LoVeLy Things ...................

Greetings dear friends & readers

This past week (& a bit) has seen me enjoy a variety of lovely things .............

I had been wanting to make some Christmas Angels for my upcoming craft market

The Angels in my "Tilda's Christmas Ideas" book had been on my mind for awhile now -

- perhaps it was time they came to life ??!!

Although I am a traditionalist at heart when it comes to Christmassy things .... the past year has seen me embracing the more non-traditional colours for christmas, as well as the reds & greens that I love.

I feel they all have their place & their "moment to shine"

Bearing this in mind I decided to make my Angels in non-traditional colours

The first one I made in some lovely soft grey Tilda fabric, scattered with bunches of flowers

I decided not to make the fabric wings in the pattern, but chose instead to use some delicate feather wings 
(available from Variety Stores/$2 Shops)

The second Angel was made in a pastel colourway of pinks & pale lime greens 

The "Christmas is here" banners that they hold in their hands are printed off onto medium weight cardstock

I decided to attach these with double sided tape as I felt they could be removed after the festive season & the  Angel could stay out & be enjoyed all year round

As the small gold crowns featured in the book are unavailable here in New Zealand ... I embellished my angels heads with a twine wreath which I had threaded with a few pip berries.

Way back in June, my friend Elaine gifted me this gorgeous linen teatowel below for my birthday

I LoVeD it  .  .  .  .  but decided it was far FAR too nice to use to wipe dishes with !!!

So it sat in my bedroom for several months until I decided (last week) to make it into a cushion.

I simply divided it into 3 parts ... a front, a back & a decent couple of inches for a flap to hold the insert in.
Then I just sewed straight down the sides - right side facing OUT

I quickly ran up a rectangular shaped insert using an old thin cotton sheet & stuffed it with wadding

The addition of 3 hot pink buttons & I think the back is equally as pretty as the front.

Voila . . . a teatowel becomes a LoVeLy cushion to enjoy.

Dear Blackie is another "lovely thing"     (Yes Pippi you are too but its Blackies turn today !!!)

When I first rescued Blackie & bought him inside he was the wildest, hissy-est, spitty-est, clawing feral thing you could ever imagine

One attempt at patting him or a gentle word, & he would disappear under the bed for the entire day

He still prefers outside to in  .  .  .  . but these rainy days have seen him have a bit of a change of heart

I do most of my cutting out down on the floor & he likes to ummm -  "assist me"

A young friend is having her first baby soon & I wanted to make her a baby gift

As they have chosen not to find out the babies sex as yet, I decided to go with non gender-specific bright colours to be safe
I made her an Owl fleece cuddly rug, a bandana bib & a wool blanket rabbit rattle 

My young friend, the mum-to-be was delighted as she is a colour loving girl

While I was making the bandana bib for the gift, I ran up another four from some soft flannelette that I had on hand

This is a free pattern available from * here *

I usually try to keep a few colours of the bibs for sale in the Cottage & also for my present box.

If I ever need to do any intricate stitchery work now, I usually do it during the daylight hours
My eyesight is no longer so great at nights ... but I do enjoy some repetitive stitching that's not too complicated

These felt mice christmas decorations just foot the bill perfectly
I have been stitching 10 of them over the last couple of weeks, in the evenings while watching T.V.

I have displayed them on this miniature tree, once again to sit on my stall table at the craft fair.
Now I mentioned I had cut out 10 . . . . well I am actually missing two & I am quite certain that a small ginger 4-legged being might have some knowledge of this !!!

And lastly dear readers - while we are on the subject of  Lovely things - I got to look after my dear grandson Alec three times last week 

He is such a delight as he discovers the outside world & all the adventures that it holds.

I hope that your week is going tickety-boo & that the coming weekend is wonderful for you all
Be kind to yourselves & to each other
Thank you so much for visiting with me today
with much love & friendship
Julie & the furry ones x0x0x