Journalling

I am taking part in a 'Journal Round Robin'. There are 5 people involved and 5 journals get passed between us.
I wasn't really sure what a journal was, I assumed it was a diary/old fashioned blog entry, but as we say at work 'never assume'.

My past notebooks and diaries dating back to 1990


So, I have done a bit a journal reseach; first I searched 'journal' on flickr. While flicking through the photos I noticed a few where tagged with Wreck this Journal. I had seen this journal before and I remembered that it looked interesting so I did another search and found Kerri Smiths Blog (she's the author), scroll down a bit on her blog and there is a list of ideas which then takes you to a pdf of 100 ideas to do in your journal.

So, I printed it off and cut it up (that's what it said to do).

Some of my favorites from the list are;

10. Draw your dinner.

39. Write about your relationship with your washing machine.

48. Make a useful item using only paper and tape.

70. Do nothing.

88. Write an entry about a secret. Cut it up and glue the pieces randomly.

My current notebooks and diaries

I have never kept a journal (if I had I would have know what one was!). I have notebooks on the go all the time and if I lost my desk diary I wouldn't know what was going on. I blog sporadically, so keeping a journal is going to be interesting.

The 'Round Robin Journal' isn't starting for another month but I might have to start keeping a journal to get some practice.

Teapot Pullover

I have knitted a sort of tea cosy.
Believe it or not but it started life as a legwarmer!



I love knitting with Sirdar Click, it knits up really quick on 7mm needles and the colours are really nice muted shades.
So, I had a few balls and I fancied a pair of legwarmers, so I could pretend I was a 'Kid from Fame', and started to knit. But as you can see from the photo I only got as far as a few rounds of rib in light green.
Then (don't ask me how this came into my head, I really don't know) I decided to turn it into a tea cosy.
I thought that the ribbed bit would be the bottom, but it became obvious by the time I started knitting the dark green stripe that that wasn't going to happen.
So the bottom became the top. I stitched it up and when I slipped it onto my teapot it became clear that it wasn't a teacosy at all, more of a pullover for a teapot, a fashion item.
You see it doesn't have a top which is really useful as you don't have to keep taking the cosy off to fill the pot. It will get a bit grubby and it might not keep the tea as warm for as long as your conventional cosy but I like it.
I'm going to knit another one and this time write down the pattern, I'll let you know how I get on.

One World One Heart

Edit- and the winners are............................


Carol-spirits journey designs, Susan and Angela.
I have emailed them all and their flower brooches will be with them soon.

Shop Update++++ Not quite ready yet, still some photos and pricing to do.

Ode to Swap-bot

I am hosting my first swap over on swap-bot and it's a matchbox of buttons swap.

Just a small matchbox, which you decorate how you like and then fill with nice buttons.

Here are a couple of photos of matchbox swaps I sent and recieved.

(These photos are from a swap for 'a matchbox of beads and buttons', but hopefully it will give people who are partcipating for the first time an idea of the size of the matchbox and what to expect.)

recieved

sent

Just realised that it has been about a year since my first swap on swap-bot. What a great way to celebrate with a swap of my own!

I love to swap, people who I tell about it look at me very strangly as if to say 'why do you bother?' but it is so nice to put together a gift for someone knowing that they will (hopefully) get that same warm feeling that I get when I open my parcle.

I don't join up for expensive swaps, I have done, but I like to do handmade swaps because those are the type I like to recieve. My boys enjoy the sweetie swaps.

received

I have done all sorts of swaps; 'A teabag and a magazine page' was my first, handmade bags of goodies are always fun and 'this is my foot' was the craziest but the most fun (we drew round our feet decorated them and posted one to each of our two partners) yes, it's does sound daft but I have the feet I was sent on my wall at work and they make me smile everytime I look at them and what did that cost me? the price of a stamp!

these are my feet!

I have recieved some lovely things which you can tell people have spent time on and fortunately I have only had a couple of disappointments. There was one, I can't remember the details but it looked as if my partner had emptied the contents of her bedside cabinet draw into an envelope!

received

received.

I have also 'meet' some very lovely, generous people from all over the world and I'm hoping to meet some more.

One World - One Heart ahhhhh!

EDIT- Entry now closed, sorry. But thank you to everyone who entered.

I will randomly pick three winners (ie. ask my colleages to pick a number) and post later who are the lucky winners.

The title is a bit mushy for me but I like the sentiment and idea and decided to join in.

Here is what it's about..............

What IS ONE World-ONE Heart? It is a blog-wide giveaway event. The original idea behind this was to bring bloggers together from around the world who may never ordinarily meet. It closes the gap of the blog community and enables us to interact, discover new and wonderful people, and in the process possibly win a prize or many prizes along the way. Last years event had nearly 100 participants and many connections were made because of it......friendships that are still going strong.

So, below is a photo of one of the prizes I am going to give away (I will give away 3 and they are all different colours) and to win it just leave a comment by midnight on 13th Feb and I'll pick 3 winners.

If you are one of people who normally visit this blog but don't usually comment please use this opportunity to make contact, (even if you don't have a blog) and then why not go to the ONE World-ONE Heart blog and click on a couple of the partipating blogs and have a look at what is going on around the world.

needle felted flower brooch made by me!

I'm looking forward to meeting you all!

SHOP UPDATE----hoping to have my Etsy shop up and running by Friday!!!!

Felting Leaves

I've spent the last couple of days making a batch of needle felted leaf brooches.

Spurred on my friend Jo (who is also my best customer) I've got my Etsy shop nearly in order ready for a grand re-openning later in the week.

I've been doing lot's of Etsy research on prices and marketing and some ebay shopping for supplies.

I won't just be selling brooches, I will have some knitted cards, ribbon cut cards and scrap craft kits as well.

Watch this space!

My Accidental Valentine

Now here is a good example of why we should all gather some craft materials, sit down for half an hour and see what happens.
I saw some greeting cards, somewhere on t'internet, made by weaving paper. So today I thought I'd have a go and when I started to collect bit's and pieces together I happened upon some ribbon and thought mmmmmm.


This is my first attempt.........

I really liked the colours next to the white card and only had long cards, so the next one I tried only had slits big enougth for one ribbon.

Now, I'm not a perfectionist and usually just dive in, have a go, then tidy up after, so when I started cutting the slits the first couple were a bit wonky so I thought I'd do the rest wonky as well as it was hard work trying to keep them straight (even with a ruler) on the first one.

Now, I'm thinking those red ones would make rather nice Valentines cards, what do you think?

French Beadwork Flower

Here is a little flower I made today at my craft course.

Not sure I have mastered the technique yet but a few twists and a button usually solves most crafting mishaps.

I think I'm going to keep hold of it for a bit before deciding what it's final purpose will be. I did think it was going to be a brooch as it is, but now it's finished I'm now thinking it might the centre of something bigger.

Button Rings and a Year of Blogging

I realised on Friday that I have been blogging for a whole year today!
How mad is that? and to use the old cliche - it doesn't feel like a year.

So, to start my second blogging, crafty year I finally got round to starting my 'Thing-a-Day' challenge.

Inspired by Jodie I decided to make some of my own button rings.

I threaded some craft wire through the beads, then through the buttons. I then twisted the wire tightly at the back and pressed it down flat and hot glued them onto the ring bases.

You can't really see the colours that well but the bottom one is orange with orange beads and the top one has a dark blue button. I think my favorite is the big red one.

The boy's have embraced their 'Thing-a-day' challenge and this is what I found on Saturday morning.

Inspired by my new found enjoyment of embroidery and a cool post on Craft Chi I tidied up the flosses and threads (that sounds like a good name for a craft shop, must remember that if I ever open one) that I have acquired.

and of course as soon as I get my camera out a cat turns up to try and get in the photo!