a month of birthdays

June for me is a heavy month of Birthdays - my sis (today!), dad, nephew, a couple of friends and a friends little boy, plus it's also Father day this coming weekend. It is full on - lots of presents to be wrapped and cards to be written.
Maybe (just maybe) this time next year they'll be getting some of these - new designs I've been working on:

around these parts, there is some of this going on:

I'm still hooking away on my granny stripe. I'm trying to do at least 2 rows per evening - it doesn't sound like much but this is a double bed sized blanket and it's taking it's sweet time.

Dead heading with very pretty results

oh and a couple of Dinosaurs in a park - as they do, when nobody is looking.

My head is full of wedding stuff at the moment. We're not getting married until January but there is so much to think about, and ideas are filling my head. I'm working in my 'save the date' cards this week - they'll have printed and stitched elements to them. I'll blog my progress later in the week.

and it begins

World Cup fever is officially here. I've picked a few red and white and football themed favourites to share with you - by way of my support for England:

England World Cup football Meerkat, by Nifty Knits here

Red and white bunting, by giggleberry here

Sweet button blooms by lilfishstudios, here

flutterby cushion by Greenolive, here

and lastly, by far the coolest thing I've ever seen done with a crayola crayon

 by the pleasure of tiny things, here

You can read more about this World Cup commission for carved crayons on her blog by clicking the link above

a little obsessed

well, I don't mid admitting that I'm a little bit obsessed. You see, after leaving my job and taking myself off onto an illustrator course, I'm pretty much spending each day doodling away designs for my portfolio. I am obsessed by this, but actually that isn't the obsessed thing I was talking about.
I'm quite obsessed by the fabric design competitions they have going on over at spoonflower. It's a healthy obsession though, as these competitions are providing me with an almost weekly design brief. I like this because I can spend my brain power on designing and not thinking up clever briefs and themes for myself.

Anyhow, voting is up for the robot themed fabric. I changed my submission about 4 times before I finally entered this one:

click on pic to enlarge

If you like this, could I please ask, ever so politely for you to pop over to spoonflower and vote - it only takes a minute (as Take That once said) and I really would appreciate it very much.

As an aside, does anyone know what possible reason a man in a big TNT van would be doing visiting a house on my street each day at the same time for about 20 mins, usually at about 5.30? I have a theory, which doesn't involve the delivery of parcels, but the reason this irks me so is that he takes up the space of at least 3 cars making it impossible to park if you happen to come home at this time of day.
This is one of the things you notice when you are a stay at home, busy body, curtain twitcher, like myself :o)

here comes the rain

After a spell of quite a few lovely warm and hot days, it is now raining. Rain is generally a bit crubbish but I do accept it is necessary for the survival of our lovely planet. I'm happy about the rain though because the garden really needed a big drink, so I've created some celebratory designs - and called them 'happy rain':

I also wanted to share one of my boot sale bargains from the weekend:

I totally love the 60's pattern on this little jug, but I think I love it more because it was just 20p (so fickle). Can you believe that? This might be the best 20p I've ever spent. It was probably 20p because it was a bit grubby and dusty and just thrown in the bottom of a box, but after a little wash up, it's good as new. Ahhh joy.

a little bit of this, and a little bit of that

I don't mind the weather when it's hot, but It's juts horrible when it's humid and muggy. Today it is so humid, the kind of humid that just zaps away your energy, and I've found it quite hard to do anything for any great length of time.
I'm still playing with my robot designs and have submitted the top one into the spoonflower competition.

It's called 'i heart robots':

 (enlarged view of design above)

and my granny stripe is coming along nicely - although so hard to even touch the wool on hot hot days:

I'm not so sure about the colours actually - but as I already had the dark blue and aubergine coloured wool (and lots of it), I had to use it.

I hope it's less muggy tomorrow as I need some energy for my fave sunday event - the local car boot sale.

I am not a robot

Thanks to everyone who voted for me in the spoonflower contest recently. I came 45th out of 116, with 211 votes. I didn't expect to win, but just putting something out there was a good thing for me.

This was the winning fabric:

Pic via spoonflower - designer Emma McCann

It's great isn't it.
Spoonflower always run competitions - a forthcoming one being on a robot theme. I've been working on a few designs this week:

I'm not sure if any of these will make it as my final design yet as I still have more in the pipeline
I'd like to ask for some help from fellow bloggers. Which one of these designs would you pick if you were purchasing a robot fabric and why? All comments gratefully received.

Apparently, Marina isn't a robot either. I love this song:

granny stripe, part 2

I was eager, perhaps too eager with my first granny stripe attempt from my previous post. The more I looked at it, the more wrong it looked. It looked too stretched, so how did I manage this? I wondered to myself. Perhaps it's the wrong type of wool, I thought. Have you heard the saying that 'a bad workman always blames his tools'? Yep, well I was blaming the wool.
Was it the wool, really? No, it was not the wool, that was fine. So what then? The pattern is right but the stitches are wrong. After looking in my crochet bible, I realised that I was working trebles where I should have doubles and double trebles where I should have trebles. Doh! If this was my court of law, the poor wool would have probably gone down for a stretch - I guess I'll never make a lawyer.

This is attempt number two. It's looking much better - and far more like it should (but still a bit wibbly and wobbly)

I wonder if it will be as lovely as this one day?

picture via Attic24

You know, it really is quite simple when you get the hang of it. Getting the hang of it is the hard part.
Practice over - let the granny stripe blanket commence!

granny

One thing I really wanted to do this year was improve my crochet skills so I'm embarking on my first crocheted item (which isn't a scarf using basic stitches - I've made a few of those now).
I find it quite difficult to read patterns though (same with knitting), I just don't get it. I'm fine if I watch a video tutorial though and pictures and words together make more sense to me, so thankfully there are a few out there to help me.
A couple of years ago I was bought 2 huge (400g) balls of Wendy Aran (a mixture of 25% wool and 75% acrylic), and haven't really know what to do with them, so they've just been sitting around, occasionally in the bag of stuff for the charity shop, until I get a guilt pang that I should do something with them.
 I've decided join Lucy at Attic24 (you know, the crochet queen) in her granny stripe blanket HAL (hook a long). I've purchased another two balls of the same wool in contrasting shades (just waiting for them to arrive) and I've started the practice square - which Lucy advised. A practice square was a great idea because I did cock it up on first attempt and please don't look too closely as it's a bit wibbly and wobbly in places too

I've spent quite a lot of the bank holiday weekend doing stuff in my garden and greenhouse - it's really looking quite good now. All being well, later this year I'll be eating my own tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers, carrots, lettuce, sugar snap peas and cabbages. I mainly grow in pots and grow bags as I don't have a huge garden. My courgettes are planted in buckets from B&Q with holes drilled in the bottom. They may not look too pretty, but at just 99p each - compared to large plastic plant pots costing between £3-5 each, I'm not complaining

I also went along to my local car boot again today - it's fast becoming my favourite thing to do at the weekend. I picked up some great bargains. I'll tell you about those later in the week though.

a good book

I like books, bookshops, online book browsing. I like books with pictures, books with words, and books for kids, old books and new books. I own a lot of books, and would probably have more if I had more space.
A few recent acquisitions include this stack of old books which I picked up at my local bar boot sale at the weekend:

These are not books that have been purchased for reading mind you, they are intended as props for my photographs - I picked the ones with the spines I liked the best, not really paying any attention to the books themselves. They were 20p each, so I chose 5 and parted with a pound happily. They all have a very old book smell to them - a little bit fusty and dusty.
When I got home, I discovered that I had picked up:
- Idylls of the king, by Tennyson - printed in 1910 and once owned by Winifred Baker (who had written her name in lovely handwritten script in the front cover)
- The Church and the new order, by William Paton printed in 1941
- Under the rope, by Stanley J Weyman, printed in 1911
- Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley, printed in 1855
- Modern Motor Cars and Commercial Vehicles - I can't find the author or date on this one, but if I want to find out about the principles of a four stroke engine, or the theory of a petrol engine, then I'll know where to look.
Books like this were from the pre-consumerism (if that is such a word?) days. They were once highly prized possessions, and often worked hard for. It's such a shame that they ended up in a car boot sale for 20p each. If only they could tell their life story - now that is something I'd like to read.

My other new books are ones that make me drool.
- Over and Over - a catalogue of hand drawn patterns by Mike Perry

- Illustration Play - Craving for the Extraordinary, by Viction:ary (this book is amazing - I would highly recommend it, not least for the thought that has gone into creating a beautiful book - before the contents have been added)

 I'm currently beavering away getting an online portfolio together to showcase my digital design skills

but I'm itching to get sewing again though too - there just isn't enough hours in the day.
I was browsing around in my local Cath Kidston shop this week, and noticed that they sell some vintage fabric tote bags. I was so tempted - but I didn't buy because I knew I could make one myself - and I have the prefect fabric for it too:

I did manage to accidentally buy some flip flops though. Well, it is almost summer!

dresses and kitties

It's been scorching this weekend - so much that I got burnt even with factor 30 suncream on. It's nice to have good weather of course, but I would have liked it a bit cooler on Saturday when I was in London, with my bridesmaids looking for ideas for bridesmaids dresses. We tried on lots of dresses and styles and came away with a definite colour in mind - slate/pewter/mocha - and because we are having a winter wedding - something that looks a bit icy.

This dress was one of the first we tried on and a definite favourite of my sister but wasn't right for both my bridesmaids who are very different shapes and heights. I'd also be happy to have the dresses made but haven't got a clue where to start looking for a dress maker. Can anyone recommend a really good seamstress in south of the UK?

Here's a little something I was working on before the weekend:

Stevie was really not looking very impressed with the new cat in the garden:

If you like this...

Please vote for me in the spoon flower contest here

Thanking you muchly!

fifties inspired

Today's pattern of the day is this fifties inspired repeat which I have entered into the spoonflower contest.

 I'm still enjoying my Illustrator dabbling and have several little designs on the go at the moment.

A bit later than promised, the random number generator has picked number 1 (Lucy Locket) for the Kitty and number 2 (Spoon badger) for the scrapbooking papers. I'll be emailing both of you to get your postal details.
Trash 3 will be making its way to ebay - it will be treasure for someone I'm sure.

one man's trash...

Spending more time at home has really made me feel the need for a proper clean up.
I've been busy cleaning, sorting, categorising and de-stashing my home all week. It's tedious but rewarding all at the same time.
I'm pleased to say that my spare room is looking and feeling more like a usable studio/office now and I know where everything is and everything almost has a place. The are plenty of bits and bobs that don't have a place though, so I have accumulated a huge pile of items which will be making their way to ebay soon - one man's trash is another man's treasure, as the old saying goes.

I'm still dibbling and dabbling in illustrator, and have decided to capture some of the stuff that's going on in my life, in illustration/pattern design form - it's a good way for me to practice.
Monday this week marked the third year of my journey into the blogosphere, so I've created a couple of patterns using the number three (click on pics to enlarge):

I thought I'd also give away three lots of my 'trash' to anyone out there who wants it (I'll post it anywhere in the world).
No. 1 - Giant monda kitty - he was a prototype, but I found him just a bit too big really

No. 2 - a huge pile of craft/scrapbooking papers and some paper flower embellishments

No. 3 - 4 balls of soft fluffy yarn. It's acrylic (not really my bag) and ever so soft. It's white with black flecks.

Please drop me a comment here if you'd like any of my trash. It would be helpful if you could tell me whether you'd like trash 1, 2 or 3. I'll pop back in on Monday 17th May and draw the trash recipients at random.