The Mad Hatter

Alice in Wonderland DS Game *want*

A few weeks ago my friend Marina popped over for a coffee and a natter about crafty things as she embroiders (something I fail at) and crochets (something I plan to fail at) and sews much better than I can. Although she is very accomplished craft wise she didn't know much about the world of craft blogs so I showed her a few of my favourite inspirational craft blogs and places to find some awesomely geeky free patterns and great tutorials.

the Mad Hatter by Marina

When we finished talking craft geekery we gossiped about books and movies and I showed her a book on my amazon wish list and right next to it was the above Alice in Wonderland DS game, which I showed her and we both thought the little Mad Hatter was adorable. A few hours later I got a text from her saying she had doodled a little Mad Hatter on some fabric and was embroidering him for me! So here he is in all his cuteness. Sorry he is wrinkled but I hadn't had a chance to iron him or frame him yet. But I do have a vintage metal embroidery hoop that he should fit in nicely. Thank you so much Marina you are an awesome friend and I need to talk you into blogging!

a little mushroom too

I don't have the game yet, I wanted to wait for some more reviews before I spend the money on it, though I think it is meant to be a puzzle type game which I love. So aside from Nintendo or Disney reading my blog and deciding I am special and awesome and should be sent a free copy to blog about, *flutters lashes*. I shall probably have to wait till my birthday at the end of April.... pants....

One Red Tear

Today I have been messing about with different vintage book paper, scraps of fabric,lace, pen, pencil, and a small bit of embroidery too. It went a bit funny along the top and I'm not sure I like it but it is something creative right? I may leave it alone for a day or two and then look at it again and see how I feel, I do like the different textures of fabric and paper, so it definitely merits another go at mixed media some time soon, and its been ages since I did any book page paintings.

There is still time to sign up for the Attack of the 50's B-Movie Swap so please sign up, you know you want to!

kissing frogs and melancholy robots

linen napkin with Frog Prince embroidery

A while ago, to be honest quite along while ago I had the idea for the Fairy Tale Swap, I organized everyone and then began crafting for my swap partner Selena, and then we moved house, two months later and I finally finished crafting and filled a box with the linen napkin above, a vintage fairy tale book, a golden ball necklace to go with her favourite fairy tale the frog prince, and a few English treats. I parceled everything up and posted it to the US and returned home via the antiques shop across the road from the post office.

Then I remembered something, I remembered that I forgot to take pictures of everything to document it, so erm all I have is this photo of my embroidery of a frog prince doodle I designed. And the only reason I have a photo of it is because I was in such a tizzy over whether or not my embroidery was good enough to send or if I should try something else. The parcel arrived at Selena's house last week and she says she is very happy with everything which is such a relief as I was in a mild panic over it all. Well maybe not so mild but I'm quite relieved now.

and now lets talk robotics.

melancholy robot cushion

This robot cushion is what I made for the Robot Swap organized by the brilliant Claire (thank you). Both my swap partner Annie and I were terminally late with completing the swap, and I was in such a hurry to post the parcel off to her on friday that I forgot to take pictures of anything but the cushion. So if you want to see anymore please pop by Annie's blog Overmilkwood to have a better look at the goodies I sent her.

I really adore doing these swaps, you get to know other bloggers and it stretches the limits of your creativity, or at least mine, in trying new crafts and toying with new ideas, colours, and designs. Hopefully the next swap I join or organize won't have me being last again!

strange fruit

faceted onyx and red jade bracelet

Ok I totally admit to being obsessed with black and red jewellery at the moment, and here is another example of black and red, a second Poison Apple Bracelet, with a single vibrant red jade bead and a silver plated apple toggle clasp. How cute is this? well I think it is anyway, and it will be going up for sale on my etsy shop later today.

a larger image of the whole bracelet

purple jade choker

I am also in love with this simple purple jade choker, I wish that the sun would come out because this image does the necklace no justice, its really pretty I just love the mauve-y purple colour of the jade beads. I really really want to keep this for myself because its my favourite shade of purple.

what else have I been up to recently....?

vintage green linen handkerchief

Oh yes I remember....I found this green linen handkerchief in a basket at the antiques store in town, there are some lovely embroidered treasures there but I was looking for something that was plain to embroider myself. When I found this brilliant green handkerchief I knew it was perfect to practice my doodle embroidery on. And I even knew who it would be for, Katy as she loves green, and she sent us some beautiful flowers a few days after we moved house. I sadly neglected to photograph the flowers, something to do with not having found the box the camera was in yet.

I must have doodled a dozen different motifs and squiggles before I decided on a shoe and the words "shoe love", if you know Katy and her blog then you will know why. Oh and it had to be in orange, I was quite tempted to do a Halloween doodle with Gilbert the Ghostie and a pumpkin but I think the shoe works fine and I hope Katy likes it.

closeup of orange shoe love embroidery

poison apple jewellery and a blunder into the Surreal

poison apple bracelet- onyx and red jade

Well I had my first fair experience today at the Marehay show.. not technically a crafts fair... it was different... not all together bad.. the venue changed about three times due to the rain and we ended up squashed in at the Marehay Miners Welfare.. yes it was as dire as it sounds.... and we were pushed up against the wall in a room with all the show vegetables, so even though the fair was to open at 12 it didn't until nearly two because the judges were so intensely viewing the vegetable entries....the day was filled with muttering old biddies, grumbling old coots arguing the toss over who's cabbage was best, and there were some shop bought beets and corn that were severely disqualified.

My competition in the jewellery stakes was a stall selling very cheap plastic and glass and metal (not even pretty glass in my opinion) I was a bit confused with what wares she was actually selling as she was a bit slap happy with the makeup the satellites she wore for hoop earrings and apparently she left the house before she put a skirt on. Not that I'm a prude but put some clothes on woman. I sold a few pieces about £41 which isn't bad for Ripley, had a few inquiries and handed out some of my moo.com cards.

My sales though were to my Mother in Law, two friends who bought a bracelet each, a lovely mute lady who my fellow stall holders thought was being rude before they figured out she couldn't speak. and A drunken lout who bought a key chain for his girlfriend.

oh and did I mention the pornographic flower arranging demonstrations? three of them in all... all about wide bottoms, tassels, and blowing roses to open them up.. very peculiar day...

strawberries and cream - white jade and strawberry quartz

In preparation for yesterday's surreal experience of attending Marehay Show to have half a craft stall I have been busy making a few bits and pieces of jewellery. I ordered the red jade beads a few days ago and they are delicious looking, beautifully vibrant and juicy looking, like ripe red berries, or poison apples, and pair beautifully with the black onyx coin beads. I got loads of interest buy not buyers for the piece at Marehay show, its not really the thing that biddies and codgers like to purchase, perhaps a bit too goth for granny?

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Gilbert the ghost- embroidery wip

oh and meet Gilbert The Ghost. Gilbert is small and not terribly good at being scary, he likes spagetti westerns, 80's movies, and has an unhealth obsession with musicals.

he is a work in progress from a quick doodle in my go-everywhere- notebook. He is embroidered because I havne't got my paints unpacked just yet. But keep a look out, I'm sure he will find his way into acrylics and vintage book pages sometime soon.

don't forget to leave a comment on my giveaway post!

The Poison Apple Tree

the poison apple tree

The tree grows on the Isle of Sorrows
Limbs black as starless night
Apples red as rubies.
Bitter flesh white as the sun.
Black seeds glinting obsidian tears.
A beautiful poison.

First of all I never ever said I was a poet if you are grumbling about my waxing un-lyrical but these words kept swirling around in my head so I wrote them. I'm really please with the embroidery, I know its only small but its the perfect representation of my little poison apple tree, I love the curling swirling limbs, she has no leaves because she is poison, and bears only deadly fruit.

We move next week, next Tuesday in fact, so I need to go get packing and organizing. When I have longer I will blog the fantastic goodies I received for the russian doll swap with Anna, as the pictures I tried to take look rubbish laid out on bubble wrap. Bact to packing boxes for me.

happy crafting!

Painting with Thread

the button thief

Or my feeble attempts at embroidery.

I have harped on an on about my inability to sew anything more complicated than a button so this weekend I decided to do something about it. I bought a little booklet on beginning embroidery, a hoop, some needles, and some embroidery thread. I looked through the book, ignored the patterns, grabbed a pencil and doodled Olwyn and the notorious button thief, and let fly with needle and thread.

Well perhaps not so easily as that, as the back looks quite horrific, but I'm still quite proud as these are the first bits of textile art I have ever done. In school I opted for pottery, art, and mirror etching over home ec. I already knew how to cook and clean, and take care of animals, so really didn't see the point of having to carry around a flour sack baby. So I never learned more than the replacement of lost buttons.

Little Owlwyn

oh and here is a picture of my greenhouse bounty, a purple pepper, 2 red chilies, some red and yellow tomatoes, and a mini cucumber.