Stockings and Mushrooms!

Well my week has been filled with making christmas stockings for my friend. I'm doing well with them and I have one left to line and then all they need is the personalisation. That's not too bad as my local sewing shop will cut the letters for you I guess using some sort of die cutting machine and then all you do is iron them on. It works out quite cheaply and saves a considerable amount of time for me too. I paid £13 for 5 names as I figured I may as well order the names for my two too.

As you can see I didn't hide the banding the bobble trim is on rather, I used it to break up the two fabrics a little more. It's been really good to do these as they've improved my machining skills alot.

 

I ordered two hanging mushrooms from Lori, and they've arrived and are fabulous! Here are the fronts of them. I picked out what I wanted on them. It is all the things that remind me of Christmas in our house. The victorian street lamps are because my mum has a little village she puts out each year.

Here are the backs, I didn't realise Lori would embroider the back too so they will look fabulous hanging on the glass of our lounge door. You can find Lori's blog here with links to her Etsy shop etc.

On the 50 Book challenge front, I finished Daphne by M C Beaton and moved on to the next book in the Six Sisters series called Diana the Huntress.

Well thats all for today. I'll be launching my Christmas giveaway tomorrow so check back to see what I'm giving away!

Have a good weekend
Kerry :-)

Birmingham Frankfurt Market

Hi Everyone,

Just a few pictures of our day out yesterday to the Market.  Hubby, the kids and I met the In-Laws there and had a lovely morning out soaking up the festive atmosphere and getting in a little Christmas shopping in.

I picked up a couple of stocking fillers for the children - really nice wooden spinning tops and a doll that is on a spring that you hang up and it bounces.

I also got Hubby a glass dragon too.  He is mad about dragons and sometimes its hard to find new ones that aren't ridiculously expensive. This one was perfect as it is small too so it wont be hard to find a home for too.

I picked up a couple of other glass bits, a little giraffe for me, and a Shaun the sheep for my MIL. She's mad on him, so for £3 it was a perfect little gift. I also picked up some lovely little wooden tree decorations and a santa candle which was a bit of fun. The hearts are little soaps that smell divine, so a couple of little stocking fillers there too for friends.

At Christmas, Mum puts up her little village on the fireplace. She's been collecting the bits for it for probably about 20 years now and most years gets something new. When I saw these little people for it, I knew they would be perfect. The market had buildings too, but they were way out of my price range, but the figures were surpisingly reasonable. Here are the ones we chose for her.

So on to the pictures of the fab buildings - or log cabins I guess they were. I was amazed how much effort they go to. This one sold iced gingerbread.

This one below was a pub.

And a close up...

Another one of the pubs...we didn't frequent them all!

But this one we did. The moose sings in rather a drunken way, It's quite funny to hear him get all the words slightly wrong.

Don't ask me why blogger wants the picture there but it does, and this is what we had to drink...Hubby and I had baileys in our hot choc...YUM!

The children and I went on the carousel, we decided to sit in the sleigh rather than on the horses as a wriggly 2 year old makes it hard work.

So there is my lovely day out, despite the rain at the end, we had a lovely time, I can't believe I'd not been before! It's our local Victorian themed Christmas fayre next week so looking forward to that, Expect another blog post full of festive nonsense.

Todays plans are...Start machining the stockings and then finish something for my giveaway whilst watching the last Grand Prix of the season. I plan to launch it next Saturday so watch this space!!

Bye for now!!!

Christmas travelling box - my makes

So here are my makes for the Travelling Christmas box. Laura received the box this week so I can reveal my makes.

I mentioned earlier in the week about finally getting my sewing machine out - I made a small-ish cushion for the box, this was actually the second attempt as the first was rather large! I got rather carried away with the first. My plan is to finish off the large one as a cushion, before Christmas. (*disclaimer - I didn't say which Christmas!!)

I beaded it round the centre panel and added a few sequins and some beads to the corner. Apologies for the photo as it was late at night so I had to use the flash.

Next I made this tiny humbug from a Kincavel Crosses design. I thought the fabric was 16 ct, which I thought would do as I didnt have any 14ct, turns out to have been 18ct so the finished humbug was way,way smaller than planned! Oh well, small is beautiful as they say.

I made two little felt and stitched decs too from an old issue of Cross stitcher. They were nice quick stitches to do! It was one of those weeks where it took me longer to make them up than to actually stitch the designs.

Lastly I made the little tree. It almost got left out as I'd popped my makes on top of the box ready to put in and it got knocked off, and disapeared under the table. Anyhoo, here it is, the star sequins were a bit of a last minute addition as it looked like an apple tree from a Mr Men book without them! Not the best picture again as I turned off the flash as it was reflecting on the sequins.

So there are the makes for the box, It'll be back with me shortly, I can't wait to see what Laura has put in.

I noticed from my last post I hadn't linked Steph in for her gorgeous brooch, so here is her blog. I chose this page as it has some very, very cute charts and also the link to her Folksy page for the wild women.

So I hope my friends you all have a fabulous weekend. Mine will be spent watching the last Grand Prix of the season. Monday I go into mourning for 4 months until the start of the next season. Lots of craft plans for the weekend, Firstly to start making these stockings for my friend. I want to give them to her in 10 days. It's going to be a push to get them done. I should have made them in January when she asked me (slap on wrist for leaving it this long). Best I get the fabric cut today! I've never made a stocking before so it will be a little bit of trial and error (hopefully not too much error as I really don't have the time!!!

Well on with the housework (otherwise known as delay tactics for stockings!) Until next time. xx

A very random post

I tend to keep an ongoing list of stuff I need to blog about on my home screen otherwise I would totally forget what I needed to tell you all. This is one of those posts where I try and show you all the odd bits.

Firstly my amazing brooch that I commissioned the fabulous Steph to make. I wear alot of blue and green but I didn't have a hand crafted brooch to wear with it. Steph has been making these wild women and when I saw her swaddling sister I knew I'd love one in blues and greens so here it is. Not the best picture, granted, but here never the less.

Next up is a  make I did yesterday for a friend, She said she'd never had a handmade gift so I RAK'd her one. This was also another start for my 101/1001 so thats good too. It's rather simular to the one Laura made me for my birthday, which she said she had the idea from me so I guess it's come full circle. Anyhoo I hope my friend likes it as she hasn't recieved yet and occasionally reads my blog, so I won't say too much more. The biscornu pattern is an old CSC one I think.

A few things to update my 101 too are another book has been read - Jake Humphrey's F1 book - The Inside Track. I had it for my birthday and read it in 3 days! I've joined Steph's 50 book challenge so that counts as number 1 too! I also did 2 Operation Christmas Child boxes, but forgot to take a pic of them before I sent them off. They were an absolute joy to do and the kids liked helping too.

I went to the German Christmas market in Birmingham last Saturday and had a wonderful day. I went with my pal Sarah and her family for her Mums birthday. We had  hot choc with baileys and cream and felt thoroughly sick after (but so worth it!) I brought a couple of Christmas decorations and bits and pieces. It was well worth braving the crowds for. I'll try and sort a couple of pictures for my next post.

Laura received the Christmas box today so I'll share my makes tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by.

Kerry. xx

Christmas travelling box picks

Hello, Hello, only me!

I posted the box to Laura today, so I thought you like to see my picks from it. There were some beautiful bits in it from my very talented friends but we chose these bits. I say we as my children did the picking. I only took 3 things as the box will be back to me after its visit to Laura. Apologies now for the pic's the weather is awful and it just never seems to get light enough to take photos, that is when I'm at home in the day.

Thomas picked the two decorations - one for him and one for Lottie. They were made by Steph O.

Steph also made my next pick of this stunning biscornu. I am obsessed by these funny litttle things and I don't actually have a Christmas one so I thought it was a great addition to my biscornu family.

This is the bottom, fab isn't it.

My last pick was one of Lori's fabulous felties. She really is a genius with felt. So Santa will now be a new addition to our Christmas tree.

 

As soon as Laura gets the box, I can show you what I made to add to the box. It's a busy week here craft wise, I need to start on some christmas stockings, paint 2 masks and alter a curtain. Oh and mend a dress for my friend. I finally managed to have 5 mins on my sewing machine on Sunday. It certainly had been a while. Once this lot is over I can make my bits for my Christmas giveaway!

Have a good week friends!

Birthday goodness galore

I celebrated my birthday this week and I was so lucky to recieve so many fabulous presents from friends and family.

So Steph was very prompt with her present for me (despite my tardiness for her birthday last month) and a lovely brown paper parcel arrived on the Friday before my birthday. I was a very good girl waited until Monday to open this box of wonder!

Now there are a few things I'm passionate about - Crafting, the colour green, Hello Kitty, Formula One, Glee and Giraffes. Steph's parcel conained most of these, but where to start!

So there was a very cute Kitty with a pink spotty dress and bow and also a Hello Kitty bracelet. The bracelet has a fab metal HK charm and says HELLO KITTY in little heart beads. I will have to introduce feltie kitty to my daughter's collection of HK's I think Lottie has 7 now!

Steph made a lovely HK card too with a fab cabuchon (I think thats how its spelt) in the centre.

I had 3 biscornu from Steph, two knitted ones in Yoda green and pink and an amazing one where Steph painted the linen before stitching it.

Here is a close up of the top of the stitched biscornu, they dont show up very well in the pic but there are some little seed beads on the top as well as the beaded edging.

and the bottom, the colours are amazing.

So next up are my giraffes. They don't have names yet, so suggestions are welcome :-) you can see in the background the box that Steph reused that once had a reed difuser in so everything smelt lovely too!

Lastly from Steph's box of goodies was a fab little bag of bits and bobs.

PHEW!!!!! well thats one parcel done . I'd like to share a couple of cards I had. This one is from Jo over at serendipidous stitching. She had been stitching the WOXS flower cards for people throughout the year but had no one to do the November one for, so asked for any November birthdays amongst her followers, I sent her a message that I was one and of course I had to help a fellow stitcher complete her project. so here is the card.

I also want to share the lovely card Mum gave me, it is a shop brought one, but it is so beautiful and it really is perfect for me. Mum added the daughter  bit and if she hadn't have told me I'd never have guessed. I told her she had a very good eye for detail as she did find the perfect spot for them.

and now on to the wonderful parcel Laura sent me, so deep breath everyone and here come another 10 pictures!!! Lets hope I can get it done whilst my cakes are in the oven - banana rock cakes in case anyone is wondering (you weren't, ok well on with the show!)

More Giraffes, are my friends trying to tell me something? a cool giraffe pencil, some stickers and a rubber stamp.

A fab door sign, some pretty heart fabric and starburst felt (got a project in mind for that)

Next up one of Laura's famous twizzle bracelets and a dainty pair of earrings, perfect size for me. 

Laura made me a very pretty needlebook, I love floral designs. I have a little part time job at my local Church where I am an evening receptionist, I'm allowed to take crafts with me and stitch most evenings I'm there. I shall be taking it with me tonight for sure. I've taken the pic so you can see the detail on the back too.

Laura made me a sweet bumble bee pin cushion too.

Wow this must be the most tiring blog post I've ever written and we're not at the end yet. Next up is a biscornu bag charm, with some cute beads, bells and charms on. It has little coffee cups stitched in what looks to be Anchor vari 1335 (am I right Laura?)

Lastly is Binky the bubble monster. Lottie is holding him here and co-ordinating quite well I think! When my hubby saw him, he imediatly sent Laura a FB message to ask her to make him one. He really is an awesome Ami. I went out and brought a second basket today to house my ami family in as we'd hit bursting point at the end of last month. I found a great wooden tray/basket kind of thing which is perfect in my local charity shop. I was very pleased.

Well, the rock cakes are cooked, Thom be home from school any minute so time to sign off. If you have been in a cave for I-don't-know-how-long you can find Steph's blog here , Jo's blog here and Laura's blog here.

Thanks for reading what may be the looooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggest post EVER!!! I'll be back over the weekend with the Christmas travelling box.xxx

Autumn biscornu swap

Hello

Hope everyone is having a good weekend. It's been a quiet one so far, I've been on duty at work this weekend so I've had to go down to open and lock up. I did pop into town yesterday for beads and bells but the shop that does mill hill beads has stopped stocking them and the other shop had sold out of bells! Anyhoo I did pick up a couple of bits ready for my giveaway next month, so thats good.

Right on to biscornu... I've done a few swaps with Ivory from bubble and we decided to have an autumn swap as it's been a while since our last one.

I stitched the leaf quaker pattern from Kincavel krosses and decided to use a spectrum of autumn colours. Here is the top before I stitched it up.

I used a lovely sage green aida I'd had in my box for ages, it has little brown flecks in which made it perfect a it looks very rustic. So this is the top...

And this is the bottom. I used part of the design from the leaf pattern - just not stitching the leaves!! Ivory loves owls so I added this owl charm for her.

I also received my biscornu yesterday, it has so many little gold beads on it. the top has a pink star button and the bottom a blue one. Another lovely one for my collection :-)

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and were able to take a moment to remember our servicemen and women today. Sorry for the truly awful photos, it was these or nothing, in future I need to check the pictures before I send off my swaps. (slapped wrist). I'll be back in the week with the Christmas travelling box as that arrived for a brief stop with me this weekend.

Kerry. xx

Crayons!!! another 101 update

Hi Folks,

Me again, I thought I'd give another very brief 101/1001 update

Days remaining - 911
In progress - 22
Completed - 6 (5%)

I've read a couple more books since my last update so I've finished The taming of Annabelle by MC Beaton and also Deirdre and Desire by the same author, That now makes me 7" into the 66" I need to fill. A long long way to go but 2 years to do so. So here is my book height chart for you to see. Ive realised there must be a sticky finger on the lens, I've tried to get it off but it's not moving so some lens cleaner from town is now on the shopping list for today.

So many of my things on the list have several things within the thing so I don't feel like I'm making any progress at times. I'm determined after Christmas when it's a bit quieter craft wise that I'll get cracking with some of craft things on my list. I'm really struggling to think of RAK's to do, I'm a fairly generous soul so I'm sure I do them anyway but most of the time I kind of think, well I would have done it anyway so it's not exactly random. We've almost finished our Operation Christmas Child boxes. I just need to put some sweets in now for both of them.
I'd like to do a craft swap with someone new too, so if you fancy it, drop me a message.

Lastly another Pinterest project... Re-moulding crayons. Anyone with small kids will know how many crayons they have in their house that get broken into small pieces and in our house up to now thrown out as I get fed up with picking them up. I found this idea on pinterest for remoulding them using silicone cake moulds. Well I couldn't find any cheap ones, but we had some rubber ice cube trays in the back of the cupboard so I decided to sacrifice one of them as they were about a quid from Ikea. Fortunately it didn't melt in the oven as you put the crayons into the oven for 4-5 mins at 150c to melt them down. The crayons in their usual form are put into the moulds in little bits, I found 1cm pieces or there abouts worked well as it meant I got more crayons in, and then put in the oven as above. I haven't credited any particular pinterest pin as there were several of them for this.

Here is the result with them still in the mould



And here they are once they'd been left to set overnight. I did turn some out after about 4 hrs for thinner ones but I was a bit keen with the second batch I managed to snap one in half.

They look quite cool and work perfectly well too. Lottie has already tested them out!

Thanks for reading, back to the stitching posts next as I have a biscornu to share once it's been received and what should appear on my doorstep yesterday but the Christmas Travelling box!!! YAY!!!!

Have a good weekend everyone. xx