Bobbing Along...

Thank you to all of you who left comments and encouraged me to make a seahorse family! For those new visitors (hello!) or anyone that missed the previous post, each creature has a little ribbon hook on the back, so that they can be hung on the wall...

...in any pattern you fancy! I'm quite pleased with them - my favourite baby is this little fella...
I like the understated colour and sparkly 'fin' (if that's what it's called!)
My son owns a book by Douglas Florian which contains some lovely funny poems - I thought I would leave you with one of them:

The Sea Horse

You have
No hooves.
You have no hair.
You don't eat oats.
You don't breathe air.
You hatch from eggs.
You cannot race.
(You have no legs with which to chase.)
You're not a colt
Nor mare
Nor filly.
You're called a horse.
I call that silly.

Happy weekend folks!

Win Beautiful Designer Jewellery!

Did I ever mention that I have an older sister? She gets a bit overshadowed sometimes, because I am the prettier, taller and slimmer one, but she is nearly as talented as me (in her own little way) and she is giving away a piece of her stunning jewellery (worth up to £150) to one lucky winner.

Okay, okay, you guessed it! I'm telling porky pies! All of that is completely untrue (she's even younger than me!) apart from the fantastic giveaway!
Amy is the clever lady that is Chambers & Beau - you may have heard of them?

You can see her gorgeous personalised jewellery here or to enter the competition, visit her blog and follow the instructions. Obviously I'm not eligible to enter, but you are! Go now, what are you waiting for?!

Pretty In Pink

Continuing with the Seahorse theme, I thought I would make a larger one (this one is 40cm tall). It's not intended as a toy, however, I thought how lovely they would look as a family on the wall - mum or dad with their young. I know that the father carries the babies, but I'm just offering a choice! Not wanting to reinforce sexual stereotypes at all, but we all know how much girls LOVE pink!

So I attached a loop of ribbon to the back....

I can just imagine some little baby ones drifting along behind....is this a bad idea? As naff as Hilda Ogden's flying ducks?! I really enjoyed making it actually. The lovely spotty fabric was an ebay find, and it's a really lightweight linen, so looks great and is nice to work with (turning the tail inside out would have been really fiddly with a thicker fabric).

Watch this space, I'll be sure to post a photo of the whole herd, wait, that sounds wrong, family! when I've finished.
Talking of pink, I found these fab bits of driftwood at the beach yesterday...

Lovely, distressed paint...the top white layer is flaking off to reveal a sort of salmon-coloured paint underneath.
Perfect for making boats - will be sure to show you them when they're made too. I'm going to be busy, aren't I?

Birthday Party

Remember it was Buddy's birthday just after Christmas (which seems like ages ago!) Well we finally got around to holding a party for him and his friends. He had wanted to go to the cinema with a few of them, but the nearest one is 20 miles away and we don't drive a minibus so it wasn't really an option. Instead, Steve borrowed the projector from work and we had a viewing in our own home, meaning that the boy could have more friends to join in the fun!
Pretend cinema tickets were sent out with the invitations and Steve rigged it all up via the computer (I'm totally useless at that kind of thing!)

I was the usherette...

Do you remember the good old days when there used to be an interval and they used to come in with trays of ice-cream etc? Or are you not as old as me?!
Buddy wanted a Dalek cake which allowed to me to go to town with butter icing and sweets! I did use a bit of artistic license (before any die-hard Dr Who fans tell me it's not right!) And it's not wax running down the sides, that's where the After Eights started melting!

I used a fab website for partybag goodies including the bags themselves - check out Partybox!

Anyway I have to confess I was hugely relieved when it was all over! I think it was Johnny Vegas who said that children are like farts - you quite like your own, but you can barely tolerate other people's!
On that note, I'll say goodbye! Have a good week!

Here comes the sun

No, I'm not talking about the weather, this is Cornwall after all! Sometimes I think the whole soggy county will break off at the River Tamar and sink into the sea!
I am referring to this...!

Thank you to Denise over at A Bun Can Dance for passing this award on to me. Now it's my turn to forward it on to twelve other blogs and bloggers who bring a ray of sunshine to these wintery days and make me smile. So here goes.....

A la parisienne
Amy Blackwell
Annamariaart
Cloudfishing
Daydreams in Lace
Emma Lamb
Happy Loves Rosie
Hardaker and Pope
Pillarbox Red
Sea Angels
Sweet Sweet Life
Tabiboo

I hope you find them as inspiring as I do!

Meanwhile, here are some new additions to my Folksy shop....

Take care guys, back soon!

Fabric Seahorse Mobile

Did you know that seahorses stay with the same mate for life? I have to confess I didn't, until a fellow blogger tipped me off on a previous post (cheers, Marion!) With this in mind, I thought I'd go for a slightly less conventional idea for Valentines Day and have come up with this fabric mobile, complete with hanging heart (well, had to get a more traditional 'love' symbol in there somewhere!) The circle is actually an embroidery hoop, which has been bound with fabric strips and vintage buttons. Though it is intended as a Valentines gift, I can also see it hanging in a nursery or child's bedroom. For that reason I feel that I need to make another with a touch of pink to make it more appealing to little girls.

It's not a great photo, but I love the shadows the creatures cast on the wall!
Have a great weekend folks!

Love birds

So as soon as Christmas has come and gone, all the Valentines stuff appears - I hate it too, but that's just the way it is, I suppose. Anyway, I've been playing around with several ideas, and here is my first offering...'Love Birds'. Originally the birdcage (made essentially using gardening wire and an embroidery hoop) was covered with papier mache with a poem printed around the bottom, but I couldn't get it right and using fabric seemed softer somehow. I don't think I'll be making many of these as it was very time-consuming, although I would like to trial one using darker fabrics. I'm finding it really hard putting a price on it - it did take me ages, but you have to be realistic about how much someone would be willing to pay...a common dilemma for artists everywhere I guess (unless your name is Damien Hirst or something!)
Anyway, your comments are always most welcome. Hope you're having a good week! (It's snowing again here!)

PS Spotty and floral linen fabric by the very lovely Sarah Hardaker

Seahorse

I've become a bit obsessed with seahorses of late. I'm working on a cushion as part of a childrens range and made this card yesterday for a friend who's just had a baby boy. I like the freedom you get stitching on to paper or card with a sewing machine.

I seem to be diverting slightly from my former nautical theme! I'm sure I will come back to beach huts and driftwood boats, but for the moment my heart seems to be more into animals and birds (though no more robins for a while!) I'll just go with it for now and see what happens!

Happy New Year!

Hooray, we had a little bit of snow today! Not alot, granted, but this is Cornwall, remember, so anything is better than nothing!
I was a bit hungover yesterday (tut, tut!) so apologies that my message is a little delayed, but I just want to wish you all love and best wishes for the coming year! See you soon xx