Valentine Giveaway

There is a lovely Giveaway open over at Brynwood Needleworks.

Click here to pop over and read the post to see how to join in.

Had a very busy day on a train to Bristol for a course for the day job.  My brain is fit to burst so see you tomorrow.

xx

Giveaway Results - 900th Blog Post

Sorry about the delay in announcing the winners but I needed to visit my Mum who does not have internet access.  The prizes are in the order picked and matched with the prize order blogged in the main giveaway post.  I hope that makes sense.

I spent ages sorting out the entries and the number per person etc, wrote them all out and then asked Sophie to pick out three names.

So the following winners are.........

Francy - who wins the Flower Loom  Corsage.
HueiSei - who wins the Scissor Case.
Lynn (Garden Lynn) - who wins the little gadget case.

Sorry to those who did not win but there was so much interest in the scissor case that I will make another for my 5th Blog birthday in September as a second prize to the bag that I will be offering as the main prize.
If the above could email their postal address then I shall get them in the post asap.
Best wishes
xx 

Corsage Surprise - Thank you............

Last week I entered a giveaway hosted by Gina at Fan My Flame.  I love Gina's work and I really wanted to follow her sketchbook posts last summer but I was on holiday without any of my art stuff!  Whilst looking up those posts again I came across the giveaway sign up.

There were three winners and I was lucky enough to win this gorgeous corsage made from recycled materials and trims.  A lovely design which is so well made.

Machine stitching and hand stitching combined together with the petals shapes as well.

You might be guessing that I was thrilled to win this corsage.  I would have been grateful, if not astonished, to win any of the three...........

Many thanks Gina and this flower will be going on holiday with me next week as well.

Before we go...lets have another close up.............

Lovely.

xx

PS Do not forget to have a go at entering my giveaway for 900 posts.  See below and leave a comment to be included.

Giveaway - 900 Posts!! Entries Now Closed

I was a bit stunned when I saw that on Wednesday I had reached 900 posts!!  What on earth have I been wittering on about on 900 different occasions?

So, I have decided to have three little giveaway prizes giving possible winners.I have deliberately kept them small so that posting abroad is not a problem, here are the three prizes......

1. Flower Loom Corsage + 1 fat quarter of fabric

So first up is a flower loom corsage made with 100% cotton yard, craft button and broach fastening on the back plus a fat quarter of fabric which I shall keep as a surprise.  I have bought 179 fat quarters for my website.

2. Scissor Case + 1 fat quarter.

The second prize is for a handmade scissor case.  NOT the scissors they are simply so that you can see how  big the case is.  Ideal for small embroidery scissors which can be very sharp and need a case for safety.  Again, another fat quarter will also be added.

The fabric is very colourful on the back as well.

3. Small Gadget case or coin purse + 1 Fat Quarter.

I made one of these for my friend who takes swimming locker money in one of these and then puts her watch and jewellery in it when she gets in the pool.  It is also big enough for a small ipod or for keeping hear phones in, plus a surprise fat quarter of fabric.

I will also pop in a few other bits and bobs that I find as well, I want to offer a bit of a surprise factor this time.

Names will be pulled out and  the prize will be the one matching the order posted here.

 I recently entered a giveaway with very easy rules so I shall copy those.

To Enter you need to leave a comment on this post:

1. You need to become a follower of this blog by clicking the button in the side bar above.  You will also see when the winners are announced in your dashboard if you are follower gives you one entry.

2. If you are already a follower then following on Twitter is another way to get an additional entry.

3. If you are already do both of these then post about this giveaway on your blog with a link for another entry.

When you leave your comment tell me which of the above apply to you so that I know how many entries you are entitled to.

I will be honest and say that building more interest in my blog would be wonderful via the following method.  I have found many new blogs over the past two weeks in this way.

The deadline is next Friday 11th August at midnight GMT any entries after that will not be included.  I shall then post the prizes on the following Monday.

In September I shall be having my 5th Blog anniversary and I shall be having one big giveaway which will be one of my bags.  But more on that an other time.

I am off to do some work with the Olympics on in the background.  So much for going to bed early to catch up on my sleep after the past busy school year!  Too many wonderful sporting achievements to watch.

Take care

xx

Twiggy's Giveaway

A week or so ago I entered a Giveaway over at Twiggypeasticks and today it arrived!

Some cute Snoopy binding/tape, a pack of buttons.  Which will come in very useful this coming week, and a bundle of Gold Glitzy tape.

Many thanks Twiggy and just as I thought, Sophie has already asked about what to do with the Snoopy tape of course,  what is Snoopy?

I also had another surprise today.  It was the GCSE Textiles exam and just as we were going to start the little pep talk to get them ready I was given these.......

I shall let you now what I end up doing with them.  I need to do some marking tonight and I am having a meeting with my Head of Department tomorrow to discuss project ideas for next year.  So I have a box with  made up examples and samples.

I shall be back tomorrow with more sketchbook pages.  Many thanks for all of the visits to the last post.  I was really quite taken aback, not only by the lovely and supportive comments but the sheer number of you who popped by.

Take care all

xx

There is a silver lining...............

I have been fortunate to have my run of Giveaway luck to carry on with my name being pulled out of a bowl by the cutest little dog I have ever seen!  Over at Pomona's blog three books were available to win.  Mine arrived this weekend wrapped up in fabric and a lovely card advertising a B&B that Hubby now wants to visit!

The fabric is covered with lots of pins.

A lovely feel to the fabric too.

Th book is  handy size to take everywhere and is absolutely packed with all kinds of designs with clear charts and colourways.  Guess what I have not done?  Taken any pics? No, what a twit!  I shall be back.........
It is now Monday evening and I have now taken some pictures.

Every page is full of detailed charts like the ones above.

Lots of different kinds of animals including these cute cats.

There are so many flowers that did would be difficult to know which to do first.  Just by changing the colour combinations all occasions could be made for.

This little angel is just sooooo cute.
Would look great in Christmas Colours.
So many thanks Pomona and her lovely little dog for picking me for this great book.
xx

Giveaway Thanks

I have been lucky enough to win a giveaway hosted by Josie and this week the above bag turned up in the post.  The nag was made using a pattern from U-handbag which has many bag patterns.  Josie also has a web shop that you might like to pop over and see.

Many thanks to Josie for hosting the giveaway and for the bag that she sent.

Have a good weekend.

I shall be showing some sewing fun tomorrow.

xx

Competition Winner is...............

Many thanks to those of you who entered.  Many more entries than my last giveaway which makes more of a contest out of it.

I used the Random Number Generator and tried to do a print screen but I have been having a few problems with the Internet speed this week so you will have to take my word for it as the print screen would not work.

Typical.

Anyway.....number 11 came up which is

Tatkis

So if you could send me your mailing address I shall send your prize at the weekend.

I loved the suggestions and the offer of some help with the website building which I shall certainly take up.

I am serious about doing this as I have decided to look at my working life very carefully.  I have made enquiries about starting up some evening classes/ workshops and I have had some interest already.  So I am looking into hiring the room that the little sewing group I attend use on a Wednesday and take it from there.

Sourcing supplies will be the next job as I have been saving some money as I want to stock items that I find difficult to get my hands on locally.

I have been working on some patterns rather than finished items so that they can be send electronically all over the world.  I have three on the go at the moment and my Halloween Bag pattern is in my Etsy shop at the moment. 

I shall let you know what I decide to so with the name once I have sounded out some of the suggestions given.  Great to see some new visitors in the comment section and I hope you will some back as I like to hear from new bloggers.

Been a busy week and I am fending off a cold as my ears are blocking up!!  Could be of benefit as I have a textiles lesson with Year 8 tomorrow!

Take care and keep warm.

xx

Prizes for the Website Name Comp

After Ballet this morning I sorted out the prizes for this giveaway.  Glad that 5 have signed up already, would be nice to have some more.

*So there is Pin cushion kit with Cath Kidston fabric and the instructions are in my tutorial sidebar.

*Plus 2 sheets of felt

*Bundles of ribbon

*A roll of Amy Butler fabric

*1 fat quarters of fabric

* A pincushion kit with Cath Kidston fabric (the instructions are in the sidebar under Tutorials

*Chiffon bag of buttons

*A keyring made by me using Cath Kidston fabric (not shown forgot to add in pic)

To Enter:

You need to leave a comment on the previous post gibing your suggestion as to what I could.should do about a name for my website.

If you are not already a follower you could do that to but it is not compulsory.

So some on folks, lets that those ideas.

Deadline is next Tuesday 31st January 2012

Good Luck

xx

Creative Giveaway

I first took part in a Creative Swap in about 2008. 

It was to design and make a bag for a bag swap.  I still have the bag which was sent to me as part of the swap and in fact all of the swap items are still with me and I make a point of "making" them into something to show them off.  I have tried to find the pictures but when I started my blog I was perhaps not very organised with my tag words so now they are "buried" within my blog.  Never mind.

I did find this one though and the link here where there is a full post on this.

This was another recent entry in 2011 and I did make some extra versions for my card box at work.

So, getting back to the aim of this post.  Lenna, who hosts Creative Swap blog is having a 1000 post giveaway and if you would like to join in, it only takes a minute to click, then pop over.  If you are interested in making ATC's, scrap booking, art jounaling, texture work and much more then this is worth looking at.

1000 posts.....crikey!  That is a lot of typing and in my case a lot of potential typing errors too!

Click on the badge in the margin at the top of my blog.

xx

"GO" baby Cutter Giveaway

Pomona over at Little Cottage Comforts is having a fantastic giveaway in conjunction with Accuquilt by giving away a GO Baby cutter plus three cutting dies.  Makes cutting up fabric for quilts a breeze and addtional dies can be bought from the Accuquilt site.  I saw one of these in a fabric shop on the way to Falmouth a couple of months ago.  Oh so tempting with hours and hours of endless fun.

Pop over and take part..... I am going to.

xx

Giveaway Winners.......

My giveaway pictures are on the laptop that is being fixed so I thought that a lovely picture that I took in June would do. I have made a range of cards with many of the flower pictures that I have taken recently and sold them at work.

So, there were 21 entries, which is 4x the number that entered the Royal Wedding giveaway. Also some new followers which I am very grateful for and I have popped over and visited their blog if they have one. i shall be leaving comments too now that I have broken up for the summer and time is a bit more my own for a few weeks.

I used the number generator to help give me the winner.I used www.random.org to help me.

I put in 21 which were the total number of entries and the number given out is.......

16: Inkberryblue

Well done and could you please send me your snail mail address.

Due to a higher number of entries and it is summer and I think it would be fun to have an unexpected second prize and the number generator gave number......

5: Linda Gilbert

So well done Linda and could you also send me your snail mail address.

I am going away at the end of the week so I would like to send your prizes before I go What is the prize? Something nice from my stock of items.

A good day today so work in the garden for us today.

xx

Opps I did it again........................

A nice calming picture of flowers needed for this post.

The week started with me having the first day off in 17 months to see the Doctor about a nagging hip. leg/back issue which is so painful at times it is like sitting on a sharp stick, can not stand and walking around work is ok but by the end of it I can only just get myself in the car to come home!

Tuesday was ok and no problems just need to remember to take the tablets that the Doctor gave me. Too much paper work and emails arriving for next year already. Wednesday was full of rain, in fact I think Tuesday was as well. I did mange to get to my little sewing group and I have started to make some nice light and airy cushion covers the brighten up the living room. No pictures to show just yet.

Today it was a walk to the cinema to watch Kong Fu Panda 2 with students who have won awards for achievement. The film was quite funny and the animation is excellent.

Walked back and the old leg was playing up again. People tidying their rooms and items being dumped in mine, but we shall not go there now.

Then disaster struck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My netbook fell off the table in its case, screen side down on to a hardwood floor...........................

The screen is broken in the left hand corner and a hair line crack goes up towards the top right hand corner. I can plug it into a flat screen at home but that is not very helpful at work.

Added to this after three years I decided to stop the monthly insurance payments only last Saturday! I should have seen this coming really I suppose. I am not sure if it has come into effect yet so we are going to go and see tomorrow.

I am not going to cry or get upset, it has been a long year and for most of it very stress free. I do have problems sleeping due to stress and I have not experienced this for over a year. So I am not going to let this ruin things.

My only problem is that my broken netbook is XP so is the network at work and practically all new netbooks are Windows 7. Could be a compatibility problem there but I shall have to get round it.

It is Friday tomorrow and the end of term. I have a stack of work to do as usual, believe me we do not have 6 weeks of doing nothing. In fact I am going into work next Monday and Tuesday because Sophie is still at school anyway. Then it will be off to sunny Seaford again for our holidays.

Do not forget to add yourself to the giveaway which ends on Saturday 23rd July. Lots of entries this time. Brilliant.

Take care

xx

Keep Calm and ....keep marking

Picture by Indigo Blue (copyrighted)

Enter giveaway click here.

I really do like my little digital canon camera, just look at the picture above. Anyway drooling over, just to say that I am over half way through my marking and there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Many thanks to those of you who have entered my giveaway so far. Just one more week to go and I have moved the follower button up the blog so that you can find it more easily. Come on folks, a few more entries just to make it interesting. Just see the post below.

xx

Giveaway announced- 700 Posts!

Well....at long last here is my 700 post (well I am actually over that now, it is nearer to 715) giveaway. After the suggestions I decided to rustle up some more cards and scout around for some items to add to the package. I will have another one soon in which I will offer a book based on some of the blocks that I have made but we shall look at that another time. My exam marking got in the way a bit too.
One suggestion was to included one of my hand stitched re-usable book covers. The cover slides off and can be replaced with another.It is A6 in size. I have included a bit of give in the sides too.

I have included a bag of buttons suitable for crafts, card making, adding details etc, plus some cross grain ribbon and ordinary ribbon, ( I may add to this) each bit is approx 1 metre long.

There is a fat quarter of Amy Butler Daisy chain fabric, a key fob that is also made using Amy Butler fabric plus one of my Indigo Blue pin badges.

Finally, 5 cards. The rose one in the front is a picture that I took of one of my roses flowering in my garden. I do have another card to card but I thought time was ticking so I shall add that to the parcel. There is a range here, For Him , For Her, sweetheart, child and perhaps a Thank You too.

I never thought that i would ever reach this number of posts so I have tried to put together a much bigger bundle.

So, down to the nitty gritty.....

Giveaway Entry.

*Firstly I must be able to contact you to let you now that you have won. If you do not have a blog etc then please leave your email address or some way of contacting you in the comment section.

*Click on my follower badge in the margin, I would like to visit yur blog in return.

*Leave a comment, anything you like such as Hello.

*Put a link to your own blog if you want to so others can pop over and visit.

*If you want to post about this give away with a link to here then you will get an extra entry, but you do need to let me now in the comment section. It means that you will be entered twice and the random generator will still make it fair.

*I shall draw the winner in two weeks time due to lots happening here and to enable plenty of people to enter. So come on and make a good go at this, not many people entered my last one and it is much more fun with more people. it only takes a comment.

*Deadline for entries is Saturday 23rd July at midnight to give oversea visitors a chance.

I have managed to get on with my marking today and hopefully will meet my first deadline tomorrow evening.

Take care and have a good week.

xx

Anyone got Giveaway ideas?

picture by Indigo Blue

Now that the workshop week is over I want to get back to my 700th post giveaway. I have been thinking what to do and I saw on another blog that the owner asked what people might be interested in.

So, is there something that you have seen on this blog that you liked, would find useful, could give as a gift to someone else. Is there a theme that I could go with such as bags, purses, a stash of cards etc.

I want to offer a little treat to my followers and visitors for sticking with me for 700 posts but somehting that will appeal or inspire.

This is a genuine question so please do not be shy pop some ideas in the comment section (you can do this even if you do not have blog, just click on comments then annonymous.

I look forward to what you suggest.

Every post needs a picture with some colour and I still really like this one that I took at the end of May in my school grounds. A perfect day.

xx

*Gadget case pictures up tomorrow once I have finished uploading.

Winners are.....

Not many entries but they are keen none the less!

So, using my trusty ceramic cupcake pot all of the names were put inside.
Sophie swished them around for me and.............
pulled out Brynwood Needleworks!!

Congratulations and please email me your mailing address so that I can send off your prize. Hopefully on Monday, that is the plan anyway.
I intend to have another one in the summer for all to enter. This was for a specific group of people due to the occasion.

I am pleased with the way the red white and blue corsage came out. Bit of of an experiment and I have started some more.

It is the Queen's Golden Jubilee next year so I shall perhaps have another giveaway along the same lines for any internationals bloggers and visitors who may wish to take part.

I would point out that you do not have to have a blog to take part. Just leave a comment and add the letter code which cuts out any spam comments and that is all you need to do.

I have so many hits from abroad that only 5 entries was a bit of a surprise. So having a blog is not a condition of joining in.

The day looked pretty grotty when when I got up but the sun is trying to shine through. I have a courgette plant and a butternut squash plant to dig in. I swapped them for one of my cabbages. We planted so many expecting half to be lost but ended with enough to feed the street.

I love swapping like this, adds to the fun of growing your own.

I have worked hard this week to try and free up the weekend so I am hoping that I may actually and finally get my marmalade made!

What do you have planned this weekend?

Whatever it is, have fun.

xx

Deadline approaching

Reminder that the giveaway deadline is approaching, . Only 4 entires so far,I had hoped for a few more. So come on folks and make a bit of a race of this.

Leave your comment HERE to enter.

xx