Ooh it's Wednesday...

I've mentioned more than once that I love Flight of the Conchords and the Boy is just as big a fan as I am. His favourite song is 'Business Time' *

I briefly and rather quietly mentioned that the Boy went out to Afghanistan a few weeks ago. He is doing well and I'm very proud of him but I miss him terribly. He is very good at keeping in touch though and once he arrived he asked if I could maybe send him something to make his sleeping area 'his'. He said it can be anything... so I stitched him some tiny art.

I found out from past experience that my stitch picture can be a little too soppy for the Boy. ("I like it but we should hang it at yours...") but I figured he couldn't resist a pair of tiny business socks...

He loves them! He says he had made a 'washing line' with string and bull dog clips to hang it and photos and letters on over his bed :)

I think I have seen and been inspired by another FOTC socks stitch tribute but I can't for the life of me find it again. If anyone know who's it is or where it is, please leave a comment letting me know so I can add a link to them... Thank you!

xo

*If you don't know the song this post probably won't make much sense Sorry! And you should know the song is not explicit but it is about sex so be careful of delicate ears...

End of Summer

I like nice September days.

I appreciate the warmth and light more when I know it could be the last summery day.

Every sunny day I pick out a summery something for its possible last outing of the year. Today its my new favourite skirt which I picked up in a sale a few weeks ago. It has two patch pockets on the front perfect for little finds, but my favourite favourite favourite thing about it is the fabric.

From a distance, it looks like a dotted line pattern but when you get close...

Synchronised swimming ladies!

There is something so delightful about them. I have my fingers crossed that I'll be able to take this skirt to the seaside on a mild grey Autumn day and fill those pockets with shells and sea glass. Why patch pockets make me want to collect things like a 6 year old I'll never be able to explain...

Hope you have had some end-of-summer sun on your Sundays too!

xo

Speaking of delightful fabric, The Black Apple is giving away some bundles...

Three days of circling...

Another journal page.

"Fill this page with circles"

It was quite relaxing to draw thousands of tiny circles.

I guess there are thousands there, I wouldn't like to count.

xo

Stitch Yourself a Lavender Lovely

When I was making my Sleepy Bunnikins I needed to make little lavender sachets to keep the tiny lavender pieces from showing through. Usually I would use a fine lining fabric for this but having none to hand, I used pieces of lace. This gave me the idea to make a sweet little lavender bags and here is how if you'd like to too...

You will need:

**Lace**

**Lavender**

**4cm (1.5") square of plain fabric**

**Green and Purple embroidery floss**

**Black pen**

**Needles and Black thread**

**Ribbon**

**a button**

The lace I used is 3cm (1.25") wide and the finished bag is 10cm (4") tall. Small holes are best so the lavender doesn't escape. For fabric I used calico and you can use any pen which can draw on fabric without bleeding. Links in instructions are photos of steps to help and if you spot any mistakes or have questions, please leave a comment :)

How to make the lace bag:

First cut 4 pieces of lace, each 14cm (5.5") long.

Sew:

1. Sew 3 pieces together slightly overlapping the bottom of one piece over the top of another. The drawing shows the overlap but you want your edges to be in line.

2. To get a pretty top edge, turn the 4th piece upside and sew to the top.

3. Fold the right sides together and stitch down the long side.

4. Turn so the right sides face out. Flatten so the seam from step 3 is central then sew across the bottom.

Fill with yummy lavender and stitch closed along seam between the top 2 lace layers.

Decorating the little bag:

Tie a ribbon around the closing stitches you just made, stitch your button on and fan out the top of the bag.

To make the lavender label:

1. The lavender sprig is made of 1 long green stitch for the stem and then 7 buds each made of 3 tiny stitches close together.

2. Draw a oval around your sprig and then add little loops around the outside to make a scalloped frame.

3. Trim in to an oval. Stitch along the black lines of your frame with black thread to attach to the bag invisibly.

And there you should have a little lavender lovely of your own.

If you don't want to stitch a sprig I think an initial inside the frame would look just darling!

Happy Stitching!

xo

Eat Cupcakes Day!

Today is the last day of National Cupcake week and to celebrate I'm planning on making some lemon cupcakes from my new cookbook bake! after sharing a couple of cakie friends with you.

I've been playing around with some new cake ideas and though these are not quite there yet, they are quite cute...

This is Clown Cakie.

He is more of a muffin than the cakes I've stitched before as I liked how he could have a fun patterned wrapper. He became clown as it was his life long dream to make people smile... oh and the fabric made me think of the circus, but mainly the dream thing. His tiny clown hat is a blob of lacy cream and a blue felt cherry :)

This little cakie is called Fairy Cake.

For the simple reason that she is a fairy cake. Fairy cakes are my second favourite tiny cake though I rarely get to eat them as my cakes never rise tall enough to sprout those adorable little wings.

I'm so pleased with her wings but I think she needs a more fairy-like wrapper. Pastel or flowers perhaps? The circus isn't for everyone...

Happy Cupcake eating!

xo

and if anyone was wondering my favourite of all the tiny cakes were Roald Dahl Matilda's tea time cakes but they don't make them anymore :(

Let the Wrecking Beginning!

There was (not) a blog post on the Etsy Storque over the weekend about Keri Smith's new 'I am not a Book'. Oh I was so tempted to make it mine straight away!

The only reason I didn't was because I have only just made a start on one of her other book/things Wreck this Journal

I know its been talked about by everyone already, I think it came out years ago... but I am very excited about it and its very new to me. I bought it over my Summer break so I had a "While you are gone..." project. Another "While you are gone" project to be honest. The granny squares were supposed to be my thing. One a day starting in September... hmmm you know I got a little carried away with that so a 2nd project was needed.

"Add your own page numbers"

And this is a brilliant thing to do! Each page has an instruction to follow, some easy peasy and some quite scary and challenging. As a book lover with a strong urge to keep them pretty, I'm already dreading "Take your journal in the shower with you"! I'm just two and a half pages in and I'm being a chicken and going for the easy ones.

A dodgy scribble of the Boy as my number 1 (well he is *blush*) and then a super simple crack the spine...

Actually not that easy. Not because of psychological block on bending books (I always try not to!) but because they is a LOT of glue in that spine. Very strong! I fought for a good 15 minutes and got one good crack :)

But the page really didn't reflect my efforts and the word "spine" had reminded me about the window display of a nearby chiropractors which has a badly hung twisted spine in it. I guess it had fallen as it would be a really bad advert to do it on purpose. Anyways I love anatomical drawings of skeletons and we always had to draw bones at college so this got me wanting to draw a spine. I copied a plate from gray's anatomy and yes, I have rather lamely labelled the spot that still hurt from when I fell down the stairs months ago...

It tickled me at the time... the label, not the fall ;-)

xo

Eeeek!

The little shops are being haunted again!!

Etsy - Folksy

I know its an old pic but I still think its a goodie! The Little Ghosties and Pumpkins pins seem to think so too and have decide it time to start their 'treatin'...

They don't do 'tricks' as they are good little Halloweenies :)

xo

Where we sleep...

The Sleepy Bunnikins are snoozing away in quiet corners of the little shops

Etsy -here- Folksy

Two Bunnikins have been lucky enough to find new homes already (Thank you so much!) I'm really want to make a few more this week. Because of the lovely found nature of their fluffy angora/lambswool coats their numbers will be limited but I hoping to manage a herd of 12 all together.

Did you know a group of rabbits was called a 'herd'?

I had no idea, but you learn something new every day...

xo

A Little Pink..

...A very little bit of pink,

quite teeny tiny...

The smallest bunny I have ever made.

Think peanut with ears...

This tiny cutie is a tag for other tiny cutie's 1st birthday present. I can't believe a year has passed so quick!

xo

A Rosy End to the Week...

Just now sitting stitching,

my white painted walls turned rosy from the clouds outside the window.

Pretty pink skies and rosy wishes for the weekend

Tomorrow's post will be a little pink too...

xo

Very Sleepy...

If ever a bunny summed me up it would be this one...

...a sleepy little bunnikins.

Today's sleepiness from finding myself outside in the garden at 6 o'clock this morning, watching a silly little dog and my yawns turning into little clouds. Oh and having strange Marianne Dashwood dreams when getting back into bed with cold dew-soaked feet. Jane Austen is on my mind at moment - I've order 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' as an early Halloween read (I dread to think what that will do to my dreams) and I've been wanting to visit her house since hearing the strangest thing about her tables - apparently all the table legs are covered as showing them was considered risqué. The house is not far from me so I really want to see for myself if that is true...

Anyways... back to dear sleepy bunnikins!

I'm quite smittened with her. I'd forgotten how lovely it is to make bunnies from soft recycled angora sweaters, she is like a little luxe version of her chocolate cousin.

And to make her even more luxurious and ever so sleepy, I added a little lace bag of lavender to her stuffing.

Okay so maybe this isn't the bunny me, she is way too calm and serene. Hopefully the calming influence will rub off on me as I stitch her some bunny sisters...

Sweet Dreams to all

xo

Ode to Randomness...

God bless Randomness...

I love it when things just seem to happen in a way that is so unplanned and so right.

My previous much talked of granny square blanket came to a sudden stop as I used up all my sale-bought cream wool. And you know the problem with running out of sale-bought... they never seem to stock it again.

Off I went to internet wool land, having no luck until a link for the fabric shop I used to buy all my college craft goodies appeared. I now live 5 hours and a couple of hundred miles away from the actual shop, but there it was... the first place I found MY wool (a big 'my' as the search was getting frustrating)

Now the best thing about my visits to that particular fabric shop were the bundle bags. Off cuts and ends of ribbon, fabric, lace, zippers. Anything could be in those bags. In the shop those bags are joyous! But I won't usually buy internet lucky dip bags. Getting a lace bundle of the hot pink nylon knicker stuff will teach you a valuable lesson... you probably have had a similar one too, no?

Picture the delight to opening the parcel of wool and the bargain bundle "10 assorted colour balls of crochet cotton" that I couldn't resist breaking my 'no lucky bag' rule for to find lovely colours. I love them all! Even the mustard yellow which I'd never have picked makes me go "Oooooh..."

And there on the top...

...my favourite colour!

Best part is that because I ran out of wool,

because the shop no longer sold it,

because the search took my on a little time travel,

because the memory of bargain bundle bags made me forget my on rule,

I now have some lovely random cotton and the perfect excuse to buy this book which I've been lusting after!

Thank you gods of Randomness

I heart you so...

xo

Back with Friends...

So here I am back, a little lonelier, a little blue but bearing up.

Still have enough smile in me to make a bad pun :)

I've had a lovely few weeks. They felt like they were lasting forever which was so nice and more than I could have really asked for, but now a long 6 months of being away from the boy begins.

Crafting will see me through...

This little fellow sits on my desk as I get into said stitchery. He has been there over a year now, but now seems a good time to share. There was an early 20th century designer, Madame Vionnet who never sketched any of her dresses but made each one as a 24" miniature. Though I'd never do anything without a sketch, this always stuck with me. Its good for not wasting 'hard to come by' thrifted materials but also you end up with teeny tiny cute things all over the place... not a bad thing at all! So when I make something and I'm not too sure its going to work, I try out a little version first. Little bear is from a pattern I didn't use for the sweater bears.

Stitched on the machine in calico, sometimes they look like ghostly versions of their bigger selves, but a little embroidery and they can become quite lovely little things that steal your heart...

Hope everyone had a lovely summer!

I look forward to spending Autumn with you...

jenny

xo

officially back blogging