings, and the cuteset little mushroom girl feltie and mushroom love bag charm. The mushroom girl is on my bag now :-) The biscornu is just gorgeous, such tiny stitches and a lovely colour too.

A closer view of the biscornu and a very sweet little kitty heart too,

This one made me laugh! Now Steph is well aware of my love of Jammy Dodgers and sent me two packs of them and a I love Jammy Dodgers brooch :-) Love it!

Even more lovely stuff! I told you there was a lot :-) A sparkly windmill! This is whizzing around in a pot outside in my backyard and looks great, the cats are loving watching it! Birthday candles, which were put to good use in my cake. Incense sticks that smell beautiful and the most fabulous camper van candle! 

Now crafty goodies too as if all that wasn't enough! Fizzy Moon brads nd lovely ribbons

Lots and lots of beads, love those ducks and mushrooms!

and the lovely fairy card made by Steph too.

I think you'll agree that's one heck of a birthday present! BUT that wasn't all........... the next day another package arrived, this one had been ordered and didn't arrive in time to add to the main parcel so Steph sent it the next day :-)

A mushroom momiji girl purse! So I have the whole set of things with her on now! Steph said it looked lonely on it's own so there was a feltie gnome, more beads and a very cute little hand drawn card too.

I think I can say I've been totally spoilt this birthday! Thanks so much Steph for all my lovely presents :-) 

Here's two cards from Helen and another friend Elspeth, Helen also sent me this lovely wrist pincushion,

and this brilliant book which I'm sure Poppy and Daisy have read as they have all the tricks already!

Finally a picture of my birthday cake with the candles in it :-) It's all gone and was lovely!

I got two more parcels of gorgeous presents from my friend Jeanne in Canada, this one took around six weeks to arrive and we both thought it was lost! The second one was from  the lovely Chris but I think that would be way too many pictures for one post so they'll wait for the next time and I promise to have more to show you then too of my makes! :-)