Postal Goodness!!!

So did everyone watch the Olympic opening ceremony. I thought it was amazing, and the James Bond bit with the Queen was jaw dropping! Once again I'm proud to be British, unfortunatly we don't have tickets for anything but we'll be watching when we can.

As I have said many times before, I have very generous crafting friends and these parcels have arrived through the post recently from Laura and from Steph.

Laura sent me these goodies as a thank you for her birthday presents...

I have already got an idea for the felt owl and the little bag was filled with buttons, bells, charms and ami eyes.  The parcel also had a little craft kit in for Thom as he made Laura a birthday present. He must have been doing it today as he wanted to add some glitter to it and that's probably why he had glitter all over his face at tea!

Steph kindly sent me a huge bag of beads for my friend Jennie who is off to work in a Thai orphanage next week so she can make jewellery with the girls and give them skills for when they need to work.  Steph in all her generosity sent me a little goodie bag too. There was a huge bundle of merino wool for needle felting, some lovely charms and beads including 2 Hello Kitty ones and owl ribbon. Steph made a very sweet Forever Friends card and crochetted me a fab monster that opened up and had all this inside (he was clearly a stash eating monster!)

So there were more buttons and beads, butterfly sequins (I have a perfect project for those and the little pink beads) ribbon, felt shapes, a crochetted flower and an oh-so cute bunny bell.

Lastly postie brought me another parcel from Laura with goodies from her holiday in Northunberland.

So (deep breath) The little pocket cross was from St Aidan's in Bamburgh, The card it is on has a prayer on the back too. The Keep Calm magnet is from Barter Books where the WWII poster was rediscovered a few years ago. The card and leaflet on the top right are from Holy Island. Laura also included a stick of rock from Seahouses and animal stickers. Below is a close up of some of the other goodies.

There was a little bag of buttons, a wirework heart charm, a close up of the pocket cross, a funky beaded friendship bracelet in my favourite colour and a cute little plaque saying "Friendships are sewn one stitch at a time" how apt is that. Laura even sent my son a keyring with his name on. He was so excited.

Right despite the late hour I'm going to do an hour's stitching before bed. I have a plan to be able to show you 3 biscornu by the 1st August. I completed one yesterday, I have a second to sew up and the third to stitch the bottom for and then sew up but it is a very big one. Will I do it????? Place your bets now!!!!

A huge thank you to Steph and Laura again for such generous gifts and thanks to everyone for reading. Two weeks until my blogversary and my giveaway!!

Travelling box pt 2

Hi Everyone,

Another post  that brings me ever near to the big 100 and the giveaway. That of course is rather dependant on me actually getting some craft done which hasn’t happened this week. Anyhoo, Lori now has the travelling box and as you saw from my last post I had a fair few goodies out of the box so I can now reveal my makes that went in to the box...

So here is the main photo (with my Daughters leg in as she helped(?) to pack the box and take the photos) I was really pleased to have used 7 different techniques/types of crafting (who knew I had such a broad repotoire!) I put in a couple of my felties and some jewellery that I’d made recently. The necklace was one I made to demonstrate at the jewellery party that I’d planned to give to the birthday girl but she didn’t really like purple and had the brown “coca cola” neckace I’d made to show that the brown beads were quite nice really! If it stays in the box and is there when the box gets back to me at Christmas, I’ll be quite happy to give it a home myself!

I’ve done a few close up photos so I can tell you more. I love making covers for note books and had every intention to do one last time around but didn’t get round to it. Originally the stitching was going to be a biscornu but when I went to sew up the squares, they weren’t square! Miscounting I hear you cry, but no I counted each side about a dozen times and it appears that in my stash I have a piece of aida where the aida blocks are not square. (frustrating) Anyway rather than do nothing with it I sewed it to the felt and made this little book cover which could be put on to another A6 notebook when that one is full.

This little Rhodes Butterfly pincushion is again another piece that fell victim to the dodgy Aida but ages ago, I made it into this sweet pincushion with a pretty floral and striped fabric on the back.

Ok this is a design you’ve all seen before but I do like making them, especially as it’s a lot quicker with my needle felting pen.

I got these lovely little wooden pieces from beads unlimited the detail is fab so I made the keyring and added the Pandora style beads for a bit of decoration to the key chain and made earrings in a similar style.

I’m really starting to get into decopatch and I had fun doing this little tealight holder, I’ve got a toadstool to do too but as my only crafting time seems to be at work it’s not the most portable thing really even though the glue dries fairly quickly.

The last thing I made is Cyril the snail. He was a last minute addition to the box and is another of my French knitting creations. I love the funky multi-coloured wool!

Phew! That’s the lot. Thanks for reading, commenting, encouraging and saying all the lovely things that you do. I really do appreciate it all. Love Kerry. xx

Travelling Craft box pt 1

I can't believe it is my blogversary in less than a months time by which point I may just have made it to 100 posts. I'm planning a little giveaway to celebrate so best I start creating for that. I have a couple of ideas for it.

The travelling box has left me now and is winging it's way to Lori so here is what I chose from the box. I was fortunate to be able to have at least one item from each person taking part. As usual it was absolutely chocca with fabulousness

As usual my children were in the box picking an item each...Thom chose the ami cupcake and lottie chose the pink heart, although she loves the Russian doll too. I was so pleased to be able to have a biscornu and I knew I'd have the owl instantly. My ami basket may now be renamed 'my basket of loveliness' to accomodate these things. Below are a few close ups.

I've decided to have a bit of a catch up with my stitching as I've done alot for others recently. I actually managed to do a little on my biscofleur a couple of nights ago so thats next on the to-do list followed by the pulled thread one. 

Thanks for reading and I'll be back in a couple of days with my makes for the box. Have a great weekend everyone. xxx

Odds n ends, Laura's birthday, Bessie and Star

Hello friends,

I hope you all are having a lovely weekend. It's been a mixed weekend for us so far. I had a lovely meal with lots of friends from church last night to hear about a project that one of our Interns is going to be doing for the next year at least. Jennie is going to live in Northern Thailand and work in a Childrens home called Kid's Life. The story of the home is amazing and Jennie loves to do creative projects with them and one of the ideas is to make charm bracelets with the girls. They have a creativity hut that aims to teach skills to the children. I will be making up a parcel of beads and findings to send out with Jennie when she goes in August, If anyone would like to pass on any unwanted beads, I'd love to be able to add them to the parcel.

Here goes with the weeks creativity... I made up the Dragon for Hubby


Dragon wall hanging

Hubby has also been making things himself and made a couple of cool beaded wristbands. Here is the first one he made. 

Hubby's beaded wristband

I got asked a few weeks ago to do a jewellery party for a friends daughter's 9th birthday. It was loads of fun to do. The girls did really well and made some very pretty necklaces and bracelets. I didn't take any photos, but I'd love to do another party like that.



As many of my blog readers will also read Laura's blog too, they will know she celebrated her birthday last week and here is the parcel of goodies I sent her.

My son came up with the idea of this little mouse, he picked the colours and the ribbon and helped to stuff it too. The lilac bag contains a bronzed earrings,necklace and bracelet. The blue bag a little stretchy bracelet made by Thomas using indian glass beads. I also made Laura a needle felted Russian doll keyring.
(sorry the picture is a little fuzzy).

I also made Laura a biscornu using a pattern from here. I found a little coloured dragonfly charm in my stash that was perfect.

And here is the bottom...

Here is the card, A blackwork design I first saw on Pinterest and downloaded from here

As usual I added a few bits to the box including a bag of charms that kind of represented Laura including Harry Potter ones, Medieval, sewing and some ones that I just liked! There were also bags of beads.

I also popped in the bottom a couple of bits and bobs I'd picked up over a few weeks. I love the London bus stress ball.

I have one more picture to share today that is in memory of my Mum's dog Star who died today.



And his sister Bessie who died a year ago this month too.



Sorry to end on a sad note but they were much loved but both lived to grand ages of 16 and 15 respectively. My next blog post will all be about the travelling craft box that will be departing my house this week to head north to Lori!

Thanks for reading my very, very long post. Much love to you all. xx