Carnival Time!

Last weekend saw the annual village carnival and I thought I'd share  a few pictures.

Only at Carnival would you see a Roman Centurion waiting for an Electric bus.
Here is our car all dressed up and looking pretty ready for for the parade

We got third place in our class, but don't get too excited, there were only three entries.
And here is Naomi in her "Beached Mermaid" costume.

Let's have a close up look at the scale effect make up and the fishhook prosthetic she made

Gruesome huh?
She didn't win any prizes but I think maybe the idea was a little too "out there" for a small village carnival

Mollie Makes Strikes Again

It's been another wedding heavy couple of weeks. Five in two weeks this time. For those of you who commented last time about my active social life, I wish! These were all work weddings. If you want to see pictures they are in the other blog. I've been so busy I just realised I spent all July with my calendar still set to June. No wonder I could never figure out what day of the week it was!
I promised carnival pictures in my last post so here is a snap of the girls ready for the parade

And here is some yarn bombing that appeared in the park, and about which which I don't know anything at all. Not me. Nope. Not a thing...

I did find a little bit of time for crafting last week though when Mollie Makes plopped through the door and I immediately fell in love with the adorable little cuddly felt cacti.

To give an idea of scale the little pots are just over an inch tall. The pale green one is made exactly as given in the magazine, but I added a flower to the darker one (flower made the same way as I described in this post)
I thought you might want to see what Naomi has been busy doing too. She bought herself a Doctor Who t-shirt on Evilbay.

It was described as a "small", but when it arrived it was a medium, and a man's medium at that. It drowned her. So following a tutorial she found online, she converted it into this loose racer back top.

Complete with funky wired back detail.

July Gifted Gorgeousness

and only a couple of days late as well.
Gifted gorgeousness is a SAL organised by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching, where once a month we show off gift related stitchy stuff. I'ts been a busy week here with the village carnival, a week long event culminating in the carnival itself tomorrow, (pictures to follow) and four weddings in eight days so crafty type things have been on the back burner a bit. I did make up these three little coin purses, and the Strawberry Shortcake fabric was a gift from Shroo so that counts right?

Also I received a lovely gift through the post from Mary Anne, of all these fabulous pieces of old lace. I shall have to think of something extra special to use them for, maybe combine them with some of my denim squares in some way...

Carnival 2014

It was the village Carnival yesterday. Naomi went as Lara Croft

Eloise went as a completely terrifying undead thing...

Ah, how I miss the princess days. Honestly, how authentic do those make-up bruises look? I think the St John's Ambulance people thought all their birthdays had come at once.

Barefoot in the Park

Well, the back garden actually, the park would have healthier looking grass.

The girls and I were very taken with these barefoot sandals at the craft fair at the Carnival last week. Several pairs were purchased. Does this count as buying shoes I wonder. I did get some new converse this week...
Having worn mine for days I had a sudden brainwave and raided my button tin. The seashell pair on the right are the ones I bought, the ones on the left are my own creation.
It is ridiculously difficult to take a photo of your own feet. They end up looking stubby and foreshortened due to the angle you are shooting from. I asked Eloise to come and take a picture, but as you can see Jinx hijacked the photoshoot

I also thought you'd be amused to see this. Not everything creative in this house always turns out just how we'd planned it. Here we see the "Tropical Fruit Roulade" Naomi was attempting to make, and her finished version:-

Nailed it!  Tasted great mind you.

Gifts and Prizes

The Assistant Head at the village school where I work part time retired on Friday, so I made her a little something, Happy Day from Sub Rosa ~ chart here ~ ( Happy Day for the Assistant Head that is, not for the school!), stitched on a 40ct linen from The Crafty Kitten, of which I was sure I would remember the name when I threw out the packaging. 
Guess what? 
Yep. 
Forgotten it. 
It is stitched using Carries threads in Peacock, Sapphire and erm, Slime. Horrible name, lovely colour.
I added some buttons and dyed lace instead of the border parts of the design; I'd like to pretend it was inspiration, but actually it was because I ran out of time; and finished it with the same lace and an organza bow. It's backed with the blue silk dupion it's shown on.
And yes, it should have been the April Challenge for Needlecraft Haven, but better late than never.

I also recieved an exchange gift this week (VSCyberstitchers, I showed the sent gift last week). Linda sent me this wonderful project pouch and matching biscornu.

And here is reverse of each of them, together with the contents of the pouch, some thread cards, pearl headed pins and lovely thread all in matching shades of apricot, lemon and green
Thank you Linda, they are gorgeous.

In May I entered a draw as part of the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway and was lucky enough to win a piece of sewing themed Subway Art from Heather Kojan at Quilt.Cook.Keep.
David got around to printing it onto canvas for me the other day, and here it is all stretched and mounted on my study wall.

It was Carnival Week in the village last week Eloise and Naomi entered as Harley Quinn...

and Clark Kent respectively. 
(recognise the jeans Linda?) For some reason the judges judged them as a pair, which strikes me as mixing genres, but then I'm pretty sure they didn't actually know who Harley Quinn is. Either way they must have liked them because they came home with the trophy for Best Dressed Collector.

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)

A couple of finishes, another carnival and a pumpkin

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????

Another Carnival and Vintage Pretties

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.

Flowers, a carnival and a very late challenge

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

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.