My Weblog

Nora - Nora Who ?

Bloody Nora . It's been a bit chilly here, so my fancy has turned to knitting.

I have an on-off love affair with knitting - mostly off these days. But I need something to put around my shoulders to keep me warm when I'm reading my many many favourite blogs. Which is usually late at night, when the heating has clicked off.

So this is my this weeks wip

 

Finishing off a 'Granny' type shawl. I started off knitting it and then I got bored and switched to crochet ( crochet is my new best friend, I want to learn how to make something as lovely as this and this).

It all sort of bunched up when I combined the two techniques , but who cares ? Nobody can see me, I don't have a working web cam. My last one cracked.

A puppy and a mag

I have a little puppy eagerly looking for a new home ( haven't I been the busy one this week ! )

You can find him here. 

And I have a new Japanese craft magazine to drool over here..

isbn 4 529 04332 0

It has lots of very cute clothes for little girls and one or two things for boys too

I love this skirt and top,

and this coat is too much - I want one. Now.

These little shorts look sweet,

and this is sweet too.

There are a couple of patterns for toys

a lovely wall-hanging pocket thingie,

some cute hair things,

and some sweet shoes/teddy and cushion.

There are also inspirational pages of children's rooms and a cute little  Colobockle story.

This is a lovely book to buy particularly if you have a little girl to dress up.

Available here and here.

Did you all spend money at Kitty's ? When I went back to have another look this morning, a load of stuff was gone, heh heh. Fabric addicts ? - Us ? - *Possibly*

; )

Kitty

Just a quick note to say...

Kitty is open !

Which means my children won't be eating this week. Any money will be spent on FaBRiC.

Betty

There's a little person in my shop looking for a new home..

She doesn't like living here - it's too noisy.

Paper and fabric

I've been fiddling around with papier/fabric mache today

I've glued squares of fabric onto a piece of paper - I think I'll do some hand stitching on it next, and then maybe some buttons ?

I've long loved papier mache, there are quite a few pieces knocking around the house,

this little bowl was made from newspaper pulp and painted with acrylics, it's such fun to do and I find it really relaxing - I like layering things.

A google blog search found some lovely paper/fabric goodies for me..

Stephanie and Mia's lovely hot air balloons

Alicia's so sweet birds and baubles

Ann's amazing ships

and Amanda has a brilliant tutorial here

and then a further google search led me here - an artist that uses paper, fabric and found objects.

oh, and did I ever tell you how much I love Shari Elf's work ?

and I can't talk about paper and fabric without mentioning Julie Arkell again - a girl can never have too much Julie Arkell , and take a look at the other artists on this website - I love these little girls and him and him. Cute.

Here's my wip for today

a little puppy waiting for his legs and a tail to wag.

Have a lovely weekend !

xxx

Bears to be

I wish you could feel this stuff, everytime I walk past it, I have to touch it...

Lovely, snuggly mohair - little bears-to-be.

It's amazing how soft this stuff is, it's expensive when you compare it to the alternatives, but it's worth it. I buy it from various places, including e-bay - e-mail me if you want any more info.

Meanwhile, here is one of the craft books Father Christmas bought for me

Available here and here

I like this zig-zaggy look, I seem to remember doing this on a textile course, I'll have find my example and do a 'how-to' if anyone wants to know.

Hmmm... smocking... don't think I'll be trying that anytime soon. Nice bag though.

There are some nice paper projects in this issue, I love this gift bag,and the bowls below, and the message board..

And there are some cute softies and their clothes..

Oh, and I want one of these..

A pale and interesting and uncluttered work room

Ha ! -  that is never going to happen for me, I am far too scatty/chaotic to live in such harmony. And really and truly - does anybody actually have a lovely room like this ?

If you do , please don't tell me, because I like to think that we are all alike and just behind the photographer is a huge big jumbled-up pile of creative crap.

Out with the old

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE !

First thing to mention is the Kim Family Auction which starts today - and GOODNESS ME there's some lovely stuff over there - anyone who's hopped over here to see more of my contribution, please scroll down to the post below.  : )

We've had a lovely Christmas and I hope you did too, I'm bored with it all now though and the children went back to school today so it's full crafting steam ahead.

My creaky cranky very old steam-powered computer is finally giving up the ghost and is being replaced by a brand spanking new sweetie this afternoon. Yippee . For the past fortnight I've had intermittent internet access (try saying that when you've had a few), and my e-mails have been blocked by an over enthusiastic anti-virus system that appears to have developed a mind of it's own, so it's time to chuck it on the scrap heap. I'm a harsh woman.

I've been frantically saving my favourites before the switch over and spent hours last night looking through them all. Here are a few of the ones that are inspiring me today.

I Love the crafts and illustrations here .

Rei Komurasaki's stuff. I want to do some toy-making workshops at the children's school and I think these will be a great inspiration.  Also checkout Deborah's lovely blog, she mentions Rei's work, as well as linking to lots of lovely illustration sites, and Deborah's own work is so colourful and wonderful.

I'd also love to make a quilt like this with the kids - isn't it fantastic.

Marion's illustrations and toys are just too cute.

More lovely illustrations.

And more.

This is fun.

And I fancy doing some more papier mache, so drooling over Julie Arkell's work is a must.

There are lot's more I've been looking at, but the noises this computer is making are scaring me, so I'm going to save this post before it disappears...

Hopefully I will be back on Friday with some photos of the Japanese craft books and very cute fabric Father Christmas brought for Molly and Me - he's very clever that Father Christmas - he knows exactly what to give.   : )

My New Year's resolution is to stop stressing over the grammar and correctness of what I write on this blog, and to just get on with it and maybe not even read it back to myself .  I had a great English teacher once, who said that the secret of writing a truly personal letter, was to write like you speak - and never check it for mistakes.

So you have even more mis-spelt badly punctuated rubbish to look forward to this year.

I'm looking forward to another blogging year, and I'd like to take the opportunity to say thank you so much to everyone who drops by, and thank you for all the lovely comments, and thank you for inspiring me with your lovely work and thoughts, and most of all thank you for listening to me prattle on about bugger all.