Merry Christmas!

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Lucky Me!

I entered Lynn's fantastic Trash to Treasure 3 year blogaversary giveaway a short while ago and was very lucky to be chosen to receive this lovely treasure... 

My enormous thanks go to Lynn for her beautifully made tin necklace, wonderfully wrapped in vintage dressmaking pattern tissue paper and packaged in a lovely little box.

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Baby's 1st Birthday

It's hard to believe that my great-nephew is 1 already!

Just a couple of peeks at the card I made for him...

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Little felt birds

I've been hand sewing some felt birds using lovely colours and embroidery silks...

...each one is made using two different colours for the main 

body (one on each side) and a third colour for both wings... 

...and the threads used to sew them all 

together are the same colours as the felts.  

The eyes are tiny little star shaped buttons and some hangers are ribbon while others are plaits of the silks I used to sew them all together.

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Boot Cuffs

There's a definite change in the temperature of late, nights are colder and the days are struggling to wake up into full light.  Time to get the winter woolies out!

So with this scrummy thick wool in browns and creams I knitted a pair of boot cuffs for my daughter Holly, finishing them off with a couple of large red button she chose herself.

Fun with Felt...

Holly has a thing for little felted owls so I found this great pattern here and made this one for her...

...and I made a few little hanging heart decorations too... 

...embellished with buttons and tiny felt hearts... 

...all sewn up in little kisses and blanket stitches.

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Gift Tags...

...in lots of different fabrics...

 ...'With Love'...

...and 'Happy Birthday'... 

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Raggedy Again...

I've been trying to stock up on some items...

...like this heart.

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Denim Blue and Red Spot Too...

Tatty Rag Heart...

...in soft cotton denim, pale blue stripe and red spotty fabric.

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18th Birthday Card

For our lovely daughter Holly...

...in pink and orange colours...

...with lots of lovely embellishments.

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Wish Tree

I found some lovely twiggy branches still holding

 on to a few crinkly leaves and some hips.  

I snipped, arranged and re-arranged them until I

 was happy with the shape of my Wish Tree...

...and visitors to the house wrote special wishes for 

Holly's 18th Birthday weekend, then hung them on the tree.

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Ho Ho Ho...

Christmas bunting in soft gold printed paper with a satin sheen...

...and red glittery lettering...

...finished with red wooden beads, gold wooden stars and little red tinkly bells...

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Christmas Bunting

Just a quick show of some Christmas bunting...

 ...in shimmering printed festive papers...

 ...with shimmery purple lettering, edged in silver...

 ...and finished with beads and gingham knots in blue and purple ribbons...

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Birthday Wishes

It's hard to believe that my baby girl, Holly, will be 18 this weekend.
In the celebrations there will be a Birthday Wish Tree.

The idea is that everyone can write a special Birthday Wish for Holly and hang it on a Wish Tree.








I've been cutting heart shapes, ink-smudging and embellishing in a rainbow of colours for people to write on then hang on the tree.


I've yet to set off on my walk to find the perfect branches to make the tree...


but at least I've got the hearts strung and ready...

...and my wellies are de-spidered and looking forward to some mud-stomping in the woods...

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I just wanted to share this wonderful blog I follow trashtotreasureart and let you know of a fantastic celebration giveaway Lynn is having.  Please take a look, you'll love it!

Cerise pink and lime green...

 ...handwarmers in a basketweave knit...

...with crochet flowers for decoration...

...and my nice long fingernails which have since been chopped!

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It's been that time of year again...

..when I've had my sewing machine whizzing away at making dance costumes for my friend Alison's youngster.  So to celebrate finishing them I allowed myself a little spare time to do a few more bottle bags in the rustic burlap-style fabric.  Each of these have the string tie detail...

...and if you look very carefully at the first photo you can see a little bit of the top of the stripped dresser I've been working on this Summer.

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Busy Needles

I had this pattern for hand warmers and wanted to try it out so found a half ball of cotton-style wool and gave them a go...

 

...and I was so pleased with them that I tried a pair in pale mint green in a moss stitch...

...but these are asking for flowers to be added... 

...and then a yummy woolly brown pair with fluffy ribbing and crocheted flowers... 

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Summer project update...

Do you remember when I shared my Summer project idea a while ago (July)?  Well I thought I'd finally show you some photos of the base of the dresser:

The 'shelves' shown are where the drawers go

and the door slides across the drawer fronts to open the cupboard side 

and my man has fixed the back, which was buckled and wavy but now lies nice and flat. 

The base has since been stripped back to bare wood and sanded and is looking very rugged and rustic now.  

The shelves are still untouched and will have to wait for better weather and more energy.

Watch this space for the updated photos...

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