More lovely swap goodies!

It all seems to be swaps and giveaways at the moment - normal service will resume shortly! BUT before it does I had to show you the amazing swap goodies that Wendy sent me. I've been reading Wendy's blog The Crafter's Apprentice for a while and loving all the different crafts she tries so I was very excited about this swap. And with good reason, look at all the lovely things she sent me! First up some gorgeous granny bunting:


I haven't decided where to put it - probably in my bedroom as I think it will look fab hanging above my bed.

Next, a gorgeous owl softie. Wendy knew how much I loved her bunnies in a similar style but if its possible I think I love the owls even more.


If you love them as much as me then you could head over her shop and snap one up yourself!

If that wasn't enough look at all the other goodies I got too:


Wendy sent me a lovely lavender filled heart (the package smelt amazing), a gorgeous pouch which I have already started using:


A really cute card with a mini quilt on:


And finally this beautiful bracelet:


Hehee - I am a lucky girl! Thanks so much Wendy - I love it all so much. Once again I feel that the package I sent is nowhere near as good as what I received!

Wendy told me she liked red and blue together and I think I went a bit mad on the theme. Here is what I sent:


One of my octomonsters! I never would have made one in these colours but I am really pleased with the results.


I know Wendy loves bunnies (she has FOUR!) so I included this cute little amigurumi rabbit.


And I put the two fused glass necklaces I was sending in this little pouch:


I've really enjoyed doing the two swaps I've done recently - what could be more exciting than receiving a package full or surprise goodies in the post? It is so fun! If anyone else fancies doing a swap then please feel free to get in touch (although I might need a little break to get on with all the other stuff I need to make!) and I'd love to arrange something :o)

Hope you all have a lovely week xx

PS. The bunny and pouch will be going up on ravelry soon so if you want to know where I got the patterns you should be able to find them on there!

Giveaway Reminder and Gorgeous Swap Goodies!

Firstly, just a reminder that my giveaway closes at midnight tonight. If you haven't entered all ready then head over to this post and leave a comment post haste! I will announce the winners tomorrow.

Now, onto the loveliness! A while ago the lovely Lori from Hippywitch crafts and I agreed to have a swap. It started when I asked if anyone wanted to have a swap from some of my fused glass goodies and went from there and this week I received a lovely package of goodies from her - so exciting! I told Lori I liked the sea and snorkelling and diving and look at these lovely amigurumi sea creatures she sent me:



I LOVE them - so cute. And such happy colours - really brightened up my dull Thursday afternoon! And if that wasn't enough (and it totally was!) Lori also included this beautiful cross stitch ornament in some of my favourite colours:


And this fab cow cross stitch card:


I told Lori that I seem to have been given a lot of cow things in the past (I try not to read too much into this!!) so it is very appropriate for me! Thank you so much for the goodies Lori - I love them so much! If you fancy seeing more loveliness like this then I suggest you pop over to Lori's blog or etsy shop!

I know Lori has received her package from me so I can show you what I sent her too. Firstly a couple of glass necklaces:


A cute little amigurumi cat (Lori told me she is a mad cat lady!):


A plush strawberry ornament / pin cushion:


And finally a little crochet bag in some of Lori's favourite colours to keep her necklaces safe:


I really enjoyed doing a swap and am definitely planning to do lots more in future! I hope you are all having a lovely weekend - staying warm and doing lots of crafting. I will be back tomorrow to announce the giveaway results.

xxx

GIVEAWAY!

As promised a little while ago I have finally got round to arranging a little giveaway on my blog! Yay! No particular reason really - I just see so many lovely giveaways on other blogs (I've even won a couple - thanks Laura and Zoe!) and wanted to get involved and say thank you for reading :o)

There are no rules and regulations - all you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post and I will do a random draw in 2 weeks time on Saturday 11th February. You are of course welcome to become a follower or tell your friends but there is no obligation to do so! Depending on how many entries I get I might split the prize and have two winners...

So, a closeup of the prizes:

A little amigurumi owl (pattern here)

A sparkly dichroic glass necklace on a silver chain.

A decorative plush felt cactus - I use mine as a pin cushion.

And last but not least a smiley amigurumi fried egg (more info on this pattern in my previous blog post)

I hope you all enter (please enter! I don't want a giveaway with no entries!). Thank you for all your support and lovely comments over the 6 months or so!

Have a lovely weekend xx

Christmas Decorations (Part 2)

I've had my Christmas decorations up for over a week now and I've just realised that I never shared the rest of them with you. Whoops - I think it is all the pre-Christmas manic busyness that made it slip my mind. This year I've added to the felt decorations I made last year with some glass ornaments. (As always, I've struggled to photograph the glass - sorry if the pics are a bit blurry!)

First up the fused glass decorations for the tree. This is the "star" I made for the top:

There are more stars dotted about the tree.

I've tried to keep all the decorations in a roughly white and clear theme. The sparkly ones are made of either iridescent glass or dichroic glass.

This decoration is inspired by one I saw on flickr. Unfortunately I now can't find the original photo. If anyone knows whose it was then please let me know so I can credit the original maker:

I've also made around 10 stained glass stars using the copper foil method.

I haven't done that much copper foiling so these stars were a really good project to practice on - and brilliant for using up all the scraps of glass I have hanging around.

I haven't quite finished decorating the tree (I still need to add those crochet granny stars!) but here is my almost complete tree:

The tree is actually in my bedroom. This is partly because there isn't really enough room in my living room and partly because I have a lovely bay window in my bedroom which is perfect for a tree. When it gets dark I turn the lights off, leave the curtains open and people going past can see it sparkling in the window.

I've also added a bit of decoration in the living room to make things a bit more festive in there, mainly centred on the fireplace:

The mini baubles were a set from Paperchase which I spent ages knotting onto a ribbon this time last year! Again, I've got some fused glass decorations hanging here. Here are some closeups:



Phew - that was quite a photo heavy post! I hope you enjoyed seeing all the decorations I have made for my flat. I am now working frantically on all the Christmas presents I need to finish before next weekend. Eeek! Still, it is much nicer sitting on my sofa sewing than it is doing battle in the shops! Hopefully I should be able to show you the products of my efforts soon.

Hope all your Christmas crafting is going well and you are looking forward to Christmas. Unfortunately I got so much into the festive spirit last night that I have now pretty much lost my voice!! Whoops!

Have a good week xx

Fused Glass Overload!

One of my Mum's friends showed an interest in buying some of my fused glass for Christmas presents which means I had to finally get off my arse and do something about photographing some of my pieces. Having done that I thought I would share them with you here!



Fused glass is one of my favourite things to make. Its not a very practical hobby - you need a pretty big and expensive kiln for starters (I do a class) - but it is such a fun thing to do.


I have been doing a fused glass class for about a year and a half now and I love it. Playing around with light and colours is soooo much fun.


It does mean however that I now have loads of pieces of fused glass hanging around my (fairly small) flat!



This is only a very small proportion of what I have made!!


There are also lots of flat pieces which I made when I was starting out to practice. They are very pretty but not very useful so I'm not sure what to do with them!


One thing I have made quite a lot of is jewellery. Its really good for giving as presents and, luckily, it doesn't take up too much space!!

I started stockpiling fused glass pieces, in particular lots of jewellery, a while ago with the intention of opening a folksy shop. Now I'm not so sure - I already have a folksy shop selling some of my sewn pieces and I'm not sure its not more bother than its worth - any thoughts? I think I might write a separate post about this soon......!


I was thinking I might look into doing a craft fair instead........

At the moment it is just nice to have all these pretty, sparkly things around my house! Not to mention a necklace to go with every outfit!

Unfortunately I won't be doing the class again after Christmas - its an expensive class and I think I need some time off to get my inspiration back to make the most of the classes. Plus I need to find someway of getting rid of all the glass pieces I have already made!


On the off chance that anyone reading this is interested in buying any of these pieces (or even fancies doing a swap?) then please feel free to get in touch. But mainly I just hope you have enjoyed looking at some of these sparkly things I have hanging round my house!

Have a lovely week xxx

PS. Sorry for the sporadic posting recently - have been having a very busy time! But I have also been working on lots of presents and decorations for Christmas so should have lots of exciting things to share with you soon!

Finished presents!

After lots of work I finally managed to finish the cross stitch I was working on for my grandmother in the nick of time. Phew! Here is the finished piece:

My original plan was to make a picture with nine butterflies but I quickly realised that it was going to be impossible in the time I had given myself so I had to settle for six butterflies instead. I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't plan better so I had more time but other than that I am actually really pleased with how this picture turned out.

My grandmother seemed super pleased with the pressie and was obviously really touched that I had made the effort to make something so that is the most important thing!

It was also my aunt's birthday celebration but luckily I had been a bit more organised for her present and started working on it a few weeks ago in my fused glass class.

I decided to make a dish made up with squares of some of my favourite glass colours - mainly blues and pinks (as usual!!). This was slumped over a mould to give a slightly curved dish shape.

I really like making these dishes and I always make things using lots of squares and in these colours - it seems to be becoming my signature style!! I love the way the glass shines like boiled sweets!

I'm still finding it really hard to take decent pictures of my glass pieces - hopefully you can kind of see the shape of the dish in this one.

This dish is roughly 20cm square. I also decided to make a smaller one to match too which is about 10cm square. Here they both are together:

I think my aunt was pretty pleased with these too - but it was more difficult to tell from her reaction! I hope so!

I really like making homemade presents but I find it so much more stressful giving them than bought ones! Does anyone else find this? I think the reaction feels so much more important when you have put so much time and effort into making something.

I definitely need to start planning my Christmas presents now. Working on that cross stitch last week has made me realise that I will need to be a lot more organised if I am going to give homemade presents - I don't want to be frantically finishing all my Christmas presents with one week to spare!

Better get to work.....!

xxx