what catey made next......

2012-01-29T22:24:00.002Z

this weekend i've spent time with friends, eaten a lot of noodles, watchedthe big bang theory marathon and done some wedmin...

i've double side sticky taped 80 invites together, slidey paper trimmered80 black and white photos and sat knitting while watching my lovely friend Lizdoing the trial for my wedding flowers.....

imagine the chrysanthemums ashydrangeas and you have my bouquet

corsages for the mummys

a chilli adorned button hole for thegroom, though imagine it smaller, it's just proportional to the chillies at themoment

wrist corsages for my gorgeousbridesmaids

now i think i'll settle down for a little more knitting, admiring my fireplaceand big bang theory before bed...

happy chinese new year,

whimsycate, x x x

almost vegan quiche...

2012-01-18T16:15:00.002Z

the recipe i found called for nutritional yeast, but the cosmopolitan borough of north tyneside couldn't provide me with such a delicacy so i had to substitute in some yummy Parmesan...such a shame!

taken from between chapters sixteen and seventeen of The Love Verb by Jane Green (the heartbreaking and beautiful story of vegan chef Steffi and her sister Callie), here is my slightly reworked version...

preheat the oven to gas mark 5

dry fry a handful of pine nuts over a medium heat

make up a pack of flavoured cous cous (i used sundried tomato and garlic), add in two tablespoons of rice (or other) flour and press well in to a greased flan tin with removable bottom

blend together a pack of firm tofu, a bag of spinach, a lovely big piece of Parmesan, grated, a tablespoon of wholegrain mustard, 1/2 teaspoon each of sea salt, turmeric, and nutmeg, a sliced garlic clove and the juice of a lemon

fill the case with the tofu mixture, top with the pine nuts and bake for 30-40 minutes

delicious hot or cold!

whimsycate, x x x

things i didn't do...

2011-06-01T10:58:00.001+01:00

on sunday night after doing a bit of a blog reader catch up i was suddenly in a crafty mood, and inspired enough to scamper up to the craft room and pull out the bootsy quilt, whilst looking for everything i needed (lost machine foot anyone?) i found this lovely bag of treats hiding in the cupboard....

packed with quilting and knitting projects, books and magazines, i took it when we went to the lakes a few weeks ago, but i never got round to more than a few rows of knitting (which is a bit of game knitting btw - very fun) so the bag came home again and sat waiting to be rediscovered (possibly more on that later)...

so with all those things for me to do, why did i not ... you know, do them? two reasons....

or really, the influence of two people....

Anne at the Knit Studio in Newcastle, who is responsible for me finally learning to crochet, she kitted me out with cotton, a hook, the indispensable book crochet unraveled and lots of hints and tips, and literally less than 24 hours after leaving her wonderful shop in the loft of blackfriars i was making my first granny square...

...and...

Adrienne at Williams Wools in Kendal (the most snug and cosy shop stuffed full of gorgeous yarns), who is so friendly and knowledgeable, we chatted and played with the wool until i had a pleasing colour combination....

007 cyprus 026 hyacinth 013 enamel 009 ultra-marine 002 shale 010 indigo 003 anthracite 006 pier

the yarn is rowan pure wool dk, most of which i did buy in the lakes, but i also got a few balls when i got home, (after a few calculations and mind changes), from English Yarns, which has a fantastic selection of rowan and are super quick and friendly.

so.....i spent most of my free time on holiday making up little squares.... not knitting, not reading, not working on either of my quilting projects (even though i'd taken my sewing machine too).... nope, making little squares, little granny squares...

of course in my usual fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants way i have no idea how to attach the squares to each other, but that's just a problem i'll work out when i get to it... for now i'm just happy happy happy that i've finally learnt how to crochet :o)

whimsycate, x x x

peas...

2011-05-29T15:35:00.002+01:00

....i love peas, almost as much as i love buttons, but in an eating way, not a stroking way. they're so sweet and fresh and tasty, my absolute favourite vegetable, i think that you can put them in literally any meal... and indeed for a while i did, until Timmy complained - who knew that you could have too much of a good thing?!

imagine then how enthralled i was while flicking through the myriad sky channels one night, when istumbled upon the first episode of the Edible Garden (beans and peas)... i was hooked, what a wonderful series... what a wonderful host... the red headed fairy like Alys Fowler, yes this is another girly crush post!

i love her life - a garden full of veggies, herbs, fruit, and flowers, weird and wonderful willow sculptures, a home made greenhouse (using old stained glass windows), and hens and a darling little dog for company, creating delicious food and stores from homegrown produce - heaven!

unfortunately i don't have the colouring for auburn hair, and i'm not allowed a dog (yet), but i do have the space for a green house, not hand made, but second hand, moved from yorkshire and reassembled by my dad - (thank you!x)

so.....i've been gardening,surprisingly successfully so far...... which is a bit of miracle really as in the past plants usually die when i come in to contact with them, but so far i've managed to grow tomatoes, cucumber lettuce and some herbs from seed, all of them flourishing, if not flowering yet, i've just this afternoon noticed that the courgette seeds in the propagator are beginning to germinate, and of course we have peas, beautiful beautiful peas.... Tim had better get used to them again this summer!

i'm so thrilled by it all, it's the same feeling i get when i cast off a pair of socks or sew the last few stitches on a quilt... i made that? really? i'm amazed and a little bit proud too! all the more so as i really have no idea what i'm doing, it's just my whimsical but unshakable sense of... if i will it so, it will happen! and so far it is :o)

whimsycate, x x x

p.s. it's nice to be back, but as always no promises i'll keep it up - i'm a lazy blogger!

sono felice...

2011-04-20T19:27:00.001+01:00

hello blogland!

the sun is shining, the birds are tweeting, the pink wine is flowing, we have a extravaganza of bank holiday goodness just hours away and i am full of the joys of spring, yes, sono felice (i am happy - it's my new favourite phrase!)

boring reasons have kept me away, but my camera and laptop are now charged, ideas are popping in to my head and i shall be posting again soon.

oh and a lovely new blog has just been started by an inspirational lady, so if you like good food pop over and see Aoife at my home super club, you'll be glad you did!

enjoy the bank holiday,

whimsycate, x x x

edited to add: oops, i missed the link when i posted this on wednesday, sorry Aoife!

cake cake cake....

2011-02-13T22:29:00.001Z

so this post has been written for a while, i just never got round to posting it, but lately i've been noticing a little trend i have for girly crushes - when some lovely lady amazes me with her talent, totally inspires me and i just can't shut up about it - so this is the first of a few posts dedicated to those girly crushes.....

chocolate, courgette and mint cupcakes

butternut squash chocolate cake

raspberry white chocolate blondies

mmmm.....don't they all look yummy? (even if i do say so myself!?) but amazingly they're all really (in my greedy-cake-loving opinion) good for you, chock full of veggies and hardly any fat - splendid!

all the recipes for these beautiful creations are from red velvet and chocolate heartache the simply marvelous book by harry eastwood, who is a true domestic goddess! harry has replaced most if not all of the fat in her recipes with a variety of vegetables, chosen for their texture, from silky to fudgey and, in what i think was a stroke of genius, has used rice flour instead of wheat, meaning that not only are coeliacs well catered for, but everything comes out light and fluffy too!

i'm in love with her book, aaaand...... yes, i do have a little bit ofa girly crush on harry too, but seriously, whowouldn't? a woman who loves chocolate cake, fairy wings, and vintage china? who spent lots of time and effort working out so many yummy recipes just so wecan indulge without the guilt? yep, definite girly crush!

if you haven't already, go buy the book, you won't regret it, and then you can join me in my crush!

whimsycate, x x x

adventure update.....

2011-02-06T18:51:00.001Z

since the beginning of this year i have been patching hexagons together like a mad lady - take a look at how big the iqa quilt is now (please forgive the rubbish photos btw, but i was balancing on a twisty chair in full view of my slightly bemused neighbour and his dog, so i was more about speed, than ooh-that-looks-good!)....

it has taken me quite a while* to get from here to here mind..... i got a bit prissy about the perfect layout of the 'sprinkles', as i like to call them. i spent an age endlessly faffing around colouring in and tippexing out, and then a good few months just ignoring the problem, but in a new year rush of enthusiasm i got me a fresh sheet of hexagon graph paper, a sharp and spiffy miffy pencil and just went for it..... i scribbled circles over my little plan, penned in the nearest hexagon, and got stitching - no tippex in sight!

i think it's turned out well, i'm quite sold on this spontaneity lark!

so, on to the next problem.... what do i do about the edge of the quilt? i originally thought i'd have some sort of wide border, maybe with more patchwork, but lately i've been thinking.... wouldn't a simple binding be better? you know, detract from the hexagons less? or would it just look unfinished? it's one for me to ponder....but i'd be grateful for any opinions!

whimsycate, x x x

parcel of pink....

2011-02-02T21:36:00.002Z

I love the giddy excitement of seeing a big pink parcel of fabric sitting on my doormat when i sleepily walk down the stairs on a saturday morning - instant wide awake-ness, skipping, squeaking, possibly even singing, in a flutter of ripped plastic i'm flipping and fondling, stroking my new favourites imagining all the fun i'll get up to - bliss!

so what did mr postman bring me?

this little pile is my final selection for the bootsy quilt, not everything was in the pink parcel, but i've put linkydinks to fabric rehab, for the things that were:

green vintage dots

lecien citrus dot

yellow dot from Geraldine

orange elephants

yellow gingham from just quilting

urban circus giraffes

apple dot

zoo menagerie giraffes

pale green ditzy flowers from Geraldine

scandinavian pears

orange vintage dots

yellow dandelion

tip top elephants green

yellow vintage dots

birds and trees summer

green and white flowers from Geraldine

wee woodland stripe seemingly sold out on fabric rehab, but available here

lime dot

solids in yellow orange and green

it needs to be ok for a boy or girl, and last i heard the mummy&daddy-to-be had decided on a jungle theme for the nursery, i'm hoping it'll fit in with out being too over the top (in case they change their minds) .... so what do you think to my selection?

whimsycate, x x x

happy news....

2011-01-27T21:09:00.001Z

i needed a little cheering up after today, and i thought the best thing would be to spread a little joy....

so by the the magical power of small folded hexagons....the winner of my giveaway is....

well done Maxine! if you drop me a line and let me know your address and i'll try to get the random collection of goodies off to you....soon-ish!

also, quick (and very belated) thank you-s go to Joanna for the beautiful book and Geraldine for my beautifully wrapped swap parcel...

Whimsycate, x x x

the city of love....

2011-01-24T23:11:00.000Z

my paris in pictures....

tipsy wanderings...

gorgeous patisserie and yummy scrum food...

awesome graffiti on the streets....

quirky colourful sights...

iconic views...

oh and.... an engagement!

hee hee, i thought i'd got over the total giddy excitement of the whole thing, but i haven't really, in fact i might have to go get out the already considerable pile of wedding mags when i've posted this!

thank you for all the lovely comments you left, it meant a lot to me, and i'm sorry i've been gone for so long, i've missed this little part of my world, but now things have settled down, i should be around more.

for now tho, i'm going to wish you all a happy and prosperous new year, and say good night, i'll be back later in the week with the giveaway winner announcement...

whimsycate, x x x

state of flux....

2010-10-22T17:48:00.000+01:00

well, i had hoped to do a lovely post with lots of pretty pictures, but virgin have decided to turn off our internet until early November - boo! so very quickly i shall say....

we had a wonderful time in Paris......we got engaged!

today we picked up the keys to our new house, new as in - we own it!

the giveaway will be on until i get my internet back.

i received some wonderful things through the post from lovely lovely people - thank you!

i'll post some pics and give you more details when i'm back, i'll miss you!

whimsycate x x x

birthday give away....

2010-10-13T08:07:00.000+01:00

morning, i've been a busy little bee this week, and i've not had much time to craft, or blog, but i've been having a bit of a think about my little blog and why i started it and how far i think i've come and how happy i am......

when i started this blog i wanted to record my makes, lessons learnt and ideas,i wanted talk about things i love, i wanted to improve my use of language and improve my photography, and i wanted to share it with like minded people who might appreciate it.

2 years and nearly 100 posts later i think i'm getting to a place where i've learnt to go with the flow, post when i want to, about what i want, and not feel guilt or the weight of expectation. i do think that i have improved my photography (somewhat, and allowing for the lack of light!) and i think my style of writing, though still changeable depending on my mood, seems to flow more, and reflect me better.

so to celebrate my small achievements with what catey made next, our 2 year blogoversary, the (almost) 100 posts, and my proper real life birthday, i'm going to have a little giveaway......i'm not sure what exactly will be given away, as i hadn't thought much past the event itself, but there will probably be some buttons, fabric or yarn, one or two little gifts, maybe something hand made, i will put more thought in to it, but please forgive me, as i'm going on a little birthday trip this afternoon, Timmy is taking me to Paris...oh la la!

If you want to enter the giveaway just leave a comment about anything you like and i'll put all the names in a hat and pick a winner next week (or the week after!?)......

good luck!

whimsycate, x x x

p.s. you'll get an extra entry if you're one of my lovely followers!

p.p.s. hi woodchip boutique, i love your bags!

bootsy

2010-10-05T19:15:00.003+01:00

i'm feeling much better, still a little snuffly, but on the mend, so thank you for the get well messages.

while i was snuggled up on the sofa, i started to think about the new baby quilt, i've seen a pattern in Quilts, BABY! that i fancy doing a version of (page 66 for those of you with a copy - not you Elkie!) and i've started gathering some fabric....

it's going to have a natural theme; trees, flowers, fruit, birdies, animals, lots of green and yellow, so still a lot of gathering to do, but i do have a six month head start this time :o)

what do you think to the colours so far...i'm not sure about the dark grey polka dot, i thought it might add contrast, but at the minute it just looks kinda odd!

whimsycate, x x x

snuggled up...

2010-10-01T20:40:00.001+01:00

with my knitting, books and duvet, recovering from an ear infection :o(

whimsycate, x x x

p.s. thank you for the kind comments about the baby boy quilt!

baby boy quilt - ta dah!

2010-09-28T20:33:00.004+01:00

*sigh*, i've finished it....

oh, it was a bittersweet moment handing over this quilt, lots of proud-making ooohs and aaahs, and oh how lovelys, but i did find it very hard to leave my little quilt, my first finished quilt, behind - to be loved by some one else, but loved it will be.

although it did take another 6 months to get to this point, i have enjoyed it, and i have learnt a few things....

if you want to quilt on a sewing machine... get a quilting foot - very important this, i spent a very frustrated night being very upset about my wonky quilting before i discovered what a even feed foot was!

don't get too over zealous when securing the ends of the thread while sewing the patchwork pieces together, as it can rumple the fabric and make it wonky, just one stitch in the opposite direction will do.

when doing the blind stitch on the binding, bend the quilt at the edge of the binding - it makes it so much easier and neater.

i'm not very good at following instructions in books, or at cutting fabric in a straight with a rotary cutter - oh dear!

hopefully i'll learn from my mistakes.....

but now, the ta-dah......

wrapped up neatly in white tissue and blue ribbon with a be-stickered luggage tag.....

washing instructions written on the other side of the tag.....

btw aren't those stickers cute, i got them here and then......

and yes i am trying create a little tension, a visual drum roll if you will......

before.....

i reveal......

......

ta-dah....

the baby boy quilt......

oh, how i do love it, i'm very proud, i love the little fishies and whales, and the cars and the stars, and the polka dots of many colours......

....i love the wrinkly crinkly feel, and the spirally quilting......

....i even love the faults, the coloured thread caught behind the quilt top, and the small puckers......

it makes it real, it makes me proud, it all means...i made that!

whimsycate, x x x

utility china

2010-09-26T23:17:00.001+01:00

I want to say a big thank you to A Thrifty Mrs for introducing me to the delights of utility china, i spent a good couple of hours drooling over the beautiful pictures over on the flickr group, wishing i owned such pretty china myself, and then in a happy twist of fate i happened to stumble upon these at the flea market this week......

*beam* oh i do love the beautiful curve of that jug spout! i think this may become a new mini obsession, especially searching for my first piece of that elusive pink china!

whimsycate, x x x

my goodness....

2010-09-24T15:00:00.001+01:00

is that quilt being binded?

why yes, yes it is!

my manana attitude combined with the mythical and far away 1st birthday deadline resulted in uber slow progress on the baby boy quilt this year, but Ben is a whole one year old next week..... so after leaving the quilt sitting on the back of my chair for two months, i suddenly had to get a shufty on.... i work better with pressure(?!), although....i do think i maybe did it wrong - ooopsy *shrug*

for as long as i can remember, for as long as i've been cutting and sticking and trying my hand at various crafty endeavours, i've had the belief that even if i don't know how to do something properly, even if i don't have the right materials or tools, that as long as i will it to happen enough, then it will happen....

so it may not have been the, huh-humm, exact method described in the chosen book, but i willed it to work for me and hopefully it will work :o) ..... there will be a ta-dah post coming up, after saturday, after some birthday party fun!

by the way, check out the stash swap over on Aoife's blog little pink room - i'll be hoping for green baby friendly fabric, for a new baby quilt, for a new baby, expected next April (yep, i'm trying to get a head start this time!)

whimsycate, x x x

a few days?

2010-09-19T20:41:00.000+01:00

who did i think i was kidding? it's been 8 weeks!

i had hoped to have some awesome (for me) news but things are taking their own sweet time and i don't want to jinx anything till i know for sure........

so now i've caught up with all my blog reading (lots of interesting thigs going on out there!) i'm just show you a few of this weekend's flea market finds, and a lovely collection of buttons my mum found for me while on her hols in Norfolk (thanks lady!).....

thank you to everyone who left me a comment or started following me while i was away, it was super nice to come back to that little surprise! hopefully i'll be about a bit more now, and give you something to read!

whimsycate, x x x

pink lady....

2010-07-21T23:08:00.001+01:00

when your friend's mum asks you to make a 'lovely' birthday cake for said friend's surprise high tea birthday party where else would you go for inspiration than smitten kitchen?

oh i felt so proud turning up with this huge girly, sparkly, layer affair..... the pink lady cake complete with cream cheese frosting, pink sugar, pink candles and my very favourite-est pink-est paperchase cake stand (only £3.50 in the sale!)

i've always wanted to do a layer cake, but always stopped at the usual two, but ah, what a difference that extra layer makes, stripey goodness! i have quite a taste for it now, i think i shall make an even greater number of layers in my next cake attempt, but i'd defiantly have to invest in a proper big mixing bowl for the next go, two of my big bowls looked piddly trying to cope with this bad boy of a batter!

unfortunately i didn't get any pictures of the beautiful pink layers - it's not really the done thing to fanny around with the camera posing a slice of cake in a million different ways at someone else's birthday party though, is it? (how rude!)

any hoo, i have to scoot, it's time to go to bed and dream twighlighty dreams now (eclipse is awesome!)

it may be a few days before i'm back, i have appointments and events to attend over the next few days but hopefully i'll have something to share, x

footsie....

2010-07-17T22:58:00.000+01:00

aaah, what a lovely site, the late evening sun playing over the baby boy quilt (yes i'm finally quilting it!) and my new even feed foot.....thank-you hugs and kissies to Tim!

and just because the view out of my window just now happened to be pretty.....

london....

2010-07-11T11:37:00.001+01:00

....we ate at the Greenhouse, saw Pearl Jam, visited the V&A, shopped at Borough Market, relaxed in Hyde Park and wandered around till our feet hurt..... here are a few pictures of things that caught my eye....

p.s. thank you for the welcome back comments, means a lot, x

i'm feelin kinda shy....

2010-07-07T22:27:00.000+01:00

like a kid who recognises someone but isn't really sure how....

i've been a little lurker for the last month or so, no reason, and no explanation, but now i'm ready to step out from behind mama's legs and talk to you again...

buttons for Marie....

2010-05-10T20:42:00.003+01:00

over the 3 years or so i've know Marie, we've laughed, cried, supported each others dreams, shared secrets, given advice and drunk a lot of wine together, and on friday, i had the honour of attending her wedding and reading a prayer for her and her new hubby Andrew.

it was a wonderful day, there were tears, laughter, music, dancing, pink champagne, and chocolate cake, and Marie, looked absolutely stunning, just like a princess, xxxx

i think she liked the gift.... buttons and love hearts and red, made with lots of love, by me, for her,xxxx

p.s. this post is also serving as my half way update on the spring to finish challenge... obviously i have one finish.... the little white hexies are doing well, i've even started to stitch them up...... the sock hasn't even been looked at yet..... and the quilt is a bit of a failure, as you can see from the last post..... i did unpick the quilt and carefully re-do everything, but it's still twisted and wonky :o( i've had some tips passed on to me (thank you lovely ladies!), and done a little research though, so i'll try again, and keep you posted!

grrrr....

2010-05-02T19:32:00.000+01:00

i've spent today finishing the top of my baby boy quilt, making the back, and quilting the whole thing....

BUT......

i've done something wrong!!!!!

grrrr.....

one of the corners has gone all wonky, i've quilted the top to the wadding and the back is twisted so the corner is 4 inches out of line - boo hoo!

i was so proud for about 5 minutes....

grrr.....

what do i do now? unpick it all? ALL OF IT?!?!?!?!? GRRRRR!!!!!

i think i'm gonna order takeaway, watch some sex in the city, and try and cheer myself up......

then i'll think about unpicking it :o(

p.s. well done to Timmy, who finished the Edinburgh 10k run today in 57 minutes - love you baby!

spring to finish....

2010-04-28T19:15:00.001+01:00

what a brilliant idea Jacquie's challenge is, just the push i need, so here's my spring to finish list...

project: top of the list has to be baby Ben's quilt, he's 7 months old now so it's got to be finished soon, otherwise i'll be presenting it to him for his 18th birthday!

treat: i think finishing my first quilt will be treat enough in it's self!

project: finish knitting one of a pair of socks i started last March(!) they were supposed to be a birthday gift, but never made it, maybe i can get them ready for this year, i'll have 8 weeks to finish the other sock after the challenge ends.

treat: maybe some new yarn, some thing cottony and summery.

project: wedding present for my beautiful friend Marie, i can't say what it is in case she's reading, but she gets married next friday, so i know i'll definitely get this finished (is that cheating?!) and i'll post about it when she's safely on her Jamaican honeymoon!

treat: i think this will warrant some shiny new buttons, or some shiny old buttons!

project: cutting out and basting all the white fabric round the hexagons for my iqa, which although therapeutic, is a little boring compared to the excitement of sewing the hexagons together and watching my little patchwork grow. i think this is a perfect project for the challenge, something that needs doing, not that exciting, but earns me a treat....

treat: definitely new fabric for this one, i think i might put in a big order to one of the lovely american companies, pretty things from overseas - yay!

i've got two full days of crafting alone-time coming up this bank holiday and i'm so excited to get going on some of this spring finishing, watch this space, x

the purrfect box....or....new treasures....

2010-04-27T11:02:00.000+01:00

(i couldn't decide on the title)

but look...... isn't my new treasure box really just completely purrfect?!

acquired at tynemouth on saturday morning in one of my more devious haggling moves (after a starting and apparently non negotiable price of £7, i stuck on a price sticker from the floor saying £4.50 then sent Tim over to offer £4, deal done - yay!) then filled with other treasures throughout the day...

...ditsy flower fabric and hearty ribbon and fabric from giant button £2.40 (the hearties match a little something that fell through my post box last week thank you Denise - i'll be posting about that soon) white cotton with a broderie anglaise pattern which will be used for the white patchwork part of the iqa only 50p....

...gorgeous Manos Silk Blend yarn, two skeins from Woolabaloo, a gift from my very generous mama - thank you Lady!

my new treasures in my purrfect treasure box, x

p.s i'm joining in with Jacquie's Spring to Finish challenge so hopefully i'll have a few finished (and probably some not-so-finished) things to show you soon...

happy birthday lady....

2010-04-25T19:21:00.002+01:00

union jack wrapping, blueberry and lemon cake and lots of shopping...

i hope you enjoyed your weekend mama, love you, x

am i crazy?

2010-04-19T22:43:00.004+01:00

so i said here that i was at a bit of a pivotal point in my incredible quilting adventure. since then i've been doing some thinking, some buying, and some paint pad picture-ing......

i've had a vague idea floating around my head for a while, i wanted to do a wide, off centre strip of pinky bluey greeny patchwork on a white background with a scattering of hexagons, just like the amazing picture above (i know, i know, i have mad paint pad skills)

but, i thought.... it's not quite right is it? those scattered hexagons look a little lost, it needs more structure, maybe...... if it were all patchworked? but that would be crazy, wouldn't it? to cut up white fabric? baste it to a million or so hexagons? sew it all back up? wouldn't it? wouldn't it?! or..... would it? what if i used different white on white printed fabrics, a subtle random patchwork, give the whole idea more purpose, now would that really be crazy..... or, would it be just, oooh i don't know.... perfect?!?!

so, after much internal debate, i now have more little piles of hexagons sprouting up around my house, all white ones, white with little white flowers, and little white stars, and even little white pairs of scissors......

so, what do you think.... am i crazy?

sunshine inside and out....

2010-04-15T22:37:00.005+01:00

after the rain and wind of the last few days it was nice to sit in my craft room with the window open (the start of things to come) and enjoy the sight of my sunshiney yellow flowers bought from the lovely lady near my train stop....

little bundles...

2010-04-13T15:31:00.001+01:00

Isn't he gorgeous? this little bundle is Benjamin James, the son of one of my good friends Amé, he six months old now, so this is a little late, but still, i just wanted to say a little bloggy Congratulations!

and this little bundle is a pile of baby boy fabrics that have been sitting waiting for quite some time for me to turn them in to a quilt for my little buddy Ben.....

and look, remember that secret new project i was working on before Easter.... well, i finally made a start on it, it's a little wonky here and there but i'm super proud, i just hope it takes doesn't take me another 6 months to finish!

a little more has been done since this picture was taken, and i'm now trying to research what the best wadding would be (any tips?), but once that's been ordered and the last strip sewn on, i just have to tackle the daunting tasks of quilting and binding (i'm a little worried, but i know there's plenty of helpful info out there in blogland!).

ireland - shopping

2010-04-06T16:57:00.001+01:00

part two, shopping..... another prerequisite for a good holiday, spending all your money on goodies then worrying about fitting them in your suitcase....

first stop on the shopping tour, Rubenesque in Dublin, i read about this wonder emporium on Aoife's blog, when i saw that lovely little pile of ribbons, i knew i had to get myself some ribbon love.....

next up was the yarn room in Ashford, a cute little place that Tim found for me, (and he didn't even moan at the 30 mins i spent in there!) lots of choice, but after quite a bit of umming and ahhing, and stroking and hugging, i finally chose these two balls of cushendale mohair gorgeous, loopy, soft, and Irish....

lastly Avoca Handweavers, in the slightly faded but still picturesque village of Avoca....

ah how i wished we'd gone on the ferry and taken the car instead of flying, there were many many things i wanted to buy here including the oh so cute button patterned pottery, but we did fly, so i limited myself to a scarf.....

a yummy pink and grey scarf, so soft and so warm, just the right thing to remind me of my holiday....

happy easter...

2010-04-03T13:22:00.002+01:00

wishing everyone a wonderful easter holiday, x

ireland - seaside

2010-04-02T15:28:00.000+01:00

i love being on the beach, a good holiday isn't really a holiday unless you can get some seasidey time in. so this is part one of two of my holiday pictures, i had planned for 3 parts, but some of the pictures got lost in the ether......

we stayed in a wooden floors, log fire, cozy blankets, magnificent views kinda cottage on a hill over looking Brittas Bay in County Wicklow, we spent a good many hours walking along the beach at Brittas, admiring the view, skipping stones, investigating and beachcombing, it's a beautiful place..

now i've been reading a bit about lomogrophy lately, (a few of the cameras are on my wanty list), and the forth golden rule of lomography is shoot from the hip, so that's what i tried to do, some worked, some didn't, and some had to be re-done, but i had a lot of fun, and i loved the results.....

we also visited the beach at Bray, which is a lovely long stretch of pebbles, where i was able to have a nice little rest, picking out pebbles, driftwood and shells, reading my book and taking in the view....

and of course, you can't go to the seaside without coming home with a little collection of beachy souvenirs....

coming up, part two - shopping :o)

spring bomb and sewing machine.....

2010-03-31T13:22:00.002+01:00

this is a big thank you to Aoife for my spring bomb prize.....

look at all the lovely goodies, Cath Kidson mug, journal and soap, spring chick, pink flowery, and spotty fabrics, ribbons, easter decorations and buttons, lovely lovely buttons, and a sweet card which will be going on my inspiration board (once i've bought it!)

i feel all super springy and happy, the sun is even shining....

oh, and with all this springy inspiration, new beginnings and all that, i've even managed to finally get the hang of my sewing machine, i've spent the morning working on a new secret project.....

happy happy happy, x

a nice little sunday...

2010-03-28T18:27:00.001+01:00

....a wander around the market picking out pretty spring ribbon, spotty fabric and rainbow stripped buttons....

....a windy walk on the sea front drinking in the beautiful blue....

....sorting through all the pictures from my week in Ireland, (just a little peak for now, more of Ireland later) ....

....an e-mail from Aoife to let me know I'm the winner of her spring bomb giveaway (eeek!)...

I hope you've had a good sunday too, x

postcard from ireland....

2010-03-24T09:50:00.002Z

now i know it's not unusual for me to disappear for a few days, but this time i have a reason... i'm on holiday :o)

but i thought i'd just pop in to show you a few of the views i've been enjoying....

the early morning vista from the cottage, looking out over Brittas Bay....

the dramatic scene from the gravity bar as the rain swept in over Dublin....

the waves crashing on to the beautiful empty beach....

wish you were here, x

the perfect bag....

2010-03-14T18:49:00.001Z

i'm in love......oh, so in love, isn't it just simply, perfectly gorgeous? with it's soft buttery leather, furled up flowers, raw edges, and ruched and crumpled shape, just.... perfect *sigh*

it's from the woodchip boutique, which is a cornucopia of leathery buttony bagy goodness.

following the bag purchase on saturday morning, we spent the rest of the day having a relaxed potter around manchester, visiting here, admiring the guerrilla knitting and wandering around the studios, having tea and smoothies here, enjoying the sugar and spice exhibition here and eating dim sum here, t'was a very good day indeed :o)

doctors without borders.....

2010-03-12T14:57:00.002Z

Katy and Brioni are auctioning off a beautiful quilt, to raise money for doctors without borders, and although the bidding has already gone past my financial abilities, i thought i'd do my bit to promote their cause... so please go and check it out, and if you can, put in a bid.

buttons, flowers and happy thoughts....

2010-03-11T19:52:00.001Z

just a few pictures of the things that have been making me happy this week....

beautiful buttons from bigfish, loop, and tynemouth market, lovely vintagey yokes (i've been reading a lot of Marian Keyes this week) and some super happy super brights.

the pretty pink flowers that have been sat on the window sill of the spare room come craft room.

and the whole box set of the OC, a valentines gift from Timmy, it's been keeping me company while i've been happily put things in pots, organising boxes and arrange books....

so, back in the mists of time that was January 2009, i spoke about wanting a craft room, a craft room i thought i would be getting when we bought a house. well it's over a year since then and we still haven't moved, so instead of waiting, i'm trying to make a little crafty space in the spare room. oh and i do love it, i've even taken to saying good night to it before i go to bed :o) when i've got it just how i want it, i'll do a little showy offy post, but i still need to gather a few items, fill a few more pots and stick a few more stickers....

i hope you've all had something that's made you smile this week, x

wasting the blue......

2010-03-06T00:31:00.004Z

just lately i feel like i've been wasting the blue! i look out of the window and see that beautiful bright blue sky, and i know i'm wasting it by being at work, so on thursday i left early and raced home to try and catch the light and take some photos.

Unfortunately i forgot that the garden doesn't get much light this time of year after about 11am, but that late afternoon sun playing on the tree was just beautiful, and made a good background for showing off the work i'd done on my iqa so far.....

Another 8 weeks in and it's grown, but i'm a little stuck at the moment, i have an idea floating around my head, a design for this quilt, that i'm not quite sure how to achieve, but i know i'm at a pivital point, so until i have the details worked out i may be taking a wee break, just watch this space.........

salts mill.....

2010-03-01T22:11:00.002Z

....home warey, arty, foody, booky, photogenicy.

yes they're mostly made up words, but definitely good ones to describe the wonder that is salts mill. If you live any where in Northern England, it's worth the trip, it's only a 15 minute train ride from Leeds and you'll come away with goodies galore....

i got this beautiful journal and stationary set by Jill Bliss, cute crafty stickers and a Paris guide book, there was plenty more to tempt, but i also had a beer festival to attend and had to save some pennies for the fruit wine (elderflower - yum!)

i'd recommend taking your camera too, as an old textile mill there are lot of quirky fixtures still hanging around,like the old lift, weighing scales, pharmacy cabinets and this great hook and chain jobby in the book department...

i love it! hope everyone else had a good weekend, x

p.s. hi to my new follower, how exciting, 4 followers!

knitting....

2010-02-26T16:00:00.000Z

Well, you can really tell you haven't been on your blog for a while when you actually have to log in can't you?!?

Any hoo, I've been inspired to write today (well actually tuesday, but a post isn't a post without a picture, and i've only just got round to taking the picture) because on monday night i had a very good night, I was invited to a knit night by a lovely lady who runs a lovely yarn shop.

You may remember i went to a knitting group thing back in november 08 which on paper sounded quite good, held in a pub, with a friendly group of people all about my age, but although everyone there was nice, i was far too nervous and it was a bit of an expedition to actually get there, and sadly, it turned out it wasn't for me.

But last night, although i was quite quiet, i really enjoyed it, i felt relaxed and comfortable, and came away feeling good. As a bonus, it was only a 15 minute walk from home! In the best way possible, it was like being on the set of loose women!

I managed to get a few rows of my stripey lap top cover done, (knitting is apparently not the top priority at the knit night!) look at a beautiful pattern books, meet some great people and listen to and occasionally join in with the very entertaining conversation, so Thank You Lovely Lady, hopefully you might see this, and know who you are! xxx

Oh and next time, i will definitely be bringing a bottle of 'plonk' with me xxx

christmas scarves....

2010-01-17T14:55:00.002Z

so, even with my smug organisation and the early start on the gift knitting, it turns out that i was still knitting right up to midnight mass on christmas eve! yep, i do like to fly by the seat of my pants, cut it close and generally procrastinate, but i did get it done, and here we are, a few pics of the crimbo scarves...

grey and grey stripey - rib knit with the yarn carried down the side, in rowan tweed.....

cloud cabled - based loosely on the reversible cable scarf by mary heather, (loosely, as no pattern is available, so i just did my best with the picture) in rowan cocoon cloud....

lime and grape scribbles - from the mason dixon curious knitters guide, super easy, super effective, in blue sky alpaca and skp merino, gorgeous....

(with flash to show the colours a bit better)

happily keeping the neck's of loved ones warm since december 09 :o)

Snow Day....

2010-01-11T16:38:00.000Z

i had such fun playing in the snow last week, what is it about snow that makes you feel like a child again? maybe it's because we haven't had snow like this since i was a child, snow every day for weeks, huge drifts of fluffy powder, snow balls, snow men, snow angels, the first footprints in fresh snow, trying to catch flakes in my mouth, dancing in the falling snow, magic and sparkles all around, *sigh* i was a very happy whimsycate!

I'm a little sad now the snow is all leaving, but it was nice while it lasted,

hope everyone else had as much fun, x x x

happy new year!

2010-01-08T22:59:00.001Z

no more resolutions, no more promises, no more post a day challenges.

they just don't work for me.

but lots of good wishes for good health, happiness and creativity for friends, family and all of you out there in blogland, and lets just see what happens this year.... x x x

oh, and an update on my iqa...

it's so small, but i'm so proud!

after all the craziness of knitting and wrapping and decorating and festive fun leading up to the 25th, it was lovely to get out all my little hexagons on christmas day and sit cozily in front of the fire sewing them together, watching my little patchwork grow :o)

smug :o)

2009-11-18T21:09:00.000Z

well, that 30 posts in 30 days thing didn't go too well did it? but i do have good reasons, the cold and snuffly fairies came to visit for a a week or so and then i had to put in lots of time to make up lost hours at work which resulted in a super tired catey :o( but hopefully i'll get back on track now.....

So, why am i feeling so supery smug today? well.........sorry to say it, but.......... i've finished my christmas shopping!!!! well i say finished, i do still have a few bitsy bobs to get and lots of things to make, but the shopping nightmares are behind me ;o) *smug beam*

so this weekend i took a girly trip to London, we stayed here (bliss!) and visited this and this, we're already planning next years trip! i took a few pictures, they're not brilliant, and the CL pics don't even show the tip of the iceberg of talented artists and craft people or other amazing stalls, but here we go....

The gorgeous jewellery above is by michael michaud which i'll be posting more about after christmas (lucky me) and the cute fairy christmas baubles are by stephanie ponsard and i'll show you mine a bit closer to crimbo, and look, look, it's john and greg :o)

now i'm off to watch some gosip girl on the v+ box and do a little knitting ;o)

red and blue...

2009-10-29T18:34:00.001Z

just a little more button love today.....

i just love these buttons, the crinkly, shiney surface, the bright colours, the shape of the holes, i have a few maybe-one-day plans for them, but for now i'm quite happy just to fondle them :o)

bought for 19p each at ring-a-rosie from the lovely barbara :o)

my i q a........

2009-10-28T19:05:00.001Z

oh dear, i've got a horrible sore throaty, runny nosey, achey bones kinda cold at the moment, i came home yesterday and just crashed on the sofa for a while before dragging myself in to bed for a very early night, so no post, but.....

i had the afternoon off today and oooh, i am excited...... i've been wanting to blog about this for a while but i was waiting for the right time to organise my thoughts, take good pictures and let ordered things arrive, and now the time has come.....

so back in January i thought to myself.... 'hmmm, yes, i think i'll do fabric now thanks very much, something else to add to the craft stash, lovely!'

so slowly slowly, bit by bit a a collection of things started to appear in the spare room, thick colourful Ikea fabrics, scraps from old clothes and fancy dress costumes, Cath Kidson and Amy Butler fabric from John Lewis, a small collection of Kaffe Fasset fabrics from Liberty *beam* sewing books and magazines, fabric scissors, pins and cotton.

come the summer and i still hadn't made anything..... but then in August i stumbled across a few beautiful blogs and flickr groups and my crafty cogs started turning......i knew the birthday fairies were going to be bringing me a sewing machine in October, but i wanted to start something then, there and then......so.......soon my coffee table was covered with these....

little paper hexagons :o)

yup, i've started a hand sewn hexagon quilt..... this is my Incredible Quilting Adventure!

more updates to come, i can see this being a long-running adventure.....

girly girl.....

2009-10-26T21:56:00.005Z

things making me smile today, one tree hill, one of my frivolous and dirty little tv secrets, and this gorgeous girly pink fabric, which is for an exciting new project......

i'm tired again :o(

2009-10-25T19:19:00.029Z

so just a few pictures from last night...

the table decoration, an ever changing collection of old drift wood, rope, sea glass and sea pottery, shells and pebbles in a glass dish, a few star shaped candles stuck in and ta-dah!

the delicious southern sausage stew that Timmy made from the new Jamie-does-America book, which i highly recommend, no picture of my peach cobbler though, we were too excited to eat it to bother taking a picture :o)

and finally the beautiful flowers Timmy brought back from his food shopping extravaganza, I'm loving those bright colours.

hmmm, by the way, i realise that not all my posts lately have been very crafty, but i didn't realise how hard it was going to be to post every day, but as long as there's a little colour, beauty, creativity or just some button love in there then I'll be happy, hope you will be too, x x x

Tynemouth Flea Market....

2009-10-24T19:16:00.001+01:00

well, i didn't manage to post yesterday, Tim had been away with work all week and it was so good to have him home yesterday that i totally forgot, ;o)

any hoo, i went to my favourite flea market this morning which is based in the metro station at Tynemouth, i thought a picture was in order as I've talked about it the wonder of the flea market quite a bit.....

you can find all sorts there depending on which day you go, vintage clothes, hand bags and jewelry, crockery, glass, fabric, buttons, memorabilia, second hand books, local produce, original art and photography, even a new Dyson. and...... treats to munch on the wander round.....

so other than that yummy minty cupcake, i got Tim a book about Jimmy Doherty only £3.50, 2m of this 100% cotton pink and white fabric, a bargain at £6 and two beautiful teacups with saucers.....

now the stallholder did say they were made by Hidchin and Sons c.1835, whether they are or not, and what that even means, I'm not sure, but i like them, and i think they will go well with the rest of my mish mash tea service, so well worth the £4 i paid :o)

well that's it for today, we're having people over tonight and I've got to go and create a Jamie Oliver peach cobbler for tea, Tim's busy making a southern sausage stew right now, and it smells yummy!

hope you have a good Saturday night, x

a wander around the garden......

2009-10-22T22:05:00.003+01:00

today I'm tired, very tired, so back to the photo archives.....

i was just looking at Lucy's post over at Attic 24 and was inspired by her photos of beautiful autumn colours, but since i spent the whole 9 hours of daylight today in the office I'm going to rely on some pictures i took in the bright July sunshine.......

pictures from the out law's garden, which is chock full of gorgeous flora and quirky focal points....

a stack of tiles from the old kitchen roof, crystals hanging from the trees....

windmills and old fishing net strung like bunting above an old bench....

old buoys and pirate flags, beachcomber sculptures....

moon gazing hares in the wet bed and peaceful little zen corners.....

I love this garden and i feel privileged to be able to enjoy it, i hope you've enjoyed this little glimpse too.....

cate, x x x

button love....

2009-10-21T19:51:00.000+01:00

the buttons on the bottom were a birthday gift from Liz and Chris, they are some sort of pottery?! i love the colours, they are proper 'Enid Blyton' colours, the photo isn't that good so you probably don't get a sense of that slightly faded well worn feel of the colour but they are delicious. the buttons on the top are from Tynemouth Flea Market my favourite thrifty shopping experience, bought them about 2 months ago, they were all strung together like a tube of sweets, i paid a generous 40p for them. I'm delighted that the colours of both sets match almost exactly and have that same faded air about them.

another Tynemouth find, a bag of pearly buttons, some shell, some plastic 50p for the lot. i bought them because of that little square pink one, but I'm pretty pleased with the purpley iridescenty sparkly one too, i think it might be resin and can therefore go in the CK 'Special' button tin with my other treasures.

these were a little more expensive but still from Tynemouth, bought from the mean-vintage-lady, who has beautiful vintage jewellery and handbags, but won't barter with you, and really that's half the fun, but she does have amazing buttons so it's worth parting with the cash. I love the yellow ones, swirly whirly like lemon meringue sorbet - yum :o)

these little beauties are from Fibre+Clay £1 a scoop from their huge vintage button jar, i must be loving yellow at the minute, cos that polka dotty pineapple shapped one is definately my favourite...

oh i do love buttons :o)

the start of the christmas knitting......

2009-10-20T17:39:00.003+01:00

now normally i don't like any mention of Christmas, present buying, decorations and all that jazz, until after my birthday, i think 10 weeks is plenty of time to 'do' Christmas, but this year i seem to have been thinking a fair bit about Christmas since the summer, and back in august i actually bought my first Christmas present, from the wondrous Tynemouth Flea Market, a second hand book about Beryl Cook, and last weekend i bought more Christmas presents, well the yarn to make Christmas presents any way....

Scarves, that's what everyone's getting this year, a scarf, warm cozy, full of hand made love, and more importantly easy enough to knit while snuggling up in front of the fire watching tv, the perfect winter activity :o) so here's the first one...

I've been reading this post on leethal's blog, do stuff, about game knitting, a lot like the drinking game where you watch tv and every time a well known phrase is said, you drink, but with game knitting you change the pattern, do a cable twist, change from knit to purl, make an eyelet. i love this concept and i love love love the pictures of the finished projects lee made in this way, so random and chaotic, but still so beautiful. so that was the inspiration behind the random width stripes of this scarf, which will become more obvious when I've knit more than 4 stripes, but I'm not playing the game, just deciding when i think it's enough, making it up as i go along ;o)

love is in the air....

2009-10-19T23:04:00.000+01:00

oh dear, i've lost the battery charger for my camera somewhere in the jumble, so until i find it it's gonna be stand by pictures from the archives....

this is from the Red Arrow display after the Great North Run, we were hanging out in Tynemouth across the river from the finish line, and had great veiws, it was an exciting and unexpected treat, and i love this picture ;o)

on a side note, 8 days down 22 to go - yay!

elna 2300....

2009-10-18T21:08:00.002+01:00

I'm sooooo tired today, but i can still manage a little posty...... so here's a quick picture of my beautiful new sewing machine that Timmy gave me for my birthday, and look, it's pink :o)

love heart fairy buns....

2009-10-17T18:23:00.000+01:00

I've got agree with Lucy that sometimes there's nothing nicer on a miserable day than putting on your apron and doing a nice spot of baking...We're having a small party tonight, a gathering if you will and i find that a nice plate of baked goods always goes down a treat with a couple of cocktails, or in fact any drink, or even no drink, just cake is good too!

I've been itching to do something pink, glittery and girly for a while now, and although most of our atendees are somewhat more rock star than princess, it's my party and i'll bake pink buns if i want to! Bring on the polka dotty bun cases...

I love this recipe for fairy buns, it's so easy to remember, it's my go to when i can't be bothered looking anything up in a book, one egg makes about 12 fairy buns, and they are buns, small and dainty, not like those big american muffin type things, oh and if you want chocolate buns, substitute in about a tablespoon of cocoa for the flour for each 'eggs worth'.....

eggs, butter,flour,sugar,vanilla......

weigh the eggs in their shells, then weigh out all the other ingredients to the same weight, cream the butter and sugar togerther till all pale and fluffy, this is important as it makes nice fluffy buns :o) stir in the eggs and vanilla, then the flour, drop a heaped teaspoon of the batter in to each bun case andbake for about 15 minutes on 200 degrees.... done, now go crazy decorating them ;o)

Well i'm off to put my glad rags on, do some last minute tidying and then i'll sit down with a nice glass of toffee apple cider :o) i'll leave you with a picture of some reduced supermarket flowers that i think are just delightful......

feed your soul....

2009-10-16T17:48:00.002+01:00

beautiful, quirky, whimsical, colourful.....free!

feed your soul is a recession friendly free art project where amazing and generous artists each donate a downloadable print, and then poor art lovers like you and me can print them off, hang them on the wall and feed our souls :o)

I especially love the Angela Vandenbogaard print, I've been coveting her work for a while now, i want the both the cherry and apple tree prints in her Etsy shop Jellybeans, so finding the below was super exciting!

so go check out the website and get your self some soul food, x x x

brownies

2009-10-15T17:53:00.000+01:00

I had a lovely e-mail from the lovely Tracey last night, she sent me some pictures of her homemade youngberry jam made with my jam recipe! how exciting, someone using my recipe! well i say my recipe, more like silver spoon's recipe, but I'm sure you understand my excitement :o) I did wonder about giving the recipe, it being so darn easy, but I'm so glad i did, and now for another.....

how perfect that my birthday should happen to fall on national chocolate week, it was the perfect excuse to make birthday fudge brownies :o)

375 g dark chocolate
375g soft butter
6 large eggs
500g caster sugar
1 tbs vanilla extract
225g plain flour
1tsp salt
300g white chocolate chunks

put your oven on at 180 degrees.

melt the dark chocolate and butter over a low light in a heavy pan, while this is happening mix the eggs, sugar and vanilla in a bowl or big jug, and mix the flour and salt in another bowl like thing, ooh and line a big roasting tin with tin foil or baking parchment too.

when the chocolatey butter mixture has melted and is all lovely and smooth, let it cool a little then add the eggy mixture, then the flour, and then stir it up and get out all the bad lumps before adding in the white chocolate chunks.

scrape all this in to your tin, bake for 25 minutes and then check it, it may need another 5 minute blast though. it's done when the top is crackly and slightly paler and the middle is still dense and gooey, remember that it'll keep cooking when it comes out so don't be afraid of the goo!

the white chocolate chunks can be substituted for a myriad of other goodies; milk chocolate chunks, walnuts, pecans, smarties, chopped snickers bars, even terry's chocolate orange segments - mmm imagine finding one of those in your brownie - yum, i might have to try that!

I wish I'd taken photo's of the cooking process, but to be honest the kitchen in our rented flat is a bit manky with poor light, and i was trying to make veggie cannelloni for tea at the same time, so nice photo shooty shots would have been a bit stressful, the above picture was taken on our neighbours garden wall this morning :o)

edited to add: i forgot to say the above recipe will make 24 big brownies, or 48 small, it depends on how naughty you want to be, after all, to quote my friend, this is a "dirty" recipe ;o)

a walk in the woods

2009-10-14T22:02:00.004+01:00

hmmm, so i'd been thinking a bit about the fact that i've been failing to find the beauty in the everyday when i decided to try and do this a post a day thing, and for most of today i was definately failing, I did do a little baking tonight which cheered me up but that's a story for another day, and for now i've decided to post some pictures of a walk we took back in August.

we managed to get lost a few times, trek through a bog nearly losing our boots, go round in a circle, end up having to climb over a barbed wire fence and slide down a bank in to a stream, but even at my most tantrumy-i-don't-want-to-do-this-anymore, there were still things that lifted my soul and made me glad to be out, i managed to find the beauty on that day, so i'm hoping these pictures will remind me of how; how to stop, look around and see the small things that make life good, even when it seems to be a bit rubbish.....

aaaaah, i feel better already :o)

birthday.....

2009-10-13T20:46:00.003+01:00

it's been a bit of a weird day for me, but i just want to thank my darling Tim for all the effort he's put in to making it a special day too, i love you, x

30 days.....

2009-10-12T19:43:00.001+01:00

....tomorrow is my birthday, also my blogaversary, but since i've only managed 44 posts in the last year, i'm not sure if it's worth celebrating, so as a bit of a kick start back in the right direction i'm going to see if i can write a post a day for the next 30 days, even if it's just a little glimpse of the everyday....

strawberries....

2009-08-14T08:11:00.002+01:00

......plus sugar

equals strawberry jam

......plus sugar and

vodka
equals strawberry vodka

......plus vanilla ice cream

equals pudding :o)

I can't believe how super easy it was to make the jam, I'm so proud of my first attempt, i just followed the recipe on the sugar packet and it's turned out so well...

800g clean prepared strawberries
1kg jam sugar

squish the strawberries put them in a big pan with the sugar and heat gently till the sugar has melted
turn up the heat and stir until the jam is at a rolling boil which can't be stirred down, time for 4 minutes
pot your jam - easy :o)

freedom...

2009-08-08T22:58:00.001+01:00

today was such a lovely day....

i planted up my new dutch lavender and did a little light pruning in my 'herb garden' aka a collection of containers on our patch of concrete.

and soaked up some sun in the new outwell comfort chair (ours by default after a freak accident involving a borrowed camping chair and high winds) and read my beautiful new books, freshly delivered this morning by the nice people at amazon.

i also finally managed to get an ok picture of my buttony arty thing, something that has been a work in progress for a while.

i'm toying with a name like 30 green buttons, to honor the source of inspiration and original at fibre + clay, or maybe big red button, or just big red, hmmm, ponder ponder....

everything was made so much better today for finally being free, free of the sofa and tissues and endless coughing and dizziness, yes today has been a lovely day :o)

sanity....

2009-06-18T17:03:00.003+01:00

from things that are making me happy to things that are just plain keeping me sane....

i am sofa bound this week since a 'fun' trip to the Cheviots found me falling face first in to a stream and breaking my toe :o(

peaches, pears and apricots, which are not only delicious but look beautiful in my olio and farina bowl....

a selection of home and craft magazines....

knitting, shown close up as it's a gift, and i don't want to give too much away....

.... and Casablanca, which believe it or not, I'd never seen until today.

little pink sketch book....

2009-06-10T14:20:00.002+01:00

....i just picked it up and started sketching, all those ideas that have been floating around half formed, are filling up the pages *beam*

and a trip to the library.....

these are the things that have been making me happy this week.

a little bit of sorting...

2009-03-30T15:15:00.001+01:00

Still no crafting, but i have been sorting my buttons out.....

Don't they look lovely....

The Cath Kidston button tin now only has my most special and favourite buttons in.....

Some, like the flowery ones and the big purple ones are from my Uncle, and my Nan's button tins, but most of them are, i think Lucite. I spent a good day on the Internet trying to figure out what they are, they all seem to have glitter, or bits of metal, or other layers of some sort of plastic, all covered with a dome of plastic (which is apparently Lucite - but I'm still not sure) and i love them, especially the gold stripey ones :o)

I've also started to sort out my 'what catey likes' list on the left. I've mostly been using it as a bookmark page since i didn't have my own computer, but look......

I've finally got my very own lap top, i call it my mini top, i love it. Look how small it is....

So I've been moving a lot of the links in to my bookmarks, and I'm only leaving my very favourite blogs/sites in the list. It's been fun though, going through, catching up on my blog reading, finding out what people have been up to, discovering new talented people, i have been so absent from the blogging world for ages, it was good to immerse myself in it again. Hopefully I'll be inspired enough to get back in to the crafting again.

Just a few little finds as well....

A gorgeous thrifted brooch i found at the Tynemouth Flea Market, and of course some buttons....

WhimsyCate, x

buttons and brooches

2009-03-26T12:22:00.000Z

Well, I'm not doing so great at the blogging am i? to be honest I'm not doing so great at anything crafty either. I've lost my mojo, or maybe i never had it in the first place, whatever it is, something is missing :o( I have been buying things though, lots and lots of buttons.....

look what was waiting for me on the doorstep last week... (actually a few weeks ago, but this has been sat unpublished for a while!).....

a treasure.....

look at that tape....

look at those buttons....

....after months of drooling over the beautiful buttons on bigfish i finally got round to ordering some, wedding mix and the peacock mix, pink, lilac, pearly and teal, I'm such a happy little whimsycate :o) But wait there's more... i also ordered a brooch from paperfish another of Kirsty's esty stores, it was a special request, and I'm so pleased with it.....

it goes so well with my new aqua and grey cardi, so big thanks to that crafty fish! x

I'm really getting in to brooches at the minute, i think they're the perfect finishing touch...

brea bag

2009-03-14T11:33:00.000Z

Gosh, another old wip, still not quite finished, but the knitting part is all done...

I started this back in June while on holiday in beautiful Cornwall, put it down for a while, picked it back up in August while at home with my Uncle, realised it was shoddy due to my emotional state, frogged it and then finally picked it back up again while staying with the 'outlaws' in January. I still need to line it and sew on the button, but I'm quite pleased with how it's eventually turned out. Yet again the naughty G&T's dulled my concentration and my attempts at kitchenering the gusset/handle together went a little wonky and my double moss stitch went a little triple, but after 3 tries i decided to just live with the imperfection, besides (as Liz kept telling me) it's on the bottom, who's going to see it?

So the pattern is the Brea Bag by Norah Gaughan, and i used Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed in a lovely sage green with flecks of heather, rust and cream on 5.5mm needles.

colour swap two

2009-03-10T19:12:00.000Z

Even though i was on my way to the post office to post my parcel off to Cass in Canada, it didn't even enter my mind that the parcel waiting there could be for me, it was a gorgeous surprise. So i have pictures of both the parcel i sent and the one i received - lucky me :o)

So this time my parcel came all the way from California and was put together by Denise. I got cozy hand knit wrist warmers, beautiful yarn by twirlgirlfibres, cupcake stitch markers by weeones, Lindt chocolate, Moroccan mint tea and white and green tea, lovely flowery buttons which are now socialising with my other favourites in the Cath Kidston button tin, a postcard, note, and the pattern for the wrist warmers designed by dlotter. I feel spoiled :o)

And i sent Cass a brown and grey parcel, including tea, chocolate, yarn, buttons, beads a book mark and the hand made gift was the starcrossed slouchy beret in Rowan Cocoon.

socks

2009-03-08T15:18:00.001Z

Yay - my very first pair of hand knitted socks!

I'm so amazed by these, sure there's an awful lot of plain knitting, and once you get your head round the heel shaping calculations and the kitchener stitch it's all pretty simple..... but they're socks, and they fit on my feet and i made them, all of which just seems a bit weird and wonderful to me, but good weird.

I started them back in November when i was off work ill for a week, it was pretty comforting sitting in front of the fire knitting, watching all the little different coloured stitches appearing on the needles. And although i cast on the second sock that week, i was still struck by a mild version of SSS (Second Sock Syndrome) and didn't pick it back up till the end of January. I was a little drunk when it came to picking up the stitches for the heel flap though which explains the hole...ooopsy :o)

All in all though I'm proud and this small success in the world of sock knitting has given me confidence, I'm thinking of moving on to a lace pattern next, gosh lace and socks!

i am still here....

2009-02-27T20:32:00.000Z

I haven't actually fallen off the face of the planet, i am still here.

The number of times I've tried to write this "come back" post is ridiculous, I've been umming and aahing over how to start, what to say, how to fit in everything that's happened, or hasn't happened really. It's been a funny old month, family celebrations, visits and goodbyes, lots of long hours at work, contemplation, and reflection. I feel like I've been non stop busy, but I've had a lot of time to just sit also, i think February has been a month of feeling tired.

Despite my lack of blog activity i have actually been quite crafty these last few weeks, there's been a lot of knitting going on, i helped out with some reception class art lessons and there's been a bit of swapping and button purchasing, all of which will be posted about later (when i find my camera?!) but for now, i just wanted to say.....I'm back :o)

dreams...

2009-01-18T15:31:00.003Z

Over a bottle or two of pink on Wednesday night we had a one of those wonderful conversations where you come away feeling positive and motivated to chase your dreams.... trouble is, sometimes that's all it is, a conversation...

Little Maz loves dancing and she wants to train to be a dance teacher but she is worried about oh so many things that can sometimes seem too much....

Jamie loves baking sweet treats and wants to open a bakery, but doesn't know where to start, how to turn her hobby in to a career.....

But I'm so proud of my friends, because both of them have taken baby steps towards their dreams. Maz has put together a collection of her old dance photo's to motivate her into chasing her dreams (to be fair she has poorly ribs at the moment and can't do any dancing for at least 2 months!) and Jamie has started bluebell bakery, a blog to record her baking adventures.

All this dream chasing has got me thinking about my own dream, the vague plan to get there and what's holding me back. I'm a strange little crafter, i spend so much time thinking and planning and worrying about projects that i hardly have time to make them. So I think i should take inspiration from my friends, and just go for it, play and see what happens, use that fabric that i love, knit that complex pattern, stop thinking and start making, chase my dreams.

dishcloths...

2009-01-16T17:06:00.000Z

Well, I've got my new year knitting off to a flying start, dishcloths made for my wonderful godmother....

Unfortunately i also spent a good part of Monday frogging half of a bag I'm working on, the bottom wasn't tight enough and i wanted to re-knit it, but the yarn is rowan cocoon, and so bloody fuzzy and i can't find the stitches to pick them up now, I'm not really sure what to do, so I'm just going to pop it to one side again for a while, while i 'think' about it *guilty little grin* :o)

...in with the new

2009-01-08T12:25:00.003Z

So.....a new year, a chance for a new start, or starting new things, or just new motivation to actually get on and do those things you said you would do....

so avoiding the r word, here are my new year craft aims...

complete at least one knitting project per month: doesn't sound that hard, but since i haven't actually done any serious knitting for months, i think it's a good place to start.
work on something i like to call project craft room: we're hoping to buy (oooh scary) a house/flat/abode of some sort this year and i am determined to make one room into my craft room, so in preparation i want to create some art/sort out storage solutions/collect stash.
attend a craft course: i love learning new crafts and techniques and i really wanna explore a new craft or two this year as well as working on those i already love.

In general i want to make my little blog live up to it's name, what catey made next...

happy new year, amongst other things....

2009-01-04T21:06:00.001Z

Well.....I did intend to do a Christmas round up of all my lovely crafty gifts, and separate ikea shopping special and new year posts, but we wrote off Dorothy (the car) on Tuesday, and i just haven't felt up to anything this week, so I'm gonna miss out the witty commentary(ha!?) and just squash all the photo's into this post......

Happy New Year! x

merry christmas....

2008-12-25T14:00:00.003Z

Merry Christmas everyone, and no, I'm not sat here blogging on Christmas day, there are crackers to be pulled and presents to be opened, turkey to be eaten and wine to be drunk, I'm enjoying the miracles of scheduling....

Notebook cover and dragonfly brooch, gifties that were made last week for Amé and Marie.

Hope everyone enjoys their day, love whimsycate, x

buttons, blogs and all things nice.....

2008-12-23T10:42:00.000Z

I've discovered a new favourite blog, little fish. I stumbled upon Kirsty's supplies shop, big fish, on Etsy when her peacock mix of buttons was in a treasury on the front page, beautiful teal with hints of gold, red and blue. I must have them, i must also wait until after Christmas, when i will have spare money :o( But yes, i kept going back and ogling the buttons and felt, and browsing through her other shops, paper fish, and snow fish (now here is a woman after my own heart, a specially dedicated Christmas shop - i love it!) and then i noticed she had a blog....

I love this whole blogging world that I'm slowly discovering, i really like the beautiful, slightly serious blogs with gorgeous pictures (you know the ones), the talented and inspiring crafters who share their ideas, the foodies who describe mouth watering recipes, but i think my favourites are those where you can really see some one's personality, like Anna at half an acre (who i think i drunkenly commented to once, telling her i felt reading her blog was like a chat with an excited friend - oopsy :o)), i love being let in to a little bit of someones life, seeing that there are other people who are like me, knowing that the ideal that i aspire to is achievable. Ah look, I'm getting a bit gushy and serious now :o)

Little fish is another of those blogs, you really feel like Kirsty's personality shines through, i love the things she makes and the way she talks about her life, AND i love the buttons she sells. Any way I have to go and write out my button shopping list now.....peacock mix, wedding mix, and possibly prom mix, or i want red, or flower garden, or maybe..........

p.s. oooh, oooh, while I'm talking about buttons, I'm excited to announce (bit grand, but...) I'm now a member of the button floozies blog, so go have a look.......

All pictures are of the buttons for sale at bigfish

James

2008-12-16T13:59:00.010Z

I'm in a reflecty mood today.... It's been 4 months since we lost JG, Uncle Gorgeous, Uncle Gordon, Jim, my great uncle, James Gordon Blanshard. He was one of those special people that we are sometimes fortunate to have in our lives, more than a best friend, more than family member, almost like a guardian angel.

Uncle Gordon taught me how to colour in and how to make daisy chains, he took me to fancy restaurants when i was small, and Iceland when i was bigger, he listened to me and he let me play, he watched top of the pops with me and bought me my first tape cassette, he told me stories about the war, and about my mum when she was a little girl, he bought me my first, and second car, he sent me to new york for my 25th birthday, and he left me money toward a house deposit. Most of all, he gave me his time, and his love, for which i will always be grateful.

I have gone through great ebbs and flows with my grief, sometimes i can remember him happily, and sometimes not, sometimes hours can pass where i don't think about him, and other times he is constantly in my thoughts. I'm sure this must be the same for all people who have lost someone close, but this is a first for me. With Christmas coming up I'm thinking about him a lot at the moment.

We used to spend every Christmas Eve together, a day trip and lunch out, probably in Sheffield or Doncaster, and in later years a nice pub in the country, me on my best driving behaviour, uncle having a half pint (or two) of best bitter, a little light shopping and a stroll, then back home for the traditional beef stroganoff and chocolate log dinner with the rest of the family, and to watch the Snow Man, or Santa Claus the Movie. It was the same every year, it was a tradition, it was our tradition.

I miss my Uncle Gordon, but he will always be in my heart.

christmas trees...

2008-12-14T21:25:00.009Z

Ah I feel all aglow with the Christmas spirit, I'm sitting here looking at my just put up Christmas tree with the just wrapped presents beneath it, happy happy :o)

We went in to the city today did a little Christmas shopping, wandered round the Christmas market, and called at b&q and bought a tree on the way home. I think we must have picked the ugly duckling tree tho, it's planted lopsided and is more bushy on one side than the other, but i love it, and if it's a little weird, at least it fits in with us :o)

I love decorating the tree, looking at all the baubles that remind me of special trips and people: New York, Bergen, Bruges and Norfolk, baubles bought for me by my mum and godmother, some old family ones, and some sleighs made for us last year by Ruth, a family friend.

I just wanna get in some pics of the Christmas cookies Amé and Chris decorated for their tree too, cute, and just a little bit cheeky ;o)

And last but not least, has anyone else seen the giant balls of wool that John Lewis have up as Christmas decorations? Amazing! I called in for a few craft supplies today for some homemade gifts for my girlies Amé Jame, and Little Maz, but shhh, it's a secret!

crackers

2008-12-12T13:21:00.000Z

Here are some pics of the crackers i made for the Whimsy family Christmas, along with the felt brooches for mummy and godmummy Whimsy and the handkerchief for daddy Whimsy

Whimsycate and Tim both got keyrings in their stockings, Tim's Pink Floyd keyring attached to a set of keys for the car (he's finally learning to drive - yipee! - meaning, I'll be able drink on when visiting friends now) and whimsycate's is a dirty dancing in your pocket keyring, which i joyfully annoyed the family with for most of the weekend :o)

Nobody puts baby in the corner.....

christmas the first....

2008-12-11T20:06:00.001Z

I had a lovely Christmas weekend, highlights included a Brewery tour at McMullens, Afternoon Tea at Hanbury Manor, (gorgeous little cakes, finger sandwiches and Champagne), Stockings, Christmas dinner with homemade Crackers, and a heated game of Who's in the Bag, (the girls won!) The best part of all was getting to spend time with my family.

fly my pretties, fly...

2008-12-04T13:57:00.002Z

....is a quote from Queer as Folk, and has no relevance to this post, other than it has the word fly in it, and I'll be on a plane tonight, tedious link i know.

Yep, Whimsycate is on her travels again, a weekend away in Hertfordshire to celebrate the Whimsy Family Christmas.... Crackers, Pressies, Turkey, Chocolate Log, and hopefully a Tree :o)

Have a good weekend, x

congratulations!

2008-12-03T13:00:00.001Z

This is the little something for someone special that i mentioned last week....

It's an Engagement card for my beautiful friends, Amé and Chris, who got engaged last week in the winter wonderland city of Prague, just like a fairy tale...awww, I'm so, so happy for them, congratulations! x

The design on the card is supposed to be a representation of Amé's ring, a crossover with 4 twinkly diamonds, which I'm hoping I'll get to see tonight when we meet up for our annual wander around the Christmas market...double yay!

toasty :o)

2008-12-02T22:14:00.001Z

I started and finished the knitting on this hat quite a while ago, but being the lazy little girl that i am, i never got round to weaving in the ends and blocking it...to tell the truth i haven't even blocked it yet, I'm still a little hazy on this blocking business. But yesterday my head was freezing, so this morning before i left in a rush i quickly unearthed it from my yarn box, weaved in the bottom end and pulled it on....ta da nice cozy head today! All the lovely comments from my work mates extended my cozy feeling when I'd taken it off too....mmmm happy whimsycate!

It's the Star Crossed Slouchy Beret by Natalie Larson, knit in Rowan Cocoon, colourway Seascape on 6mm dpns and 8mm circs. The only place i differed from the pattern was the at the very top, i changed back to dpns with about 10 rows to go, as i couldn't handle the circs when the row was that short, even with the 'magic loop' ( a term i learned from Barbara at Ring a Rosie, and now like to use as often as possible when talking about circular knitting, which isn't that often, but hey, it's magic!)

I've got just under a skein left, and I'm debating between making a pair of fingerless gloves, or a buttony up scarflette type affair, decisions, decisions.......

p.s. i know it's a crappy picture, but i'm tired, and never see daylight anymore :o(

felt sew hip?

2008-12-01T15:28:00.002Z

I love books, i love to read, and i try to buy most of my books from second hand and charity shops. The only exception being craft books, because i like my crafty books to be new, clean lovely, and all mine.

So how excited was i yesterday when Tim bought me this...

We've finally went to see Quantum of Solace today ( a tad confusing, but boy did Daniel Craig look hot! ) and we called in at Borders on the way home, and my darling boyfriend asked me if i wanted anything.... I of course headed straight for the ( newly relocated and disappointingly smaller ) craft section.

I've been reading a lot about all things felty recently and i had just seen the interview with Betz White in the second issue of Sew Hip, and after a quick flick through there seemed to be some basic info and lots of cute inspirational projects.... I'm very taken with the mittens! I'm looking forward to being able to sit and read this properly, but with Christmas coming and long hours at work, it may have to wait till I'm on the plane on Thursday (due to no knitting needles allowed on LazyGits flights - grrr!)

Now, speaking of Sew Hip, the jury is still out on what i think of this magazine. I was quite excited when i first heard about it, a funky British sewing magazine coming out just when my interest in sewing was growing, fabulous i thought. But, it does seem to be getting some bad reviews from other bloggers, due to the contents being very America/Australia centred and the patterns not being accurate, which to be fair, doesn't bother me that much, as I'm not that likely to make many of the projects featured, what does annoy me is all the spelling mistakes, mis-captioned pictures, and the fact that clearly no one proof reads it before it's printed! That said, I am getting some good ideas from reading it..... only time will tell, we'll see what next issue brings.

no photo :o(

2008-11-26T13:06:00.005Z

Well, I've been a busy little bee lately, so busy in fact, that it seems I've had no time to take any photos... either that or I'm just forgetful...

I had a lovely time at the spa, days filled with yummy food, relaxing therapies, playtime on the big kids swing, craftiness in front of crappy early afternoon tv, swimming in the salt water pool, lazing in the jacuzzi, and all topped off with just a little gin and a touch of champagne - bliss!

But yes, here is a list of things I've forgotten to take pictures of

The lovely polka dotty Christmas crackers.
Felt flower brooches made for my mum and godmother, beads and buttons and embroidery silks, oh so pretty.
Hand embroidered hankie for my dad.
Sparkly black crystal necklace for my godmothers Christmas pressie.
Sea glass pendent for my colour swap partner.
The whole package of colour swap gifties, i hope a photo gets taken by the swapee!

Fortunately I'll be able to get pics of the necklace, crackers, and the gifts inside them next week, as I'm lucky enough to be having two Christmas celebrations this year, one with my family and one with Tim's, and next week is my family Christmas at my god mothers ' darn sarf '.

I've also been working on another little something, for someone special, for something special, but that'll have to wait till I've given it to them.....

Now i really must remember to take some pictures!

little break...

2008-11-14T23:17:00.002Z

Whimsycate is going away, for rest, relaxation, and probably quite a bit of crafting. I've got felt brooches to sew, a hankie to embroider, and some crackers to make. I'm also taking my sock with me :o)

i've been tagged

2008-11-14T11:04:00.000Z

It's taken me a while to come up with this post, after Tara tagged me last week, but here we go....

The Rules

1) Link to your tagger and list all these rules in your blog.

2) Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

3) Tag 7 people at the end of your post by including links to their blogs

4) Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

The Facts

1. I took part in the Cancer Research Race for Life this summer, and along with Marie, I raised over £500. I did it in honour of my Great Uncle Gordon, a grandfather figure and friend, who sadly lost his battle to cancer 3 weeks later, i miss him so much, but hopefully the money raised in these events will help other people to enjoy their life for longer.

2. I think numbers are beautiful, I can spend hours making up complicated formulae to solve relatively simple puzzles, just for the fun of it.

3. Although this may be an occupational hazard for many crafty people, i absolutely love buttons, i love the personal history behind them, the memories, the colours, shapes and texture, i can spend hours playing with them, sorting them in to groups, counting them and just generally fondling them, mmmm, buttons!

4. I like to take things apart just to see how they work, and although i may act really blonde and girly a lot of the time, I'm secretly quite practical. (but don't tell the boys - shhh!)

5. I have a strange habit of having to make sure that every little bit of white pith is removed from a piece of tangerine before i can eat it, it takes me hours to eat one, but it's strangely satisfying.

6. Even though I'm from Yorkshire, i like to talk to myself in my fake Geordie accent when I'm alone, it amuses me :o)

7. I have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the tv series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, i can quote whole conversations at will, and frequently do, even though nobody but me understands the humour.

The Taggees

This was difficult, I'm new to the blogging world, and I wasn't not sure who would appreciate being tagged, so i hope you don't mind!

pinkphish knits

pursuing domestic goddess-ness

Okay, I'm done :o)

baking powder

2008-11-10T19:30:00.001Z

We were down in Cheshire visiting Tim's family this weekend, his brother is going to Iraq soon with the army, so it was nice to see him before he left. I did however manage to fit in quite a bit of craftiness. I spent Saturday morning in Knutsford visiting fibre+clay, where i added to both my button and yarn stashes, yummy :o)

After lunch at the pub, i spent the afternoon baking, cheese and fruit scones and the delicious and highly recommended Unfussy Apple Cake from 101 cookbooks. But silly me, i forgot to add any baking powder to the scones, and they came out a little flat, oopsy! But still they were tasty and warm and covered in clotted cream mmmmm....

After the scones had been polished off i sat down with my needles and finally got round to making the 'knitted' part of my color swap partners handmade gift. I don't want to say too much, just in case, and I'll post pictures when it's been received, but I will say it's not knit entirely in traditional materials, and I'm in love with it, and I'm having a hard time parceling it up...

buttons

2008-11-08T17:42:00.005Z

Today's a button day!

During the summer I inherited my dear Uncle Gordon's button and sewing tins, and I've finally got round to going through them to pick out the gems. I've found some that I'm assuming came from his army uniform.

Strangely, there are some bits of sealing wax and an old thimble, which is far two heavy to use but that i love any way.

Some lovely black starry buttons, some little pearly ones, and various others.

A lot of the buttons were slightly dirty and a little worse for wear, but i loved searching through and imagining what the buttons used to be attached to, and who used to wear them, I guess it's just another one of those mysteries that will stay with my Uncle though....

I also paid a visit to fibre + clay today, what amazing shop, although it somehow feels wrong to label it as a shop, it's almost gallery like. I spent a happy half hour sat on the floor upstairs with the two big vases of vintage buttons, and here are my lovely spoils....

This post has been pretty photo heavy today, thanks to Tim's dad's camera, which is so much better than my rubbishy old one. I love the macro i think the close up shots of the buttons look kinda arty! Oh well, maybe the Christmas Fairy will bring me a new one :o)

just a little scribble

2008-11-05T15:07:00.004Z

This week has been a very tiring week, lots of long hours at work, not much craftiness :o(

I did go to my first Stitch n' Bitch last night though, Miss Spiritual Tramps Knitting Circle. It was a bit of a big deal for me, as I'm quite shy and quiet in big groups (read groups of more than 3 people!) so I'm really proud that i actually made it. Everyone was really friendly and there was a lot of laughter and chatting and they all seem like lovely people. I'm definitely going to go again next week, and who knows, maybe I'll even join in the conversation?! And the cherry on the cake was getting an extra inch of my second sock done :o)

Oooh just before i go, while in Manchester this weekend, i visited the Manchester Craft and Design Centre, what a lovely place, very light and airy building, filled with little studios full of beautiful artwork. I was so excited and inspired, it's a definite recommended visit. As is China Town where we had lunch....mmmm noodles :o)

beverage alert!

2008-10-30T14:02:00.007Z

Oooh, excitement! I've just found this in Fenwicks...

Mr Scruff's very own tea bags from the make us a brew company. I bought the mint and chilli flavour as I'm not a big tea drinker, but this should be an interesting combo, and Tim will love it! The packaging is so cute, with his iconic cartoons helpfully explaining the best way to make a brew, and at £1.75 it's a bargain :o)

naughty fairy

2008-10-30T08:37:00.005Z

Last night was spent putting together my halloween costume, I'm going as a slightly unoriginal naughty fairy, I've got a lovely pink wig, black boots, pink fishnets, a black skirt which I tacked pink net to the bottom of...

And fairy wings which i splatted with bright pink, silver and black nail polish, and sewed black marabou trim to the edge of....

Hopefully it won't be too embarrassing wandering around Manchester this weekend looking for the house party!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

a handbag?

2008-10-28T12:22:00.009Z

I love that quote...for me it has nothing to do with the film, and everything to do with my Dad, every time anyone says those words I can see him pulling a long face, eyes shut and a silly high voice, it cracks me up, and I'm not really sure why :o)

Any way....hand bags, i love them, bags of all kinds really, not that i have that many, only, oooh, 15 or so, plus shopping bags and rucksacks and the like. I've been thinking a lot about bags at the moment, every time i think about new crafts I'd like to try it's always with a bag in mind. Embroidery, applique, patchwork, quilting, even just trying my hand at a bit of simple sewing again, i just want to make bags, usually with butterflies too.

I bought a bag over the summer from a hospice, it's quite a simple hobo design in flowery fabric with beads sewn round the edge of the flowers, and over the leaves. And I've been thinking how nice it would be to try and copy it with some passion flower fabric i have, and maybe try and embroider a butterfly on too. I read a bit of a book in a second hand bookshop about embroidering butterflies on a table cloth, it looked pretty easy (but maybe I'm being naive?!) I just really need to get off my bottom and start doing some of these things. I hardly seem to have the time lately tho, I'm so busy working long shifts at work, and Tim is working early shifts, so that any time i do have I'm spending with him. Oh well, at least i have the ideas to come back to when i have the time.

I found these bags on Etsy that i just love, I been thinking about quilting for a while now, and i think making a bag would be just the right size project to try out my skills, before having a go at making a big bedspready quilt. I love the way quiltville has used a freeform stitch for the quilting, i think it's beautiful. I also saw a lovely bag where the designer handquilted a spiral using multi coloured thread, gorgeous, but did i add it to my favourites so i could find it again....no! But still, all just ideas at the moment....

halloween buns

2008-10-26T20:41:00.006Z

Yesterday Amé came over and we made halloweeny fairy buns, we were really inspired by the halloween roundup over at one pretty thing

Ghosties...

Pumpkin...

Skeletons...

Eyballs...
And my Jane Brocket inspired orange and green buns...

When i bought the Gentle Art of Domesticity, I'd never heard of Jane Brocket, or her blog Yarnstorm, but i quickly fell in love with both the book and her blog. I've read through the book twice and I'm now still picking it up and reading random pages, and both have fantastic pictures of the very ordinary, but very beautiful. One thing I especially love, is the way she decorates her fairy buns in two colours, so this was my interpretation.....but mine have slime in...

apple crumble

2008-10-22T15:12:00.010+01:00

Today i wanted to make my favourite toffee apple crumble, using apples from the tree in my parents garden. I spent 20 minutes peeling, coring, and chopping apples to then realise i didn't have the ingredients for the 'toffee' part of the crumble, muscavado sugar and pecan nuts, so i swapped them for golden syrup, butterscotch schnapps and ground almonds.... it wasn't quite toffeey enough, and was a tad too sweet, but still, a crumble's a crumble!

I've spent most of the last three days curled up in front of the fire alternately watching american day time teen dramas, knitting and sleeping, and i'm feeling alot better now, and i've learned how to shape the heel of a sock...awesome progress!

cozy

2008-10-19T18:28:00.002+01:00

I've spent most of the weekend curled up in front of the fire, blowing my nose and knitting a sock, it's my first and i'm quite enjoying it, even if it is like knitting with cocktail sticks!

Sigh...

2008-10-17T17:58:00.004+01:00

A naughty cold seems to have snuck up on me during this afternoon, why oh why do they always come at the weekend, especially weekends that are just for me? I had grand plans for some major crafting, a whole day of creativity. Some knitting, baking, painting, learning to spin, and possibly a visit here. All i really want to do now is curl up on the sofa with some hot orange and honey and maybe a little light knitting.

It actually might have been a bit adventurous to try fitting everything in to one day, but still....

pink!

2008-10-16T19:54:00.004+01:00

Arrived home to an amazing swap package waiting for me from tracee at maude&me....

'Candy Floss' and 'Pansy' pink fiber, a spindle (learning to spin definitely on this weekends list of things to do) Pinky candy, soap and pink grapefruit melty wax, a cute eco bag and gorgeous pink handspun yarn....

I'm so spoiled :o)