Kim's house

My niece, Kim, has been making a house for her and her mum and dad. Here are some of the pictures my sister emailed me this morning. You'll notice Kim's younger brother and sister have been denied entry to this fabulous house so far!

Kim's favourite colour is pink. Could you ever have guessed? I love the chest of drawers she has chosen and the strange ric-rac rug...

This was the best picture of all - her dad reclining in the roof garden. Hee!

I'll be back later with some stuff of my own to share - can't be put to shame by a three year old now, can I?

small (but perfectly formed) objects

wedding dress option: vintage pleated dress

Originally uploaded by The Small Object

I don't visit The Small Object too often (not sure why) but that just makes it all the more fun when I do as there are always an amazing amount of ingenious ideas to catch up on. Look at this magnetic doodle face for starters - how simple and clever! I've just spent a lovely twenty minutes marveling over all the lovely wedding toppers. I think I want this wedding dress for myself.

holida-a-a-a-a-ay!

Originally uploaded by Zellaby who has many more babes on the beach type photos if you click on the link.

Sorry for being such a blog skiver lately, it really wasn't through choice. This week has been crazy busy (hardly a spare minute) but it has also been the last week of school! That means I'm on holiday! For six weeks or so! It also means I'm out of a job and that I had to say a tearful goodbye to my class, colleagues and school but I am trying to focus on the positive...!

So what have I been doing when I haven't been here on the old blog? Well, my dad came to visit on Monday night and took me out for a yummy dinner, and then we went to hear Malcolm Gladwell speak. I'd never heard of Malcolm Gladwell before but he turns out to be very interesting and quite an amazing speaker. My dad gave me one of his books so hopefully I'll get round to reading that over the summer. On Tuesday Graham and I went through to Edinburgh (in the hot hot heat on a bee infested bus) to hear Bill Forsyth being interviewed as part of the Edinburgh Film Festival. That was really good too. Maybe I should start having more of these cultural excursions!

In the midst of all this being busy, I didn't manage to post about... my first blogaversary! That was on Monday and I had planned to have a fabulous giveaway to celebrate but that obviously didn't happen. I'll try to have at least one giveaway over the summer to make up for it.

I promise I'll be back soon, hopefully with something interesting to share. Roll on the great summer of blogging!

an arty outing

I made it along to the art school's degree show (just!) on the very last day.  Learning from last year's mistakes (see my first ever blog post for details!!) I went earlier in the day and hit the visual communication bit first.  There was a lot of great stuff there but I didn't photograph too much as I was on my own and felt a bit conspicuous.  The cowboy-esque paper figures above are by Eleanor Stewart and she had made a great stop motion animation from them too.

This is a tiny detail from an embroidered and printed/painted seal (?) skin by Sandy McInnes.  It was all about selkies.  I liked the idea (remembering reading about selkies as a child) and some of the images/objects were really nice.  Fishing boats with embroidered nets like this appeared a few times.  I really like the shape of the net and the stitching in it.

These were my favourite thing in the whole show.  They are by Rosie Ferrier (better pictures available if you click on the link) and are made from cut and layered coloured tracing paper.  Put together, they make up a book telling the story of an octopus who can hypnotise people.

Oh, look at the shapes and colours!  Yum!

Here is a diver watching the octopus juggling pepperoni pizzas under the sea.

I'd been quite excited to see Rosie's work after reading about her Sundae Sundays project (with Louise Lockhart) over on I Like.  You really have to go and look at it and read the story of strange coincidence.  I didn't take any photos of the Sundae Sundays stuff (a top ten of Glasgow ice cream parlours) which I hadn't realised until I got home...  I guess that hypnotic octopus really distracted me!  I Like has a fair few pictures, though, and a link to a website with many more.  Look look look.

It was a lovely day out but I think we have to go to the supermarket now.  Boo hoo.

Inchinnan '09!

Phew! I didn't mean to be away for so long, especially leaving that shameless plug sitting at the top of my blog for a whole week.  Sorry about that.  Last weekend was great -  Jarvis was every bit as brilliant as I had hoped (and funnier too) and then on Saturday we returned to the summer fete at Inchinnan.  We tried not to let our hopes get too high (last year was bloomin' brilliant!) and managed to have a good day as a result.

Graham snapped this sneaky pic of the line dancers.  You can see the 10p book stall in the background, where I got a fair few top bargains, some to keep and some to chop up.

Here's the entrance to the tea room...  The cake's were every bit as rubbish as last year (which made us laugh) and everyone was treated to either a dry pancake or a pancake slathered in margarine.

I got a few very nice bargains at the Bric a Brac stall (nothing to rival Pride and Joy, obviously) including this plate which was really lovely and was destined to hang on my wall of many wonders until Graham broke it.  Harumph!  I rescued it from the bin for this photo and have kept the pieces as I have a crafty (literally) plan for them.

After the fete, we went to the bowling club (where the Inchinnan logo at the top of this post hangs above the bar) for a drink with Graham's mum and dad.  We had a good time and got a little tipsy into the bargain.  I have some of the best ever photos from the journey home.  Graham went to "relieve himself" down an alleyway when two very merry ladies (one pushing the other in a shopping trolley) rolled up and got a right eyeful.  Much shrieking ensued and I was on hand with my camera to capture the moment.  Unfortunately I've been banned from publishing the pictures on the web.  There aren't even any rude bits visible.  What a spoilsport, eh?  Hee hee!

p.s. I'm planning a little (gigantic, I mean) giveaway soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

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Just dropping in to spread the news that I did some hardcore sewing and my Dot and Pat embroideries (large and small) are now back in stock at Miso Funky!

Got to go now.  Did I... a-hem... mention I was going to see Jarvis Cocker tonight?  Yeah, thought so...  Hee!

those pin pals do it again...

New Packaging 

Originally uploaded by Pin Pals

Just look at the Pin Pals' inspired and fabby new button packaging! I really like it. Yay!

this would be nice...

...especially since Graham cleaned the bathroom today.  One of us had to cave eventually!

Saul Steinberg Woman in Tub The Saul Steinberg Foundation 

Originally uploaded by Mary Linley

Oh what a day I've been having and it still isn't quite over as the pesky laptop from work has decided not to save one of my reports, just when I thought I was finished at last. It's been thinking about rescuing it for the last fifteen minutes (at least I hope that's what it's thinking about!) so all is not lost yet. Fingers crossed... 

I can't wait for this weekend. I've got a few horrible work type things to do and job applications etc. but mostly it is all going to be fun, fun, fun! Jarvis on Friday and a village fete (where we found this last year) on Saturday. Yippee!

sad seahorse skewer

Last night I was very naughty and, instead of writing my reports, I made this poor skewered seahorse.  The pattern is by futuregirl and is available here for free!  This was the first time I'd made one of these seahorses and it was so quick and easy and turned out looking so authentically... seahorsey!  The pattern does not mention putting the poor seahorse on a skewer, mind you.  One of Graham's friends visited China recently and tried all the weird and wonderful street food but found the skewered seahorses just a bit too sad.  As soon as he said that, I pictured one of these felt seahorses all skewered up.  Did you know that seahorses mate for life and that the males carry and give birth to the babies?  I'm going to make a little tag for this poor boy saying, "Please don't eat me.  I miss my wife..." just to boost the sadness factor.  I predict I will be making many more of these for all the people I know who already have a fabulous octopus.

p.s. I have been good and did lots of work work today.

all the pretty horses

I can't believe it is nearly four o'clock already and I feel like I just got up.  I spent all morning messing about on the living room floor with bits of paper and various punches, leaving a big old mess behind me.  I made some horse gift tags which I'm liking.  Sadly, after the first few, my horse punch broke.  I've had it for a few months but was only just starting to come up with good ideas with it and am quite sad.  

Not wanting to give up my new found horsey vibe (I am NOT a horse person at all and in fact have a bit of an aversion towards them) I ended up cutting their front legs with scissors.  This was no mean feat (feet - ha ha!) as their tiny legs are only about a millimetre thick!

Here is the least blurry shot I managed to take of all the colour combos together.  I'd like to mess about more this evening but fear I must do some work work instead of play work.  Boo.

In other crafty news, I've packaged up all my prints for the gocco swap and will be posting them tomorrow (I'm loving the post office being open on Sunday!) so will be able to share my print here soon without ruining any surprises.

Talking of crafty horses, have you seen that Ann Wood is giving away the pattern for her lovely cardboard horses?  That would be a fun project to keep you on your creative toes.  I have images of me getting up at 6am throughout the holidays to make one of these horses as a warm up, before getting on with a million and one of my own craft projects each and every day, wearing a dress that I made myself of course!  So not going to happen... :)

buttercups, buttons, buttcracks

Here is the buttercup, picked by Graham (in the manliest possible way) earlier this week while out for a cycle.

Here are portraits of some of the best buttons I got in a charity shop last week.  I bought quite a few sets (mostly for putting on cards and selling) and ended up getting these individual ones for free.  I made a lot of new (old) friends in the process.  It turns out nice old ladies don't think my button plan is evil - in fact, they rather like it!  The lady who sold/gave these to me was the original owner of the buttons and she was delighted to think they'd be going off to live in lots of loving new homes.

She was also particularly glad I chose these tiny pink ones as they were her favourites.  I think I am keeping this set for myself.

I'm definitely keeping these ones for my growing buttons-on-original-cards collection.  I love them!

These are some of the more unusual buttons from sets I got for making up more of my button cards. 

And the buttcracks?  Well, that is as close as you are likely to hear me get to swearing, all because of the thought of getting back to the assessment marking and report writing I've been doing all day.  Grrr.  So much for the election bringing me a happy little holiday...

the bubble has not burst yet

I must have sounded more down than I really was about the whole market thing as people have been very kind in their comments. I really did have a good day and I really am going to try again (and again) and I really meant it when I said I would set up an online shop! As I said, onwards and upwards! Still, it was nice to have my prickly little ego brushed :) I've also found a job to apply for this week which is making me feel a bit more hopeful about next year and beyond. It's not a teaching job (obviously!) but is education related at least.

The picture at the top of this post is by Gemma Correll whose illustration I am loving more and more every time I see it. You should all go and visit her flickr, especially if you need a good dose of cheering up. As you can see, it has worked wonders for old negative nelly me!