WOYWW 268

THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL......

Thanks to all you lovely lot who made me laugh with your inventive ways of getting Tootie Fruitie into your comments......but there can only be one winner and that is.....

*drum roll*

ANNE of COPPER BEECH CRAFTS!

Congrats Anne...please could you email your snail mail address to me and it'll be winging its way to you ASAP :-)

Right then, the desk....

You find me mid-bag, so to speak.....a tote for a teacher's present.  Hopefully the recipient will like the fabric...included is a tissue holder in the same fabric for the inevitable last day tears :-)

Top stitching...oh yeah.....it's gotta be done.

Julia surprised me with these little beauties - tiny metal hands with 'hand made' stamped on them. She knows I have a dislike of fabric tags/labels on my stuff, so found these to sew on to my bags etc. I've sewed one onto the bag above and it looks great. Cheers mate! 

My brass band had a really busy weekend - this pic was taken of me by my hubby. I quite like it as you can only see half of me!! I'm not asleep, honest!  Just concentrating very hard on the music *grin*

Short and sweet this week....wonder if I'll get brownie points?!

WOYWW 267

YOU'RE ONCE, TWICE...THREE TIMES A LADY......

(The Commodores)

 Me? A Lady? pahahahahahahaha...the only reason I chose that lyric was for the '3', because it is my third bloggy birthday. Hooray!

I am still incredibly grateful to Julia for dragging me, kicking and screaming, into the WOYWW madness. The global friendships and support continue to be amazing. :-)

OK -  shmaltzy bit over!  I have a giveaway to celebrate this momentous occasion.

One of my zipped totes, with pockets inside and out.  If you'd like to enter, just include the words 'Tootie Fruitie' in your comment......for no other reason than it makes me laugh!!!

Right, the desk......

I got my jelly rolls out (and my fabric strips as well.....fnar fnar) for a bit of sewing inspiration. And while I was thinking about what to do, my son asked me to make something for him.  So what exactly is that grey fabric thing on my desk?  Soft numchuks?

No, a both-sides-of-the-doorstop! 

With every window open upstairs because of the heat, his door was creaking away. 

So, this is the result.... a bit like a draught excluder with an unstuffed middle. LOL!  Looks daft but it works a treat :-)

The outside desk has seen a fair bit of action too, especially in the evenings when the heat of the day has gone down.  I have started making random granny squares, using up all my little woolly odds and ends. This is for the SIBOL blanket initiative I found online and mentioned in last week's post if you're interested.  I think I'm going to make what I fancy as I go along and put the colours together properly at the end.  The throw over the chair back is the first crochet I did and it still gets used a lot.  The only thing that's missing is a cold cider........

And finally, we're still very excited in the Appleton household about Owen and Jen's engagement! As neither of them are mainstream, I knew I needed an alternative, Goth type card to give them and there was one person who sprang to mind to ask for help.....Shaz Silverwolf!!  I asked if she could use blacks and reds with some silver.....No Problem came the answer.....and this was the result....

Isn't it just GORGEOUS?! We all got a bit teary when they opened it. They just couldn't get over it, Shaz..it was just perfect for them (as was the card from you and Doug too!)  
Thank You xxxxxxxxxxxxx

I have to go now....getting emotional again.....where's my tissue?!

Have a great week, everyone!

Have a great week!!

WOYWW 266

CONGRATULATIONS AND CELEBRATIONS.....

...are in order today as we came back from our holidays last weekend and my son and his girlfriend announced their engagement!  *Happy Dance*  So excited for them both at the start of this next chapter in their lives. Congrats Owen and Jen, we love you loads  :-)

Because of all the excitement, my desk looks like this:

Boring, huh?

I bought half a metre of this fun owl fabric on holiday - dunno what I'm going to do with it yet.  Plus I got 2 metres of fat ric rac, which I use on the personalised bunting!

While we were away I did a heap of crochet. Little teeny tiny blankets (for premature babies) that Christine (Cardius Bloggus) is gathering to give to a local hospital.

Some stashbusting blues and greens.....

I don't know if you can see but the pink has got a silvery thread running through it. It's pretty!!

The blankets are sooooo small (approx 30cm square) but I guess so are the prem babies.  The blankets were sent in yesterday's post, Christine :-)

Now onto another crochet project that I found on the UK Handknitting Association's website. It's crocheting or knitting blankets to cheer up elderly people in old folks' homes. Check out this website if you fancy having a go too: www.sibolchallenges.blogspot.com  It'll be good for busting your yarn stash!

That's the end of the crafting...now some holiday snaps, so feel free to jump ship at this point!

Now then...where do you think this photo was taken? Crete? Cypress? Malta even.....

Nope - Dorset!!  

It's the Tout Quarry Sculpture Park on Portland near Weymouth. It was sooo hot, we all caught the sun. But it was amazing!

There are loads of sculptures just lying around the place! 


 Some small, some medium sized, like this ol' bear here....

...and some were very large indeed. This one's for Shaz and Doug, lol!!

The weather continued like this ALL WEEK! Yay :-)  These beach huts were at Charmouth....

We went out on a fishing trip from West Bay.  Look at that Geology-in-Action shot!  The sea was really choppy but we're good sailors so it was fun!

And finally, the loves of my life.......my boys.....

The co-ordinating shirts were a fluke!  This pic means everything to me :-)

Hopefully there'll be a little more crafting to share in next week's post!!  Bear with me............

WOYWW 264

SUMMER BREEZE MAKES ME FEEL FINE.....

I haven't been in my indoor craft room much this week - it's been too darn hot!  Our large gazebo has shaded the patio nicely and I've been outdoors most of the time :-). We had a surprise visit from Shaz and Doug Silverwolf the morning after they'd been to the Stonehenge Solstice celebrations, so we all had bacon butties out here too!

So, my outdoors desk reveals a cuppa, crochet, basket of yarn and some mags.  The spade shows that I have done some gardening as well, everything's growing so quickly!

The baby blanket is finished - I thought the blue border would be more funky than white...

Happy colours :-)  I really enjoyed doing this project!

My oldest friend Helen (we've been best buds since we were 11!) has been knitting vintage tea cosies like there's no tomorrow and she presented me with this beauty when we last met up in Wales!  You've got way more patience than me, Helen. there was so much carrying over of wool on the reverse side. Shows you've got good tension!

I had some happy mail too - a beautiful card from Twiglet, showcasing her AMAZING freemachining skills. Honestly, it is so clever. I have got to get my act together and learn how to do it!  And the dressmaking book? Well, that may yet be a challenge too far but it was free as part of the Love Sewing Mag subscription I took out...and it may come in handy when I attempt to make myself a tunic! That's the theory anyway, snort!!  The beautiful ATC was sent by Kelly, it's so pretty, I love it. But the thing that made me smile was the amount of stamps on the envelope!!  I'm going to keep that just cos it tickled me :-)

Oh, hang on, I forgot....I DID do some sewing this week!  I made this bag for my elder son's girlfriend about three years ago and the handle had frayed so I replaced it with a sturdier version. But it was too hot in the sewing room, so it was back out into the garden again :-)

This is a bit of a Terry Pratchett in-joke but Ron was so spark out, we had to prod him to check he was ok!

And finally, I was driving over the beautiful Marlborough downs this morning and this vision of loveliness presented itself..........

It was a field of PINK!  I've no idea what the crop was, but the mahoosive field was filled with soft pink flowers. It was so pretty, much nicer than the acres of bright yellow oil seed rape we get now. But does anyone know what it is??  

Have a great fortnight, I won't be around next week.....off to recharge me batteries :-)

WOYWW 263

IT'S UP TO US TO BE THE CHANGE

AND EVEN THOUGH WE ALL CAN STILL DO MORE

THERE'S SO MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR.

Firstly, a massive apology to the lovely ladies who left comments on my blog last week... for various reasons, I didn't return the honour with most of you. I'm so sorry, there was a lot on my plate and it just didn't happen. I promise I'll do better this week.

Secondly, I'm just so happy that Julia's home :-)

Consequently there's not much to share this week:

I'm deciding which fabric to make a zipped tote out of for a present - for someone who doesn't 'do' pretty, lol!!

I've dragged a few bits out of the box and am staring at them with no clue whatsoever...sigh.  I quite fancy using the stripes, possibly.

What I will tell you about, though, is this wool I found in Hobbycraft when I was looking for a cheapish acrylic yarn with which to finish that rainbow blanket I've been crocheting.  It's Hobbycraft's own brand, with some of the proceeds going to the Women's Institute and it's brilliant!  It's the nicest feeling acrylic I've ever worked with - not only that, but 100 grams cost £2, PLUS Hobbycraft had a 3 for 2 offer, so it worked out incredibly cheap. The range of colours isn't huge so I hope they extend it. That plum colour is delicious - it's going to be a baby jacket :-)

Finally, I've had some more happy mail - ATCs from Darnell and Elizabeth W, both of which are so funky! And a gorgeous buttons and bunting card from Jackie - they're all on my pin board where I can admire them. Thanks, lovely gals :-)

So, short (for me!) and sweet - have a great week!!

xxxx

News about Julia

Just a swift post. Julia texted me this evening. She's had keyhole surgery, so is sore but feeling slightly better. She's really thankful for all your messages, love and hugs. Hopefully she will be able to fly home sometime next week.
Phew....... :-)

Xx

WOYWW 262

COLOURS OF DAY DAWN INTO THE MIND

THE SUN HAS COME UP, THE NIGHT IS BEHIND...

Edited 12.42 GMT.  There will not be a WOYWW link today, I've just heard from Julia, she has been taken ill whilst on holiday and is in hospital. Not life threatening but she is not well. PLEASE do not email her, if you want to send a message, then do it through me. She won't be home until next week, so I don't know if there's going to be a WOYWW next week either.  Sorry, I don't have any more info at the moment but will let you know with updates as soon as I get them. Jan xx

Cor, those lyrics take me back...when I was a Teaching Assistant at our local primary, I used to play piano for the hymn practise/choir club etc and that was a favourite of the kids!  Isn't it funny how the brain reaches back and plucks out a random memory?!

It was inspired by all today's pics:

The current yarn basket......

which is turning into this!  *Happy dance*

A metre each of two new fabrics - you know, for 'research' purposes.... ;-)

A tuk-tuk taxi that was in Tesco's car park in Hungerford, of all places!!!  I like the airhorns on top....I want a ride in this!!

But the main focus of today is to share an amazing fabric shop in London. I'd gone up to meet a great friend of mine who now lives in Auckland, NZ but is back visiting her family. She'd heard about Shaukat fabrics on the Old Brompton Road so we walked across London, catching up and generally talking non stop. But this shut me up!

The shots are a little blurry cos they were taken on my phone but you get the idea......

two floors of fabric......

Rolls of fine cottons, silks and lawns.....

Kate, browsing the bewildering selection (this was about 1/20 of the shop!)

My purchase....I almost couldn't choose because there was too much choice!  It's the finest printed cotton from which...and brace yourselves....I may attempt to make a tunic top for the summer.

If you want to have a nose yourselves, it's www.shaukat.co.uk

This is a scheduled post as I'm in Wales seeing to my Dad (and also meeting up with WOYWWers Lynda B and Ali H for a drink!)  so please forgive me if I'm late with visiting you.

xxxxx