Jacket featured on The Creative JAR

The Clothkits jacket I have up for sale was featured on The Creative JAR
She's put together some lovely themed galleries of Etsy items, so click over to see the delights.

Looking at the gallery she's put together shows me I need to up my game photography-wise. Must get on to that!

Down time

Back at Mum's for a few days, and with an extra pair of hands and eyes to watch the kiddo, I get chance experiment with my phone camera when out for a walk.



My sister pointed me in the direction of some filter programmes, so I've been having a play around with them



Clearly, I don't know what I'm doing, but I am quite liking some of the effects.











I've also been to my usual second hand and vintage haunts, and my hubby really hit gold with a find yesterday. Photos coming soon!

Yarn Haul

Yarn Haul, originally uploaded by ninethreeo.

I'd been planning to knit Pebble for a friend's baby. I wanted red. There's a reason, I'll go into that later.
Now earlier this year, this friend donated me some red yarn, and I had thought how sweet it would be to make it with that. Yarn that came from her in the first place.
It was almost DK, it looked like it would work. I swatched. It was almost OK. I went with it.
Two thirds of the way through it was obvious it wasn't working. And it's not really right to hope your friend's baby is born on the small side, is it?
I tried again, with yarn held double. He can grow into it, I thought. Not so great either. Newborns don't have a lot of need for armour, and this is exactly what it was turning out like.
Frogged. Again. Admit defeat and head to the shop.
Which is where I picked up the Patons Fairytale. ahem. There in the bottom right hand corner.

oh, that other stuff? I didn't need that. I'm considering it a reward for persistance.

Smith the Hedgehog

Smith the Hedgehog, originally uploaded by ninethreeo.

Smith Finished!
Relax? or pick up another project?

Smith's bottom

Smith's bottom, originally uploaded by ninethreeo.

Ysolda has released Whimsical Little knits 2.
Smith the Hedgehog is the second design released from the set, and just what I needed when I found myself needing a new project Thursday night. Great timing.
Pic is from my phone this morning, so not very clear but hopefully you can see this hedgehog's bottom here. I had plans for this but E claimed it when she found out what it was going to be. She's taking my word for it, because her 3 year old brain can't see a hedgehog here yet. She has offered to help me stuff it, which I will let her do, but she wants to stuff it with candy floss, which I won't let her do.
I hope to get him finished this weekend.
Links:
Smith Pattern Page on Ravelry
WLK2 page on Ravelry
WLK2 page on Ysolda's Site (if you're not on Rav)

Reclaimed Tray

I found this old tray someone had thrown away



It's not a great photo, but hopefully you can see what I saw. Filthy, weird, but with some great potential, yes?

I stripped it down to it's component parts: wooden backing, glass front, dirty chrome and grubby bakelite. Each piece was cleaned according to it's needs and material.

The bakelite came up lovely:


I discarded that weird photo that was under the glass and rooted in my stash of stuff for something nice to replace it with, and found a lovely piece of thick, blue and silver paper.
Now look!


Problem is, now it's so clean and shiny it's hard to get a good picture without any reflections


Even with help on the photo shoot from my little one:


Here are a couple of close ups




I LOVE my new tray and I'm happy to have given it a new lease of life.

Progress on yesterday's soothing project continues, and I hope to get some more done tonight

Soothe

This Sunday didn't start out as relaxing as a Sunday should be.

By 6 o'clock I was ready for a soothing project.

This was how it started, albeit a couple of days ago..




Spent a relaxing half an hour stripping the lavender. The tot and I dug our fingers in, it smelled heavenly!




And here's the next step:


And now for an evening of soothing, repetitive stitches. Next steps coming soon!

After a Break

Meakin Poppy Mug, originally uploaded by ninethreeo.

Hello all, I've been on a bit of a summer break, I've had a bit of a sort out and have started adding some lovely vintage things to my Etsy shop:
http://fern.etsy.com

I love old things but I just have too many and it's time to let some things go. I'll be adding more things a few at a time so keep me bookmarked, I might just have that lovely thing you need to treat yourself! Whatever tickles your fancy: china, knick-knacks, vintage haberdashery, vintage craft magazines and books, clothing, housewares and sparklies, I probably have it and it'll be coming soon! Any questions about these items, or shipping, or any aspect of my Etsy shop feel free to drop me a line. I want you to be delighted with anything you buy from me because uniting a vintage item with a loving owner is what's important.

Hope you're all having a lovely summer!