not a hot cross bunny in sight

I took part in Lucy Lockets bunny swap recently. My bunny was posted off on Monday this week and it has arrived with its recipient Sara, so I'm safe to post a pic of it now. Sadly I didn't have great light when I took the pic - hopefully Sara can take a good pic and send it on to me.

So here she is, front and back. She is made from an old felted wool blanket and some floral cotton/linen mix fabric:
and yesterday, the only postal day over this weekend, I got my swap bunny from Sara, what a cutie:I'm really loving spots and dots at the moment and sara also sent me a little fabric stash (all dotty) too, and a brooch, and some chocolate bunnies, and a little piece of handmade soap - which looked like fudge, but I'm glad i didn't eat it - it was soap wasn't it Sara?

Today, I'm going to do lots of cooking. I'm also going to try Jamie Olivers hot cross bun pudding, which is basically like a lazy bread and butter pudding recipe.
Cut hot cross buns and fill with marmalade. Put in an oven dish and pour on custard. Slam it in the oven for a while. Yum!

a very Good Friday indeed

Apart from being easter friday or 'good friday' as we all know it, it think it's an especially good friday because:

a) I'm not at work. I have so far done nothing of note - I've slept in, I've read a book in my pyjamas, got showered and dressed at lunch time, pootled about watching a bit of television and cutting up a pair of red spotty cotton pyjama bottoms which I bought from matalan for £2.50 - you get a lot of fabric for just £2.50! and
b) earlier on this week I was the lucky winner of these top notch stacking bunnies:They were made by the fabulous Moogsmum and I won them in her 155th post give away! I think I won them because I wanted them sooo much - that random number generator moogsmum used to select the winner just felt my vibes.

Moogsmum also kindly sent me more lovely goodies too, a great cotton shopping bag which rolls up (so basically you can stuff it into another bigger bag - I like this idea, especially as the world has now cottoned on - no pun intended, to the fact the we must stop using all these plastic bags), some more buttons to add to my stash - and a lavender bag which made the whole package smell lovely.
So all in all, a pretty 'Good Friday' I think.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions on where to get the thick felt I'm looking for. I have a couple of sources to try so I'll do a bit of internet shopping and report back to you on the quality of this when it all arrives.

thick wool felt, where art thou?

I have been looking for a UK supplier of thick wool felt - 3mm thick felt is what I'm after.
Google has usually been my friend in such times of need, but it has failed me on this occasion.
Has anyone bought thick wool felt from a UK supplier? Failing this, does anyone know of a good supplier outside of the UK where I can get thick wool felt?

You might be wondering why I need such a thing - well this is one of the reasons:I bought a small supply of thick felt from ebay a little while back and I've just about run out of it now.
I have also tried layering thinner felt but I prefer this design when I use thicker felt - this green brooch has 3 layers of thinner felt:Any suggestions as to where to buy would be very gratefully received.

I know I sometimes bemoan my day job because it restricts my time for making, but it does obviously have it's perks too. Today was definitely one of those days, as it is the day when I receive my annual bonus, and very nice it was too! I haven't spent it yet, but I do have my eyes on a few things that I would love to buy - one of them being a new bernina sewing machine. Mr Monda has asked me if I think I really need a 4th sewing machine - well, like bags and shoes, you can never have enough sewing machines right? What a silly question.

I'm now beginning a 4 day break from work and I have absolutely no plans to do anything except of course devoting a bit of time to making.

Also I just wanted to say a 'hello' and 'welcome' to the people who have recently found my blog or who have de-lurked and left me lovely comments. Lovely comments (and even a few constructive ones) are always welcome.

SALE

It's time for a spring clean. Pop over to my esty shop - I'm having a monster sale!

You can find monsters for £3.99 ($8) and £4.99 ($10)
And all easter cards are half price, so now you get 2 cards for just £1.49 ($3)

Edit - click on the sale banner - it goes straight to my shop - how fancy is that!

I got ecojot!

Look at these lovely specimens:I've finally managed to get my hands on some of Carolyn Gavin's lovely ecojot notebooks which I have been coveting for quite some time. Until just a few weeks ago these were not available in the UK, but now you can get them from the marvelous paperchase - I got these from the big store on Tottenham Court Road in London (nearest tube is Goodge Street).

Close up - here are both designs I picked, although there were more designs to be hadOne of these is a sketch book, and the other a note pad, and they're both made with 100% recycled paper. If you have 5 mins you should check out her website - it's lovely and has nice soothing music on it too - perfect for a Sunday afternoon.

Anyway, I can't hang around chatting here - I have a bunny in progress that must be finished today.

a herd, some awards and a rant.

hmm, so I didn't manage to keep to my schedule and do all the things I had planned in my last post. I sometimes forget the need for a bit of R&R. Having a full time job and being creative in your own time is a bit tiring at times - being able to switch off is difficult too - especially when you workspace is your dining table in the corner of your living room. I keep seeing pics of peoples work spaces and work rooms and I have space envy!

Question - What is the collective term for a group of rabbits?
Mr Monda suggested it's a 'squad'. I like 'herd', it has a certain ring to it doesn't it? 'ooh, look at that herd of rabbits' no?
Well here is my herd - and they'll be hopping into my etsy shop later:
Also this week I was twice awarded a 'you make my day' award. Firstly from the lovely ladies at Buttonberry, and then from Kitty. It's so nice to think that I actually make someone's day.
I might now unmake a few peoples day however because I am officially copping out of passing it on to 20 people for 2 reasons really - I'm not really a fan of these chain letter type things, and the rebel in me makes me want to break the chain, so I know I'm in for 100 years of bad luck and blah blah blah but I'm totally OK with that. Secondly, I think writing someone a personal comment is as nice if not better than an award, so if I have commented on your blog I have not done it on a whim, I've done it because I appreciate what you do - you inspire me, give me some non fattening eye candy to look at, your write beautifully or you make me laugh.
On this note - it's a good time for me to say thanks to all those people who drop by and leave me a comment or helpful suggestion. This is what makes my day.

Sorry for sounding like a grumpy bum. I know I'll probably never receive an award again - unless it's a 'you're an ungrateful grumpy bum' award, then of course I'll well and truly deserve it :o)

just popping by quickly to say...

more Bunnies are on the way! (that rhymes doesn't it)
I've got a lot to do tonight - Trying to finish up bunnies, putting some bits into the shop, and starting some brooches too. I'll be happy if I just manage 2 out of the 3.

Choir boy!

so finally the bunny is finished - and because of where the lace ended up, Mr monda seems to think he looks like a Choir boy! (topical for a Sunday I suppose)He doesn't have a tail, instead a stitched monda loves... label where his tail should be He's made from a old wool blanket which has been totally felted by machine washing which makes him a sturdy little thing. He'll be popping into my shop soon (maybe tomorrow) along with a monster, and maybe a brooch or two (depending on how productive I am tonight).

I've not had a very crafty weekend as my little bro (not so little really - he's 25!) and his girlfriend were visiting . Today we all went up to Silverstone race track (home of British F1 racing) because my Bro was running in a half marathon in preparation for the London marathon in April. It's an admirable thing, but also totally mental in my book, who would want to run 13 miles? let alone 26! I showed my support by just shouting a lot each time he ran by.

I've been giving the project I mentioned in my last post a lot of thought and a bit of preliminary work. It's definitely in the pipeline, but there are a few things I need to do before you can hear more about it - I've decided that 1st April (or thereabouts, not sure what day this is though) would be a good kick off date. It's only a couple of weeks away and I'll try not to mention it again too much between now and then.

the poor BIP

I think I have more pictures of WIPs on my blog than anything else. Ah, the perils of a day job.
I feel sorry for this poor BIPHe's been in the making for a whole week now, and although he's a little bit further on than he was, he's still not finished. I've had a week of busy evenings.
I was working till late today so I'll pick him up again in a minute and hopefully I'll finish him tonight.
The little bit of lace around his neck may not stay around his neck - I want to use it somewhere on him, I'm just not sure where yet. Any last minute suggestions are welcome.

I've also had a new project idea which I love. It needs a bit more thought and maybe a fancy button on my blog so watch this space for more news on this.

if you miss a day...

I usually have a daily blog read which takes place when I get home from work, but yesterday I missed it because I went straight from work into London to see the Hoosiers, who were incidentally brilliant live - a real fun band to go and watch, and the lead singer has a fantastic voice too. The downside of this was a very late night, ringing ears when I did get into bed (because I was right next to the speakers) and of course no opportunity to read my daily crafty blogs. Don't get me wrong, I can easily survive without this but it's catching up that is the hard part. I just spent almost 2 hours reading everything I had missed from yesterday, and then also todays updates too. Phew.

Something I came across today on daily candy was a website called stuffyourdoodles.com. Basically, you draw a picture of a creature/person/alien/animal etc and send it to them and they will make it into a soft toy for you. It's not the first time I've seen something like this though, I found lolabee on etsy a while back and she also does the same thing, and all equally as cute (if not a bit cheaper).
Maybe I should give this a go. Mr Monda is pretty good at drawing and has been on a drawing kick of late, here are a couple of his drawings which I think I could make into softies of some description:

Self portraitghetto blaster and trainer

Anyway, maybe this will have to go on the to do list, I have a BIP waiting for me so I'm off now to carry on with it.

a BIP

What a lovely day at work I had today. Whilst in the office I did some mundane but essential admin, but perfect for a Monday, and this afternoon we were treated to afternoon tea at Cliveden House. We had proper tea cups and saucers, finger sandwiches and out of this world cakes (Katy, I did manage to squirrel away 2 eccles cakes for Mr Monda, he was very pleased about this). After tea we went for a tour, we were shown some of the hotel bedrooms - you can stay there for about £600 per night (to put this into perspective, that's more than I paid for my holiday - 6 days in Scandanavia!).
It's got a lot of history and I guess this is really what you pay for, so for a taster of Olde England it's great, and it does have some really lovely gardens you can walk around in the summer too. I wish every Monday at work was like this.
Sadly I didn't take my camera, but I've borrowed a couple of pics from google images:
Mr Monda bought me the latest issue of craft magazine, which I'm pleased to see has monsters on the front cover:
I feel like I haven't made any monsters in a while - I've been busy with other things, like this BIP - Bunny in progress:This main body of this bunny is a cream felt blanket which I washed in the machine with some brown and red felt. It's picked up some of the brown and red fibres and felted them in - initially i wasn't very happy about this but now I actually quite like it.

The BIP will have to wait a couple of days more days now though - I'm off into London tomorrow night to see the Hoosiers in concert. Check out their website, its really cool, and you can listen to some of their music whilst you do it.

I'm rubbish at knitting!

Yesterday I went over to see my sister and her family for the day. I took some wool, and my new knitting book and my sister showed me how to knit following a pattern, which is something I've never done before. Well to say I was pretty rubbish at it was an understatement - I was supposed to increase rows by 2 but increased by 4! I have no idea how and although my sister tried to explain this to me I was pretty impatient with the whole thing (like a stroppy kid). I won't give up on it just yet because I'd really like to knit one of the icons from the book I was given, but I think I need a bit more guidance.

My sis also gave me a hand knitted scarf that was a late birthday present, and another brooch:As you can see, she can knit, very well indeed. I have an afternoon tea meeting with work tomorrow at this place, so I'll wear my new scarf for the occasion, they won't just let any old riff raff into these places - I can't even wear jeans as I normally do to work.

I need to go off and show the vacuum cleaner to the house - and then I will do a bit of sewing - more bunny practice needed.

mothers day, holidays, haircut days

As most of the UK bloggers would know, mothers day is this Sunday. With 'the pussy cat and the owl' finished, all I needed to do was post it off to my mum. Oops! I did forget one tiny thing though, a card! Once you've given someone a handmade card they often expect handmade cards as par for the course, so this morning in a frantic rush I made this card - well I say card, but it is actually a brooch which I have attached to a card - so more of a pressie than a card, or a multi function card at least
When Mr Monda was made redundant we thought it was a good idea to book a holiday - maybe something a bit special because for once we had a bit of money to do it. We've been looking at either Canada for Whale/polar bear/wildlife watching, or maybe an African Safari, but we just haven't found the right thing yet.
As an interim break, today we booked a little European trip to tide us over until we find the dream holiday - we are going to Stockholm (Sweden) for 3 days, Copenhagen (Denmark) for one day, and then taking a cruise back to the UK - 6 days in all. I'm really looking forward to it as I have never been to any of these places before (except the UK of course!), and the best thing about all this is that it was 51% off the regular holiday price. 3 days in Sweden though - I fear for our pockets because there is some seriously stylish design in Sweden.

I also treated myself to a much needed hair cut today. It's only a trim, but a hair cut always makes you feel better doesn't it.

The other things I wanted to blog about a couple of days ago but didn't have the time were:

New fabric stash - I don't strictly need all this but I can justify it as I have been using quite a bit recentlyI bought these vintage embroidery magazines (from 1939 and 1940). I love stuff like this - will probably end up sing them in some sort of paper collage project. I paid £1.99 for them, in 1939 they cost 2d (I wonder if i got a good deal on them?)And lastly this fab book, which was bought for me as a gift from someone quite unexpected who thought it was such a great book when she read it in the airport bookshop and had to buy it even though she doesn't knit. I think I should knit her something as a thank you, but I'm only good at knitting uncomplicated things like scarves, so this might be quite a tricky test for me.
Here is a pic of what I think I'll go for. Can you guess who it is? P.S. MonkeeMaker, I'm sorry you won't be getting the mothers day present from me that you were expecting.
An almost reenactment from the famous star wars film follows:

MonkeeMaker 'monda, I am your mother'

Monda 'noooooooooooooo... You can't use the power of the force on me MonkeeMaker, what mother would forget 32 years of birthdays?'

nearly there

I have quite a lot of things to post about today, but they will just have to wait because I need to finish up my mums pressie. I've just started sewing the backing on, but here's a pic of the finished front piece. I also stopped by at Habitat on my way home from work and bought a nice box frame to put it in too:you can see some more detailed pics on here

it's getting there...

Another WIP pic I think I should be able to finish off the sewing tonight, and maybe do the backing tomorrow night.

For my birthday, I was given an amazon voucher. Anyone who has been to my house knows that I have way too many books, however I decided to buy a few more and they arrived todayA couple of these books I'd seen a book shop a few weeks back, but didn't buy them because they are much cheaper on Amazon.

Here are a few pics from 'play pen - new children's book illustration'