Folksy Friday - Holidays!

I know it's early this week but as I am now on holiday from work for 10 whole days I'm a bit excited. So I have been looking at holiday-themed items on Folksy and I decided to have that as my theme for this week.

First up is this groovy holiday themed bunting by Cottoncabin. I love the stamp print.


Next I've chosen these cute gift tags made from maps by Little Silverleaf. Whenever I'm going anywhere I love having the map and looking at it over and over! I can spend hours looking through an atlas.
Next I've chosen this linen fishing boat cushion cover by Jo Fulham because it reminds me of my holiday to Cornwall last year.


How cute is this suitcase necklace by She Draws?!


Whenever I go away I like to make lists of everything I'm taking and check things off as I pack it in my case. And what a lovely case this is! I love red and white together in the summer. It's made by MamaRuby.
So, I shall definitely be enjoying my holiday next week - even though I'm not going anywhere, I will have plenty of time to craft!

(Mis)adventures in Purse Making!

…or “what I have learned this weekend”

I have a bit of a thing about purses. (Also bags, shoes, hats, coats, make-up, Momiji, stationery… but now we are talking about purses!) On an average day I have 3 purses with me – money/general, excess cards and ‘savings’ (which is where I keep money saved to pay for my Spanish lessons and my dog classes). Before I switched to a smaller handbag I also had a coin purse too! On any given day this number can increase if I fancy carrying more make-up, money for a different purpose, or just another purse!

I had an idea for a line of coin purses and glasses cases but absolutely no idea how to go about making them. Good old Google to the rescue! I found this site U-Handbag, which sells everything you might want for making bags and also has a good selection of really useful and well put-together tutorials with pictures – and they’re FREE!!

So, I ordered some coin purse frames from a fellow folksy seller HollieLollie Supplies. I also got the Gutermann HT2 glue recommended by the tutorials. When the glue arrived last week I set aside this weekend to have a go.

The tutorial was so good that I figured it would be a doddle and was a teeny bit smug about it I think. Never a good way to be! It went pretty well at the beginning. I chose a groovy owl print cotton from my stash. I designed a pattern following the instructions, cut out all my pieces and stitched them together following the directions. So far; so good. At this stage it looked pretty impressive…

Then I came to the point to start gluing and I learned a few things.

1) When it says ‘be generous’ it probably doesn’t mean ‘use half a tube’

2) When squeezing the glue – it keeps coming out for a long time afterwards and is really gloopy!

3) Ventilate the room really well as the glue is really strong smelling and gave me a headache

4) Don’t cut corners – check the seam allowances or it might not fit in the frame properly

5) No really, don’t cut corners – even though you hate ironing, it really does help to press the seams properly.

6) Everyone makes mistakes – the trick is to laugh and learn.

After this I made a somewhat more successful attempt, which I’m afraid I can’t show here yet as it turned out well enough to be a gift, but I will post a picture once the recipient has received it!

I’ve ordered some more frames and I’m hoping that with a bit more practice I will improve! I’ve got next week off work, so I’m going to spend a couple of days sewing and see what occurs! I want to make myself a skirt as well, but I think I’ve caught up on all my trouser-shortening, button replacing chores now!

As it is Monday and I missed out on Momiji Monday last week (because I was so busy trouser-shortening and button-replacing) I am tagging a Momiji on to the end of this post to make up for it.

This one is Dreaming - I thought that was apt! Dreaming is from Generation 2. She likes quantum mechanics, Las Vegas and surprises!

Sundays are my favourite days for dreaming. a big stretch and then some tea!

Folksy Friday - Flowers

Well, today seems to have been the hottest day so far! My arms caught the sun at lunchtime and are now red and itchy - my legs remain as defiantly pasty as ever!

I've decided to use flowers for my Folksy Friday this week.

First up is this Flower Ring by Grace Designs - and it's on sale!











Next I've chosen this cool flower coaster from The Mosaic Garden.



















Next up is this flower button bracelet by Made by Kate D - how cute is this?!














Finally I've chosen this lovely hand felted Daisy Lollipop Flower by Petal Textiles.













I hope you have a lovely weekend enjoying the sun!

And the winner is ... Me!

Yay my prize gloves arrived yesterday from Tafferty Designs.
They are gorgeous, really light and comfortable.
It's really hard to take a picture of your own hand, but I tried!

They are a teeny bit stretched out of shape in this picture as I couldn't resist trying them on first. :)









They are so pretty. I *almost* wish it was a little cooler so I could wear them more. Almost!



So thank you very much, Judith. I am really pleased with them. I'll add one of the pictures to your fan page.
x

Tafferty Designs on Etsy.
Tafferty Designs on Folksy.

Momiji Monday - Lovely Day! Also Raffle Prizes and I've won a give away!

Today hasn't exactly been lovely - the weather is more like March than May for a start! But nevertheless for this week's Momiji Monday I have chosen Lovely Day.

She is from Generation 1 and she likes old black and white films and travelling to far off lands.

We lie on our backs watching the clouds Our Lovely Day.



In other news, today I posted off two pairs of gloves to the Caithness Rare Breeds Lovely sheep Raffle. I also made a pair of men's gloves just like these ones that I have in my shop. They are based on the ones that Mitchell wears in Being Human - which is pretty much my favourite show! I figured that there might be some men buying tickets, too and they're often under-represented in the craft department. (I know I struggle with finding patterns for men!)

Also, I have won a give-away! Some crochet gloves from Tafferty Designs' facebook fan site. I am really pleased and can't wait for them to arrive - Judith makes the kind of gorgeous crochet items I am still dreaming of creating. Just check out her Etsy shop!

Folksy Friday - Purses

For this week's post I've decided to feature purses. I'm showcasing 6 items this week instead of the usual 4 as I just couldn't narrow it down!

First up, a lovely knitted purse from Sarah Elizabeth Designs.

Next, how cute is this one from Beggar's Bowl?! I really like the bright colours set against black.

Next up, Basmati has made this pretty umbrella purse.
I love the print on this next one from Zazu Jewellery.

This lovely orange bird purse from Needles and Buttons would have been just as at home in last week's tweetie posting!

I love the beautiful Liberty's fabric that Peppermint Twist used to make this gorgeous Peacock print clutch purse.


That's it for this week, I hope you've enjoyed it.

Lovely Raffle

Way back when in the dark ages, (or the early 1990’s as it is sometimes known) I lived on an island in the inner Hebrides called Islay. For the first couple of years we lived in a farmhouse on a working farm. One year at lambing season there were some lambs whose mothers died and they needed to be hand reared. My sister and I had two lambs each and we bottle fed them every day before and after school. My lambs were called Mikey and Butter. Mikey was named after the kid from The Goonies and Butter used to butt when sucking from the bottle. They were meat lambs and the time came when they got sent for slaughter. I was left with no lambs, £30 and a determined commitment to vegetarianism.

Anyway, that long and pretty rambling story leads me on to this…

I noticed one day on twitter that someone called lovelyolive was trying to raise some money to rescue some sheep, some of which have lambed. I had never heard of lovelyolive aka Tracy before, nor had I read her lovely blog cupcakesathome. However, how could I not offer to help when these little sheepies tugged at my heart so? This is the post I read.

I emailed her and offered her something to raffle and it seems that lots of other crafty types did the same (we are a lovely lot I have often said!) and so now lovelyolive is having a lovely raffle to raise funds.

So, this is what I have made for the raffle – a pair of fingerless mittens in a denim blue cashmerino yarn.

I have tried to add a button to my blog over there on the left, but I think I copied the code wrong so for now use the link above and I will try to fix the button.

Prizes will be arriving over the next few weeks and will be photographed and added to the site, so keep checking back and don't forget to buy a ticket or two.