Hello......

Hello ...... no Saturday Shopping List this week, as I have decided to take myself off the list. Hopefully charlotte will not be too upset with me. I have really enjoyed putting the list together each week, but I'm feeling a bit of pressure at the mo. Along with lots of moans and groans, my Dad had is angioplasty today, he is through it now, thank goodness, but oh dear what a worry these parentals are!!!!! (Just trying to think which is more of a worry parents or kids, hard to decide really).
I have a Fair coming up on 6th December here and have to get my finger out, as they say!
Have'nt really a great deal to 'show and tell' today, other than these cards I have been making.
Consisting of .....1882 ledger page, bit of worn crochet, feather and of course a button.

This week I have been mostly preparing for....ooooh....I can barely say it........ the Julie Arkell Workshop. Saturday and Sunday 15th/16th at Stroud, Gloucestershire.
This was the list I was sent.......
This is what I have collected together...do you think I have enough stuff?????

I shall walk in like a pack horse.

Anyway, I shall let you know how it goes. Right, I must go and pack and fine tune the 'stuff' to take.

I hope you all have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.x

Holly and Saturday Shopping List

I hope you have had a good week and have a good weekend to look forward to.

I wanted to show you these web cam photos my daughter took of herself after an evening of making herself up. She copied the top pic and applied this makeup late one evening. Holly had not got her camera handy, so she took a few web pics of herself. I thought she had been on Photoshop! She really ought to go in theatrical makeup, I think she is so clever, but there again I would, would'nt I???!!!
Not sure how busy I am going to be over the next couple of days....so I thought I had better post my Saturday Shopping List. Where I get to choose items from wonderful Etsy Shops. Please see fancypicnic for more Etsy items. No theme this week, other than 'abundant gorgeousness'.


1. irenesuchocki ~ This Bird Has Flown - 8x10 Fine Art Print
Had the greatest difficulty to choose one piece from Irene's work. So incredible....so I've posted two!


2. A Song for Spring - 6x6 Fine Art Print on Metallic Paper


3. pinkroselady ~ Pastel Pink Victorian Roses ROSE PRINT C. Klein 2 Frame, Scrapbook, Decoupage
4. just2sayhi ~ Recycle flower ring series 03 - Print 21x29.7cm (A4size)

5. grandmascats ~ Set of 6 Crochet Pastel ROSES FLOWERS and leaves Applique Embellishment Scrapbooking

6. juliafelt ~ Bag 'Elvish Grasses'

7. ribbonerie ~ Velvet Rose - Huge

8. WildWomanJewelry ~ Where Are You Christmas... Bracelet Inspired by How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Thank you to all the really wonderful Etsy sellers and thank you for stopping by.x

Lillie and Lulu Dryson

Well, my very precious week off from work has come to an end....what happended there then? Where did a week go? The days seem to speed by at an alarming rate!

I have so thoroughly enjoyed all the commotion over Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, apologies to USA readers, but the news has been full of the goings on of these two. I am an avid Radio 2 listener and to have all the skeletons come out of the cupboard has been very interesting and made a really great change from the usual 'recession' news we have to endure.

But anyway, I wanted to show you what I have been doing in the week, here is 'Miss Lillie Dryson'. No idea how this was going to turn out, when I initially purchased the two envelopes last Wednesday. I placed the two ...one on top of the other and realised that attaching the two together with lace would look lovely. Wanted to use some of my own art work, so out came the tracing paper and liberty. The tracing paper being stitched is very fragile but strong enough to hold and I am very fond of the technique. The snippet of embroidered table cloth picked out the colour of the stamps and I finished with free machine embroidery. I Keep looking at it and smiling, as I am really pleased with it (smug so and so)!

Full of ferver, I moved onto an envelope from Portugal, opened it up and played at pretty much the same thing, this being Lillie's twin sister 'Lulu'. Dog called 'Lottie'! Try saying that after a glass of sherry.

Etsy here they come.

I have also made a couple of Huglies for the Christmas Craft Exhibition, I was telling you about. The one is made from chamois leather/chammy leather/shammy leather...ugh??? It was an absolute so and so to stitch, really thick and ungiving.

I also managed to pick up these beauties....the box was 30p, and I was so pleased to pick up a few more pieces of paper ephemera.

German.....

Unused.... both above and below are embossed and both extremely beautiful cards.

Talking of cards, I have also made quite a few greetings cards with free machine embroidery. Using some of my old card designs, I drew these with the machine. I find free m/c embroidery really hard going on the neck and shoulders. I don't know how jackie gets on doing all her beautiful work, which must take her hours, without some sort of crippling neck and shoulder pain! AGONY!!!!! I always find my shoulders are up by my ears, when I have done!

Got to attach these now to a blank card.

And carrying on from my post where I had crocheted a necklace......... well I'm hooked! I'm crocheting all of my precious beads and buttons into necklaces!

Thought I would try these next. Being an avid button collector, I have hundreds of 'brown' buttons of every shape and size , which are difficult to incorporate into the kind of thing I do, so maybe I could use them in necklaces.

Well, I have lurched from one item to another for long enough and I thank you very much for taking the time to visit. x

Saturday Shopping List

Apologies for the late hour for Saturday Shopping List, where I get to choose beautful work made by Etsy Sellers. See fancypicnic for other wonderful work.
1. sarapaloma ~ 3 Stoneware Bottles-Matte White

2. jillsoriginals ~ Porcelain heart

3. GretchenKramp ~ Partridge in Pear Tree - Round Tile

4. buttonbee ~ Green Leaf Button

5. buttonsbyrobin ~ Handmade Ceramic Buttons-Primitive Crow/Black Bird-Four Buttons
6. hijackedceramics ~ Carved Coffee or Tea Mug

7. Misspottery ~ Waterfall Brown and Green Mug

8. Moonsie ~ Beach Buttons

Thank you to Etsy sellers.

I will be posting again tomorrow, ran out of daylight to photograph and show you what has been keeping me out of mischief over the last few days. So till tomorrow.....

Thank you for stopping by.x

Lovely Day!

You may remember from my last post that my husband and I were going to see our daughter in London yesterday. What a full on day we had! Beautiful sunshine and blue skies. After meeting Luce, we caught the bus to Oxford Circus.....



Then walked to Covent Garden, along the way these little fellas were in a shop window, no idea what the shop was, or who's work this is, but I thought it was worth a quick snap!

Covent Garden....I adore this place, so vibrant and alive and always something of interest to see and music being played.

Twisty, turny bridge, oooohhhhh, could you?

Vibrant fruit, in bowls???

Well after a manic few hours and lunch we set off for home and drove into this, just as we left the outskirts of London.

Very ominous....

And it turned into this....now I'm not a nervous car passenger, but I did not enjoy the journey home one little bit. Remember me telling you we had blue skies and sunshine, I would not have believed that the day would turn into raging blizzard, what's going on ehhh?

I also mentioned that I was heading for magma books. I found it!!!!! Oh my, I thought I had died and gone to heaven, book heaven! They have their finger so on the pulse of wonderfully obscure/new/foreign etc publications. Guilt has set in now, as the old plastic took a thrashing and I surcomed to a self indulgent spending spree, oh my, oh my, oh my!

You do understand don't you????? ;-)

Here we go then....

The age of Feminine Drawing ~ Japanese? Totally and utterly divine collection of drawings/art work.

(None of these books have been looked at properly yet, I'm waiting for the right time to savour)!

The True and the Questions ~ Sabrina Ward Harrison A Journal. Page after page of mixed media gorgeousness.

Textiles Now ~ Drusilla Cole. The flock trees on the front would have been enough for me....but the inside makes me dribble, like Homer with a doughnut.

Handmade Nation ~ The rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design ~ Faythe Levine and Cortney Heimerl. I read about this and checked Amazon the other day and you had to pre-order it, so I nearly fainted when I saw it, nestling with all the other wonderous books and publications.

Well, there we go...my naughty little secret is out there!

But in the words of Bill Withers ~ Lovely Day!

And just to finish on, my husband took his car for a service last Monday. When he collected the car they handed him the paperwork and we found this highly amusing that the Garage Mechanic felt the need to reiterate the fact that the car was in need of a clean!

Thanks for stopping by.x