Goodies Galore!!!!

Well here it is! THE prize draw of ethel and ednas first ever giveaway. Thought I'd be a little bit different and record the actual proceedings to show that everything was all above board. So play the video to see who the lucky winner is....

(Techno gremlins have meant problems with playing this video - so you have two choices - hopefully one of 'em will work. Huh!! Me and my bright ideas!!!)

Credits:

Evie - herself

The Narrator - Lindsey (edna)

Musical Score - Mikey (OH)

Here is the photographic evidence....

Yippee!!! Well done incywincy. I will send you a PM to discuss options before finally posting a picture of your prize, and your prize to you of course.

Thanks everyone else who entered. It was fab to receive all your comments and to know that you are all out there reading my waffle. I just wish I could send something to everyone, but that way I will never make any stock for an etsy shop :0)!!!

So here is the next little doll from the 'Frenchie' pattern. This time I have stuffed her arms and legs and she has wool roving for hair which I've needlefelted into her head - ouch!! I don't think she minded too much. I'm still working on the dress design. This does seem to be my undoing at the mo but I have another idea for the next one. Keep watching for the next instalment...

As I said, I failed to get anything ready for the 2nd Annual Softies Awards (2ASA). Here is my last minute I-really-want-to-enter-something-so-I'll-make-something-dead-quick project. As it was one of the categories with the fewest entries I decided to go for 'Embroidered to Death'. My plan was to make a sock monkey (cuz I can do 'em quite quick) and to absolutely plaster him in embroidery. The (slightly warped) twist was that he was going to be dead!! See - 'Embroidered to Death', eyes shut, arms folded across chest. A bit sick I know but I thought it was quite clever. (Sorry Vicious Chicken, if you read this.) To try to make up for this I was going to call him Joe (oh-oh, now I start to write this it seems a bit convoluted). Firstly for my little nephew cuz he loves monkeys and he's a Joe, and second after the song by The Cult - Resurrection Joe (is the light starting to dawn yet?). After the 2ASA I was going to redo his eyes and bring him back to life! Ta dah!!! "Resurrected Munkeh"!!

Anyhoo I changed my mind halfway up his legs as you can see. He just looks like he's got nice socks on at the moment!! Think he's going to be consigned to the Bag of Half-Finished Sock Monkeys for now. Maybe one day he'll get his ears stitched on.



So what is this then?....

No. It's not my entry for the 'Picnic Food' category in the 2ASA. Altho' it does look a bit like a roast chicken.

Try again.....

Looking more recognisable now?

Yeah! It's four new Sillies.

This is them in their limp, unstuffed state. This evening they will attain their lovely squishy plumpness, and then the fun bit begins. Stitching!!! I've been shopping today so I've got lots of new goodies to play with to embellish them and bring them to life.



Two new colours of wool for hair from Acorns Hospice shop. Some decent black thread for eyes from The Tales Press. Then I topped up my stock of other thread colours cuz the Sewing Machine Shop is selling off their stock of Gutermann threads.

Also from the hospice shop I got this HUGE piece of orange cotton fabric for £2.
I'm going to have a play with this - cutting it on the bias and fraying it to make hair. Don't know why but I have a 'thing' about orange hair at the moment.





Super bargain from Acorns - a pair of Laura Ashley curtains for Evie's room for £6.50! And they fit!!!

These little goodies were 95p each and the top one is a Pilgrim necklace. I love Pilgrim jewellery.

Phew! What a haul!! I also bought two sewing books from The Works. One is the real basics of dress making but has 20 patterns in which could come in handy, and the other is making kids clothes but again with some nice patterns. They were £3 each. What a thrifty girl I am! I do love a good bargain hunting session but I really needed my "4-wheeled steed" 'cause all those books were getting a bit heavy.

I feel I've got a lot of catching up to do; like I haven't posted for ages.... I think it's actually only a couple of days. Let's see what has happened?

News in brief.....

*Maria (belly dancing teacher) LOVED her three-in-a-bed cake. She also loved the doll (despite my concerns to contrary - BDB assures me that she was really raving about it - in a good way).

*I "did myself a mischief" at the class on Thursday. I have pulled a muscle. A large muscle (VERY large in my case). My left gluteous maximus (bum cheek or buttock to translate into the vernacular). Ouch!!! I limped back home with my shopping today. What a wreck I am!!!

*On Friday I went to Newlife again. I will save the pics of my goodies purchased from there 'til another, less exciting day.

*My pink hair is now looking like candy floss, in colour rather than texture. So, having consulted with my stylist (Evie), I have bought a blonde dye to try to cover it up. Hey the next party is only a few weeks away! What colour can I go this time?

Well I think I shall leave it there for tonight or you will get bored with such a long post. I'll save the rest for tomorrow. Just to whet your appetites - coming up in tomorrow's post:

*pictures of a previously unseen doll

*competition info

*kids' toys today.

WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!

I wasn't going to post tonight. I thought I may as well wait until tomorrow when I've done the draw for the giveaway, BUT I just popped on to have a look at a few comments and I noticed the Crafty Blogs rating. I have cracked the 200 mark. Yay!!! As I write I am number 197. How on Earth have I done that?!? Maybe I shouldn't get so fixated on numbers. I'll just get all glum when I start to slide back down again. Aaah, what the heck!! It's great. Cheers guys for reading and commenting and whatever else it is that you do that makes me go higher up the charts :0) hehe.

*

You still have time to get your name added to the giveaway draw list. Simply leave me a comment and tomorrow at midday-ish I'll use the latest technology to draw the name of one lucky person who will win... something or rather someone from the pit... sorry the workroom.

*

Needless to say I have NOT managed to produce anything for the Softies Awards. Ooh I still have 11 minutes to get my photo submitted! I could quickly nip upstairs and run something up... Nah!! I'll finish my beer instead and wait 'til tomorrow to see who the lucky finalists are. Then I believe we get the chance to vote for our faves. How hard will it be to narrow some of those categories down to just 5 finalists?? I don't envy the judges at all.

*

I'm rambling now cuz I'm tired so I'll quit while I'm ahead. :0)

Fave's Mosaic 2

Faves Mosaic 2
Originally uploaded by ethel and edna

My Favourites pages on Flickr make me smile so I decided to share it. Maybe I should make this a regular thing??
Anyhoo a nice load of pretties until I get around to posting later.

Faces and Cake

How weird! I am beginning to realise that people are reading my blog (I am now number 217 on Crafty Blogs - woop woop!!), but I hadn't twigged until today that 'real' people do (if you know what I mean?). My Belly Dancing Buddy was going on about my blog today (and the fact that her photo had appeared in it - oops! sorry love - knew you wouldn't mind). I had forgotten that my OH has added a blog link to my email sig and that's where BDB had found it from. It just seems strange. I sit here merrily typing away not thinking about who's on the other end reading this garbage :0) - until now not anybody I knew previously... I'll try not to let it change me.

Well Frenchie mk III is well on the way. She has stuffed arms and legs this time, which is MUCH better. Her head is a bit firmer and her eyes are beads not French knots. She is all joined together and has hair. All she's waiting for is a frock which I will do tomorrow.

Mark 3 doll before her hair grew.

I have also been working on an unknown creature as I had a rush of blood to the head and felt I'd like to enter the Second Annual Softie Awards on Flickr. The 5 categories are Pink or Plaid, Elephant Tribute, Picnic Food, Cutest Face and Embroidered To Death. I am now trawling through my Flickr pics to see if I have anything suitable for entering. Talk about leaving it 'til the last minute - the deadline is midnight tomorrow!!!! Would anyone take a pea on a picnic???

Ooh ooh. Exciting!! I have two little babies listed on Craftjuice at the moment. It's not a competition, but if you'd like to take a look and cast a vote if you like them I'd be very grateful. They've done pretty well so far on their own but every little bit helps Lola and Maria's Doll. Thanks.

I have branched out slightly today, dabbling in sugar craft for a change. It is Maria's (belly dancing tutor - she of The Party) actual birthday today and we have class tonight. So Julia and I have bought a cake and decorated it for her.

As you can see Maria is one of the many hoards of David Tennant fans. She is also rather partial to a bit of Philip Glenister (Gene Hunt from Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes/etc), though which bit I wouldn't like to say. When we asked her what she wanted for her birthday she asked for these two blokes so we've done the best we can in the circumstances. :0) Dressing up - dancing - cake - pub - what a night I have in prospect!!!

Just Chillin'....

... I am now anyway. Bottle of Stella at my side and my weekly dose of 'Hey Nonny Nonny' on the radio (the Mike Harding Show on Radio 2 - folk, roots and acoustic). See - not just a punk girl am I?
Today has been a bit frenzied to say the least. Started off with the alarm NOT going off. We woke up at 8.30 in a mad panic and that threw me for the rest of the morning. Lost my phone too, then when I found it it wouldn't work. Grr! Technology!!
I was meant to be going to J4 of the M42 to meet BIL, big one nephew and mum, and bring mum home. It took them ages to get out of Torbay let alone reach Solihull so, having an hour or so to kill, I went to help my mate and one-time tutor Ian Cook hang his exhibition at Solihull Gallery. His work is fab and not a little mad. He makes massive hanging sculptures from plastic waste and cars and stuff. He also does what he calls 'auto drawings' using poster pens and remote controlled cars. These have caused a lot of controversy with comments from the public such as 'this is not art' and 'anyone could do that'. But I think they're really clever. Take a peek and see what you think.
Anyhoo. They phoned me eventually, so the parent was duly handed over and we drove back home to Blighty.
And now here I am back home myself.
It's going to be a quickie today as I have not actually done anything worthy of blogging really. I started another Frenchie doll, but this time not rushing her. You may get to see her tomorrow.
Doh!! I knew there was something fairly significant to report! Julie McCullough has got back to me. She's the lady whose pattern I use as the base for my belly dancers. Well, she says that in all her other patterns she gives permission for 20 to be made and sold per year. She says I can do the same and if I went a few over the 20 she wouldn't be too upset. All I have to do is acknowledge that I used her pattern when I sell them. WOOHOO!!! Now I have no excuse. It's all systems go, go, go! And I think I'd better do one for my friend Beadsage fairly quickly (lol!).
If you click on the link to her website check out the section called 'Tweaking'. In it you can see what another group of people have done with the Poptops pattern. No belly dancers.
Oh! one more thing I meant to do is remind everyone about the doll swap on Mee Crafty's blog. You've got until Saturday to sign up. And of course, there's still time to enter my giveaway, and incy's, both also close on Saturday 19th. Good luck xxx

All Better Now.....

Well I'm very sorry about my little outburst earlier on today. Housework, hormones or a combination of the two? Who knows. Anyway I am pleased to be able to introduce Frenchie's sister - the bane of my life - Phoebe! Ta da! I chose the name cuz she looks a bit long and willowy like the character in 'Friends', and she's a bit daft too.

So first incarnation with black hair was NOT good. Something just wasn't right, don't you agree?

Pink hair now that's more like it!! A slightly paler version of her sister's but still cute nonetheless.

And here they are together in their new frocks. Frenchie's was recycled from a little girl's blouse and Phoebe's was made from patchwork fabric.

Someone asked yesterday what their crafts were if they wanted to join UKCF. I hope these photos show you that they are well and truly textiles girls.

Here's Frenchie choosing some threads.

"Look! I've found my hair!!"

Phoebe is a bit more daring. She wants to have a go at needlefelting. "Be careful with that needle, miss!"
And now she's found the kiln.

"Keep away Phoebe. It might be hot!!"

"NO! Phoebe!! It is not nice to push your sister into the kiln!"

Oh dear. Is she starting to show a darker side to her character. I'm going to have to watch this one.

The thing that really cheered me up was my next creation. I had half-started this a while ago and, as everything was going 'pooh' with my own designs, I decided to go back to tried and trusted - Silly Girls.

Meet Lola!!

I love her to bits!!! Named after the feisty doc in 'Holby City', I found this fab skirt at the bottom of my stash and it suits her perfectly. I love her hair too. What does anyone else think?

Need to get some brown felt for the eyes. This beige was a bit pale. Might add some beads to the hair on the next one.

Just a quick post tonight. I'm waiting for OH to get back from Argos extra with two bedside cabinets and a chest of drawers. We're having a flat pack night. Woohoo!!! Trying to get the bedroom finally sorted.

Yucky Day

On BUMMOCKS!! Well I reckon that's how Sarah Kennedy would spell it!! I'm fed up with a capital 'F' today. It's raining. I've got another cold coming (only just ditched the last one from Easter). Frenchie's sister just doesn't want to play ball. AND - the worst thing of all - I've had to do housework!!!!! I hate, hate, hate it!
I have this little dream in my head that I will grow old living in a pokey fisherman's cottage by the sea. I will be the eccentric old bat who has funny coloured hair (hehe), does weird crafty stuff and swims in the sea every day. Instead I think I may end up being on that TV show 'A Life of Grime', barricaded in behind mountains of washed but unironed clothes, randomly scattered coffee cups and piles of papers which have been put neatly but never sorted out. The whole lot will be topped off by hundreds of cloth dolls and creatures, and sundry other little creative outbursts which absorbed me for 5 minutes then I left it to go onto the next thing.
Phew! That's better. Glad to have got that off my chest.
No - Frenchie's sister has been a right pain (when I eventually got chance to work on her). I think my problem has been trying to make her too fast. It's not a race. This is R&D time and needs to be done properly. First she had black hair and a thin little mouth and she just wasn't right at all. Now she has pale pink hair and her lips have had a toot of collagen so she's looking much happier. Just working on a pattern for a frock for her so she doesn't have to parade in 'the altogether'. A name is forming but I will reveal this later when I add the photos.