Once upon a time...

... I bought this beautiful little sewing pouch...

... but my life (a.k.a. flat!) was too disorganised for me to get around to putting my sewing things in it so it lay sad and empty for many months.

But I spent hours (hours!) yesterday sorting out the pile of... sorry, make that PILES of crafty gubbins and books and rubbish and... and I finally put some sewing things in my sewing case. It's so lovely. Hooray!

Mmmmm. Look at the shiny shiny pins.

Tidying up also cleared a space for me to make some things. These are work in progress shots (hark at me!) of a little idea I've had in my head for a very long time. It's going to take a long time to make and it might not actually work but I've been enjoying pottering with it and am keeping my fingers crossed.

word drill

I got this sweet looking book for 20p at the Inchinnan fete book stall a few weeks ago but hadn't got round to photographing it until today.

It's a bit wavy and bendy but I'm hoping it will flatten eventually. The two images above are from the cover. It's a school phonics book and was used in 1962 by Maureen Mitchell and in 1963 by Neal McHoull. Their names are written inside.

Most of the pages have pictures like these. I love them!

If you're very good I might post an old picture of me in my Brownie uniform!

I love two colour printing! I have some other lovely two colour books I might share here at some point. I wanted my hulder print to have this sort of look and I think it does. Go me!

This is one of the best pages - I love the hare, the whale, the name and the inch-tape. Four top scorers on one page!

Here's the cover in full. Made in Glasgow as you can see.

viking animals!

viking embroidery

Originally uploaded by banquopack

This embroidery makes me laugh and reminded me of this silliness. Enjoy!

Here's Poppy...

...relaxing on my lap in front of Wimbledon on the telly.

Just so you don't think I'm a bad cat-mother with cat-favourites!

thunderbolts and lightning

I took these photos of Lola yesterday. She is a very hairy cat and has not been coping well with the muggy heat at all, despite shedding hair furiously. Our whole flat is covered in fluff clumps like the one in the bottom right of this photo. She's taken to sleeping on her back with her sizable belly exposed but can't quite relax and wakes with a start whenever anybody moves.

Aw, just look at that face and her peachy little chin :) I love her!

She doesn't seem to be liking the thunder and lightning much better (she's looking a bit anxious) but I'm sure the cool air it's bringing will be a sweet relief to her. Poppy the heat seeking missile, meanwhile, looks ready to go into hibernation and is seeking out cosy corners to huddle in. Sometimes I can hardly believe they are sisters.

Oh well, better get back to the hoover or is it dangerous to hoover during a thunder storm...?

A marketing post - literally!

Knit Fast Dye Young

Originally uploaded by mooosh ♥ miso funky

This fun sampler (along with around a zillion others - can you see the smoke coming from her fingers?) was handmade by Claire over at Miso Funky. At the moment Miso Funky is the only place you can buy my stuff online, although I am hatching a plot to branch out...! Claire has been a very supportive and friendly fairy godmother come guru to me over the last year or so, and even set me up with/held my hand through the two markets I did. If it's a weekend, you can pretty much guarantee Claire will be perched behind a stall of handmade goodies somewhere. This weekend she has a stall at a market in Edinburgh, where she will be selling a range of her own fabulous creations as well as a selection of items made by other crafty types including, I think, some of my new ice cream van gocco prints and cards. It should definitely be worth a visit if you are in the Edinburgh area. The market is on the Grassmarket from 12-5 on Sunday. Go and see!

I also want...

... this top so badly. I'd seen a few people wearing it and loved it but didn't find out it came from Dorothy Perkins until it was in the sale and sold out in all but extra large or extra small sizes. You can't see it so well from this picture but the print is made up of tiny horses. If you see this top anywhere in a size 12 or (preferably) a size 14 please tell them to keep it for me...

I love it :(