Another teapot cosy. The spoons have a button and small red bow sewn on them which adds an extra decorative feature. Still got oodles of the wool fabric left yet tho. What could be nicer than a hot cuppa and a piece of toast....or crumpet....or cakes.....or!

                                                                      SOLD

Tea pot Cosy 'n brooch

This teapot cosy was  made from a wool blanket and then appliqued on top. The cake sprinkles are litte beads. I have popped it in my Etsy shop.

Still got loads of blanket left so I made a brooch after getting inspiration after looking at lots of different blogs.

As it's my first one there is lots of things wrong with it, but I aim to improve! With an increasing bag of little bits of fabric the brooches are just the right size to use them up.

Cheeky Chappie

Cheeky Chappie liked Barry's new nose so much that he decided to go under the knife himself and have a nose fitted. It's a teeny tiny one so nothing to major, and the recovery time was very quick.  He also wanted a beanie hat rather than a bobble hat as he felt it was more manly! He is very pleased with the overall effect and thinks he's the bees knees now!

Fat Cat

Finished this cross stitch it's the biggest of the set of 5 by Margaret Sherry. All her little animals are so cute. When I've finished the set they will be framed all together.

Nearly finished the next one just need the dreaded

   back stitch to do. They all have a cake theme and all are fat cats....puuurrrfect!

tulip painting

The original frame had an accident (by me) and I broke the glass, but the frame was OK so not wanting to waste it this is what I came up with, as it didnt matter that there is no glass to protect it. Once the paper was dry was a very quick painting.

This painting was born out of an accident! I saw a lovely vibrant oil painting and thought I would do an oil, never having done one before. It was a disaster to say the least! So thought OK will do a watercolour.....problem was that the backboard had a primer on it (that I'd put on so I had a blank canvas, money saving!) and it wouldnt take the paint as its waterproof. Not one to be deterred I stuck tissue in little bits for the tablecloth and then splogged on the red, cut out a template for the vase and then realised I could just stick some big sheets of tissue over the whole lot and then found out that that too much paint  made the paper go a bit soggy and wasnt so easy to do SO another idea and got out me pastels (or chalks) which at last worked. It has ridges and dips in it made by the tissue which adds to the texture. Measures about 31" tall by 22" so quite big.

 Not a masterpiece by any means but its another gap in the wall covered!!

It's a  brighter than the photo

Monkeys in a row

A plethera of monkies watching Barry's wheelie DVD, now they all want a scooter. Peer pressure at it's worst!

Geoffrey is Barry's best friend. He's smirking at what Barry's been upto and he's going over to Etsy to make sure Barry is behaving there :OD

He's been sold, so he is off to his new home to make new friends. He hopes they will be as cool as Barry!

Wow, I'm a winner!

I recently won this material from www.bluemountaindaisy.blogspot.com she does lovely quilts and I was the lucky winner in her giveaway. The photo doesn't do the colours justice. They are really zingy and there was a quilt pattern in there as well! So thank you once again Rachael they are lovely and I hope that I can do the material justice when I get around to using them.

I have just ordered some temporary adhesive glue spray for the backing and wadding for my quilt so I hope it works and stops the material from shifting all over the place. Hopefully it will work and I will report back.

Barry's back!

He's feeling a bit sheepish after his escapade yesterday, but his nose has healed very nicely and he feels ready to be put on Etsy. He would like to thank Brenda for looking after him so well and for the 'oldies' for the stabelizers, but thinks he wont be using them for a little while as he doesn't want to set a bad example to them! 

And here is his best friend Geoffrey he is smirking as he thinks it was so funny when Barry did the wheelies. He will be popping over to Etsy as well.

Dearie Me

Barry has asked me to say that he hasn't gone over to Etsy yet as he had an unfortunate accident. He was showing the residents what not to do on their mobile scooters and he was in the middle of doing a wheelie when he fell off and banged his nose. He has been to hospital and it's now corrected. Brenda has taken the day off work to look after him while he recovers. He hopes the swelling will be down by tomorrow and will be photogenic enough for a photo shoot.

The residents clubbed together and bought him some stablizers and cant wait for his next trick :0D

Here is Barry the Biker. He is a kindly sort of bloke and volunteers in the local old people's home mending their mobility scooters. They have races around the field at the back of their home every month and the winner gets to buy everybody a pint!!

  

Here he is with his girlfriend Brenda. She works in the local motor bike garage and mends all the biker's bangers which are always falling to bits. They both like cooking and poetry.

They are both going over to my Etsy shop.

Computer black out

Seems we have a glitch in the computer which hubs is trying valiantly to restore so how long I will be back on line I don't know :0( but will make haste while the sun shines :0)

Oh boo it want let me upload some pictures, so if its the blogger site or still a gremlin in computer I dont know, will try again later.

Moooo!

I had a brain wave and wanted to paint one of the cows that gather during the summer around my daughters fence (actually wanted to do the whole crew). They are such nosey creatures and cant bear to not see what you are upto. Like curtain twitchers :0D

But what was in my head didnt translate onto paper! The fencing came out OK but am stuck with how to do cow fur.....think I might finish off with pastel chalks. Trouble is when something doesnt turn out right I lose the push that got me started in the first place and go off the painting!
Anyway here is where I'm at so far......

She looks a bit forlorn!

Cheeky Chappie and Cross stitch

Another one for the collection! Cheeky Chappie!

And this is how far I am with the cross stitch and yes I made loads of mistakes, some unpicked and some not!
Will have to get one of those pens that washes out to mark out squares, first time I've had to use one so bit annoyed with myself as don't understand why I keep going wrong :0(

Lovely sunny day here in our corner of Scotland. Hope it keeps going for a few more days.

Back again!

These are more sockies that I have put into my Etsy shop. Nearly at the end of my sock stash.....well OK then half way through :0D
I am itching to get on with my quilt which I'm looking forward to finishing!

The weather here has turned cold, but we haven't had the snow and rain that we thought we were going to get although it was very windy. Funnily enough it was quite nice today! The garden needs a jolly good tidy up, so will have to get that done at some point before we do get snow!

While I was away managed to get a bit more of the cat cross stitch done, so well on target to get that finished. Will post a piccy of it tomorrow.

Goldfish

This is a painting which looks better in real life than in the photo. It has relief gold around the fish and the scales and a shimmer paint that I added to the blue water and the fish bodies so it has a glow. It lives in the bathroom. My hubs said that it would make a good wallpaper for a bathroom! Its quite a big picture and I did another one in different colours that my sil took for his house. Quite easy to paint so I hope that I've given somebody an inspiration to pick up a brush!!

Well, will be without a computer again for a few days so I will be twitching by the time I get it back :0D

Made this teapot cover from a blanket this is the back and this.....

is the front. The cakes look a bit like eggs!! The spinkles are little red beads.

Spec case made from the same materials also made a little mobile phone holder. Still got loads of the blanket left so need some ideas on what to do with it.

Well its turning quite cold and the wind has a bit of a nip in it, so maybe I could make a scarf perhaps. I will have to see if it's itchy first tho as it's wool!

Best monkey mates

This is what I've been upto this weekend, three chirpy friends. From left to right Molly McMoo, Cheery Cherry, Penelope Pink! (Cherry looks slightly squint but in real life she isn't)
P.Pink will be making her way to my Etsy shop soon.

Computer black out

Well we had a computer blackout and then router trouble for a couple of days but seems to be sorted for the moment. 

This is the next cross stitch project that I'm doing. It's a series of cats in the kitchen by Margaret Sherry. I have made 4 mistakes on the teapot alone so far so not a good start! But I am determined that it won't defeat me so will plod on. There are a lot of half stitches which I find annoying so maybe that's what is getting the better of me. It measures just over 6" it looks like a fun picture to hang in the kitchen and it's my favourite............ a cuppa and cakes!

While we are on the subject of cross stitch thought you'd like to see this one that I did for my grandson a couple of years ago. To be honest those browns did my head in as they were so similar so I changed the cream bootee's for blue. I was dreading doing the back stitch but it was suprisingly easy to do and wow what a difference it made to the picture. Would I do another one....at the time I said never again but that was before the final stitch was put in......so I changed my mind to yes, as the picture is so lovely (but it took a while to do).
He is growing into a strapping lad so it's hard to imagine that yes, he was once this small!

Finished WIP cross stitch

A little while back I posted this cross stitch that was nearly finished but lay in the ufo drawer. Now it's finished!

It's amazing when just the back stitch (which everybody hates doing!) brings the picture to life. I have some burnt orange velvet fabric so will probably turn in into a cushion....oh no back into the ufo drawer for a little while ;0)

Cuddles

Latest addition called Cuddles because he is made from the cuddliest, softest socks. When I was little I wanted to work in a zoo, well, that never happened so am making my own menagerie! Will have to branch out from monkey's into other creatures. He or one of his mates will be making their way to my Etsy shop later in the week.,

Sockies Galore

A cupboard full of monkeys! Some of which are in my Etsy shop.

 Two of the shelves have the girls and the bottom shelf has the boys.

I actually got the wadding for my quilt today so next week hope to crack on with it. This bit is going into the unknown I have to say, so, will take a deep breath and hope it goes OK and not to much unpicking!

Poppy painting

A picture to brighten up a miserable cold day! The middle and bottom pictures have a much brighter yellow background than the photo shows. These were  painted a couple of years ago. (red again of course!) The middle photo shows a  painting made up into cards.
Will have to get the old paints out again as they have been unused for a few months. At the moment still underneath monkeys and threads and stuffing!

More Sockies

Here is some more of the gang, which are already sold. I will be adding some more onto my Etsy account in the next few days.

Well up here in the far North we have a sort of snow (hail and sleet) and then the sun comes out and then it's dark and horrible again. It's turned quite chilly now, but we have the fire blazing and what better than to draw up a chair and get on with some craft work......so a mixed blessing!

Card making

I don't very often make cards but the urge overtook me to knock a few up, this one went to a poorly friend.
I wouldn't mind having a go a scrapping but after looking at all the bits and pieces that are in the shops and cutters/embellishments etc and seeing how expensive it is, think will give it a miss. Although saying that, I have bought a brown paper bag thingy from Ebay, (is that called tea bag) which is all folded over and it has pockets to slip cards in. So maybe one day that could be used for a sort of scrappy book. Maybe cut my own embellishments to stick on.
Another thing to add to the ever increasing list!

Got stuck into a bit of cross stitching and got a large chunk of it done, hopefully it will be finished soon.

Applique

I just love applique, while browsing bloggers world I have come across some amazing applique quilts....that would be my ultimate goal to do one of those. (well I can dream). So in the meantime I have started this small piece which will be turned into a cushion. It's a funny sort of  fabric as it can be painted on as well as anything else, its very strong but I can't remember the name of it think it beings with M and it comes in different weights. Daughters and myself went to a class and had a lesson on painting on this fabric which was great fun and we come out with some great peices of messy artwork! Will take a photo and put on here some time.

 Not all of it has been stitched down and it's nowhere near finished I was thinking of free machine quilting it. Give me a bit of practise for the BIG one!
Which brings me onto that.....went into the shop to get some wadding (not fancy stuff just 2oz polyester which the purist amongst you will do a big intake of breath....sorry) and they only had 3 metres when I need 4 and half so boo to them. They wont be having a delivery for at least a couple of weeks so double boo. Will go to the craft shop in the other town and hopefully they will have some in or at least get a quicker delivery.

Wow, won a prize!

Can't remember the last time I won something! These are from Paint Drops Keep Falling ((http://paintdropskeepfalling.wordpress.com/) and they are very large postcards of her lovely paintings. I will be framing a couple of these (especially the one with the red spotty background!) I love the way she does her backgrounds I'm sure she'd be delighted if you paid her blog a visit. (sorry I don't know yet how to highlight the name) So thank you very much they are lovely.

Patchwork is coming along a pace and nearly finished the patching together. It has 5 strips so only another one to do and then the sashing around the edges.

Knitting pattern

I was asked which pattern that was used to knit me blue cardi. Well this is it, as I said not grannyish quite modern I did adapt it a bit and moss stitched all of the back and moved the 2 front panels right over to the front band as  it seemed to be nearly underneath the arm pit and not so easily seen.

This bowlful of cooking apples was taken from one patio tree quite an amazing amount for a small tree. They arn't as big as Bramley's but at least I know they are fully organic. Most of them have been turned into crumbles and eve's puddings but still got loads left over.

Surging ahead with the patchwork. When you have to unpick it 3 times that's the time to put it away for the day!! But even with those hiccups there is  only one more panel to be sewn and then the sashing all the way around. So nearing the end......until I get into a puzzle with the actual quilting bit.