Another Award!!!!

Wow!! Can you believe it!! I have just been reading all the updates from the World of Blogdom courtesy of Bloglines, as always saving my fave's 'til last. Just as I was coming to the end of Carina's third postette my name leapt out of the page. She has very kindly bestowed upon me the Arte y Pico Award (and she still doesn't know that I gave her the E for Excellent award either - hehe).

The rules read:
1) Pick 5 blogs who deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material and who also contribute to the blogging community no matter what language.
2) Each award must have the name of the author and also a link to their blog.
3) Each award winner must show the award and put the name and the link to the blog that has given her or him the award.
4) The award winner and the one who has given the prize must show the link of the “Arte y pico“ blog so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5) Show these rules.

Oh my goodness. I've now got to choose 5 of my 'bestest blogs', having just chosen 5 for my 'E for Excellent' award. Hmm... I'm not going to rush this. I shall peruse and cogitate and post my recipients tomorrow. Bribery and inducements are most welcome (hehehe).

Cooking with kiddie

Well here it is - the first batch of gingerbread men or rather Moomins made with my new cutters. There are Moomintrolls, Snufkins and Hattifatteners, and very tasty they are too. I just wish you could taste and smell blogs as well as read them.

The chef and her assistant (me) used a recipe from good old Good Housekeeping which we trot out every Christmas and make loads of Christmas trees, men, ladies and hearts. Some actually make it as far as our Christmas tree hung on a ribbon.

Evie decided she wanted 'the works' on her batch so out came the icing and hundreds and thousands. Her biccies all ended up with multi-coloured eyes and mouths. E-numbers rule!!!

Someone on the forum asked about resin today which reminded me about my past projects at college and Uni. In my Foundation course final project I used resin and I said I'd put the photos on Flickr. Unfortunately they've gone AWOL but here are some piccies of my HND final show instead, til I find the resin hearts.

The ceramic pieces on the floor around the trunk are also part of my installation, It was all to do with memories of childhood. There were loads of tiny ceramic shoes looking like they'd been unpacked from a trunk in the attic, some of them were broken. These were to represent my memories of my childhood - faded and fragmented.

The bigger, bolder fabric shoes and the HUGE baby dress were my memories of Evie's childhood - much more vivid as they are so recent.

Dress-making has never been my forte but I had to give it a go for this. I used one of Evie's baby dresses and scaled it up, creating a paper pattern. I screen printed all the fabrics myself using her birth certificate, ankle ID tags and other paperwork from her birth. I then smocked the bodice by hand. The back is fastened by four huge buttons which I made out of Fimo, as are the shoes.

I made the shoes in a similar way, taking a pair of booties to pieces and enlarging and altering the pattern to a really big scale. They also fasten with big Fimo buttons.

I do love these shoes and have made them in a range of sizes as prezzies. This is one more little design idea I have up my sleeve which I really want to start producing. One felt one is currently lurking around my work room at the mo. I will finish it soon and post a pic to see what you all think.

Hmm.... I've started to ramble now cuz I've got one ear on Holby City and half a brain on this.

And now it's time for Waking the Dead so I'm going to finish.

Tomorrow I'm going to Lichfield Cathedral to wave at the Duke of Gloucester with Evie's class. Does anybody who he is or what he looks like? I must go and Google him so I wave at the right person. Don't want to flap my flag at a bodyguard or, even worse, a tramp!! hehehe

I'm Back!!!!

WOW!! I'm going to go away for a few days again!! Look what I'd received when I logged on today... aren't I a lucky girl? In fact I seem to have been awarded this by three lovely peeps - incywincy, jennyflower and tiptop. How greedy is that?! Seriously - I'm so chuffed. Thank you all and everyone else for reading my waffle. :0)

I believe in turn I now have to pass this award onto my 5 fave blogs - how hard is that going to be?! Right, here we go..

1. Beautiful Things - my own private 'soap' or that's how it feels, reading the next instalment in the house move (and being a nosey sod looking at the photos :0D hehe). Any room with Barbie pink wall has got to be alright in my book!!

2. What Katie Did - the first blog I ever read and still one of my favourites. Currently we are on an Inter-rail trip around Europe but Katie's work 'shed' is to die for. Her felt and knitted goodies are gorgeous.

3. RicRac - Jodie's blog is 'like a box a choclets - ya never know what your gonna git'. OK so my Forrest Gump impression wasn't great, but it's true. There's always something fab and exciting on RicRac. When my Bloglines alarm goes "ping" this is one of the names I'm really glad to see come up.

4. Carina's Craftblog (aka Wardi) - this is sunshine in a blog. Carina's blog is always so colourful and happy. The clever girlie has also got through to the final 5 in the Softies Awards - Embroidered to Death category with her Happyscape. Click on the link to take part in the voting.

And after much deliberation, the coveted 5th spot goes to....

5. vicious chicken - must be THE funniest blog I've ever read. The everyday story of Little Rosie Probert, Shifter and the 'munkeh' army. Fantastic!

To those who I didn't pick - sorry. It was really hard. In fact it has taken me 3/4 of an hour just to go through and pick and I'm still not sure now.

Onto other stuff (quickly cuz it's 11.30 and I'm a tired bunny). We didn't get back til 11.45 last night and after 4 hours+ driving I was more than ready for beddy.

Anyhoo, had a fab weekend, although the weather wasn't quite as great as I had hoped. Saturday was lovely. In the afternoon we went into Totnes. Yay!!! One day I will live there. We walked in through the back of the market and I could've kicked myself as I had no cash on me (no surprise there then!!). There were many and various bargains to be had and I missed out on most of them. Huge baskets of ribbons at 50p a bundle. Fabrics oddments at £1 a throw. Grrrr! >:0( By the time cash had been procured everyone was packing up. The African drumming, chanting and dancing chilled me out a bit tho' so I wasn't too sad.

After that we trotted merrily round the corner to have a sneaky peak in This 'n' That, Gazebo and Hulabaloo. Unfortunately you really can't do shopping in Totnes properly with three fractious kids in tow, so we sold them!! No, not really. But our retail therapy was severely curtailed. Ah well. Next time the daddys can babysit while we indulge.

I did buy one small item which the Moomin fans amongst you will appreciate...

As Rolf would say,'Can you tell what it is yet?'...

(What is it with rubbish impressions tonight? Sorry.) I was going to use this item to make something and post photos of that something but I had to go into work after all today so I didn't get chance. It is....

a set of Moomin Gingerbread Cutters!! Yay!! Gingerbread Hattifatteners. Can't wait! There's also a Moomintroll and a Snufkin. I will endeavour to make some tomorrow and post a piccie.

Nearly forgot my two little bargains from the hospice shop in Brixham. These babies were 50p each. Not bad eh?

Oh-oh. I'm really running out of steam now.....

I'm so glad incy liked her giveaway prezzie. My extra little surprise was a Mini Silly with a hanging loop. I just had this idea to reduce the pattern and see what happened. I made two of them - well while you're making one you may as well make another. Here's a picture of the one I kept. Do you like her hair? It's that fab wool I bought last week. hehe I love her.

OK I give up now. I must go to beddy-byes. Normal service will be resumed tomorrow.

Give a tree a new gnome...

Mugshot first off. Here is one of my Christmas mugs that I love so much they have come into everyday use. They are HUGE and really chunky. Perfect for hot chocolate with 'the works' on top - marshmallows, cream, grated chocolate.... Oooh feel those calories.... I bought a pair of these from TK Maxx a couple of years ago. Just hope they don't break cuz I won't be able to replace them.

My mug I would love to own is a bit of a cheat really. It's a textile piece by artist Priscilla Jones and is actually a stack of espresso cups, but they're nearly mugs, aren't they? I love the colours in this piece and the delicacy of her work is gorgeous. She has done other kinds of 3D vessels too, including a fab teapot. Check her out.

So now my camera battery is finally charged I can take some pictures of my lovely mail this morning. (Evie discovered the video facility on my camera last night and proceeded to use up the whole SD card and run the battery flat filming....? the cats playing with a new toy?!* Kids!!! I ask you.....) My lovely postman brought me my parcel of goodies from paper-and-string. Yippeeeeeee!

Look at all that loveliness. A happy tree plus his own gnomey disguise, a roll of funky tape and a shade card of all of the gorgeous felt colours that Sarah has to offer. Even the little note card has a hand-stitched felt topper on it.
My mistake yesterday - I didn't order two trees; just the one but isn't he cute?

Guess who...? hehehe
I love him. He just needs a name......... Hmm.....

I've been a good girlie today and finished off incy's giveaway package. That's just about to go to the Post Office. I made a little extra surprise for her which I'm very excited about, but I can't show you until she's had her parcel. You'll just have to wait until Monday.

"What no blog all weekend?" I hear you cry. Well no. I'm off to (hopefully) sunny Devon for the weekend so I shall have to resist until I get back. Have a great weekend, whatever you get up to.

Byeeeeeeeee.

Meez

hehehe Have just got back from belly dancing class and jellybelly-jellybrain has sent me the most fantastic link in a PM. The results are at the foot of my blog. Go and have a play on Meez.com yourself. It's fab!!!! Thanks so much JBJB.

Chums.

So here is my mug of the day. This is one that I own. It's a Charlie and Lola one, well actually Lola and Lotta her best friend. My sister bought this for me for my birthday/Christmas (sorry I'm rubbish and can't remember which). I love Charlie and Lola it's just a shame that the mug is kid-sized and not big enough for me to drink out of. I like my tea and coffee to come in a bucket!!!

Following my Moomin mugshot yesterday, it seems that there is a secret gang of Moomin fans out there. Paper-and-string and I'm a Ginger Monkey are both fans. Check out Ginger's post today - from the postman, that is.. And Katy is my swap partner for the doll swap. Hmm....

For all those Moomin enthusiasts out there, here is a little treat for you. (click on the link)

Ooh - I ordered some goodies from paper-and-string, tho' not through etsy. I visited her own website and ordered....

Yay!!! Not one but two happy trees and a gnomey disguise. Can't wait for that delivery to arrive. hehehe

This is yesterday's blog post from U-handblog (yet another blog I subscribe to). It really made me laugh cuz it is SOOOO true. Have a read and see what you think...

In between the downpours today I managed to get into Lichfield to do some shopping. I bought some mousey-brown wool for incywincy's doll. (It's what she asked for - her description not mine.) I also bought this ball of fab funky coloured wool for which I have many plans....

Isn't it great?! The colour combo is just perfect.

I also bought some delica beads for my brooches. The reproduction isn't great but there is a packet of candy pink and two shades of coral-y colours. I love them 'cause they are so small and the matte colours are fab. I could have spent a fortune in there today but I'm saving my pennies for Devon.

Quite by coincidence one of my fave bloggers - Sal - did a post about Totnes yesterday. It's one of the places I would love to live if I had the choice. I shall be going there at the weekend, to watch big one nephew do his canoeing lesson, if not to shop.

I've had quite a productive day so far. I've actually finished incy's giveaway doll and shall do my best to get it in the post tomorrow. Tick. I've sorted out nephew's birthday present ready for the weekend. Tick. I've bought more bits and done some drawings for new brooches. Tick. I've bought kiddie a new school cardi. Tick. And I've seriously begun to think about ideas for another project.

One of my fellow CF members - Kipper - has sent those who wanted one a sample of his little wooden boxes. Here are a couple of pics of said box. Cute isn't it?

He has asked us to decorate, alter, embellish and generally make gorgeous one of his boxes in our own style. We just have to photograph the process and email the results to him together with instructions. He can then include our ideas in his customer newsletters to help promote his products. The best bit is... we get to keep the boxes afterwards. I have so many ideas I just can't decide which one to go for. Keep watching for further developments.

Whilst on the subject of CF friends I must just include a lovely portrait that incywincy made of me today.....

What a pal!! hehehe And this is the woman I'm going to be working with..... Just you wait.....

Mugshot

OK. I'm sorry. I confess I cheated a bit on this one today. None of the above belong to me but I love 'em all. The Moomins are just fantastic. I remeber coming across the paperbacks by accident about 12 years ago. Before they ever appeared on telly over here. The names alone are just fabulous. My fave was always the Fillyjonk, but there's also Sniff, Snufkin, Mymble, Little Mi, The Groke and, of course, the Hattifatteners.

There's just something about Scandinavian humour... My photography tutor at college was Norweigian and she was fab but insane (in a good way). hehe

Tomorrow I will get my camera out and photograph my own mug. Promise.