A Monthly Make: Stanley Kidson

Just scraping in by the end of the month, here is my monthly make - Stanley with a pattern from Cath Kidston. This is the fourth Stanley I have made (I have given two away) and this time I decided to use non traditional colours after seeing some of the snazzy coloured ones other have made.

Below is Stanley resting on my current read, The Secret Lives of Dresses by Erin McKean. This is the lady who writes the dress-a-day blog and her book is set in a vintage clothes shop and the stories of the dresses they sell and who they once belonged to. A lovely read for anyone who loves gorgeous shops selling beautiful things very similar to A Vintage Affair by Isabel Wolff except the first is set in the US and the second in the UK.

Oriental Influences

I have recently been taking some photographs of my craft work and only just realised how many Oriental/Asian themed projects I have completed. These two designs are both from PINN, the first is called "Fish of Fortune". The second is a good luck symbol supposed to bring wealth. All I can say is it hasn't worked so far, LOL!

Here are some cross stitch cards I made from charts in Lets Get Crafting: Cross Stitch, Stitch and Craft and other cross stitch magazines.

The pink kimono card was made with papers from Paper Nation.

Finally, keeping to the same theme (sort of) are two scrap book pages made with photos from my holiday in Thailand some years back. The papers and embellishments are all from Anna Griffin whose papers and fabrics I love.

By the way, the bottom photo above of me with the show "girls" are actually lady men. We went to a cabaret and afterwards the "girls" posed for photos with the audience!

The Birthday Boy & Airedale Stitching

It was Archie's birthday on Saturday, he was nine years old, so we had a little party for him. Here he is helping himself to a French Fancy. He didn't realise you are not supposed to eat the paper case too!

He hasn't changed very much over the years and can still behave like a puppy when the mood takes him. I love this photo of him dressed as Jekyll and Hyde for a fun day. I made the costume myself and he was lucky enough to win first prize.

This photo is from a previous birthday, a couple of candles less, which I made into a card for his grandmother's birthday.

I always keep stitching magazines that have Airdale charts in them and I have made these several times for gifts and for myself. For this sachet I charted the heart and alphabet myself and filled it with lavender I grew in my garden last year.

John has been asking for a hand knitted sweater for some time but I've been putting it off (all those stitches) but decided last week to make a start. I am actually quite enjoying it, the stitch pattern and colour changes make it interest even if I am having to use two circular needles to hold all those stitches!

Stash Busting and Bargain Shopping

What a lovely day today, the sun is shining, the weather is mild and we have had the back door open so the boys can run in and out. Perhaps spring is finally on the way.

It took me a while to get to the needlework shop to buy the thread for my sunflowers so in the meantime I worked some small kits that have been in my stash for years. The Easter bunnies and the flowers I have made into cards. The flower basket, a kit from Needlecraft magazine, is the first embroidery I have done this year. I don't know what I will do with it yet.

I have also made two bookmarks. The sampler style one I will keep for myself and the redwork one I am going to pop into a birthday card as a gift.

The book it is resting on is my latest read, The Snowman by Jo Nesbo - a thriller set during a snowy Norwegian winter. A read page turner with two twists in the tail.

Here are my sunflowers, finally finished:

Couldn't resist this bargain from Craft Superstore this week. A cabinet and craft goodies with a retail value of 100 GB pounds for just 25 GB pounds. Too good a bargain to pass up. I have already started using the cabinet to hold some of my fabric stash of which I have loads.

Here are a couple of cards I have made from my papercrafts stash. A card for a pony mad niece and a personalised card for John's brother in Australia.