Happy Hallowe'en!

Have a great Hallowe'en! ♥

Met This Girl on Monday

Question: why is thinking up lyrics for songs related to weeks so much fun? (Answer: because I am sad!)

Spooky marshmallow! I saw them in M&S and shouted out, 'FLUMPS!'

Home made Chai latte. Two Dragonfly Chai teabags in half a cup of boiled water, topped up with warm milk. YUM.

New hair. Hurrah!

My new favourite lipgloss.

I've been making more felt brooches. A deer...

...and a rose. Cute!

I hope you've all had a fab week! Sorry for lack of postage this week. This is what happens when you have capped internet data!

Labyrinth

Last week I was off work, and took the opportunity to visit The Forbidden Corner. It is a fabulous little place surrounded by beautiful countryside in lovely Richmondshire. It really brought to mind the movie Labyrinth. I was waiting for David Bowie to leap out at me from behind a wall! Sadly it never happened but I had a lovely time anyway. See for yourself!

Been anywhere nice lately?

Guest post: Awesome women of craft

Hi Things to Make & Doodlers, my name's Kirsty and I blog over at The Leopard Anchor. I'm just dropping by to share with you some fabulous women who are rockin' the craft industry.

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First up is a lady who is one of my craft idols, Jenny Hart, founder of Sublime Stitching. Jenny is responsible for making embroidery cool, with her rock 'n' roll patterns and her superb stitched artwork.

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Sublime Stitching was born in 2001 and it completely revolutionised embroidery, with the tag line 'this ain't your gramma's embroidery', Jenny ain't lying.

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You can find Jenny's online shop here, her artwork here and some work produced from her patterns here.

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Katie of Skunkboy Creatures make the best plush animals I've ever seen, she has made cuddly toys cool again.

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One day I will own one of Katie's plush taxidermy (below, far right), I think her creatures are so beautiful.

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Katie writes a great blog here, her online shops can be found here and here.

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Sunni of A Fashionable Stitch first came to my attention when I was on the hunt for sewing notions. She sells the prettiest tailor's hams, seam rolls and pincushions, better yet - she makes them herself! In her online shop, Sunni also sells fine & vintage haberdashery items, patterns & belt-making kits.

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On A Fashionable Stitch you will also find Sunni's blog, which is a really excellent sewing resource!

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You can find the A Fashionable Stitch blog and shop here.

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I credit Sarai Mitnick for my instant love of dressmaking and early successes. Her company, Colette Patterns, is WONDERFUL. The designs are spot on, and the instructions are jargon-free and easy to follow.

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Also present on the Colette Patterns website is their fantastic blog, it has a great mix of behind the scenes peeks (my favourite), tutorials, tips and general sewing goodness.

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(^that's me, in the first dress I ever made - thanks Colette Patterns!)

Find the Colette Patterns website here, and Sarai's personal blog here.

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I've actually just written about Kirstie Allsopp on my blog. I'm not obsessed, but I do think she is a fantastic ambassador for crafts.

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Kirstie's new craft program, Kirstie's handmade Britain started last week and is showing every Wednesday at 8pm on Channel 4. In this series she'll be entering craft competitions across the country, after learning the skills from some of Britain's great craftspeople.

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Kirstie's website is here, her books can be found here and here.

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And there they are, who are your favourite craftswomen?

xo Kirsty

Week as I am

Good morning everyone, it's time for the statutory weekly roundup post!

I love the building across the river. The sign i's kind of retro. Walking by the river again - gotta love crisp Autumn days!

Warning up with a chilli

My birdie brooch gets an outing

Pumpkins!

Breakfast at Castle Howard.

It was my week off so the food's been a bit indulgent! Lunch at GBK.

I love the glass coke bottles. And the tomato bottle!

I seriously have a thing for taking pictures of food, not sure why. Doodle-Dad came to visit this week and everything I ate I photographed. He thought I was bonkers, and he's probably right! We also ate a lemon drizzle cake I got from the farm shop at Castle Howard, but that was gone before anyone could even think about getting a camera out!

I hope you all had a fab week. And if you head over here tomorrow morning you can check out a marvellous guest post from the lovely Kirsty.

Bird brain

I really like animal motifs and wanted to make some kind of accessory with that in mind, and this is what I came up with. This little birdie is made of felt and is very quick and easy to make. Here's what I did:

I drew a quick template and used it to cut two shapes out of different colours of felt - red on the back and blue for the front, cutting a little heart out of the front piece. Before joining them, I stitched a brooch back onto the back piece. Then I used some embroidery thread to overstitch one to the other. Simples!

I think I might make a deer next, I've been inspired by my own deer jumper!

Remind Me

Last week in pictures.

Boats on the river

Is there a more blissful way to spend a Sunday morning than with a Cinnamon Swirl and the Boots Christmas catalogue? 

Swirly bubbles remind me of clouds.

Pretty flowers

Barbecue pork courtesy of my beloved husband - the slow cooker!

I had a run-in with a pair of wedges. Devil duckies to the rescue!

I hope you had a wonderful week.

Ideas woman

I mentioned in this post that I'd bought a plain exercise book for journalling ideas. I'm currently working on an emboridery project, which you may have spotted! I thought I'd share the creative process of using my journal.

I wanted embroider a cushion to go in my living room. I became mildly obsessed with cushions. I was inspired by Kirsty's embroidery, and thought I'd like a bash at doing some myself.

So I set about trying to come up with some ideas!

I started by thinking along a nautical theme, as the colours I have in the room are blue, white and red.

 Nautical colours inspired nautical designs. I liked the idea of rope, beach huts and flags. I thought about incorporating appliqued felt into the designs as well.

I liked the use of the colours, but decided I wasn't keen on appliqueing complicated shapes as it was a first go, and I'm a bit of an amateur! I thought incorporating text would be a nice idea as it might make more of a statement, and be simpler to do.

I moved onto these drawings, because I liked the text and motif combination, and the umbrella and bicycle designs were my favourite of the ideas I put on the previous page. The 'j'aime mon bicyclette' idea was a favourite, and I chose that over the 'bicycle days' one. Because French is chic, right?

I thought the journal was a great tool for honing and refining ideas that begin with just a general thought about a project I might want to do. I liked being able to look back at previous ideas I'd had and look at them on paper rather than trying to remember something I'd thought about a week before. I could then tweak them and develop them to take my favourite parts of what I'd come up with and combine them into something I was really happy with.

I am still working on the cushion, and will keep you posted on how it's going!