Owls everywhere!

Here we are again - another Monday! As always, do visit Handmade Monday to see lots more lovely craft blogs. 


I'm not a having a very productive one here since the kids have a teacher training day, so one has gone out to work on homework with a friend, leaving the other one here all alone with no-one to play with! So I'd better get on with it...



As mentioned last time, I've been introduced to Pinterest (notice my new button up at the top left?? *hint hint*) and I pinned one of my knitted creations on there. It seemed to get quite a lot of 'repins' so I thought I'd share it with you all too! 

My Little Knitted Sock Owl

It's a prototype really - I think it needs a bit more 'cuteness' somehow. Maybe some more embroidery on it? Does anyone have any suggestions?
The owl was made from hand-dyed sock yarn, and is filled with plastic pellets and lavender so it smells gorgeous!


This then got me thinking about all the lovely handmade owls that there are around, so here are some of my favourites:

Tiny Crochet Owls on Etsy

These are so sweet! I want them all dangling off my bag.

Owl Mobile Phone Cosy on Etsy

Here's another thing on my 'Projects to Make' list!

Owl Cushion from The Purl Bee

This is just too gorgeous and huggable! It's made from alpaca yarn, so I can only just imagine how soft it must be.

Lastly, a lovely big thank you to Jam Dalory for this lovely award - it's very kind, and it's always nice to have a pretty picture to add and brighten up my page! I am struggling to find 5 blogs to award, because all the ones I follow have too many followers to qualify - but I will work on it and pass on the award soon!

See you soon!

Short & Sweet

Ok, I confess - I have rather neglected my blogging duties of late! I could blame all sorts of things - Christmas, New Year, laziness, the children, my very old/slow/unreliable computer etc. etc. All of those things do hinder my progress - so.... I am attempting a new tack. I will try to post more often, but in shorter bursts. Let's see if it works!!!

So, what have I been up to? The most exciting thing is that I'm currently doing a handmade marketing course - so I'm busy learning all about all sorts of cool stuff like branding, writing great product descriptions, the dos and don'ts of selling online... we've covered so much my poor brain can hardly take it all in! This week is our week off, so I'm supposed to be putting it all into action, so I'm gradually re-vamping my website, hopefully listing some things on Folksy and adding to my new Etsy shop - phew!

My new Etsy shop scheme

If you want to have a nosey at the course I'm on, there are some great freebies on their website so do feel free to have a look at Handmade Horizons, and watch this space for more news!

I've also discovered the black hole of gorgeousness that is Pinterest - those of you who are on there already, you will know what I mean!!! I could spend literally hours pinning away, so have had to be strict and set my timer when I'm on there. If you like, you can follow me here.

Finally, here's a couple of recent makes - a mini monster, who lives on my daughter's schoolbag!

Knitted Mini Monster bag charm

and since I'm thinking about Easter - the knitted chickens are back! I've done a variation on last year - this one has been knitted and then felted, and has crochet & embroidered features. She is filled with polypellets and lavender too, so she smells rather nice - unlike real chickens...!

A felted Spring Chicken!

Ok - that's it for now! I shall try to post again sooner rather than later.
Now don't forget to visit Handmade Monday and click on some of the other links!

See you soon ;-) xx

Sudbury Christmas Market - some lovely things!

This weekend I was at Sudbury Hall - a National Trust property near Uttoxeter - where they held a Christmas market over the weekend. Luckily for me, it turned out to be nicely busy!
 I usually display a range of products - some are bought-in wholesale gifts and others are my own handmade items (I don't think I could make enough stock to fill a whole table!) and I have to say that it was the 'bought-in' things that sold more than anything else. I do think that it has a lot to do with the fact that people seem to be being quite careful with their money this year and the imported, mass produced goods are obviously much cheaper than good quality handmade ones. However, it's not all doom and gloom - I did sell a good few of my wooden plaques, knitted boots, crochet toys etc. so I'm happy :-)

I was lucky enough to share the marquee with some very talented and lovely crafters so I thought I'd share some photos with you. Sorry that the quality of the photos is so awful - I used my phone, and I blame the fact that it was so cold that my hands must have been shaking too much!

Well, you know what a fan I am of cute needlefelted critters - imagine how inspiring it was to find these on the stall next to mine! They are amazing aren't they? All made by the very clever Sarah at Two Fat Hens


Needlefelted teddy bears

 It was also lovely to catch up with Naomi from Doveridge Crafts who sells Decopatch materials and also makes her own gorgeous items - check out this chair!


Decopatch chair in progress

 I love the way the paper blends so well with the colour of the wood - what a lovely way to make a piece of furniture really special. I couldn't resist a closer shot...!



Love the knitted hearts too!

 Being a birdwatcher in a previous life, it didn't take me long to spot these little lovelies - which I recognised from HWR Designs because I've admired them on Etsy! It was so nice to meet Helen, and I can now put a face to all the tweets (no pun intended!). I know what I'm going to be saving up for now... a whole menagerie of these little birds!



Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!!!

 And last but not least, here are some beautiful wooden ornaments from Diane at An Eggcup Full of Whiskers - sorry but I don't have a website address for her! These are made from reclaimed wood - can you guess what they were in a previous life?



Lovely, simple wooden ornaments

 Well, believe it or not Diane gets a lot of her wood from old pallets!! What a great way to recycle an everyday (and let's be honest, rather ugly) piece of wood.

So there you are - a lovely, inspiring weekend. Thank you to everyone who chatted to me, and especially to the stallholders who let me take photos of their fabulous products!
Now go and visit Handmade Monday to see what everyone else has been up to - see you next time :-)

Sock Monster completion!!

Just a quick post today - I finished my latest knitted sock monster! Hooray!!
I know, I know... she took absolutely ages (I don't know why, but this one feels like a female) but to be fair, I was working on other projects in between.

I made a concerted effort over the weekend to finish knitting the final arm while I was at a craft event at a local shopping centre. Then the evening was spent stuffing and sewing...
and finally this morning, came the last (and rather cruel) part - sticking her little monster mouth onto her face.
Here's a photo of the torture in progess!

I know it looks cruel - but it was worth it!

And last but not least, here is the new sock monster (at the back on the right) making friends with the original 'Sock' (my little boy's bedtime companion) and my other recent monster.

They make quite a cute little family don't they?

I should mention here that the monsters are designed by the very clever Rebecca Danger, and if you want to make your own you can buy the patterns here.

As always, do pop over to 1st Unique Gifts and see what's been going on for Handmade Monday this week.

See you next time :-)

A busy month of knitting and crochet

Oh dear! It's been rather a long time since my last post - I don't know where the time has gone!

So what have I been up to? Well, after my little foray into felting I bought some needlefelting equipment and have had a little play around - and made these little felt hearts as a starter project. They are lovely and squishy, but I'm not really sure they have much use!!

Little needlefelted hearts

Perhaps I'll hang on to them until Valentines Day and they can be used as little table decorations - or can you think of any uses for them?

I also knitted and then felted a little table mat for my daughter, then decorated it with some needlefelted flowers and twirly bits - it was a bit of an experiment (as always!) but she loves it, and it really brightens up her bedside table.

Daughter's bright colourful felted mat!

I've been busy with lots of orders for crocheted baby bootees too!

I have them listed in my Giftwrapped and Gorgeous online store, from which I get a steady flow of orders. I also went along to a couple of local 'Babysensory' classes to set up a display of my goodies (both my handmade bits and my baby castings) and got LOADS of orders from there!

I created a little owl hat to go with some boots too - here you go!

Crocheted baby owl hat and bootees

Next on the list is going to be a little hat with teddy bear ears I think - they still seem to be popular this autumn.

I've also made myself a cowl - it's not often I get time to make something just for me! Luckily, it's made in such a way that you can do it piece by piece so it was a case of doing little and often - I love the way the colours blend from one to another.

The new project for me (or rather our home) is going to be a crocheted throw! The pattern is out of a magazine I bought a while back, and I'm hoping it's going to be a good way to use up all my odds and ends of wool. Here's an idea of what I hope it will look like and here are the few squares I've done so far.

5 down, 94 to go!!

Finally, I also got round to using up some of my ever-growing stash of yarn - I made a second monster! If you missed the first one, you can read about him here.
This one is really cuddly and soft, and made from hand-dyed wool which has sat in my wool-bag for about a year. Here it is :)

The greeny coloured one is still in progress by the way - just one more arm to go!

Well, that's enought rambling from me - don't forget to check out the other blogs taking part in Handmade Monday.

See you next time - I will try and post something sooner rather than later! xx

Something New - Felting!

It's a lovely sunny morning here in Staffordshire, so a very happy Handmade Monday to you all!
Please do check out the other crafters taking part because there is always something lovely to discover. Thanks again to Wendy at 1st Unique Gifts for hosting this for us.

Well, you might remember that it was my birthday over the summer (you can read what I got up to in this post) and one of my lovely prezzies from hubby was a gift voucher to go on a felting course. It's something I had been hinting about quite heavily so I was amazed, thrilled even, that he actually noticed!!

Anyway, on Saturday I spent the day felting with a lovely lady, Lisa Marie Olson, who runs Tigerlily Makes - a felt-making boutique. I have to say, we all had a wonderful time - lots of coffee and cake was involved,

Cake is very important in crafting, isn't it?!

as well as a surprising amount of soap, water and lots (and lots and lots) of rubbing and agitating the fibres. I didn't realise how much effort it takes to make felt from wool fibres - our arms were quite tired by the end of it all and I think Lisa's catchphrase of the day was "nearly there.... just another 5 minutes!"

Once we had made our felt - we were making cushion covers - we then had even more fun embellishing them with whatever we fancied. I had a go at needlefelting and LOVED it!! I can feel a new hobby starting (and hear my husband sighing in resignation!). Basically, you get a really sharp needle, and stab at bits of carefully placed wool until they embed themselves into your fabric - and hopefully not your fingers....

So.... do you want to see the finished result?

My handfelted cushion!

Ta daaa! My first ever felted project - and probably the first of many! I am really pleased with how it came out - it makes me think of windy, autumnal days. Here are some close-ups of my favourite bits:

I love this little swirly bit!

I'm pleased with how this leaf turned out too!

Another swirly bit!

 So there you are! If you are thinking about trying a new craft, I would say 'Go for it!' because you never know what wonderful new ideas it will give you. Felting is great fun, and of course you don't just have to make cushions. I'm just trying to decide which felting course I want to try next - a wall hanging? a vase? a lovely new handbag.... maybe I'll have to do them all!

Better go before husband disconnects me from the internet...

See you next time! xx

Handmade Monday - Like Mother Like Daughter!

Hi again! Here's another Handmade Monday post - this week with some items made by my rather talented daughter - well, I would say that because I'm biased aren't I?
(I also have to say a quick thank you to a lady called Lucy from Attic 24 who inspired me by writing this post about her daughter's craft creations)

One of the best things about being a 'crafty' mum, is that the house is always full of bits and bobs of thread, beads, bits of fabric, leftover knitting wool etc. etc. It drives my poor husband to distraction by messing up the place and generally not leaving him anywhere to sit down and read the paper!

Fortunately (my husband would say 'unfortunately'), our daughter - age 10 - seems to have inherited a very arty/crafty streak and she spotted this book which I bought a while ago.

I have to say, it's a lovely book full of wonderful little motifs which aren't too tricky, and leave lots of room for extra inspiration! It came with a CD of the motifs as pdf files too, so you can spend ages playing about on the computer making up your own designs - a great way to spend far too many hours!!

Anyway, I am going off on a tangent - back to Daughter's efforts.

First, she decided to turn an old t-shirt (which was far too small) into a little cuddly cushion. She cut out the shapes and I showed her how to stitch the pieces together, then she stuffed it with polyfibre filling and sewed up the hole. Finally she chose a sweet cherry motif which she sketched onto the fabric, and then embroidered over it - and voila! Her very own snuggly cushion which she has by her pillow in bed.

Made from an old t-shirt!

Boosted by the success of this project, we found some leftover aida fabric and transferred a couple more motifs onto it - Daughter stitched them and we bought an embroidery hoop to act as a pretty little frame - wrapped in purple ribbon, her favourite colour!

Another little project!

Finally, here is her latest creation - inspired by the sock animals which we saw at a craft fair yesterday! This is Floppy Dog, the sock puppy - made from a very old pair of (sort of clean) socks!!

A little sock puppy - so sweet :-)

So there you are - I did ask Daughter if she wanted to write this post herself, but she has too much homework tonight and I secretly think she would rather finish knitting the little bag that she's started.

Please don't forget to look at the Handmade Monday blog by Wendy, and see what the other lovely crafters have been up to.
Until next time, keep safe and snug! x