How many tickles...

...does it take to make an Octopus laugh?.. - ... why ten tickles of course! 😁😁😁

Sorry I couldn't help myself.

The reason for my silly octopus joke is that I wanted to share with you a pic of Octavia, my little octopus friend, wellll I say little, but she is actually about 45 inches across from the tip of one tentacle to the tip of the opposite one. 

I came across the pattern in one of my crochet magazines last year and have wanted to make her ever since and I finally managed it during my wedding invitation marathon, crocheting a bit each evening as a break from all the repetitiveness of the invitations.

 She usually sits on top of one of armchairs in the bay window and in the evening when the blinds are shut and the lights are on, from the outside you can see the silhouette of her head and the chair, which makes it look like there is someone sitting there, so my house always looks octipi-ed, hehe!. She serves a dual purpose as Charlie loves to play with her, usually flinging her around and fighting with her during the day, and then she works security of an evening LOL!.

Over the past few months I have also made a couple of security blanket loveys, I made the pink and lemon one first, just because I wanted to, then a friend asked if I would make it in lemon and grey for a new baby boy and when I found out my niece was expecting a little girl in the New Year, I made her the unicorn one.

finally...

What does an Octopus say when it changes a light bulb...

Many hands make light work!!! (groan)

and on that note, I am off to do some work myself.

Thanks for calling,

take care,

Colette xx 

A bit of this and a bit of that!

Here are a few more of the things I made while I was away from the blog, mostly presents for people.

My friend Tina from the Chix with Stix group, celebrated her 50th birthday in October, but she had a lot going on in her life as her partner wasn't too well and was in hospital the week of her birthday so the Chix decided to make a fuss of her at our Tuesday meet up. We put up banners and brought food and drink along to have a little party. I decided to make a table centrepiece using my Silhouette machine.

The whole thing including the cake stand is made from paper and card, all cut out with my Silhouette machine and put together with my own fair hands LOL!

Another friend renewed her vows, they had the ceremony in the same place as they were married at Ashton memorial in Williamson Park, Lancaster. She laid on a coach to get us all up there from Huyton and as the place doesn't have any catering facilities she had hired a fish and chip van to feed us all. The weather wasn't brilliant but we had a lovely day and evening. I thought I would make Sue and Ian a box photo frame as a gift, I added a saying to the centre that can be removed and replaced with a photo.

The embossed background was made using Tied Together embossing folder by Couture Creations, I added a tiny Meiflower Ab stick on gems to each of the points where the pattern crossed, and the flowers were out of my stash.

I also made another frame for my daughter Stacy to give to a friend who had just had a baby, 

Betsy, the shoes and butterfly were all cut with my Silhouette machine. I decorated the initial letter with lots of Meiflower gems and pearls, and once again added something to the centre that could be removed and replaced with a photo.

Thanks for stopping by,

take care,

hugs,

Colette xx

Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou?

On the last day of September we headed off to Italy for a couple of weeks. We were based in the lovely Garda town on the shores of the beautiful Lake Garda, During our holiday we managed to visit lots of lovely towns and cities that were round and about including Venice, Limone, Malcesine, Sirmione, The Dolomites in the South Tyrol and Verona to name but a few.

We had amazing weather, warmer than usual for the time of the year, although while we were walking around in summer clothes and I was slathering factor 50 sun lotion all over my face, the locals all had their winter coats on, it was obviously starting to feel cold to them.

We saw so many fabulous things, so I thought I would share a couple (or more) photos with you.

St Mark's church - St Mark's Square, Venice,

The fabulous Rainbow Lake at Carezza, on the way to the Dolomites. The colours in the water are amazing and the photos don't do it justice. It was a beautiful bright sunny day, but the Dolomites in the background had a dusting of snow.

More snow on the Dolomites.

Juliet's balcony in Verona, although it seems there wasn't an actual balcony there originally, it was added at a later date, after the place became well known, thanks to Shakespeare's play. The house really did belong to the Capulet family though, and there is also a house belonging to the Montague family in Verona.

The Roman Ampitheatre in Verona

Hope you enjoyed seeing a few of the sights,

thanks for dropping in,

take care,

hugs,

Colette xx

More Lavender

Making cards for magazines is not always easy, you have to work with the stuff they send you sometimes it's just not your thing, or the colours and designs they want are not your style, but there are other times when everything is perfectly suited to you and this is how I feel whenever I get a Nitwits commission.

I love making cards using digital products, and Nitwit collections are my favourite kits ever. The patterned papers are always gorgeous, getting a set of solid colours is always a bonus and the elements and full of detail and texture. The Lavender digital collection brought all the things I love together, including my favourite range of colours.

Here are the last three cards made for Papercraft Essentials 152 using this collection.

Thanks for dropping in,

take care,

hugs,

Colette xx

Better late than never!

While I was absent without leave, I was very busy, and totally forgot to blog these cards, which I had made for Papercraft Essentials issue 152, which was in the shops on the 19th October. 

The commission was to use Nitwits Lavender digital collection to make 7 cards, 4 of which I will show to today.

I loved the colours and the lacy elements in the kit and really enjoyed making these cards.

Thanks for stopping by,

take care,

hugs,

Colette xx

Catching up...

While I have been missing from my blog I have been doing a bit of baking, amongst other things. I used to do quite a bit of cake decorating about 25 years ago, but haven't bothered for a long time, my daughter and grandsons don't like jam, so shop bought birthday cakes have always been a bit of a problem.

A few weeks before her birthday my daughter posted a photo of a Unicorn birthday cake on her Facebook page, saying how much she would love a cake like that for her birthday even though she would be 34. I saw the pic and decided I would surprise her my making my own version of the cake, so I dug out what little cake decorating equipment I still had left, borrowed some from a friend and 

Ta-dah! a unicorn birthday cake filled with buttercream and no jam.

Not too bad considering how out of practice I am. Stacy was thrilled with the cake, 

especially when it was cut up and she saw the inside.

The only problem is that I have made a rod for my own back as she then decided that I could make the boys birthday cakes too LOL!

While I was in the cake decorating mood, I also decided to make a cake for my friend's husband to celebrate his 80th birthday, although he definitely didn't want a unicorn cake hehe!

I mentioned in the previous post that I am a member of 2 knit and natter groups, I also attend a hand-sewing group one morning a week, run by the local library, we are not a large group, but we are very friendly and all happy to share our skills and knowledge with each other.

We mainly do patchwork and quilting, but every year for the last few years I have made Stag's heads and given them away to friends and family, this year is no exception and over the past couple of month's I have made this handsome fellow, who now lives with my best friend Julie. 

Completely hand sewn and mounted on a plaque made by my very clever hubby.

Well I'm off now, but I promise the next post will contain cards!

Thanks for dropping in,

take care,

hugs,

Colette xx

It's been a while...

My blog has been poorly treated, abandoned and alone, in the great big world wide web, neglected and uncared for, what a bad blogger I am!

I do have an excuse, or three, or four or more LOL! In the past couple of months I have made wedding invitations, save the dates, cakes, photo frames and had a holiday!

I thought I would try and catch up on everything I've been up to over the next couple of posts as I only have one magazine commission to show you (I took a break while I was making the wedding invitations) and to be honest the magazine came out in October, so I am really late posting it.

First up we had a family day out to London with my daughter, her partner, my grandsons, my daughter's partner's mum, myself and Eric. We were on the train at 6am in the morning, which meant getting up about 4.30! to get ready and get to the station. The boys slept all the way to London LOL!

Here's my lot sitting in front of a lion in Trafalgar square.

We returned home on the 6pm train and finally walked through our front door at about 9.30 that evening so it was quite a long day, but a good time was had by all.

I am a member of 2 local knit and natter groups (I don't knit so I crochet instead) one in the local library and another in our heritage hub, which goes my the name of Chix with Stix, one of our ladies asked if we would be interested in making blankets for Arrowe Park Hospital Paediatric Resus unit, where her daughter in law is a consultant, the blankets go to the very sick children, the colours and patterns help the nurses to distract them while they are being treated, they take the blanket up to the ward with them and  then home. It seems some of the children with ongoing problems bring their blankets back to the hospital with them whenever they attend.

We were lucky enough to get a donation of money to buy wool and between us so far have made about 40 blankets for the hospital. 

The project was even mentioned in the Liverpool Echo, you can check it out HERE I also made the blanket that is being held up by the staff 😊

I thought I would show you a picture of my favourite blanket, I really enjoyed making all the little applique pieces for this one.

Well that's it for now, but I will be back very soon with the next installment.

Thanks for stopping by,

Take care,

hugs,

Colette xx