Gifted Gorgeousness 2017 - Washing Up and Sarcasm!

The first gifted Gorgeousness of 2017! Gifted Gorgeousness is the SAL organised by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching where once a month we show off anything craft and gift related (no matter how stretched and tenuous the link)
This month I've got two things to show. The first is something I made as a birthday present for my sister. (I made one each for me and the girls as well)
I scanned in one of the precious handwritten recipes I have from my Mum (complete with little smudge where it got wet and the ink ran), added a border, uploaded it to Spoonflower, and had it printed onto linen cotton canvas, then hemmed it up to make these tea towels.

There is a really good tutorial for sizing your scanned recipe properly on the Spoonflower Blog

The other gift is something I made for Eloise. I thought she could put it on her desk at work. I've seen a lot of designs quite like it around the interwebs but none of them were quite what I wanted so I ended up making my own version up. I finished it as a free-standing paperweight.

There is a tiny zip lock bag of yellow split peas inside to give it some weight, so if she gets really hungry at work it can always double as a convenient soup making resource.

First and Last (and a Competion and Prize)

Happy New Year!

Here is Naomi modelling my last finish of 2016, a Black Widow print skater skirt, (pattern adapted from the pinafore pattern in this post)  and my first finish of 2017, a rib swatch cowl in Rowan Fine Art Aran.

If you've been following my blog for a while you'll know that I offer a small prize to the person who most closely guesses my year end tally of finishes, books read and shoes bought.
For 2016 the totals were:-

Finishes  ~ 78
Books ~ 54
Shoes ~ 10.

The closest guess was Kerry with 64, 53, 11
Drop me an email with your postal address Kerry and I'll pop a little something in the post for you.

The counter has now been reset, so if you'd like to have a guess this year just pop a comment on this post

Christmas Continued

Last year I put half a punnet of unused cranberries out for the birds. 

Indigenous British birds obviously have no idea what a cranberry is. Either that or they're just plain fussy.

The cranberries remained, sad, alone and untouched, on the lawn, until they resembled little red bullets, only eventually disappearing when they met their demise in the form of the first mowing of spring. 

This year the wicked ungrateful birds got proper bird seed and I found a recipe on the BBC Good Food site for a Cranberry Apple Chutney.

Both the birds and the family seem much happier with this arrangement.

I also wanted to thank a few people for their Christmas gifts. I was particularly spoiled this year.

Thank you so much to Clare for the pretty diary and soap, to Karan for the lovely silk threads and to Barb for the adorable penguin cushion, (you can't tell in the daylight but it has little light up LEDs on it). 

Your kindness is much appreciated.

I also got a few splendidly geeky things from my family, who know me too well, including some chemistry themed kitchen stuff

A Game of Thrones coaster

An Alice fob watch

And this little box that Naomi burned for me. The elvish script reads "Christine"

Anyone interested in Naomi's creations can find them in her Folksy Shop "The Word on the Street"

Happy Christmas

Advent Calendar Blog Hop

Hello, and welcome to the Advent Calendar Blog Hop as organised by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching
As requested I'm showing some Christmas stitching and some favourite decorations.
Stitching first. This is a piece I stitched a few years ago, but which I don't think I've shown on the blog before, a Hardanger and Bargello snowscape sampler.

Favourite decorations is a tough one. There are so many. There are all my geeky ones: my Marvel Superhero decorations, my Star Trek ones, my beautiful glass TARDIS and dalek. There are the fabulous stitched decorations I've received in exchanges from online friends over the years, there's my modest large selection of penguin decorations...
In the end I decided to show you some of my vintage ones.

The tiny glass baubles in this little wooden display box mostly belonged to my Grandmother. My favourite is the little glass acorn

And this poseable Jack Frost belonged to either my Aunt or my Mum (I'm not sure which because they both had one and I don't really know which one I acquired and which one my sister got). I can't remember a Christmas when he wasn't there, and I'm pretty sure he's older than me. I'd guess mid-fifties from the look of him, anyway I absolutely love him and he comes out every year despite the fact that everyone else in the house thinks he's hideous.

Gifted Gorgeousness - Supplement

Here's the thing about having a birthday on the 18th of the month. It's too late for GG that month, but way too long to wait for GG the following month, so I thought I'd add a little GG postscript to show you the lovely things I got from online/stitchy friends.

The beautiful penguin scarf is from Barb, and the lovely penguiny re-usable folding shopping bag is from Julie. Do you spot a penguin theme? (not included in the photo but I got some super penguin gifts from family and friends too, including socks, a decorative biscuit tin, Christmas ornaments and a fluffy throw).
Karan sent me the gorgeous garden themed chart from Shakespeare's Peddler, and Clare sent me a gift voucher for Sew and So, which I put towards a Nancy Nicholson cat embroidery kit I'd had my eye on for some time. (Amazing service from Sew and So by the way, next day delivery at this time of year)
Thank you all so much ladies, I love them all and your thoughtfulness is very much appreciated.

Gifted Gorgeousness - December Edition

It's Gifted Gorgeousness time again, the blog hop organised by Jo from Serendipitous Stitching where we get to show off our gift related crafts and stash.
I've got a little more to show this month. First up the Needlecraft Haven Ornament Exchange.
This is the beautiful sparkly ornament and little beaded angel I received from Gill

And here is the one I sent to Tina

Sally had her birthday this week, and I made her this little coin purse from an upcycled souvenir tea towel.

Still on the subject of upcycling, here is a bag I made from scraps cut from old jeans. This is for a Christmas exchange organised through Facebook, so I think I'm safe in showing it on here.

I won't show the other bits I made yet as they were more specific to the recipient.