Mystery solved.

Etsy Front Page 2/21/10 nataliadieguez, originally uploaded by Etsy Front Pagers.

I wondered why I suddenly got a whole new lot of etsy hearts last week.
Now I know.
Did you know there's a fickr photostream dedicated to showing every front page?
So thank you to nataliadieguez for including me in her treasury which made it to the top of the heap.

Sunday Afternoon at the Winter Olympics

Its snowing outside.


Winter Olympics on TV...



a big bag of stuffing...




and a pile of flat inside-out Harris Tweets to finish.


Good company.

Whats your favourite way to spend Sunday afternoon?

Excursion

Today I have been hobnobbing with Vikings.
Actual Scandinavian ones in authentic dress (if you don't count the specs and pink handbag.)


This bit of the A59 is called 'Blubberhouses'....I crossed over it on my journey to York today, in rather difficult driving conditions. I managed an un-aimed pic for you..

I met my American blogger friend the delightful 'Sid' Simpson in the lounge of her hotel in York where we sat upon cushions with umbel designs on them and exchanged gifts.
You see..I have been doing some sewing. Notice the Celtic brooch she is wearing?
(Its a pity my camera shows the lovely purple sweater as cold blue.)


We went to the Quilt Museum where we met the Vikings.
Wandered round the exhibition of whole cloth quilts and marveled at the building.
Strolled around York enjoying the atmosphere.

No visit to York is complete without tea at 'Bettys.'
Today's special was rhubarb crumble tart.
Delicious. (Are there too many pictures of food on my blog?)

Tea tastes much better from delicate china cups and silver teapots.

There is always a queue down the street but its definitely worth the wait.

Its so genteel in there.
Great for my favourite sport..people watching.
The waitress was a little bit too much like Uriah Heap though.
I drove home in the dark.
The worst bit of the journey was the last mile and a half. The road into our village had two inches of snow over it and I was the first car.
That reminds me..I am so enjoying the Winter Olympics.
Can't wait for the half pipe.

Me again

Sorry to have been away so long.
The reasons are various.
Lack of inspiration.
Addiction to and compulsive playing of online Scrabble.
A severe bout of hypochondria brought about by the discovery of elderly neighbour on bathroom floor having had a heart attack, and lack of time due to subsequent visiting of said neighbour in one hospital 5 miles away,and her husband in another 12 miles away in the opposite direction.

So an ECG, and a course of indigestion pills later here I am.

Now brace yourselves for this....
My brother plays golf.
He asked me to make him some head covers for his clubs.
I was excited.
But the results of the experiments at the the felt group yesterday are...well..see for yourself.
The first picture reminds me of the hospital visits...(mens ward)


Do you see what I mean?

Better try again.

Harder.

In my longer than usual absence I have been nominated for a sunshine blog award by no fewer than 4 other bloggers.
So instead of passing it on to a chosen few, I will link to those who nominated me and if you feel like nominating yourself..feel free.
So here they are and I thank them all. They have lovely blogs well worth a visit.
Maria of Creative Bumblebee
Do go and have a look at her fairy costume work.
Elizabeth Armstrong , the studio felter
If you want to see how its done, beautiful felt work look there.

Annica of Fabulous Threads with gorgeous felt and stitching and a glimpse into Swedish life.

And Fibrefrolics where you can see more felting and some lovely photography.
Do look at the snowdrop post, its beautiful.

I am way behind with blog reading but do my best. Don't always comment but do try to read.
Apologies.
Must go ..its my turn in one of my scrabble games.

Winner!

Good morning.
I am waiting for a parcel so dare not even go into the shower in case the delivery man tiptoes up to the door, grazes the surface with a silent knuckle and creeps away again ..as he did yesterday.
I may be sitting all day in my dressing gown.

So to pass the time I have drawn the winner of the mugs.

This is how I did it and you'll have to take to take my word for it.
I am a very honest person.

I don't have cheese eating children so I had to be very boring about it.

I copied and pasted all your names from my comments box into a grid. Conveniently, by the time I had discounted the accidental double comments, the PSs, those who said 'don't put me in the draw I have enough mugs,' and my son, there were 100 entries.


I numbered a-j across the top row and 1-10 down the side.

I went to the random number generator site and put in 1-10 for the letters on the top row, which gave me 7, letter G

Then I repeated the process for the numbers, 1-10 which gave me number three.
So 7 across and three down gave me a winner who is.......

I haven't even looked to see which mug set she wanted, because I think I have decided which one I want now and didn't want any impartiality to creep in.
So congratulations to Gill from VintageRockchick and commiserations to everyone else.

I always feel so upset that everyone can't win. It was so lovely to 'meet ' new people.
I hope you'll all pop in again.

Holidays-sewing-food

Reading around the bloggisphere I often come across posts about holidays and have come to understand that the sensitive souls of the textile world love nothing better than to holiday in the wilder remote places far from the madding crowd.
So when a friend of mine alerted me to the fact that she has just made her Scottish House available for holiday lets I offered to share this information.

Here it is....

..on the Isle of Lewis no less.
I can't wait to get there but unfortunately can't for a while.
So at the risk of getting the place booked up I thought I'd show you and I'm sure some people out there will be booking their slot immediately.
I mean..Lewis.
Thats HARRIS and Lewis and you know what they make there don't you?
If you would like to see more visit their lovely website.



Jools is exhausted after his contribution to the world of blog.



I have been very uninspired lately but been fiddling around with more hearts and other shapes.
What do you think?




Yesterday, for my husbands birthday, we went to a place where they have a crafty way of making three slices of bread look stupendous...

Where they have portraits of vegetables on the walls,

and the food is superb.


5 of the 6 members of our party were fulsome in their praise.

My younger son enjoyed his food but he didn't rate the board it came on and asked for a plate, and his comments about the establishments attitude to itself are unprintable.

Mug giveaway closes on Wednesday night, click on the mugs at the top right, to take you to the post where you need to leave a comment to be included the draw.