Bags of Fun...

I love bags. I have lots of bags. Some women love shoes. Some love cars. Some love ludicrous men. I love bags and have one for (almost) every occasion. I didn't however, have a lovely woolly bag made of scraps of yarn :) I also have lots of yarn. Buckets of the stuff. Skips full. (I fear that my hubby would like to see it all in a skip being taken away...) In fact, I think that a lot of men fear and loathe the bucket loads of yarn that are taking over their houses if the blogs that I follow are anything to go by...
A couple of weeks ago it was sunny here in Blighty. We had two glorious weeks of beautiful, warm, happy sunshiney days. It was bliss. It coincided with me finding myself unexpectedly with no work which was not a particularly positive state of affairs, but I felt that I needed to try to make the best of the situation...
So, I gathered together lots of odds and sods of purple, green, nice blue and turquoise ends and scraps, a pint of Rhubena (love that stuff, and love the name too!) I set off for the garden, dug out a chair from the shed, dusted off the majority of the spiders and other misc. shed life from it and found a spot in the shade (I burn just thinking about sunbathing) Here I am...

Oh, I also took out this lovely book with me, a real fave of mine...

Here is the finished bag...

It's more purple in real life.

And a perk of being outside... here is a bug on my pattern :)

I like bugs that don't bite me.



Craft it Forward

Have you heard of this?? It's a wonderful idea that has really taken off...
I took part last year and received lovely gifts from Claire at Loopholes by Badschnoodles and sent crocheted necklaces to the three ladies that I had to 'Craft it Forward' to.
This year I've seen a lot more people taking part which is great :) I'm lucky enough to be on the receiving end of gifts from both the fabulous Odd Sox and the tremendous Raggy Rat so this means that I need to Craft it Forward to 10 people! (It's gone from 3 to 5 in a year!!) I'm going to send to the first 5 who comment on my blog and to the first 5 who comment on my Facebook page which is here

So here's what YOU need to do...

If you would like to receive something handmade by me, just comment below, I'll contact the first 5 of you for delivery details and Hey Presto, you'll receive a little handmade gifty from me :) Your end of the deal is to publish the rules onto either your Facebook Page or Blog and send out 5 handmade gifts to people before the end of 2012 (who in turn send out to another 5 people) until everyone receives a lovely handmade gift! How fab is that??

Happy New Year :)

I've been inspired to start up the old Blog again... I discovered simplenaturalhandmade.blogspot.com via one of my absolute FAVE blogs Attic 24
Juanita started her blog just this year and it is absolutely fab (go and have a look, go on!!)
Today I am going to blog about TOTE BAGS... I Love Bags!!
In 2010 at the Knit and Stitch Exhibition I discovered Morse Bags Here is a photo from the main entrance of Ally Pally :)

The display was SPLENDID, I was *I*N*S*P*I*R*E*D*
Here are a few that I have made... I'm bad at remembering to take photos...

 My first ever Morse Bag!

This is one that I sent to Estonia as part of a swap...

 Playing with the fancy stitches on my Lovely Sewing Machine

 Applique Cat

Using my own labels :)
This is a replacement bag made for a swap... I made the original last year, posted it off to The US of A but it didn't get there... Luckily I never throw anything away so dug out my catty template and whipped up another one this afternoon instead of going to the gym... I know, any excuse... I love the black stitching, but the white 'ivy bud' stitch is a bit odd I think. The theme for the swap was Hallowe'en... I hope that the recipient likes it (Let's hope that the Postal Services get it there this time!)