Spring makes me sing

I joined in with the spring makes me sing swap (organised by jackie) and was very impressed that i managed to get my package sent off within the specified time frame! (whether it will arrive within it is up to the royal mail!)
I was most excited when my office mate walked into my office with a big package for me (Yipee! i have thngs sent to work as there is more chance of their being someone about to recieve it!)
It contained.....

lots of lovely parcels which contained all sorts fo goodies

Fabric, and little wooden butterflies, soap and bath fizzys and buttons and wrapping paper and an address book and tissues (not sure if these will be good for my hayfever being covered in flowers) and a beautiful crochet flower pin and crocheted bunting (which will look fab in tinys room), and cool flowery tags and CHOCOLATE (which is nearly gone!)
Its all very exciting
i sent (and if you haven't recieved it Jacey look away now and yes some of it is wrapped in 'made by tiny' wrapping paper!)......... wool, all the things needed to make crispy cakes, coffee, craft ribbon, a dog toy for dudley (how could i not included something for him!), a crochet supplement from a knitting magazine, a lavender heart and a bag made out of an old pair of jeans (i believe its called upcycling! indeed i'm so chuffed with how it turned out i'll be making myself one!)

How she likes it! i love mine.

The gallery - Hair

This weeks theme in the gallery is hair. I have choosen to represent this with the item in my house that is my most favourite hair thing.

It is my favorite thing because this

is often styled with this

so this

is the only hope i have of getting it brushed!
And because his sister had a picture of her hair taken, and to make it fair, here is boy's hair!

Weaving

Today (at lunchtime) my wonderful friend Mel (who i'm sure will also be posting about this and will probably give a much better explaination of what we were up to) invited me to be 'Curious about craft'.
Outside the law building in chancellors court (birmingham university) the craft bus had parked and we went to see what activities were being undertaken.

Today international action weaver Travis Meinolf was there and got us weaving on small hand held looms. These 'backstrap' looms are similar to those used all over the world, often tried around trees etc we did it tied to each other as you can see below. Its all part of the curious about craft exhibition created by craftspace in which a mobile unit is touring 40 wards of birmingham. The pieces of weaving that are produced will be sewn togeather to produce a blanket (like the one displayed by Travis below). I had alot of fun and if anyone is intereted do visit the links in this post!

 

stuff

Well i had myself a great time at the sewing show on friday, a big-up to julie who won tickets and gave them to me so me and my mum could have a good time! I spent loads of money (as usual), but did manage not to use up my credit limit! hopfully i'mm get round to using my purchases and i'll let you see the results!
Other than  that i made something so the spring makes me sing swap, so i can't let you see it yet.
The only other thing i got up to was a party for my little godson (hes 3 today, happy birthday little chap. xxx). It was on saturday, and i realise about an hour before we went that i hadn't sorted a gift or card! (Doh!) a quick visit to amazon and my 'gift' cupboard sorted the pressy and a few minutes with some felt scraps. glue and a pen made him an 'interesting' card! well at least he likes dinosaurs!
(sorry the piccys abit fuzzy, one day i'll get the hang of my camera!)

see you all soon. x

post 100!

Wow i've made it to post 100! woo hoo. I have to say i'm very impressed with myself for carrying on for so long. I'm also impressed that despite being totally pooped from my san diego trip i've made something since i got back. I signed up to annie the felt fairys monthly make. The plan is we sign up to make one thing every month. Ths month we are all doing the same thing and making 'stanleys' (dogs, cath kidson style).
Here is my version:

I finished him last night and left him out on the sofa. Tiny grabbed him when she came down this morning and proceeded to make him woof alot! think he's found a friend!

The only other thing i wanted to show you was a little thing i made before i went off to america, a gift for my work friend's birthday. I got the pattern from cloth magazine and now want to make one for myself in blue (tardis style!) but need to shrink the pattern abit as i have a smaller phone than her.

How could i esist putting fish in the phone box!
see you all one post 101!

The gallery - Education

Ok, Todays theme at the gallery is education, so for your amusement i have provided you with a piccy of me and my school chums (ages about 14), my graduation from sheffiled university (BSc Hons in Anatomy and cell biology) and my Graduation from Birmingham university (PhD in Oral immunology).
Only thing missing is a primary school pic! but think this one of my lad covers cute kids in uniform (his first day at school!)!

me in the dress

Hi all,
 i've been away (as you can tell from the lack of irrelevent wafflings being posted here!)
I was in san diego for work, nice but a long way to go for just 5 days!

got to see some beautiful flowers at balboa park
and i wore my new clothkits dress to present my poster, and afterwards to the hatton awards dinner for grub and dancing!

things from home

today i thought i'd share with you a couple of the things in my home. Two were made my me and one by my great auntie (on my mums side, which is where i get any sewing skills from).

This one is a cross stitch sampler type thing done for tiny and this one is my boys

and finally, the picture my my great aunt, which hangs in the downstaits loo!

I used to hang in her spare bedroom and i admired it when we visited. When she moved into a home we cleared her house out and i aquired it and some other beautiful things she made. Not sure what sort of bird he is but for some reason i call it a partrige!

Things for we are birmingham

Well, i was a busy large beaver (i can't say little its just now correct!) last night and got some of the things i've been faffing with finished to take into the we are birmingham shop today (hope they arn't stock taking or anything!)
There are cushions (one of which i showed you the beginnings of here), lavender hearts and some more chickens (well it is spring!).
Hope people like them, my kids do and wanted to keep all the cushions, so i have had to promise to make them some!

Hope everyone is keeping well, not having weather thats to hideous and if making things.x

And the winner is....

What ho chaps,
 got my random number generator (aka small boy) to select a winner for the cath kidson sew giveaway.

All the names (all 5 of them!) were put into a receptical (childs toy!)

boy proceeded to select the bit of lego that it contained!

Then he selected a piece of paper

of which he refused to show me the name! eventually (and after faffing with the flash on my camera) i managed to photograph it!

sorry its blured but Emma Thomson you are our winner (add fanfare and streamers etc at this point).
Well done you, hope you enjoy it, just email me your address and i'll get it posted off.

The gallery - cool

all dressed up and ready for his school disco! how ever will the girls resist him!!!!

Book review- Debbie Bliss ultimate baby knits.

Hi all, i was a lucky girl and was sent the Debbie Bliss book of ultimate baby knits to review

This Book is first and formost beautiful, it is coffee table material with such wonderful pictures of babys in cute outfits! At the beginning it has the usual how to knit guide and stitch libary followed by the patterns. It has patterns for most things you could want to knit for a little one, a large choice of cardigans and jumpers, booties, blankets and nappy covers. All done in Debbbies range of yarns. As is usual with these things i borrowed my mums knitting expertise and got her to knit up a couple of things. she tried out a hooded jacket and a pinafore dress which as you can see are modelled below by my tiny!

Obviously not done in Debbies yarns but in things from my mums stash the jumper turned out well. The pinafore was a touch baggy around the back. this may be due to the yarn of the fact that tiny lacks a bum! none the less i think it was well worth the effort my mum put into moss stitching it. Once again a fantastic book of modern baby knits, prehaps not for those with an extensive pile of knitting patterns but for those without, a good addition to the libary that can be left out for every one to coo over.