2nd Blogversary Giveaway #3

Hi everyone.

A little later than planned but here is the winner of the Rhodes Butterfly biscornu.

Random name generating child picked a winner out of the pot and it is....(Drum roll please)

Kaisievic!!

Well done Kaye, I'll be in touch!!

So here is the third of the giveaways to celebrate my blogversary. I've had a look in my rather large box of kits and picked out 2 card kits and also a bookmark kit that isn't pictured as small child has hidden it! It is a pretty little Anchor kit with a pond and dragonfly.

So if you would like to win these kits just leave a comment in the post below and I'll put the random name generating child to good use again. It's a good thing there are only 4 giveaways otherwise he'll be demanding payment for his services. I'll close this one and launch the last giveaway in about a week.

Good luck.

2nd Blogversary giveaway #2

So time to draw the winner of the charm bracelet and to launch the second giveaway.

It was lovely to hear all your answers and I'm looking forward to making the bracelet and sending it to the lucky winner who is....

Christine

I've got your email addy so, I'll be in touch.

So on to the second prize...It wouldn't be right to have a giveaway on Ramblings of a Biscornu addict without giving away a biscornu.

I stitched this Kincavel Krosses design in my favourite thread Luna Park by Dinky Dyes, with a border of seed beads and a little silvered charm.

So to win the biscornu simply be a follower and comment on the post below.

Thank you so much for reading my blog over the last 2 years. All the lovely comments really mean a lot and keep me crafting. Thank you to for the friendships. I've made some very good friends through blogging who are so kind and generous in many ways.

Good luck everyone. xxx

Tusals and a 101 update.

Ok so the post I started writing for last months TUSAL didn't get finished, but I did take a picture so here are my June ORT's. Most of the colours are from things I made for Laura's birthday. Lots of silver bits from Dorothy's shoes, the red, blue, yellow and green from the biscornu and pinks from the piggy keyring.

So here you can see it with our lettuce crop - it's the only thing that is thriving in our garden other than the weeds. It actually ticks off one of my 101 too which was to grow something from seed.

So here is this months ort pile...

I had a bit of a tidy up in my craft corner - not that you'd notice now and that is a job for this afternoon as we have friends down tomorrow.
As I've already caused much excitement with my lettuce here is a bit more of a 101 update.

so we are now at 638 days to go with 27 goals in progress and 16 completed (15%)

The lettuce was a tick as it was the grow veggies from seed. It's been lovely to just go into the garden and pick some leaves for a salad or to pop in with a sandwich.

The other tick was make ice cream from scratch. I was at my Mum's last week and the kids were watching the cbeebies program I can cook. Katy the host made strawberry meringue ice cream. It looked very easy so we made it at home.

Here it is just before we froze it. I forgot to take an after picture but it didn't look a whole lot different. It was very yummy though!

Thank you to Steph, Laura, Christine and Sarah  for sending me lots of postcards. I'm up to 43 out of 101 so well on my way now.

Sarah also sent me a lovely biscornu, some cross stitch charts, maderia threads as well a the postcards.

The biscornu was blue on the other side. Sarah had said she would send me a postcard to help with my 101 but I didn't expect a lovely parcel like this. Thanks again Sarah!

I mentioned in my summer swap post about the postcards Steph sent me so here they are...

So apologies that once again this is a bit late, I seem to be full of good blogging intentions. Don't forget to enter my blog giveaways - I'm running 4 over the coming 4 weeks so lots of chances to win.

Have a great weekend!

2nd Blogversary Giveaway #1

Hi everyone,

Today is my 2nd blogversary and to celebrate this I'm having a series of giveaways each with a different prize.

I've made a few charm bracelets recently and I really love making them. Jewellery was one of the first real hobbies I had and I still like to dabble. Taking part in the travelling box has renewed my enthusiasm for it as it isn't so time consuming but you can create some beautiful things.

The first prize is a charm bracelet in my blogversary extraganza. Here are some ones I've made recently so you can get an idea of what you can win.

It will be a made especially for you and feature a couple of charms that make it personal to you. To win the bracelet please comment on this post with the following:

• Favourite colour
• Favourite animal(s)
• Main craft hobbies - (crochet, stitching etc)
• Any other hobbies - (reading, baking etc)

This giveaway will run for a week and close at midnight (GMT) on 16th August I will use the random number generating child to pick a winner.

Please feel free to share this on your blog if you wish.

Good luck everyone

Kids Life Ministries

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all your lovely comment on the swap Steph and I did. I hope you are all keeping well. I thought I'd just drop by and share a little update from my friend in Thailand who lives and works at a childrens home there.

Jennie came home to visit last month and I had a lovely evening with friends catching up with her and hearing all what the children have been up to there. Jennie brought back with her some of the earrings and cross stitch the children have been doing, in the hope she could sell a few and earn a little money for the girls.

As you can see there was an awful lot to choose from. I got a pair of earrings each for Steph and Laura as they had both been very generous and sent lots of beads and charms for the girls last year.

I sent the lilac ones to Steph and Laura and the green star ones were for me. They were all packaged really nicely with the name of the girl who had made them on the back. Mine were made by Nok.

Some of the girls had also been cross stitching and made little keyrings. Here is mine. This was stitched by New. 

Part of the reason the girls learn cross stitch is that it is often featured on traditional Thai clothing, so it is important that they learn traditional skills. Some of the older girls also learn a type of Thai loom work to make bags and other things. Because the girls (and boys) come from a childrens home they are heavily discriminated against by most of society so by learning these skills and also the English language they get a a better chance at work and education.  

I must finish sorting out some fabric and threads for them as another friend is going out next week and she can take them to Jennie for the girls. I love to hear what they've been up to and hope my lovely blogger friends didn't mind me sharing this with you all.

Look out next week for the start of my blogversary giveaways!

Summer swap part 2

Hello again,

 So I showed you all the marvelous goodies that Steph sent me in our summer swap. As I mentioned we each chose colours and Steph chose yellow and purple. I had great fun crafting for this and here are my makes...

So I made a biscornu from a recent pattern in a WOXS chartbook. It's the same design stitched with the colours reversed for the base with different thicknesses of threads.

And then the biscornu's got a little smaller...the one on the necklace is about an inch or so big and the small one is about 3/4". It had been ages since i made really small ones so these worked well with the fabric scraps from the biscornu.

I made a 'Steph' charm bracelet and matching earrings.

I hadn't made any felties for a while so when I brought the made in felt mag I fell in love with the mermaid and little bear so made both of them for Steph, changing the colours to fit our swap. I added some angelina fibres to the mermaid body for some shimmer.

I also made a little pansy bookmark, nailfile cover and a friendly plastic brooch.

I also popped in some fabric, beads, buttons, ribbon and charms along with some wool.

and a jelly belly candle, tissues and 2 handmade soap I picked up at a craft fayre a while back. My son also made Steph a bracelet. He chose all the beads himself ans put it together, just needing a little help with the findings.

The second part of the swap were summer themed ATC's. It's been about 12 months since I made any but I had a couple I'd stitched already and I made the friendly plastic beach hut and needle felted the ice cream.

This swap wa so much fun to do and I think Steph liked her presents.

Summer swap pt 1

Hi Everyone,

I can't believe it's August already. Steph and I decided ages and ages ago to have a summer swap. We decided to each choose two colours. I chose yellow and turquoise/teal/blue/green - so basically anything in that colour spectrum. Steph chose yellow and purple but more on that in my next post.

So this was the fabulous bundle of goodies that arrived on my doorstep today. When I opened it up it was wrapped up in a beautful crochetted granny.

Here are all the goodies together.

There were 3 beautiful brooches. 2 were crochetted and then embelished in a very Steph way! I now own 7 brooches made by Steph. I just love how they are so unique and original. The middle one is a fabric/felt one. Here is a close up.

Steph said a while back she hadn't swapped any ATC's so we decided to swap some with a summer theme. Steph made these 5 amazing ones. If you look carefully the bunting spells...BEACH. so clever.

There was also some incense cones for the smoking dragon Steph made Hubby and I for our anniversary in June, a box of jelly beans, some fabric charm squares and Cornwall postcards for my collection. I'll show you those in my next 101 round up.

There was an amazing cushion stitched on some of the most beautiful hand dyed fabric, I just love the waves of colour. It is so tactile as it has all the waves of beads and buttons and little gold dragonflies. It is beaded around the edge too.

The back was as beautiful as the front. It had so many french knots and lazy daisy stitches and then all the seed beads on another glorious piece of fabric.

There was also a very bright and bold biscornu with a pretty leaf pattern.

And here is the back, you can see how bright the fabric is. You can't miss it in my biscornu bowl!

I'll be back in a couple of days to show you my makes for Steph. It was a brilliant exchange. I had so much fun crafting for it.