Scraphappy Saturday goodbye to purple and a small giveaway...

It's been such a busy month that I barely feel like I've started with purple and the month is over. Just one of those things I guess. In the last couple of days I did manage to get my chequerboard blocks doneSorry for the crappy picture I didn't really pay much attention while I was taking it and I've put the blocks away with the others now and can't be bothered to haul them out to get a better shot - lazy I know.

The only other thing I got done this week for the rainbow challenge was to make an ATC from a few tiny leftovers of the collage fabric I made my doll Collette with.I've decided to give this little piece away to one of my lovely friends and readers who leaves a comment here on this post. Just leave me a comment and if you are on 'no reply' setting your email and I will draw a winner on Monday.

I'm hoping to have more time for this challenge next month ... I wonder what the colour will be, not long to wait to find out :)

Were you invited?

Unless you happen to live in a remote cave, if you're in the UK, and possibly anywhere else in the world, it won't have escaped your notice that there is a wedding today!

Did your invitation get lost in the mail, like mine? Will you be watching? I'm not really a follower of the royal family but we're making an effort to be patriotic today. Hector looks proud to be British anyway!! :)

At last a little bit of stitching...

Only a little bit though...... while I was with family at the weekend I took a few purple scraps to play with and ended up with this little granny flower pincushion
Fabrics are different on each side.
I've been thinking about starting up a little Etsy shop or similar. Buying threads, fabrics and books for my City and Guilds is costing a bit more than I expected, and I'm always making stuff that just ends up sitting round the house so I thought may be this could be a way of getting a few extra pennies to put back in to the course. I know there are lots of wonderfully creative people out there and my stuff would be pretty basic compared to some so might not sell but every little helps right and anything would be a happy bonus. Maybe this little cushion will be among the first things in the shop. Anyone out there already on Etsy and have any good advice?

Anyway back to the purple scraps, these haven't been stitched yet but I have all the squares cut for my purple chequerboard blocks so hopefully that will get done this week in time for scrappy Saturday.And finally I just had to show you this lovely fabric goodness. I'm so excited to have won a giveaway on Vicki's blog recently. Just look at all this wonderful fabric. I'm so lucky.Good quality quilting cotton is always so expensive here in the UK so it's a real treat for me to receive all this. Lots of gorgeous orangeness too my favourite. I'm thrilled with the parcel. Thanks so much Vicki!

Whirlwind Weekend

I hope you all had a fabulous Easter weekend. I really did. I spent some time visiting family and getting cuddles from my gorgeous nephewsThen there were long walks down the river, what hard work that was ;-)And more long walks through the woods admiring the beautiful bluebells in the sun.The peace and quiet of the bluebell wood was a world away from the manic madness of spending time with family and two noisy nephews, but that doesn't mean there wasn't time for a moment of silliness or two :)The only thing that I didn't really get done was any stitching. But I'm hoping to be back tomorrow with some stitching content, I know it's been a while!

Hope your weekend was as joyful as mine. X

Happy Easter

I don't have any picture of little chicks so you'll have to make do with some ducklings instead, taken on a lovely walk in the sunshine by the river today. I will be back blogging properly soon - I promise. X

Happy

Things have been a bit quiet round here the last few days, and it might continue that way for a few more yet. I've been taking some time out - wasn't planned just happened - and I'm enjoying the feeling of being so happy and relaxed. Here I am in my own little world wandering a beautiful Cornish beach at the weekend. Don't you love those days when everything comes together, the moment and the feelings are right, and just for a while you find your own little slice of heaven? I hope that you manage to stumble across one of those days for yourself soon. X

Scraphappy Saturday and 3CS

Don't you love it when you can multitask? This post is good for both the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and I'm happy to report that I just made the deadline for the 3CS challenge too :)You might remember that last week I was busy making up some collage fabrics from my tiny scraps. Well they have all now been cut up and stitched back together to make a new doll. I'm call her Collette.She's my entry for this last months 3CS challenge. Actually it's quite tricky to get a picture of her as a whole as she is really long and skinny. Again as with the other dolls I've made this year there is plenty of room for improvement but overall I'm really happy with how she turned out.I found the construction a bit strange as you basically make a flat head, with only the tiniest amount of stuffing and then stitch that on to the neck of your main doll form. My face shape went a little squiffy and there a few tucks where there shouldn't be, but I'm not calling them mistakes they add character ;) After all we can't all be perfect.I do like her long elegant shape though. I think I'll add some kind of hook to her back and have her hanging from the wall somewhere. I also love that she had separate little hands and feet attached to the long limbs with beads. These small pieces were quite tricky to turn but that was probably as much to do with the fact that I had seams in my fabrics from the collaging as it was the size of the pieces.I gave her a great big shock of hair made from some yarn that I found in my yarn box. It's a mix from two different balls in the same range on in green and the other in pinks and purples, they were just perfect for the colour scheme.

I'm loving taking part in both of these challenges such a great way to use up bits and pieces that I've had just hanging around waiting to find a use :)

If you want to find out what everyone else has been doing this week in the Rainbow Challenge you can visit here There will be a linky post to take you to everyone elses blogs.

And if you want to see what else has been made for the 3CS challenge check out the Flickr Group here

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend, I know I will :)

Amsterdam - Tulips

Well it would be rude to visit Amsterdam in the Spring and not make the effort to seek out some tulips. So on a beautiful Sunday afternoon I jumped on another bus and went to Keukenhof.What a beautiful afternoon I spent among the flowers.The tulips were just starting to come out while I was there but I would imagine it would be spectacular to visit now a few weeks on, I expect they will all be in full bloom. Still there was plenty to see, tulips, other spring flowers, sculptures, and pretty garden displays. Here are a few of the shots I took.As you can see lots of beautiful colour everywhere. There was also another windmill in the park.This one was actually open and you could go part way up inside. What a lovely view looking out over the park.Also it was fun to get up close and get some other views on the windmill. The blades were turning in the breeze so I had to stand for a while with my camera pointing up to get a shot whose composition I was happy with. Everyone else had their cameras pointing out over the pretty view I think they thought I was quite mad!

The park also has several covered pavilions, one of them had a beautiful display of orchids and exotic flowersThere were also little display stands dotted around in the pavilions. I loved this little display of antique style lights.Of course I can't let you go without one final shot of the tulips.If you are not already totally bored of hearing about my trip I still have another couple of posts to share .....but that will be for another time

So busy

Life is just so busy for me at the moment it's unreal. The days are just flying and I never seem to fit in as much as I want to. So I want to apologise to all the lovely people that have been leaving me comments recently that I haven't yet had time to reply to. I'm behind with email, I'm behind with blog reading, I'm behind with my to do list, and just generally behind with life, lol. Hopefully I'll catch up soon, but it won't be this weekend as we're away for a couple of days...

Anyway enough waffle. I'm busy trying to get my 3CS doll finished for this months deadline which is tomorrow, eeek! The body is just about done. I'm busy on the headThe face has been drafted and I have started adding some colour. This is what I have so far (the picture shows my head next to the one in the book)Now I have to spend some time after work adding more colour and getting some hair on this little lady. I'm hoping I might squeeze in just before the deadline.

Weekend Wonders

We were treated to some absolutely glorious weather this last weekend gone. The perfect time to start catching up on chores in the garden.I managed to get the lawns cut and some of the weeding done, there is still a long way to go but things out there are looking a lot better already. After some hard work I was lazing around on the lawn and Molly came to join me. I was trying to take her picture but she was more interested in rubbing up against the camera than posing for it!Eventually she settled for rubbing herself in the grass rather than against the camera!Also at the weekend we had the pleasure of looking after my friends two girls for a while. We managed to pack in lots of fun while we were with them including some sewing, as they both like making things. So I'd like to introduce you to the sock gang we made.We had a fun trip in to town to find some cheap socks to buy, sods law dictated we all wanted socks from different packs so I think we came away with 9 pairs in the end, enough to make 18 sock bunnies!This here is Sparkle, she was made by Elli who is the youngest of the girls, she's 9. She did all the stitching herself.Elli also helped Dave with his sock creature too. He got bored after stitching up the ears so Elli did all the stuffing and the face on this one too. It's called Delli - Dave and ElliThis is Lucy Cooper. Amber made this one. She is a girl after my own heart, she picked out these cute skull and heart socks, which I love! And I also love the tongue hanging out of Lucy's mouth.Finally this is numbskull. This one is mine. He's called numbskull as he has a great big green skull on the back of his head.

We had such a brilliant weekend, made going back to work on Monday so much harder, lol!

Amsterdam - Cheese, Windmills and Clogs

Time for another Amsterdam post. It already seems like I took the trip ages ago, time flies so fast but I'm glad that I haven't gotten round to blogging about it much yet so I get to relive the happy memories.

This post is all about three things that Holland is famous for Cheese, Windmills and Clogs! No matter where you go you can't get away from them.
This fabulous cheese shop was on one of the main shopping streets in Amsterdam, looks at all those lovely yellow rounds in the window. I have to admit that I really do like cheese, give me a plate of cheese and biscuits to scoff and I'm a happy bunny.On the Saturday I jumped on an organised excursion - part of which took in a little cheese making farm where we got a quick demonstration from this lovely lady all dressed up in traditional garb.Cheese making wasn't the only demonstration we got that day though as we went to a little clog making workshop too. I loved the clog making demo with the noisy machines and the smell of wood. And look at all those clogs hanging from the ceiling!I did resist the temptation to buy a pair, but now I wish I hadn't. I could just picture me now strutting down Chippenham High Street trend setting in my wooden shoes, lol!! ;-)The main reason for me wanting to take the trip though was the search for windmills. Surely it would be sacrilege to travel to Holland without seeing a windmill or two.We arrived at the windmills just in time to catch the tail end of the evening light. Unfortunately we weren't treated to a dramatic sunset, but it was really pretty just the same.