What a way to spend my bloggiversary.

GIVEAWAY CLOSED. NO MORE ENTRIES NOW. LET THE DRAW COMMENCE


Rather later in the day than planned, I am here to mark the fifth(not fourth as I initially reported) anniversary of my blog.

I can't believe that five years have passed since I first tiptoed into this part of cyberspace from the pages of Flickr.

I predicted my blog would last 4 years before I filled up allowance of space, but it seems to be going on. 

I've made some lovely friends and was very good at reading blogs for at least three years but lately its all got too much. 

I'm grateful to everyone who reads and comments still.

Anyhow lets get on to the customary giveaway to celebrate. Two brooches.

Comment below and add the word pink or green (for obvious reasons) and you can go into the draw for one of these brooches. I will choose one from each colour.

The giveaway will be closed on Thursday afternoon.

Hope you like them.

Today I have mostly been ironing.

You know what its like....the ironing basket gets filled up and every time you iron you leave a bit behind. Well today I was determined to iron everything. 

HUGE Damask  tablecloth; Egyptian cotton sheets; small embroidered table covers. And this is where it got a bit weird.I was ironing this familiar object when I suddenly spotted......

is it 'the scream' in cutwork? 

The leaf at the other end has only one hole.

And suddenly all the motifs took on lives of their own. 

Look at this cute little bear popping out of a box in the middle of a flower. 

Or is it just me?

When I'd finished the ironing I promised myself I'd clean the bedroom, (such fun!) change the bed, put away all the clothes, dust and hoover. ...er....Dyson.

But the drive belt had snapped on the dyson. No problem according to Sam from Unifit: watch with what ease he removes the sole plate. I'm with him there. Removing the old belt..easy ours had snapped; removing the brush roll...yes I managed that but then...if you look carefully you can see that Sam from Unifit grimaces...grits his teeth, his arm trembles  but still asserts 'Thats how easy it is'. At least  Matt from espares  has the good grace to admit its a 'little tricky. '

Hetty and Jules are as baffled as I am.

After an hour and a half with the aid of a knife and the handle of a washing up brush I conceded. 

You need long fingers like ET and biceps like Arnie (Schwarzenegger) to stretch the rubber band whilst niftily hooking it round the spindle of the motor.

My husband came home and we fixed it together but I have to admit..its twisted.

Never mind ..it works. I will ignore the heat and the slight smell of hot rubber.

Its taken me a few days to recover from my wedding flower escapades at the weekend.

A young woman who I used to teach asked me ages ago to do her wedding flowers. She wanted mainly 'gyp'. In her original email she asked me to do pew ends.

I did buttonholes.

I did bigger 'ladies' buttonholes

I did corsages for the mothers

I did a wrist corsage for the bridesmaid.

I did the bouquet.

I did an arrangement on the altar

and several bunches in jam jars for the top table at the reception

BUT I COMPLETELY FORGOT THE PEW ENDS.

 I discovered this omission on Friday afternoon so after a sleepless night  I made an early saturday morning trip to the wholesalers 25 miles away for some more 'gyp' and managed to tie 10 little bunches to the ends of the pews. Just in time.

It looked very pretty but I was so embarrassed that I'd just not taken it on board that I had to do them in the first place, and quite worrying.

I slept for the rest of the afternoon.

 Hetty news. She's had a drastic haircut. She's not happy. When we were protecting the flowers from wilting by not putting on the heating, she was sitting shivering so we had to put her coat on.

But I like how we can see her eyes now. 

(Just a note...I have just found a whole lot of comments in my spam folder. I don't know why or how but I am sorry if I haven't replied, They all had addresses as 'no reply' . If you would like a direct reply  you have to comment with a google account id.)

The suspense!

The giveaway is now closed for judging.
Thank you for all your comments. I have decided to copy and paste them all into a document and hand them over to the impartial judging panel..(two of my friends) and let them decide. I think thats very fair.
I'll post up the winner tomorrow evening so watch this space.

I have not been idle though.
I've been working on two orders for two gallery shops. Lazyhill Gallery in Abbotsbury Dorset and
The Found Gallery in Dunbar, East Lothian.
I feel so honoured to be associated with these two beautiful places.

I also sent my fishy piece to Ramster Textile exhibition. My mounting decision was made last week. I covered two narrow sided canvases with unbleached calico and stitched the pieces on. In teh end it was teh best decision as they needed to be light enough to send , and also narrow enough to frame if a buyer wanted to. 

Here they are ready for off. 20x20 inches..too big for Royal mail next day delivery so I had to spend a fortune and use Parcelforce. 

I hope its worth it.

I won't even know if they've been selected unless one of you dear readers visits the exhibition and tells me!

PS Have any other bloggers out there been invited to the preview of the 'Products' associated with the Pompeii exhibition at the British Museum? I have but I can't afford the train fare and I can't imagine how they think I'm 'press'! I'd die of embarrassment if anyone asked who I was.

MOOOOOOOO!!!

Two little parcels came in the post today.

It might well say 'YAY" on the box. I am so excited.

The wonderful people at MOO offered me a 'spend' in their shop in return for a blog post about their products.

I needed no convincing. I have been using MOO for a long time and I already recommend them to friends because their products are SO GOOD. 

(You would not believe the offers from other companies I have turned down because I don't use them..knitting books; software scrapbooking programmes with potentially big financial rewards; free ipad cases..well I'm  thinking about that one!)

Anyway..back to moo..

Two parcels arrived so I opened the little one first. 

A book of 90 stickers with my own photographs on them. 

Thats what's so great about MOO. You use your own photos if you like and you can have every one of them different. Or you can buy ready made designs.

So here they are.

Now to the lovely big box..even the boxes are beautiful quality. 

The first thing I got out was this little lidded box of 50 business cards for me.

As many different photos on the back as you like and your details on the front with one image or a logo which is the same on all of them.

 Aren't they lovely?

I also got 50 cards for my husband from 5 of his photos of projects he worked on.

  This photo was on the front showing a painting in the process of being cleaned.

Some of them have the finished piece on the other side.

On to the next and most exciting packet of all. 

25 Greetings cards. I have to tell you the quality is gorgeous. They are a very substantial matte card blank inside (but you can put a greeting in )

 and what might loosely be called 'my logo' on the back.

 I used photos of my work and other things appropriate for greetings cards.

 Oohh yumyumyumyum. Its a delicious pile of loveliness. 

I've looked into making cards from my work but its always been fraught with difficulty, Moo make it so easy.

There were also lovely white envelopes which were free but you can pay a bit extra for colours.

And finally.....100 deliciously sweet mini moo cards. I've had these before and was just thinking about ordering more when this offer arrived in the nick of time!

Like the business cards you can have as many different photographs on one side as you like, and a fixed one on the other side with your details.

These come in a lovely little lidded box.

NOW FOR THE SCIENCE: the lovely people at Moo sent me a sheet of copy for you my dear readers  .

Here beginneth...read and concentrate and some of this loveliness in the form of 50 business cards will be yours for absolutely free wherever you live in the world.

MOO Giveaway with Dog Daisy Chains

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve teamed up with the design and print guys at MOO.com to provide a great giveaway to 3 lucky readers! MOO love printing business cards, MiniCards, creating custom stickers, postcards & labels - MOO do it all!

MOO?

MOO ascended from a desire of gorgeous, first-rate business card design - they make the design and print process accessible and easy. You can choose to either select from the business card templates or upload your own images to create truly unique products.

Giveaway Prizes

WIN: A set of 50 Classic Business Cards for THREE winners.

How To Win!

For a chance of winning a MOO prize, simply leave a comment below, telling us how your design will stand out from the crowd! Be imaginative, funny and most importantly unique! Make us smile you’re in with a great chance of winning.

Winners will be chosen from the comments below and will be asked for a valid email address so they can get their prize.
Good luck!

Here endeth the lesson.

Now, I don't know who is going to choose the winner but it will be someone ..I suspect it will be me but you never know....

Come on...we're waiting.....