Christmas Stocking and Ornament

This year the quilt-y group I'm a member of decided for our Christmas swap, we'd do stockings and an ornament.  We had almost 12 months to complete them and the results were varied, but all beautiful.  It always surprises me that even if we don't know who we're sending our creations to (which in this case we didn't until most of us had finished our sewing) they always seem to match up perfectly.

I received from the lovely Christina and I sent to awesome Sonia.

The stocking I received was truly lovely.  The cuff material just added a contrast to the rest of the stocking, which was different on both sides.  The wee bird ornament is felt and has sequins as well as hand stitched embroidery on the wings.  I proudly hung my stocking near the fireplace for Santa and the bird was on the Christmas tree for all to admire when they came.



I added a little tissue holder and I also made the card to accompany my stocking and ornament - Felix the fox, who wore a green scarf since Sonia's favourite colour is green (although I was very tempted to give him a yellow scarf, my favourite colour!)

The fox was from Lia Griffith's collection.  I think I am slightly in love with her work.  She uses a lot of felt, but the creations are all so beautiful.  I'm considering making the whole set of her woodland ornaments for our tree next year.

Along with the fox, there is also a deer, bear, rabbit, squirrel, and raccoon.

                

Bear Bag & Make Up

What do you make for a four year old girl for her birthday?  I struggled with this question for about 10 months before stumbling across the Lia Griffith site, specifically her DIY Bear Felt Bag.  It was perfect!

The instructions were easy to follow, the result is gorgeous (if I do say so myself) and the birthday girls reaction was priceless.  She loved it.  I especially like the little pink cheeks and the stitching between the eyes (which was probably my only struggle, how to get them even and placed exactly right).

I decided the bag alone wasn't much, so I made a felt make up set as well.  I got the idea, again, from Pinterest which linked me to Gluesticks tutorial.  I used this tutorial as a guide and then adapted my make up set to look how I wanted.

For the 'mirror' I used a grey marl wool felt, the 'foundation' was a beige and then just picked out random colours for the 'eye shadow'.  The 'compact' closes (folds) while the 'brush' is stuffed which gives it a bit more stability and strength to withstand play.

All up, I was pretty pleased with how everything turned out and so was Miss E, although I may now need to make her younger sister a set to avoid arguments over it!

Losing a Friend

After nearly 15 years, I lost my Bailey girl.  She was a rescue puppy, originally having been told she was an '8 week old mini sheltie' it was a surprise at her first vets visit to learn she was no more than 5 weeks old!

She was our gentle girl, playful, energetic and hilarious.  The first time we took her to the beach, she discovered her forte - chasing seagulls.  She would casually jog towards a large group of them on the sand not looking at them, but to the side....as if by not looking directly at them, they wouldn't see her.  Of course, the seagulls would start to shriek and take off.  This was a signal that Bailey would tear after them at full speed, scattering them every which way, but never attempting to hurt them!

Our girl also had her own 'party trick'...she smiled.  It was hard to capture on the camera, but she would grin, especially if she or her older brother had done something they shouldn't have!  In fact, she would often tattle on poor Connor by running to us, grinning and then running towards wherever he was doing what he shouldn't.

Bailey would have been the perfect dog for children.  She was so patient, didn't care what you dressed her up in, she was laid back and so easy going.  She was also good at finding things.  At the park she often found things left behind by others that came in handy - the sunglasses she's wearing for example.  She also found a really good fleece hat that, once washed, became good for Dad at work.

I think some of the funniest times were when we came home from being out and discovered someone had been in the rubbish bin....we never could figure out who it was, as Bailey insisted she didn't know....the same 'someone' who had been in the bin had tried to frame Bailey by putting the bin on her head!!  Of course, there were also the times when we came home and there was no bin lid on her head....and no bin lid anywhere else....?  We'd have to hunt around to find it, wherever she'd managed to get it off and either hidden it or left it there!








She was the first dog I could call 'my own'...she wasn't the family dog, although she loved everyone...especially those with food!  She had the most beautiful eyes, as if she was wearing eye liner.  Everyone she met was a new friend.  Everyone she met fell under her spell.  And I shall miss her for the rest of my life....