Ready in Time for Valentine

 Hot off the press. Freshly Found Heart Cards.

Ready just in time for the February i♥market. Hearts are made from vintage Romatic Record Covers, slightly padded and stitched together. 

A separate blackboard heart is attached on the back and the whole lot is held together with a colour co-ordinated knitting needle. A piece of chalk comes in the envelope for your own personal message!

Patchworked Samples

I came across some Fabric Sample books for next-to-nothing at The Hospice Charity Shop last week.

I patchwork pieced together some cream, stone and grey samples in a brick pattern and stitched them up into cushion covers over lovely soft feather inners. 

I am so pleased with the outcome!

Touches of Colour

Prototypes of some of the new paper bracelet designs. I am loving the vintage instruction book paper with it's touches of colour, diagrams and different fonts. 

A whole batch of paper is cut, sorted and waiting to be picked up this morning to be folded into bracelets.  

Touches of music and calligraphy will appear in some. When they come back next week, they will be given an acrylic coating which makes them surprisingly hard wearing, There will be enough stock to sell online as well as at the market!

A Bouquet of Jugs

I needed some fresh interest for my coffee table, So I decided to hunt out all my vintage jugs and pile them up in my much loved John Wilhelm Pottery bowl.

 So many memories are grouped together - remnants of tea sets, delightful vintage finds [like that bright green Mikasa jug] and I so well remember the delight I felt years ago when I bought the House Tea Set. 

 Next I think I will try a bowl full of vintage teacups. That should be fun too!

Crochet Love

One of my fave Christmas presents was one I found myself, ordered from Kalahari.net and then told my mom she had to give to me!

100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet by Lesley Stanfield is giving me lots of joy as I work my way through the gorgeous blooms!

[And so are the beautiful offcuts of the cotton I am crocheting with!]

Lesley Stanfield has authored a number of books on knitting and crochet, including 150 Knitted Trims. She is a long-time hand knitting designer and has been the knitting editor at Woman and Family Circle magazines.In March, her latest book, '75 Butterflies, Bees, Birds and Other Creatures to Knit and Crochet' will be released.  I think I see a Mother's Day or early Birthday present coming up. I'll have to order one for myself!

Happy New Year!

I hope that you all had a good Christmas - and I want to wish you a very happy, productive and fulfilling New Year! I have a huge garden, but not many colourful flowers at the moment.  So I decided to go with the green and decorate my dining table for the New Year with what I could find: 

 

It's been good to have some days at home with not much to do, but enjoy my Christmas Gifts, catch up and tidy up. I am loving these pegs from Sprigs and this beautiful pottery jug from a stall at the i♥market [Can't remember the name] 

I've had some time to tidy my studio and was surprised to see how many 'mending kits' I had thrown into my drawers!

And I am enjoying this colour coded view of the bottom drawer of my desk:

Probably won't stay like this for very long - but it's beautiful now!