Saturday 29 December 2007

Beige-tastic

"Can you guess what it is yet?" (In my best Rolf Harris voice)



Here it is today - my work-in-progress masterpiece. Is it me or does it look dreafully... erm... beige? I'm not letting it worry me though - nope, not at all. I'm still completely confident that it will look fantastic when complete.

Yes it will.

No more stitching for me today though, I have some internetting to do, and then I have to go and have a wash to off-away-out to celebrate my BIL's birthday. Curry and a beer. Lovely!

Friday 28 December 2007

Merry Christmas!

I hope you had a lovely Christmas. Mine was lovely, just the two of us with some visiting and visitors in between - quiet, relaxing and centered around around the Quality Street tin - just as it should be.

I was spoilt rotten, too - among the fantastic gifts I received was a brand new digital camera - a Canon Powershot G9, which I'm absolutely made up with. Thanks, Santa! **Mwah!**

Of course, cross stitch has featured large this Christmas, what with it being my latest obsession and everything. I hate to think how many hours I've dedicated to it so far, but lovely J doesn't seem to mind too much... he's been engrossed in his Wii!

I finished the robot cross stitch patterns that I had mentioned in my last entry. They're lovely and very sweet, and make me smile every time I see them. I haven't washed, pressed or mounted them yet, but here's a picture of them in their raw state...



Obviously, as soon as I had finished the robots I needed another project, so I downloaded PC Stitch Pro (trial version) and had a play with one of my photographs. Lovely J then secretly paid to activate it so I could save my masterpiece. [Lovely J is lovely and awesome and he's mine - so hands off, ladies! :o) ]

So, this is it - my first original masterpiece. It's a bit of a beast but it will look fantastic (touch wood). Here it is so far...

Not much to see yet, I admit - but you'll have to wait until I finish it for the grand unveiling!

I'm so pleased with it that I'm toying with the idea of selling the pattern on ebay or etsy or somewhere - we'll see.

I'm also working on the next pattern.... but it's a secret ;0)

That's it then, I'm off to do some more of the stitching.

A Happy New Year from Lush

Friday 21 December 2007

The Next New Thing

Yesterday at work, somebody innocently mentioned two little words which have sent me into complete turmoil... "Cross Stitch"...

I hadn't done any cross stitch since my student days, but suddenly I found myself obsessing over online cross stitch patterns and craft sites during my lunch break. There's a lot of dull and yawn-y cross stitch out there, but there are also many patterns that I would love to have a go at, and I found several sited which inspired me to have a go at designing my own patterns.

Now, I haven't designed any original patterns yet (it's only been one day, after all), but I did stop at Inkspot on my way home where I accidentally bought some 14 count Aida and a fistful of floss, to make this....


I finished it after work this evening. I think it's fantastic! It's one of three free robot patterns I downloaded from http://www.kawachi.zaq.ne.jp/chikachika/freechart-top.htm - these are fantastic patterns, and I'm soo impressed with them that I'm going to go away now and email the clever lady to tell her that they're fantastic, and that she should be asking money for them.

I'm going to make the other two over Christmas, I'll post another pic when they're done and prettily framed.

I also accidentally bought a Betty Boop cross stitch pattern from ebay (it's a fantastic, fun but not sugary pattern - I can't wait to get it!), and I'm investigating different pattern designing software as I type. I have some biiiig ideas here..... let's see how much I can get done before I get distracted by the next exciting thing....

Wednesday 12 December 2007

A Purse for Miss A

On Monday lunchtime I was out with Miss A for a proper, ladylike, sit-down-and-gossip lunch. On our way there she was rummaging around the bottom of her bag, handing me keys, tissues, cards and general bag detritus for some money, searching for some dinner money.

"Where's your purse?", I asked her,

"I don't have one", she replied, "Oooh, look - a fiver!", she brandished a crumpled note in my direction and started to cram her belongings back into her bag.

"Right, then", I said, "I'll make you one tonight."

So I did, and here it is:

It's a very small purse, but this was intentional, as it was one of her few criteria for an ideal purse - small, vegetarian, but that would hold her cards and cash. And I only had a limited choice of fabric, since most of my stash is in storage while the house is (not) selling - but I think it worked out ok.


I will wrap it up prettily in a piece of pink tissue and some cherful, floral wrapping paper this evening, ready to give it to her next time I see her. I hope she likes it.

Tuesday 11 December 2007

New Blog!

I've moved my blog over from www.20six.co.uk/friendlyflamingo, mainly because I found the page formats very restrictive there. I found myself covetting the headings, buttons and banners other bloggers could use with gleeful abandon.... and decided that I would like a bit of that, thank you very much.
Another important change to the look and content of my my blog will be that I now have access to a scanner and a digital camera - which means PICTURES!

It was all dull and dreary before, so perhaps I can liven it up now a bit with pretty pictures,like this one of the Santa Sack I made for lovely BF this Christmas:
Or this one of the Christmas card I made for Lil Sis and her BF, made from plasticine which is the best fun ever. I must point out that it's impossible to make glasses from plasticine, so we must assume that all parties are wearing their contact lenses in this image:


Which reminds me to let you know about my flickr page (there's a link in the side bar, there) - where I've deposited a load of photos, including some crafty stuff and some wannabe-artsy-photography. It's all good :o)

I'm going to try and pretty this site up a bit while I'm still excited about the new blog and its layout possibilities. Lovely BF is a computer whizz, so I might ask him to teach me HTML so I can make this page a bit more 'me'.

Ooh, yes - in other news, I have a new job which I'll be starting in the new year (February 1st); I'm going to take Japanese classes from January; and I'm trying to sell my house.

It's all go!

Do come back to visit - I'll have tea and cake waiting....