Little monkey giveaway and what's in the box?

As promised here is my giveaway to all that just comment (and have an email address where I can get in touch with in case you're a winner) So, no jumping through hoops/being a follower etc. I will post to most places in the world so it's not limited to the UK. Hop aboard, you never know, you might be the one that wins Little Titch.

Titch has been made with some teeny, tiny baby socks. He has felt eyes, cute little smile and with his beanie hat with a little red heart, he's all ready to come and live with you.
I will put all names in a hat and Head Honcho will pick one out next Sunday.

I thought I would add some extra photos of Titch so it will show up his size a bit better.....

                           Sitting next to a cork from a bottle of fizz (unfortunately not champagne but delicious all the same)

And here he is sitting on the atlas box and keeping whoever is lurking in there firmly under wraps :0D The little boquet of 'flowers' are made from teeny buttons.


And who is in this little box?

Tis a small little box made from an old atlas book.
I will show and tell next week :0D
One clue, I've never made one before!

This week link parties;
iamonly1woman
handmadeharbour
sewmanyways.blogspot
niftythriftythings
sewcando
thegirlcreative
creatingreallyawesomefreethings
lavendergardencottage.
thediydreamer.blogspot
craftionary.

Pull up a chair and sit down! Mini Sampler finished.

Have a seat while I ramble on about the mini sampler!

The mini sampler was finished a bit quicker than anticipated. Some squares were a lot easier to do than others.

                                    
                                            and here are the close ups.....

from left to right:
a pile of books, hopefully kindle will never take over from the real thing!

 My fountain is still stalemate, but one day eh.

I used to have a black handbag with jewels on back in the 60's. Should have kept it as it would be very retro.

A little pair of mittens to remind me of all those that were knitted and lost over the years.

 Little stitchy sampler.

Pair of high heels to match the bag. (Unfortunately I can't wear heels :0( but I do like them)

A bowl of apples....gotta keep healthy!

Love getting real letters as well as emails.

Fancy flowers.

All the hats I used to knit over the years to match the mittens.

All the knitting of little jumpers when the kids were wee bairns.

Got to include a monkey....yay

bottom row:
Sewing thread without which this sampler wouldn't have been made.
Large chocolate cake on fancy tablecloth. Got to keep our strength up.
Signed and sealed!

Top row;
A nice pot of hot tea goes down a treat with a piece of cake.
I don't have a cat, but this one is cute!
The hollyhocks.

From left to right
Top row;
A Scottie dog (I don;t have a dog either but you can't a cat and leave out a dog now can you!)

Daisy the caravan, with a fancy door.

Watering can (although we use a hose pipe, but this little can looks cuter)
A quote which I quite agree with :0D
An exotic birdie. Would be pretty cool if they came like this.
Gingerbread men that I used to make with the children.....oh the memories.

This section was posted last week.

The lighthouse is because I like them and HH has made a few for me for one thing or another.
The top of the hollyhocks, they go through 2 of the squares.

So there you have it all done and dusted. Except I think I will have to take the wheel of Daisy and embroider one instead as it wont fit behind glass. Also the label of my swanky pink garden shoes fell of so I'm thinking of fixing it on the veg patch. It says 'garden, just grow it' so seems appropriate.

So now it will be going to the framers for a suitable frame.

(In case you want to know the little chair has a beer bottle back and the wire thingy that stops fizzy wine shooting out)

And next week I will be having a giveaway so tune in for that.

Here are this weeks linky parties;
handmadeharbour
http://www.flamingotoes.com/
iamonly1woman
sewmanyways.blogspot
sweetlittlegals
linda-coastalcharm
chef-in-training
thediydreamer.blogspot
lavendergardencottage
michellestastycreations
craftionary
jannolson.blogspot

Cross Stitch Cats. Update on mini sampler. I've won a giveaway.

Hello everyone from a very windy tip of Scotland, although the sun is shining it sort of takes the edge of it when you get your hair all messed up in a gale :0D

This cross stitch was mostly done in the hotel in the evening when I was on holiday last month, so it just needed finishing off. This is a gift for my daughter who has two cats, one stripey ginger and the other grey and white so this little picture fitted the bill just purrrfectly (get it!) It's a design by Maragaret Sherry. She does the cutest animals. I think you name an animal and she's done a x-stitch of it.
                               
                                                Before the back stitch

                                        Now doesn't the back stitching make a difference!

and, no, they arn't best mates in real life, they tolorate each other....just! Cute eh.

I won a giveaway earlier on this week from with-u-in-mind. Wow, the suprises just kept falling out of the envelope.

It's hard to see just how many goodies were actually in the packet.....there were lots and already I have used a couple of things. Isn't that one-eyed monster super cute. My g.daughter is going to love him. Lots of beading accessories and what I thought were sweeties are actually charm/beads. So my other g.daughter is going to have fun with me accessorising them. Thank you again kat these will keep me going for a wee while! Pop over to her blog and see what she's upto.

As I've reached 200 followers and it's 2 years since I started blogging I thought I would host a giveaway, so watch this space.

This is an update of the mini-mini sampler that I've been stitching on and off this week. (If you click on the photo it should come up bigger)

Square 1; Quirky house
Square 2; the veg patch. Caulis, carrots, cabbage and onions.
Square 3; My pink animal spot wellies which is my normal wear in the garden.
Square 4; Where would I be without a cuppa, served in a china teacup of course!
Square 5; I love topairy so these two would be by my front door.
Square 6; not completed
Square 7; Washing line of kids clothes
Square 8; I can never refuse cake!
Square 9; I love this sentiment
Square 10; Bunting, for no reason but because I like it.
Square 11; Wanted to do a heart so googled for some images and this is my take on one such image. Sort of folksy I think.
Square 12; Hollyhocks. Love them. They also feature a lot in the old fashioned embroideries with crinoline ladies which I'm rather fond of.

Gosh, when you write it down it sounds loads. Even tho it seems quite a simple design they take ages to do as they are so small. I'm enjoying the process tho. (I have done a couple more of the squares but you will have to wait till next week to see what they are :0P )

I will be adding to these linky parties over the coming week, so stick around and find some more super blogs.
handmadeharbour
homemakeronadime
flamingotoes
iamonly1woman
sewmanyways
thediydreamer
finecraftguild
.handymancraftywoman
michellestastycreations

Mojo injection! Update on fountain.

A huge thank you to littlebluemouse for showing me how to put the title in the correct place! I was getting so frustrated trying to find out how to do it and it's something so simple as looking at the top of the post while writing, and, there it is!! So thanks again littlebluemouse and I'm sure she would like you to pop over and take a look at her blog.

I've had a bit of a mojo injection after losing it last week.....there it was just peeking out at me hiding in the weeds!

While I was browsing on Pinterest I have seen a couple of mini-mini samplers. I think that the one's I saw were about 1" square, but that's a tad to tiny for me with my eyesight so I'm doing mine 2" square (approx) The running stitch is with varigated red through to pink thread which stops having to keep changing colours. In the boxes you can put whatever takes your fancy. Of course my first box is a 'quirky' house!

I am going to put some things that having meaning to me and others just because I can! Also I might do some little embroidery samplers within the square.

The washing line represents all the childrens clothes I've washed over the years! The banners are in the 3rd box are....just because! As they are little pictures by themselves I thought that a square a day would be easily achievable. (here's hoping anyway)

The next thing I was having a go at is this...

We have a few very tatty coasters. So one of them has had a few coats of acrylic paint and then I'm going to............haha that's a secret :0P.......if it turns out OK then you will see, rotten arn't I!

For anyone who might have a smidgen of interest in the fountain fiasco, here it is this week....

Not much further on, but it has moved from point A to point B. haha. I wish I could just get on with it myself but I would need to eat a heck of a lot of spinach to get some muscles like Popeye to shift all those boulders etc. So looks like it's going to be one of those jobs that goes on and on and before you know it's winter time. The solar fountain probably wont work by then, although we have only had one day of brilliant sunshine this week, so maybe I am being over optimistic anyway!


Cheerio for another week and here are the linky parties;
http://handmadeharbour.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.homemakeronadime.com/
http://www.flamingotoes.com/
http://sewmanyways.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/sew-darn-crafty-linking-partyweek-77.html
http://iamonly1woman.blogspot.com.ar/
http://thediydreamer.blogspot.ca/2012/08/from-dream-to-reality-linky-party-28.html
http://www.primpjunktion.com/
http://www.finecraftguild.com/party/
http://www.michellestastycreations.blogspot.co.uk/
 http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/summer-holiday.html
http://thebrambleberrycottage.blogspot.co.uk/