Camera Confession!

I'm sure some of you may remember me ranting and raving about my lovely SLR camera finally giving up and the fact that similar replacement cameras cost way more than I can afford right now. In fact I had turned into a right camera snob...no other kind of camera was going to do, I had to have an expensive SLR or I was going to sulk for the rest of my life!!

Well...I have a small confession to make.....I started to use a little Kodak Easyshare, cheap as chips camera which is actually meant to be a present for the MIL, just as a stand in until we visited her. Yes, it is tiny, it doesn't have all the fancy buttons (half of which I never learnt to use on my other camera!) and it really bugs me that it doesn't have a viewfinder just a screen .......but....it takes lovely pictures!! I've had to have a bit of a rethink about my lifetime sulk.....maybe a little cheap camera would do just as good a job as my hugely expensive, much-loved SLR......maybe........

Country Cottage Anyone?...

I've had this idea rolling around my head for weeks now and finally got it done. I always find it hard to start something as I'm a bit nervous of getting it wrong or it being awful when it's finished..but I love my little country cottage, it's very sweet. Hopefully someone else will like it too!!

It's made from a heavyweight calico with lots of fabric flowers, sequins, butterflies and ric-rac...it was great fun playing with it all. I especially love the little roof made from felt. In case you are wondering what it is actually meant to be (other than a cute cottage!) it could be a doorstop or bookend or even just a decoration for a girlies room! It's in my Folksy shop now http://www.folksy.com/items/2008285-Rose-Cottage-?shop=yes !!

Zipped bottom so you can either add a bag of rice or some toy stuffing

Roses around the front door..

..butterflies fluttering on the side

Cute roof eh?!

What a Hooker!!

I know I've been very quiet recently...we've had lots of things going on and tiredness has taken over...still I haven't been sitting on my lazy bum all the time!!

A little teapot...

Cupcake....

and a cup of tea......

What more do you need?....

Maybe a litle love......

A whole selection of  lovely little wall hangings, (two of each) all hand hooked with recycled wool from a carpet manufacturer and hessian from feed sacks! I love making new things from old....   These each have a little hanging hook or could even be used as an emergency coaster!!

Finally....

They've been a long time coming but here is a quick look at the two pillowcase dresses made for the Dress a Girl around the world charity.....I think I started them back in May but they are now complete!! Ready to be posted off to Sew Scrumptious  to send out to wherever......

One with purple straps...

...and one with red!

Mabel.....

I work in a little sewing shop on Friday's which I love, great boss, lots of lovely things and I get a discount too!! Mabel lives in the shop full time, poor girl has to stand about all day long and then gets to stay all night as well...every night. Not much of a life but at least she gets to dress up every so often....this week she is a Woodland Fairy!!

Dress A Girl Around The World....

I've just started making some lovely little pillowcase dresses for ' Dress A Girl Around The World' charity. Their aim is to make and send dresses to less privileged countries so that every girl has at least one pretty dress to wear. I heard about this from a lovely lady on Folksy  Sew Scrumptious who has fantastically taken the organising and sending of dresses from this country to the charities base in America.

Although these are called pillowcase dresses they don't have to be made form these, I've opted for some lovely (if a little loud!) patchwork pattern material.....all cut out ready to be sewn up into a cute (if a little loud!) dress!!

If you fancy having a go at this very simple pattern (on Little Big Girls Blog)  and send them through to Sew Scrumptious please get in contact with her. It would be great to be part of sending over loads of these dresses and show our support.

Could you get hooked??...

After a week of wondering what to do next I seem to have come back to one of my favourite pastimes....hooking!! No, not fish or even crochet but this kind of thing.....

These are all ones either already sold or for sale in my Folksy shop.!!

After searching on the internet I am quite surprised by how few people out there actually make hooked rugs / wall hangings etc.....there doesn't seem to be very many at all!! After selling a few and having so many positive comments about others, it's obviously not because people don't like this sort of thing so I have to wonder why!!?? Maybe the time taken to make these just makes them not worth it (they do take a while!!) or something else.....who knows?

But as I enjoy doing these and want to focus on something a little bit different for a while I'm going to launch head first into some different themes and ideas in the hand hooked genre.....watch this space!!