....please keep my egg warm!

...Jackie!

Congratulations Jack! I promise I'll post you something pretty, now i just need to decide what to make... ;)

Well, I guess not THAT many people read my blog on a regular basis! We made a random number generator using excel rather than the old names and hat milarky and it came up with the number 1. J pressed the button to make it do it's stuff. Bad luck numbers 2 and 3! I'm hoping for a little more participation next draw...Maybe an easter one?! Hehe!

I've been working on some prototype things this week and I'm sure I'll post a pic or too once I'm happy with them. In the mean time here is my todo list.

1) finish scarf, 2) sew up baby blanket, 3) make sisters birthday bag, 4) Make cot/nursery tidy, 5) Make craft room curtains, 6) sand craft room drawers and paint......7) 8) 9) 10)......aaaarrrrggghhhh! have a rest! x

I was checking to see if I was approaching my 100th post to have a bit of a celebration and realised I was already at 110! How on earth did that happen? Have I really rambled on for 110 articles? And people have actually read this??? Well, in celebration of my 111th post I am going to have a bit of a giveaway. All you have to do is leave a comment and I'll drawer names out of a hat on Wednesday evening and you could win something made my me! How does that sound? It'll give me time to make something pretty! :)

In the mean time it's been a lovely weekend! Fantastic weather! We went to see a friend in their local village panto and he made an excellent villain! He was Abanaza in Aladdin, the kids were good too! We got a lot done in the garden this afternoon. I finished painting the shed while J cleared one of the side borders, aye, it was nice not to be in a stuffy building!

I've managed a little crafting between socialising and gardening. I've made another batch of lavender felt hearts (my little sis asked if they were smelly or just purple!) to flog at work and post as presents. And as we've both upgraded our phones now, I made little fleece protective covers. Here's mine...

That only leaves me to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE SIS! 23 TODAY (although i accused her of being 27...whoops....and got a telling off for it!) and don't forget the giveaway! :)

Happy Friday! I had a nice little trip to the post office after work today to pick up my parcel from superbuzzy. I was quite excited as I'd forgotten what I'd ordered! I also had a felt package and a small envelope waiting on the doormat for me!!!! Here is the contents of the three packages...

10 felt squares (from paper-and-string), just in time for me to make some more lavender hearts over the weekend as I've managed to fleece persuade a few people from work into buying them! (hehe!), 4 different fabrics (elephant, purple spot - for my sisters birthday present, mini dinosaur and red flower garden. I might take a leaf out of Sarah's book over at paper-and-string and make some fabric swatches so I know what they are before I start using them, 3 trims (chicks, more chicks and robots), AND some little woven labels to sew on the inside of my bags and things that I plan to try and sell on Etsy. Here is a better look...only very simple ones but if things perk up I can investigate getting them to match my logo. Have a lovely weekend!!! *kiss*

Happy Monday! Not sure if it's a good or bad thing some people like 'em, most people don't. I'm more of a Wednesday fan...what I would like to know is where this month has disappeared to....3 weeks in and I feel like I've not really done anything useful. Hmmm...maybe it's time to write a list?!

On a different note, I've spent most of the evening hand sewing the felt hearts I cut out last week while we watched more of the West Wing (only 3 episodes of series 6 left!). They are stuffed with normal stuffing and a teaspoon of french lavender to make them smell nice and I've started to use up my abundance of red gingham ribbon. J has already bagsy'd (is that a word?) the pink pair to make his drawers smell nice. I'm not entirely sure what to do with the rest. I made them as I'm a big fan of valentines and showing people you love them, be it friends, family or your lovely husband! :)

(Sorry for the rubbish photo, it's winter!!!)

Also thinking of Franny, today is her due date. Fran, if you are reading this go and have a nice long walk then a nice hot curry! I'm still betting the little b*gger will turn up on the 25th ;)

...It's been a miserable weekend weather-wise. Which generally means I get a load of sewing done. Saturday I tidied the sewing room so that I could bring my desk back upstairs after it got relegated to the utility room for Christmas. It's back in and I'm back in business! This afternoon I made Percy, another addition to the Skelly family. There was another animal I was going to make but I've ran out of black fleece so you'll just have to wait to see it :(

We went to the Imax in Birmingham yesterday to watch Beowulf in glorious 3D to celebrate J's birthday! It was good, better than I thought it would be being a completely CG film. The faces were very good but the hands looked massive...J got his nerdy hat on and said you could tell the background wasn't 3D...blah....blah.....they look nicer painted but they are a bit flat....blah. I was listening but I couldn't dream of recalling the technical blah right now! After the film we went to the Thai place behind the Mailbox....mmmm...Thai! :)

Good morning! I've just been finishing tidying the aftermath of taking part in Gordon Ramsay's Cookalong Live thingy last night. J was in charge (I was chief washer-upper and passer of ingredients) and it went quite smoothly, although when we were getting out all the equipment it looked like the cupboards had exploded! (sorry no pictures...didn't have time to take any!)

The scallops were nice but ours were a little on the small side. I couldn't find fresh ones in the shops for love nor money so had to get frozen. Joy told me yesterday that because of this show there was a bit of a shop scallop shortage!!!

The steak was very nice. The chips were a little spicier than they maybe should have been. J poured in the chili flakes rather than adding a few pinches so they had a bit of a kick! I'd definitely do this course again.

The chocolate mousse was nice too. We halved all the rest of the ingredients as it was a meal for 4 but made four of the mousses so we can scoff another one each today! He he!

The only problems I had with the whole show was that it was a little late to be eating a 3 course meal and that there wasn't quite enough time to sit and enjoy the food. Maybe an extra half an hour would have made it a little less frantic! Other than that I reckon we'd have another go at a cookalong.

I've been keeping myself busy this week with a good dollop of sewing as I've finished knitting the scarf and just need to block it and add tassells. Bored at work the other day we were chatting about how Mr and Mrs Skelly were a big hit with nephew 2 and how I should branch out into the Skelly family - Starting with Skelly pets.

R.D*.Skelly (he's a dog, just in case my sewing is a bit crazy)

Rover the Fish

OMG  SORRY! Our windows are so dirty - mental note - find long ladder and clean front windows. There are a few more in the pipe-line but i need a little more fleece to make them. I've made a start on valentines themed stuff too. Not sure who the recipients will be but I saw something similar to these on an Etsy shop and wanted to make some...

...also thought I would make some rainbow lavender hearts as well to post randomly to friends and family...or I'll do what I usually do and keep them all for myself! I'm such a hoarder!!!

I've also made a little something for J's birthday tomorrow but it's a surprise! I had a bit of a flap this morning trying to remember where I had put his present. I found it in my wardrobe in the end...PHEW! J is taking part in the Gordon Ramsay's cook along live thing tomorrow on C4 so I've been hunting high and low all week for some scallops. Found them today, just in time! I'm in charge of washing up as we don't have 500 of every kitchen utensil and a million pans. I'll let you know how we get on! :)

*R.D. = Rufus Doofus

Afternoon! I've finally got around to taking a few photos of some of the things people made me for Christmas. Franny made J a dino hot water bottle cover and me a knitting needle case - as I'd already made myself one and the gaps in this are quite large I though I'd keep my scissors, etc.. in it. It looks quite smart and now I don't have to root around at the back of my drawer to find them. I do like both of these fabrics!!!

Joy made me these next two and had to each a whole lindt reindeer to get the ribbon for the little kitty decoration - that's commitment! I was a bit scared of the bear to start with, he's grown on us now though :)

And finally - Sausage decided he could just squeeze into this box...

I found this little fella in the bottom of my craft bag when I was putting away the felt. He wasn't quite finished so I sorted that. I can't decided if he looks a little evil or surprised.... Maybe he should be put in the same place as devil bear???

I used this pattern from Hilary Lang to make him. I increased the pattern 200% as I'm rubbish at making very small things!!! He's only 10cm long at the increased size and just needs a curly-wurly tail!