I'll be your tweetheart, if you will be mine.

Look who's hanging around admiring our fab new sofa.


Or are they gazing wistfully out of the window?
Looking for lost loves?


Tweethearts.



Green silk with a fuchsia pink beak, stitching and legs



and deepest red silk and velvet, with turquoise stitching legs and beak.



Love is in the air.
They will soon be in my etsy shop complete with a 'Be my tweetheart' or 'You are my tweetheart' tag. You can choose your own words.
'This afternoon I will be mostly making......
..... curtains.'

re write

To those of you who read the previous post (which I have deleted,) and commented, thank you for your help.
Ruth, Dot, Marylin and Jude, and Elaine, (there... I've given you all a link)I have discovered the problem and with your help the person concerned has sorted it out.

To those of you who are puzzled, I would just say that if links to my blog appear at the bottom of your comments list, its you who have to 'un -allow backlinks'.
I didn't put the links there, blogger apparently does it automatically.

This led to a misunderstanding and its irksome that I have had to use up blog space to sort it out.

Porky

Goodbye little Porky.

You were not my dog but in the very short time that

I knew you , you won my heart.

Before I met you and Blodwen I didn't see the point of little dogs.

But I do now.

Rest in Peace.

sympathy and love to G.

A Case of Books.

A new beautiful carpet has just been fitted in our front room and a man has been and put a protective coating on it. While he was here I thought it might be a good idea to get the stair carpet cleaned.
So now I wait for the fumes to die down and the stairs to dry, and thought I would inflict some thoughts on you.

Aren't bookshelves a good idea?
I had to empty one set and look at the piles of books that it held.


I became re acquainted with some old friends.
I thought I'd share.

I bought this on the same day that I bought the newly released Beatles White Album.
I'd saved £8 from my saturday job in C&A and went out for a spend. I think I also bought some art materials that day too.


Here's the date. I was 17. Later that year, I went to college, caught glandular fever at the end of my first term and this was what I read while I was in isolation hospital for two weeks.

Here are some much earlier treasures. I was a big fan of Toby Twirl when I was very young and still have a couple of books.

'The Chestry Oak' is by Kate Seredy I bought the books for myself fairly recently but read them all when I was about 13 and 14. 'The Good Master', 'The Singing Tree', 'The Open Gate' .

She was a Hungarian who went to live in the USA and wrote stories about her Hungarian childhood. I loved them.

Here are possibly two of my favourite books of all time. Both set in Greece. It was reading Fugitive Pieces that really gave me the extra push to want to go to Greece again.
Its a very moving book.

I read Capatain Corelli on a Eurocamp Holiday to Brittany about 10 years ago. I lay reading it on a sunbed on the campsite, blubbing, and wouldn't do anything else until I'd finished it.

Anne Tyler is one of my favourites too. The first line of this book is great.

'Once upon a time there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person'.

How could you not read on?

I like the Patchwork Planet too and the Accidental Tourist.

Doesn't everyone have this old sewing book?

This gives real insight into life in Afghanistan, very enjoyable.

A Thousand Acres contains a real shocker..based on King Lear, and I put the other one in because it describes my condition!

The Gormenghast Trilogy was a 21st Birthday present and I read them with a dictionary next to me. I loved them at the time and used to imagine 'The Movie' I had all the characters played by appropriate actors in my imagination, but when the TV series came out not so long ago I was a bit disappointed.

If you ever come across 'Mr Pye' also by Mervyn Peake, read it! (But only if no one has told you about it first)

The 'Clayhanger trilogy' by Arnold Bennet kept me occupied when I had to go to work on a long bus journey. It was so restrained. I remember gasping when they at last held hands for a second.

Looking at all these books makes me realise how little I seem to read now. I think I've replaced books with blogs.

I sit up till all hours with my laptop until its too late to read in bed.

Must change.

Have you read any of these?

Sorry..more hearts.

Apologies.
Its more hearts.
But you must admit, blue is new. (Jenny?)


But just a minute..

One of them looks a bit strange...
Its in 2 halves.



Here's the back.

Is it a totally stupid idea?

The 'Broken token' (there's a lot of reading in that link)Just think 'Half a sixpence' (HG Wells 'Kipps')

Do you think anyone will want to own two half hearts? One for themselves and one for their other half.

Here they are on a white background.

The Lady in Wales? She say 'yes'!

(see previous post)

An interesting fact: I have sent goods all over the world.

Australia, Hawaii. Nevada, Florida, California, Spain, Greece, France.

And they all got there safe and sound. Well , apart from Canada..but I wrote down the address wrong and it did come all the way back.

I sent one parcel to Manchester..about 25 miles away from here.

It didn't get there.

OOHH! I'm watching the news and Barack Obama is on...its so exciting.

I can't wait for the inauguration...and the puppy.

A Post with appalling picture quality.

Not Long Till Valentine's day!
I've been working for an Art Gallery near Newtown in Wales and didn't finish sewing till 1 am, so the pictures were taken in very poor artificial light, because all the items went off to Wales early this morning.


I've had these large blanket/kilt pins for ages and I've indulged myself. I've wanted to make these for a while but couldn't really justify them..what are they? Even I don't know. Large brooches or small wall hangings?


I just wanted to play with the tweed and velvet for its own sake.
(Oh the pictures are sooo bad)
There's an extraneous bit of red got onto this green one.


I wish you could really see this red in all its glory.

Besides these I made some more cuffs to go with the heart brooches.

Here's the coppery gold one.

The Gallery is having a Burns Night and Valentine event so these tweed hearts fill both bills!

Again the colours are all wrong.

(But you're an imaginative bunch so I'm sure you get the picture)

Now, I've been tagged twice on the same day.

Once by Lorie my dear distant friend and supporter, and once by Daisie who is probably the nearest blogger to me.
They were not exactly the same ..one was 6 things that make me happy every day, and the other was 6 things I love.

I'll just choose 6 nice things and invite anyone out there to do the same.

So, not counting the obvious..my family, here goes.

1.Walking round Tarn Hows on a crisp frosty winters day just as its going dark.

2. Eating and drinking in the company of close friends who you can be completely yourself with.

3. Northern Exposure TV series. I watched every single episode and loved every one.

4.Climbing into a freshly made bed into newly ironed cotton sheets.

5. Afternoon tea at Bettys

6.Sitting at my sewing machine with a huge pile of fabrics and threads and sewing.

I won't tag anyone else, but if you want to do it, link to me and tag 6 more...or don't.

Finally..how could I have been so stupid?

I have been reading about Cyber Fiber for quite some time now, and not really cottoned on the the idea that I could send a postcard to be exhibited before trading.

When I finally realised what an amazing job Susan Lenz has done I was so busy that it was quite hard to find the time to join in.

However today I managed to make one.

I was going to design something special, but in the end I decided 'stick with what you know'

And after that I wen to see my Mum for the afternoon.

We watched a DVD of Mamma Mia and had a glass of Baileys!

Simple pleasures.

Heart Beat

January used to be my worst month.
I hated getting up in the dark and going out to work or taking the children to school in the dark and returning home, feeling so down.
Now because I work mainly for myself I can avoid it.
I just stay in bed till its light!
I don't mind staying up late at night sewing to make up for lost time.
Having a project or two on the go has helped to stave off negativity for the past couple of years too.
This year its hearts.


I am making things for a Valentine and Burns Night event at a small Gallery in Mid Wales.


No matter how many hearts I made before Christmas, I am still finding ways to vary them.
These have much bigger rings on them which I quite like.
I enjoy these little discoveries.


I do wish the red would photograph better. It the most beautiful of all my silks and velvets but it just looks flat here.


Willow has been creative too.
I leave newspapers for her when I go out because she has taken to 'digging' in my absence.
If its not papers its CDs and books.
This is what she did with them while I was out on Tuesday, she included the plastic wrap from a six pack of bottled water. (NOTE.our tap water tastes truly disgusting, and I do understand the environmental implications..sorry. This six pack will last me ages..I use tap water for tea and coffee)

Now to ETSY.
First point: I have reduced the dollar price of the things in my Etsy shop to reflect the change in the exchange rate, so its now a bargain for Americans and not such an expense for UK residents. The 10% refund sale is on till 18th January.
Second point: PLEEEEEASE if you have ever bought anything from me will you log on and leave feedback? My rating is 78 and my sales are 104. People might smell a rat and think that 22 customers are not satisfied.
There are no rats.
(But I did send the wrong cuff to one of my valued customers in the USA..so sorry, the right one is on its way, Lorie)
Thank you to the two people who rated my blog on blogger. I believe they only change the editors rating when 'it differs significantly' from the others.
I'm a bit too keen on all these stats. Top blogs by Crafters, Technorati, Sewing blog list, Crafty blogs...you name it I'm there giving myself grief because I'm not higher up or my rating isn't better.

Numbers

My 100th post has been and gone without me noticing.
This is 101.
My 100th Etsy sale likewise..so I'm having a 10% off sale to celebrate(Till 18th Jan).
Tomorrow is Twelfth Night, The Epiphany.
The Catholic Church has confused everything by moving the Epiphany to the nearest Sunday which was yesterday.
I still haven't taken down my decorations..and a new one has appeared over the road..


just the one. I had to share it with you.


There are no more icicles anywhere near and there's this one quite low down on the tree outside the Methodist Chapel over the road. I wasn't going to post any more sewing-less posts for a while but I do hope you'll excuse this one.

Meanwhile I've found a lovely new blog. It has amused me such a lot.
Susie's blog. Not heavy on the visuals but the pictures painted by the words have made me laugh. Take time to read it.

I'm on with my Valentines pieces.
Watch out for 'tweethearts'
Coming soon.

Was that really boring?
Sorry..its January.

Work

New Years Day.
An amazing structure.