Trick or Treat Hallowe'en Blog Hop

Welcome to the Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop!

I did some spooky crafting, but I sent it off for a Hallowe'en exchange and then realised I'd forgotten to take a picture of it first. Whoops! Anyway, just so there is a spooky picture here is the re-purposed doll's head planter I gave to Eloise as a house-warming gift, to give you the creeps.

Isn't it deliciously macabre - when you water it, it cries. (insert evil laugh here)

Your letter is 

Your next stop is

 http://chaosatlanta.blogspot.com

Gifted Gorgeousness for October

It's Gifted Gorgeousness time! You know the drill by now. (If not check Jo's blog for further details)
October isn't a particularly "gifty" month round here so there isn't much to see, but I did whip up these two little knitted skeleton dolls as Hallowe'en gifts for the girls. The pattern is by Clare Farrell and is available here)

Hopefully I'll have more to show next month.

The Start of Autumn

And as usual I'm a bit late with the last of my summer makes, and a bit early with the first of my Christmas ones.
I did think this little corduroy dress I made might be ideal for bridging the season, but we seem to have skipped the intermediate weather this year and jumped straight from Indian Summer into full on wild autumn. Oh well, perhaps with a nice chunky cardigan and some woolly tights...
This is the Zoe dress from Sew Over It, made in a beautiful soft needlecord from Seasalt Cornwall (yes you CAN buy their fabrics!).

I do love the shape and fit of this dress (and did I mention - pockets!) however, and I'm well on the way to making a 3/4 sleeved version in a heavier weight fabric. Cool sunflare in the picture too.
The very early Christmas crafting takes the shape of a stained glass workshop my friend and I attended at Craft4crafters.

I loved making these little tree decorations, and I may have to have a bit of a play with this technique and some of my ridiculously large mountain entirely proportionate and appropriate collection of seaglass.
Oh and I made a little skirt from a couple of upcycled t-shirts. I'll be listing this one on my Folksy soon,

I'm Late, I'm Late, For a Very Important Gifted Gorgeousness Date

I completely missed the posting date for Gifted Gorgeousness (see Jo's blog here for more details of this blog hop where we share our gift related crafting).
Not much new to show this month as I've not got a huge amount of crafting done but I did manage to make Naomi this sloth pattern Hawaiian shirt

Lets hope for more crafting time next month.

Summer Postcard Blog Hop

Jo from Serendipitous Stitching organises the best Blog Hops. This one is a Summer Postcard Blog Hop. We each sent a stitched picture (postcard) and a message, and received one in return.
Here is the lovely "postcard" I received from DJ at Tickled Pink in Stitches
Such a lovely stitched piece DJ, and it really does look like the perfect cosy place to sit and stitch

Visiting the land of the Midnight Sun, nothing like a little Northern Lights to inspire me to stitch!  Just think of all those lovely long nights snuggled in front of the fire stitching!  

DJ

August's Gifted Gorgeousness - Warning: Picture Heavy

It's time for Gifted Gorgeousness again - when we show our gift related crafting - for a full explanation see Jo's blog here.
This month I'm showing the gifts  sent and received in the VSCyberstitchers July exchange.
Here is the gorgeous sheep design pincushion I received from Margaret.

Isn't it beautiful? I just love everything about it - the design, the ruffly ribbon edging, that sweet little button...
And here is the little pillow I made for Linda.

I didn't have a pattern for this one, I saw a photograph of a similar design on Pinterest and sort of made my own version up.
Also in gift related stitching, a little something I made for Eloise's new kitchen.

And not gift-related at all, it was the Village Show yesterday, so here are a few pictures for you to enjoy.

Some of the flowers

 and pot plants.

Look at these stunning fuchsias.

Cookery Section: "Picnic for Two" and cakes,

jams, bread and children's cookery section

and some of the floral art,

and children's floral displays.

We did quite well, with quite a few individual class wins.

I got a 2nd prize with the little basket of peppers and aubergines front left in the picture, and a first with my cherry tomatoes, which you can see in the background.

Naomi got a first place with this flower arrangement. The theme was "Good Enough to Eat",  and lots of prizes for her baking, and art.

 Naomi's decorated cupcakes

One of her drawings

The overall prizes were a close run thing this year; Naomi was one point off winning the Most Points in Cookery Trophy, whilst luck swung the other way for me and I took the Most Points in Handicraft Trophy by a single point. I also won the trophy for Best in Show Art with this pastel picture

.
Bonus blog points if you can tell who it is.

A Little Alchemy Going On In The Alchymyst's Study

A few weeks ago I was working in the local Secondary School, invigilating exams, and the exam they'd done was Chemistry. Afterwards there was a heaping great pile of periodic tables left over and the school were going to bin them, so I offered to "re-home them"

After distressing a handful of them with cold tea and ink, I combined them with a few vintage book pages, some mediaeval alchemical illustrations I found online, and a couple of used envelopes and made this little junk journal.

It was a steep learning curve, and I'll be doing one or two stages differently with the next one, but for a first attempt I'm quite pleased with it.

In other news, we've been busy in the garden constructing a second patio, as the main one loses the sun mid-afternoon. Naomi decided "second patio" wasn't a very good name for it, and has re-christened it and wood-burned us a sign for it.

Presenting the "Gin Patio"

Every garden should have one