Popular Crafts Polka Dot Swap

Yet another swap. Huzah! This one was hosted by the website 'Popular Crafts'. It was a polka dot swap. That was basically the only condition. I love polka dots so eagerly signed up to it.

I was matched with the lovely Carla at The Ducking Fabulous Diary. We had until the end of July to send off our things so I haven't received a package yet but thought I'd share what I sent off to Carla - now that I know she's gotten them. This is what I sent:

Dotty about ducks

As Carla's blog mentions ducks in the title plus she has a wee duck in her banner I thought she might appreciate a duck portrait. A dotty one, of course. Plus when I found this fabulous purse I knew I also had to include it in her package.

Oh, I also made a card:

I'm really getting into making teacup cards.

It seems all this was well received so hooray!

x

A freshly made bed is heaven

It was a bazillion degrees Celsius in London today. Okay that's an exaggeration. Let's find out how hot it really was... I just googled "what was the temperature in London today?" to find out. Okay so I literally use Google to solve all my problems. Google just told me that today it hit 30 degrees Celsius. Dudes! That is HOT. No wonder I felt like I was melting.

It a fit of not wanting to broil to death in bed I decided it was time to ditch the winter duvet. Behold (above) my newly made up summer bed. Oh, there is nothing quite as wonderful as fresh clean sheets to climb under.

The beautious quilt you can see atop my sheet was made by my mother. She whupped up a whole batch of them. She is a quilting ninja. I love it so much.

I'm really looking forward to snuggling up tonight and being all cool under my summer sheets.

Bliss.

The Great British Swap

As has been previously recorded I signed up to a lot of swaps last month. I got a wee bit over-excited. I've almost finished and sent them all off.

Hookin' with LaaLaa organised a Great British Swap. I got linked up with the lovely Kate from Granny Taught Me To Crochet.

This is what she sent me:

Squee! She made me a needle case and a little hanging bird. I said I liked birds (which I do) so it was super sweet of her to make me this. I've named him Edwin and he's hanging on my bookcase. It felt like my birthday opening all the things. I especially love the little tin.

This is what I sent her:

I made her a union jack badge and a coaster with a telephone box on it. The telephone box didn't come out as well as I'd hoped. Sorry Kate. I was quite pleased with the card I made though. 

Swaps are fun.

I Spy... paint tattoos by Amanda Wachob

Amanda Wachob

Oh my gosh I LOVE these tattoos by Amanda Wachob. They're so abstract and amazing. I like the way the people look like they've been flicked with paint. Flicking through the gallery of tattoos makes me really want to leap aboard a flight to New York and get one.

Hater - when you love to hate

So I found the above video when I was flicking through Betty Bee's blog.

It's so hilarious I had to share it.

I Spy......Crocheted Potraits

'Arthur Cheesman' Jo Hamilton. Image from designboom.com

I recently discovered Jo Hamilton's AMAZING crocheted portraits through a feature on designboom. I just never would have imagined that you could produce something so breath-taking using crochet.

I love them. I love her whole website.

I blow her kisses across the void.

A beautiful new fashion accessory

Oh what a beautiful new fashion accessory for the crafty lady!

It really adds a special something to this outfit.

Should I do a vlog?

This is a question that I've been musing on for....oh all of a week. Basically - I quite enjoy watching other people's videos. Such as those over at Musings from the Pigeons Nest. It seems a nice and fun medium.

Also, I'm quite nosey. One of the reasons I like reading blogs is that they're an effective (plus easy and legal) way of peering into other people's lives. Vlogs step this up a notch.

So I've been wondering if I should maybe make some videos. I had a spat a few summers ago of making stop-motion videos. I'm definitely going oto make some more of those but the question is - should I also make some vlogs? Featuring me?

I've been being pretty careful about showing my true face online or revealing anything too personal. This is because I currently work in a school and have been actively trying to avoid the little darlings being able to find me online. But... I finish my job in two weeks. So.... should I vlog? What do you think oh 9 followers of mine?

Embroidering the hot-house

The Hothouse at Kew Gardens

A few weeks (months?) ago I went on a school trip to Kew Gardens. As well as ushering year 8s around the gardens I also took some photos. I was particularly inspired by the outside of the hothouse where the plants were pressing to the glass. I really liked this effect and decided to christen my new sewing machine by making an embroidery based on it.

I dug through my piles of fabric scraps for green fabric. Turns out I don't have much green fabric. I assembled six pieces of greenish fabric (including one scrap of green chiffon scarf).

The third picture is me free-machining trailing leaves. Woo-yes! This was my first time. During the process I wore sunglasses as shields for my eyes because I was afraid of the needle snapping off and embedding itself in my eye. Actually I ended up taking them off because it was evening, dark and frankly the glasses were making it difficult to see.

And then I broke the needle.

But it stuck in the fabric and not my eye! Huzah!

For some reason the free-machining Gods then decided to revoke my free-machining prowess. So I had to do my bigger leaves with the foot on. The bigger leaves I then cut through to reveal the fabric underneath.

I also sewed on felt leaves and machine embroidered leaves onto the fabric. Then I covered the whole thing in some plastic table-cloth I bought at a local shop and sewed it down.

This is when I broke the second needle.

I wanted to give the whole thing the impression of being through glass.


This is the final result:

Some close-ups:

It's eeeeever so slightly wonky. Oops. It feels nice and weighty though.

xxx