Crafty Photo Scavenger Hunt: November

If you’re new to the Scavenger Hunt then please visit Kirst’s blog to see how this all began.  I’m acting as guest host this month, and I hope you find everything to your liking!

I’ll start off with a list of those people who are taking part – please do visit their blogs and have a look at their entries for this month.

• Rachel at The Awesome Lady
• Sally at Diario
• Jeneveve at Timballoo
• Emily at Ready for an Adventure?
• Jennifer at Architette Studios
• Lisa at How to be a Domestic Disgrace
• Magie at Teacups & Bunting

Inspiration

The Englishman Who Posted Himself and Other Curious Objects is a very lengthy title, but a fascinating read.  Pictured here together with a few things it helped inspire.

Something I Made

I was actually a bit stuck for this one as it’s not been a hugely productive month, so I chose this random pincushion made from scraps of old pyjamas…

Motifs: Stripes

I couldn’t choose between these two.  The first is a selection of striped papers I’ve got in my stash, the second is a close up of a section of wall on the Portobello Road.  Which do you prefer?

Comfort

A heap of handmade blankets, the very essence of winter comfort.

Texture

Scraps of different leathers from the scrapbox in my studio.

In a few days, once I’ve had a chance to view all the entries for this month, I’ll put up my favourites – please do pop back to have a look!  In the meantime check back tomorrow to find out what the topics for next month’s CPSH will be.

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I have the BEST customers

Really, I must have the most wonderful customers in the world.  Last year a lady sent me a gorgeous pair of hand knitted socks, which completely blew me away.  Yesterday I got another parcel in the post, and I recognised the sender’s address but was mystified – why was she sending me a parcel?  So I opened it…

A gorgeous card, and a wrapped present.  I was still mystified, so opened the card…

Charley and Dan are the couple who commissioned the wedding invitations I made in October.  I was incredibly touched at this point, and in all honesty if I’d unwrapped the parcel to find an A-Z (or something equally as random) I’d have been delighted just because they’d been lovely enough to send me something.  It was much more than something daft and random though…

Hotel Chocolat! Yum-tastic!  What a lovely surprise   Thank you so much to Charley and Dan for their thoughtfulness, it was completely unnecessary but incredibly sweet of you.  I shall be opening these on Wednesday when I’m in my studio poring over this month’s Mollie Makes… chocolate and craft porn a pretty magazine, a perfect combination

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Orley Farm School Christmas Fair

This Saturday (3rd December) is the date of the annual Christmas Fair at Orley Farm School in Harrow.  I’m looking forward to this as there’s always such a lovely atmosphere at these school events.

If you’re free, then please pop along and join in with the festive fun.  If last year is anything to go by then there will be mulled wine, cakes, Father Christmas’ grotto, lots of handcrafted goodies to buy, and fun activities for kids to take part in.

Orley Farm School
South Hill Avenue
Harrow on the Hill
Middlesex
HA1 3NU

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This week’s Weekword is…

…novel.

Get your thinking caps on folks!  What’ll it be?  Novel as in new, or novel as in your favourite book?  Surprise us!

If you’d like to take part in Weekword then please add a comment to this post, and on Friday I will add links to all the participating blogs.

If you’re new to Weekword it’s a simple concept.  A word is chosen each Monday and all you have to do is publish a blog post about that word.  It could be a photo or drawing inspired by the word, some poetry or prose, absolutely anything.

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Felted baubles now on Etsy

You may remember that back in September I started making felted Christmas ornaments.  I got them made in plenty of time… and then didn’t get around to listing them on Etsy.  They are finally in my shop, and £1 from the sale of each set will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Society.

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Squaring up to a task

Three months ago I randomly bought a batch of felt squares, in 70 different colours (from The Felt Fairy).  It was a bit of a whim, and I had a project in mind for them at the time, but that project has since been scrapped and so the pile of very colourful felt has been sat unloved and unused since then.

I went to visit a friend this weekend, and something I saw at her house has given me fresh inspiration … so hopefully I’ll be using this felt in the next few days to create something pretty.

 

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Posting from afar

Well, from Blackburn really as I’m away for the weekend.  In truth I’m actually publishing this post in my own absence (got to love the scheduling feature on WordPress), and it’s just a little snapshot of the colourful blanket (which has yet to be named – any suggestions?).

I’ve managed to keep up the progress over the last couple of days, and am sad that I’ll have to take a break from it this weekend (it doesn’t seem very practical to go away with a bag full of yarn!).

In other news, if you haven’t yet signed up for this month’s Crafty Photo Scavenger Hunt then why not give it a go?  It would be lovely if we can get a few new faces participating, so if you know anyone who would be interested then please give them a shove!  I’ll be posting the list of participants (and links to their blogs) on 30th November.

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Weekword: Content

This week’s Weekword is content, and it was chosen by Sally over at Diario.  If you go and visit her blog you’ll be able to see what she’s written, as well as a list of the other participants.

con·tent   adj.

1. Desiring no more than what one has; satisfied.

I was musing on how content I was just the other week, while writing a letter to Sally of Sow & Sew (in this age of electronic communication we are determinedly trying to keep up an old fashioned correspondence via the post).  I was sitting in my studio at the time with the door open, enjoying the view and a cup of coffee while I pondered what to write next.  It was sheer bliss, and right at that moment I was utterly content.

My studio always has that effect on me.  Whether I’m down there to work, or to just sit and procrastinate, I always feel completely satisfied with my lot.  Sometimes I do just sit there and stare out of the door (or window, now that the weather has turned chilly), which might seem like a waste of time to some people, but it’s not.  Sometimes things need a good coat of looking at, and that includes life itself.

It’s a little slice of paradise.  Balm for the soul.  I worked hard to create this space, but it was worth it!  I hope that you’ve got a place which makes you feel this satisfied – and if you have then I’d love to hear about it.

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A colourful adventure – part 2

I told you I was determined to post more regularly, and here we are – every day this week so far.  Clearly I won’t be able to keep this up, but for now I’m feeling smug even though it’s only Thursday!

I’ve been at work the past two days (my gardening work, not studio work) and as a result haven’t had much time for anything else.  I have managed to do a little more of my latest crochet project though.

It’s wonderfully colourful, isn’t it?  It’s still very much in the early stages but so far it makes me think of circuses and the bright posters they have.  I’m especially pleased with the bobbles as I had to work that out by myself.  I’m hoping I’ll get a chance to do some more this evening as I find it’s easier for me to work through projects quickly (before I get bored!).  I’ll post another update on this over the weekend.

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A colourful adventure begins

We all make impulse purchases, and I made one last December.  I blame Lucy over at Attic24, who always make such beautifully colourful things.  She mentioned on her blog that First 4 Yarns were selling packs of wool in her colours, and as I was having a pretty miserable time back then I gave in and bought one.

As impulse buys go, it wasn’t a very quick one.  I purchased the yarn at the beginning of December, and didn’t receive it until the end of January… and by then I’d lost interest in it so it got stashed away.  Out of sight and out of mind, sort of.  I’ve never forgotten I have it, but haven’t been able to think of any project that it would be suitable for.

Last week I was catching up with various blogs, including Attic24, and once again Lucy was responsible for inspiring me.  She mentioned a blanket she’d seen in a magazine (click here to view her post), and then posted a link to a blog called Little Woollies where the author is making a very similar blanket to the one Lucy was admiring.

That was it.  That was the project that the stashed yarn was destined for, and yesterday I made a start on it.

It doesn’t look very promising in that photograph (my mother looked down her nose at it…), but I’m a bit further on now and it’s starting to come together already.  I’m choosing my colours very randomly (on a ‘ooh, I like that!’ basis), and also selecting the stitch type for each row on a similarly random basis.  I think it’s going to be extremely haphazard, but I’m hoping that it will work as a whole…

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