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! :-)

Birthday pressies!!!!

Hello again!

As promised yesterday I'm back to show the fabulous presents I got for my birthday from my fabulous friends :-)

So I'll start with the lovely Laura, a box arrived late last week and when I opened it lots of pretty little wrapped presents were inside so I was very good and left it alone until Monday! Not easy I can tell you!

Laura had stitched this fabulous Fizzy Moon card for me, isn't it gorgeous?

The silk flowers were scattered among the presents in the box and looked very pretty! There was tw packs of tatty teddy tissues, a Gorjus bookmark a set of Little Red Riding Hood pegs, some lovely b uttons and a fabulous bracelet made by Laura :-)

This fabulous little fairy which I have to say I love so much, she's so pretty!

A little pretty tin filled with buttons, charms and eyes, love those flip flop buttons and the owl!

There were even mushroom house charms, how perfect are they!

The prettiest little kokeshi doll ami and a cute mushroom ami along with a super cute bug too.

This lovely little tulip which is hanging in my craft room now and a hello kitty tin of mints

and this adorable little fabric owl and the loveliest quilted purse with little beads on it made by Laura's very talented Mum :-)

WOW! How lucky am I getting all those lovely things! But that wasn't all as I got a HUGE parcel from the fabulous Steph, I mean huge as well! There are so many pics though I'll post them in a separate post or you'll be fed up of me :-)

So see you again in a day or two with even more fabulous presents!

Back and another year older ..........

Hello!

I'm trying to get over the shock of being 40 as of yesterday, I mean who knew that would happen to me! Still I have wine and  chocolate birthday cake to get me over the worst of it so not all bad  :-) I have to say my lovely friends more than make my birthdays brilliant with the fabulous presents I get to open though!  More about them tomorrow as this post would get waaayyy too long otherwise :-) You have to see them though, so much loveliness to show you!

Well lots to show you this week, lets start with the craft fair on Sunday, it was a new one for me at North Shields fishquay and it turned out to be right on the river in what I guess was a warehouse that has been reborn into a big two floor building full of stalls of collectables. One Sunday a month the craft fair joins them for the day. So last week I made some new things for the stall, a new batch of felt flower brooches and some more heart keyrings.

Love making those flowers it's easy to get carried away and make lots of them!

I had a request for a custom order this week for a monkey amigurumi too so here he is, named Banana by his new owner a little boy in the USA even though he hasn't arrived yet!

Hope he's happy in his new home :-)

So back to the fair then, here's my stall complete with new shelves that I'm still very proud of! They turned out to be great for propping up the monster and Norman the gnome as they don't stand on their own and of course a good seat for the fairies and elf too.

Mushroom village

I made a Sunderland owl and a Newcastle owl and thought it best to separate them so they didn't fight!

The fairies on their shelf.

All the flowers on the cake stand,

Basket of keyrings,

and the mushroom tree!

It was great to watch as the huge ferries for Norway and Amsterdam went right past the window too blowing their horns :-)

Next month the fair is themed Spirit of the Sea and is on International Fairy Day so I'm thinking mermaids.


And look what arrived too, my knitted cactus from the fabulous Nicole's giveaway over at her lovely blog! Isn't it fabulous! Thanks Nicole it was a lovely surprise  :-) It now sits on a shelf in my bathroom beside my real cactus and looks fabulous!

Right this post is getting a bit too long to add all the pics of my birthday pressies so I'll be back again tomorrow with pictures of all the fabulous pressies I got from Laura and Steph. I know two posts in two days, what's come over me, lol!

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!