so ...

Flying visit - I took the plunge, deleted all the html code on my blog template, and added this one - I think it's ok? I wanted something really delicate and almost jewel like, and found one I liked, but couldn't work out how the hell to add it! This will do for now.

Tired, cold - very cold, and slumped infront of Midsomer repeats, and about to try and finish, or almost finish, a pair of mitts for a Christmas pressie.

I am surrounded by wool, oodles of wool, and - er - mess.

The photo - the view from my doorway a couple of evenings ago, and the snow is still there, brrrrrrrrrrrrr....

Brrrrrrrrr!

Work in progress - half a bag is better than none I suppose, I plan on finishing this one tomorrow, but I forgot to buy some material to make the strap, silly moo - I suspect I can find something in the mountains of material upstairs.
Gorgeous Laura Ashley materials, and a silk birdy, I have plans for embellisging it furtehr before sewing in the lining.

A bit of self indulgent knitting, despite having certain things to finish for Christmas ... great pattern, it grows really quickly and is easily memorised, will add a link when I get my act together. The wool was a gift (thank you Darlene!), and I like it - Karaoke, half silk, half soy, great colours. Not the softest in the world although it should soften after a wash, but it really shows the cable effect well!

Blimey! It's bloody freezing! And it started snowing here a couple of hours ago, brrrrrrrr - love how it looks, hate how it feels!


I spent a couple of hours - yes hours - putting four bags on my etsy shop, HOURS. I had to edit all the photos, then the editing wotsit I was using decided to sulk, so I had to find another way - I suspect it was a job that would take someone a bit more savvy than me minutes to do - anyway, they are finally on.


They were originally planned for a craft fair, but it feels wrong to do craft fairs when I am signed off work somehow ... I do like them though, the birdy one above is a favourite. The bird is silk, and a really yummy chocolatey brown - brown and pinks together are rarely a bad thing!

Tea smells good so I suppose I had better go and check it - roast veg, with mushrooms, chillies and garlic, yummy. Somehow salad didn't seem too bright a plan in this weather ...
Stay warm!

Right. A brief summary of the last few months, since last posting.

The owl - am trying a bit of art quilting, or something similar - the novel (?) I ended up with for NaNoWriMo (national novel writing month) is made up of chapters (thats fascinating, nobody has thought of THAT before) and the dark owl is one of the main themes in one, then reappears a couple of times in others. So out of that came this little owly bloke, but hes meant to look malevolent, but to me he looks cute, which defeats the object somewhat.

I tried some oil sticks for the first time, imprted from America after reading lots of rave reviews, but am pretty disappointed in them.

Too chunky, they stink (of oil paint, well would you believe it...) and my machine didn't enjoy sewing on top of it. I think my good old Dylon dyes are better for what i tend to do (I have loads upstairs from ye olden dayes when I used to make and paint corsets).

So I will plod on with it and finish it before the weekend, because I have just painted my living room and want this up on the wall, it's been far to long since I put anything I made on display. Not that there's anyone here to see it ....

What else - LOTS of knitting going on, LOTS of sewing and a few ideas beetling about in my head for some paintings, will add piccies and things tomorrow.

I am off work at the moment, back at the Dr next week, see what she says. Very odd feeling to go from 100% to zero in a day, but not a lot I can do about it. I don't want to go into detail online, but I think the break is doing what it is meant to, time will tell.

Right, that's it for now - more to come, but I still cannot master these damned piccies, they load into one place and don't like being moved in between text, grrrr ....

december?

how did it get to november - no, december - without me writing a single post?



am going to play about with this one, i dont like the layout, and try to keep up with it
lots to report, nothing world shatteringly exciting, but i DID finish my novel!
so a flying scrap of a post today, then hopefully more regular witterings to come



thank you to those who stuck with this and left comments, thats lovely of you

the owl? will explain later, hes only half finished bless him ... toodles x

just playing

with the colour purple - sock wool i dyed recently, and love - and photos from my teeny tiny garden (which i also love)

paying it forward

i like this

not that my life is busy enough as it is, but i like it ....

The first 5 people to respond to this post will get something made by me.
This offer does have some restrictions and limitations so please read carefully:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. (No refunds... no exchanges!!!!)

2. What I create will be just for you, with love from me.

3. It'll be done this calendar year (2009).

4. I will not give you any clue what it's going to be. It will be something made in the real world and not something cyber. It may be weird or beautiful. I may even create something totally unbelievable and surprise you!! It will be handmade and may be any medium I choose. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!

5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange...or awesome...or lovely!

6. In return, all you need to do is post this text into a note/post of your own and make 5 things for the first 5 to respond to it.

7. Send your mailing address if you don't live close to me!

Itis a good excuse to dust off some of my other carfty things, and have a bit of fun
Tempted? Go on go on go go on, join me!

Personally I dont mind where you live, if it's the moon I am likely to make something lightweight, and Royal Mail will do their 'best'.
Come on in, plenty of time left in the year ....

two things ...

one - please go and check kims fabulous giveaway - http://calamitykim.typepad.com/

the link to the actual post is in the sidebar on the right, i have followed kims blog for quite a while now and love it - the giveaway is amazingly generous!

and two - we had ofsted today, massively stressful (especially as head of english, with writing being a major target from our last inspection, grilled at length and lesons observed) - and i got outstanding ;-)

thats all

too tired to write anything else!

psssst go check kims blog ...