Things of beauty

I wanted to show you what the Postman popped through the letter box today!!!
A handmade delight, a be~jewelled thing of beauty sent to me from dogdaisychains. I'm sure you are familar with Jackie's stunning work and if you do not own one of her special piece's then you really are missing out.
Not only did she send me this gorgeous handbag but a matching brooch.

Harris Tweed and velvet.....a truly sublime mix. She also sent vintage buttons.....bliss and heaven.

Thank you so much Jackie.

~0~

Now this must look a little odd, but when I left work today, I walked through the local Park back to my car, I spotted this nest on the footpath, which must have blown from a tree. So I popped/stuffed it into my handbag (not Jackie's). I did get a very odd look from a woman sitting on a park bench, but I don't care.

The nest really is beautiful and silky soft ... some sort of animal hair has been wonderfully woven. I think it's cat hair! Ugh, some may say but to me it is a magical, scuptural, natural, thing of beauty. My daughter Holly looked heavenward when I retrieved from my bag, when I got home. Small bird, as the little well is only the size of an egg cup. (Pardon the pun).

~0~
And last but not least, this was sent to me via e mail today....made me smile!

I thought you would want to know about this e-mail virus. Even the most advanced programs from Norton or McAfee cannot take care of this one.

It appears to affect those who were born prior to 1960.

Symptoms:

1. Causes you to send the same e-mail twice. done that!

2. Causes you to send a blank e-mail! that too!

3. Causes you to send e-mail to the wrong person. yep!

4. Causes you to send it back to the person who sent it to you. DUH!

5. Causes you to forget to attach the attachment. well darn!

6. Causes you to hit "SEND" before you've finished. oh no - not again!

7. Causes you to hit "DELETE" instead of "SEND." and I just hate that!

8. Causes you to hit "SEND" when you should "DELETE." Oh No!

IT IS CALLED THE "C-NILE VIRUS."

Hmmm....Have I already sent this to you?

Thankyou for stopping by ;-) x

A find, inspirations and some 'makes'.

I want to tell you about my 'find of the week'. My local supermarket has a charity shop next door, so whilst popping in for milk and bread, the supermarket that is, I just have to nip into the charity shop, it would be a crime not to? Yes? You agree, good! I noticed the table pictured below for sale in said charity shop and thought what a great height it was, and carried on my merry way. Got home and into my work room and thought about the table.......Telephone's dear husband, who kindly obliged and went and fetched the table for me, complaining that not only did he fetch it, he had to pay for it too;-) (Owls are tooting again)! Anyway, the reason I'm prattling on about this is because I can't tell you what a godsend it has been, mainly because of it's height....it is 6" higher than my work tables and boy does it save the back. It is so good to stand and work at!!!
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I had the most wonderful surprise the other day, Postman bought me a package from USA. Dear Amy of rosesradishesandrubbish sent me all manner of beautiful items. Paper, lace, buttons, a stunning handmade paper heart with my name on it, so many lovely things, but also a piece of her art work. I adore her subtle, quirky, beautiful art, photographs do not capture the fine colour and pencil work and the intricacies of her special style. Thank you so much Amy! I implore you to go and read her lovely blog and visit her Etsy site, you will not be disappointed.


Above, some of the treasures sent to me and below Amy's art work, presented in a papier mache box. I love it so much.I have such kind and generous friends, I am so fortunate.~0~
After a bit of a 'O so sorry for me' start to last week, I did finally manage to kick myself into some action!
Needlecase.....

After reading a post about a shop window in New York which featured cut paper pigeons on a wire, posted by Sue of mousenotebook whose blog by the way is an absolute delight, a feast for the eyes and so beautifully written!!! You must, must make a visit. I was so inspired, it got me thinking and here is the result! You may have seen my images on Flickr but I wanted to tell you where the inspiration came from.

Thank you all so much my lovelies, for all your ongoing kindness and support.

I hope you all have a great week and thank you for stopping by.x

Prepare for a small rant!

I'm convinced that I have a mischievious Sprite that sits on my shoulder...a naughty little imp whose whole existence is about making my life difficult....what am I talking about? I'm talking about being clumsy! The Sprite goes about dropping, breaking, pushing, falling....you name it I do it! If there is a difficult route round it that's the way I go. I place an item onto a work surface, it invariably rolls or falls off, smashing into a thousand pieces, just as I'm leaving for work. If I can put a finger through a brand new pair of tights...oh yes, straight through. I find it impossible to hold my handbag and a carrier bag and use my key to open the front door, not without dropping my keys or a bag.
I think this is probably not the Sprite's fault but because I go at everything like a bull at a gate. Incapable of thinking anything through, so I'm always tripping, ripping, breaking and dropping! The whole point of this little rant is the pic of the Hellebores below. I spotted some snowdrops covered with last years dead Hellebore leaves in my garden today, so in I go with the secateurs to clear away dead leaves, so I can see the beloved snowdrops and what do I do, I manage to cut the beautiful new flowers of the Hellebore too, sheesh!
In a way it was a good thing because I took a minute to photograph the exquisite beauty of this lovely flower, that like the snow drop bravely flowers when it's very, very cold.

One of the flowers, artfully (dare I say) layed across a sketchbook/journal I embellished today. I've used some lovely old foxed lace, stitchery, buttons and of course, I had to add a bit of Liberty Lawn. sold

Same goes for this one too. I do enjoy using 1930's embroidery transfers too. They are so bold and graphic. sold

Well, my little Sprite and I wish you well and thank you for stopping by.x

Twit twoo

Thanks for all your kind words, the last post seems to have struck a cord with an awful lot of us ..... post Christmas, early spring blues, depressing news...... seems to have a hold in parts of the northern hemisphere. Anyway, I have managed to give myself a good stern talking to and jackie told me to 'get to work', so I have. Onto that in a min. I wanted to show you this first. It's a piece of work I purchased with some old lace. The maker has used a piece of linen with paper tacked onto the front. She (I'm assuming) has used two lengths of a sort of thin ribbon and tacked these lengths into diamond shaped repeat pattern. She has then worked needlelace in the voids of the diamonds. Various patterns are worked and repeated to form the most exquisite length of lace. A real joy to see how this piece was worked.
This week I have been mostly making this needlecase..........

A crocheted pendant and.........

another crocheted pendant. I have used old buckles as the focal and added lots of buttons, lace and little strips of Liberty, I'm kinda likin' how they have turned out :-)

I hope your week is going well.

Thank you for stopping by.x

ps:In the quiet of my work room, I can hear an owl outside twit twooing, such a good, countrysidey sound!

Old but interesting!

Hello...... Had a little play with mosaic Flickr toy yesterday. The sun had shone all day and dare I say there was a stirring in the air. The birds song is so clear, strong and beautiful... So I enjoyed taking a few items outside and having a bit of a photo shoot, which was wonderful. I then had a play on Flickr, as you can see.

This is a book I have had a very long time, it is a constant source of interest to me....a little faded but hey, it is over 100 years old. (1901).

The equivalent of our creative journalling, do you think?

Pages filled with photos of happy, young smiling faces, I can't help but feel a little melancholy.

Her blouse is luminous and ghostly.

One of the pages has these paragraphs of shorthand, at one time I would have been able to decipher but I have long forgotten that language. In between the shorthand is a circle which looks like a circular thumb print but on closer inspection is the Lords Prayer ~ hand written. It is just under half an inch in diameter and absolutely fascinating. I wonder who William Lawson was?

I took the photo with my super macro lens and it is still difficult to read! Incredible.

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I am very lucky and have this week off work, but can I kick myself into crafty action, can I hell! Don't know what on earth is the matter with me. I do tend to get this quite often, it's almost like the fatigue takes over me in a vice like grip. I spend my time at work, dreaming of having time at home to enjoy my studio but, urgh, I feel so lethargic....is it the time of year? Or is it just me?

Well my friends, I have kept from rambling in my usual fashion but still managed a moan. :-)

Take care and thank you for stopping by.x

This week I have been mostly......

Our eldest, Lucy, lives in London. About two and half hours away from home. She recently moved out of one flat and moved to another. We left visiting her until she had sorted herself out, i.e.what was to come home and what was to be purchased from Ikea by her Dad, and taken to her by us and put together, by Dad!
Yesterday we got to see our girl and arrived at her flat around lunch time. After an hour or so of her Dad doing the DIY, we nipped over the road to the thecrown which is a gorgeous Victorian (I think) Pub and Hotel for a bite to eat.

Lucy ordering drinks!

Coffee....Mmmmm.

Back to the DIY and then after another hour or two reluctantly, left her behind in her new nest and headed back home (breaks my heart everytime, I miss her so much). And just as an extra special treat, a lovely gentleman in a green uniform left us a little note under the windscreen wiper, asking us to cough up £50 or £100 if left for over 2 weeks to Brent County Council! A little bit of a misunderstanding, shall we say, when reading the parking meter, gggrrrrrrrr!

Bye Luce!
Anyway, this was the scene from the M6, as we whizzed home. A gorgeous setting sun over the snow covered countryside.

~0~
Moving swiftly on..... All things considered this week, I've managed to make three items.

First of which, a coin purse. I do enjoy making these. As I have mentioned before, when I have persuaded the collaged fabric into the purse frame and it becomes a purse, it's a great sense of achievement. sold

I've used little pieces of hand knitted lace and some really beautiful buttons. I'm being very strong and letting go of my button stash! I may need therapy though!

Next creation .... a textile brooch. A nice little mix of muslin, white silk and a piece of very beautiful lace, all stitched together and then hand embroidered. The boot buttons dangling from the bottom are exquisite. So finely made. sold

Third item...... collaged letter. A wonderfully typed letter from 1963 granting permission for a Flower Show to be held at Prestick Town Hall. I did enjoy making this. I've added a fishing fly to this one to finish the piece off. sold

Then onto 'Find of the Week'. A book entitled ~ The Miracle of the Human Body. The human body may be a miracle but boy is this book gruesome. There are only a few pics I can show you, ugh!

Below is from the Contents Page.......snigger!

This is one of the least stomach churning images (when I bought it, I had only flicked through, perhaps I should take a longer look at prospective purchases in the future)!

I know I should'nt but this really made be titter. A visual showing the external ears of human and animals to catch sound vibrations. The human character is also a visual for a cauliflower ear. The publishers were obviously running low on funding for a decent illustrator! Snigger again.

Last but not least, just look what Helen of cocoaandblankets sent me. What a wonderful surprise and incredibly generous and kind. Fabrics, lace trims, buttons, ephemera all manner of lovely things. Thank you Helen, my life has been so enriched since meeting so many wonderfully kind and generously spirited friends.

Well that's my week in a nutshell. I hope all is well with you dear reader and thank you very much for stopping by.x

This, that and the other

Thank you to everyone for all of your warm wishes. Receiving all of these comments is truly uplifting and such fun...

Do you like the look of my blog? My lovely friend Pam J. fromthecraftroom made the banner and background for me, using my photos. She has also made my Etsy and web site banners too. She is so talented and her blog and related pages are a true feast for the eyes. Take a look for yourself. Thank you Pam.

Well I finally have my copies of Cloth Paper Scissors. I was told before the article was published that I would get 2 copies and I have waited one whole month for them. Very surreal somehow to see the stitched pieces in a magazine but I must admit to being thrilled to bits!Right then, straight onto 'Finds of the Week'.
Bliss......... is a vintage bird book ......I love 'em. I've got quite a few lovely old bird books, oddly enough!!! Could not resist this beauty. Softly, muted colour plates.

Best of all the colour plates of birds eggs.

Oh.... and onto my bestest find of the week, I could'nt believe my luck when I came across this beauty. A Helena Rubinstein box with the most delightful illustration all over top and bottom of the box. The little figures are a delight.I just adore it, but when you open the box......

what lies within? Four small boxes, which look very much like matchboxes but ....

what lies within? Brooches and earrings!!! Who hoo!!! I think from around the 50's? Someone obviously went on a trip to Engelberg and Interlakin and purchased a few brooches and a set of Gentian earrings as a memento. They are made from a kind of plastic and the detailing is stunning. I just keep looking at them, they are so lovely.

Onto my next 'show and tell'.

Not a 'find of the week' but 'the only thing I have managed to make all week' thing. (Day job has been billy bonkers)!

This is a before piccy and

this is the after piccy.

You may remember that I made a few necklaces from crocheted flowers not so long back, incorporating precious little items and buttons. I have been aching to have another go with the crocheting hook and here we are. I used the doily, above, as the starting point, decorated it with some of my most lovely buttons and other tiny objects and then crocheted the actual necklace incorporating more mother of pearl lovelies.

Bit of lace and a handmade velvet flower chucked into the mix and heading off to Etsyland.

I also wanted to tell you that I have opened up another Etsy Shop called vintagehensteeth

I can't keep buying without something having to go. The house is groaning as it is and the loft, well let's not go there!

So here are a few items I shall be listing.

A real cameo pendant....Some really lovely old knitting patterns.Is'nt she pretty? If only I looked like that and oh to be able to wear a fitted fair Isle type jumper.
The illustrations against the black are so striking of this lovely old paper knitting pamphlet.

They are posing in a very jaunty fashion. The bottom left hand figure is a very brazen or is she doing a Morecombe and Wise 'bring me sunshine' dance.

Inside one of the books is this poor creature. The pattern is entitled 'To flatter the larger figure' said in a truly british accent now. Oh charming, she only looks like a size 12!!!! Poor thing, no wonder her arms are held at a rakish angle, she's breathing in for all she's worth. She can't be comfortable.

Well that's me done for now.

Thank you for stopping by.x