The button tin . . .

This week I became the very proud custodian of the 'family button tin'. This is a collection of buttons which my late mother collected over a span of probably 40-50 years, from when we were all little toddlers. It's such a lovely thing to have and it brought back memories of me thumbing through all the buttons as a little girl - some of them were particularly familiar to me and I must admit to feeling a little bit 'weepy' at seeing them again. Funny how something as simple as a button can trigger such vivid memories!

Isn't the tin great - 'National Dried Milk', probably from the sixties I'm guessing. I think I might use some of the buttons in my crafty projects, and of course it would be lovely to add my own buttons to the collection too (I purchased the ones above last month).

It's a great resource for me to have as a 'crafter' and a fabulous piece of family memorabillia too. 'Little S' is desparate to have a rummage through the tin, which would be fun to do together. He keeps complaining that I'm putting them away back into the tin every time he arrives on the scene!

Finally . . .

Typical boy, he soon got bored of them and left me to tidy up!! :D

Have a lovely weekend :)

All good things . . .

Our Easter break is nearing it's end and our holiday-makers are making their way back to various parts of the country as I speak. Here are the boys and their visiting cousin, about to launch themselves onto the beach:

Bon Voyage to all :)

our creative spaces

I spent this afternoon working on a custom order for one of my laptop sleeves - it's a bit more regimented work after having fun with my 'art-dolls' earlier on this week - but, hey it's always good to have an order to work on! Gretchen's lovely decorative pins came in handy, and they look cute too!

If you have an aversion to fish, look away now! How's this for a catch - my boys, OH, brother and nephew were on a big fishing trip today, and here's the haul - pretty good, eh? Grilled trout for lunch tomorrow!!

Sorry to those who are a bit 'icky' about fish - personally, I love the markings on these brown trout :) The boys should sleep well tonight after trecking around a loch all day, but they're having a sleepover with their cousin, so . . .

More creative spaces here.

Wakey, wakey!

For someone on holiday, I seem to be getting quite a lot of crafting done - perhaps not exactly the crafting I intended either! Yesterday afternoon I decided to wake up my Matryoshka dolls up from their deep slumber - I felt there was a limit to the number I could make dozing in the sunshine:) So a greater part of the afternoon was spent redesigning the embroidered face - lots of drawing, scribbling and then just jumping in with both feet first, which seems to be my preferred way of working!

I'd had an idea in my mind to make a vivid red Matryoshka with black embroidery, so this was the one I decided to 'wake up', so to speak! There were a few attempts to get the features looking the way I wanted - but we got there eventually. I've now developed a method of embroidering the faces, with enough leeway to make variations between dolls, which is exactly what I want. I quite like the starkness of the white embroidery against the white felt - it gives them an individual 'look'. It takes time to do the embroidery, but it's really satisfying and ensures that each one will have a unique identity.

You will either love or hate the second Matryoshka doll - it has a very distinct 'burlesqe'/carnival/theatrical appearance which emerged - personally I really like it, as someone who likes a little bit of the 'bizarre' and the unexpected. But I'm sure folk will have their own particular tastes regarding art dolls/matryoshkas, etc.

I had great fun deciding where to place the sequins, embellishments, etc - it's amazing how much this changes their 'personalities'. I love this plaid tweed, which isn't technically speaking Harris Tweed (the weaver possibly used yarn which had been spun/died on the Scottish mainland - this process has to be done in the Outer Hebrides as part of the 'criteria' for the cloth to be authentic Harris Tweed - fascinating facts, eh - hehe!)

The dolls are approximately 5 inches in height, funnily enough the same size as the rest of my 'tweedies', which ties them in quite nicely. Some people might be thinking, I wish she'd left these dolls sleeping peacefully - myself I'm hugely enjoying the extra dimension being 'awake' has given them, hehe!

I'll be listing these soon in my online shops, perhaps later today - I have one more doll I have in mind to make at the moment, so I'll see how that goes. These two will certainly be added to my Etsy and 'Blog Shop' in any case.

Lots of fun things happening while the Easter break continues - there were 9 'little' cousins, ranging in age from 5 years to 14 years, at my 'Big Sis's lovely Easter dinner on Sunday - it was quite a sight!! Catch up later - Cheerio an Drasda :)

P.S. I'll update this post as soon as the dolls are added to my shops.

Now listed in my Etsy shop :)

Awwwww :)

I think this little lamb in my my neighbour's croft is a pretty new arrival - the lambs seem to be (literally!) popping up right, left and centre at the moment! He looked very sweet in the gorgeous sunshine we are having here today (I think it's a bit of a myth about Hebridean gales and rain - we have had the best, mildest, winter in the whole country this year!)

Better go and hide some Easter eggs - my boys are still in bed after a late night with their cousins! That's what holidays are for though :)

Have a lovely Easter Sunday!

Tah Dah!!!!

Well, off I went to look for the screenshot of the Etsy frontpage I was featured on last night (thank you to my kind commentors who gave me the nudge - we don't know about such things in the Hebrides, hehe!!) and here it is! What a nice surprise - little did I think, when I made my 'tweedie' matryoshkas that they would get that far - I'm tickled pink!!

You can probably see it better if you click on the pic :D

Fame at Last (well, not really!!)

Just popping in briefly before the Easter weekend descends upon us! Lots of lovely family arriving today by train, bus, ferry - it's quite a journey for some :)

Although I have been on 'holiday' this week, it's been more of a 'networking-free' break and I've been busier than I thought 'craft-wise', ain't that always the way! You decide to switch off for a bit and these darned creative ideas keep popping into your head!!! Well, quite a few have developed into finished pieces and made it into my Etsy shop - AND would you believe the Front Page of Etsy!! . . . and I missed it :(

Never mind, now I know why these ladies suddenly became very popular overnight! I didn't really make a conscious decision to make a set of matryoshka dolls - they just somehow happened! A quick doodle turned into a finished piece quite quickly, and my first patterns miraculously worked out first time, right size, shape, etc - sometimes that just happens!

I enjoyed making them so much, I made another one the next day . . .

This one's having a little snooze in the Hebridean sunshine - briefly, probably!

To finish off, I've just completed another of my Harris Tweed 'crafty' Art Dolls - the first one was snatched up so quick, I didn't have time to blog about it - thankyou Mojca, hehe!! These little dolls came about from an initial idea to make a slightly mythical, small, textural fabric doll - which would be more of an art-piece as opposed to a child's toy.

What emerged was a doll (with moveable limbs) draped in oddments of tweed (the edges have been left to fray) - they remind me a little of some kind of character from a Japanese children's animation, watching too many cartoons again! The clothes/tweed oddments have been very simple attached with a stitch here and there and can simply be removed and replaced with whatever you wish - hence the 'crafty' part of the title. Of course, they can be enjoyed in their own right as a decorative art-doll, and would look pretty cute on a shelf.

The matryoshka dolls are in my Etsy shop and 'Little blog Shop' and the 'Crafty/Art Doll' should be joining them very soon - now I really am taking a break! Hope everyone has a great Easter weekend :)

Don't eat too much chocolate now, I know I will, he he!!