My Weblog

First pair of socks

Knitted for Molly

Sock Yarn - Regia silk colour, shade 185.

Pattern - Regia sock pattern, slightly modified to include two large holes, lots of ladders, four five or six dropped stitches, various extra stitches here and there, and some very crap Kitchener stitching on the toes.

O.k...moving on...

New book.

ISBN 9784579111640. Making cute little bags from your little 'uns drawings.

Very cute. Reminds me of a time many moons ago, when Tom was around 5 years old and his class had made little cakes and a paper envelope to carry them home in. They were allowed to decorate the envelopes in any way they chose, and my friend's daughter chose to decorate hers with lots of drawings of... *male parts*

Lots

and

lots

of

them.

Very good drawings they were too.

I wonder if she still has that envelope ? That would make an interesting bag. I'll ask her.

The latest

Cotton Time magazine

The Christmas* edition.

Sweet trees

Cosy coasters

In the book there are lots of these little bags hung on a christmas tree. Ummm - yeah right -because we're all going to have lots of spare time to do that - yes ?. I strongly suspect I'll be decorating my tree with my usual christmas tat (dicionary definition - tastelessness by virtue of being cheap and vulgar).

I like this lovely advent calendar, and speaking of lovely advent calendars - have you see Jenny's gorgeous tutorial here ?

The family Santa.

A tree with balls on.

And very cutie booties.

I got my copy here.

* Sorry to mention the christmas word, it's devilishly early I know, but I had nothing else to post about . Well, not unless you wanted to hear about how long it took to get through my pile of ironing today ?

No ?

I thought not.

Because I'm even beginning to bore myself now.

: ) 

Just

Well, I did it. I survived another long school summer holiday. My ears and my nerves are battered and shattered but I survived.

Just.

Anybody else find being a parent hard sometimes ?

Good, I thought so. I'm just going to stop typing for a moment and give all of you Mamas a great big hug.

(((   )))

Did you feel it ?

Anyway, at last I can feel my crafting mojo returning, I sat in the garden yesterday and sewed a little sewing,

mini tissue holders for Molly and her friend Ellie to put in their school bags. I could say that I made them mini size to fit in their pockets, but that would be a lie. They are mini because I completely buggered up the measurements and had to fold the tissues in half to make them fit.  They do fit in little girl's pockets though, so it's a happy accident as opposed to a complete f*%^ up. ( Do excuse my bad language - thats another thing I'll blame on the school holidays).

I also at last had time to peruse the pages of my latest Cotton Time mag,

I love these simple embroidery ideas,

and there's some lovely linen work too, nice linen seems so hard to get hold of in the U.K, anybody know any good suppliers ?

Some nice applique,

and lots of shopping bag ideas.

There are also some very cute softies

there are pattern pieces for Red Riding Hood, but no instructions, but I guess she 's simple enough to put together. Cute eh ?

And how about this little sweetie

I love his little apron.

Available from e-bay  amazonjp and  Superbuzzy usually stock these mags too.

Have a great weekend !

Cotton & Paint

No time for words, it's sunny (amazingly) and we're awf * to the seaside.

Cotton & paint

* that's how the Queen and posh types like me (not) say off.

One in ten

Sorry, I haven't had the chance to do the mousey pattern yet, but it will be done very soon I promise, I'll also do a very easy how-to for his bed.

I've been very busy putting together a little someone for the one in ten auction, I found Eireann in my spam box at the beginning of this week ( along with a lot of other e-mails that shouldn't have been there - if you've mailed me and I haven't replied it's because you've been languishing in my spam box too. I do apologise ), so it's been all systems go on getting my contribution ready.

In the meantime I'll show some pics from the summer Cotton time magazine.

Available from Superbuzzy and here.

And here's a sneaky- peeky of the little man that will be going to the auction

more pics and details tomorrow.

: )

Arnold and stamps

Arnold

Arnold is a present for Alfie, who's birthday was in december. Which makes this gift 6 months late. Is that a record ?

Oh, and I got me a cutie-cute book on carving stamps.

ISBN 978 4 529 04339 7, available here, also available at amazonjp, but I can't link directly to it. Just type in the number, spaces included.

I think I'm going to stamp 'HURRY UP' on my children's foreheads in the mornings.

There are cute ideas for stamping onto fabric, paper bags, china , plant pots, coat hangers, socks, lunchboxes - you name it, they've stamped it. All you have to do is trace the designs and carve away. Hah ! - if only it were that simple.

New mag

Cotton & Paint vol 28

nice linen shawl

I like the patchwork straps on this bag. I want to make myself a new patchwork shopping bag next week ( if I get the time). maybe it'll have a label on it saying " I am not an Anya Hindmarch bag " ?

; )

There's some pretty crochet,

nice corsages

wooden shelves and little pots made from card.

Pretty clothes,

And some nice bags

Available at amazonjp  (type cotton & paint into the search box), although they only express ship now. I recieved my copy two days after I ordered it, but man, it was pricey.  Also available here - one of my favourite e-bay sellers.

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

It's Billy's birthday on Monday, so tonight he get's his Nintendo wii that he has had to save up half of the money for (this has been an extremely hard thing for Billy to do as money burns a huge hole in his pocket).

He gets it tonight so the menfolk in the house can play on it all weekend, probably only stopping to eat and wee. That's probably why it's called what it is - to remind you to go to the lavvy and not pee your pants.

Molly and I will be left in peace to make beaded bracelets and a sleeping bag for her teddy.

Bliss.

Another favourite book

Imaginative title eh ?

This week's wip

little baby shoes. Pattern from this book.

Speaking of baby shoes, there are some lovely ones in here

ISBN 4 07 246385 x

How cute are they ?

There are also lots of other nice things for baby..

simple little blankets and a bag to put them in.

A nice bag for Mummy to cart around all the crap things you have to cart around when you have a little 'un.

cutie hat

toys

and very cute applique and stamp ideas.

available here and here.

Have a great weekend everyone, I shall mostly be tackling my huge pile of ironing before it topples over and crushes someone to death.

And I'm not joking.

Favourite craft books p2

This is my favourite Japanese bag book

Isbn 4 7762 0045 7

Lots of all lovely shapes in this one, most with full size paper patterns.

and lots more.

As usual the patterns are pretty easy to figure out.

My favourite baby stuff book is this one and another which I will post photos of next week.

Favourite embroidery book  this one.

One of my fave softies

And this one for bears.

For illo cutness you can't beat this and this .

This one for cuteness.

And two of my favourite zakka books here.

Right, that will do for now. It's back to the garden and the sunshine for me.

' Lolling around ' in the garden that is - not actually ' gardening '. I hate gardening, it's like housework - you do it and then it all comes back again.

I have better things to do with my time.

Like... ummm... ' lolling around ' in the garden, stitching.

It's a tough life.

new mag

Cotton & paint

Available from kitty or here or here. Although I'm finding it hard to say go spend your hard earned dosh on this one.

There are some nice things in here..

shoes a plenty...

bags a plenty...

some lovely crochet...

and some cutie cuteness.

But really, as Hillary said a while ago ( sorry, to lazy to find the exact link), I'm starting to feel a little jaded with the newest mags. They are still lovely, but, if you have a stash of Japanese craft mags I'm not sure you'll find a lot for you here. On the other hand, if you are new to Japanese craft magazines/ books, I can't sing their praises highly enough.

I think maybe I'll post a list of my Japanese craft book favourites.., and why they are my favourites , what do you think ? I'd love to hear what other peoples favourite are too...