Jubilee ATC's and parcel

So 3 posts in 3 days I don't know what has gotten into me! Here is the little ATC parcel I sent Laura. We were swapping 2 ATC's, one Jubilee themed one and one any theme. I did go a little over board and did a full Jubilee themed parcel...

So as you can see there are some ATC's, union jack tissues, a 'best of British rosette, a bag of buttons and charms, a paper bag with ribbons in, bracelet and earrings and little telephone box photo (or maybe ATC) clip.

 Here are the Jubilee ATC's. The Crown one I designed myself so I could make a good likeness of the St Edward Coronation crown. The other two are photo's of a scene we made with my Daughter's Happyland playset. She has the Queen in the set so we decorated the 'village' with union jacks and had a tea party in the square!

 The ones above are from a recent cross stitcher mag, The design on the left was the original design and I thought It would look good in red on black aida. I then had the idea of doing it in reverse putting blackwork in the head and spots and leaving the body blank. I'm really pleased with them and I always find blackwork a joy to do.

Above is the Jubilee bracelet and earrings. I found the buttons in my local shop and made them into this linked bracelet and earrings, I've since done a blue and green one for me and a citrus one in yellow, orange and lime.

 No swap parcel is complete without a little parcel of goodies in the form of buttons, charms and ribbon. I love the ribbons above, You wouldn't believe how excited I in the shop when I found it.

Lastly is the feltie rosette. I also sent Laura a knitted bird brooch simular to the blue one I shared a couple of days ago but purple. I've just started a pink bird now.

I hope you are all having a good week. Thanks for stopping by. xxx

Sleepy Sarah and Funky Fish

Hi Friends,
Just a quick post to show you the lovely presents Laura sent for my terrible two! They both celebrated their birthdays at the end of April and were very lucky to recieve these Ami's through the post.

Laura sent Charlotte a Sleepy Sarah doll and Thomas a very funky fish which has been named Gobble (no idea behind the reason but then I have no idea how the mind of a 7 yr old boy works).

Sleepy Sarah

'Gobble' the fish



There are links to the patterns on Laura's blog HERE and also some more pictures.

Have a fab day. xxx

ATC's and a bit of stash shopping

Helloooo Friends,
Well my first blog for 3 weeks and the first with the new blogger layout which to put it mildly was a tad confusing.

Things have been a little crazy over the last couple of weeks. I started to do my April biscornu and then what with one thing and another including a new job for hubby, both children having birthdays and then illness, crafting has rather taken a back seat.
The main problem I have is a lack of things to show you at the moment as I made my ATC's for Laura, but I'm yet to post them so they will be staying firmly under wraps for a few more days. I did make up some other ones too which are below...

I brought a copy of the mag 'Simply Homemade' as I liked the look of the cross stitch on the cover, anyhoo, I came across an article on french knitting, my grandad made me a dolly 20 odd years ago and it has moved craft boxes and houses, lived in the loft and the garage. So I dug it out and here is the make from the mag and I must say I'm rather pleased with how it has turned out. I have started a cross stitch pattern from it too so I'll show that as soon as I have finished it.

I've discovered a great little aladdin's cave of a craft shop on the other side of town, a friend told me about it so I decided to check out Crafty Mo's and  she stocks merino tops for needle felting which I was over the moon about, I also picked up a couple of odds and ends too. I also had a great little find in The Works today - a stitchable Journal, it has a little perforated paper section on the cover  and cost £1.99, it came with all the threads and a little sheet of perforated paper with a geometric design on to copy and in a nice box box that I might decopatch at a later point.



Lovely new Merino wool tops.



Well thats about it for now, hopefully I'll be able fill you in on the ATC swap at the end of the week. Thanks for stopping by. x

A little catch up

Hi everyone,
I hope that you have all had a lovely Easter. My lot are on the last day of the hols. I'm pleased to say all the homework is done and bedrooms are almost tidied. I just need to iron the uniform and pop to tesco for the packed lunch stuff. I'm sure that is enough about my domestic arrangements so on to the crafting.

I had a commision for Black Pear - a kitty keyring, now I'm not a cat person so this was quite hard for me to do. anyway here he or is it a she is. I wanted to use safety eyes but couldn't get any locally so I cheated and used black brads, It'll be fine as a its for a (late) teenager. The ribbon was lilac and the ears and nose a pale pink, as they seem to have come out white in the picture.

The back was personalised for the birthday girl. 

I was a bit late getting my ATC's done for this month but it's great to know that I have a couple of spare ones now. As you can see I've not made them up yet but I will do when I do May's themed ones (Birds and Jubilee/Royalty). I've picked the designs for them so I WILL meet the May deadline!!! I must remember to stock pile some stamps too! The mermaid was from an issue of Crazy and the Loch Ness Monster from WOXS. The theme was fantasy (or fanta-sea) as I've renamed it)

The two flowers were from the recent WOXS chart booklet

I started work on the April Biscornu over the weekend and I decided to try stitching the square outlines first, I must say it was a good way to do it and something I'll probably do again. The design is a Kincavel Krosses one, but I'll say more when it's done.

Mum liked the yellow rose biscornu I made for her, I remembered to give it to her on Saturday. She was impressed by the neatness!

Well, time to get on, a woman's work is never done and I want to spend some time stitching this afternoon as I have a job application to finish as soon as the little darlings go to bed tonight.

Thanks for stopping by. xx

Finally some finishes

Hi Everyone,
I hope you are all having a nice Easter, It's rather wet in my part of the world, which is disapointing as we were hoping for a walk today. So instead we're continuing family movie weekend (we've watched Hop, Mary Poppins, Enchanted and now Chicken Little with Flushed away and maybe a full Wallace and Gromit run through later too) and hopefully, I'll get a bit of stitching in too as I need to start my ATC's for this month and get them in the post ideally by Wednesday. Nothing like stitching to a tight deadline is there. 3 of them are my choice and 2 are fantasy themed. The fantasy ones will be a bit of a challenge as it's not something I stitch very often. I have a couple of ideas but I will leave that one until last.

So on to the biscornu...
I did get them finished although I miscounted on the bottom of the rose design by one square all round so instead of unpicking and restitching, I just started again and now I have a spare base for another one at another time.

Firstly the Yellow rose biscornu for Mum

The design was slightly adapted from a Woman's Weekly pincushion designed by Helen Phillips. I put a simple pattern on the base corners an attached a rose charm to the corner. I didn't quite get it done before I went over to Mums, but it's all done now and I can give it to her on Wednesday.

Here is the March one...

The design is from the chart booklet from the latest WOXS and stitched with the Madeira threads. The lovey bead in the middle is one Laura sent me a while back and worked perfectly. The bottom was done with a simular corner design to the Yellow rose biscornu but I added 4 buttons to give a bit extra. I wasn't sure how they would look, but I'm really pleased with how they look.

So this brings me another post nearer my giveaway, so I need plenty of encouragement (and badgering) to get stuff done, as the more I finish, the nearer to my 100 posts giveaway. Steph over at Show and Tell is having an amazing giveaway too... you can find it here.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are enjoying the Bank Holiday. xxxx

Confessions of a slacker stitcher!

Hi everyone,

Welcome to my new followers and Happy Easter to you all!

Todays pics come in the form of a confessional and a bit of a progress report. I still haven't finished March's biscornu and I had hoped to finish one for Mum for Easter as I failed to get it done for Christmas, Mothering Sunday and her Birthday. (Oops!) So my plan for this weekend is to finish both biscornu as have found intructions for a 6 sided biscornu, 15 sided biscornu, a biscobud (sometimes known as a pagoda) and a biscofleur so roughly translated that's April, May, June and July sorted for biscornu! If anyone knows of any other variations please let me know I'd love to try them out. I'll put links on as I make them for the ones I've mentioned.

So here is as far as I have gotten with the March Biscornu. The design is from the Madeira chart book from the current WOXS. It was going to be an ATC but I thought it was too big, Having just measured it, It would fit...just. So anyway, I need to finish the purple backstitch and and then bead it, oh and do the bottom!

This is the one I started for Mum. It's from a Woman's Weekly craft special and was for a pin cushion, but I thought the design worked well for a biscornu, I changed the colours as Mum loves yellow roses and the design was for pink ones. Hopefully I can get it done today and give it to her tomorrow. That certainly will be a tough challenge.

Last picture is the progress pic of my fabric brooch I started at the NEC. I've tidied it up a bit and started on the beading too. I need to sort out a few more green bugles but hopefully I can get it done over the next couple of weeks.

Well time for lunch, I've just re-heated leftover cottage pie, and I can't wait to eat it. Beats a sandwich hands down! Have a lovely Easter weekend. xxx

Sunday stroll, fabulous ATC's and Easter present

Hubby, the kids and I had another trip over to the local country park yesterday to make the most of a sunny Sunday afternoon. We took another route through the woods and walked back up by the two ponds. We took the kids on the park and I sat making daisy chains. The Bluebells are just coming out so I'm looking forward to another walk up there in a couple of weeks to see the carpet of blue.

I was very excited to have a lovely parcel today from Laura today. We swapped 2 ATC's and some little goodies too. My parcel hasn't made it to Laura yet as the postie took it back with him. so here are the lovely goodies I got...

Two gorgeous ATC's...I love the Giraffe one, Laura knows my Giraffe obsession and this will make a welcome addition to it.

Laura also sent these very cute little bunnies and I now have a Tiny Owl too!!! Yay! The little choc chick is safely in the fridge until Sunday, however, if it makes it past midday it'll be a miracle. Laura's Mum remembered one of her friends loved Giraffes and sent me the little Giraffe motif which she'd picked up at a show. Such a lovely thought, I guess all the Giraffe goodies Laura made me for my birthday last November must have stuck in her mind.

 

So above is the ever growing Ami family, not a bad collection considering I can't crochet and the collection is less than a year old. A big thank you to Laura, Steph and Dotty for these.

I haven't forgotten about the March biscornu, hopefully I'll be all done tomorrow as it just needs beading and a bit of backstitch, a bit late I know, but better late than never, My only stitching plans for April are 2 biscornu and half a dozen ATC's. I've decided just a little target this month in the hope I can actually get it done and not feel defeated and therefore lose my stitchy bug.

Thank you for stopping by as always. I love reading your comments so please leave me one even if it's just to say hello. xxx