Baby owl's progress.

I took the tiny dumfling from yesterday's post, tweaked it a bit, dumfed it a bit more, added a branch or two and a twinkling star and here he is!

He also has a little friend.

Well what else do you do when the football is on and then goes into extra time?!!!!

Suggestions, so far, for more birds......

Peacock, hens, doves, swallow

Any more?

Thanks for popping in. Have a great weekend.

A mixed bag!

Well, four drawers are tidied now after yesterday's purge!

These are the ribbons all set to go back in the drawer, now that they are colour sorted into their chopped-off sweetie jars.


The lilac/white wedding horseshoe, in yesterday's pic, is now finished and ready to go in the blog shop later. It sort of created itself really. I dumfed yarns on felt. Then I added a hand embroidered motif from my up-cycled tablecloth and some more hand stitching and beads. I think the end result is certainly different!



I popped to see Wipso and trim yet another pair of curtains ready for her to finish. She loved the horseshoe and also the gorgeous yarns that I took to share with her.

One yarn in particular caught her eye - a lovely, raggy, bright pink one. She had a go at dumfing it and it looked good, so I guess you will see it on one of her fab dumfy pics sooner or later.

I picked up a really fluffy wool called Patons Softy, in creamy browns.
It just said " a certain bird" to me so I dumfed a bit onto a tiny scrap of black felt.




Here it is.....





Well, I am sure it will become a little card or picture and maybe I will make a bigger one.
Its funny, I never knew I could do any of this. Doesn't it make you wonder -just what is in this little old brain of mine?

Thanks for all your lovely comments. Its good to be surrounded by folk whose cup is always half full. Have a great Bank Holiday weekend!

WOYuntidyWW!

Good morning - Wednesday again! Where did last week go then?!

Today I will be mostly tidying, sorting and clearing out - YUK!

Wipso spent a while in my sewing room after our exciting day out on Saturday. As you all know, she has an amazingly organised room because that is where she runs her successful sewing business from. Well, my room is much smaller but packed full of crafty stuff. I know where everything is but it was beginning to get on top of me (literally, when my big carrier bags of fabric/wool/felted sweaters etc tipped over!) She didn't actually say it was a mess but I know what she meant. lol

So, today is my big TIDY UP day. Next week all will be immaculate!

What's out for you to snoop on today then?

Well, first and foremost on my window sill you can see a dinky, felt pin cushion cupcake and tiny cards, all from the lovely Paula. You will know from Annie's updates on Paula's blog where she is and what she is going through, so I just want to say a big thank you to her for finding time to make my little gift, when she must have been feeling so awful. We all wish her a speedy recovery so that she is feeling well again and pain free and back making us laugh with her wonderful warm and witty comments.

On top of my drawers you can see some of the wedding stuff I have been working with. Wipso and I launched the wedding creations shelf in the blog shop this week. Lots more to do but at least its a start.

On my table are the new yarns that I received yesterday from Kemps Wools - a brilliant service and some bargain wools, there if any of you are interested.

Oh and at the front of my table - someone wanted to see M's trolls - now who was it who had a little troll on their workdesk last week? - Answers on a post card.....

We created little costumes for some -I like Madonna with the golden boobs best.

All those drawers and bags that you can see now have to be emptied and sorted - I may be gone for some time!!!!! If I don't blog for a few days send a rescue party!

And last but not least - for all you robin lovers out there...

Having successfully dumfed a puffin someone suggested I try a robin.

Next I will be dumfing a peacock!

Any other suggestions gratefully received.

Now if you want to join in with the WOYWW madness then pop over to Julia's blog and follow Mr Linky.

Wedding creations...

Yes folks, we have gone and done it. Today we have launched our Blog Shop Wedding Creations shelf. We have had an exciting morning uploading all our new creations and it's looking wonderful. Please pop along and have a look and leave us a comment as to what you think. If you want to make an order please email me at wipso@toucansurf.com. I'm sure if you can see something you like but want it in a different colour that we will do our best to oblige.

There are more ideas in the pipe line but today we have had 4 pairs of curtains to shorten and you all know what we think of curtains!....and it's Fun day Monday too!

Wonderwool Wales - fun day!

We don't often go off adventuring, but yesterday we were on the road by 9am!

Wipso and I tuned the satnav to "Royal Welsh Showground" Builth Wells and set off.

I wanted to head off via Clun and Knighton and my satnav immediately told me to do a U-turn as she had planned my route via Newtown!! Needless to say I ignored her and off we went.

Eventually the satnav caught up and we had a delightful run along quiet country roads. Its a wonderful time of the year to ride steadily past fields, scattered with sheep and tiny lambs and enjoy the hedgerows, just turning green and decorated with primroses, cowslips, anemones, lady's smock and violets. Overhead the buzzards were circling and as we reached Builth Wells a red kite soared, just above the car, pointing the way to the showground!

We were ushered to a parking space, only to find that we were as far away from the event as we could possibly be and had a very long walk to the venue - not good for a wobbly knee - but we made it.





Wonderwool Wales is a festival of wool and natural fibres. The halls were packed with trade stands and demonstrators linked to everything woolly!




















Our first call was to see Sara's Texture Crafts and meet our blogger friend Sara. We spent quite a while choosing some gorgeous wool rovings for our textile work and filled a bag with some of Sara's fab blends and colours. It was lovely to meet her and she very kindly stored our bag until we were ready to leave.



The rest of the day was just a delight, spent checking out all the goodies on each stall.



We bought some silk velvet from Oliver Twists and on the right are some dyed pre-felt pieces.





These colourful curls came from The Threshing Barn.








There were lots of spinners and weavers busily working and some amazing creative work from a wide variety of different textile artists. We gleaned a few ideas for crafty activities and had lots of giggles as we moved around the halls, ending up with such busy heads from all the fab stuff we had seen.

To complete our day, we journeyed back via Newtown and shared out our gorgeous goodies.
Thanks Wipso for being great company and sharing in our fun day.
We are so lucky to enjoy the same hobbies and interests.

Watch this space to see what we make with all our purchases.

A Shropshire lass in her element.

We had a short outing over my favourite bit of countryside today. As a child, I always loved a trip up to The Bog and over the Stiperstones. The area was once the centre for lead mining in the 18th & 19th centuries and several of my family were involved in mining and farming around there. Today the sun was shining, the air was fresh and invigorating and the views were perfect.

We walked up to the Nipstone Rock and looked across the hills to the Stiperstones. The "Devil's Chair" was the first rock outcrop we reached, when Dad used to take us for a Sunday morning walk. I was quite young so it was a good walk for little legs!

I had never climbed up to the Nipstone Rock which is on the left of my photo above. Today, I scrambled to the top to look at the panoramic views. However, if I just stepped down the hill to the left of that rock and looked back, this is what I saw.....

The Quartzite rock has been weathered into a massive head facing towards the East.

Well spotted by G. - I had climbed up past it, without noticing it! I guess I was concentrating on my footwork amongst the heather and short, sheep-chewed grass.

The view in the opposite direction showed Corndon in all its splendour. Our house is on the far side of this hill.

We returned to the car and drove over the hills and down into the valley to the Horshoe Inn at Ratlinghope. We sat beside the tiny River Onny and had lunch. Thankfully, I had put my binoculars in my bag. Overhead soared two, beautiful, red kites and across the field a cry went up and a curlew with its long, curved beak flapped away up the hill. Swallows were twittering around the buildings and in the trees opposite, I spotted a pied flycatcher. As we went back to the car a robin flew up into the hedgerow and along the stream I could see a dipper, hopping across the pebbles. All of this in about half an hour!!!!

I drove back with top down - (the car - not mine!!)

So, now you know what I like to do when I am not crafting!!

Just a sneaky peek at WOWYW

I am half way through cleaning my oven-YUK! So while Mr Muscle is doing his bit ( and I mean the chemical product not my other half!!) I thought I would show you my table.

Yes, its covered in bridal fabric and trimmings. Also - just peeking out from under some voile, you can see the little dumflings that Wipso and I made on fun day Monday.

They are far from finished so I will not reveal all - just to say that, hopefully by next week, we will have added them to our other items and loaded up our bridal shelf in the blog shop.
Fun day Monday was a giggle as we were joined by Paula via the webcam - it puts video conferencing into a whole new dimension!!!!!!! We showed her our dumflings and she showed us her Cuttlebug!

Now dear WOYWWers I would like to share this little cake with you all. Its a scrummy rich fruit cake (Nigella's Christmas cake recipe). Don't look too closely at the icing - obviously my skills in crafting don't extend quite that far! ( Well we can't be good at everything!)

So, pull up a chair, grab a coffee and have a slice of my daughter M's 30th birthday cake.

We had a great day together with a bit of retail therapy, a little plotting and planning for her new garden and then a lovely meal out, to end the day. Where did those 30 years go? It doesn't seem five minutes since I held that tiny, precious little bundle in my arms. Now she is a beautiful, fun-loving and highly competent young woman.

Well folks, my oven buzzer calls!

Have a great day and if you want to see what the other WOYWWers are up to the pop over to Julia's blog to investigate.

Creamy floral display

My garden is full of creamy, floral gorgeousness at the moment so I have taken a few pics to celebrate this lovely time of year. We have lots of birthdays and wedding anniversaries in April so its always a special time.
AND - the swallows are back - I saw one on the wire yesterday - April 17th!


These are the flowers M bought me for Easter and they are still lovely and so fragrant.

Last but not least - more flowers

but "dumfed" ones this time......




Have a lovely day - enjoy the hazy sunshine!

A woman of mysteries!

On my Wednesday blog I mentioned I was making a mermaid costume and several kind souls showed interest and asked to see a pic. (I think they thought I would be daft enough to do the full monty mermaid!) Well, now that I know that it has arrived safely with its customer, I thought I should show you what it looks like and tell you the tale.

So...............

Voila!

The tale of the tail goes like this.

A blogging friend has a photographer husband who needed a mermaid outfit for a photo shoot. It is obviously, not something that can be easily purchased, so I volunteered to design and make one.

I had a lovely piece of silvery pink lycra-type fabric in my stash so I set too and cut out a brown paper pattern. After lots of emails to check size of fin and measurements for the fishy shape, I got to work and cut it out. It went together beautifully. Both Wipso and I think we get a little "divine" intervention at times! After all, I had never made anything like it before and yet somehow I seem to know how to do it.

I finished the costume and wanted to be sure it "worked".

I popped upstairs, slipped off my jeans, and pulled the tail on.

Now, I was still wearing an open blouse over my black jumper
I called hubby and asked if he would take a snap of the mermaid tail.

As he came through the door, I said "Hang on, I will take my top off!"

The look on his face said it all!!!

I meant that I would take the open blouse off, leaving the black jumper.

He thought he was going to get the full mermaid treatment!!!!

(Well that's men for you!!)

Hope you think it was worth all my designing and thinking time - oh and then a couple of hours sewing time too!

The other "reveal" of the day is the little picture that was hidden on Wednesday beneath my little dumfed landscapes. It has now been mounted and posted so I think I can show and tell now.

On Tuesday evening, Wipso and I had a girlie night, as the men went to footie.

We both dumfed - Annie revitalised Paula's little bear ( Do visit Paula's blog to see the result!)

I decided I would try to dumf a puffin. (Sounds weird but you know what I mean.)

Wipso found an online puffin picture for reference and, as we sat writing our little Ode for Paula, I dumfed away at my little puffin!!

This is what it looks like now its mounted ready to go.

What do you think? Its the first time I have dumfed a bird.

Might try another - any suggestions? lol

Lastly, on one of my blog hops I found this lovely card by Sue

She kindly said I could show the sentiment on here.

It seemed quite fitting considering how Wipso spends her time!

Thanks for dropping in - I will be sharing a special cake with you next time.

WOYWW - mermaids and more!

Good morning to all - especially the WOYWW ers.

My table has an assortment of "stuff" today as I have had a busy few days of crafting and plotting and planning!!

First and foremost is the gorgeous wedding anniversary card made for me by Wipso. She was my bridesmaid all those years ago - of course- and always makes me a special card.

At the front, you can see my latest little dumflings. One is hidden, as it is for a special person who is not to well at the mo, so I will reveal that pic next time, once she has received it.

The 3 little dumflings are tiny moorland landscapes - I just fancied making something different for a change. I used yarn to dumf the background and then beads and hand stitching for the foreground.
The massive heap of fabric and brown paper pattern will eventually become a mermaids tail - well of course - what else could it be?!!!!! Just another little challenge for me. I will give it my best shot and will probably be modelling it in my next post....lol!

My box of lacey bits and bobs is still waiting to be investigated. We have sent off our little gifts to the three bloggers who sent us some great ideas for our bridal department. I hope they arrive

safely - one even had to go to the USA, so may take a little longer!!

Here are my finished, little poppy pics. The lovely Paula (more about her in a minute) suggested I mount them with a tiny black edge to set them off nicely. Of course she was absolutely right and they look really snazzy don't they?!!

And Paula.....

Well what a treasure. We had such a lovely day with her and her family at Wipso's. Poor girl has had major surgery and was still in a lot of pain and discomfort, yet her sense of humour and cheery disposition shone through. We hope to see more of her ( although to be honest, she showed us quite a bit!! - that scar - WOW!) in the future and I am sure we could find some nice crafty venues where we could meet up. Hope you are feeling much more comfortable, this week, Paula.

So, firstly I am going to cut out and sew my mermaid outfit and then I shall be nipping over to Julia's blog to see what everyone else has been doing this week.

Thanks for popping by, you friendly folk - don't forget to check out the new additions to our blog shop. I loaded up the gift shelf and Wipso tidied it up for me!!!

Yesterday I mostly dumfed in hot orange!

No not some weird pleasure of mine - dumfing along whilst bathing in hot orange - well apart from anything else, my machine is electric - could be dangerous!!


A customer of Wipso's requested orange brooches, so here is my stash of orange gorgeousness all ready to be dumfed into neat, little, hot orange dumflings!!

Ignore the tape measure - don't know why its there as I certainly don't measure my dumflings.


I just sat at my embellisher with the stash and a pair of scissors and just snipped, dumfed and beaded.

By the end of lovely day I had 6 juicy orange brooches finished. Wipso and D. came up for a coffee and collected them so that they could be on display ready for our favourite customer.


Here are the 6.
I will put the unsold ones in the blog shop soon.

Can you guess which one she bought?

I love warm, earthy colours so I may just keep my favourite for myself.

The pale ones may end up in our bridal department.



For anyone who is not sure what "dumfing" is all about, just follow this link to Wipso's blog for today, where she has composed an amazing description for you.

Mr Pencil and Mr Rubber on WOYWW!

These Wednesdays come round too fast!!! Maybe it is just that a long weekend makes the week seem shorter somehow!
Well, I hope you all had a great weekend and didn't eat too much chocolate -although, apparently a small amount is good for you in lots of ways (well thats my excuse anyway).

My work desk today has a few things left from yesterday and the weekend.

Keryn loved my little poppy cards but wondered if I just had a little picture instead. So, I finished off four and let her choose her favourite. Then, I decided to mount the others on a board covered with a natural linen, so that they have that rustic look. What do you think? They are all different because I always work in a very free sort of way when I am "dumfing".

They are approx. 9" x 5" overall.

At the back you can see three little boxes, containing a little gift, all ready to send off to the lovely folk who sent in best ideas and suggestions of our Bridal challenge - when we have chosen them next Monday!

If you still want to join in then pop over as soon as possible and add your idea to the list.

My box of lace and ribbon is sitting there waiting for me to dip into once I have finished today's blog. Not sure what I am making yet but lots of ideas whizzing round. Or maybe I shall be dipping into my orange stash to make brooches as I have had a request for some more.

In the middle at the front you can see my little red brooch. I finished it today and Wipso has just phoned to say that one of her customers would like it, so I might have to make another for the shop!!

Last but not least is this little book.

Our local supermarket has a Sunday car boot sale and we wandered up, this week, for a browse. I am hopeless and never find anything exciting. However, this week I came across this little book.

Its title amused me so I flicked through a few pages and decided I had to have it. It had been someone's Sunday School Christmas gift in 1928 and I could just imagine what the child who received it would have made of it. Obviously it had been treasured because it was an elderly family member of that child who sold it to me.

As a keen crafter, scribbler and occasional artist, I could appreciate the importance of Mr Pencil & Mr Rubber. This book however, holds far more than a children's story about the two characters.

Here is part of the opening sentence...

" How much enjoyment comes into the lives of boys and girls if they possess a lead pencil with which to write and draw, and, if in addition they possess a piece of India rubber with which they can rub out their mistakes."

Now I happen to think this is so true, even in today's highly technical world, in which our children live. I am not sure that many children would agree or perhaps give up their "Game-boy" in favour of Mr Pencil and Mr Rubber! Nevertheless, teaching a child to write and draw can provide them with skills that last for ever.

But the book continues with stories and homilies to help develop a child's moral and social well being - (Yes - all linked to Mr Pencil and Mr Rubber!)

"Rubber makes a good bouncer....

When a rubber ball is thrown down, it always rises again, and the harder it is thrown, the higher it will rise. Does not this teach us that if we are thrown down by difficulites we should try to rise to overcome them."

Or

"A pencil keeps getting shorter....

The continual shaving of the pencil to get a point, and its continual use, keeps reducing the days of its life and usefulness. The lives of some pencils coming to an end much more quickly that others. So it is with peoples lives, they keep getting shorter and some are much shorter than others."

Just imagine what a young child would make of that statement!

I suppose it is typical of the literature of the time, aimed at helping children develop their moral, social and spiritual attitudes. Much of it, although old fashioned in its approach, still holds good today....

"You will never be sorry

For using gentle words

For doing your level best

For being kind to the poor

For looking before leaping

For hearing before judging

For thinking before speaking

For harbouring clean thoughts ...."

And on that note I must make a start and get dumfing!

Have a great day and pop over to see what Julia and the rest are up on WOYWW!

PS
We had a fab evening out at the theatre last night...
Wipso and her eldest came with me to see Gervase Phinn. If you want a really good laugh then try to see him if he comes to a theatre near you!!

I need spanish lessons!

Paula has awarded me this cute award - thanks lots.
Luckily she also gave a translation as my Spanish is not up to much!
Now the blog award translates roughly as "this blog is charming" and I have to pass this onto 12 other bloggers.

Well, firstly I will bounce it straight back to Paula. She deserves an award for taking time and effort to blog this week, after coping with major surgery last week and still being in a lot pf pain this week. Thanks Paula and get well soon!
Next, I will mention my favourite little blogger - Wipso. She is a treasure and I know lots of you love her blog and appreciate that she finds the time to amuse us when she is so o o o o busy!
Now I have to think of 10 more!!!!!! Impossible. I follow lots of blogs and there are so many that I really enjoy reading or sharing their crafty doings!

Maybe I can manage a few but, if I don't mention you, its not cos your not worth it, its just that I am a bear of little brain and my memory is not what it was!!! lol

Mountainear - has always been one of my favourites and her blog is certainly charming.
Bayou - such a vivacious character in real life and a lively blogger too.
ElizabethM - Welsh Hills again - such an interesting read, always.
McKinkle - one of the wonderful card makers who I have got to know over the last few months.

Happy Easter everyone - enjoy the break.

Happy Easter!

Just a cheery little "dumfed" daffodil picture to brighten this cold, wet and windy Good Friday.

The view from my window is more like winter than spring with grey clouds clinging to the hills and a bitter wind blowing sleety rain onto my freshly cleaned windows. (My window cleaner braved the elements and made a lovely job of them on Wednesday!)

Our weather will certainly spoil the weekend for all those folk who were hoping to have a few days away. No doubt all the hotels and guest houses on the coast will miss out on much needed trade this Easter.

We were hoping to garden for M. on her new little plot. We have loads of little cuttings, ready rooted, to transfer to her sloping back garden. They might have to wait until its warmer before we move them!

I promised to take some brownies for her, so that will keep me busy later. I may even pop a few mini-eggs on each one. I know it will add to the calories but a good run will sort that - (er I mean M. not me - don't be silly!!!)

Happy Easter everyone - hope you enjoy the weekend - whatever you decide to do.