I Feel A Collection Coming On

I’m more excited than a grown woman ought to be after a visit from the postman!  Of course, I am talking about receiving a parcel  – well, what else did you think? – if you saw my postman you would appreciate that there is nothing else to get excited about.  Anyway, the parcel I received made me decide to have a ‘ Monday Selection’ instead of the erstwhile ‘Saturday Selection’as I forgot to do one on Saturday and I’m the boss.

Now, I’m not a collector of pincushions or anything but I’ve had this Etsy shop in my favourites for ages and, on a whim, decided to buy one – well, two actually, as I’ve got a friend’s birthday coming up.  I read all the feedback and people have said things like,  ’it’s the best thing I’ve bought on Etsy’, ‘thank you for the lovely gift bag’, ‘I’ll definitely be back’ – blah, blahdeblah – so I thought I’d go for it.  Well, the feedback was, if anything, understatement.  I have become a pincushion fan.  So much so that I might well start a collection and my friend will be lucky if she gets one of these for her birthday – I might have to buy a duplicate.

Can you bear this little flying pig?  and look, the little pins have clouds on top… and look at the linen drawstring bag which is lined with blue and white cotton and has a little matching image,worthy of its own listing in her shop but isn’t even mentioned!! 

…and what about this little mouse with his daisy topped pin? 

I think the lady behind lifepieces has the fairies come and help her in the night – everything is so exquisitely made and the attention to detail is amazing. 

So, if you usually get a birthday or Christmas present from me, and you are any sort of needlewoman or crafter, you know what’s coming!  Only if I can have one the same though.

Off to leave feedback of the fawning and adoration kind.

January Blues

Is there anything more depressing than taking down the Christmas decorations?  Well, of course there are plenty of things but you know what I mean!  Plus, lots of dust which was lurking under baubles and cards and tinsel is now revealed which means the dreaded housework must be done straight away.  Bleurgh.

Still, it’s Valentine’s Day soon and hearts and flowers will be everywhere.  Today’s Saturday Selection – as this is not just a post about moaning and whingeing – is the beautifully named  ChezSucreChez where you can buy lovely little cross stitch items which have been made by them or kits for you to do yourself.  As you may recall me saying in the past, cross stitch drives me crazy and, as I don’t need any help in the frustration and eye strain department, I leave it well alone and marvel at the skill and patience of others.  However, Madamoiselle Tialys, the elder, has discovered a liking for the craft and I am busy collecting supplies for her so that she can make things for me for a change.    I have ordered this great little kit from ChezSucreChez so that she can make this one to give to her ‘petit ami’ on Valentine’s Day.  Her friends’ nickname for her is ‘squirrel’ (or ‘ecureuil’ as we are in France) so I thought this would be appropriate.

On with the dusting and vacuuming now – well, maybe after lunch…….

Something a Bit Different

This week’s Saturday Selection is, as the title says, something a bit different.

If you like books and you like handbags this great combination of the two from A Spoonful of Chocolate  is for you.

What a great conversation starter.

There’s a good selection of different books so you can express your preferences and personality. 

PLUS – for the gifted amongst you, A Spoonful of Chocolate  sells a tutorial so that you can make your very own book handbag which would be a great project for the New Year.  I’m seriously considering giving it a go as I can just see Madamoiselle Tialys with an Alice and Wonderland bag.

They do Ereader cases from books too.  I like the sort of ironic idea of carrying around an electronic book in a traditional book cover.

 

 

The Fabulous FARP

Whilst browsing on Etsy, I came across this gorgeous image of a cat sewing herself a little cat suit and, on investigation, discovered a shop called FARP.  A bit of a funny name until you realise it stands for  The Fabulous Animal Rescue Project which “is a global effort to inspire people to reach out and help animals by raising funds for the noble and unwavering animal rescue groups, sanctuaries, and no-kill shelters.”

As no-one is the boss of me on this blog, I decided to have a Sunday Selection this week instead of a Saturday Selection and I want to feature FARP and their lovely shop on Etsy where you can buy beautiful images of all sorts of animals which have been donated by both amateurs and professional artists.  These are then used on greetings cards, magnets, badges and pocket mirrors to raise funds so that more animals can benefit.

FARP takes 80% of every sale and donates it  to the chosen charity of the month or to the rescue group of special listings. The other 20% is used only for supplies to make more stuff, shipping supplies, and to pay for ETSY/PayPal fees.   All of which, I think, seems a very good reason to by some fabulous cards and stocking fillers this festive season.

I know I am so, hands off the catsuit sewing kitty as I’m off to buy it right now!

If you want to read more about the work of the Fantastic Animal Rescue Project, you can visit their blog here http://fabulousanimalrescueproject.blogspot.com/

Animal Sculpture

My ‘sometime’ Saturday Selection item this week features the work of  the talented Jennifer Rudkin who creates some great animal sculptures and, as well as exhibiting, has an Etsy shop, Rudkin Studio.

I can now reveal the sculpture of my german shepherd, Phoebe, which I commissioned from Jennifer as a gift for Mr. Tialys’s Christmas present.  In the event, I couldn’t wait until Christmas so gave it to him for his birthday on Halloween which means I can blog about it without ruining the surprise.  That is, if he ever reads my blog, which I doubt, but you can’t be too careful!

Great isn’t she?  Some of my regular readers may remember my post ‘Latex Love’ where Phoebe fell in love with the rubber chicken and wouldn’t be parted from it.  It was even allowed to keep its squeak.  This lasted for months until, one day, we found it abandoned in the garden minus its head.

Anyway, I love Jennifer’s work, she has a really quirky style which appeals to me plus she is a great person to work with.  I emailed her lots of photos of Phoebe and gave her a character sketch and I think she did a really good job.  You can definitely tell she’s a dog lover herself.

This is the real article, by the way

The Stylish Photographer

For today’s Saturday Selection I am featuring another item that I have bought from Etsy and have been chuffed to bits with. (You see, already bought and paid for, no biased reportage here!)

If you have a camera and lenses and don’t like taking them out in a boring, plain camera bag, these padded purses from XcessRise Designs  are for you.   As their tagline says – ‘Life is too short to carry an ugly bag’.

 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/xcessrize

You can choose your own fabric from a very wide range – it took me ages to decide as there was so much choice. (This one isn’t the fabric I went for, incidentally, but I haven’t got round to photographing mine yet!)

The best thing about these bags is that there is room inside for a point & shoot camera, your wallet, cell phone (or mobile as us Brits call them) and keys so you don’t even need to take another bag out with you at all.  Great for those times when you know you are going to want to take photos but are perhaps going out to dinner too and don’t want to be carrying more than one bag around or your husband has started to refuse to hold on to your handbag while you wrestle with your camera bag (mentioning no names).

I chose this hobo style as I try to pretend I’m not a tourist when I’m out and about  – but that’s just me – which, incidentally led to an experience the other day where an English tourist followed me around the supermarket and, believing me to be French(as she hadn’t heard my mangling of the language), decided to trust my judgement on wine-buying and put the exact same wines I bought into her own basket.  The fact that the red was Spanish and the white a Chilean seemed to have escaped her notice.   However, I digress, XcessRize also does the boxy shaped ones if you prefer and you could get one for a man with funky or more subdued fabric of your choice so great for a pressie for the photographer of either gender in your life.

Have a great weekend!!

Can You Bear It?

I had to show you these little ‘bear rug’ coasters I bought from Dandyrions  as they are sooooo gorgeous and I decided to feature them as this week’s Saturday Selection.

 

I had to have the white one for my workroom, the brown and cinnamon ones for the lounge and an extra one as a gift for a bear-loving friend.  Great for Christmas pressies plus take a look at her fox friendly t-shirts and jumpers.  Go on, you know you’re intrigued.

Uniquenique

I often find that you meet somebody in cyberspace who seems to be such a friendly, generous personality that you wish you knew them in real life.  Monique is such a person – she is warm and unselfish in her support of others so, for my Saturday selection today, I am giving her a little bit of payback.  She makes beautiful jewellery, and other items,  with fused glass and you can see these in her shop Uniquenique.  

This particular pendant reminds me of my recent holiday by the sea.

How gorgeous is that?

New Shoes?

My Saturday Selection today is my new pair of shoes that I bought while I was on my little break in the U.K., because they are just so gorgeous.

This is a ‘sedate’ pair as befits a woman no longer in the first flush of youth but rather in the hot flush of later years!  The others in the shop had all sorts of  fabric decoration going on, perspex heels and cartoon rabbits on the soles which my daughter was in love with but, fortunately, she finds it difficult to walk in heels so she was sadly disappointed although she did have one of their bags instead. 

Some shops you just can’t walk away from – or at least not unless you’re wearing new shoes.

Knit Your Own Crown Jewels

As the Royal Wedding approaches, I’ve chosen something topical for my Saturday Selection today.

I’m always amazed at what you can do with a pair of needles and some yarn – remember my Wooly Wedding post recently? – but now, thanks to Debi Birkin at Periwinkle Park, you can knit your own crown.  Well, officially, it’s for the teapot but, as Billy Connelly said  ‘Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cosy, doesn’t try it on.’

 

I have had knitting patterns from Debi before and she has some adorable ones in her Etsy shop.