Out with the old..........

.. and in with the new (nearly). I hope you all had a fab. Crimbo and are fully rested and ready to start a great new year. I can't believe that 2011 has been and gone. I'll be back blogging properly soon but thought I'd look back over the last year of blogging and re post a few of my favourite pics  of the year, I hope you don't mind a bit of self indulgence? Have a HAPPY, healthy and SUPER NEW YEAR!

We are nearly ready for the big day.........

Made by my Mum

Handmade tags by Vintage One

Our cool Yule Log

.....and are so excited, only two more sleeps! To all the folk who drop by my blog, thank-you so much taking the time and for all the lovely comments. I hope you have a fab. Christmas and a very jolly new year. See you all in 2012. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Snowmen

Some great snowmen made by the kids at my sons school.

Have a handmade Christmas

My lovely friend gave me this handmade robin this week. He's rockin' on my windowsill. Isn't he great? Thanks Anne!

And the winner is.............

Monda Loves yey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well Done Monda you have won the cards in my bloggie birthday give-away. Please email me your address and I will post the cards to you this week. A huge thank-you to everyone who left lovely comments, please pop back soon.

My Christmas list!

 

How times have changed hey? Nice looking ad though.

Last chance to enter the giveaway

Don't forget to enter my giveaway and you may win lots of lovely greetings cards. Leave a comment here before midnight (GMT) tonight and I'll put you in the draw. Good luck!

It's show time!

Nativity group from Alessi

It's Nativity time again and I love them although I get very emotional every year. I am the pathetic embarrassing Mummy at the side blubbing into a tissue. I have a good cry, a mince pie and return home feeling festive and full of Christmas cheer. Excellent!

Monday morning

Let's take a break from all the Christmas madness and have a cuppa!

New picture

A collage made out of scraps of my print designs, fabric bits and other found objects. The lovely cat is by Jane Foster.

It's my blog birthday today!

I have been blogging for a year now and thought I'd celebrate with a little give-away. I heard that on average, a person in the UK buys 31 greetings cards every year so I thought I'd give away some cards to help someone on their way to their yearly quota.  Twenty cards are up for grabs (some of which are shown here), some are printed (by the lovely Paperclip Cards) and some are hand made, all of them are designed by ME! Please leave a comment if you'd like to win. I'll draw the winner on Sunday the 11th  December. Good luck! (This is a world wide give-away)

National Freelancers Day

Today is National Freelancers Day. Basically the day celebrates and advertises the value of independent workers to the UK economy. For more info on the day and other interesting freelance info.  please follow this link here

This week my colour palette will mostly be this!

Buttons on Ebay here

Little Tree

My son found and dragged the stick home, my hubby added the stand and I decorated it in little Autumn lanterns. My family think I'm barking mad but I love my little tree.

R.E.M

It's nearly the weekend so listen to this, relax and chill out. It's beauty for the ears!

Olympic 2012 Posters

The official posters for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, designed by some of the UK's leading artists, have been unveiled. There has been a flurry of criticism since they were released, with folk saying they are "disappointing' and "absolute rubbish". Personally I like them but if I had been asked to choose an Olympic poster, I would have chosen the above by Galenz Galinato aged 10 from Thorpe Primary School who won first prize in the Peterborough Olympic art competition.  I love it's honesty, creativity and HOPE! Go Galinato!  London 2012 festival

Christmas Bazaar stuff!

Here are some soaps I wrapped in my prints and decorated for a Christmas Bazaar I am doing in December. Sorry to mention the dreaded C word in November, please forgive me?

Maxine Sutton

I love love LOVE Maxine Sutton's work and have admired it for ages. I love the graphic style, the mixed media, the colours, the printing, the quirkiness. Arr, I just love it. For more info on Maxine's work (she has a gorgeous shop and does workshops too) please follow this link here.

Eat, drink and be scary!

To Autumn - John Keats

SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness,   

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;       

Conspiring with him how to load and bless   

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;   

To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,           

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;   

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells   

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,   

And still more, later flowers for the bees,   

Until they think warm days will never cease,         

For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

  
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
 Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
 Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
 Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;      
 Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
 Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
 Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
 And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
 Steady thy laden head across a brook;    
 Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
 Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
 

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?  

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—  

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,          

And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;  

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn  

Among the river sallows, borne aloft  

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;  

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;         

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft  

The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;  

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies. 

Double yUm!

My daughter made these this afternoon out of Plasticine (remember that?) after seeing the handmade chocs this morning. Fab aren't they? She has even done a little key. Bless!

Yum!

Lauden chocolates from Leeds in the UK and honestly, they taste as good as they look.

Midnight in Paris

 
I really enjoyed the latest Woody Allen film because:  it's set in Paris (the cinematography is gorgeous), the main protagonist experiences going back in time (I spent ages after seeing the film thinking about what I'd like to go back and experience. I would like to go to the Live Aid Concert in 1985 and see Elvis in Vegas in the 1970's and THAT is just for starters!) and it's a romantic comedy with a central message that nostalgic romanticism for the past is a wasted effort, nothing but an excuse to give up on the present and the future (I get this but would still would like to travel back in time). If you could time travel what would you like to experience?

Mr X Stitch

Cross stitch designs by Mr X Stitch

I went to a great talk last week by a manbroiderer, Jamie Chalmers aka Mr X Stitch (manbroiderer because he thinks that sounds cooler than embroiderer). I hate stereotypes, but put it this way, when you see Jamie you would say he was more of a hammer and chisel weilding man than a needle weilding stitcher (he admits himself that he is an unlikely candidate for creating a cross stitch design, but he really enjoys stitching and finds it "good for his sole"). Jamie shared his fantastic, humerous and creative work, plus he showed us some other inspirational textile artists from around the world.  He has written a great book called PUSH Stitchery which is devoted to indie-crafters and artists pushing the boundaries of traditional crafting mediums. Inside the book you'll find tattoo-inspired stumpwork (3D embroidery), pinup cross-stitch even embroidered metal.  To buy the book on Amazon please follow this link here and to find out more about Mr X Stitch take a look at his blog here. It's great to discover new artists and the talk has really inspired me to try and be more experimental when I stitch. Thanks Mr X!

Twiggy

Our garden is looking decidedly "twiggy" now : (

Silver Studios

In my final post about my trip to Ali Pali I want to tell you about a wonderful stand at the show which exhibited work from the The Silver Studios. They were the most influential textile design studio in the UK from its formation in 1880, until the middle of the twentieth century. I had not heard of them before so it was great to see that The Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture (where a lot of the archive is held) has created this touring exhibition. The exhibition is called Petal Power and features the work of women employed by the Silver Studio in London between 1910 and 1940.  The hand-drawn and painted textile designs produced by them, map the trends for printed florals which were the fashion fabrics of inter-war England.  The early twentieth century brought new opportunities for women to become designers of fashion fabrics as well as consumers.  This story is of women making their mark in a previously male-dominated world. It was lovely to see the beautifully hand painted designs, some of which had a little typed messages next to them with a brief or comments on a submitted design. Sorry about the rubbish photographs, I couldn't use a flash and the light was low.