Advent Calendar Blog Hop Day 13

Welcome to Day 13 of the Advent Calendar Blog Hop. To see the other days in the Advent Calendar please visit Jo at Serendipitous Stitching.
Jo asked us to share a picture of something festive that we had made. I haven't actually managed to stitch any new ornaments for this year, so in true Blue Peter fashion, here's one I made earlier:-

I did make this though - a kitschy mid-mod style wreath for the front door:-

Jo also asked us to share how we spend Boxing Day. Apart from eating left-over turkey (and doesn't everyone do that?), we mostly spend Boxing Day playing board games and watching TV, although if the weather is good and the tides are right we sometimes go for a walk on the beach.

David took this picture around Christmastime a couple of years ago. The tide is only this low once or twice a month so you can't always get this far along.

Ornament Exchange and a Spot of Knitting

Yesterday was opening day for the Needlecraft Haven Christmas Ornament Exchange.
By pure coincidence I both sent to and received from Lindsay this year.
Here is the ornament I sent.

The snowman design is by Carol Manning Designs, from this year's JCS Ornament Edition. I changed up the colours a bit to fit with what I had, and added an iridescent sequin to the snowflake at the top before making it up as a flat ornament edged with some vintage lace.
And here is the ornament I received from Lindsay, an absolutely exquisite 3-dimensional beaded star.

Thank you Lindsay, I love it.
I also finished knitting this shawl earlier in the week.

The yarn is Stylecraft's Candy Swirl, one of those big balls of self-striping "cake" yarn.
Eagle eyed readers will spot that the very edge is a slightly darker shade of turquoise. This is because the "one ball to knit a shawl" ran out halfway through the cast-off row, so I had to carefully un-cast off the edge, find some wool in the house that half-way matched and cast off with that as there was no way I was buying a whole other ball of the Candy swirl. I had a few choice words to say on the subject at the time, but actually I think it worked out OK.

Gifted Gorgeousness - November

Gifted Gorgousness is the monthly blog hop organised by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching, where we show off our gift related crafting and craft related gifts.

First up this month for me is the Needlecraft Haven "Autumn Hug" exchange. The idea behind this one was that we sent our partners a parcel containing a card, an edible treat, a pamper treat, and some threads.

I forgot to get a picture of the gift I sent to Lindsay, but here is the wonderful gift I got from Julie

The edible treat was a bag of Roses, and the pamper treat was a lovely rose scented bath bomb and a pair of the most beautiful hand-knitted socks in a gorgeous teal colour.

Julie also included four skeins of Ozark thread and a sweet note explaining how each of the colours (Driftwood, Teal Kiss, Rose of Sharon and Pine Needles) had been specially selected for me, and if all that wasn't enough the whole thing was wrapped in a fat quarter of beautiful apple patterned fabric and tied up with autumn themed ribbon.

Thank you Julie, I feel really spoiled by my "Hug"

In other gift related news, here are two sequin tops that I made for the girls (the rose gold coloured one shows what the back of each of them is like)

You do not want to know how many sequins there are in my carpet, it looks like a unicorn has thrown up on it.

Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop 2017

Hello and welcome to my blog

This is a post for the 2017 Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop 

For more details on the Blog Hop please visit our fearless leader Jo at Serendipitous Stitching

First of all some spooky eye candy for you

A stitched leather brooch I made

Who is your favourite pop-culture vampire?

I rather like this one

Aiden Turner as Mitchell in Being Human

Now for the real reason you're all here. Your letter is:-

Please visit 

http://chaosatlanta.blogspot.co.uk/

for your next letter

                        

Not Very Seasonal

After knitting away half the summer I finally finished off my lightweight cotton jumper just exactly the week the first of the autumn storms arrived.
Typical really.
The pattern is Rocky Pond from Classic Elite yarns which I found here at LoveKnitting, though I knit mine using Paintbox Cotton DK in Washed Teal.

Following on from the upcycled t-shirt skirts I made for the girls, I decided I needed one of my own, and here it is:-

The Deep Purple skirt. 

Because you're never too old to rock.

Gifted Gorgeousness for October

Gifted Gorgeousness day has rolled round again (Gifted Gorgeousness is a monthly blog hop organised by Jo from Serendipitous Stitching, where we show off our gift related crafts and craft related gifts)
Once again this will be a cross stitch free posting, (those of you who come here looking for a cross stitch blog must be getting pretty fed up by now, I promise I'll try harder next time)
This month I have made each of my daughters a skirt from an upcycled t-shirt. This one is Naomi's

And this one is Eloise's (completed on a rather damper day, hence the somewhat less attractive location for the photoshoot)

Also I don't think I've shown you this before, it is a woodburned piece that Naomi made for me in the summer using an offcut of the wood her dad had used to build himself a set of speakers. (I sew things, he builds speakers...)

As you can see she knows how to appeal to my inner geek.

Trying New Things

Because, obviously, I don't have enough hobbies to be getting on with.
Lino Cutting - something I've always liked the finished look of but never tried, so I treated myself to a little starter kit and had a play

And jewellery making. I've done quite a bit of "threading things onto other things" type jewellery making, but last week I went to a fabulous workshop run by Sarah Drew Jewellery where we cut, hammered, stamped and soldered brass and silver to make our own earrings.
I made these three pairs.

So pleased with how they came out. I'm now trying to justify buying all the kit to do it at home...