My Creative Space

The last time we had a royal wedding of this magnitude I was 18 years old with a boyfriend who feared that weddings were infectious. Obviously, spending the day glued to the television watching the wedding would have given me ideas so we spent the morning climbing a hill behind the quarry nearby. The afternoon was spent listening to Elvis Costello and The Clash. A fine musical selection and well known antidote to romantic notions. This time round it will be an ordinary working day for me, but the bonus of having the shop next to the house means I shall no doubt pop my head round the door from time to time for a wee look.

So.. to get in the mood I used my creative space this morning to crochet my own little royal wedding cake.

Cute....?

More creative spaces are over HERE at Kootoyoo

Royal Wedding Souvenirs.... mmmaybe not !!!

Today I'm linking with Hey Harriet's Shadow Shot Sunday which you can visit by clicking HERE

It's well worth visiting.

I didn't actually go looking for shadows this week and only realised how quirky this one was when I came to do a completely different post. My friends and I had a club night at Mel's on Friday. We are not so much 'ladies who lunch' as 'ladies who laugh'. And there was certainly a lot of laughing on Friday night. Mel sets little challenges every month and this month's challenge was to create a tacky Royal Wedding souvenir.

Obviously, the tackier the better.

Mel excelled herself with this Catherine Middleton topsy turvy doll made from two wooden spoons. Below we have 'common Kate'. Just an ordinary girl with a penchant for fashion. You may notice the stylish chamois leather, gypsy style skirt, the curtain ring earings and the special monogrammed yellow tee-shirt.

Above, we have Princess Catherine in her wedding finery. Note the self styled carrier bag wedding dress and a the exfoliating scrunchy hair. What a lovely shadow she makes.

Elaine also got the tacky element just right with her special Royal Wedding toilet roll holder.

There's really not a lot I can say about this that Elaine did not already say in her authentication certificate that came along with her souvenir.

Perhaps now I should add a disclaimer about how I had no part in these creations and that Buy Design does not specialise in tacky souvenirs. Elaine and Mel really are incredibly talented and creative ladies. Can you just imagine what they could do if they harnessed all their talent for good...



Lost in a good book.

Does anybody else forget the time when they are absorbed in a good book ?

When I say "good book" I don't necessarily mean a great literary tome, or anything truly deep and meaningful. I'm a bit of butterfly in my reading habits and will read just about anything... apart from mythology, science fiction, instruction manuals, or anything really boring. I've been know to sit reading crochet patterns, which some people may think is really boring but hey ho, we're all different I suppose.

Today I have been caught up in intrigue and suspense.

Which is my way of saying... oops I forgot to take some photos and now I have nothing to blog about.

Which means a very short post today and I can get back to 'Alone in Berlin' by Hans Fallada.



Shadow Shot Sunday

I wasn't the only girl looking for shadows around here today.

My poor Angel doesn't know what to do with herself now that the sun has come out. Being white with short hair she tends to get sun burn and we have to put sun block on her nose to stop it peeling.

She does look good in the shadow under the the old garden table though.

She's a bit of a rubbish model though because as soon as she realised I had the camera out she got all camera shy and headed back indoors.

Would you like to see more shadow shots ?

Pop over to Hey Harriet by clicking HERE

Rocking rolling riding..

After yesterdays nonsense I thought I ought to redeem myself and prove to the world that I'm not completely mad. When I was a wee girl I always wanted a rocking horse. I also loved singing along with The Seekers, singing about the train to morning town. I used to dream about singing along with The Seekers while rocking on my rocking horse.

I really wanted a rocking horse for my children, but that didn't happen either. Totally skint when number one was born, fairly skint when number two was born, and by the time number three came along number one and number two were too big for a rocking horse and it seemed a bit extravagant to buy a horse for just one child to use.

I probably won't get to keep this one for long, because he is so lovely and I'm sure someone will be taking him to a new home very soon. But until that happens I can enjoy having him in the shop.

A very talented man called Andy White made this beauty.

Have you ever wondered what joiners do when they retire ? In Andy's case the answer is.. make rocking horses.

Isn't he just gorgeous.

Fiona x

Cracking up ?

Am I maybe getting over egg-cited ?

It's not long till Easter now and I think I might finally be cracking up.

These little egg heads are looking forward to hatching but I'm a bit worried about what they might turn out as. The black and white one is a bit of a bad egg and has ambitions to be a jail bird.

The red one was named Pearce by his mum, an avid James Bond fan with a soft spot for Pearce Brosnan. Sadly little Pearce, an Emo at heart, misunderstood and got his eybrow pierced. Mum was not happy.

On a happier note Ike, in the fetching stetsun, wants to be a country and western singer.

Wee Morag in the tartan bow just wants to look nice.

Not sure what to eggspect from the other two girls but I think the will be just fine.

On the other hand, I may need to have a lie down somewhere calm...

Bunnies Galore

There appears to be an abundance of bunnies in Alyth today.

We have just enjoyed a beautifully sunny and warm weekend and I'm full of hope for a lovely summer this year. I do hope I'm right.

With only two weeks till Easter, and full of the joys of spring I decided that today was the day to start putting my Easter Window display together. Oh yes.. there's another shield at stake but I fear the competition will be fierce this time round.

So would you like a sneak preview ?

I'm not quite finished and I think I will rearrange things a bit more until I am satisfied but here is the progress so far.

I've been crocheting bunnies and carrots and daisies to my heart's content for the last couple of months. I think somehow I would like to create a hill for the little guys to play on though that's going to require some thinking about.

I love my 'easter tree' decorated with eggs and ribbons. It reminds me of our holiday in Eastern Europe this time last year, where the trees in the town squares were decorated in ribbons, and where the fabulous Easter markets were an absolute treat.

I'm not liking how bad the paintwork on my windowsill looks. A reminder of how harsh our winter was and a reminder that I need to speak to my painter to get things tidied up again. 

And here are some more bunnies along the street in my friend Mel's window.

I love her daffodils on the back cloth. They are made from cut out paper petals and fairy-cake cases.

It's such a simple idea but they are really effective.

Hopefully I'll have some more windows to show in the next few days.

My Creative Space

We all know by now that my official status as a jewellery maker has taken a bit of a hit recently as I have become more and more obsessive about my new love of crochet. Of course I decided to learn to crochet so that I could use the techniques I learned to create new and exciting jewellery. I just never planned on getting so carried away with myself.

So.. to the point of todays post.

It's Thursday again which means that it's time to share what I have been working on in My Creative Space. Feel free to click HERE and visit Kirsty at Kootoyoo.

I came across an interesting looking pattern and decided to challenge my crochet and jewellers skills at the same time.

I had hoped to be able to work this pattern in fine wire but that proved a bit tricky so I used a shiny, textured crochet thread instead. Now that I have done the pattern once though I think I will probably try again with wire as I have a feeling that it could result in something fabulous. How's that for confidence then ???

What I should have said, is that I would love to be good enough to crochet  a fabulous, unique and totally gorgeous necklace using fine enamelled wire and although I'm not entirely sure that I'm up to the task, I'm prepared to give it a go. I'll let you know how I get on.

 Whilst I can see ways of improving this one, or maybe just adapting it a little bit, I must admit that I am pretty pleased with myself.

Shadow Shot Sunday

It has been such a long time since I played along with Shadow Shots on Sundays.

The main reason, of course that it's been a long time since we had much sun up here, and when we did have sun it was accompanied by gale force winds and freezing temperatures, and the thought of taking my thermal gloves off just so that I could take a picture was a little less than appealing.

I know that I am a big jessie at heart...( that's a big wimp, or a big softie if you aren't Scottish )

I've never claimed to be an intrepid explorer.

Anyway.. I was passing heyharriet today and stopped to see her amazing shadow shot. If you haven't visited before then you really should as this week's shadow is a cracker.

Now, from my living room it looked like there might be some sunshine in the garden so I quickly grabbed my camera and nipped out to see what I could find. I don't have a huge house and it certainly doesn't take more than a few seconds to get from the front room to the back garden but the sun had all but gone by the time I got out. Nonetheless I was not to be deterred in my search for a shadow.

Okay, so four wheelie bins in a row may not be everyone's cup of tea but they do look rather fine with their shadows on. Oh.. and since you are obviously drawn to the gorgeous blue car, I thought I should include a totally gratuitous shot of my baby.

She could do with a bit of a wash right now but I do love my car. She is a Chrysler PT Cruiser and the best car I have ever had. I always wanted one but always thought it was a bit extravagant and settled for something a bit more compact. A couple of years ago, though, my husband had a bit of a tumble in my small sensible car and ended upside down in the middle of a roundabout. Now don't panic. He was absolutely fine, but the car was a complete right-off. Thanks to a very generous insurance company we were able to replace sensible with gorgeous. He likes to tell people that he nearly died just so that I could get my dream car, but that's a bit of an exaggeration.

 And in case anyone was wondering if I enjoyed seeing Showaddywaddy..

Here's a slighly dodgy shot of 'the boys' on stage at Pitlochry Festival Theatre on Friday night. It was a great night of music, nostalgia and a few laughs.