Tuesday 31 August 2010

Tuesdays Treasures - Needle Felted Picture

Opps, Tuesday nearly slipped through my fingers! Here is a little treasure, has no value of any sort except that it is the first needle felted picture that I did and actully got around to framing. It is only A5 sized and I took out the glass so as not to squash the flower.
It has been lovely weather here this week, typical, jsut as I am about t go back to work it decided to get warmer and sunnier!
xx

Sunday 29 August 2010

Beaded Bag Treasure

You may remember earlier in the week I showed you the beaded wedding gift I had made for my friend at work. Well this one is the very first one that I created ages ago!
It is made out of reddy/bronzey coloured beads with a glitzy organza lining which has a bit of a ripple texture to it.



Handmade cord with a bit of gold thread running through it added to the effect. I was not able to make cord for the pink wedding bag as I could not find the right colour. Odd really as I thought pink was really in for everything at the moment.

It has the same drawstring fastening but the lining fabric makes this bit more loose than the pink version. So in a way the pink one was more successful.
Making the wedding gift has re-lighted my fun for making these and I have plans to make a bigger version. I have some of the beads already, and I thought a lovely shimmering blue version.....perhaps Indigo Blue!
xx
Many thanks for the support over the photo situation. I am looking into adding a watermark for pictures and I have been looking at how to do that today. Have a good week.
xx

Friday 27 August 2010

Blog picture copying....

I am not sure if I am over reacting or not.

There is a Turkish blog which has been appearing on my feed list a lot lately with my blog post titles on it and I decided to click on it, as you do. You can imagine my surprise to see several of my own photos of various tutorials. I tried to translate some of it and seeing as I could not actually leave a comment I managed to work out an email address. I wrote a polite request for them not to use any of my photos without asking. I also wanted to know the aim of the blog as it does have a lot of adverts on it. I did get an email back explaining that they were Turkey's number one blog and any ideas, projects and tutorials are featured there. That is fine as we all do that but I only ever put a link in the text and maybe a picture of MY version of the tutorial not pictures from someone else's blog. This happened a few days ago, since then three more of my blog posts have been ransacked which I think now makes a total of 6 tutotials! They appear to be working their way through my tutorial list in the side bar!! Know if they then went to my Etsy shop and bought one of my lovely items then I could maybe go ok, not very blog friendly but..............
They do put a link to my blog but it is the taking of the pictures that is starting to niggle and the fact that I seem to be supplying material for another blog as well as this one. They have taken as many as four pictures from one of my posts!
If you are a visitor of this Turkish blog then please become a follower of mine and visit me directly, cut out the middle man so to speak, rather than via the other blog that does not seem to be able to come up with anything of their own.
In some ways I suppose I should be flattered but for some niggling reason I feel used. A bit of a shame really. I think that the three tutorials that I have planned may stay on hold for a bit until they lose interest and go somewhere else. Check your live feeds if you have any and see if you can see a pattern or are having a surprising number of hits for certain tutorials or if visitors are coming from other blogs with your post titles on them.
More cheerful stuff later today.
xx

Exam Results


Image from here
That time of year came round on Tuesday when nails are bitten up to the the elbow and tension in homes across the country is high.

Yep....GCSE results.
My lovely little group did as I predicted (if only I could be as accurate with the lottery numbers.
I also hit the percentage target that I get told that I have to get with the group.

I was delighted with what they achieved and one has now moved on to studying Fashion at a higher level. I have asked her parents to keep in contact as I would love to now how she gets on. They leave school and we rarely hear what happens afterwards unless they get married or get themselves arrested!!

So my little group achieved:
5 Grade A
1 Grade C
3 Grade D
1 Grade F
There is always a story behind all of the grades gained so please trust me that ALL of these grades were an achievement for a group of lovely girls who have a wide range of ability, home backgrounds, medical situations and goodness knows what else before you even get to studying and gaining exams. As a result of taking my course two have bought their own sewing machine, one has moved onto college to work at a higher level in textiles, another has decided to take an additional course on this subject for fun to go along with the rest of her timetable at 6th Form and another is making items for friends.
None of these can be given a certificate but I have maybe started them on the school of life course where they may now have a hobby or interest that they can turn to and the skills to make clothes or any other item that they choose.
Congratulations girls and all the best for the future.
xxxxxxx

Wednesday 25 August 2010

Wedding Gift - Beaded Bag

A colleague at work got married this month and we were invited to the evening reception. They have been together for some time so a wedding list was not wanted as such. Vouchers etc were more long term useful if people wanted to bring a gift. A very relaxing and easy way of doing things for a change.
I wanted to make something ( of course) for the bride herself. We shall call her A and she works part time with me and one of the subjects she teaches is Textiles, so I had to make something extra special. The item I chose I have not made for a while and it is my party piece for wedding gifts/ Special events etc.
Her wedding colours were off white and pink. So plenty of beads needed.
Luckily, I had many of the supplies I needed, just the pink fabric. Looked for silk, not a scrap of pink silk to be found at all! So got a nice 100% cotton instead.

This is based on a Victorian beaded reticule. These are more like little purses and originally they would have contained maybe a special hankie, tiny bottle of perfume or a little trinket.

I really enjoy making them and no two are ever the same. I got started on these after my hubby's Aunt made one for me for my wedding day, I used instead of those plastic horse shoe things.

I made one for my best friend and had a real job trying to find out what the bridesmaid colours were. Nearly got myself into bother there but once the bride saw it on the day she picked up on the fact and said that my questions made complete sense and loved the fact it linked to her wedding colours. Phew! I kept the info to myself anyway, I did not even tell my hubby what the colours were as I made it in secret.


It has a draw string fastening and the ribbon is left long enough to hook over the brides arm and hang down but not get in the way. Much nicer that those plastic horseshoes!! Luck can be added instead by adding a token inside. Oh, I forgot to do that, oh well.

A pretty gift box was found. Sophie helped me to decorate the lid, and there you go.

The brides reaction? More than I was expecting which made up for the panic during making which resulted in needing to start again twice and staying up until 1.30am on one night until I had sorted out what had gone wrong! However, it was worth every second just for the look on A's face when she opened the box. That is after all why we prefer handmade, isn't it?

Tomorrow I shall show you the very first one that I made.

xx

Sunday 22 August 2010

My name is Toffy..................

This little cat is now4 months old and doing just fine. He has now had his second proper injection and is doing well. He still sneezes every now and then, the vet says that some cats just do, we do after all, and not to worry about it. He does not have cat flu and is now showing his true personality. Just take a look at these pictures I took with my new lens, I challenge you not to smile!!
He likes football!
Chasing bugs, butterflies, well basically anything that moves really.

Practising his pounce position.

Investigating the garden.

After a day of all this all he then needs................

....is a good sleep!

Now folks, please tell me how can this possibly be relaxing?

Toffy appears to be made of rubber and yes, he does sleep like this most of the time. He also likes to be cuddled in your arms too, a very affectionate cat who seems to genuinely like to have human contact, the ideal family cat!

xx

Saturday 21 August 2010

Wet summers day.................

google images
Another wet and dreary day (honestly it looks like October here at the moment!) so it was time to go to the cinema and Sophie really wanted to see toy Story3. We had the first one on DVD and watched the second one in Seaford on video so it made sense to go to the cinema to see number three. Used all three methods of viewing, did you notice that?
It really is very good indeed and is fun for the children, but adults will not be disappointed at all. Lots of laughs, especially with Woody and a toilet roll, but I shall say no more on that so as not to spoil it.
The characters are great and the voice overs are excellent again. There are lots of laughs including the groan type of laughs. But I challenge you not to come out feeling better than went you went in.
Off to prune in the wet garden as things are growing out of control with the recent fall of rain.
xx

Friday 20 August 2010

French Cakes


Whilst in Seaford my sister-in-law popped over to France for a few days. During those few days Sophie spoke to her on the mobile and together they hatched a plan for a special tea party.
The cakes above came from a very special patisserie and they really were far too pretty to cut up and eat, but somehow we managed it.
On your left is a strawberry blamonge (spellcheker could not help with this word), style cake which was excellent. In the middle is a special chocolate cake with chocolate shavings on top and some red berries. It is quite rich and Sophie could not manage all of it so shared it with me. On your right is another strawberry flavoured cake with a mousse topping and a spongy style base. it is actually difficult to describe just how lovely the taste of these cakes are.
On the top layer of the stand are different flavoured cakes which are a bit like chewy meringue.
On the bottom layer we had some savoury items for the chaps who do not have sweet teeth like us girlie's. There was a pastry with scallopes and prawns inside, also a mini salmon terrin, and a special pork pie style slice. To finish were a selection of mini savoury sausages. We also added some homemade bread sticks and dips.

Sophie and my sister-in-law spent much time making the table look lovely, complete with special cups and plates. Plus a flowery table cloth from a charity shop.

This was a real surprise and a lovely way to bring a piece of their French trip back with them.
The icing on the cake, if you like, was the when Sophie was given the cake stand to use for her birthday in November.
My cupcakes will not be up to the standard of those shown here, but I shall do my best and the stand will help with the presentation.
A really lovely afternoon tea, brilliant idea.
xx

Wednesday 18 August 2010

Origami for the Littlies...............


Origami puppy.
...................... and for us big ones as well!
A friend of Sophie's showed her at school one day how to make an origami boat. She remembered it so well that she then showed us when she got home.

Piano and chair.

On a rather dull and showery afternoon the subject of Origami came up again and Sophie and I found this excellent website.

Handbag and Purse

Origami-Instructions is a website that has a range of origami items with clear step by step photographs for the youngsters to follow with some text to keep it moving along. The photos are enough on their own to get a good result. The examples above Sophie made all by herself and right proud she is too.

So if you are in need of a little something to keep your youngsters occupied for a bit as we move into the latter stages of the Summer Holidays, take a quick look at this. I did make one or two to start with to encourage Sophie and then off she went!!

Tulip

Took them over to the in-laws, she was that pleased with them.

Any paper can be used really or wrapping paper would be good. You need squares and make them a reasonable size as it does make it easier for folding etc.

xx

Tuesday 17 August 2010

Tuesday's Treasures


I have decided to join Clare and 16 others in Tuesday's treasure, at least until I run out of interesting items to show anyway!

This necklace is very special in that it belonged to my Grandmother. I never really met her as I was about 6 months at the one and only meeting that we had. It is very delicate in appearance and has pearls and amethyst, which is my adopted birth stone. My true birth stone is turquoise and to me it always looks like it has come out of Christmas cracker and I really do not like it.

I wore this on my wedding day and spent months trying to find little earrings to match which I eventually did. Pearl drop with little bits of amethyst above. Not as precious as the necklace but it did the job on the day.

This necklace is often worn as I do feel that it should not be shut up in a box, but I do check the catch regularly. It is to be passed on to Sophie when I am gone and it is to stay in the family.

So this is my first Tuesday Treasure no story attached to it really, just family links but I think that is all there needs to be.

xx

Monday 16 August 2010

Holiday 2:Sheffield Park Gardens


Another of our visits to a National Trust house whilst on our holiday to Seaford.
It was a glorious day and really very warm indeed, especially with plenty of walking around.

There were several large ponds and lakes which were covered with water lilies. I have never seen so many in one place and all out in bloom at the same time!

We like National Trusting and so does Sophie (well at the moment she does) and it gives us a chance to learn a little bit of history in that particular local area. Some fresh air as well.

Sophie could not believe her eyes when she saw the size of this lovely old tree! I tired to find out how old is was but sadly I failed.

These days out are also a chance for us all to take photographs. Sophie especially likes to do this and then show anybody the pictures who is prepared to look at them. I could not resist taking this picture of the budding photographer!!

This is a lovely park and well worth a visit if you are in the area.

We borrowed my sister-in-laws picnic basket and had a lovely little lunch just outside the property. We enjoyed doing this all week so much that we ended up ordering our own picnic basket from a local farm shop. I just hope it arrives before the weather turns horrid!

I have one more place to show you then a wedding story later in the week.

Take care and have fun.

xx

Thursday 12 August 2010

Holiday1: Clergyman's House, Alfriston, Sussex

This was in fact the very first property obtained by the National trust in 1896.
This house is 14th century and is called a 'hall house'. It is a thatched, timber-framed house with lovely gardens. The allotment section is certainly worth a visit on its own.
We have visited several times before when coming to Seaford and there is something new to see each time. On this visit there were two ladies showing visitors how to spin sheep's wool into yarn. They asked Sophie if she would like to have a go and after a rather shy reluctance (shy? Sophie? Not really anyway....). Sophie had seen one at the Royal Cornwall Show in June and named it straight away hence the offer to actually use the spinning!! Gosh if only I was cute and 7 again!!

After Sophie had finished the lady gave her the wool that she had spun plus a bit more to look at at home. I have some hand spindles at school and I shall borrow one so Sophie can finish making her yarn.
That was not all.........................
she also had the chance to make some sheep with more of the sheep fleece. The head and legs are made out black pipe cleaners and then a long length of fleece is then wrapped around the pipe cleaner frame until it if fully covered and you have a nice plump sheep. A little less fleece and you end up with a lamb. Such a simple but clever idea.
The two ladies asked Sophie what she would call the sheep ( Minty came to mind but I kept it to myself!) and she said I do not know. Gone all shy again.
I am never disappointed by the enthusiasm that fellow textile/ crafters have and their keenness to pass on information and encouragement to have a go.
What with out visit to Coldharbour Mill, The Royal Cornwall Show and now Alfriston, it has been a very Woolly year so far!!
We had a lovely day out and meet some lovely people to boot.
Just as we were leaving a lady in the shop asked Sophie if they liked to grow things, so a quick run down was given about the veg patch etc. She then gave Sophie some seed packets, as we were walking to the car the spinning lady gave Sophie another lamb model and said what a lovely girl she was.
OOOOh another Mummy moment whilst glowing with pride!
xx
P.S Many thanks for the lovely comments and emails about my Quilt Block book. I shall show it to you once it has arrived.

Monday 9 August 2010

I am in print!!!!!!!!!!!

After many months of designing, researching, cutting, stitching, ironing, photographing, wrapping, posting and finger crossing I finaly had all of my blocks done for Around the World Quilting Bee.
I decided after having read one of Kittywrinkles posts about a year ago where she had created a book archiving her blog for a year that I decided to take a look at Blurb.com.
Months and months this has taken to sort out, so you can imagine my frustration today when I tried to finalise it all and actually order a couple of copies!!
Would it work? Would it co-operate? No it bloody would not!!!
Hours I spent uploading it (ended up getting it twice so I have had to delete one), publishing it! As for trying to order it.....well I gave up, painted Sophie's toe nails for her, emailed kitty wrinkle and went to make the dinner.
My hubby comes home from doing a boat survey in Helston, he suggests that I use his laptop and........ that's right......it worked first time!!! I am not going to type here what was exactly going through my mind but I am sure that you can all have a good guess.
If you click on the book link in the left hand side bar at the top and then click on the book cover featured hopefully you can have a preview of what it looks like. However after today's little fiasco I can not be certain it will work, ha ha!
I think that you can leave a comment there too if you want. Once I go back onto my computer I will do a Picassa collage to give you an impression of what the inside looks like. I now have to wait for the books to arrive and I shall post here and let you see what they look like. If I like them and I have the strength to do another, I was thinking of doing one based on Sophie's photographs from birth to the present day. Digital pictures are ok but we are guilty of not printing them off. This would be one way of creating an album. That will of course be a private book and not featured on the internet.
I probably should have waited until the book delivery before posting but after today I wanted to have something to show for my efforts.
Our holiday in Seaford was a brilliant as ever and once I have uploaded the pictures I shall post about our fun week.
Please let me know what you think of my book.
xx
I am now off for a strong cup of tea and a biscuit, by the way our chicken casserole was very nice too.
xxxxx

Friday 6 August 2010

Button Feature.....

I saw an idea for making a button brooch on Button floozies ages ago and collected some buttons for the sole purpose of having a go. Quilts and crochet got in the way and I only got around to it about two weeks ago. I decided to crochet a pink flower as the base for my brooch and i used a cotton purle and a 1.75 hook to make it.
Jewellery wire and a glue gun were also needed.
I hand stitched a brooch back to the crochet flower first. I got the brooch back from Paper and String .
I then attached the wired buttons to the large pink button and put this on top of the flower to hid all of the joins etc.
I am pretty pleased with the way it turned out and I intend to make some more as stocking fillers this year. A great way to recycle old and new buttons.
xx

Thursday 5 August 2010

Toffy dreams.........................

Found the little fella sitting on top of the back of my chair with his head on my crochet cushion fast asleep!!! I do not know what he is going to do when he gets bigger. Slide off, I suppose!!
High cute factor here.
He is being looked after by my in-laws at the moment while we are away for the week. So far things are going well, and since his first proper injection he has not really sneezed, so it looks like there might be light at the end of the tunnel for little Toffy and the cat flu is gone!!!!
Hurrrayyyyy!
x

Monday 2 August 2010

Sophie's First Softie

Sophie had these two T-shirts which she has grown out of but are not the right size for the quilt we have started. So she sat and thought about it, then spotted one of my Craft magazines.
Sophie decided that it was time to make a softie and here is her design!! Complete with strips.
She did ask me to make a pattern that was even on both sides. I have problems with that sometimes but over the years pattern making and the need for accuracy meant that I got over this. Draw the side that works for you, fold the paper in half and out round the good side. Open up and you then have the full shape.
Sophie then pinned it on to the first t-shirt all by herself and used my new (cheap) pink scissors to cut it out. Again she asked for a little help with some of the curves, but she did most of it herself.
She is trying out an idea here with some fleece.
Here are all of the pieces cut out and ready to sew. This took quite a while and was left until the following evening when Sophie would come with me to my sewing group. She only comes with me during the school holidays as it finishes at 9pm.
This is what Sophie made!! Her very first softie which she designed herself. The features are hand sewn on by herself. We forgot the hair and then decided it looked better without it!
We still have the second T-shirt so another softie may be on the cards. It has a name too............
WORTY.
I have no idea why and after nearly 8 years being a Mum there are times when it is best not to question why.
It has turned out very well and she is delighted!!
xx
We are on our hols in Seaford at the moment but I hope to bring the odd post during the week.

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