I've been a busy bee

I've not blogged for a few days as I've been helping out at my friend's shop. It's a brilliant wee shop called The Rainbow Hat. They run a stall at a lot of rallys, galas and fetes all over Scotland and they are a great couple. I just help out on the odd days when they have to go far afield and are doing it as family time.



Colourful isn't it?



They opened this shop about 18 months ago and people come from all over the place, even Englandshire, to shop



Anyway while I've been there this week I've had the time to do a bit of crafting. I know shocking isn't it? So far this year my crafting mojo seems to have been living under a rock.

Anyway I got a bit of knitting done.

Can you tell what it is?

I've also got some stencilling time in. These are for my newest wee neighbour born recently.



Sorry about the bad photos, I took them on my camera phone and the light wasn't so great.

Oh and just one quick question. Have you seen the advert on tv for John Lewis? Well I was just wondering why is it the lady in red get's taller the older she gets? By the time she gets to the old lady stage she's like a giant! Anyone else notice that? Or is it just me and my odd ways again? Hmm thought so.

Hi

Firstly I'd like to thank everyone for all your lovely comments, they really meant so very much to me. It's so nice to know I have made some really great friends through blogging.
Ok the reason for my wee disappearing act? Well him indoors and I have split, it has been a tough couple of months especially as we did not want to tell the kids for a while as big one had her exams at school. And we needed to get our own heads into some sort of order. Telling them was hard but it is now done. I could not share with you beforehand as big one sometimes likes to wander over her and take a peek at what I've been talking about.
I may still be jumping in and out of the blogging world for a wee while to come.

And poof she reappeared as if by magic

The lovely Beki gave me a much needed poke (not literally) today. We had a lovely time down with my Mum in Wales, it was lovely meeting up with my family and friends.
I won't go into detail but things have been a bit different around here (here as in home not here as in blog) so I'm afraid I've done a bit of usual tortoise routine and just retracted my head away from the world. Thank you Beki for reminding me that people care (((hugs)))

Ok I promised a giveway prize draw on my return didn't I? Well as this giveaway is to mark my 2nd Blogaversary I decided to draw two names.
So I'm happy to announce the winners are..................


The one the only lovely Mrs Twiggypeasticks who might be a bit busy with a certain Mr Tennant to notice :)


and



The favour bag maker extrodinaire Jellybelly@jellybrain

So if you lovely ladies would like to contact me with your details, I think you already mentioned your skinny minny sizes, any choices for designs, oh and if you have any definate no no's for colours.

I owe a huge apology to MadMummy. Thank you so much for the gorgeous spring things you sent me for the spring swap I will post pics this weekend. I'm sorry your package is still not with you, it got returned to me for some bizarre reason and with my head in my shell I still haven't got myself organised to get it back in the post.

Have to go now wee one has dance class in 10 minutes and we still can't find her other ballet slipper but then it's a miracle we found the first one the state her room in in.

Peace returns

Well our French exchange student went back off home on Friday. Despite the last minute rush of packing (she was still packing at 11.30pm on the Thursday AND still hadn't finished by breakfast time the following morning!) we got her on the bus in time with all her forms completed and big hugs and kisses all round. I hope that she enjoyed her time here with us. Big one can't wait now till it's her turn to go over to France next year.
I've been busy crafting away getting my stuff done for the Owl Swap Round 4 over at CraftsterJust waiting now for my partner to get back off her holidays so I can send it out in the post. Gulp! Am very nervous :/
Also I've been stencilling like a crazy woman. I decided to try out a new technique involving contact paper. Print out the design onto the paper side, cut out, peel, stick to shirt, paint, dry, peel off and voila one stenciled shirt with lovely clear straight lines. I won't post pics just now of the shirts I've done as the design is the one I'm sending to my Craftster partner and you never know who's checking out your blog now do you ;)

Right while I've been away busy with entertaining French girls, working and general life I see I've been tagged by the lovely ">Bumbershootska. I've been tagged for 5 random facts about all about me. 5? I think most of ‘me’ is random until I have to think about it, then suddenly I think I’m the most boring person on the planet. Hmmm. And then I’m to tag 5 other people, oh I can see me being popular for that, do I even know 5 people on here, come to think of it do 5 people know me :D

Right so let's see what can I tell you.
1. I hate peas. I don't just hate them, I HATE them. I have very bad memories of being still sat at the dinner table long after the meal had finished with my plate sat infront of me with the offending green globules still sat there, stone cold staring at me with their evilness. I'd probably have grown out of my dislike of them long ago, as I did with most other vegetables, if it hadn't been such a mealtime battle or if my Mother just hadn't served me them knowing full well the whole saga would become a groundhog day every meal time. Random enough?

2. The best friend I've ever had was my first dog. His name was Butch, he was a cross between a Great Dane and a Bull Mastiff and my Mum and Dad adopted him just weeks before I was born. He died when I was seven and I still miss him.

3. I think Bumbershootska and I have the same name. Think Mrs King out of The Avengers or Gone with the wind.

4. I love thunder and lightening. While some of my friends are cowering under the stairs I'm the one at the window counting down between the flash of lightening and the rumble of thunder.

5. I'd love to have a minimalistic home but with a husband, 2 kids, a slobbery dog and a crafting fetish this is highly unlikely to ever happen.

Now to find 5 people to tag.

takinanap - because I LOVE your sock creations.
big_girlfeet - because I love the fact I'm not the only big footed woman out there.
the-pink-kitchen - anyone who has a pink kitchen has to be tagged :)
thriftygoodness - I wish she could take me thrifting with her.
and finally

bumbershootska - because it's you that got me into this in the first place :p

Oh and can someone teach me how to do a direct link to someone's blog because I used the link button but nothing appeared :( Many thanks to big girl feet for her help with putting in link properly. You're a star thank you petal.

Blobbing blobs

or as the case actually is bleeding stencil lines :(
Today I had a major lie in as I didn't even crawl into my bed until 6am. My own fault, was pulling an all nighter to get my Uni essay finished. Was so cold I didn't even realise I was cold until I got into bed next to a lovely toasty warm him indoors. You have to love a man who wakes up that early in the morning (probably by my radiating coldness - honest I didn't touch him!) and pulls you to him to try and warm you up enough so you can go to sleep.
Anyway once I'd had a few hours sleep the craft bug in me that has had to be horribly suppressed this week due to said essay sprang forth and I went on a bit of a craftfest. I love stencilling shirts and wee one and I had come up with the plan with doing a shirt for her friend who's birthday it was today. (Yes I know leave it till last minute) As you will see from my post title I've been having a few issues with stencil bleeding. I can't work out what's going on though as one shirt will be absolutely fine then the next one will bleed. Very frustrating. So this is the shirt we did today for wee one's friend


But wait the crafting did not stop there. I owe a lovely lady from craftster a shirt so that was painted today too, no pics as yet and again there was a bleed :( I could cry honestly I really could. Him indoors and the small people think I'm too much of a perfectionist - maybe I am but when you're giving it to someone else you like it to be the best you can do no?
This is the cutest wee bear that she sent me as a swap for the stencilled shirt. Here she is overseeing my stencil cutting skills


So after all that cutting and painting I finally sat down and devoted the time to sew together the polar bear that I knitted for wee one before Xmas - yes I know bad mummy :( And here he is...




He's my first attempt at a knitted soft toy and I think I should have popped a bit more stuffing into his belly as his legs look out of proportion now but she loves him and he's already been named Poley and has been taken off to bed with her tonight. :D

So tomorrow is thrifting day. Our local charity shop only opens two days a week, Monday and Thursdays and as I missed Monday due to writing THE essay I'm off to shop tomorrow so here's hoping I have some good finds to share tomorrow.

Examples of my craftwork

Work makes it sound like a chore when in fact I enjoy making things...hey there's a notion maybe some people enjoy their jobs!
Anyway this last Christmas (ok obviously before Christmas) I decided that the majority of my gifting was going to be home made items. Seemed like a good idea at the time and from subsequent comments it would appear that the majority of my work was not done in vain.
So here's a couple of piccys of the things I did.


A deluge of scarves - well I'd only just started knitting again and they are one of the easiest things to make.


A stencilled t shirt for my eldest nephew.


A stencilled shirt each for my big bruv and sil.



Yet another t shirt, this one for the youngest nephew

And some cute handwarmers.

There were other things but numpty that I am I didn't take pictures of it all.