A Few of my Favourite Things...

Hello!  I was just looking through my blog at some of the things I have made this year, and I thought I would do a post about a few of my favourite things.


I've not been making (or finishing!) much lately, so it was good to see some of the things I had finished when I was more 'in the zone'!


This post is like one of those episodes they do in a series, where they just recycle a load of clips from other episodes - I always hate those!  Oh dear, what a cop out!  :o)  Well, here goes...


The PE Bag I made for my friend's daughter: (post)

The funky cafetiere cosy: (post)

I really love that cafetiere cosy - I am extremely careful when making coffee, as I still live in fear of spilling anything on it!  (Not sure how washable it is!)


African Flowers which got turned into a hanging: (post)

Lavender heart: (post)

A couple of things I made for a Button Swap I was part of - a drawstring bag and a lavender bag: (post)

And that will do for now, as I can't be bothered to do any more!  :o)


Hope you're all having a great weekend!

Baby Blanket Progress

Here is the latest progress with the baby blanket for my nephew, due on Christmas Day.  I've got a way to go.  I'm not sure how many squares I'll need to do, but a lot more than six!

Happy Birthday Mumsie!

It's my Mum's birthday today, so happy birthday Mum!!


I'm just off round there for dinner, with my brother and sister-in-law, for a birthday celebration.


Here is a card I've made:

I've stuck silver outline stickers onto vellum across the middle of the card, then used spotted paper either side, with ribbons and a bow.


It's ok, but not great.  I seem to have lost my card-making mojo lately!!  I've been giving a lot of bought cards instead, as I haven't been in a card-making mood, but thought I should make the effort for my little Mum!


I just hope she doesn't check out my blog before I get round there!!  :o)

I'm Back!

Hi!  I have returned from my lovely holiday to Turkey!!  I had such a fantastic time!  It was really great!  Lots of laying round in the sun in the day, and eating and drinking and drinking and drinking (oh, and some more drinking!) in the evening!  I've never been on holiday when I've been single before, so it was the first time I had a real party holiday!!  I think I needed it!

Here is a little shot of me doing some Turkish spoon dancing (where you clack wooden spoons together) with a traditional Turkish dancer in a restaurant!  I've got two wooden spoons in each hand and a funny hat on my head!  (Blurry photo, sorry!)

Since arriving home (5.15am on Thursday morning!!  Aarrgghh!) I have had a work's party on Friday night and family wedding on Saturday, arriving back home from that on Sunday.  All in all, exhausting!!!  Time to relax I think!

I have taken photos of the lovely goodies I won in Jackie's giveaway over at Sew Special Bears.  I was very lucky!!

Thank you so much Jackie, I really appreciate it!!  :o)

I can't wait to start creating with these lovely bits and bobs!  That bundle of fabric is especially exciting!!

Well, I am going to toddle off now and do... not a lot!!  I may get round to catching up with your blogs!  I need to see what I've missed!!  Bye for now...

Lucky Me!

Just a quick post from me, as I'm off to Turkey in the morning with a friend!  (Another single girl!)  I'll be getting up at 3am!!!  Eurgh!  It should be worth it when I'm lying in the sunshine tomorrow afternoon, cocktail in hand!  (If nothing goes wrong!)

I wanted to say thank you to the lovely Jackie, of Sew Special Bears, for a giveaway prize that I received from her at the weekend!

I haven't had chance to photograph it all, but here is the pretty packaging:

I love that dotty tissue paper, and the ribbons!

Here is the gorgeous card that came with it:

Thank you so much Jackie, I really appreciate it!

You can all see the contents when I'm back from my holiday, and have time to take photos!

I hope you all have a good week!  :o)

Another Post...

Another post so soon?!  I'm trying not to be so lapse with my blog!


Here are the magnets for my friend Anna, packaged up with a bow:

You'll have to excuse the darkness.  The light is never the best in my dingy little flat - but it's getting even worse these days, now that Autumn is upon us!  Not that I'm complaining, I love the different seasons... and I love Autumn!


Here is a picture of some fake flowers I bought the other day, to go into my lovely pink polka dot jug vase.  (I bought the vase back in April for my Easter Tree!)

I just love pinks and aquas together!  I'm quite pleased with how it looks.  To be honest when it comes to flower arranging (of fake or real flowers) I am utterly useless.  When it comes to even owning or growing plants I also fail miserably.  Poor things always end up dead!  I guess I can't be good at everything - I am so very talented in so many other areas.... hahahaha!  Just joking!  ;o)


Somehow, however, this arrangement seemed to flukily go ok!  The flowers came on stems that were too long, so I just grabbed them all and haphazardly bent them, crammed them into the vase, and it just seemed to luckily look alright!  The vase looks a bit more in proportion to the flowers in real life, I think it's the angle I took the photo at, which makes them look massive.


Well... I must get on!  :o)

Pink Magnets

Hello!!


My crafting has really been suffering lately - I seem to have no time, and not much inclination, to get things made!  Very bad!!


What have I been up to...?  Nothing particularly productive!  Lots of socialising I guess!!  The life of a single girl...! (Well... maybe 'girl' is pushing it, at 31 years old!)


But, my lovely friend Anna requested a set of magnets, so I was spurred to action and got these made!

These are colour set 'Pinks 1' - available in my Folksy Shop.


And here are a couple of giveaways that are going on at the moment:

• The Cosy Corner
• Pootle Handmade

They are both lovely giveaways, so get on over and check them out!


I'm off out for dinner soon... lovely, I'm starving!!  :o)  Have great weekends everyone!

Hearts

Thanks for the lovely comments on my last post!  I have now made a baby blue square to join the other two...

I'm not sure whether to add more colours, or just stick with these three.  I quite like them together, I'm not sure whether any more colours are needed.  Although I hope it's boyish enough for a baby boy, I'm not sure...

For those of you who wanted the pattern, you can find it here.


Although, when doing the white border, I didn't quite understand the pattern - it seemed to be suggesting that along the top and bottom you skip 1 stitch and do 2dc, then skip 1 stitch, do another 2dc and so on... however I did it skipping 2 stitches each time, as that seemed to match the picture better.  Maybe I just didn't understand the pattern!!  It is more than likely!  :o)


If anyone wants to know any more about how to do it, just let me know!

Baby Blanket

Hi all!  Welcome to all new followers over the last few weeks, and thanks for following!  :o)


Thanks to those who left lovely comments on my last post!  I gave the PE bag to my friend on Thursday and she was over the moon!  I have to say that I find making lined drawstring bags a bit of a pain (not sure why really, but I seem to be very slow at making them!) but when my friend was so pleased and excited with it, it made it all worthwhile!!  She really was delighted!  It made me feel very proud!  :o)


As I have mentioned before, I am due to become an Aunt this Christmas!  My brother and sister-in-law's first baby is due on Christmas Day!  They recently found out that they are having a boy, so I have started making a baby blanket for my little nephew to be!

It is going to be made up of crocheted heart squares, bordered with white.

I will block the squares, to make them all neat and even before crocheting them all together.  (The yellow square isn't actually as misshapen as it looks in the picture!)

At the moment the colours I am using are the yellow and the mid-blue in the photos, plus a baby blue.  I am thinking of adding more colours, however... maybe some more different shades of blue... but I'll see!


I hope you all have great weekends - I'm off to a wedding today, of a friend I've known since infant school!  I'm glad to wake up to a bright sunny day for her!

Finished Work in Progress!

I've just given a random guy a good laugh!  I was driving home from work, listening to the radio.  Michael Buble 'Everything' came on, and I started singing passionately along, complete with dramatic hand gestures, and even a bit of closed eye moments (I wasn't moving at that point, due to traffic!).  I suddenly looked across to realise the guy in the car next to me was watching and laughing!!  Ooops!


Oh well!  :o)


The project with the cupcake is now finished!!  It took hours, I honestly don't know what takes me so long!  Thanks for all the nice comments about the cupcake!  And as for how I got the stitching so neat, Becky, I have no idea!!  I had cut the cupcake shape out and ironed it onto the white fabric with bondaweb... then I came to machine stitching the zigzag around it... and I was convinced that I was going to ruin it!  I honestly have no idea how it came out looking so neat!  I couldn't believe my eyes!  A fluke!!


So, here is the finished item:

It's a cupcake drawstring PE bag for my friend's daughter who starts school in September!  It is also lined in the same pink polka dot fabric, so no raw edges to be found!  It has a fuchsia pink polka dot ribbon as a hook, for hanging onto her peg.

I cross-stitched her name and zigzag stitched that onto the front of the bag - you can't even see those stitches in white against the cross-stitch material, which I was pleased with!

All in all, I'm quite pleased with it.  I jut hope my friend is happy with it!!

Work in Progress Update

A couple of posts ago (here) I showed you a glimpse of some fabric I was using for my latest work in progress, for a friend.


Here is a glimpse of the project so far...

The pink polka dot fabric will come into play soon...!!

Giveaway at The Fluff Pot!

Just a quick post today to tell you about a giveaway!


The very lovely Becky, at The Fluff Pot is currently running an amazing giveaway!  Now, I don't really want to tell you, as it will decrease my chances of winning, and I really want to win!!!  But... I'm going to be kind and give you all a chance to enter too!


Look at what you could get...

Head over to her giveaway post here to see in detail all the amazing things you can win!


Becky is such a lovely person, and this giveaway is so generous, with such gorgeous handmade delights!!  I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!

Work in Progress and an Award

Hi!  I'm currently working on a project for a friend, which involves these materials below...

All will be revealed in time!  Hopefully I can do a good job of it... feeling a bit of pressure!!  Also, I'm making a very slow start, so need to get a move on as it needs to be done fairly soon!

I have also been nominated for the Versatile Blogger award again!  Thanks to 2 Little Birdies!!  Go over and check out her blog!  Always feels lovely to get an award, thank you!  :o)  I received this not too long ago - so my answers and nominations still stand - you can see them here.  (Sorry for not doing new ones - lazy me!!!)

RSVPs

Hi everyone!  Thanks for the lovely comments on my African Runner progress, and on the teeny tiny hearts!  I appreciate all the kind words!  :o)


I have a day off work today - yay!  I am meeting up with teacher friends later, who are off work for the school holidays.  But this morning I have been trying to get back on track with things.  This year seems to be passing in a blur of chaos and big life-changing events and I have been very disorganised!!  Time to get on top of things again...


This has included (finally!) RSVPing to a couple of upcoming events - a christening and a wedding.  (I have actually told them in person that I'm coming, but wanted to make it formal!)

I designed and printed these RSVP cards this morning, and I'm really pleased with them!


I'm usually really good with RSVPing to things - I'm not usually one to keep people waiting.  But what with The Breakup (5 year relationship came to an end) and the redundancy announcement at work, and a suddenly manic social life... I'm all over the place!


It is time for a return to organised Maria!!!  :o)  (Well, we'll see!)

Teeny Tiny Hearts

I've been making some more teeny tiny hearts!  As per the first one I mentioned in my post here.

Lots of ends to sew in, and more to make!  Trying to do lots of different combinations of 4 colours... not sure if they really go or not... I'll see when I've done more...!

I'll string them up into some mini bunting eventually - to go somewhere!