Vent and a Giveaway

The Northern part of the UK is sick to death of grey skies, rain rain rain , full tog emergency in the duvet department and general dull.
( Fortunately my next door neighbours are having a new roof and if I look through the side windows through the branches of our tree, I can kid myself that the bright blue plastic sheet over it is a lovely summer sky.)
But the softie southerners are now complaining that its not rained enough. Oh...poor you....
(Only kidding ..I love you really)


So last week we thought we'd try to get a break from dull and look for a holiday in the South..in the sun..but guess what? Its full. Yes, Cornwall is full. Devon is full....so where do you think we are going?

The Outer Hebrides.
Yes. We deserve all the weather we get don't we?
I have no hope of sunshine but a change is as good as a rest. I am going to find the Motherlode, the source, the weavers of the tweed. So exciting

My car is fixed which is just as well as its a 300mile first lap to Fort William, the another hundred and odd to Ullapool and the Ferry to Lewis..which is next to Harris..yes, Harris.

We can't go in my husbands car  because there was a dog related accident of the over excited kind last week when our son came over and brought his little canine friend. We've done our best to erase the pong but with it being so wet and cold we can't give it a good clean out yet. She further disgraced herself by rolling in fox poo, and finally by attacking Mummycat.

We are staying in my friends lovely house at a discount which she has said she will offer at a similar discount to any blog friend of mine. Just let me know and I'll put you in touch. Here's the website.

Its an ideal time to go away while my son is living here so we don't have to worry about house/cats/etc.

I've been in a distracted frame of mind lately, the kind of state where even my sewing doesn't seem as if  its worth carrying on.
But I've found a bit of focus in these colours .















More sweet pea coloured shapes. I enjoyed doing these. (I've still got one white sweet pea and its been joined by one purple one)
Its strange how little differences and subtleties affect the feeling of pieces. You may not notice that there is a new element here, the little 'dot on a stick' is surrounded by an edge I haven't used before.

Can you see it? Its a sort of teardrop shape. It gives them a butterfly like feel don't you think?

Like you might get in a child's drawing.
 I had fun . Then I went onto flowers again. For brooches.

Finally a collection of small 'Paisleys'.

These could be brooches as well and I am also getting some prongy (not pongy) hairclips to decorate.
I have to think about getting ready for Galleries ad sales later in the year.
But I wish I could just do something a bit more meaningful and artistic instead of 'knick knacks.' Do you know what I mean?

Anyway....

While I'm away I think I'll leave a little Giveaway on here.

I'll be taking my little laptop with me so I'll be able to keep an eye on things.

 You can choose any one of the above. 

Just leave a comment. You know I love them.
I'll draw it when I get back.

Bye for now.


Update:  Thanks for all your lovely comments so far. I welcome them all but I hope you will forgive me for not always replying..I'm ironing and packing and shopping for the resident house sitter!
I meant to add that the giveaway could be another different brooch/tiny art piece  if nothing here tickles your fancy. I know somepeople prefer brighter colours.

At Last

DRAW DEADLINE 5PM (British time)TODAY WED. 13TH MAY
Entries for draw closed now, but still feel free to comment.
results later.


Have you noticed, if you live in the UK, how the weather forecasters always say what lovely weather we're having when its nice in London?
Well I live in the North. The wind is howling around our moorland village and creeping in through all the gaps in our old house, one of the highest in that village.
The central heating has broken down and we are COLD.

To take my mind off it I am having my bloggiversay at last.
One whole year of blogging(and a couple of weeks).
One hundred and forty five posts, 2,528 comments, 110 followers, 233 subscribers in reader, I don't know how many photographs, 365 days of fun.
Because of my blog I have

• coped over the recent sad days with your support and comments.
• enjoyed my trip to Marrakech all over again when I relived it on the blog.
• been encouraged to pursue pieces of work through the reception they have had here.
• Found lots of lovely friends in blogland
• received amazing gifts from far and wide
• had an exciting development (can't mention it yet)publishing related.
  
• been invited to exhibit in an arts trail
• sold lots of pieces of my work on etsy and by requests.

I only had two nasty comments all year ..actually one was an e mail the other was from 'anonymous' who didn't believe we were really friends.
Not a great deal of spam except the usual Chinese stuff.

At times I couldn't work blogger but you were all there to help.
I learnt how to link, how to stop links, how to use Google reader, and how to install stat counter.

Now for the thank you. Because I really want to say a big thank you to everyone I have communicated with in any way.
I said I would make a special thing for the giveaway but my creativity has been under pressure lately so this is what I'll do.
I am going to draw 5 names from 'the hat'.
The first name can choose one anything from my etsy shop or from this post.
The other 4 names can choose a little round brooch (now featured on Cuteable)from the 21 below .
(I put the other picture of these on flickr and its been a great success going straight into 'explore' and getting loads of comments. Its great but I don't know why. I preferred the one of them in their box.)


I am offering this piece as first prize but you may not like it.


Its about 8 inches square and is based on Ancient Greek Motifs.
really much nicer than it appears here.
But as I said, you can choose.

I've finished these pieces as brooches now.




Because of their irregular edges I couldn't stitch the back on so have had to rely on a combination of bondaweb and pva, but they are up for grabs in the giveaway.
All you have to do is leave a comment here. You could tell me which is your favourite post if you like but you don't have to.
Now I don't want anyone saying to themselves ' I won't comment because it looks like I only do it if I want something'.
No .
And come on you lurkers. You are just as important as the regular commentors.
Even if its your first visit, feel free.
All those lovely people who commented in the last fortnight when I was so sad. Leave another.I would esecially love to include you.
All the regulars as well..come on!
I wish I could make something for everyone but I can't.
I'll do the draw midweek. Wednesday evening perhaps.

Now although I wasn't feeling creative, I was committed this week to decorating our church for a wedding today, so last Thursday I worked my socks off and bunged all these flowers in various arrangements.I was absolutely shattered by 5.30 having set off at 10.30 am to buy the flowers and been on my feet all day. I haven't slept very well since 'you know what' and it takes its toll.

The bride is a girl I used to teach. She and my son were schoolfriends. She often looked after our dogs when we went away, until she got her own,and she is absolutely mad about animals.
I hadn't seen her for a few years when one day last year I was walking Willow up the hill towards home and a white van screeched to a halt and out jumped Yvonne and her Adam, delighted to see Willow again.

So it was little surprise to see how she arrived at church.

Bless!

Barefoot too.
Shoes put on later.
She loved the flowers.
They are honeymooning in Ireland so they can take their dogs.

A Little Project and a Giveaway.

A little gentle easing back into sewing was this small project. A little card to welcome a new baby.
Because it was for a friend of a friend I have done my best airbrushing over the name which was pink, so they won't recognise it if they happen to see my blog. I'm sure they won't but you never know.



After my last post I was so touched by all the lovely comments and e-mails exhorting me to cheer up that I felt better immediately. Thank you everyone. As a little extra 'Thank you' and to belatedly celebrate my half century of blog posts I am giving away this Celtic Brooch.


I'll have a draw next weekend so if you are interested leave me a comment and I'll put your name in. (Even if you have been a lurker hitherto..come on!)

Meanwhile I am searching for a holiday.
Flights to The Greek Islands seem to have been booked up, unless we want to pay about £1000, or go to a very busy place.
We will have to wait till next year.
In the meantimewe are looking in the UK, possibly in Cornwall, but I'm not fussy, overlooking a nice little sandy cove, within reasonable reach of good restaurants, at a realistic price, after 4th and before 25th September.
Any ideas?