Computer -weary but a great deal!!!!

Whew!!

Well it has taken me a whole day but you can now get a bargain at my website - ANYTHING you order, yes, no matter HOW much! will be sent at a flat rate of £1.80 in the UK and £1.80 plus a £2 handling fee everywhere else!!!!

I know!!! What an absolute bargain!!!

So if you were to go mad on these beautiful polka dot beauties:
or develop a sudden hankering for loads of yummy wool mix felt in all these colours:or maybe polka dots aren't your thing and you're more of a gingham checked country girl? And you want these babies:

Then all you would pay is a mere £1.80 if you live here in the UK and £3.80 flat Air Mail anywhere in the world!!!!!!!

I know this is pure shameless self-promotion, but I also know how you all love a bargain.

And that's me after all - shameless!! xx

P.S. just to add, for Cass, who asked me, this will be permanent for the foreseeable future, not a special offer that will disappear - a special offer that will stay!! Which makes it very special!! Ok, I'll stop saying special now!! xx

My creative space....

this week has been filled with more of these little guys.....

and now they are here, honestly they are getting into everything!! I think they were trying to find their blog on my computer.

As for these two, goodness only knows what they were thinking!!

Visit some more creative spaces here at the brilliant kootoyoo.

A Giveaway!! and an interview...

If you pay a visit here today, you can read an interview all about yours truly!! It is on a new blog set up by the lovely Krissy from BInspiredVintage who does soooo much it makes me feel tired just reading it all!!

Krissy has set up a blog called Etsy Interviews where you get to find out all about many of the talented crafters who have shops on Etsy. There will be lots of giveaways and behind the scenes info about artists, crafters and makers in the fab world of handmade.

I am hosting a giveaway there at the moment and you can win a complete pack of all 71 colours that I do in the mini 4" felt.

Just think what you could do with all that felt - and how cheered you would be by all that colour!! Go on, you know you want to.

You have to be in it to win it! xx (Okay enough corn.....just go see, okay?)xxx

Party Party Party!!!!!

What an exciting weekend!! First 100s (well, it seemed like that!!!) of little hats were made, (by a very patient Flossie). She made them line up too!!!And there was a lot of knitting too as look how many new little creatures came over the wall!!! (There are some real sweeties in this lot, let me tell you! and some characters!!)And then, of course, there was a PARTY!!! Check the exciting news here if you haven't already. And please join as a follower as they can't take their followers with them and they SO love their followers!! (Yes really, they check them every night!!)

I'll leave you with a shot of the party - it was the place to be!!!! xx

A little treat...

I am trying very hard to be good with money at the moment (very difficult with 6 birthdays in our family in the next few weeks!!) but yesterday, I gave myself a little treat....

and bought a ticket for the A4 Draw-

This gives you the chance to win an A4 piece of work by established artists, designers and illustrators, as well as graphic design students from South Essex College.

The amazing artists include the wonderful Rob Ryan, Emma Dibben, Sally Faulkner, Gemma Correll and Amy Blackwell amongst others.

You can find out more here and if you want, you can buy a ticket yourself here - tickets cost £4 and the funds raised will go towards the students' graduate exhibitions in the summer. The draw will take place in early March. x

In my creative space....

this week there is another fabric flower picture in progress.....I am sooooo loving making these and may very well just go on and on.........

and in true Blue Peter fashion, here's one I made earlier......
I think I might try scanning these and making them into cards - I went looking for a birthday card for my sister yesterday and I like these as much as any I found!

See more creative spaces here...

Flowers and a stripey frock......

Don't know where the last week has gone!! Busy, busy, busy!! And now it's half term so there are all these children wandering around in my normally quiet space!!!!

My focus at the moment (apart from the torture and torment of naming creations!!!!!!!!!!! which is on-going!!!!) is sewing some more fabric pictures.

This one was inspired by my childhood love of Milly-Molly-Mandy. Love, love, love those stories. So here she is in her little striped frock!
Strangely the part I enjoyed the most in this was the layering of the background. It's not as easy to choose fabrics as you might think and has highlighted my lack of certain colours (and the need to go fabric shopping!!!! See how I did that?!!)I've also started my first in what I hope to be a series of flower pictures. I LOVE doing these.

Now off to do more - punctuated by cries of "What can I do now? I'm bored!!" and teenagers lolling around avoiding doing GCSE work!! and eating toast. Lots of toast. Them, not me. xx

Meet Flora....

Finished another Luvvie yesterday - this is Flora. One of those serendipitous lightbulb moments of thought happened to me and I have, albeit, kind of accidentally, decided that the Luvvies are all going to have thespy theatrical names of some real 'luvvies'.

This is Flora.

After Ms. Robson.
This is what is on my sewing machine today.

I am doing a bit of quilting. In blues, greens and yellows. I LOVE quilting but need more practise. xx

Oh, and one thing I have discovered is how fantastic these large pins are when you have a few layers to pin. You need fewer and they are less fiddly.

If you don't have any yet, I sell them here. In hearts, flowers and leaves. Choices, choices!! xx

A softie day......

Sunday (and Saturday night) turned into a completely softie day here in my little sewing studio.

I have a number of exciting new ventures which I can't tell you about yet.....but at least here is the beginning of one of them..

You might remember my doll making from before and thus eventually the Pipples arrived.

Well, the softie-maker in me was still not happy, not completely fulfilled - I wanted to make a softie with character, using all the lovely fabrics that I have stashed away......

So Sunday was the day for it - I started by looking through some vintage teddy and soft toy making books, then sketched a rough idea of what I wanted and drew a pattern and made these little chaps here....

I experimented with their faces, I liked the open eyes better and the effect I got from using the free-motion embroidery foot on my machine. But, the softie in my head needed to be bigger.....so I looked at my Lucie Attwell books for a bit of inspiration and decided to make a Pixie...... at least that was the idea! He looks a little scary I think!!I think it's the eyes!! And maybe the mouth!So then I went back and made the first ones a bit bigger! The idea was to make the prototypes out of any old fabric until I found the right shape, and then to let loose on the lovely stuff!!! Hmm!!

The lovely soft furry fleece was calling me!!! I made the next one out of it!!

The only thing I can say, is that I have learned that the fleece will be lovely when I get the pattern right!!!! (DON"T mention the arms!!!!!!) I wanted them a bit longer, I said a bit longer!
However, how cool is it that he can do this?!!He looked a little fed up so I made him a friend to get away from the pattern! A little oblong friend.Then I had a cup of tea, and a biscuit or two......and, not one to give up, I tried again. This little chap looks more or less exactly as he had in my head. He's called Olivier, after Lawrence, and because he's Olive Green. I LOVE him!! Okay, maybe the arms are still a little long but he's very cute. So that's how I spent my Sunday. Hope yours was good! Obviously, being me, I am now addicted to making these creatures and I made little Olivier a friend, just so he had someone to talk to, you understand. OOooh and I named them - meet the Luvvies!!! (They have a love heart on their front and another little one on their tush!!!)

Double figures.

On Tuesday, our little Floss was ten, the big 1o!! Excited was NOT the word!!

She had a great time, laughed a lot and loved her presents and all her visitors...

and even the completely strange but oddly edible Giant Jaffa Cake was a weird success!!!!!!!

And just look at this fabulous card that my eldest son's gorgeous girlfriend made for Floss......

How fantastic is that?!!! Even though the Pipples are causing me a massive headache at the moment, I LOVE that card. So sweet.

And on the Pipple note, can I just say a big thank you to all those of you who have emailed and left messages with potential names. I am still searching, and researching since I don't want anything similar out there!!

It could run and run forever, so I have decided that I must have found a name by Sunday to put an end to the torment. If I find one not suggested by anyone, then I will put all the names of kind people who have offered help into a hat and draw out a winner that way. So either way, someone will win a Pip....Thingy of their choice!! You can look here for the ones currently available.

SO, PLEASE KEEP THINKING!! It's not easy, especially when you start looking at similar stuff and find others have got there first!

I keep having to go and do something else as it's driving me mad.

On a happier note, I spent some time on the very therapeutic task of making felt rainbow piles and my felty customers might like to know that the felt packs are all replenished in my shop here and here. I always love playing with felt and the colours always make me happy so it was a lovely change from thinking about Thingy names.

I think my head is going to explode!

Okay, so, first I'll lull you into a false sense of normality. Look at this beautifully colourful and restful-looking chair. Doesn't it just make you want to sit there and read, or crochet?

Yes, it makes me want to too. But I can't. Because I have TOO much going on.

Now I know that a lot of you who come here do so for the happiness and colour. Well, okay, look at the picture above.

Okay, ready? I really need your help!!!!!!!!

I have been thinking too much and I can't do it anymore. My head is about to explode. I have discovered something. There are no NEW ideas. There are no words or names that haven't been thought of ALREADY!!!!!!!!!

Okay, deep breaths!!!!

I will explain........ it has been brought to my attention as I get my various projects onto a more business-like (ha, ha!!!!) footing, that a similarly-named set of creatures to my Pipples is currently on the telly and since I don't have any children under 5, I had no idea. It isn't the same name, just sounds similar and begins with the same 3 letters.

I have sought advice and it will cost something to use any option other than to CHANGE THE NAME!!!! Yes I know!!!!!!!!!

I love the Pipples and their name. I love Pipple World and Pipplepost and everything!!!! (sobs like a snotty child).

BUT I don't want to pay or fight, so since they are quite new, okay, I thought to myself, I'm a creative person, I'll just think of something else.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahah!!!!!!!!!

I have thought for 3 weeks, I have put words into google a million times and found other people have thought of it or something similar, because you see, this time, it has to be UNHEARD of, nothing similar, nowhere!!!

I have discovered wordoid which is actually quite addictive, and makes up new words, but haven't found anything that sounds like these little creatures.

On top of all this, my eldest has now got shingles and is in loads of pain, and its Flossie's 10th birthday tomorrow so I have to make a giant Jaffa cake (don't even go there!!!!!! I'll show you tomorrow if, IF it works!)

So, my wonderful bloggy friends, I DO apologise if you were checking in for a bright and colourful start to your week. You might want to go and get a cup of tea, like I'm going to!!!

I will leave you with a picture of the begging, beseeching soon-to-be-not Pipples. I have set up a competition on the pipple blog to think of a name. The winner will be able to choose one of these little creatures to come and live with them.

How could you choose?!!!! xxxx

Will return tomorrow fully bright and cheerful now I've had my rant. Thanks for listening, you're the best!xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx