Days of Our Lives - edited

Welcome to my post for Jo's Birthday Blog hop. Jo has a special birthday today, and to honour the occasion we are marking the events in our lives that correspond to a year in Jo's.
My year is :-

1974

This is what was happening to Jo that year:-

1974 - Jo was 8.  She had complete the Infant Stage at Primary School and was then in the Juniors.  Jo  was put into a mixed age class with the majority of the children being the year above.  Jo discovered the more grown-up pursuits of Top of the Pops and the merits of the Bay City Rollers versus David Essex.  Jo was a Rollers fan and owned the jacket (made by Mum), the maroon trousers, the scarf, the socks, the pendant and the printed T-shirt with their photo and her name across the top (from Great Yarmouth seafront market).  These were all worn with pride for the School Discos.

I, on the other hand, being older, was not a fan of the world's most tartanest boy band.
In 1974, I was 13, and listening to

 and

Pretty much still am come to think of it. Here, a little audio treat for you.

When I wasn't listening to music I was watching these guys

And reading this

A brilliant, bittersweet, multifaceted, sparkling diamond of a novel which makes a lot of recent popular YA stuff  look dull, predictable and amateurish (why yes Twilight, I am talking about you), and which has stayed with me ever since.

Not really now, not any more

If you've read it, you'll know what that means.

I am not going to inflict what I was wearing on you.

You're welcome

Aaargh! I forgot the stitched picture bit! I was supposed to include something I'd stitched that I thought would appeal to Jo. I found the piece, lifted it out and forgot to photograph it. What a numpty!

Here you go. Bonus points for anyone who can guess which other book from my youth inspired this design

Gifted Gorgeousness September

Not much to show this month for Gifted Gorgeousness - the blog hop organised by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching, where we show our gift related projects - as Summer is our busiest time of year and so I don't get as much time for stitching and crafting as I would like. There is one thing though.
About a year ago I bought a fat quarter on a whim because I fell in love with the gorgeous magpie print, and in the depths of the stash pile it has languished ever since. Fast forward to a few weeks ago when I spotted a tutorial on Flamingo Toes, for an embroidered zip pouch with the legend "need more shiny things".
Could anything be more perfect to showcase my wonderful magpie fabric?
To pick out the colours of the fabric I did the embroidery on black using red Kreinik #4 braid (because - shiny), and I made the print section much deeper to show off more of the magpies.
So there you have it, a little zip pouch for Naomi to keep her jewellery in.

Accidentally Alice

I was doing the food shopping earlier this week in a well known budget supermarket, and outside of the door they had a stand full of potted miniature rose bushes. Red ones, pink ones, white ones, and nestled right in the middle of them - this one!

All together now -

"Doodle de do de do de do, bum bum bum bum bum, 

Painting the roses red, We're painting the roses red"

In other news, here are two Van Gogh TARDIS cushions I made for Naomi to take back to her student house.