The Alchymyst's Study

Challenge reveal an unsatisfactory bird watch and another jumper transformed

2012-01-29T09:33:00.000-08:00

It's reveal day for the Monthly Challenge on Needlecraft Haven. This month we did a Russian Doll design from Les Chroniques de Frimousse. Mine is stitched using mainly Carries threads in Baby Teal, Peacock, and Gold, on Crafty Kitten fabric in Icicle, and finished fairly simply as a hanging decoration. I left off the snowflakes as I wanted to display it year round, and changed the text to read "from Russia with love".
The album with the other finishes is here.

A week or so back I saw this sweater makeover project from Tea Rose Home, and I thought it looked like fun, so off I trotted to the charity shop, where I found this pretty but plain cardi.

I pretty much followed the tutorial, adding some godets and a bias trim around the neckline using a small printer's sample of liberty print fabric I had lying around, and then added some lace, fabric yoyos, and a handful of vintage buttons I've been dying to showcase somewhere, and this is the result. I think it looks a bit like something from Per Una.
The RSPB great garden birdwatch was this weekend. I got a very poor showing this year because Bill decided it was a good day to sit out on the patio and intimidate all the birds:-
Two each of sparrows, blackbirds, bluetits, chaffinches and magpies, and one solitary starling. No thrushes, wrens or goldfinches at all, even though I know they are there.
I'll leave you with a picture of Eloise, in full Harley Quinn mode, modelling her lego creation from last week. Linda, will recognise the transatlantic jeans which she very kindly helped us acquire at Christmas.

Sun, fur and lego

2012-01-22T07:33:00.000-08:00

We've had some beautiful clear mornings here in the last week. I thought you might like to see this view from our back bedroom of the sun rising over Bodmin Moor.

In creative news, I set forth yesterday armed with Issue 9 of Mollie Makes (yes I know issue 10 is out now, I've got plans for that one too...), a cheap and cheerful Asda cardigan, half a yard of faux fur fabric and my trusty sewing machine (which I secretly suspect is smarter than I am).

I had to re-draft the pattern as the one in the magazine was cut for a cardigan with a higher neckline, but here is the result, a little bit of retro chic, plus enough of the fur left over to make a snuggly cushion at a later date.
I've been playing with washers and hex nuts again too, I might have something new to show soon.

And the lego, you ask. Well, I bought Eloise this book for Christmas, and she has been inspired.

Look at this necklace she created from Lego.
Very Harley Quinn.
(Note for Linda, it goes really well with a certain pair of jeans)

Travelling Pattern, and a Tutorial

2012-01-15T09:21:00.000-08:00

First up, the Travelling Pattern.
Here is my completed and framed version.
The next stitcher for the travelling pattern will be

(drum roll please)

Kate

Kate can you email me with your postal address please?

You might remember the hex nut bracelet I made a couple of weeks back. I've been having a play, and I think I've got them coming out how I envisioned them now. They are similar to the ones on Honestly...wtf, but since I started them and finished them differently to theirs I decided to write up a tutorial for the whole process.

You will need:-

a bag of hex nuts from your local builder's merchants/ DIY store. These are apparently M4 hex nuts, basically I just bought the smallest they had. They cost me the princely sum of 3p each. You'll need between 3 and 4 dozen depending on the size of your wrist and how tight you braid them.
Ignore the washers, they are for a different project.

Stringing material. After experimenting I found that the suede thong worked best, the nuts dont slide about on it as much while you are working. Cotton cord worked quite well too, but ribbon was a bit too flimsy.
A clasp of your choice, split rings to attach it with, and a pair of the toothed jaw type ribbon clamp ends.

Cut 3 pieces of your chosen stringing material each approximately a foot long. (some of the length is taken up in the braiding & you need more than you think, better to have to cut a bit off at the end than not have enough)

Place them side by side in the jaws of the clamp ~ I like to put a drop of craft glue in as well for extra hold ~ and squeeze it closed with pliers. Using a split ring attach one part of your clasp. I don't recommend using a jump ring as the finished bracelet is heavy and it may pull open.
Plait the pieces together for about 1/2 inch.

thread a nut onto the next end to be plaited in and push it up as far as you can before crossing the end into the centre.

Repeat with the opposite side.

Continue as set, threading nuts onto alternate sides as you plait, and keeping them pushed well up

until your braid is around 1" short of your desired finished bracelet length, then plait without nuts for a short distance to match the first side.

This is the part where having an extra hand would come in very handy, but unless you are Zaphod Beeblebrox you are going to have to find something to hold the braid in place with. I used this tiny decorative clothes peg.

Once you have your peg (or Zaphod hand) in place to hold the braid, snip off the excess, and again add a dab of glue before fastening on the 2nd ribbon clamp.

Ta da! Your lovely bracelet. They are so chunky and satisfyingly heavy to wear.

And here is a gallery of different styles

I love the effect on the turquoise one, which was made by alternating zinc and brass nuts.
The pale pink one is done with waxed cotton cord which, as you can see, allows you to fit the nuts much closer together creating a denser bracelet.
The white one is threaded in a completely different way, I'll explain that one another time.

Quick heads up

2012-01-11T23:50:00.000-08:00

If you pop over to The Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe she is having a give away for some beautiful hand dyed threads. To join in the fun just sign up as a follower and say I sent you (sounds like a line from a cheesy spy film).

Don't forget to comment on the post below by Sunday if you want to be the next stitcher of the travelling pattern

First finishes of 2012 and The Travelling Pattern

2012-01-09T02:24:00.000-08:00

Doing a Happy Dance for my first finish of the year, Count your Blessings by Shakespeare's Peddler. This is the travelling pattern as started by Sharon (Daffycat).
Sorry about the pictures on this post by the way, it's a grey old day and I can't get the colours to come out right, it's nowhere near as dark and dull as this in real life. Also the house isn't really curved ;D

So..
Do you want to join the fun and be the next stitcher of The Travelling Pattern?

These are the rules:-

1. comment on this post saying you would like to be part of the stitcherhood

2. by leaving the above comment you agree (if you are chosen) to stitch the design and send it along to the next person in a timely manner. if this means dropping eveything in your rotation to concentrate on this project, so be it. if you cant bring yourself to do this done sign up

3. you must have a active blog to partcipate. if you have a blog but never post to it you wont be chosen to be the next stitcher.

4. this is a giveaway type traveling pattern. that means you must follow it from blogger to blogger to enter each time it is ready to send along. commenting on this post doesnt make you a guaranteed part of the stitcherhood.

the travelling pattern has been stitched by:-
1 Sharon of its daffycat Oklahoma USA
2 Karen of Karens Handiwork, South Carolina USA
3 Patty of Hanging on by a thread, Florida USA
4. Terrri of chocolates for breakfast, stitching for lunch USA
5. Lynda of a cozy little place for stitching, Oregon USA
6. Nataly of Natalys needle creations, Massachusetts, USA
7. Erin of fairy tales and french knots, NY USA
8. Jo of Serendipititous stitching, Suffolk UK
9. Mouse of tales of a a stitching mouse, South Yorkshire UK
10. Sally of stitchyangels treasures, East Yorkshire UK
11. Lesleyanne of Lesleyannes life of stitches, Northamptonshire, UK
12. Michelle of stitchercraftplace, Staffordshire, UK
13 Kath of kaths stitching heaven, Barnsley, South Yorkshire UK
14. Christine of The Alchymyst's Study, Cornwall, UK

I'll pick a winner on Sunday 15th Jan

In other news, I got tired of how sad and bare the house looked without it's Christmas finery, so; copying an idea I found on Pinterest (yeah, I know, I've got a Pinterest problem); I whipped up this "decorative accent". All previous comments about the photographs apply but it's rather "me" don't you think?

Happy New Year

2012-01-02T04:22:00.000-08:00

I hope you all have a wonderful healthy and happy New Year. Made any resolutions? I've decided that I am going to make time to stitch, knit, or otherwise create every day this year. I could do with loosing another couple of stone as well, so I'm planning to continue with the 2011 healthy eating plan, (which has just had a fairly disastrous two week break) this year.

As promised last time, an update on The Travelling Pattern. I'd hoped to have it finished and sent on before the end of the year, but Christmas kind of happened. This is where I'd got to yesterday, I'm a bit further on now, so hopefully by next week I'll be ready to choose the next stitcher.

And some of the crafty stuff I've been up to lately:-

Infinity scarves. I made a few of these as Christmas gifts, which is why I couldn't show them sooner, and making them is quite addictive.
Take 1/2 m of jersey fabric, fold in half, right sides together (raw edge to raw edge not selvedge to selvedge), and machine down long edge to make a tube.
Turn right sides out, starting at the seam, pin and machine selvedges together as far as you can go, then ladder stitch the gap closed by hand. You can put a twist in before you join the ends if you want to make a Moebius loop.
Ta da! Wear and enjoy.

I found a tutorial on Flamingo Toes (a great site for craft inspiration, with loads of fantastic tutorials) for a multi stranded bead, chain and fabric necklace, and this is my version, using freshwater pearls, bronze coloured chains, tiny pinecone charms and a piece of vintage lace. I'm linking this up to the Think Pink link party on the Flamingo Toes site.

and finally, I've been seeing these hex nut bracelets all over the internet lately. This is my prototype, it isn't quite how I planned, I wanted the nuts to go further round, but I ran out, still I'm quite pleased with it for a first attempt. Anyway once I've braved the sales at Trago (hard to explain Trago, it's a Cornish thing, kind of a DIY shop crossed with an outlet store and it heaves on sales days) and got some more nuts I'll have another go and if I remember to take progress pictures I'll put a tutorial up.

Christmas Stash Goodness

2011-12-28T04:51:00.000-08:00

Did Santa bring you all everything you wanted then? Apparently I must have been "A Good Girl", as I received some wonderful knitting and stitching gifts from family and friends. The girls gave me these two wickedly subversive knitting books (Dominknitrix and Punk Knits), ~ complete with a dayglo pink post it note detailing which items they'd like me to knit for them first!!!

Clare sent me a Thornton's chocolate reindeer (yum) and a pair of matched hand dyed perle and stranded cotton threads in a beautiful blue and aqua colour combo, perfect for some colourful Hardanger. Sorry about the dodgy photo but I was trying to include the twig reindeer Eloise made, and he kept falling over everytime I went to take the picture. Clare also sent me a lovely crochet booklet for my Birthday.

Karan sent me this fabulous assortment of purple silks, and an adorable gingerbread penguin. I shall have to put my thinking cap on to figure out what to do with them (well, not the penguin, I pretty much know what to do with him already)
I got a fat quarter of cream evenweave as my final gift in the Needlecraft Haven advent exchange,

and Pat (no blog as far as I am aware) sent me this super gift in the VSCyberstitchers Christmas Exchange, a Sweetheart Tree kit for the sweetest little holly biscornu, a set of DMC variegated threads and a simply gorgeous angel statuette/ornament, who may just stay on my mantelpiece all year round.
Thank you everyone, I feel thoroughly spoiled.
Back soon with an update on the Travelling Pattern and all the crafty things I've been getting up to lately...

Happy Christmas

2011-12-24T02:55:00.000-08:00

I'd just like to take a moment to wish you all a Very Happy Christmas

and look at that, actual berries, on the holly from my garden. It's only taken it ten years!

A TARDIS, advent and half a summerhouse

2011-12-22T03:57:00.000-08:00

That's right, I have half a summerhouse, and yes, I do realise it's the middle of winter, but we've been waiting ages for it to be delivered.
Hopefully the roof will go on in the next couple of days, then we can do something about the desolate swamp in front of it. It used to be a lawn once.
By summer it is going to be lovely (she said hopefully)

Here are my most recent gifts in the secret advent exchange on Needlecraft Haven.
I received a gingerbread cookies scented candle, a handy notebook, a diary for next year, two propelling pencils, a mini flexi light which will be ideal to clip to my embroidery frame, and some adorable giraffe slipper socks.
I'm enjoying this exchange so much.

And finally a TARDIS.

Because I am weak.

And sad.

And a geek.

And I saw it and had to have it.

You can just see the top edge of the Golden Snitch ornament in the bottom of the picture, and the dalek one at the top, and I have decided that the brass one with the stag is definitely Harry's Patronus. There is even a matching doe on the other side of the tree for Severus and Lily. I might just have the world's nerdiest tree.
Anyone know where I can buy a glass Millenium Falcon?

Yet another ornament

2011-12-16T08:14:00.000-08:00

Surely this must be the last one for this Christmas...

This one is Joy of the Snowflake by Little by Little, from this year's JCS Ornament Edition. I changed the colours around (brown snowflakes just weren't working for me), and went with this lime and orange combo and trimmed it with lime pompoms, which I thought went well with the retro feel of the piece.

And here are my next four gifts from the Advent Exchange, a winter berry scented tealight, a cosy fleece scarf in a soft lilac colour, a bath mitt and a lemongrass scented candle.
I hope the person I sent to is enjoying her gifts as much as I am enjoying mine

Advent Days 9-12 and a Challenge

2011-12-12T02:06:00.000-08:00

Here are gifts 9-12 from my Advent Exchange, a hand towel with a stitchable band for personalisation, a set of handy highlighter pens for marking off charts, knitting patterns etc (if the girls don't pinch them), a packet of assorted emery boards and some lovely hand cream and body scrub. This exchange is so much fun.

I can show the ornament I sent to Melanie in the Gift of Stitching exchange now, I killed two birds with one stone and used the design from the Nov/Dec Challenge on Needlecraft Haven so I couldn't show it until Reveal Day which was yesterday.
Our challenge was either of these two designs from Log Cabin Needlework. I chose the Noel design and stitched it in WDW and Thread Gatherer threads, it is finished with a flamboyant bow that started life on a box of Thornton's, and is backed with the vintage fabric shown (Rag Rescue again). I really love this one and may have to stitch it again for myself.
The album is here and shows what a difference thread choices can make to a design.

Invasion of the daleks and an advent exchange

2011-12-08T01:09:00.000-08:00

There is the very slightest outside edge of a possibility that I might be a teensy bit of a geek...
Here is what I made yesterday.
I drew him on plain cotton fabric with a black sharpie (still getting that slight bleed problem), then couched the mini string of Christmas lights down and stretched him over mountboard.

He is now sitting in the tree practising his extermination techniques on unsuspecting ornaments whilst waiting for the Dr Who Christmas Special.

Meanwhile I've been opening my gifts in the Needlecraft Haven Advent Exchange. So far I have received a handy mending kit, some snuggly stripey socks, a mobile phone usb adaptor set (very useful), pot pourri, a handbag keyring, hair clamps, two skeins of yummy thread and a lovely photo frame, and I'm feeling rather spoiled, so a huge thank you to my secret benefactor.

and I couldn't resist the temptation to include my selection of vintage baubles somewhere in this post.

The Travelling Pattern, Another Ornament and a Golden Snitch

2011-12-05T02:23:00.000-08:00

I've been lucky enough to be chosen as the next stitcher for the Travelling Pattern. I'm hoping to get it stitched up before Christmas, so watch this space...
In the meantime I've finished up another ornament. This one is from this year's Christmas Ornament Issue of The Gift of Stitching magazine. Those little reindeer just crack me up.
And then she went on Pinterest again...
Don't all groan at once!
This time I found this tutorial from Tiny Apartment Crafts, for making a Harry Potter Golden Snitch ornament, and in no time flat I was up to my eyes in glue and glitter.

The original tutorial mentioned some problems getting the wings to stick to the bauble, so instead of making them individually, and sticking them on I made the pair from a continuous piece of wire with a little circular loop between them, then when they were dry I popped the ferule off the top of the bauble, dropped the loop over the neck and stuck the ferule back on. Clear as mud? I should have taken a picture halfway through. Anyway here it is, my very own Golden Snitch.
Off now to try and clean the holographic glitter off my keyboard!

Ornaments, apples and hooky

2011-12-03T01:59:00.000-08:00

And here we are in December! Hi to anyone who has come over here via the Advent Calender on Jo's Blog. A Christmassy post for you all.

The Needlecraft Haven Ornament Exchange finished last week. Here is the ornament I sent to Mary (no blog as far as I am aware)
This is He's a Flake by LHN, stitched on hand dyed linen from The Crafty Kitten, and backed with the vintage fabric shown, which I bought from Rag Rescue (well worth a visit), and finished with a few pompom "snowballs".

And here is the one I recieved from Barb. Thank you Barb, I totally love it, it is so pretty and delicate and stitched entirely over 1.
It also came wrapped up in the Christmas fabric it is sitting on, which was very thoughtful.

I've also taken part in an ornament exchange via The Gift of Stitching, here is the beautiful ornament I received from Melanie (Don't know of any blog for Melanie either). It looks like a real vintage glass ornament doesn't it?
Thank you Melanie, its just lovely.
I can't show you the one I sent to Melanie because I used the Monthly Challenge design and it's not reveal day yet, I'll bore you with that one later ;D.

And what about the apples and hooky I hear you ask. Well ta da!
A snuggly little apple cosy a la Mollie Makes.
I've wanted to make one of these since the fabulous Mollie Makes was first launched, and Eloise has been desperate for a cosy to keep her poor neglected little apple safe and warm on it's perilous journey into college. I mean the girl has literally been pining for an apple cosy.
If you've been following this blog for a while you'll know that crochet is something I struggle with but last week I bit the bullet and had a go and just like Eliza Doolittle "By George, I think she's got it!"
OK so attempt one was more like a grapefruit cosy, but,
Look. At. That.
Can you tell I'm excited?
I suspect I may have found a new addiction. Ho Hum.

Another Day, Another Wreath

2011-11-24T03:18:00.000-08:00

Or, I Must Stop Looking On Pinterest. Maybe I should write that out a hundred times, but then I'd probably look on Pinterest for an idea for something to do with a sheet of handwriting...

Anyway I saw all these lovely wool and felt wreaths on there so obviously I had to have a go.
This one was easy. Doesn't even merit a tutorial, just a few instructions.
Get a polystyrene wreath base and wrap it in wool (allow yourself plenty of time it takes about a zillion times longer than you think) securing the ends with a dab of glue.
Add some spiral felt roses and leaves, a few diamante florist's pins and ta-da!
This one is for indoors, I don't think it would stand up too well to our Cornish weather.
I've made some bits of jewellery too, but they are for gifts so I can't post pictures on here yet

Wreathed in smiles!

2011-11-20T07:12:00.000-08:00

I'm smiling because I got the most wonderful surprise in the post last week. Barb sent me this gorgeous stained glass penguin that her husband had made. I believe I may have mentioned once or twice that I love penguins.
The label says that his name is Percy and that he will hang in my window and watch out for Killer Whales. I don't suppose he is likely to spot any, but he's probably quite glad about that.
Thank you Barb, I adore him!
I have sent out two stitched ornaments this week, and received a very beautiful one myself, but as these are exchanges I can't show any pictures yet. Watch this space.
I can show these though. You can blame Pinterest for inspiring my recent flurry of creativity.

I am loving my new bracelet, made from a vintage tape measure I bought from Rag Rescue. I dangled a little key from the toggle for a steampunk/chatelaine sort of look. It is incredibly hard to use your left hand to take a picture of your right hand! My fingers really aren't freakishly short and stubby, its a perspective thing. Honest.

And here is a Christmas Wreath (Aha! Now you see the clever pun in the post title) made from three packs of cheap baubles from Asda (and a handful of teeny silver ones from the local florists), a wire coat hanger, and a lot of hot glue.
Not convinced I should have included the two larger glittery silver ones one either side. I think my snowman maybe singing falsetto this year...

A catch up post

2011-11-11T08:13:00.000-08:00

I've been very busy crafting lately and I've got lots of makes to show today. First up is my finish for the monthly Challenge at Needlecraft Haven. We chose this design from The Primitive Hare. The album is here
Of course I made a few changes because, well when do I not? Finished as a large hanging ornament. I know it is probably meant to be for Hallowe'en but it has just kind of stayed up...

Next, the girls decided they wanted me to decorate some plimsolls for them. These are just done with Sharpie markers on plain white shoes. If anyone has any idea how to stop the slight bleeding you get when you do this I'd be very grateful.

Eloise had comic book heroes on one foot and villains on the other.
Naomi decided she wanted hers inspired by the Manga story and movie "Deathnote"

After that I bought some mini aluminium buckets and modpodged vintage labels from The Graphics Fairy onto them.

I put button bouquets into the smaller ones, I'll use the larger ones for packaging Christmas Presents.

Everything was going swimmingly and then I discovered Pinterest. Oh dear. You could drown in the number of amazing craft ideas you can find on there. I was very taken with this idea from Flamingo Toes for upcycling old jumpers to make stylish and cosy headwraps. You know me, I'm a see it, have to do it right away sort of girl, so I dashed straight down to the charity shop and bought a couple of old jumpers, and here are the results (also a scratch on my face where the machine needle snapped whilst trying to go through three layers of jumper and flew up and hit me, but I don't have a picture of that!)

Right, back off to Pinterest to decide what I'm making next...

Linking this post to Brag Monday at the Graphics Fairy

My kids are NOT weird

2011-10-29T06:38:00.000-07:00

I keep telling myself that.
I came home a couple of days ago to find this giant game of Space Invaders all over my patio doors.
How totally awesome is that?
We won't mention the large lego model of a skull that appeared on the mantelpiece, or the bottle garden graveyard in the kitchen. No, we'll just pretend that is the perfectly rational behaviour of perfectly well adjusted teenagers...

I've been doing a bit of making myself. Some teeny tiny button bouquets (the buckets are thimbles). These now have chains added to make them into pendants.

The cuttlebug attacked last year's Christmas cards, and now I have some new ones for this year

And here we see Eloise in her new spats that she asked me to knit for her. I wouldn't have worn them over boots myself, seems to defeat the object.
No, not weird at all!

Winner!

2011-10-18T03:35:00.000-07:00

I numbered your comments and popped over to Random.org and the random number generator picked Julie.
Congratulations Julie! Keep an eye out for the postie :)

Apples and Pears and a Giveaway

2011-10-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

So, the latest issue of Mollie Makes plopped through the letter box last week, and on the front cover were these wonderful ~~cuddly toy~~ fabric apples and pears, well I just had to make some of those so I had a rummage through my fabric scrap bag.
Result: Lots of greens - bright greens, muted greens, soft greens, vintage greens, more green fabric, in fact, than you could shake a stick at. Not so much with the reds. All my red scraps were Christmas fabrics. Now I'm definitely planning some lovely Christmas apples, but I needed Autumn apples right now!

Fast forward to Thursday. I'm passing my local knitting and fabric shop on the way home from work, and spot my friend inside, so I pop in for a natter, thinking I can pick up a fat quarter of a nice red print while I'm there.
Oh no, not so simple, instead I find myself buying an entire Jelly Roll. Honestly, I have no idea how these things happen...

Well, now that I've got my lovely Jelly Roll it'd be a pity to waste it right? Yes, that's what I thought, so this is what I've spent the last couple of days making.

Now, I'm not one of life's natural quilters, so I'm not showing you the reverse side, but I'm pretty chuffed with it.
Oh, and I've hit the hundred followers mark, so I'm thinking "Giveaway".
I'll make a cuddly pear (more green fabric than red, remember) for the winner, and perhaps include some other bits and pieces too.
No fancy hoops to jump through to enter, just join as a follower (or already be one) and comment on this post. I'll draw a winner next Sunday.

Definitely a bit on the autumn side

2011-10-06T01:31:00.000-07:00

Last week it was summer, this week its not, almost like someone got up on Monday morning and remembered to turn the autumn switch on.

See, autumn :-

I've been busy doing autumnal things like pickling beetroot and making sloe gin and blackberry jam. One of the jars of sloe gin has had a slight leakage issue in the garage. Smells like a brewery in there!

Craftwise I've been doing a bit of knitting, here is a little jumper I knitted for a friends baby grandson, and making felt Christmassy things inspired by the book in my previous post. Pictures of those to follow.
Up to 98 followers now, I feel a bit of a giveaway coming on when I reach 100...

A stash happy post

2011-09-23T03:24:00.000-07:00

I haven't done too much stitching the last few weeks, in fact I was beginning to think about filing a missing persons report for my mojo, but my inner squirrel has been merrily aquiring stash ready for the winter, and every post seems to bring more exciting goodies.

Exciting postal delivery #1
A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to win a gift certifciate on Missy's blog. The certificate was for Down Sunshine Lane, a shop I'd never used before, but will definitely be using again, they have a great range of stock, and fast and friendly service. Here are some of the goodies I got :-
Live Laugh Love by La D Da. I'm not normally a huge fan of quaker style designs, but this one definitely called to me.
A huge bundle of threads, the ones pulled to the left are for the La D Da.
And a couple of round finishing forms. I Haven't ever tried these before but I figure it's got to be easier/neater than messing around with cardboard circles, and they will come in handy with...

Exciting postal delivery #2
The 2011 JCS Ornament Edition. The only problem is deciding which ones to stitch first. Its nearly October already you know.
And on the subject of stitching for Christmas...
Exciting postal delivery #3

This wonderful book

If anyone heard me squealing out loud with delight recently, this book is entirely the reason why.

Here are just a couple of my favourite projects from it:

Another Haitus

2011-09-01T04:05:00.000-07:00

This one at the hands of TalkTalk, who apparently don't ListenListen. As you may know, my mother in law has been staying with us for a while as she was between houses, having moved out of her old house before her new flat was available. Anyway a couple of weeks ago she contacted TalkTalk to disconnect her old phone and set up a new line in the new flat. Obviously she called from our house and therefore from our number. Next morning I get up - no internet, half an hour later we realise no phone either, so we ring TalkTalk from a mobile.
Yes, you've guessed it, at some point they must have asked MIL what number she was calling from and she'd quoted ours so; on the authority of someone whose account wasn't registered at our address, and whose account was for a totally different phone number and area code, and who doesn't even share our surname; they disconnected our phone!

We were on the phone to them for nearly two $*&#! hours. The conversation went something like this:-
Them: How can we help?
Us: Our phone's been disconnected
Them: You asked us to disconnect it
Us: No we didn't, you've made a mistake. Can you reconnect us?
Them: You need to order a new line, it will take 7-10 days
Us: We don't want a new line, we want our line back
Them: Oh I can't do that, that number is no longer available. You will need a new number. I'll transfer you to Dept X.
several minutes of annoying music
Them: How can we help?
Us: Our phone's been disconnected
Them: You asked us to disconnect it
Us: No we didn't, you've made a mistake. Can you reconnect us?
Them: You need to order a new line, it will take 7-10 days
Us: We don't want a new line, we want our line back
Them: Oh I can't do that, that number is no longer available. You will need a new number. I'll transfer you to Dept Y.
several minutes of annoying music
Them: How can we help?
Us: Our phone's been disconnected
Them: You asked us to disconnect it
Us: No we didn't, you've made a mistake. Can you reconnect us?
Them: You need to order a new line, it will take 7-10 days
Us: We don't want a new line, we want our line back
Them: Oh I can't do that, that number is no longer available. You will need a new number. I'll transfer you to Dept Z.
several minutes of annoying music
and so on and on and on. They were adamant it was impossible to reconnect us to our existing number, it was "gone" and couldn't be retrieved. We were not very happy as you can imagine. At one point I actually threw the mobile across the room (at a pile of fluffy cushions, I'm not completely barking mad).
Anyway to cut a long story short, we are now with Orange. They got us reconnected, got us our old number back (perfectly possible, you just have to contact BT, I suspect talkTalk employees are not permitted to say anything to you which would send you to a competitor), they did it quicly, easily and efficiently, and we even got faster broadband into the bargain. Orange are lovely. Yay Orange.

Anyway having been offline for a while I've got hopelessly behind on blog reading so please don't think I've been ignoring you.

On a stitching note, last Sunday was reveal day for the Monthly Challenge at Needlcraft Haven. We stitched this pretty little design of a bluebird with cherries from Le Chalet Des Perelles. Mine is stitched in Anchor threads on a hand dyed fabric from The Crafty Kitten, with a fairly boring sort of a finish as a little stuffed ornament. The album went up a bit late (see paragraph 1 above), but it is available here.

Back to work on Monday, here's hoping Autumn will be a bit less eventful than summer turned out to be.

Long time no blog...

2011-08-16T09:53:00.000-07:00

Did you miss me? No, thought not. The summer seems to have mostly escaped me, I'm not sure where it went.

Since I last posted I've been busy dealing with various family issues that I won't bore you with, we've been away on holiday, had our silver wedding anniversary, and I've just not found the time to blog, so this is a bit of a a catch up post.

Lets start with the holiday. We went to the Lake District and stayed near Windermere.

The scenery was stunning and I could post pictures for hours, but I'll stick to just a couple. This is is Blea Tarn.

And here we see the mist rolling atmospherically over the hills (ie the weather was a bit iffy at times).

This is part of a large standing stone circle that dates back to Druidic times.

On a crafty note, when I got home from holiday I found this stunning pillow waiting for me as an exchange gift from Donna (no blog that I am aware of). It is completely gorgeous and almost all stitched over 1.

And here is a little project I made following a tutorial I found here via The Graphics Fairy. One slightly boring old plant pot transformed; by the miracle of a squirt of mod podge and a French typography image from The Graphics Fairy; into a little bit of vintage chic.

Vintage Goodies and Carnival Fun

2011-07-17T12:21:00.000-07:00

I've managed to aquire a large amount of vintage awesomeness around ebay, the internet and charity shops this week.

This fabulous old 1950s needlwork magazine still has the original transfer in the middle. Its for those fabulously retro little poodles shown on a beret near the top left hand side. I don't think I'll be making the girls a beret anytime soon...

but I am definitely finding a way to use those poodles!

This little haul came from a wonderful website called Rag Rescue. A fabulous old drawn thread and Hardanger book, (all in Swedish but since it's mostly pictures and diagrams that doesn't matter too much) and two bundles of vintage fabric scraps. They were both nicely wrapped when they came, but I've opened the bundle of smaller scraps (on the right) already. I couldn't resist playing straight away, and made a little suffolk puff out of a delicious raspberry, clotted cream and duck egg floral print. With a vintage button from my collection and a twist of ribbon, hey presto, a vintage brooch! I even had enough left from the square to cover two small buttons.

And then I found this wonderful jug in a charity shop. All it needs is a big bunch of sunflowers...

In other news it was Carnival yesterday. I was collecting so I didn't take my camera down, but I took these pics at home before we left.

Here we see Naomi (white rabbit) and friends in their Alice in Wonderland costumes - sans Alice as she met us down there

and here is Eloise as The Bad Fairy, for which she won the trophy for best dressed collector.
Note the papier mache skull on her wand. She has named him and he has taken up residence in her room. I suspect she soliloquises to him.

More Mollie Makes

2011-07-10T07:34:00.000-07:00

Issue 3 of Mollie Makes arrived last week, and was as just as gorgeous and inspirational as both the previous two.
Look at those crochet flowers on the front cover! Not sure my crochet skills are up to them, but they're delightful.

There was an intriguing project inside the magazine, to make a fringed scarf/cowl from an discarded t-shirt. I didn't have any old t-shirts of my own to cut up, so I picked one up at the charity shop for 50p and here's the scarf I made from it. Super-funky, cheap and quick. My kind of craft!

And here is Eloise modeling a skirt I made her which was inspired by Issue 1.

If you have seen the film "10 Things I Hate About You", you will recognise her modelling stance:-

"That was swimwear, this is underwear, see what I did there?"

If you haven't seen the film "10 Things I Hate About You", run, don't walk, down to your local DVD rental shop and put that right immediately!

Note the fabric. It's got vampires on it. So her! Note also that I will never attempt to encase lime green bobble trim inside a seam again, or any other colour for that matter. Never I tell you! Her next skirt will have the bobbles applied on top afterwards.

Naomi officially "retired" as Carnival Queen today, and the new Royalty were crowned, The Carnival Committee presented her with a New Look giftcard to thank her for her reign, and she gave me these beautiful flowers

St Breward Carnival

2011-07-04T02:15:00.000-07:00

Saturday evening was warm and sunny for St Breward Carnival.
St Breward is the last carnival of the year for us as our own Carnival is in a fortnight so Naomi officially "retires" as Queen next weekend. (I'm actually quite looking forward to being able to just go along and watch the Carnival this year without having a float to worry about.)

We got a third for Royal group.

We didn't have the float because the new Queen already has it, but my little car scrubbed up quite well (please ignore the rust spots, she's quite old)

Another month, another challenge!

2011-06-28T02:07:00.000-07:00

This month the challenge piece we chose at Needlecraft Haven was this one from Lynn at Happiness is Cross Stitching. The album is here. Only a couple of finishes so far this month, I think everyone has been too busy with holidays and summer activities.

I finished mine as an little ornament (I know, how boring am I?) to hang in my kitchen, and I couldn't resist turning my teapot and cup into blue and white Cornish Ware. Its backed with a blue and white striped fabric (natch), and I made a little hanger from some artfully rusted (ie acidentally left in the garden) wire and blue and white beads.

On the crafty front, I've been playing with my Cuttlebug and I've made some little vintage-inspired heart ornaments.

I'll leave you with a picture of Bill the foster-cat. Here we see him failing to grasp the concept of the cat flap...

Flowers and more flowers

2011-06-11T01:22:00.000-07:00

The 2nd issue of the fabulous Mollie Makes magazine popped through my letterbox last week. I couldn't wait, and made up the cover kit, a gorgeous turquoise felt corsage, immediately.

It was so much fun that I rifled through my felt stash and made another in neutral colours, which I stitched to a second hand straw handag I got from Ebay, together with a Paris themed patch of Japanese linen fabric. I added some vintage lace and buttons and an Eiffel tower charm too. My felt was a bit softer than the felt supplied in the kit, I think it gives this one a more sculptural quality. I'm quite pleased with how it came out, I'm thinking of making some more and selling them at the craft fairs.

The other flowers in this post are the real kind. June is the best month of the year in my garden.
How would you like to share a little early morning stroll "around the grounds" ?

This is Albertine, my favourite rambling rose doing exactly what it says on the tin, and ramblig all over the pergola.

The bell flowers have gone berserk and taken over the seaside garden.

The alpine strawberries are delicious. They never seem to actually make it to the table though ~ in fact I don't think the rest of the family even know there are strawberries there ;D

The tadpoles have turned into froglets and are sunning themselves by the pond. You have to be careful where you walk.

This is Dr Ruppel. He 's rather a handsome chap don't you think?

My Apothecary's Rose. I wish I could upload the scent for you, it's gorgeous.

I even get a better class of weeds in June!

Hope you enjoyed your virtual tour!

AWOL

2011-06-06T02:49:00.000-07:00

Things have been even more manic than usual of late here at the Casa Di Chaos, and poor little Blog has fallen by the wayside a bit.
We currently have my MIL living here on a temporary but indefinite basis while she is between houses, and have acquired a 2nd cat, as she can't take hers with her to her new place. This has rather put Spike's nose out of joint, though he is getting quite a bit of extra food out of it, as the phrase "Leave that, it's Billy's" apparently means nothing to him ;D

There has been a bit of a slump on the stitching front, but I do have a finish to show. this is my version of May's Monthly Challenge, the design this month was Cadeau pour les Amis Brodeuses from Sablaise and the album is here.

I did mine in cream and beige silk threads on vintage country mocha linen, and finished it as a pinkeep, with some mother of pearl thread rings and a scissor pocket on the back, and made a little matching scissor fob. This will be my gift for an upcoming exchange, but I'm pretty sure I'm safe showing it here.

We've been having a very pleasant burst of early Summer here. The beach was very crowded at the weekend.

But if you walk far enough you can still find a peaceful spot.

Fun Fabrics!

2011-05-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

Following on from the last post about the wonderful new Mollie Makes magazine, I've been fabric shopping.

How amazing are these?
The fabulous retro kitchen mixer print and pattern are to make an apron for Naomi (she loves 50's kitsch), and the Paris street map print and B-feature horror movie print are to make skirts for Eloise (Its got a vampire on it, 'nuf said!)
Fabrics are from here and here, and I can thoroughly recommend both shops.

Lovely things in the post

2011-05-08T07:10:00.000-07:00

I've had two wonderful pieces of post this week, plenty of the usual bills, bank statements and forms from HMRC too but the two nice ones more than made up for it.

First dear Barb sent me a package containing a Sampler Girl pattern "In the Kitchen with Jane Austen" that I have coveted for some time (yes, I know covetousness is a sin, but I'm weak) together with the most incredibly exquisite beaded amulet purse. How beautiful is that? I couldn't even begin to imagine making something like that. Thank you Barb, you are too kind, I feel thoroughly spoiled.

Second was this beauty that popped through the letter box yesterday. The inaugural copy of the new craft and lifestyle magazine Mollie Makes.

Well, that was Saturday gone! I love, love, love this magazine. So many fabulous crafty things, so much inspiration!

There aren't a lot of actual projects as such, but there is enough eye candy to induce a diabetic coma and more ideas and "jumping off points" than you could possibly imagine.

Here's a picture of the contents pages to give you an idea of what it's like. The girls have already put in their orders for a retro style pinny (Naomi, of course), and a bobble trim skirt and one of the too-adorable-for-words crocheted apple cosies (Eloise). I'm not much with the crochet yet, but it looks pretty straightforward (famous last words).

Exchange and Blogoversary Gift and a Birthday Girl

2011-05-03T03:13:00.000-07:00

In the last week both the bookmark that I was worried about from the Needlcraft Haven Spring Bookmark exchange, and my Blogoversary draw gift have arrived safely with their recipients, so I can now show them on here.

My bookmark exchange partner was Maria (no blog as far as I know), and I stitched this for her, adapted from a L*K design.

My Blogoversary draw winner was Kate. I stitched a strawberry for Kate using a design from Katherine's blog, and made a corsage brooch from a lemon yellow zip, and also included some stash.

In other news my "baby" turned 17 last Friday. When did I get old enough to have a 17 year old?

Well, in point of fact I was getting on for old enough to have a 17 year old when I had said 17 year old, but thats beside the point ;D

Anway here she is. My big girl

Happy Easter, an exchange and a challenge

2011-04-24T08:39:00.000-07:00

It is reveal day for the Monthly Challenge. This month we used a set of small Easter designs from Les Chroniques de Frimousse. I combined two of the designs to make this ornament. The funky stripey ribbon was from a toiletry gift one of the girls got for Christmas! The album of finishes is here.

It is also reveal day for the Spring bookmark exchange on Needlecraft Haven. I recieved this stunning hardanger bookmark from Dusty. I can't show a picture of the one I sent out yet as I've not heard that it has been recieved. I'm getting a bit worried about it to be honest as it should've been there by now.

Anyway Happy Easter to you all!

I must down to the seas again

2011-04-18T11:02:00.000-07:00

to the lonely sea and the sky

Cake!

2011-04-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

This is the cake Naomi made me for Mother's Day. Diet? What diet?
Of course she also managed to dye my chopping board pink and blue, but you can't have everything.
The girls got me some Lush shower gel (Happy Hippy, do you think they are trying to tell me something?) wrapped in a scarf made from recycled Lush bottles too.
No stitchy updates this week, everything I'm working on is secret for now for one reason or another.
I have managed to crochet six whole squares for my blanket, but I'm not sure thats enough for a progress photo.
DH is in disgrace. He needed a needle or pin to unblock a jet on the boiler when I was at work and "Couldn't find any others"
Not, for example, in the large stuffed pincushion or magnetic hedgehog needle minder on my desk either side of the scissor frog.
No, he took the needle from my W.I.P.
He didn't just unthread it either. He got a pair of scissors from the scissor frog (do we remember where that was?) and snipped the thread off to get the needle!

Collections

2011-03-29T12:14:00.000-07:00

I like to ~~hoard junk~~ collect things.

Its incurable.

Earlier this week I decided to arrange my collection of sea glass, sea pottery, driftwood and other beachy bits and pieces into a kind of coastal vignette. I thought it was very chic and proudly showed it to "himself".
Do you know what he said?

"What am I supposed to be looking at?"

Men!

Here is another of my collections; my three pairs of premax scissors in their new home, a glass frog, which I found in a charity shop.

His quote on the day I brought it home "What on earth are you going to do with that horrible thing?"
Men!
Again!
I'm not convinced about the bowl its sitting in, but it will do until I find a better one.

Spring, Stash and a winner

2011-03-20T09:14:00.000-07:00

Spring appears to have sprung!
My miniature azalea has made itself all pretty,

and the beach is getting busy again (but we found a quiet corner yesterday).

The postman brought me my order from Karen at Wasatch Needlework. Raise the Roof's "Official Crazy Cat Lady"
Have they met me?
I love this design, it has come straight in at number one on the must-stitch list! The only thing I'm not totally sure about is it lists some threads on the back as CCT. I'm thinking that must be Crescent Colours?

And finally the Dandy Dreams chart. There was quite a lot of interest so I drew a name and the winner is Sally! If you could just let me have your address Sally, I'll pop it in the post to you.

A finish!

2011-03-15T12:33:00.000-07:00

You might recall Karan very kindly sending me Dandy Dreams by Silver Creek Samplers as a gift. Well here it is finished.

It is stitched on Cashel in Confederate Grey, using the Anchor conversions of the recommended colours (except for the pink, which I brightened up a bit because I thought the original was too browny).

I love the way the brown colour for the letters has come out the same colour that dandelions stain your hands!

The girls were very quick to point out the irony of me loving this design when I used to threaten them with dire and obscure punishments if they even thought about blowing dandelion clocks in the same postcode as the garden...
Anyway I thought I'd pay Karan's generosity forward, so if any of you fancy stitching this beauty just add a comment to this post (if there is more than one taker I'll pull a name out of a hat next weekend)

Hooking and snapping

2011-03-08T09:38:00.000-08:00

I did it! I mastered the two colour thing :-

I know the colour combination is revolting, but I was using up oddments to practice. It is, however, official. There is now no stopping me. Blanket here I come.

I've bought this wool for the purpose. It's Stylecraft and the colours are, clockwise from the left :-Cream, Camel, Copper, Mocha, Khaki, and Sunshine.
I'm not 100% sure if the Sunshine isn't a little too strident. What do you think?

At the weekend I decided to practice my photography and try and get used to David's fancy-schmancy camera using the girls as ~~victims~~ models.

These were my favourite shots of each of them :-

Eloise, whose tights are meant to look like that apparently.

Naomi looking pensive (Damn! I was going for thoughtful)

And these are a couple of more arty type ones :-Glitter!

Lollipop!

and the winner is....

2011-03-01T11:23:00.000-08:00

There were 20 entries for my blogoversary draw. I put the numbers in a random number generator (which I have tried and failed to copy and paste here), and the winning comment was no. 11, which was from Kate.

Thank you all for entering, I'll run another one when I hit 100 followers.

Kate, can you drop me an email with your postal address, don't hold your breath though, I'm planning on stitching you something as part of your prize so you won't get it right away.

Monthly Challenge and Playing Hooky

2011-02-27T10:47:00.000-08:00

The end of the month seems to have come around very quickly, guess thats a February thing!

Anyway its reveal day for the Monthly Challenge. This month we stitched the Love design from The Stitcherhood. The album can be found here

I stitched mine using various thread scraps and finished it as a little ornament decorated with crochet flowers.
I did NOT crochet the flowers myself, crochet being a skill I had never managed to master until yesterday, when I found an online tutorial that didn't seem to be written in some form of arcane gibberish, and

Ta Da!

OK, you can stop laughing now, all you seasoned hookers. I'm chuffed with this!
Adorable technicolour blankets here I come!

Don't forget to enter my Giveaway (see previous post), I'll be drawing a winner on Tuesday

Blogoversary Giveaway

2011-02-24T03:00:00.000-08:00

Yes, little bloggie is a fantastic four years old today! Sniffle, look how my baby has grown!
I thought that called for a giveaway.
Not sure exactly what I'll put in the prize package, but it will definitely include fabric and threads, a chart or two, and a little something stitched by me.
I don't want to make you jump through hoops to enter, but I'd like to think that if you did enter you'd come back and visit sometimes, so if you want to join in please join this blog as a follower (existing followers can skip that step of course) and add a comment to this post only. I'll draw a winner on 1st March

Socks and Sheep

2011-02-18T09:41:00.000-08:00

Strange combination?

There was a Valentines sock exchange on the Needlecraft Haven board. Good plan. Socks are not only lower in calories than chocolate, but they come in a wide range of attractive colours. I recieved my exchange package from Sheila, and not only did I get this most gorgeous pair of hand-knitted socks but also my very own knitted neuron!

Squee! Look at him! Look at his little dendrites! I shall love him and hug him and call him ~~George~~ Neville. (I'm a sucker for alliteration)

And the sheep? Well sheep are to Barb as penguins are to me, so as it was Barb's birthday earlier this week I stitched this sheep design from Casey Buonaugurio, and made it into a pincushion for her.

I finished the Monthly Challenge too, but I can't show a picture of that until next weekend

Fuzzy Felt, Even More Felt, and a Surprise

2011-02-11T12:36:00.000-08:00

Do you remember Fuzzy Felt? I used to love playing with that when I was young.

Having seen some amazing felt creations while browsing around on-line I was prompted to ask my friend if her Cuttlebug machine could cut through felt, and, on finding that it did, without further ado I hurried round there with my gargantuan stack of felt. An enjoyable afternoon later I found myself with a whole new pile of fuzzy felt pieces, and this is what I did with them.

Its official. I now NEED a Cuttlebug!

If you want to see where I got my inspiration, and swoon over some much much nicer examples, check out Beedeebabee's blog.

Even more felty goodness with the arrival from Amazon, hot off the presses, of this wonderful book. Felt Friends from Japan: 86 Super-cute Toys and Accessories to Make Yourself

The little felt animals in here (and they are little, most would sit neatly in the palm of your hand) are so completely retro, and so utterly adorable I could almost squeal with delight. No, thats not quite true. I actually DID squeal with delight. The family think I've gone mad!

Isn't that Babycham style deer the most kitschy fabulous felty thing you've ever seen? I am definitely going to make me one of those.

Last, but not least, a fabulous surprise in the post today when Karan sent me a present of a gorgeous chart, Dandy Dreams by Silver Creek Samplers, and this gorgeous stitched card.

Thank you Karan, I'm touched by your kindness.

An ornament and a reveal...

2011-01-30T05:34:00.000-08:00

...making finishes 3 and 4 for 2011.

The ornament is for the Monthly Ornament SAL and is a portion of the Fancy Work ornament from last years JCS Ornament Edition. It is stitched over 1 on a scrap of linen using left over threads and the shiny beads at the bottom are off a Christmas cracker making it a very economical ornament.

The reveal is for the January Monthly Challenge This months design was by Tra La La and proved very popular, there are lots of wonderful finishes in the album here, there are two pages so don't miss the 2nd one!
The overdyed floss is Chocolates from Carrie's Creations.
My finish is designed to answer the perrenial question in our house "Has anyone fed the cat?" The main part is finished like an ornament, with the hook part of a dressmakers hook and eye stitched in at the bottom edge. The second part is basically a very small ornament with AM on one side and PM on the other, which I finished with a beaded edge to give it a bit of weight, and which hangs onto the hook.
The whole thing is hanging above the fridge, and the basic idea is whoever feeds Spike turns it to face the appropriate way so the next person into the kitchen can see if he has had his breakfast/tea.
Its kind of working, 75% of us remember to turn it around. Guess who doesn't! (Clue: Its a he)

A flurry of finishes

2011-01-25T03:18:00.000-08:00

I must be on a roll this month! You might remember me asking for suggestions as to what to put on my Couer de Chat sampler in place of the charted "bienvenue", well lots of you suggested hearts, and Julie suggested a row of numbers. In the end, as you can see, I went for Julies's numbers idea, with a little heart at each end to fill the gap. I'm really please with how it has come out. Just have to wait for DH to make me a frame for it now.

Design - Coeur de Chat

Designer- Isabelle Vautier

Carrie's Creations - Old World Red on Raw linen

I've also been busy making these :-

A Bouquet of Zip Corsages

I had to stop because I ran out of pretty coloured zips. Time to hit up the chartity shops again!

On-line Inspiration!

2011-01-22T08:30:00.000-08:00

Regular readers of this blog will know that Naomi is ~~obsessed with~~ fond of all things Japanese, so I was thrilled to find this design last Tuesday, to go with the tiger from last year and the ox from the year before from the same designer, and I stitched it up right away.
It is backed with the adorable Japanese rabbit fabric shown.

Then later on Tuesday I came across a post on Lynn's blog showing some delightful felt strawberries she had made, and I just had to have a go at those at once too.

I gave them twisted cord stems and trimmed each strawberry with a tiny lace daisy, then I added a bow and finished them off as a little brooch.
To give an idea of scale, the strawberries are about an inch long

The Whole Clan

2011-01-14T09:04:00.000-08:00

A few days ago Katherine published a plea on her blog for fellow bloggers to let each other see what they look like instead of using anonymous avatars, and I realised that while this blog has loads of pictures of the girls, its a bit short of pictures of himself or yours truly.
There are two pretty good reasons for that :-

One: the girls are beautiful, and pictures of them are unlikely to scare people of a nervous disposition (unless you count the undead halloween pictures)

Two: I actually take most of the pictures on here, so I don't tend to be in them, and David, being a professional photographer, spends most of his time at the wrong end of the camera too.

However in the interests of "putting a face to the name" here is a picture of the four of us that was taken towards the end of last year.

Be afraid.

Be very afraid.

What? You're still scrolling down? OK then.

Challenge Review

2011-01-11T01:24:00.001-08:00

So, 2011 is well underway, and I've got nothing interesting to blog about. Rien. Nada. Zip.

Weather anyone?

Anyway I noticed some of you have posted "Review of 2010" type posts and, never one to miss the opportunity to ~~steal~~ recognise a good idea, I've created this slideshow of my finishes for the 2010 Monthly Challenge. For those of you unfamiliar with the Monthly Challenge this is a SAL which runs on the Stitch and Stash board, and now on the new Needlecraft Haven board as well. Every month a link is posted to a complimentary design available online. Everyone stitches their own version of the design and finishes it into something, then on the last Sunday of the month an album of everyone's finishes is revealed. Its a lot of fun.

Here are my finishes for 2010. Eagle eyed readers may spot that there are only 11 finishes. This is because we only set one challenge for November and December last year

Last blogpost of 2010 - picture heavy

2010-12-31T03:21:00.000-08:00

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I thought you might like to see some of the stash/hand-crafted presents I recieved. The threads are from Clare and Karan, and the beautiful stained glass angel is from Barb (her very talented husband made it)

This wonderful exchange gift came from Suzanne (no blog). The little frog is sitting in my study now, keeping his friends away!

Neither stash nor handcrafted, but so exciting that I had to include it was this gift from the girls. David Tennant. Patrick Stewart. Shakespeare. Whats not to swoon over?

And here is a picture of some of the crafty things I gave as presents, which I couldn't show before Christmas

The scarves are knitted with Rico Pompom, and the sets of coasters are made from upcycled denim and fabric scraps, and were inspired by this tutorial

Finally it only remains for me to wish you all a Very Happy and Healthy New Year

Happy Christmas and a gift for you

2010-12-24T03:06:00.000-08:00

Wishing You All a Very Happy Christmas

Here is a little Christmas Rose chart for you. Left Click to save/print.
Enjoy!

Once upon a time ...

2010-12-22T04:47:00.000-08:00

...there were three little ornaments.

This little ornament was stitched for me by Julie for our ornament exchange. Isn't he just fabulous? As you may know I love penguins, so this was perfect for me. He's backed with penguin fabric, and he even had a secret pocket on the back with a chocolate in it. He's still got a secret pocket on the back, but its kind of empty now...

This little ornament is the one I sent to Julie.

Its adapted from a design on the Chronicles of Frimousse blog.

And finally this little ornament is a free design from Sue Hillis. I saw a finished version of this on Dani's blog on Monday, and immediately knew that I had to stitch it for Naomi. No sooner the thought than the deed and here he is. He's backed with the fabulous skull and cross bones bandana print he's photographed on, and I added a little coin charm to look like a bit of pirate swag (and not because I hadn't got him quite centred on the ornie. Oh no! Definitely not because of that...)

Its beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

2010-12-15T02:18:00.000-08:00

If you've been reading this blog for a while you will know that our local florist has a fun Christmas floral design class every year. Here is my effort from this years class, gerberas, lysimachia and gloriosa lilies arranged in "Christmas puddings" carved from oasis and wrapped in organza (very nearly at the expense of my sanity I might add)
In case you've ever wondered at the hulking great wooden behemoth in the back of these pictures by the way, its a speaker.
A very large speaker.
A very large speaker that produces sound below the range of human hearing.
Don't ask, its a guy thing.
On the stitching front, I've finished and sent the ornament I was making for my private exchange with Julie, so I can show that as soon as I hear it has safely arrived. I've also stitched some Christmas gifts for friends, but since some of them read this they'll have to remain under wraps for now.

Still here!

2010-11-30T06:56:00.000-08:00

I've been knitting, stitching and sewing up a storm lately, I feel like Santa's little needle-elf! There is a lot I can't show before Christmas, but here are one or two bits.

Here is the extremely pretty orrnament I recieved from Karen J (no blog that I know of) in The Gift Of Stitching Magazine ornament exchange. Karen also very kindly included the lovely calendar of Canadian scenes that you can see in the picture.

And here is the one I sent to Debbie (also no blog).

A few weeks ago, alone and unloved at the bottom of a plastic laundry basket full of textiles in the charity shop I came across a sad, limp drawn thread table runner, yellow with age and covered in stains. I couldn't bear to see it lying there, all screwed up, so I bought it and fetched it home.

I soaked it in bleach for a while and hung it on the line in the sun for an afternoon and it came up beautifully white, though I had to darn one or two tiny holes in it.

Inspired by a project in CrossStitcher magazine (loving their new look by the way), I used waste canvas to stitch these little heart motifs on it. I think it looks very Scandinavian and Christmassy.

Suggestions wanted

2010-11-16T02:58:00.000-08:00

I've almost finished Coeur de Chat by Isa Vautier and I'm wondering what to put in the gap. It is charted to say "Bienvenue"
I'm fine with it being in French, not so sure about it meaning Welcome.
If I put that on it do I have to hang it by the front door (where it would be the wrong colours, and no-one would notice it anyway)?
If I don't put that, what can I put instead? Its already got my initials so my name wouldn't work, the date would be too small and I really don't want to go down the whole I love cats route...
Feel free to put any suggestions (clean ones!) in the comments

Things you might find in trees...

2010-11-14T08:49:00.000-08:00

Owls:-

These little chaps are brooches

Undead fairies:-

I took some of these to a craft-fair type event on Friday. Didn't sell a single one!

I don't understand it, who wouldn't want an undead fairy on their Christmas tree?

I guess I'm just ahead of my time...

Aaaarghh, the horror, the horror!

2010-11-07T10:43:00.000-08:00

Two terrifying Halloween Witches...

...mostly terrifying how grown up they look

Look at the little zombies. They are only about 2 1/2" tall. Aren't they cute?

And the vampire (Old School, no sparkles!).
Squee!

I just LOVE them

These are from the book I mentioned in an earlier post.

I'm working on a teeny little undead fairy for the Christmas tree now.

A couple of finishes, another carnival and a pumpkin

2010-10-31T10:14:00.000-07:00

Its reveal day for the Monthly Challenge again. This time it was this Christmas design from Gazette 94. I knew I wouldn't get the whole thing finished so I cheated and just used the four letter squares. Just as well when I realised how many beads it used! I had a white organza ribbon with red edges that I ruffled to make the trimming.

This one is by Gentle Pursuit from this years JSC Ornament edition. I used a bundle of precut threads I found that I think must have been left over from a kit, so I don't know what they were. I have remembered now how much I love Bargello.

Finished with a shisha mirror and a bow that came off last years Christmas crackers

Yesterday was Camelford Carnival. This time I managed to get a (not very good) picture of the float all lit up. As you can see from the way the girls are huddled in their shawls it was rather cold and wet!

Naomi got "Best Queen", here she is recieving her trophy from the Camelford Fairy Queen.

I'll leave you with the girls' pumpkin for this years village pumpkin contest. They call this one "They eat their own young".

I really can't imagine where they get it from can you????

A finish, a lovely gift and a spooky book

2010-10-24T08:20:00.000-07:00

So I finally finished the September Monthly Challenge from Stitch and Stash. Only 4 weeks late. And can I just say here and now that even though I love how it looks now its finished, I have hated very last stinking rotten stitch of it! The chart gave me migraines, two symbols were so close I couldn't distinguish them and there were so many colour changes I felt like I was stopping and starting more than I was stitching. Still its done now.
I used it to cover the lid of a small box, bravely resisting the urge to make it up into a pincushion, even though I really, really wanted to stick pins in it.

Big pins.
Big sharp pins.

Anway, enough of that. I got this lovely gift in the post from Dusty

I'd sent Dusty some overdyed thread to finish one of my designs because she'd had trouble finding it where she lived, and she sent me this in return. Isn't it beautiful? Thank you Dusty!
(Editted 26/10/10 to include address for Dusty's blog, thanks Clare)

I got some other great post this week as well, I bought myself this wonderfully weird book from Amazon Zombie Felties: How to Raise 16 Gruesome Felt Creatures from the Undead I just love this! The little felties are so gross yet so utterly adorable, there is a classic zombie, a zombie pirate, a zombie bride, zombie vampires, bunnies, kitties and puppies and even a teeny tiny zombie undertaker with bony fingers and a top hat on top of his exposed brains (made from pink sequins). Watch this space for macabre makes from this book, the girls (ghouls?) have already given me a wish list!

Another Carnival and Vintage Pretties

2010-10-11T10:59:00.000-07:00

Fun and games for all the family on Saturday, rigging up the float with a generator and lights for Launceston Carnival.
(Eagle eyed readers may notice that this picture was not taken in the dark and the lights aren't on, - it was before the parade - but you can see the disco ball and crystal prisms).
It was a lovely Carnival, and the girls got a 2nd place (you can see the blue certificate on the float).

In the 2nd picture you can see a, well actually I'm not sure what to call it, picture? embroidery? a something anyway that I made.

I downloaded the wonderful French Haberdashers' receipt image from The Graphics Fairy (if you aren't familiar with this wonderful blog you really need to check it out), printed it out onto cotton photo fabric, then I appliqued it to a piece of linen, embellished it with ric rac, ribbon, and vintage lace and buttons and stretched the whole thing over a frame canvas style. I'm really pleased with how it came out.

Huckleberries

2010-10-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

According to the seed packet "Huckleberries are delicious in pies, ice cream, jam, jellies and pies". According to the recipes I tracked down on the internet huckleberries are interchangeable for blueberries in recipes.
so....
Naomi lovingly made a batch of ~~Blueberry~~ Huckleberry Muffins and

Huckleberries.
Taste.
Like.
Earwax.

They are absolutely revolting! Beelzebub himself could not have devised a more repulsive fruit.
Its a good job we tried them in the conservatory, which has a stone floor, or I'd be cleaning spat-out-huckleberry stains off my carpet right now.
We fed the rest of the muffins to the birds.
I'm not sure they were too impressed either.

I have since discovered that the garden huckleberry (Solanum melanocerasum), is a completely different species to the wild huckleberry, to which, presumably, the internet recipes refer. Shame they didn't mention that handy little snippet of information on the seed packet.
The Garden Huckleberry is apparently "very sour" and not to be eaten raw. No kidding!
I've got pounds of the evil little beggars in the garden. I am assured that they will indeed make excellent jam, however I seriously doubt my ability to persuade my family to ever try it, or any other new fruit or vegetable for that matter.

On a less sour note I finished my monthly ornament SAL :-

Not so much an early finish for October as a late one for September but a finish is a finish!

The teacup of destiny has spoken

2010-09-20T08:50:00.000-07:00

And the winner is comment no. 3, which was made by Mylene. Mylene, if you can let me have your postal address I'll send you your prize.

The weather is enjoying one last glorious burst of summer here, look at this gorgeous sunflower, Naomi has been growing sunflowers in the space behind the greenhouse, and they are looking wonderful.
I've been growing huckleberries in the same area. This is a new crop for me and I'm not entirely sure what to do with them now I've got them. Any ideas? Clean ones only please ;D

On a nother note, (note, get it?) I got the new Robert Plant CD at the weekend and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Think the rest of the family might be getting a bit fed up with it by now as I've played it almost constantly...

A touch of autumn and a small give-away

2010-09-12T10:25:00.000-07:00

There's a touch of autumn in the air today.

Don't you just love these mossy old logs? No? You just want me to shut up and get to the giveaway? Well OK then.

In a Cath Kidstone-esque moment, I bought a couple of old plastic bangles in the local charity shop, covered them with gingham ribbon and decorated them with ric-rac braid, buttons and ribbon rosebuds. I thought they would look very shabby-chic.
Which they do.

To my chagrin however (great word that, chagrin, I should use it more often) I discovered on finishing them that they are far too big for me (I have tiny wrists and hands), and fall off of their own accord. Note to self: try them on first next time. Anyway, rather than throw them away I thought I'd see if anyone here wanted them. I might even add a few other goodies in too. Just pop a comment on this post if you fancy them, and I'll put any names in the teacup of destiny next Sunday

Upcycling (or TUTBOTS)

2010-09-06T12:50:00.000-07:00

A couple of "Things (that) Used To Be Other Things"

First my new oven gloves (which used to be a couple of pairs of old jeans, I could have used just one pair had it not been for a bit of a cock-up on the cutting front, but I kind of like the colour change).
I got the basic idea for these from Alisa Burke's blog (which is full of brilliant ideas and inspiration). I tweaked her idea a little bit as the originals were individual mitts and I prefer a double oven glove.

Next a small corsage. Can you see what it used to be? Yep, its half a zip ~ with a tiny bit of ribbon and a few odd beads to jazz it up.
These are such fun to make. I bought a big handful of old zips from the charity shop and I've made a pile of them.

Now, what old junk can I chop up and re-purpose next...

Results, a trip and two small finishes - warning, picture heavy post

2010-08-31T12:30:00.000-07:00

Lots to write about this week.

On Tuesday Eloise got her GCSE results. An A* in Maths, 4As, 6Bs and 2Cs, we are so proud of her. She is off to Truro College, starting next week, to do A levels in Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry and Physics. It is a 45 mile bus journey each way which makes it a long day, but it is a really good college.

Sometimes you just have to forget you live here and do the whole tourist thing, so on Friday we went to Marazion and St Michael's Mount for the day.
When we got there the tide was just far enough out to walk across the causeway.

And here is the view from the bottom of the island, looking up at the castle....

.....and from the castle looking down!

A couple of pictures inside the castle and church

When we got back to the mainland we wandered round Marazion for a while then sat with a drink and enjoyed the view. OOOPS! Looks like these people made a minor miscalculation on the causway front!

And I did promise you a couple of small finishes, the first is the Monthly Challenge piece. This one is from Penelopis. I made mine into a little "pretty" to hang from a cupboard door. (One very well known designer calls these "Knob-knockers", which pretty much goes to show she's not British if you ask me). This month's album with all the finishes is here.

And finally (insert sigh of relief from readers) a Christmas Ornament. I've fallen a ~~bit~~ lot behind with the monthly ornament SAL this year, but I've just managed to squeeze one in for August. This one is "Pear Tree" from LHN. I noticed after I'd made it up that I'd forgotten to add the little beads to the branches, but I think it looks OK without them.

Showtime!

2010-08-22T10:06:00.000-07:00

It was the Horticultural Society annual show yesterday. Miserable drizzly wet day, but we still had quite a good turn out.

Look at these wonderful veggies, no surprise that they won the "best in show" (No, I didn't grow them, wish I had though)

And here is a little corner of the floral art and cookery sections.

Eloise won the cup for "Best in Show Floral Art" and a prize for her painting, and Naomi got "Most points - Cookery" and a gold medal for her Mini Tray of Flowers and Vegetables.
I picked up a couple of firsts with various handcrafted items, but I'll save them for another post.

Exchange gift arrived

2010-08-17T12:22:00.000-07:00

Been very busy here this week as its the annual Village Show at the weekend. (I'm secretary, so there is a lot of paperwork to do for entries in the week or so before it)

This means there has not been too much time for stitching lately, but the exchange gift I sent to Clare has arrived so I can post pictures of that now.

This is a free design from Blackbird Designs finished as a standup scissor/thread keep.

I just love the sampler fabric I found to back it with, I ended up buying a full yard, so expect to see much more of it in the future ;)

Flowers, a carnival and a very late challenge

2010-08-08T13:27:00.000-07:00

We've had a busy weekend here. First it was the Chapel Flower Festival. The theme was "AGood Read", and I chose a book about the kitchen garden at Heligan

Then it was off to Tintagel for the Carnival. A beautiful evening, a fabulous carnival, and Naomi won the cup for Best Queen.

Finally here (embarassingly late) is my finish for the Stitch and stash July Challenge. We did a penguin design from The Workbasket. The reason he took me so long is that I stitched him over 1 on 32 count, he's done in a single shade of very dark purple overdyed thread, and finished as a Christmas ornament, backed with the fabric in the picture.

A Gift Recieved and Another Carnival

2010-07-25T12:03:00.000-07:00

Look at this beautiful exchange gift I recieved from Donna (no blog).
How pretty is that?
Those strawberries look so real you could almost pick them!

And nestled inside the tin was the lovely mother of pearl strawberry thread keep.

There was another carnival on Saturday night. This one was at St Teath. The weather was a touch drizzly, but nevertheless a good time was had by all, and the girls came home with armfuls of trophies.

Some pictures from the Carnival

2010-07-20T08:13:00.000-07:00

Another carnival has come and gone, but here are some photos to prove that it happened:-

Warning: Dr Who reference ahead

"I'm the bloody Queen, and basically I rule"

The Queen with her attendants

and on the float waiting for the parade to begin

Let the Carnival begin!

2010-07-10T11:09:00.000-07:00

Its official! Carnival week has started. Since this is the 10th Carnival since it restarted in 2001 they kicked off with a birthday party, and what birthday party is complete without a birthday cake?

As I may have ~~droned on about interminably~~ mentioned, Naomi is Queen this year, and to our surprise here she is immortalised in cake!!! You have no idea how hard it was to stop her from eating this entire slab of icing (and slipping into a sugar induced coma) before I got this photo

now she has taken the photo I'm eating it mwahahaha haha ha Naomi :)

Prom!

2010-07-04T02:16:00.000-07:00

Here is Eloise all dressed up for her prom in Newquay on Friday night

A close up of her headgear (no tiaras for my ~~fashion victim~~ princess of cool)

and finally her high class transport ;D

Prom dress finished, carnival dresses to go. No rest for the wicked...

Funky footwear

2010-07-01T12:55:00.000-07:00

Inspired by this tutorial I found online I decided to have a go at jazzing up a pair of very cheap, plain flip flops. This is what they looked like before:-

I cut up lots of old fabric scraps and machined them together as described in the tutorial, (I found it very traumatic when the instructions called for "messy stitching" as every fibre of my being screamed at me to stitch in nice straight lines, but I persevered!), and used the resultant material to cover the plastic straps and hey presto:-

The whole process took less than 2 hours start to finish and now I think they look like an expensive designer surf brand. I'm so pleased with them I'm thinking of making another pair in a different colour.

A Gift, a challenge, a frog and a Queen

2010-06-28T00:48:00.000-07:00

I got the most amazing gift in the post last week. Barb had posted about a book, Jane Austen's Sewing Box:-

I was curious about it, and asked what it was like, and the next thing I know Amazon had delivered me my very own copy as a gift from Barb.
It makes fascinating reading, with loads of history about Regency women and the sort of sewing they would have done, lots of sumptuous photos and some intriguing projects based on sewn items, such as huswifes and letter cases, mentioned in Austen's novels. Thank you so much Barb. I'm thrilled with it.

In other news, yesterday was reveal day for the monthly challenge at Stitch and Stash. This time we did this free design from Les Chroniques de Frimousse. I loosely translated the original French text and finished mine as a weighted bookend.
Look how lovely my Apothecary's Rose is in the background. It has gone mad this year with too many blossoms to count.
The album is here, though there aren't many finishes this month, I think everyone has been too busy enjoying the sunshine.
The sunshine has obviously been too much for one poor little frog in my garden though. Last night we were watching a movie (Die Hard 4 as it happens), and he appeared, hopping across the lounge floor, and hid under the tv before we could catch up with him! Must be a Bruce Willis fan! Anyway today we have a big bowl of water in the middle of the carpet in the hopes of tempting him out....
Finally, check out this picture of my "Queen elect". So grown up looking!

A Tale of two Pincushions

2010-06-20T11:52:00.001-07:00

One cute and one subversive

First the cute one, a teeny little crown, which I made using the cap of a 2l cola bottle as the base. The top decoration is a flower bead threaded onto a pearl headed pin.

Now the subversive one (read no further if you are of a nervous or easily offended disposition). You might recall a few weeks back I posted a picture of a long pincushion I made for the Monthly Challenge. In true Victorian Style I lovingly spelled out the word "PINS" in pins . Last week I came to use it and I found this:-

I think I have a poltergeist (or a teenager)

A gift, my garden, and a new release

2010-06-13T06:42:00.000-07:00

I had a lovely package in amongst all the bills in the post last week. Heid i had run a surprise giveaway on her blog and I won this gorgeous scissor fob. Look at the little tape measure charm, isn't it adorable?

The lovely warm weather we've been having has had quite an effect on my garden, which is now chock full of weeds, or a haven for wildflowers depending on your point of view. Here are some campion, buttercups and foxgloves which I have cunningly prevented from seeding all over the place, by bringing them into the kitchen (and my Jamie Oliver jug).

And finally ...

(wait for it)...

My new release. Presenting "Adventures" a sampler and matching needlework accessories based on a quote from Jane Austen "If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village she must seek them abroad".

Sampler and Accessories

Inside of sewing pocket

Back of sewing pocket and fob

(list of stockists available on websit e)

May Challenge, a Gift, and Some Bags

2010-05-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

Its reveal day for the May Challenge at Stitch and Stash, and this time we stitched "Tulip Time" from Primitive Betty's.
I made mine into a large pinkeep with a band of vintage braid at the bottom to hold a pair of scissors.

Check out the other finishes in the album here. As usual there are some beauties

I've heard from Sally that she has recieved the blogoversary gift I sent her, so I can show that now, a tiny sewing pocket and scissor fob. (Keep your eye out for more pictures and the charts for these as part of a new design coming soon)

And finally, both my girls are of the " you can never have too many bags or shoes" school of thought, (can't imagine where they get it from) so I tend to make a lot of bags, and since I was inspired to new baggy ideas by a beautiful cushion I saw on Su's blog this morning, Su asked if I could post a picture of some of the bags I've made in the past. I'll be sure and post a picture of the new ones when they're done.

Sun, Sea and Strawberries

2010-05-23T10:16:00.001-07:00

Today in Port Quinn and St Endellion:-

Sea

Sunbathing

Yellow Flags

Dragonflies

and Strawberries!

Birds and Bluebells and Birthdays

2010-05-08T07:49:00.000-07:00

Hello, poor neglected little blog! Life has been a bit hectic round here lately, so no stitching to show, though I have a "nearly finish", which is a new design I created for Eloise's birthday. The stitching is finished, I just need to get it written up and photographed so I might have something to show you by next week. In case you are wondering, she was 16 last week, which is actually pretty scary, so heres a picture of her when she was much younger...

Here are some bluebells I saw in the Valency Valley last weekend, and some lovely little birds who have the very boring name of grey wagtails. They deserve something much nicer don't you think? Sorry its a bit grainy I had to use a lot of zoom

A Regal Reveal

2010-04-25T02:17:00.000-07:00

Today is Reveal Day for the Stitch and Stash Monthly Challenge. This month we chose Lizzie*Kate's Hello Spring. The album can be found here. I chose to finish mine as a long pincushion, mostly because I wanted an excuse to use some of this wonderful funky lime pompom trimming. Yes, this is "The Trimming that Taste Forgot", I love it, there is a very real danger that I will stitch it to anything that sits still for long enough...

And why "regal" you are wondering as you look at my decidedly un-regal pincushion, well we just found out that Naomi will be Carnival Queen for 2010/11. She is as excited as a dog with two tails! Expect LOTS of pictures (be afraid, be very afraid...)

Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

2010-04-18T02:55:00.000-07:00

Not Naomi apparently, at least not when the wolf looks like this:-

Hmmmm. Can't blame her really...

Anyway you might remember a while ago I made her this little ornament using a complimentary pattern from Paulette's blog.

Well it was one of her friends' birthday last week, and this particular friend is another avid member of "Team Jacob" so Naomi had me make another ornament for her, and here it is: Jacob Ornament Mark II.

I put a little silver apple charm and a wolf on it

I hope her friend likes it

An exchange and some undead things

2010-04-10T09:09:00.000-07:00

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the planet, we've just been busy, so I'm late posting this but there was an April Fool's exchange at Stitch and Stash and this is the wonderful parcel I recieved from Angie (no blog as far as I know).

Look at all these lovely threads and fabrics! It took me ages to spot the "fool". Hint: look at the DMC in the bottom right corner...

Eloise was admiring a keyring with a strange little plushie creature on it yesterday. Anyway to cut a long story short I retro-engineered it and I've come up with these little zombie kitties (because even the undead need love).

I only meant to make a couple, but they kind of got away from me. My favourite is the little vampire one, but then I've got a bit of a soft spot for vampires (the brooding sort, not the sparkly ones).

Reveal Day

2010-03-28T10:03:00.000-07:00

Its reveal day for the Stitch and Stash Monthly Challenge. This time we chose the design "Be True" from Plum Street Samplers. Mine is stitched on 36ct cream linen and finished as a pinkeep/hanging ornament, I trimmed it with a ready pleated cream ribbon with a narrow black ribbon over, and green and purple pins. The album of finishes is here.

I've been lucky enough to recieve two blog awards in the last week or two, and I'd like to say thank you very much to the ladies who nominated me. I hope you don't mind though if I don't pass them on to named individuals, because I can never choose just a few blogs, I love so many, for so many different reasons. I'll just say if I read/comment on your blog consider yourself nominated.