A stash happy post

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

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...

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

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

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

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!

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...