I want to be in a girl group...

... preferably the Shangri-Las, but after my attempt at singing last night (don't ask, but let's just say the computer failing to save my "vocals" was a stroke of good fortune for one and all!) have realised once and for all that it just will not happen. But a girl can dream, right? So I am creating my own girl group/army from felt. These are the only two I have left just now (I sold the rest at Say No To Plastic before I could get a good photo of them) but there are more on the way. These two have been made into brooches but I actually have other plans for some of their friends, thanks to the genius of my sister. That plan will be unveiled soon, hopefully, but in the meantime I'm off to list these two little brooches in my new shop. I can still call it my new shop, yes? Especially since I haven't made a sale yet - ha! I will be working on that sorry situation soon... In the meantime, I've just got too many felty girl groups to form!

p.s. I think I was inspired to create these by one of my favourite bits of (long gone unless you look really closely) Glasgow graffiti. You can see a photo of it in my flickr.

p.p.s. Yes, they are rather like my chaise longue haired girl! She was a prototype who's since gone solo :)

how do you like your eggs in the morning?

Staying with the theme of cute painted wooden objects standing in a row, how do you like my new egg cups? My sister found them at a car boot sale and thought of me but also wanted to keep them. While she was deciding whether to be generous, she went to another car boot sale and found another five of them! Egg cups for everyone - problem solved! I think they are most adorable. I particularly like their blue eyelids - they would rival Pat Butcher in an eye shadow competition.

I had another good day at work today and am now subtitling for real. Woo hoo! My first subtitles will be on screen next week. Yay! It is actually surprisingly exciting, plus it is nice to be earning my keep rather than playing at subtitling. In other top but boring for you news, I made another two cushion covers tonight so we now have four matching cushions. Yahoo! We only just had enough material. And to think I nearly left one of the three pieces in the charity shop thinking I wouldn't need it...! Sheesh! I have really gone for it with the exclamations in this paragraph. Sorry. But isn't it great to have a job that affords you time to make cushion covers of an evening? :)

Can you really call them Russian?

They're not very Russian looking, really, but just how cute are these Russian dolls? I bought them at Say No To Plastic (the market I did a couple of weeks ago) for the princely sum of £2! I spotted them on the stall opposite mine (selling vintage and second hand goodies) while I was setting up and decided I loved them. I expected they would be on the expensive side but decided to torture myself with a closer look anyway. I was so delighted when I saw the teeny tiny price tag and snapped them up before the market had even opened! They remind me of Dick Bruna illustrations. I now have three sets of not very Russian Russian dolls, so I guess that is kind of a collection.

Blogging about this has made me realise that I never got round to posting a photo of my Say No To Plastic stall. Here it is! Not much different from the last market shot I posted but it is if you look closely, and there will be some close ups coming soon...

I should also mention the fabulous stall that was set up next to mine, selling cake stands made by the clever stall holder from vintage tea sets. Some of them even had a little tea cup at the top to put marshmallows (or whatever!) in. Sadly, my battery died, so no photos but check out their etsy shop - Truly Madly Sweetly.

I was a bit sneaky and took a lot of photos of different things this weekend (making the most of the rare daylight!) so that I could blog a bit more this week. I'll be back soon (hopefully tomorrow) with something else!

p.s. I made cushion covers tonight! They were not as straightforward as I had hoped but I think they have turned out quite well and they are making our sofa look a bit more snazzy. Right, off to recline with them :)

Crafters never have a dull moment

Now that this gift is safely with its intended recipient, I can share my recent foray into the world of cross stitching. My sister is an avid cross stitcher but I've never really been bitten by the bug and don't do it very often.

I made this as a combined thank you and get well present for Claire of Miso Funky. Anyone who is familiar with Claire's work (and if you're not then you should go and have a look now) will surely realise that she must be sick of the sight of cross stitching, since she spends every waking minute (well, apart from when she's holding down a full time job or getting her gall bladder popped out through her belly button) sewing cross stitch samplers for her demanding adoring public! I thought this would either be the perfect gift or the very thing to push her over the edge - she is very politely claiming it to be the former!

I actually pilfered this idea from a free postcard I picked up about ten years ago. I think the motto is very apt for anyone with a time consuming hobby, which embroidery (in all its guises) certainly is! The original postcard is framed and hanging on my wall of many wonders and it was quite exciting to finally get around to making a real life (i.e. stitched) version of it. When I'm not covered in hand cream, I will take it out of the frame to see whose brilliant idea it was originally.

foxy fox

Sweet Fox
Originally uploaded by Pin Pals
Have you seen the Pin Pals' blog post about the amazing vintage origami books they found? If not, you must go and look immediately! I am very jealous but so smitten with this little fox that I just can't feel bitter about it :)

Do you smell burning?

When I visited my sister in France recently, she was celebrating her wood (fifth) wedding anniversary. She got a wood burning tool and decorated a set of raclette spatulas with pictures of love hearts as a gift for her other half. They had love hearts as their wedding favours so it was especially appropriate. She had quite a few spare spatulas so she let me have a go and it was great fun!

Here is my Scandinavian-esque heart design.

I managed to make this spatula look like a paintbrush mid use. Kind of...

And then I did a random wood burning of a tiny little horse in a field, just to see if I could.

As far as I could see, the wood burning tool was pretty much the same as a soldering iron, just with a few different nozzle type bits for varying thicknesses/effects. I bought a soldering iron years ago (for burning holes in fabric) so I think I might try using it to do some more wood burning. I have a great idea for Christmas decorations but my Christmas ideas list is way out of hand so that may have to wait for next year!

It was a lot of fun to try a new craft. I think I might compile a list of crafts I want to try (or revisit) in 2010. That would be much more fun than a normal new year's resolution.

Our day's charity shopping yesterday was quite successful. Graham got a DVD and I got some fun paper coasters to upcycle, as well as some fabric to make new cushion covers from. I am determined they will be better than the last ones I made and that they will not develop holes. I have learned from my errors! I also got quite a few books, including one on how to make all sorts of huts and tree houses and one really ace crochet book from the sixties signed by the author and everything. But by far the best 25p I spent was on a video for cats. Here's a picture of Lola watching it this morning. Poppy was watching it too, only she preferred to watch from behind the safety of the sofa!

lovely embroidery by a lady called pip

TeePee Girl :: Christmas Embroidery
Originally uploaded by meetmeatmikes

Another flying visit to share this lovely embroidery by Pip of Meet Me At Mikes. The image reminds me of this really lovely Scandinavian ceramic ware that I often lust after in antique shops. I think it is called Lotte...? I will remember for sure soon!

We are just about to head off for a day's charity shopping to celebrate our anniversary. What can I say? I am a cheap date! Last night we were meant to be going out for dinner and then to the cinema. We had booked a table but when we got to the restaurant there were no tables free for us! Pretty shoddy, huh? We couldn't get in anywhere else, so we ended up sharing pakora from the nearby takeaway and then didn't go to the cinema after all. We were asleep by 10pm instead! We are going to try to go to the cinema tonight instead, if we're not too tired from all the charity shopping.

I will be back with a proper blog post tomorrow. One with a photo I've taken myself and everything! Have a good weekend until then.