Boo and Starbuck

Starbuck and Boo softies

A few weeks ago H and I sat down to write a story together. After writing the story down, I promised him we would cut some bits of fabric to turn his story into some little plush creations with the help of some dylon fabric pens. It was a fun little project, I put the fabric in a small embroidery hoop so that H could draw and colour his creations.

The following is H's story of a little ghost named Boo and the friend he makes.

Boo and Starbuck
Story by H. Lowe

Boo was a ghost. Boo was bad at being scary. Boo met a little kitten. The kitten wasn’t scared at all of Boo.

Boo said “Boo!”

The kitten said “Meow.” And puffed up his fur.

Boo was very scared and sad. He flew away, crying. Boo hid in a tree. Boo cried “Boo hoo.” He was sad because he didn’t scare the kitten.

The kitten climbed the tree. “Don’t be sad.” said the kitten.

Boo said “ I wanted to scare you.”

The kitten said “My name is Starbuck and I’m not scared of anything!”

“I’m very bad at being a scary ghost.” said Boo. “All I can scare are mice.”

The kitten said “I’m bad at catching mice but really I’m very nice.”

Boo said “I can scare the mice for you, if you will be my friend.”

“OK lets be friends!” said the kitten Starbuck.

And that is the story of Boo and Starbuck.

THE END

back of the softies fabric chosen by H.

owls should not drink iced lattes

bad owl! That's my iced latte!!!

Quilt Blocks on Valentine's

I can sew me

Several months ago I bought some homespun checks and ticking fabric from Bespoke Country shop in Scarborough, it was gorgeous and very Americana, and the kernel of an idea popped into my brain. The idea was to turn the fabrics into a rustic?bespoke/primitive Americana quilt. My experience of quilting is an extremely small scrap doll quilt I made for H's stuffed dragon and cat to sleep on so I put the idea and the fabric on the shelf for a very long time.

you already knew I was square so this shouldn't be a suprise

Two weeks ago I got the courage to cut into the fabric to make medium sized squares all read for quilting, and they stayed like that until yesterday when I finally got up the courage to sew the small squares into blocks of four squares. This morning I added a fifth block to the pile and then my teeny tiny sewing machine coughed and died. well it didn't cough, it was more of a strangled scream and it juddered to a halt and wont do anything but tangle. It is now out of warranty so perhaps a new machine will be on the cards for my birthday in April (meh). What I will do until then I don't know, my hand sewing is horrifying and I promised H we would draw some dolls with fabric pens and sew them together on the machine.

*holds up card saying "Will bake if you help me sew"*

can I has coffee now???

I'm still proud of the 5 blocks I have done, and all I could make is the quilt top as the machine was too small to handle all the layers of a quilt anyway, so I would still have to rope someone into helping me anyway. Matt has toddled off to the shops to get something for dinner and H is at a birthday party up the road so I really should be tidying the rest of the house and/or catching up on the mountain of emails that I have been ignoring. *looks longingly at the kettle*

You know I might just have a drink before I get my cleaner's hat on.

Also Happy Valentine's Day, Matt and I shall be watching a vampire or zombie flick later. Nothing says cuddly love like hearts being ripped from chests and zombies going 'nom nom nom' ...What? I'm totally romantical.

less than three....

Alice Inspiration

Listening to: Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit

I'm about to start crafting for the Alice in Wonderland Craft Swap, and for inspiration I have been listening to Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit (without the psychedelic drugs and paisley), reading the Looking Glass Wars, and sketching in my journal.

Reading: The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

I highly recommend the Looking Glass Wars, its an alternative true story of the Princess of Wonderland Alyss Heart, a refugee from Wonderland who escaped death by her aunt Queen Redd. Alyss finds herself an orphan in 1860's England where she is adopted by Dean Liddell and his wife and taken to live in Oxford. There she confides in Reverend Charles Dodgson, tells him the true story of Wonderland, which isn't the fairy tale he will write under the name Lewis Carroll. There are two more books in the trilogy which I will add to my book list for when I am bumbling about bookshops and charity shops (I found this book in a charity shop in Derby for 50p!)

Also on my desk in a little frame is another piece of inspiration, Deborah Champion's Alice in Wonderland self portrait. I also have a larger print without the blackbirds that I bought for Matt's Christmas present but that has yet to be framed and hung on a wall when we finally decorate the bedroom. It's very inspiring but so is all of Deborah's work, she is incredibly talented and she is terribly nice too.

ohh its snowing out! Big fat flakes of snow, that calls for a coffee break don't you think? before I go get myself lost in Wonderland again.

teacup candle

teacup candle


I finally got around to making a teacup candle with my candle-making supplies I ordered before Christmas. Sorry the photo is bad, the lighting is terrible but the candle turned out great, its french vanilla and Linen scented. I played around till I found something I liked and that I knew my friend Frizbe would like as the candle was a gift for her. I also made one from a Denby sugar pot for myself, but I forgot to photograph it before burning it! I still have a lot of soy wax left so I hope to make some more candles soon, perhaps some jam jar candles as I have quite a few of those and no more teacups!

although there are a lot of coffee cups up in the attic. *plots*

OK I'm posting this now as blogger crashed on me twice and if I loose this post I'm going to scream. I promise more posts soon but it has been a busy week and weekend and I need to finish hoovering up the house.