A week in amigurumi

Hello everyone, lovely to see new followers :-) I'm creeping ever closer to 100 followers and a giveaway!

This week seems to have been all about ami's which has been fun and a nice little break from mushrooms too! It seems to have been a long time since I made some new ami's but that's now been put right.

I started out with the polar bear with a brown mouse on it's shoulder that I mentioned last week. I now know the story too :-) It's about a game where the person who asked me to make it and a relative (who's nickname is  polar bear) try to hide a brown mouse ornament in each others houses. It's been going on for years apparently and the mouse has been smuggled in in a lot of inventive ways including posted! So this ami is for the relative. I love mad quirks that people have!

So here he is, I think it's a cute one!

I managed to make my little shelves too without lobbing a finger off for my stall at the craft fairs, very basic really so can't brag too much about my woodworking skills but I'm still proud of them. I gave them one coat of cream paint and left it at that as the grain shows through and it looked really nice kind  of like bleached wood. These will be great for sitting little fairies on the edge and maybe owls on there too, not sure yet.

I made a gnome too, Norman! He's one of my favourite ami's yet I think and i want to make more in different colours.

Oh I love gnomes and he looks like a very friendly one :-)

I sold three of the four owls I'd made for the next fair so need to make more again! I had a request from the lady who bought two of them for two more, one pink and brown stripes and one brown and purple stripes so I came up with these two which I'm pleased to say she loved.

Now it's the 27th for the next fair so I'm in mad make mode, as if that's any different from usual, lol! I started a batch of ten felt flower brooches last night, all cut out and ready to stitch in front of the TV with a glass of something and some chocolate, heaven! Dragged the boyfriend out today to two craft shops which thrilled him no end but made me very happy! I have a pile of gorgeous coloured felt, some pretty buttons, lovely wool and other lovely stuff to play with  now :-) Oooo the fun I can have!

I'll be catching up with all your lovely blogs this week, looking forward to seeing what everyone's been up to :-)  Off to stitch flowers then, have a great week!

I'm back :-)

Hello everyone and welcome to the new followers, lovely to see you :-)

Firstly, sorry! I know it's been longer than usual for me in between posts. The things is, for the past few weeks I've been realising something has to give! I spend wayyyyyyy too much time on the computer every day, usually over 6 hours (I know it's riduculous!) with Etsy, Folksy and Wowthankyou shops, facebook page and blog as well as all the usual stuff that I've had no time to actually make much and really, that is very important if I want to keep selling! So this week I have been trying to be ruthless with my time online, that is why I've been away and not caught up with your blogs too, sorry! My big plan is to just turn the bloody thing off more so I don't waste time and get distracted, which by the way is very easy, I must be the World Champion when it comes a wasting time and procrastinating, lol!

Anyway, it means I will be around but it might just take me a bit longer to catch up with people, hope you understand, I love you all honest :-)

So lets catch up a bit here with things. Last Sunday was the craft fair at the pub, it was also the day of the Sunderland Marathon which went right past the place. It could have gone either way, the roads were all closed so if people were out to watch the runners then they might pop in and buy or the way it did work out which was no one went out because all the flipping roads were closed!  Not a lot of customers around unfortunately but still a good day, I did okay, and it's always a nice fair with lots of lovely people so happy day :-)

I took a pic of my stall, typically I only took one and it's a little  bit blurry so sorry about that, must do better next time! I have big plans to make some shelves for the stall, I can't find anything that I like as they all seem to be made of acrylic and I want wood so it looks nice. So I have a hacksaw and I'm getting some wood from B&Q tomorrow, what can possibly go wrong?!! I'll try to not cut my fingers off, promise :-) Wish me luck!

I had four Jubilee Cottages to make for sales last weekend and I made it, they were ready and off to their new homes no problem. I also made a new Party Cottage.

and in typical fashion, one of the first pictures I took...... Daisy really wanted to be in the picture :-) 

Then I was mushroomed out! I had sold my ami owls at the fair so made a new batch of those......I have no idea what a group of owls is called, a hoot maybe!

The red and white one is inspired by Sunderland's football strip, I need to make another as he sold this morning to the local butcher :-) I plan to make black and white too for Newcastle so I can tailor it to wherever the fairs are and keep everyone happy! As the  fans of both hate each other it can be swapped depending on venue, lol!

Also had a birthday card to make for the MIL, I came up with an idea for using charms that I bought ages ago, loved them but no idea what to do with them until now.

They are such beautiful butterflies and I loved how it looked with a simple ring of roses around it.

And finally..........drumroll please, TA-DA!! Fame at last! The Craftseller magazine with the feature on Hippywitch Crafts came out this week. Love the big mushroom cottage picture they used as it stands out :-) Here's hoping it pays off!

Now I've started an ami for an order, a polar bear with a brown mouse on it's shoulder! It's a friend of my boyfriend who asked him for this and like a man he never asked why!? Why are men so useless at gossip? I really want to know the story behind this idea, I mean there must be one! So I guess I have to make my own story up then :-)

So that's me for another week, hope the sun is shining wherever you are :-)

Ami swap time!!

Hello everyone, and welcome to my latest follower :-)

This week was ami swap time with the fabulous Steph. A quick explanation for those who don't know, the first of the month we swap an amigurumi (crocheted or knitted toy). It's wonderful to get a present every month :-)

So this month Steph sent me Timmy the tiger :-) How sweet is he! I think he looks like Hobbes from Calvin and Hobbes when the adults are around and he's just a stuffed tiger, which makes me very happy as I'm a big fan!

Also with the tiger theme, this fabulous biscornu and cute finger puppet! Love them both, the biscornu is brilliant with the beads around it. Apparently this was stitched from a knitting chart which makes it extremely clever too!

A couple of gorgeous stickers, a tiger (of course!) and a fabulous fairy,

and more gorgeous goodies. Some tigers eye beads, tiger buttons and tiger ribbon and a lovely tigers eye bracelet too :-)

Such a gorgeous fairy card too! Love it all, thanks Steph for another gorgeous swap :-)

I sent Steph Geoffrey the giraffe :-) I love how this one turned out and the boyfriend says I have to make another one for him!

Love his little tail :-)  I also sent ribbons and pink and purple feathers, a card and a Yankee Candles wax tart  too but didn't take pics of those, I forgot as usual!

Apart from Geoffrey I haven't anything new to show this week, I have been really busy but it's been the Jubilee Cottage selling and me just making another to replace it! I've made three this week so far and have four to get done before Tuesday for orders!

So just a quick post today as I have a lot to get done, I'll catch up on all your blogs when I get a minute, I promise :-) The fairy fair which would have been tomorrow was cancelled unfortunately on Sunday, such a shame as I was looking forward to that one :-( However I'm still going to make fairies and gnomes as they go well with the mushroom cottages and are so fun to make. When I get time to make them! Better go and get busy stitching then, the craft fair I usually do is on Sunday at the pub so lots to do and not much time.

Bye bye for now!

Fairies are appearing!

Hello!!

A welcome to new followers too, lovely to meet you.  90 woohoo! I'll be having a giveaway when I reach 100 but you'll have to wait and see what it will be because I'm not telling  :-)

Busy week for the Jubilee Cottage! On my last post I was saying how I'd made it twice last week to re-list as two had sold, well I've sold another three since then so three more made this week!

Just finishing up another one at the moment, sewing it together tonight. So that kept me busy!

It was the Maker's Market craft fair on Sunday, the first in the new location and the genius idea of holding it in a pub :-) I mean, who can argue with that idea! So I had new stock to make for that too, I had almost run out of the hanging mushrooms so I made a new batch.

I also made a few new felt heart keyrings, forgot to take a pic of those but they are just simple little stuffed hearts so you get the idea!

The fair went really well, not a huge amount of people yet but word is still getting around that we're there now. However it was a good day and I made a few sales including a mushroom cottage so all good and I was in profit :-) I forgot my camera so no pics of the stall I'm afraid but I promise to try to remember for the next one next Sunday! Lots of gorgeous stalls there, I find it impossible to not end up buying something when there's so many great stalls around and this was no exception. I bought the cutest stuffed cat hanger that hangs by it's tail from door handles, it's fabulous!

These were made by a lovely man and his grand daughter, you should have seen the patchwork he did, just wonderful. It took me ages to pick which cat as he had lots in different fabrics :-)

The Fairy Fair is next Saturday as well as the next Makers Market on the Sunday so I have a busy week ahead making more stock. Obviously fairies are appearing! I have been fiddling about coming up with a pattern for a fairy I like that is simple. I used the body and skirt from a freebie pattern I found ages ago and then designed the rest to look how I wanted her to. Took a few attempts but I came up with this,

I plan to make a whole group of these little fairies in different colours :-) I knitted a hanging elf too.

So a week of fairies, elves, gnomes and mushrooms awaits, which makes me happy :-)

Have a great week everyone!

I seem to be coming over patriotic this week!

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

This week has been the usual mad mix of making that is my life! I started off with a hanging mushroom decoration that was a custom order. I was asked for a lime green door, tulips, lots of hearts, a gingerbread man, cupcakes in green cases and hearts for the spots! A lot for a little mushroom but not for a bigger one so a bigger one it became. I used little heart buttons to make some bunting around the roof and for the gingerbread man's buttons and a black bead for the door handle. It's bigger than the usual and measured 6 x 6 inches.

So that went on it's way to it's new home :-)

I've made two Jubilee Cottages this week too as it sold twice! It makes me very happy to send away my mushrooms to new owners, it always gives me a thrill to know people will pay for my creations :-)

I'm off Sunday to the craft fair. It's moved location since last month due to the council causing problems with the venue we were in and now is in a pub (yay!) called The Alexandra in Sunderland. So I've been making some keyrings for my stall. St George's Day is Monday so I thought flags would be good.

These are the same both sides. Then I moved on to Union Jacks and came up with these,

the middle one is the reverse side of them. I'm thinking maybe pink ones or something now........

Today I've started to knit fairies, I have a Fairy Fair at the start of next month and plan to have plenty fairies, gnomes and elves done for that which will be fun!

So it seems that there is a theme for this weeks makes and it's all patriotic :-)

Have a great week!

Finished 3D cottage and the craft room is done!

Hello to my new followers and of course the rest too  :-)
Hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend and the weather was better than we had here, rain and cold and more rain :-( Still I didn't go anywhere so it didn't really matter!

Had a busy weekend though as on Friday morning I decided to finally sort the craft room/room where everything ends up getting chucked if it has no home. This was no small undertaking I can tell you! Over the space of the four days I got 5 big bags for the charity shop and the same in rubbish. The huge wardrobe that lived in such a small room and took up half of it was smashed up and chucked out. Then the boyfriend was despatched in with a paint brush and tin of white paint. Monday I finished off by rearranging the furniture and tidying everything away and now it's fabulous :-)

The big box on the floor will disappear as soon as I can get through all the cross stitch mags in it and file the charts away!

the leaning tower of wool boxes, it's four huge boxes piled up and Poppy and Daisy have claimed  basket of fabric on top as a new bed!

So here's the end result, waiting for me to make some bright colourful things to decorate the walls. I'm thinking crochet flowers for a start and some of the finished cross stitch that I had no room to hang...... oooooh Vin Diesel! I still have to frame him and that would be perfect! Just found him on my blog post HERE so you can see him in all his glory :-) Embarrassing that I finished him in February last year and still he's not framed though, hadn't realised it was that long ago!

I also finished off the 3D cottage, yay! That was a real pig to stitch together, the stitched pieces are wrapped around plastic canvas to make them rigid and I now have a hole in my finger end off pushing the needle through the plastic too many times! However it does look good and I'm happy with it as well as happy to be finally finished! So a ta-da moment.......

the front....

side....

back complete with bench, tiny watering can and basket of flowers....

and the other side. I do love these cottages but think it might be a while before I make another :-)

I'm off then, busy making a custom order for a mushroom decoration that needs finishing.

Have a great week!  

Lots of gorgeous post and it's ami swap time!

Hello :-)

Hope everyone has sunshine back again after the cold and snow of this week and  I thought I was being a pessimist last week in the gorgeous weather when I thought 'we'll pay for this!' lol!

Well this week has been interesting. I was out on Saturday night with all my family for my parents golden anniversary, posh hotel for dinner, ooo fancy! Then I was up all night and ill all Sunday throwing up so I guess it wasn't that fancy, lol! Turns out it was only me that was ill so I have no idea if it was a bug or something I ate but not fun. Luckily it didn't last and I was fine again Monday :-)

So while feeling awful and trying to stay focused I had an order for a Tulip Cottage to get stitched and posted for Monday morning. I made it! I loved the red door that was requested, I hadn't thought about red for a door as there was so much red with the cap of them but it looked good.

Lots of tulips around the garden and purple climbing flowers round the door.....

I also made another Jubilee Cottage for a customer, I do like stitching that one :-)


Now I'm back to the 3D cottage I'm cross stitching, it seems to be taking ages to get done but the walls are stitched and I'm onto the roof then I just have to build it! Here's a progress picture so you can see how much detail is in it with all the backstitch and French knots.

The bit at the top that looks like a barcode is the start of the thatched roof!

It's getting there! 

Ami swap was this week too yay! For those who don't know this it's a swap I do at the start of every month with the lovely Steph over at Show and Tell. We have been doing this for a couple of years now and it's always brilliant to get lovely presents every month :-) So This month Steph sent me this gorgeous pink sheep, isn't it so cute! Also a little bunny, very sweet and a little stitched friendship cushion with gorgeous beads around the edge. Thanks so much Steph it's fabulous! 

and this fabulous card too, it's the sheepish sheep, lol!

I sent Steph this cute bunny and chick and embroidered card. 

This was the first of these bunnies I made, it turned out so cute I made another for my Etsy shop :-) I can see more bunnies in the future! 

Got a lovely surprise this week too from Laura with a Easter pressie arriving! Thanks Laura! She sent me the cutest little blue birdy with a sweet tuft of hair, three gorgeous stitch markers and a bag of Creme Eggs :-)  

Two lovely cards too from the lovely Helen and Laura.

And if that wasn't enough gorgeous post I got this! My lovely friend Jeanne in Canada made me this fabulous business card case...............

Isn't it perfect for my cards? I was amazed that this is the first felt thing she has made, wow! It's gorgeous! It's been a great post week :-) 

Whoa, that was a lot of stuff! So that's me for the week,  have a good Easter everyone!

Now back to the cottage building.......