Yellow Lolly

A "Monthly makings" has started over on the wonderful Bunny Creates blog, which was too cute an idea to not join in!

August's theme was 'Yellow' so I decided on a lemon and orange version of my lolly stitch picture. I can't wait to see what everyone else made. Bunzi makes the sweetest amigurumi creatures. I found her through her sister, Mushroom meadows who I've mentioned before for her super cute illustrations and together they have opened an adorable etsy shop YAY!

This lolly will be making its way into my little shop soon (just needs to be secured properly in its frame).

I wish I'd thought of the lollies sooner. They are so fun to make and I'm itching to make a red lolly/yellow lolly set, but September will take away my summer and I really should get some christmas-sy things started. 

Other things I should have done sooner are a couple of Thanks yous and mentions:

A long, long time ago in blog land, the lovely Alicia in Hawaii of Curiosities 808 passed on an award to me here and Karin from Nordic Crafts gave me a blog friends gold card! How sweet of you both, Thank you!

I'm going to be a little naughty as I am still trying to catch up post-holiday and pass on the blog friend card to everyone who visited me for my happy 100! There is a link to you all in the sidebar, and if you'd like to see the real rules, please visit Karin. I will be there often to see how her altered journal is getting along - its an amazing idea!!

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My first ice lolly popped up on the 'feeling stitching' blog! I love the flickr group! There are many amazing crafters so I feel quite honoured to be mentioned there

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It's so lovely to hear of safe arrivals and new lives for my little stitches so I was very happy when I saw Deniz has blogged the arrival of Goldie and Bear, who now goes by the perfect name of Higgins! 

and when Nicole emailed me to let me know Polly and the other giveaway goodies had arrived (in record time - over the ocean in less than a week!) I hope you are all having lots of fun and tea parties!

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And finally (I think finally, if I have forgotten anyone, anything... please give me a nudge!), Patty has tagged me to share 6 unspectacular quirks.

As its a long post already with not enough pictures for my liking, I will leave you with 1 and share the rest another time:

1. I am a terrible procrastinator and will leave everything for tomorrow if given half a chance

Have a lovely weekend!

xo

Spot the fish

Of all my fishy photos, this is the clearest, most colourful one where the fish haven't just swam out of shot. I can't believe of all the amazing fish I saw, my only decent photo is mainly of goldfish (little orange bits in the bottom left corner), with what I think were 'chocolate' fish and lots of coral - finger coral and honeycomb coral.

 

I wish I had better photos (or just some photos of the other fish!) as it really was amazing! Seeing all the under water wonderfulness was the highlight of my holiday

Above is (a rather blurry) empty, opened clam shell. It was so big, I would only just be able to get my arms around it. The guide told us that the clam inside it had "gone for a walk along the sea bed". When I got home, I repeated this and was told clams don't pop out for day trips, and the shell was open as its owner had probably been eaten, which made me feel a little sad and very foolish (as, at some point in my life, I did know that live shellfish keep there shells closed). I am now a little suspicious about all the things the guide told us... although I do prefer his story to the reality and a little nonsense is always good thing!

Have a fantastic weekend from a believer of fishy nonsense and her clam friends who run along the sea bed naked! :)

xo

Delayed Hellos

I'm back! :)

A little delayed in my return to blog-land, as I've been feeling a little poorly since returning home. Just overtired, I think. My own fault for not sleeping on an overnight flight and then sleeping all day to make up for it, giving me very unnecessary jet lag for 2 hours time difference. Is that possible? Oh well, almost back to normal...

 Thank you so much for your well wishing for my trip! I had a lovely lazy time, the photo above is the view I spent most my time with during the days. Or looking across the red sea and on to the coast of Saudi Arabia and Jordan. At one point when travelling to the resort, you could also see Israel. I found this the most amazing thing to see 4 countries I thought I'd never see all in the same view. I took a couple of pictures of the coast lines but all they came out awful :(

I was staying in Taba in Sinai, which is a gorgeous place between mountains and a clear sea full of coral (and lots of desert!) It wasn't the Egypt of history lessons (no pyramid or pharoahs. Not even in Africa I was surprised to hear, but Asia!), but the Egypt of scuba diving documentaries and absolutely amazing in that way!

  

I have a couple more pictures to share and will do that soon, but for now I will just say my delayed 'Hellos' and begin to catch up with you all.

xo

Summer

I just took part in an ATC swap. The theme was "summer" and the most summery I had felt at that point was sitting in the garden with my face in the sun eating ice lollies. I like to do little things that bring back childhood memories and these were my favourite lollies. I used to eat them one layer at a time and make a glorious mess as pink drips appear all over my clothes! The picture below is the Atc I sent for the swap, and the top is a felt and stitches embroidery from the design to bring a little summer cheer when the clouds were hiding the real summer.

It's been a pretty patchy summer here.

There has been a couple of lovely sunny days in between lots of rain and sulky looking cloud promising more showers if I even dare to think about flip flops and pretty skirts.

All those skirts and sandals are going to enjoy the sun soon because

 

I'm going to Egypt on Saturday!!

I am sooo excited! Its the furthest from home I have ever been, my first time out of Europe in fact. We are off to the Red Sea hoping for our sunshine on a lovely lazy holiday. I'd love to see the pyramids some time but (although I complain about British summers being cloudy!), I think I may wither in the desert heat in August so that will have to wait for another visit. Gaz, the Boyf, has been before and says I have to go snorkelling as the fish and the coral are amazing to see. I am a little squeamish about the sea and the thought of jellyfish makes me feel ill but I may give it a go... 

I'll be back in the tiny hours on the 24th and I still have a bit to do get ready.

I've been trying to chose something crafty to take with me. Gaz thinks I'm mad, but I'm not sure I can go a whole week without sewing lol 

See you soon!

xo

A Long, Long Time Ago...

... I stitched a iPod cosy for my Dad for Father's Day.

It's taken me quite a while but I finally got some pictures to share!

After deciding podlings may be too cute to be popping out from a briefcase, this is non-cute cosy I made. I have always found picking gifts for boys difficult and I found designing this just as tricky. My Dad seems to love it though :)

I had doodled an iPod on my page while trying to think of some way to decorate the cosy and realise it would make a cute (or not-too-cute, if you prefer) embroidery.

I used a thread slightly darker than the felt and made it stand out by adding a layer of calico which I cut as close as I dared once the embroidery was complete.

And while talking about iPod cosies, I'm pleased to say I've solved my podling problem. I'll tell you more about that soon.

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I meant to mention in my last post the "Thank you!" list in my side bar of all the people who joined me to celebrate 100 posts. I LOVE finding new blogs and am really enjoying visiting them all. You guys are up to some fantastic things!

I am about half way through my visits and I have a couple more names to add to list. I promise I will be stopping by shortly with thank yous if you haven't heard from me yet.

xo

Winner's Tea Party

It's time to pick a giveaway winner!

Teeny has been looking forward to this and prepared tea and cake for the occasion.

But what kind of tea is this?

Paper tea!?

Teeny had filled a teacup with all the giveaway names wrote on paper. She says this tea is much more exciting than normal tea and much friendlier to 'Dunky' the tea bag who was happily swimming around in the cup.

Out jumped Dunky, and in jumped Teeny to pick the winner...

...Hey, no peeking Teeny!

Once properly blindfolded, Teeny was all ready to pick out a name.

And the winner is...

Nicole!

Yay! If you can email me your address, I will send Polly, Teeny and the others to you. They are sooo excited to meet you in person!

Thank you to everyone who joined in. I was touched by all your comments - your support and kind words means the world to me and give me so much inspiration! I wish I could send you all little thank yous.

Hopefully I'll find many chances to do that in the next 100 posts!

Now I'm off to put the kettle on,

Anyone for real tea?

xo

The Bear Traveller

Thank you for all the lovely giveaway comments!

A couple of people asked if international people could join in and the answer is:

YES! Of course!

If you stop by here, Polly would love the chance to stop by you!

I'll still be leaving the giveaway open until Thursday so plenty of time to join in :)

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Speaking of places far away, I have a new little traveller to share with you.

Lovely Bear

Lovely Bear will be making its way to a new home in California over the next couple of days.

The bear is called lovely bear for now, as a custom order for the shop I like to let the new family do the naming. I can't even decide if its a girl or boy bear, but I am certain I adore him/her! 

And Bear won't be travelling alone.

Bear's new family was sweet enough to adopt Goldie Bunny as well, so the two will make their way across the world together. 

Luckily, Bear and Goldie have a lot in common.

Descended from Sockbears, Bear is made from the same kind of felted fabric as the bunnies and stitched in a similar way. This make bear much softer and sweeter than the sock ancestors. I found a soft lambs wool knit for bear in soft brown, grey and cream. 

I love how it looks like bear is wearing a little grey sweater when you takes off the scarf!

If bear wasn't stitched destine for travel, I don't think we'd be able to part.

Bear hugs and goodbyes

xo

100!

Welcome to my 100th post!

I'm so glad you came.

After thinking long and hard about what it meant to me to reach 100, I realised its all about being able to share what I do. So to celebrate, I'm going to be sharing some real life pieces in a little giveaway!

Polly is always has her favourite red spotty party hat perched upon her head, ready for any celebration, and she is always the first to arrive. This is a very good thing as she will be the host of this celebratory giveaway, and will deliver all the goodies as a roomy little mini tote.

 When I realised 100 was nearing, I rushed to tell Polly we had to do something special!

"100 post! That can't be right, you've never managed a week with a diary!"

It's true I have started many diaries and never kept one going long, but somehow I have blogged 100 times! 

"Well! that really is something to celebrate! 

And we must do so with tea and cake..."

So I hurried off to make felty tea and cake treats. 

I came upon some cherry bakewells along my way, please feel free to nibble!

Polly then asked 'how did I think I'd manage to blog after finding diaries so hard?'

"hmmmm..."

I only had time to think that one hmm and I realise its you guys that make it so much fun to blog! Its lovely to know that someone is reading and hopefully enjoying what I'm sharing. I started this blog a little shy, but your visits and kind words have given me so much support and confidence. That you stop by for a few moments has given me so much and really does mean the world to me

To Polly and I at that point is became clear that you had given me so much and I had to give you something special in return...

After a while at the sewing machine, out danced "Teeny", a tiny ten to go with my big 100.

She is not as tall as the other bunnies, around half their height. But she more than makes up for what she lacks in height in sweetness. I adore this tiny bunny and giving her to one of you would make me so happy.

 

Polly also suggested I added a few 'Thank You' cards, as that is what I'm trying to say in my soppy way. (I am feeling a little emotional right now! but all good emotions I promise)

There is also a couple of sheets of Moo stickers in with the cards. They came out so lovely!

 Jotwo and Blueberry Joe, who were sitting near by, happened to over here Polly and I making plans and wanted to joining in the fun...

 "People have said lovely thing about us too, we want to give a gift"

And so they gave me a handful of buttons from the bag Blueberry Joe gave to Jotwo during the 'great nose debate'. Those two little bears maybe good at drama, but they aren't too keen on sewing. Apparently, they tried in once and somehow sewed themselves together. So they asked me to sew the buttons to a thank you card to keep them neat and then mentioned,

"You really should give some fabric away with buttons..." 

We rummaged around in my fabric stash and found some lovely checks, spots, hearts and flowers. To try to stick to a loose theme, there is also some tea-themed fabric on top and bunny-themed fabric on the bottom.

The bunny fabric is a favourite of mine. Its a really soft cotton print and feels amazing to touch. The design has these 4" circles filled with bunnies, bugs, birds, flowers and fruit surrounded with leafy branches. The selvedge strip says the design was originally owned by the American Folk Art Museum and I will have to show you the piece I have in full sometime. I haven't found the right project for mine, but I have cut piece with 4 of the circles for this giveaway so maybe you can inspire me. :)

So the fabric was tied into a bundle with a couple of piece of ribbon and lace, added to the rest and  now we have all these goodie ready to give away;

 

Thank you so much for stopping by and giving me the chance to say "Thank you!" with goodies.

I don't really know how many people do stop by, but whether its 1 or 100 and this is the first time or the hundredth, I am so glad you do!

And I love it when you comment! I have found some brilliant blogs and lovely 'friends' (may I call you friends?) through comments and so I will encourage you to do so, if only to have Polly and the other goodies arrive on your doorstep!

So to be part of my 100th post and giveaway, just leave a comment.

 It could be about tea, cake, bunnies, bears, blogs, how many bakewells you managed to nibble your way through (Two for me!) or anything you would like to say really.

I'll will pick a name in a random fashion on Thursday 7th next week.

And because I can't wait to give out goodies, I have one for everyone now!

(Click for full size printable pattern)

A Sir Oliver Woofington Embroidery Pattern from my Ollie scribble.

Patty of Pipstitch suggested this and I think its a wonderful idea. I made this how I make all my embroidery patterns - just outlines, no instructions or suggestions. If you click the picture, Ollie will be around 18cm tall and you can print him from that window. I'll be stitching mine soon and I'd love to see how you get along if you give it ago!

Have fun, (leave a comment) and another BIG thank you! for stopping by.

Hugs and Cake

Jenny

xo