Merry Christmas...

Just popping by to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. It's been such a lovely day, spent the morning just me and C with our kitties a little breakfast and Donkey Kong on the Wii :D This afternoon we had Christmas lunch at C's parents, which was yummy and early evening, out came the turkey sandwiches ;) now we are at home we're relaxing with a Baileys on ice and dozing nicely.

I've had such a good day, just wish that my Step Dad Ian was not ill. Him and my Mam have not had a good day, huge hugs to Dada and get well wishes. And a big hug for my Mama for being such a trooper today and spending the day looking after him. I promise we will have a proper Christmas day when we come up to visit Mama. xxx

Hope you all have had a fantastic day with your loved ones and that you are all full to bursting. Huge festive hugs to you all, xxx

Someone does love Derek!!!

Yey, go Derek!!! He made it into the featured items today on Folksy, bless his feathered socks!! I wonder if anyone gives him a home......remember an Owl is for life not just for Christmas ;) and if you read my last post you could get him delivered for free. Come on now Derek, puff that chest out and blink those big eyes at the lovely people :D

---------------------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE: Derek now has a new home, the lovely Clare has bought him as a gift. He is soooo excited about going to his new home that he barely slept a wink last night!

Just popping by

...to say that these felt lovelies and all the other cuties that I made for the festive season will still be on sale here and here until 2nd January then they will disappear back to the North Pole until next year. If you quote 'FREEPOSTX2010' in your note to seller (Folksy, Etsy or pay pal) I will refund the postage so you get them delivered for free YEY!!!!

This means that 2nd Jan there will be some new things coming...OOooooohhhhh!!!! :D

Now this afternoon I am going to do something not so fun, clean the bedroom carpet (for the fifth time since the radiator leaked - yes it is still marked :( boo!) then I'm going to finish off the evening with some Frank Sinatra (Christmas CD) a cup of hot chocolate and sit and wrap some of the pressies I have to give. I love the last few days before Christmas. Hope you're all enjoying it too.

Christmas Chaos

Amongst all the chaos of trying to prepare for Christmas I have managed to make some cute Reindeer's. I bought the pattern last October (yes I know isn't that bad of me), I had full intentions of making some for last Christmas but never actually got round to it, Christmas Markets etc.

(can you see my poisettia napkin rings on the table behind?)

But since this year I didn't sign up for any fairs I had some time to myself to make things at my own pace. So far I have made four sets and I am on my fifth, they all have different coloured noses and buttons these ones with blue noses were for C's Mam. Aren't they sweet?

So simple and easy to make and a great way of using up some of the huge stock pile I have of hessian!!

Thank you for your suggestions on my last post, I loved all the ideas and have bought a gift for my Dad (its not a jumper) but I cant tell you what in case he reads this post.

I have been really busy the last few days making Christmas gifts but unfortunately I cant show you any photo's just yet as the recipients read my blog. Sorry guys I will have some photos for you soon. Is everyone almost all sorted for Christmas? I'm off into town tomorrow morning to pick up my last bit....wish me luck :o/

In need of help!!

What do you buy the Dad who has got everything (well almost)????

Dad if you are by chance reading this, then stop and go and surf the net somewhere else, otherwise you will spoil present surprises!!! Go on........ :D

OK I need help getting my Dad a gift for Christmas, I am trying desperately not to just fall back on old faithful and get him ANOTHER jumper. He is the type of man who has nearly every gadget thing going and when he wants something he will just go out and buy it. I do know that he likes the jumpers that I get him, I just want to change it up a little this year and get something that he wont be expecting.

Now I don't want to spend mega bucks, I am a great believer that it is the thought that counts and well to be honest pennies need to be stretched far this Christmas. So I am reaching out to you my fellow bloggers in the hope that you will give me some great ideas or links where I can go searching for that perfect gift. I know that I don't have that long really to get something (which is typically me, I never do my Christmas shopping in advance!!) so I have my fingers, toes and eyes crossed that you will come up with something.....ppplllllleeeeaaassseeee!!

Quick Bio:
Male (obviously)
Early 60's
likes to read, draw, build things, make things,
spends most of his time outside of the UK for work,
errrrmm he's my Dad, getting difficult to write anymore as you just think of them as Dad, don't you.

If you can help with any suggestions I would be eternally grateful :)
TIA

Posted

This is a huge order (well huge for me) of felt decorations that is winging its way to New Zealand, there are angels and gingerbread men underneath too but you cant really see them in the photo. I included some Christmas chocolates with them as I thought it would be nice to receive a little gift with it being nearly Christmas and all.

I have loved making these this year and I've a funny feeling they will be making a return again next year. Got a little something up my sleeve too which is kinda related to this....but I'm not saying too much until I have it all sorted and worked out. Watch this space :D

I am slowly catching up on Christmas prep, I have made a few gifts and have a list of things I need to go shopping for, the decorations are all up and looking very festive. How are you all getting on?

O M G ! ! !

I am a huge fan of Google Analytics, such a genius tool. I love the fact that you can monitor the traffic on your blog/shop/website. So I logged in yesterday to have a look to see if the felt Christmas Decorations had increased the traffic to my Etsy and Folksy shops and thought, Wow is that correct? My blog traffic had gone up over 500%! So probing a little further most of the traffic was coming from Spain (775 to be exact) so I delved a little deeper and to my total shock and excitement the link from the referral website was Elle Decor (the Spanish site). They had only gone and included my felt star decorations in their top 10 easy to make Christmas decorations!!!

Here it is you can click the image to go see for yourself :) I am soooo chuffed, this is pretty mega for me. I am a huge fan of Elle magazine, always have been (ask my Mam, I had hundreds of copies when I was at college that I just couldn't part with, until recently).

So to who ever you were that spotted my tutorial and were so kind to include it I thank you very much!!! What a great surprise!! :D

Poinsettia Napkin Ring Tutorial

At last here I am, back in full swing and armed with a tutorial :D This year I wanted something pretty and handmade for the dining table so I came up with these cute felt napkin rings. This is a really easy tutorial (just the way I like them), easier than it looks with just a little bit of hand sewing, it doesn't have to be neat as all the sewing is hidden from view.....so get some felt and have some fun with it.

Here is your templates, you will need to cut (for each napkin ring):

x1 Yellow centre flower

x5 Red small petals

x5 Red large petals

x5 Dark red petals

x3 Green large petals (leaves)

x1 Green backing circle
x1 Green napkin strap

Materials:

Dark Red Felt

Red Felt

Green Felt Yellow/Golden Felt

Scissors

Fabric marker

Ribbon

Beads

(Follow the links for a fantastic shop where you can buy some lovely felt and ribbon :D paper-and-string)

Cut out all your pieces in your chosen felt

Take your 5 large red petals and fold in half to the point.

And sew a couple of stitches about 1 cm from the base of the petals.

You will end up with 5 large petals with a crease in the middle like above. You only need to do this with the 5 large red petals the others will be sewn flat.

Position your petals in a star shape on your backing circle, the edges of your petals should be just touching.

Double thread your needle, take each petal and sew them to the backing circle.

It should look something like this :)

Take your dark red petals and place in between the red petals, the centre of the green backing circle should only just be visible so you may need to place the base of the dark red petals closer to the centre.

One by one stitch to the backing circle, it should now look something like this.

Now take your 5 small red petals and place them in between the dark red petals (see I told you this was easy!!) If you make your thread long enough you can just continue to sew all the petals to the backing circle without having to stop.

Now it should be looking like a pretty flower.

Don't worry if the back looks messy like this, you wont be seeing any of this stitching. Great huh!!??

Take your yellow centre flower and place in the centre of your poinsettia, make sure its centred and that it covers the small gap of the flower.

Next take your beads (and a beading needle if needed) and sew a cluster of them in the centre of the yellow flower.

It should now look like this.....isn't it pretty :D would make a lovely Christmas brooch, just add another circle to cover the stitching on the back and add a brooch pin....et voila, two tutes for the price of one.

Turn over your flower and sew your 3 green petals (which are actually leaves) to the edge of the backing circle approx 1cm from the edge.

Now take your napkin strap, fold the bottom edge up and the top edge down so that you have folded it into thirds (does that make sense?) and pin in place.

Cut a strip of ribbon 32 cm and then cut in half, these will be your ties for the napkin ring. Take one of the pieces of ribbon and slot the end in one of the open ends of the napkin strap.

Sew a couple of stitches to secure in place.

Using the same strand of thread sew a running stitch from end to end securing the fold in place. Make sure you don't go all the way through to the other side as you don't want to see any stitching on the reverse.

Once you reach the other end, slot the other piece of ribbon in the open end and stitch in place. The strap should be all sewn together now so you can remove your pins.

Place your strap on the reverse of your flower with the stitching side facing up.

Double thread your needle again and sew your strap to the flower, as you can see I have sewn a small rectangle to stitch it together.

Trim both ends of your ribbon ties at an angle, this will prevent the ribbon from fraying. Turn over your flower and voila....

One Poinsettia napkin ring, made from felt by your very own hands!!!!

And depending on how many place settings you need repeat....I made 4.

Take your napkin and roll into a tube shape, tie your napkin ring ties into a bow....

Don't they look pretty, I'm so pleased with them, they really make the table look festive. I'm thinking of using the same flowers to make a centre piece.

I do hope you enjoyed this tutorial :D

A huge thank you :D

To all of you who:

Still visited my blog even though I was M.I.A

Sent me lovely comforting emails

Left me get well wishing comments

Looked after me whilst I was sick (that's you Chris, thank you xx)

Rang me constantly to check if I was OK (Mama I know if you'd have been here you would have given me lots of hugs, even though I was minging ;) lol)

I don't want to dwell on it too much, I was ill, it sucked a**, I cried, slept, took lots of tables (don't worry they were ones I was prescribed :D) ate more soup than anyone can take, and didn't leave the house in 10 days!! And although I feel a million times better today, you could see in the faces of my work colleagues when I went back to work today they were thinking 'Oh you poor bugger!!'. Honestly I'm well on the road to recovery, I am determined!

Right on to the good stuff :D while I was sat at home last week I enjoyed a little bit of hand sewing and made lots more Christmas ornaments, they all went on their merry way to the post office today (more successful than I had imagined). And tomorrow.......Drum Roll please......I will be posting the tutorial that I was meant to last Thursday! Whoopee!! See you then.

Hugs xxxx

Too ill...

A trip to the emergency walk in clinic yesterday and I'm now on antibiotics :( I have to say that I don't think I've been this ill in about 10 years. And I'm not taking it very well that's for sure.

Just popping by with a nice festive photo (view from my studio) and to say that I am still fulfilling orders but my blog will be a little scarce while I try to recover.

Hugs to you all, I will be back soon. xxx

Derek

This little chap I made last week and I have since named him Derek. A lady contacted me through Folksy and asked would I be able to make her an owl in greys, blue and white as she had seen my ornaments and said she liked my style. I did a few sketches, emailed the lady (with no response) so I went ahead and made him any way.

Listed it in my Folksy shop and emailed the lady again, unfortunately it was not to her taste and not what she expected. So an unwanted Owl is now on general sale here. (Bless his feathered socks!!).

I know that not everyone likes the same things and this lady did have very good personal reasons as to why she didn't like him. And to be honest the way I've been feeling this past week it doesn't bother me at all. Maybe I was a little hasty at making him? Well anyway I think he is cute.

I have tickets to the Clothes Show Live on Sunday and it almost brings me to tears as I really want to go but still look hideous (numerous painful cold sores) and feel soooo self conscious about walking round in public like I look. I'm hoping by some miracle that over the weekend they get better.

p.s. hoping to photograph my planned tute this weekend so watch out for that.

Almost back in the land of the living

First of all, apologies for being so absent from the blog/craft world for the last week. I have to say that being ill is not something that I really have to deal with but boy was I hit hard with it this week. I am not a good patient and I'm certainly not very good at sitting doing nothing, but there has been lots of sleeping/resting, drinking out of straws, not eating very much and finding it difficult to talk (some would say that last one was a bonus!) ;)

Today I feel quite a bit better although I do still look like something out of 'Dawn of the Dead', I could certainly give those Zombies a run for their money. Way back on Saturday this (photo above) was a photo of my work tray......pretty messy huh?

Well today it looks like this and I have managed a little hand sewing but that's been about it. I do have some photos from last week so I will be showing those over the next few days.

OK my second apology is that today I did plan to be posting a new tutorial, but unfortunately that just hasn't happened this week. I promise I will post it soon as I get my full mojo back.

I hope that you are enjoying the snow and not getting too annoyed with it foiling your plans. I have been watching most of it from the bedroom window and I do have to say when you don't have to go anywhere it is sooooo pretty.

Stay warm, safe and well. Hugs xxx