A Burst of Sunshine...

Ok, so it is the wrong colour, but I think I can be forgiven as it is so long since I have seen the sun. Thankfully, it has put in an appearance the last couple of days, which has been lovely! I much prefer cold, crisp, sunny dog walks to all the milder, greyer weather we have had!

I have been busy needle felting. I had a go with my daughter's hand-held felting needles, which are better for fine work than my embellishing machine, but I decided that the machine is quicker and makes a firmer felt. I think I am just too impatient to do it by hand!

This brooch can be found in my Etsy shop and I will be listing a couple more over the next day or two.

As Promised...almost!

Ok, so it isn't tomorrow as promised, but yesterday seemed to disappear, so I will have to make do with posting today!!!

Sorry, this picture is a bit blurry, but it shows the fairy houses appliqued in place, windows and doors have been embroidered on and the whole piece has been layered with wadding, backed and tacked! The tacking is quite dense as I am going to machine quilt this piece and add text, so I don't want the layers to shift at all.

I began to quilt it yesterday, but today I have been distracted by needle felting. I want to add some brooches to my Etsy shop, like the blue one on the right of my blog - I'll let you know when they are done.

We had a lovely walk through the frost this morning and the dog had a wonderful time leaping around with lots of other dogs of all shapes and sizes-he even made friends with another little schnauzer. He is so tired now that he is splayed on the floor,looking for all the world as though he has been dropped from a great height!

Happy Sunday!

Dotty About Hexagons

I do love making traditional patchwork hexagons. I love the process; drawing paper templates, pinning them to the fabric, cutting around the template, folding in the seam allowance and tacking and finally stitching them together with tiny little stitches.

The shapes grow and I feel connected to the past, all those thousands of fingers that have carried out the same actions. I find it very soothing.

I love how these brooches have come out- thay have given me another good use for my gorgeous buttons!

One or two will be appearing in my EtsyShop over the next couple of days.

Wow Factor!

You may remember my tribute to my Doc Martens. Well, today I discovered a pair of boots to die for at purevintageclothing at Etsy.

These pink glitter boots are amazing. My white glittery ones are from the same era as I bought them in 1994 for my wedding (Oh my, does 1994 count as "vintage"?!!!)

I wonder if mine would sell for £400......I guess I'll never know because I would never part with them.

The Crimson Moon

A couple of days ago I recieved a package that I was really looking forward to. I had ordered a pendant from The Crimson Moon on Etsy and it is really gorgeous.

The pendant has a large bead that Liz has woven with seed beads in shades of pink and purple, threaded onto a black cord- beautifully made, very tactile and extremely wearable!

You can see why I wanted a pink one!

(Aplolgies for the photo- I am really uncomfortable having my photo taken.)

Liz is a very talented, friendly and obliging seller. Go and have a browse around all the beautiful beads and pendants in The Crimson Moon shop.

The other exciting news today is that I met the lovely Vicky and Isla from the sewabee blog at the Vintage Village in Stockport. Vicky has been fundraising for the Oldham Cancer Support Centre and so far she has raised over three and a half thousand pounds. Visit her blog to see how she is raising money and future events.

Beautiful Buttons

I showed you my lovely buttons from oritdotan in an earlier post. Well, I was busy over the weekend creating something lovely to show them off.

I used recycled denim to make fun, shabby chic corsages.

The corsages will be available from my Etsy shop.

I'll show more tomorrow:)

Buttons, Bites and Buildings

I'm feeling quite creative and have been bitten by the bug again- all I need now is time...

My poor little dog has been bitten by another kind of bug. He was stung by a wasp on his tail this morning for the second time this week! He is curled up on the chair feeling very sorry for himself:(
He'll be having lots of cuddles today to make up for it.

I received some gorgeous buttons  a few days ago from oritdotan at Etsy.

They are so gorgeous and I am mulling over how to use them as I am going about my business.

I had a fruitful day yesterday and I've been working on some more quirky little houses. This time I decided to make a 3D art sculpture (that sounds a bit grand!) and I wanted to incorporate letters as I am always immersed in grafitti around here!

So here it is, a liitle row of houses spelling out the word "HOME".

It can be purchased at my Etsy shop. Tell me what you think!

Raspberry Ripple

I finally managed to finish crocheting my circle scarf in beautiful shades of pink that remind me of a big bowl of crushed raspberries and ice cream!

 You can find out more about it in my Etsy shop (www.DottyBlueBird.etsy.com)

Desired Things for Spring

It has been gloriously sunny this afternoon and I can feel the promise of better weather just around the corner. I had a lovely dog-walk this morning with a good friend, so we had excercise, a good chat and two happy, waggy-tailed dogs! That more than made up for the time I had to spend cleaning the house when I got back.
As I'm feeling all buoyant and good about the world, I'd like to show you a beautiful bracelet in wonderful Spring greens, from a lovely Etsy seller, desiredthings.

Blue/Green Bracelet with paper charms

From desiredthings

 

Her work is gorgeous and because the charms are made from paper, they are incredibly light to wear.

Is Spring in The Air?

I can feel an almost imperceptible change in the air, we have had a little sunshine (I much prefer cold, crisp, bright days to all the grey weather we've been having) and the days are getting ever so slightly longer. I'm hoping the snow is over for this winter and I'm determined to get outside more.

We still need to wrap up warm, so here are a few gorgeous items from lovely Etsy sellers, that would be perfect for chilly outdoor adventures.

UpCycled - Handmade bright & colourful felted wool shoulder bag

From TheFeminineTouch

Contemporary colours handspun hand dyed hand knitted unisex wool and silk beanie hat

From SpinningStreak

Black white Cryptoskin Fur Stole SAMPLE SALE

From houseofhirudinea

I think I could look really glamorous walking my dog!!!

Craftbritannia Card Swap

Some members of the Craftbritannia group on Etsy have taken part in a Christmas card swap- a bit like Secret Santa. We were each given the details of another member and sent a card to that person.
This is the gorgeous handmade card I received from Claire:

It really cheered me up as I was looking after my poorly boy (he's hopefully on the mend now) at the time:)

Claire makes fabulous hats which can be found at her Etsy shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/missbelluk