Ellyot's Star Turn

And there he is, in all his glory - doesn't it look fantastic! Thanks, Kerry! The heart brooches on the front are from Ali at Very Berry, by the way.

Right now I'm busily working away on Christmas stocking cross-stitch patterns - I'm not sure how many I'll get up in the shop by 1st Nov, I've had a rotten cold and cough this week which has really slowed me down. There will be at least four; a matching set of which the first pattern is in Issue 1. So if you want to get a start on your Christmas tree hangings, go get it! They're nice and quick to do, you'll need a maximum of four colours of thread plus some metallic thread, sequins, beads, a scrap of ribbon, aida/linen and felt. Most people have those in their stash anyway so they're a nice way to add some new things to your tree without breaking the bank. And who can say no to more places to stash chocolate...

I also have Ellyot's sister Ellyson in the works - she has a head, anyway!

All ready for launch

...well, I am - ten days to go until the Crafteroo magazine hits the internets! I submitted the last of my tutorials over the weekend and now I can give you some tiny sneak peeks of what I've been working on. Of course, I am not *quite* ready for the new term yet - classes start again on Saturday so this week I'm sort of drowning in the paperwork which comes from having more than 15 new babies joining us! Which is pretty good going considering I can only do Saturdays at the moment - it certainly speaks for the quality of what we offer that people will travel long distances on inconvenient days.

Anyway, juggling two jobs, two kids and a house aside, here are some little glimpses of what I've done. Now make sure you look at these with your very best Rolf Harris "Can you guess what it is yet?" voice in mind...

Aren't these little star buttons adorable?

Spooooky stuff...

Ho, ho, ho!

I'm already looking forward to working on the Spring edition! In the meantime, I suppose I really ought to get on with all those projects that have got backed up...

Are You Ready For This...?

No, not Tim Minchin (but he is awesome so you should check him out, too). But this:

Check it out. I have three tutorials going in it! So that's why I haven't been around much. Well, at all (sorry). I got a sneak peek of one of them last night and I'm so pleased with it, I can't tell you -Kerry is a fantastic editor. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the others come out. Not to mention all the other fantastic projects I've had the joy of seeing come together over the last few months. I have to say, it's been really fulfilling, working with everyone to make something great for a lovely forum (the small cost goes to support the site, by the way); and I'm already looking forward to coming up with new projects for the next issue!

It's due out on - eek - 1st October - so make a note to pick it up then! I'm hoping to stock it in my shop if possible, but I will post some links nearer the time. I'm also hoping - if I get my finger out - to have some free downloads and some patterns for sale to accompany the projects I've submitted. Watch this space (and don't ask me about the poncho I had nearly finished and had to frog the lot in the meantime...).

Quick Upcycled Necklace

It's my sister's birthday lunch today and I don't have a thing to wear. Well, now I have.

Upcycled crochet necklace

This is upcycled from a plastic ring off a scarf which was used to display it in the shop, and an old unmatched earring (its mate is lying around in Germany somewhere, ho hum). I crocheted around the ring with Anchor no 8 and some Guterman rocailles, then converted the earring into a headpin by straightening, cutting and forming a loop to attach it to the crochet. One length of chain later, I have a new necklace.

I got my button swap from Apryl yesterday! I will write a post to do it justice later on, but right now I must dash off and get the girls presentable.

Spring Ring

K looooooves butterflies. She's not an especially girly-girl - we seem to have skipped the pink princesses phase so far (there's still time, I'm under no illusions!) - but butterflies are The Biz as far as she's concerned.

On her bedroom door she's had some big butterflies we made through mirror-image printing (you know, where you paint half the picture and fold it over), but they've been up there since she was about two and they were looking really tired and scruffy. So when I saw this project in Popular Crafts on Sunday we barely paused for breath before leaping into the car to get the equipment.

This is SUCH a simple project - wrap yarn round a polystyrene ring and pin on some paper butterflies - and a joy to do with her. She chose the rather fluorescent green herself, of course, and picked out some silk flowers to be woven in too (I recommend doing this bit after you've wrapped the whole ring first as it's easy to knock them out otherwise). We didn't get a butterfly punch, as recommended in the magazine; we just Googled for a good template and printed it out onto patterned and pearlised paper (all of which we'd aquired for free, so total cost was under £4!). K's pretty nifty with the scissors so she cut them all out herself and pinned them on, too. I'd probably use fewer myself, but it's absolutely bursting with five-year-old's exuberance...I love it.

It really breathes life into the rather dark stairwell at the top of our stairs, and it's inspired several other sekrit projects which are now on the boil. Hurray!

Awesome People Are Awesome

As loulouk would say :-D

So yes, things are very very very slow here, sorry. Every single time I sit down to write something there is the inevitable wail of baby-needs-mummy, and even if I sit here with her strapped to me, fast asleep, the length of time it takes Blogger to stop having a conniption fit with photos means that she's been waking up before I get an entry finished (but fingers crossed, complaining to my personal Sys Admin has done the job by reverting to the older uploader, hehe). D has two baby teeth through now, so I'm briefly coming up for air to write a little. I'm barely getting anything done at the moment but now that these teeth are through I may be able to quickly embroider the girls' names for the Santa sacks my mum is making.


Anyway, Awesome People Are Awesome and I have to write about the wonderful surprise I got in the post yesterday morning from Glen at Steampunk Glass. I've had this:



on my wishlist for a long time, and my mother-in-law said she'd buy it me for Christmas, so off I tootled and ordered it. When it arrived it felt rather heavy and I wondered - for lo, Mr Steampunk Glass is an exceptionally generous man - whether there was one of his gorgeous marbles in there too, since he'd sent me one when I ordered my birthday earrings. Which I still haven't blogged, whoops. :blush:


It wasn't a marble. It was a whole extra pendant. To say I'm flabbergasted and grateful would be underplaying it by quite a lot. So thank you, thank you, thank you very much...you can't get much more awesome than that, can you? So I command you to go and buy beautiful things from a fantastic artist who is both a scholar and a gentleman. Go on, off you go! :)

(apologies for the quality of my photos, I was in rather a rush and glass is impossible to do a good job on for an amateur like me!)