50 Foot Woman Attacks Crafting World!!

Just when my mojo was flagging Apryl at Meridian Ariel has announced a new swap.








Flying saucers and aliens, swamp monsters, vampires and robots - anything goes. Think of all those fabulous 1950s B-Movies and away you go.


Pop over to Apryl's blog and follow the instructions.

Number 8

The lovely Emma tagged me to do this meme in an effort to get me blogging again. It's taken me over a week to get my answers all done, and each time I've attempted it I've had to start from scratch because it was a new day.

Here's the rules, just in case you want to follow them:

1. Mention the name of the person who tagged you.
2. Do the lists of 8.
3. Tag 8 bloggers of your choice. (OK I'm breaking this rule cuz I'm rubbish and lazy and good-for-nuffink. If you have a spare few minutes or you're stuck for what to blog about, give it a go, then let me know cuz I'm really nosey as well as lazy and want to know all about you).
4. Let them know that they have been tagged!

8 Things I Am Looking Forward To....

1. My 40th birthday in September – yes really.
2. The next issue of Coast magazine
3. The promised hot summer (yeah right!)
4. My next visit to the seaside
5. Morris dancing tomorrow
6. Working on a new swap and a doll competition (will blog about both soon)
7. Winning the Premium Bonds (maybe one day)
8. Getting stuff listed and sold(?) in etsy/Folksy

8 Things I Did Yesterday... (well OK Thursday).

1. 4 loads of washing
2. Mowed the lawns
3. Finished my book – Notes from an Exhibition – fabulous!
4. Christened our new swinging barbecue
5. Tried to sew the gusset into one of my little bags (way too hot!)
6. Watched Springwatch
7. Sat in the sun - briefly
8. Drank lovely pink wine *hic*
.
8 Things I Wish I Could Do...
.
1. Lose weight
2. Have a BIG win on the Premium Bonds
3. Blog more frequently!!
4. Bring about the end of Big Brother! Talk about flogging a dead horse…
5. Be as supple and bendy and fit as I used to be several years ago
6. Own a camper van – I’m working on it (well on him)
7. Live in Cornwall – one day…
8. Whistle really loudly with my fingers in my mouth

8 Shows I Watch...
.
1. Dr Who (recent convert)
2. Q.I.
3. Mock the Week
4. The Mighty Boosh (nobody said it had to be current telly – I’ve got DVDs, you know)
5. Green Wing
6. Ashes to Ashes
7. Springwatch/Autumnwatch
8. Have I Got News for You

I really, really will do a proper post on Monday when the kids are back at school/work. There's lots of catching up to do. 'Til then,

ttfn
xx

What?! She's been sewing?! Never!

Yes really. I have.

Many, many moons ago I was a member of the Embroiderers Guild in Lichfield. I loved the monthly workshops we used to hold with visiting luminaries of the world of embroidery. One such was with Hilary Bower who, at the time, was making highly encrusted, multi-media type bags and panels and 3-D towers. The workshop was to make a small bag and below is the result.



At the time we were very much into green and terracotta so this fitted in our lounge perfectly. I was (and still am) pretty proud of it, not least because it was something I actually finished!!! How many UFOs do I have?

Following on from the workshop I decided to make a second bag at home and work commenced on the Ray of Sunshine bag. (It had a name long before a needle ever touched it.) The probably dates back to the mid/late 1990s and is still not finished!!


Earlier this week I suddenly remembered my little yellow bag and had the urge to finish it and make some others in a similar style. So - SHOCK HORROR - I got out my sketchbook. I doodled and sketched and cut and stuck and doodled some more...

Then out came the fabrics and threads. Little bits of felt and silk and cotton; even the titchiest scraps can be used up.

This is the early stages of the blue one. The background felt has been stiffened with dilute PVA and stitched to give a base texture (running stitch in this case). The scraps have all been tacked in place.

The background of 'colourful' one is felt stiffened in the same way but covered with some hand dyed muslin. Some of the motifs have had a a bit more hand stitching applied. I have now set to work with the machine, blitzing them with free-machine embroidery, and the beads have also started to fly (literally on one occasion!). I'll put some more piccies on in a day or two to show how things are progressing.

*****

And now here's a small meme if you've got nowt better to do over the coming Bank Holiday (let's face it, it will probably rain at some point - or maybe you'll be sitting in the scorchio sun under an umbrolly thinking of your answers). Whatever...

...Let’s Play

Let’s Play rules:

Copy the list, erase my answers, add your own then post the to your blog, Facebook, etc. Use the first letter of your last name to begin the answers to each of the following questions. They have to be real places, names, etc. Nothing made up! Try to think up different answers if your initial is the same as the previous person.
Enjoy!!

1. What is your last name? Smith

2. A 4 Letter Word? Sewn

3. A Boy’s Name? Sam

4. A Girl’s name? Sybil

5. An Occupation? Silversmith

6. A Colour? Scarlet

7. Something you wear? Smalls

8. A Beverage? Shandy

9. A Food? Scallops

10. Something found in the bathroom? Scales

11. A place? Sharkham Point

12. A Reason for being late? Sloth

13. Things you shout? SH*T THE BED! (sorry *sheepish grin)

Thanks to Apryl who I pinched that one from.

Tag. You’re it.

ttfn

xx

Take That Tickets and a mini catch-up.

Oh pants! It's already a week since my last post. I'm not going to disappear again it's just that I've been a bit busy and haven't got photos of anything I've been up to.

This morning I've been trying to attain the halo of a Domestic Goddess. I've reached that point where the house is A Pit. Enough is enough. Let the cleaning frenzy begin. My kitchen is now spick and span (great phrase!). My bathroom is sparkling. I am now having a small break-ette before hitting the rest of the house. If you really want me too I'll post some photos in a bit. We're not talking Country Living here you realise...

Last Sunday I danced at Etwall Well Dressing as I mentioned. Again I am photo-less as the weather was less than desirable. I am dancing at Moira Canal Festival this coming Sunday. Let's hope the barbecue summer 'they' keep promising begins this weekend. I don't fancy another 'dance out' in the cold and wet. It makes my marabou trim go all floppy!

Oh I mentioned Take That tickets. No. Sorry that is NOT my belated 200th post giveaway (more about that soon). A friend of mine bought two tickets too many and she's starting to panic as they are listed on eBay but haven't sold yet.

IF you would like to go and see Take That on 10th June at the Ricoh Stadium in Coventry then email me/leave a comment.

Some of the more observant readers amongst you may have noticed that I've recently passed 200 posts on this little blog of mine. In view of everything that's gone on here I think I'll postpone the customary giveaway until 250 posts. Hopefully by then I'll be better organised (and receiving an income of some kind so I can afford to give stuff away - lol).

I'll try and get some photos taken and uploaded so I can show you my hard work - both domestic and creative. 'Til then,

ttfn
xx

It's not just me...

...it seems that loads of Bloggers have been taking a break. But now - in response to worried emails from Bloggy friends and nagging from my family - I am back!!

OH started work on Monday. Yay!!! It's been a HUGE culture shock for him after 2+ months at home but at least he gets continuity of employment for his CV, and he's no longer a government statistic (I can hear strains of UB40s 'One in Ten').

So what have I been up to?

Well I haven't been very productive at all on the craft front, but I have managed to sell two of my rose brooches through incy wincy's website. Cheers Sam! You're a star.

A red one went a few weeks ago now.
Then on Monday an order came through for this coral coloured one.

I'm going to have to whip up a few more of these before too long as stocks are dwindling.

Apart from that I seem to have spent most of the time dressing up!! My friend Maria's birthday party had a Wild West theme. I struggled for weeks to know what to wear. The original plan had been to all go as showgirls - flouncy skirts, corsets and feathers in our hair - but then redundancy struck and pennies were tight so I had to make do with what I had at home.

The result was a hillybilly affair complete with freckles and blacked out teeth. Nice!

OK. I confess. The cowboy boots were from eBay but I'm putting them right back on there as I'll never wear them again. If you're interested in some red and black Wrangler cowboy boots in a size 4 let me know...

The next event was May Day Bank Holiday weekend when we went to Upton on Severn Folk Festival with t'Rabble.

Sunday is parade day and they always go in fancy dress. This year the theme was 'Myth and Magic'. After some pondering I decided I fancied being a mermaid (anything to do with the sea is fine by me). But how the Hell does a mermaid do Morris dancing?!? Well this is the result...

I covered the bra with some fabric (see I've done some sewing)and stitched loads of beads and sequins to it, then the tail was loads of strips of fabrics stitched to the knee of the trousers. It's not as good as I'd hoped but it did the job.

On the Saturday we wore normal (?) rags and hats.

We are dancing again this Sunday at Etwall Well Dressing. Our spots are at 3.30 ad 4.30 if anybody is in the area...

Last weekend our school PTA had organised an 80s disco with optional fancy dress element. So of course I had to dress up didn't I? More deliberation but in the end I decided to go as me back then.

I didn't wear make-up like this all the time - just when going to gigs and stuff - but it was such a laugh doing it again.

And the clothing..? I lived in floor length black skirts back then, or shorter ones with black and white stripey tights. I had fake Dr Martens shoes not the genuine 8-hole boots I now own, but the fishnet tights on the arms are exactly the same!

With me is Julia (BDB) dressed as one of Strawberry Switchblade. Now who remembers them?

And that's it. Well of course there's been belly dancing class but you've seen the rainbow skirt in past posts. I have been wearing it a lot recently as we've been learning a new gypsy dance - first in Tuesday class then on Thursday. It's fab. May have to get it videoed so you can have a small peek.

I can't remember how much else I may have missed but that's going to be it for catch-up. As from now it's onward and upward. I have actually been doing some 'designery' stuff today. I'm going to publish this then take photos ready for my next visit to the World of Blog.

It's so nice to be back.

ttfn

xx

errrr... yeah I know...

Once upon a time there was a blog. It wasn't much to look at but it was a happy little blog quietly eeking out an existence in the Blogosphere. It had pretty photos. It had wordy bits (and sometimes they were quite funny). It even had the occasional visitor which made it very happy.
Then one day it ground to a halt.
It's author forgot about it and left it all alone.
Sometimes visitors came to see it and left it little comments which helped it survive. Just.
The author had become somewhat distracted by the other things in her life - husband's redundancy, husband being at home on the computer all day looking for jobs, looking for jobs herself, worrying about money, - those kinds of things. the blog did not understand these things so it just sat in the corner and pined.
Then one day the author's husband went away for a day so the author could finally get back onto the computer. Once she had caught up with reading all the other blogs she liked in the Blogosphere she remembered her own blog...

TA-DAH!!!!!!

Hello.

Remember me?

It's been a while but I'm back, for today at least.

So here we go with a frantic catch up.

Went to Brixham and sailed across to Torquay in the lovely sunshine,

with my lovely sis, of course, (that's Brixham behind her on our return journey).

Everybody climbing back onto The Rum Runner after lunch. Thanks Tim and Fi for the loan of the boat. She's gorgeous!

And this is the bloke that is now in need of a job. If anybody needs someone to run an engineering/manufacturing plant then he's your man, particularly if it's related to windows/aluminium/metal casting/pressing. Flipping China!!!

I did my first public(ish) Stick Bashing last Sunday. We were meant to be dancing at a pub in Barton and collecting cash for Comic Relief but weren't made overly welcome (even though we had phoned and asked beforehand). So we regrouped at our usual post-practice pub in Alrewas - The George and Dragon - where we did a couple of wee dances in the backroom after we had been suitably refreshed. Evie and I were presented with our bells (think fairies getting their wings but different).

Here is Mini-Me in her kit just before we left home. She looks a real Dickensian urchin in her rags and topper.

And here is another bit of brightly coloured creativity. I finally finished the rainbow skirt!

I love it sooooo much.

When OH gets back from his day of "networking" at Cheltenham I'll get him to take some pics of me wearing it and twirling around so you get the full effect.

can't believe that it's done. There were surprisingly few hiccups along the way. I have even turned the hem up by hands and everything now. I would just like some braid to stitch along the hemline but maybe not...

This is my Morris hat, complete with red noses as it's Red Nose Day. Don't quite know why it's in the middle and not with the Morris dancing stuff but I'm not going to risk shuffling photos around and messing up the spacing an more.

I've been the very happy recipient of a couple of brilliant swaps. First is Jennyflower's Mug Swap. My partner was the amazing Michele of Calicodaisy in America. She had got all my stuff parcelled up ready to go 'til she got to the Post Office. When it was weighed it cost loads more in postage than the actual mug had cost. So she took the parcel to pieces and took the heavy mug out and sent the rest of the stuff which was much lighter. There is so much anyway - it is brilliant.

Three pieces of gorgeous fabric. Look at those toadstools. The polka dots have already been attacked.

Instead of a ceramic mug I got a quilted and embroidered one - much nicer I think.

And a fabbo wallet to carry teabags (or anything else) around in.

Thanks so much Michele. I'm overwhelmed with how much you sent and how beautiful it all was xx


Then there was meridan Ariel's Owl Swap.

For this my partner was fabbo - and also 40 this year (but it doesn't matter cuz it's just a number) - Janine (angelgurl) from New Zealand. Again I am overcome but how generous people are. Look at that cute knitted bloke! He is now on the Top Shelf with Ponsonby Pigeon and Ginger's dolly looking down on us all.

The HUMUNGOUS bar of chocolate is gradually disappearing. It is hidden in my workroom and I'm being very controlled in my eating of it (mainly cuz it's SOOOOO thick you'd break your jaw if you ate any more than a couple of pieces at a time - it-'s scrummy!!).

The box with the circular motif on it is a stationery set handmade by Janine. There are the cutest, stalkiest looking owls stamped on tags and notepads. Hilarious! There are loads of pictures over on Flickr showing it opened out. It is so clever. She is so clever. Definitely pop over and have a look.

There is also an angel charm made from crystal beads and a glittery angel tag.

And then there was this.

We both have a passion for buttons and the day before this parcel arrived I had been making rings out of buttons. None of mine were quite so gorgeous as these ones though. The colours are fantastic. And there are loads of funky shapes and different sizes.

Once again, thank you so much Janine. It was great to 'meet' you and be your partner.

Right. Kiddie wants to go on the computer so I'd better leave it for now.

Next post will be number 200!!!! Aaaarrgghh!!

Giveaway time.

No pressure.

I will think of something.

ttfn

xx

*wanders off scratching head and pondering*

(Not the) BBC Book Meme

This was sent to my by Leah (sewtobed) on Facebook but I thought it was worthy of posting in Blogdom too. There are so many of these types of memes doing the rounds but there are for American books or films. The fact that one has appeared using English literature made me actually want to do it.

So apparently, the BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?

Instructions (if you want to play): Look at the list and put an 'X' after those you have read once. Enter a number for the number of times you read something. Make sure you delete my X's! When you've finished, tag 10 people to do it too, and put your total at the bottom.

OK, fellow bookworms, let's fight dirty!

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen - X
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien - X
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling - X (lost count)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - X
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte X
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell X
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens X
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy - X
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier - X
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien - X
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger - X
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger - X
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams - X2
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh - X4 at least
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - X
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame - X6
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis - X
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis - X4
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hossein - X (The best book I've read in years - Go on. Do it!)
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne - X
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell - X
42 The Da Vinci Code - X
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy - X
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan - X
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons - X
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zifon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon - X
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck - X
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold - X 1/2 (started it twice but couldn't finish - too glum)
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac - X
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding - X2
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens - X
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett - X
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - X2
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker - X
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert - X
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White - X3
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom - X
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton - X3
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams - X2
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factoy - Roald Dahl - X6 at least
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

My total: 40 Not too shabby. A damn sight better than 6 anyhoo! and I'm working on improving that total.

I am trying to read my way through many of the "modern classics" and current novels. Good old Richard and Judy. By my bed at the moment is 'Coastliners' by Joanna Harris and after that, when I've done a bit more training I have "The Gormenghast Trilogy" by Mervin Peake. Eek! Having watched The Golden Compass on DVD yesterday I now want to read all the Philip Pullman books too.

So there you have it. Give it a go and tell me how many you've read. :O)

ttfn
xx

Edited 25 Feb.

Apparently (thanks Bryanb) this is not actually from the BBC but from The Guardian. It's a list of 'Books You Can't Live Without'. The BBC did a list of the Nation's Favourite Books in 2003. For links to both check out Bryanb's comment and click on the links.
Pah! Facebook! They get everything wrong!