Tuesday Tallies (on a Thursday)

Ooops! Bit late but better late than never. I seem to have been so busy this week and its not showing any signs of letting up. So any way this is my tally as of Tuesday evening. Please excuse rather dull picture. We are at 68 hexagons now. That's way more than I ever achieved with those knitted hexipuffs, I can tell you. I am a good knitter even if I am blowing my own trumpet but those things didn't seem to progress the way I would like, so I have donated them to my daughters bag full. Crochets hexagons are the hexies for me. I may not have many more to show next week as I have lots of other knitting and sewing that has priority over my own projects. Never mind. it is good to be busy.

I do like to show off my floral exploits too (sorry) and with the nasty days of weather imminent, I rescued a few roses from the garden that would have been obliterated by the rain and have a small arrangement on the kitchen table. I really love the way the flowers are different all through the year.

Tuesday Tallies

I thought this week I would take the photos in the afternoon when the sun is actually out. So, my tallies are now going to be what I have completed up to Monday evening. This does show the colours a bit better. I realised my dark taupey brown was not all that great in quantity so have rummaged in the stash and added another caramelly brown into the mix. Quite pleased with them so far.  So my current tally of complete hexagons is.......ta da da daaaa!
                                                      42
Plus 10 more middles. I like to do five a night if I can so got loads of middles done at the weekend.

So yesterday, I decided that it was high time the grass was cut. I havent done it for weeks. Its not my favourite gardening task so I put it off.  In the front garden, I managed to convince myself to trim back the manic bushes, grasses and have a general tidy up. I ended up with 4 more bin bags full of garden waste to take to the tip. This I can add to the four and a tv I hauled up there at the weekend following another impetuous tidying session behind the oil tank. I have been meaning to do that in so long it got to the point it looked like it couldn't be done. However with the wind in my sails on Sunday I have it licked in about an hour. Whilst I was manically clearing yesterday, I discovered a hypericum which is actually my neighbours, but such as the borders are on our properties, its more on mine. Cue, more flower arranging. A few stems of the delectable hypericum 'berries', three strong stems of sedum and the last remaining flowers of lady's mantle, made a delightful autmnal display.

Here are links to more Tuesday Tallies
Deb at 'A World Of Imagination'

Shelley at All4meggymoo

KnitKnatKnotUK

Wannabe Scrapbook Addict

Tangled SweetPea

A tale From Toadstool House

mareelovescolour

Ruffs Adventures

Big thanks to Carole at Gingerbread Girl who inspired me in the first place.

ITS GIVEAWAY TIME!!! Now closed

UPDATE!!!!  Here is the actual Witch you will win, so go spread the word because we need more entries.

Ok, in my last post I indicated there would be a Halloween giveaway.  I also said it would be one of my little bunnies! ...........  I lied!
Not about the giveaway, that's still happening.

Not about it being for Halloween, that's still a go!

What it is is that it will not be a knitted bunny.  The thing is, I sew in my craft room during the day but my knitting all takes place in the evening whilst watching tv.  So why is this a problem?  I hear you cry.  Well I have learned to crochet finally!  I have tried on and off for years but I have finally got it, so all evening activities are currently hook based.  I am crocheting a blanket,  and rather selfishly I don't want to stop or have any more UFOs floating about.

So, instead, I have decided to make another of these Tilda Witches.  Now, Tilda things cannot be made to sell but no one will mind me giving one away.  Here is a couple of piccies of two I made previously and the prize will be similar but not the same.  I shall start it at the weekend, and as soon as she is ready will add to this post instead of these not so fantastic pictures. UPDATE above.

So, what is your role in all this?  Its all the usual things really. 

Leave me a comment for one entry.  If you do not have a blog (as this does make it difficult), just e-mail me from the about me page and I will add your comment myself.

If you do have a blog yourself.  Spread the word on your own blog for a second entry.

If you tweet my giveaway, you get a third.  Let me know your @ so I can follow you.

If you facebook it that's a fourth.  Same as twitter, if you let me know where you are I can say `hi`

I think its fair to ask for a minimum of 10 entrants for the draw to take place.  Not much of a contest if not, so please go spread the word.
So basically leave one comment telling me what you have done and I shall assign the correct amount of entries.  So if you are the third commenter and have done all the entries, you will get no 3, 4, 5 &6.  Quite simple.
The draw closes at 3pm (uk time) on Monday 24th October 2011.  This will give us a whole week before Halloween to contact one another and get Miss Witch off to her new abode.

So what are you waiting for?  Off you go, tell your buddies.  I am not going to make you follow the blog, but it stands to reason that if you do, you get to find out if you are the lucky one much easier.

Goodbye Summer. Hello Autumn

So, the summer hols have come to another end.  As you may know, I work in a school for my day job so I, like lots of gleeful children, get 6 glorious week off in the summer.  Now, its has to be said that the weather hasn't been fabulous but its been ok, and,  if  I am honest, I am not that bothered.  Its just nice to have time for walking, fruit picking, gardening, knitting, sewing and cooking.  Phew! how do I get time to work at all?  I do a lot of these things during term time too but just more of it in the hols. 

There is always a degree of catching up with jobs like painting  the deck and trips to the recycling centre with LOADS of weeds. I even tidied the undersink cupboard!  This is an achievement for me.

My newest passion is jam!!!  Who knew it was that easy? Who knew I would become addicted?  I have not actually bought a jar of the stuff in a whole year.  We started off with just bramble last autumn. Then rhubarb and vanilla earlier in the year when the rhubarb was reduced loads in waitrose. Same in early summer when the strawbs were going for a song.  Recently I have gone on a foraging rampage and we have apple and blackberry jam and raspberry (foraged from my own garden) and blackberry jelly.  I have even considered picking hawthorn berries for jelly as I read they are perfectly fine.

So, here is what is left of my jam cupboard she says proudly. Needless to say,  I have nommed quite a lot and various family members have made off with a jar or two. I need to get some of those pretty tops going on really.  Chutney is the next project for half term. I have a fab recipe for Christmas. I may share if you are all very nice to me.

Don't worry, there has been sewing and knitting.  I have a couple of Halloween collectibles to show off next time and have even made a lovely Christmas bear with a bit of a panda look about her. Because that IS creeping up I am afraid. Think its about 15 and a half weeks or thereabouts. 

Meet Maisie

As mentioned in my last post, I have been working on rag dolls.  Not made one since a flurry of them some 16 or so years ago for my daughter and some family friends children.  I forgot how lovely it is making little clothes. I even enjoyed hand sewing the `bangs` of wool hair this time.  I remember it being a bit of a pain when I was younger and my daughter and my patience were much shorter.  I have a few cut out in various states of completion and awaiting goodies to come through the post to get them done, but Maisie is finished; and here she is.  As always, she can be found in the etsy shop.
She is not a teeny doll, she stands at a height of 27inches . This surprised my son who was a little alarmed that a doll could be that size.  I cannot expect my menfolk to appreciate her so I am relying on you lovely folk out there in blog land.  The last pic is her sitting in my office chair which puts her size, if not her prettiness in perspective.

The dress fabric is so cute, I bought it a good while ago, not knowing what to do with it.  Its got tiny references to autumn.

Happy Halloween,

Tomorrow is Halloween, so we have been gearing up a bit.  We had some friends round for dinner this evening so a bit of a halloween theme ensued.  We had chilli and hot dogs follwed by a rather embarrassing amount of cupcakes I had made. Not vegan this time but still all gluten free.  There should be some left for any trick or treaters tomorrow.

 Vanilla Sponge with royal icing. Spooky spider webs and spiders (except that one in the middle)

 Red Velvet Cake with vanilla buttercream and some icing devil horns. These were my fave of the day

 Purple monsters are strawberry sponge (with a hint of blue for the gory colour) vanilla buttercream again.

Orange ones are cinnamon pumpkin and cinnamon vanilla buttercream

 This is my witch I had to make after I made one for a craft swap. Along with the knitted pumpkin I recieved in the swap from Crafty Helen

I have had this pumpkin tealight house from Partylite for goodness knows how many years, and although lots of partylite has passed through the house and been sold as my whim changes, I cannot see me ever parting with this.

 Here is my little homage to All Hallows Eve on the mantlepiece. There are witches hat candles from the swap in the candle holder in the middle but it was hard to get far enough away to get the whole shot and make them vsible. Trusty laptop was not supposed to be there but thats where it always seems to be so why pretend otherwise

Happy halloween to one and all, x

what I sent for my swap partner.

A couple of posts ago, I showed off the impressive parcel I received from my partner Crafty Helen. Now I know she has mine, I can show it off to you guys. I forgot to take `wrapped pics` so if you pop over to Helens` lovely blog she has some.  While you are there check out her lovely makes for her craft fayre. They are just yummy.
 The contents of her parcel are here. 

Witchy Folksy Friday

The halloween continues through October. This week, inspired by the witch I made for the craft swap, I have chosen some of my favourite witchy folksy finds.

 Cat and the Moon by Witchy Woo



Witch Necklace by Mirabilis

Witches Shoes by Sparrow Primitives

Hattie Batty and Hecate by Flossie Limejuice

Not So Wicked Witch Doll by The Hunny Bunny Company

card by GweddusArt

My Giveaway box of goodies Has Arrived

A few weeks ago, I entered a halloween/autumn swap over at Crafty Helens` Blog.  I got Helen herself as my swap partner. gulp!
My package arrived last week but I wanted to wait until I had sent hers` off to her. Well, today was that day. So Helen, look out for that postman tomorrow or at worst Friday for your surprises, `cos they are on their way!
Really hope she likes what I have sent (will share pics when I know she has them) as I was bowled over by my parcel. This is what the box looked like before I opened. Inside everything was wrapped in halloweeny paper, and there was loads of halloween confetti.  I ended up with a bit on my face and my son said it  looked like a witchy mole. Cheeky get!
Well we had such fun unwrapping it all, it was a bit like a birthday.
Here it all is. Look out,  there is a lot of it!  There was a lovley card too, but I seem to have lost the pic of that.