Cold Turkey!

Hello, how are you doing?

Have you finally finished all of the turkey?

Is the dustbin full and the bottle bank overflowing?

Yes, same here, lol.

We've reached those funny few floating days between Christmas Day and New Years Eve. I've found myself floating aimlessly too, unable to settle. I know exactly why; I get like this if I haven't done anything creative and crafty for a couple of days. So there was nothing for it but to set up a make-shift work station up in the attic. You see my usual big sewing table has travelled down 2 flights of stairs to join the dining table as we had guest for Christmas. In it's place 2 single mattresses were laid ready for my nieces to sleep on. Well needs must and all that, I stood the mattresses up against the wall (I can't put them away as we have more guests arriving on New Years Eve.) and put together a tiny kitchen table that we no longer use.

Ahhhh...that's much better, just enough room for my lovely, lovely, scrummy sewing machine (oh how I've missed you! stroke, stroke.) and a small cutting mat.

And what did I make?

Well I've had this scrappy little drawing in my sketch book for months, so I thought I'd see what I could do with it.

Do you want to see?

I had a good old rummage and chose a suitable piece of embroidered linen.

Another rummage for pretty cotton lace, which wasn't easy as everything had been stuffed out of sight in cupboards and under beds ready for my guests. (How I'll ever find anything again I really don't know!)

A piece of the reddest gingham fabric

and hey presto!

A little Spring time shopping bag was made.

Ohhhhhh...I feel sooooo much better now that I've had my fix! lol.
.
I'll be back soon with all my Christmas craft makes now they are no longer secrets and some pictures of frozen waterfalls.

.

Happy Inbetween Time.

fi x

And the winner is...

Thank you everyone who left a comment and entered my Christmas Giveaway for the snowmen lap quilt. I wish I had one to send to each of you, lol.

.

Well there were 55 comments including one left twice so that leaves 54 comments in total. (I'm a real whizz at maths, lol)

Drum roll please...

And the winner is....

Dosie Rosie

Yaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy!

Merry Christmas

and

thanks for entering every one.

love fi x

A Quick Christmas Giveaway!

Hello how are you?

Is it getting frantic?

Have you posted all those cards?

Have crossed off everyone on your list?

Have you resorted to the Sherry yet

Hmmm...Let's slow things down a little.

How about a quick little giveaway?
Just a little something to say Merry Christmas from me to you.


A Christmas lap quilt/wall hanging.
What do you think?
Do you fancy it?
A cosy hand quilted lap size or if you prefer it can be hung on the wall using the slot on the back.
Just leave a comment
that's all.
Nothing too taxing at this time of year.
My gift to you.
x
Don't forget to make sure I can contact to if you win. I'll draw the winner on Monday morning (20th) so I can get it into the post before Christmas Day, you've only got the weekend to enter so get tippety tapping away!

love fi x

Gloomy Photo Shoot

Hello Ladies, sorry I was just having a giggle...

This one reminded me of Charlies Angels, teehee!

No, I know it's not that funny but it just tickled me.

I've been trying to take some photos of these large bunnies for my Folksy Shop.

But as you can see,

it's been very difficult with the gloomy snow filled days we've been having,

Which ever way up you look at it.

I even went as far as taking down the lace net curtain to let in more light!

But I don't think it made a jot of difference.

But I have to say...

the bunnies were very patient.

posing in every position possible.

Bless em!

It was a real team effort!

fi x

A Winter Wonderland.

(The view from the attic window. Click to make bigger.)

Hello.

I've just popped in to say thank you for all of you good wishes for my Folksy shop and a whopping thank you for your help on the bead front.

To show my appreciation I donned my wellies and woolly hat and set off to take some photos of the snow especially for you.

I hope you enjoy them while you're cosy indoors!

(we've got another dollop of snow forcast for this afternoon!)

love fi x

Bags of Folksy Goodness

Hiya! Brrrr... its been a bit chilly up here in the Dale and this morning it finally did what it's been threatening to do... yep we awoke to a couple of inches of snow. But we don't want to talk about snow when there are pretties to chat about do we!

Here's my latest offering.

A new MarmaladeRose handbag.

With all the usual bits and bobs, ribbons, buttons, flowery stuff.

Plenty of raw edge free motion applique and
pretty fabrics, some happily recycled.

Scrummy Liberty lining and the practical key ring attached by ribbon so you can always find your keys.

But what's this? Another pretty bag lining and key thingy!

Another MarmaladeRose label!

Lots of gorgeous gross grain ribbon.

And more machine embroidery! Sparkly multicoloured thread this time!

Yes it's another handbag, but something a little different for me I think you'll agree.
Not my usual colour choice but this vintage (is it vintage if its a good 30 years old? Surely it must be!) needle cord was so pretty and really quite a practical choice for a handbag.
But do you know what the most exciting bit is?

No...it's not the snow.

Try again.

I've finally...after being registered for months and months...

opened

my

very own

FOLKSY SHOP!

(dance a little wiggle)

Check out that shiny new badge at the top of my sidebar!

(No, really! Check out that badge. It took me a good 30 minutes to find out how to put that up there! pah!)

Well you know what this means don't you girls?

I'm certainly going to have to 'up' my 20 minutes a day if I'm going to keep it fresh and interesting!

and that also means I'm going to have to get my act together and blog more frequently too!

Well, we crafty girls do like to share our makes don't we?

So hopefully there'll be steam coming from my sewing machine and smoke coming from my keyboard!

.

Let's hope you can keep up, teehee!

.

love Folksy Fi x
.

www.folksy.com/shops/MarmaladeRose

Your Help Please!

Now ladies I need your help please.

I desperately need some lovely big red shiny beads just like the ones above.

What do you think girls? Where can I buy some big cherry beads about 13mm in diameter? The ones in the picture were a lucky find in a charity shop.

I look forward to your comments, I know you won't let me down.

There'll be no more cupcakes with out them!
.

Till next time

love fi x
.

PS Thanks for all the Maisy love.

Maisy Pickles

Good morning all.

Today I'd like to introduce you to Maisy Pickles.

Psssst...Maisy.....turn around and sit down!


As I said this is Maisy Pickles.
My original inspiration for Maisy came from two little girls often seen on another bloggers page, called Molly and Daisy. Hence the name Maisy (a mix of the two). I hasten to add Maisy looks nothing like these two scrummy little girls but is the end result after much sketching and stitching and the creative process. She is the result of everything percolating through me! lol.

She has a mass of unruly curls, very Wuthering Heights don't you think? (there is possibly a good reason for this but we'll come to that later)

She has a delicate embroidered face.
I didn't want her to look too babyish, she's not a 'babydoll'.

As you can see from the size of my hand, she is quite dainty and is about 13inches tall. Her pretty robe is a little bit shabby and worn around the edges just as a well love rag doll should be! It's made from vintage embroidered linen tray cloth that had seen better days.

Underneath she is wearing a pure silk shift recycled from a pretty blouse. It fastens at the back with...

a little pearly button. I really enjoyed hand stitching the tiny button loop.
.

So that's Maisy Pickes, I hope you like her.

Oh, the Wuthering Heights connection... well we've had a film crew here in the Hills this Autumn filming a new version for the big screen!

They used a restaurant in our village as a base to audition locals as extras and have been filming in an old derelict building near Thwaite in Swaledale. The camera crew stayed in a house opposite us and were out and about by about 7am every morning. I believe one of the leading ladies is the very pretty actress Kaya Scodelario (Effy Stonem in Channel 4's Skins) She had a picture of a nearby waterfall on her twitter page and comments that although it's breathtakingly beautiful in North Yorkshire, its absolutely freezing up here!
.

Well she's not wrong! lol.

till next time

love fi x

A bit of bunting to cheer us up.

Hello my lovelies. I'm sitting here at my sewing table today listening to the rain on the roof. We've had rather a lot of rain here in the hills over the last couple of days. Child #2 was sent home early from school on Thursday because the roads were flooding. The school bus had to make a detour around one village as the road was completely flooded at the bridge. Today is not quite as wet, we just have snow instead. Yep that's right snow already, that was a bit of a shock I can tell you! I opened the curtains this morning to see a white hill in front of me!

These pics where taken last Friday when the weather was behaving itself rather nicely.

The water at the bottom of the picture is the river and water above is the field where the river shouldn't be!

We can see the damage done by the water here on the right. It's washed over the path and moved huge stones and left lots of twigs and branches in the fields.

Not that sneaky dog noticed, she was far to busy checking out rabbit holes along the riverbank!

Anyway that's enough about the weather, lets move back indoors where its cosy and take a look at something cheerful.

Yes you can't beat a bit of bunting to cheer you up.

Especially colourful crochet bunting!

There was a lot of up-and-downing on chairs for these pics I can tell you. lol.

That's it for today, just a short one.

Oh,...did you notice my little friend laid on my sewing table at the top of the post?

That's Maisy Pickles, I'll introduce you properly next time.

.

Thanks for all of your lovely comments on my Kirstie post, your soooo very kind and supportive. What would I do with out you : )

.

love fi x