Christmas Countdown - October

Once again I'm joining in with Allie's Christmas Through The Year.  Hold on to your hats as I've actually made some progress this month!

1, 2, 3 - travel tissue holders, blogged here.

4, 5 - linen bunnies, blogged here.

6, 7, 8, 9, 10 - Christmas tree decorations, blogged here.

11 - Needlepoint bookmark, blogged here.

12? - Possibly a Christmas present, though I'm not sure who for - bluebird, blogged here.

Bring on November!

More tissue cosies - Oh, I'm so predictable!

It's ten o'clock at night, but I was just watching House when I realised I hadn't posted today as intended.  I've been really rubbish about posting this week, and terrible at reading blogs, commenting on them and answering emails.  Please don't think I'm ignoring you all, work's been incredibly busy and I've been absolutely exhausted - to be expected as I go cold turkey with the yeast.  Incidentally, yeast free bread is very doughy, stringy and sits in your belly like a rock - just in case you wondered!

I whipped up a few more tissue cosies from the DS fabric.  I'd accidentally cut too many of the body outers and inners and these take minutes to make so I thought, why not.

That is a shot of them inside out so you could see the linings as I remember how difficult it was to get a shot showing the insides last time.  I definitely misunderstood the instructions last time as I did my binding by sewing the raw edge to the raw edge of the fabric, then folding it up and under.  This time I did what the instructions said and folded the binding in half, stitched the double raw edge to the raw edge of the tissue holder, then folded it over and top stitched.  Hang on... is that how you bind a quilt too??  I think I've got it all wrong!

I'm babysitting tomorrow night for my cousin's two little boys - aged 2 and 4.  They're adorable but tiring, not sure how much embroidery I'll get done, but there's a few things I need to get done whilst they're sleeping - fingers crossed.  My day will start with a trip to the Health Food shop to try and find yeast free gravy (the only yeast free gravy is vegetable and the only yeast free stock cubes are veg or chicken - do they think that if we're yeast free we don't eat red meat?  It's one of the only things left that I'm allowed to eat!).  Then I have some sewing planned before heading to my cousin's.

I could also do with some computer time as the posts are piling up in my reader and my inbox hit 100 today...  ooops!  Stay tuned as I've got a failure to show you this coming week - yay!

That's not going to happen right now though as I have to make the most of Mr CA's early night and go and watch Big Love.  What did you think I was going to say?  Don't be daft, we're married!

Christmas countdown - September

It's nearly the end of the month, so it's time to publish my Christmas present finishes ready to link up with Allie's Christmas Countdown.

I've already shown you the 4 pencil rolls I made for the little ones, but I've also made another set of presents.  It's about bloody time I got on top of this Christmas business, it's October on Saturday!  I'm incredibly glad I don't have to worry about Halloween crafting, Halloween has no bearing on my life whatsoever, I'm English and proud!

I showed you a few posts ago the lovely DS fabric's I'd been sent from The Wee Pixie.  Well, I usually put new fabric on the shelf and admire it for a while, but I dived right into that little bundle!  Shopping with my mum on Saturday, I came across these lovely little tissue packs:

Oh yes, Cath Kidston and Emma Bridgewater to blow your nose on!  I wouldn't normally buy something like that, too expensive and a bit pointless, but I thought they'd make a nice gift in a tissue cosy.  I found a pattern on Bitty Bits and Pieces, though only after spending about an hour searching through my books and magazines as I KNOW I saw a pattern recently, but could I find it?

I just have to digress a moment for a quick rant.  I've been using Delicious to store my bookmarks for ages now and I've always loved it.  Now they've changed it, in the past day or so.  It's really annoying. The layout is horrible and hard to navigate, it doesn't autosuggest your tags anymore and I can't always remember what I called something, it goes back to your bookmark list, not the webpage you were on after saving a link and it keeps making me log in even though I'm already logged in!

Anyway, back to the tissue holders.  As I've ranted, I'll just get on with it.  Ta dah!

The bunnies were a tad confused about the outdoor photo shoot this morning.  I tried to take pictures last night, but alas, it's gone all dark again!  This morning was bright, but not in the house as we have that anti-peeking film stuff on the windows so I had to take it outside.  I gave them their breakfast, then started setting up but they didn't eat, they just sat there staring at me.

Yes, they look very odd in this photo, but it was the only way I could show you the linings, by pushing the corners in.

And here they are with the tissues in.  I haven't taken them out of the wrappers as they get all gooey and dirty.  Hopefully not sitting on a shelf in my craft room, but you never know.

So, September, 7 presents made, 5 gazillion to go!  October had better be more productive!