Splash of colour.

A few days ago I finished a project that was really enjoyable. I decided to make a cat blanket, using scraps of yarn left over from other projects. The result was amazing. A rainbow of colours. Are cats colourblind, I wonder?  If that is the case, it may be a blessing, otherwise they might be dazzled.

I made approximately 100 little 2.5 x 2.5 granny squares, with a well known pattern (I see it all over Ravelry and other crochet sites), and double crocheted them together. The yarn I used was one of my favourites, Patons Sorbet. I think I have mentioned it before. It’s a cotton blend, aran weight (worsted weight for those who are in the States and Canada), and its good for things like bags or something that needs to be fairly thickish  or rugged, like a bathmat. So should be good for a pet blanket 🙂

I enjoyed making this so much, that I am now making something similar, though not for a cat. It’s so easy to pick up, do a few squares and put down again and makes my 50,000 stitch target for NaKnitMo, a breeze, (at least I think it will). I’m so proud of the girls who are doing this challenge, (actually, I think there is a male in there someone as well), but the totals some are racking up every day are incredible. For the rest of us, it’s just a chance to pick up unfinished projects and get them finished, make presents ready for christmas, and generally have a lot of fun. It’s surprising how quickly the stitch totals increase and several people have upped their targets already. I don’t think I will be doing that yet. I am managing to keep up with this blog for the NaBloPoMo, but haven’t done much for NaNoWriMo. I have been planning my plot, but not writing the book! Ah well, tomorrows another day.

Countdown Fame

I haven’t posted for so long, I know, but I thought I’d tell you about my claim to fame. Jonathan, the creator of Infinite Countdown,has used my picture of a snowy landscape, ‘A Little Snow’ as a backdrop to his Winter Countdown. Thank you Jonathan 🙂 I love the idea of the countdown website. Jonathan is still working on it, but I think it will be great when finished. I’ve added the url to my links so that I can refer to it again…especially with Christmas around the corner. It’s always useful to know how much longer I have to get those presents made, (or bought, when I run out of time, as I nearly always do). My current countdown, which is a little more pressing is the NanoWriMo challenge, which begins on November 1st and lasts for the entire month. You need a month if you are going to write 50,000 words of novel. Perhaps Jonathan could add that one to the list of countdowns, as so many folk take part lol. Anyway, thank you for the honour Jonathan…it’s much appreciated.

ONE WORLD ONE HEART

 

It’s time to be thinking about the One World One Heart Giveaway again. I say thinking, because it does not kick off until the middle of January, but if you are thinking of taking part again, as I am, now is the time to do the preparation. In my case that means think about, prepare and make some gifts to give away on here.

So what is One World One Heart?  The event was started in 2007 by Lisa (oceandreamer) and this is her description of it (original here)…

“I created this event in 2007. The original idea behind this giveaway event was to bring bloggers together from around the world who may never ordinarily meet. It closes the gap of the blog community and enables us to interact, discover new and wonderful people, and in the process possibly win a prize or many prizes along the way. 2007 had roughly 85-90 participants and many connections were made because of it……friendships that are still going strong.
We had a strong showing the first year for sure, and then in 2008 we had just about tripled that number.
This is more than wanting to win something…….that is only the means…….in the end it’s about finding kindred spirits. Someone who may be fairly new to blogging, not sure how to navigate, find others and have others find them….Some are long time bloggers and in some cases well known in the art community. Whatever the case it brings all of them together. This is an INTERNATIONAL event that has and had participants from the US, Canada, France, Sweden, Germany, Finland, Malaysia, Brazil, The Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, Ireland, England,Wales, Slovenia and more. It transcends geographical location, socio economics, political affiliation, religious beliefs……it’s a coming together like the giant community we are on this planet. If only it took a simple giveaway to create PEACE everywhere, in the mean time here we give from our hearts. We are not solving the worlds problems nor are we curing anything nor are we changing the world. We are merely generating a closer community between humans through blogging. What more could I ask for, my little idea has surpassed my wildest dreams of what it could become.
I don’t like rules but sometimes there needs to be at least guidelines to keeping things cohesive and fair for everyone.
You don’t need to be an artist to participate each year, this is open to everyone. What it’s not meant for is self promotion. Meaning that the mission of this event is to meet new people and them meet you, rather than be a commercial for each persons specific endeavors. Many people have links to their websites, Etsy sites etc. already on their blog therefore the “visitor” can click on those to find out more about what a person does. The aim is for the event post itself to be about welcoming and showing what each visitor has a chance to win by stopping by…..AND giving the visitor a chance to read and learn more about each person along the way.
It is almost like being in a huge convention room where you meet and mingle – only the “hello my name is” badge is each persons blog.”

Those of us who took part last year had enormous fun. We met new people who we would never have met ordinarily (on the net, of course), and we were able to read their blogs. Because most of the folk were crafters or artists , but not all of them, those aspiring artists (like me on this blog) were able to pick up tips, learn about new crafts and hone our skills with advice from our new friends. It has been impossible to keep up with the 200 odd blogs that I visited last year, but I have managed to keep up with a few. I’m really looking forward to ‘meeting up’ with everyone again and being introduced to lots of new folk.

If you would like to take part, please follow this link and read Lisa’s instructions. As she says, they look exhaustive, but they aren’t…its all just commonsense. If you sign up, give me a shout, as I think I might add my odd participants list here too…I’ll think about it.

To see my blog entries for last years event, look here. 

Did I show you…?

UPDATE  

KATHY WON HER COMPETITION. WOW! WELL DONE KATHY! ENJOY YOUR PRIZE!

…the lovely gifts I received from my Swap-bot partner for the Gingham sewing swap I hosted? I was over the moon with them and never expected to get as many items. My favourites are the tote bag and apron, shown below, but my partner kathy also made me a wrist pin cushion, a needle book (both of which I have been using) and a beautiful photo album with a pink gingham cover. I am still deciding what I will use it for – travelling teddies is one option. The tote bag is delicious. I am using it to store my knitting and crochet projects just now, as I don’t want to spoil it by using it outside. I’ll use it in the spring and summer when it is less likely to get wet and dirty, though it is easily washable. The apron is an unusual pattern, with a flared section at the bottom and the fabric is gorgeous. All in all I did well out of that swap and I’m very gratful to Kathy for spending so much time making and sending me these lovely things.

Kathy has her own blog spot http://www.kathymomofmany.blogspot.com, which is well worth a visit. The banner at the top is wonderful as it shows Kathy’s beautiful family. How lovely to see such a happy and healthy family, when so many images these days leave us feeling miserable, disappointed or dispirited. They do you credit Kathy. At the moment Kathy has entered a competition to win aprons for four family members, and I know she would love to win, so please, help me to thank her for her delightful gifts and vote for her, (put a vote in every day if possible) at

http://apronqueensreviews.blogspot.com:80/

I think she truely deserves to win, but even if you don’t Kathy, you are a winner in my book!

Please vote folks!

Good luck Kathy…I’m away to cast todays vote! 🙂

Freebies winner is…

Cheryl from   http://www.lennydavinci.blogspot.com/.

Thank you to those who took part. Cheryl, I will be in touch 🙂

Freebies

I don’t know whether everyone has gone to sleep, or just don’t like my giveaways, but the response has been minimal. There is no catch. Just leave me a comment on here or one of my other blogs, and include the message that you’d like to win a freebie. That’s all! Here are the two prizes the winner can choose from:-

                        

For details of the contents of the craft package, click here. Good luck!

What a week!

The excitement of the last few days is not over yet. In the last few hours I have had two more surprises, and what lovely surprises! I have been picked as the lucky recipient of two more giveaways in the One World – One Heart event.I receieved an email from Trisha at http://www.easilyamusedhardtooffend.blogspot.com/ telling me that I have won one of her lovely little hearts. I don’t know anything about needle-felting, so I am very excited to be receiving something like this, and her hearts are so pretty. Just look at these. If you visit her site you can read about how these little beauties came into being.

Then today I received a message from Cliodhna at http://cliodhnaswave.com/  telling me that she had had an extra draw and I was the winner of an embroidered  card. Of course I hotfooted it across to see the card, and Wow! What a beauty! I think I will frame it and dispaly it. I will not want to part with it.

I think he is something else. How beautiful. I shall treasure him, and all the other wonderful gifts I have won.

Thank you girls. I am chuffed to bits!

More than that, I am so happy to be finding all thes egreat blogs that I would never have found by myself. I am going to have a ball visiting them all. If you have not already done so, please visit as many of the participants sites as you can. It really is mind blowing…all that creativity and talent.

OWOH Giveaway Participants on the LOVE TRAIN

To see a complete list of all the participants in this years event, click on the link below.

http://oneworldevent.blogspot.com/2008/01/this-years-event-information.html

Enjoy!

FANTASTIC!

Well, now that I have finished my draw, I can take time out to revel in my own winnings. I won two giveaways. I am so excited about them.

The first is a georgeous pair of earrings from Angela at funkycatstudio.com I think Angela was worried because I was giving away earrings, but I live for earrings, and it’s always wonderful to have some made by someone else, just as it is great to buy them from a shop. These are the earrings. I love them, and can’t wait to wear them. they are exactly what I would have chosen for myself! (And I’m not just saying that!)

Then I was lucky to have a second win, this time  from Antonelli’s website…http://www.quilling.blogspot.com/. Now this was particuarly amazing because it is down to Antonelli’s site that I became aware of the One World – One Heart event. I was looking for some information about quilling, something I love to see, but have never tried. I Googled ‘quilling’ and found her wonderful site, which explains what quilling is and how to get started with some of the basic shapes. There are free patterns too. I am dying to have a go! Anyway, having been made aware of the contest, I decided to participate and whilst I was entering all the draws, I kept wishing I could remember where I had first seen the information about it. When I won my beautiful giveawy on Antonelli’s blog, I suddenly realised. This was where it had all started. This is the lady I have to blame for all the fun and excitement of the last few days. As a thank you to her, I am going to send her a reciprocal gift. This is my Santa giveaway, made by Antonelli, and yes…Quilled! I am very excited.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, Angela and Antonelli. Both blogs will be added to my blogroll, as will quite a few of the blogs of other participants.

 

I still have some cards to finish making for the second prize winner, but I should have them done very soon. I am now looking forward to reading all these blogs and seeing all the creative things other people do. There is such a wealth of talent. Aren’t we so lucky to have a tool that enables us to contact people thousands of miles away and share our lives with them? Whatever the disadvantages of the internet, there are overwhelming advantages too. If only people would appreciate it and not abuse it!

I have enjoyed this experience so much that I am going to have a weekly giveaway, so watch this space for more info!

****Winners!!****

Ok…I gave up with the paper version…it took pages and pages of paper, (and I had only printed half at that point!!), and whilst I was cutting, I thought…’I’ve got to fold them all too! I’ll be here all afternoon!’. So I decided to use the Random Number Generator, a nifty little device which I found on http://www.violetsareblue.net/ The generator is here. Much quicker! So…da dum! Here are the winners.

Prize No1 – Three Gift Cards – goes to This Girl Remembers thisgirlremembers.wordpress.com

Prize No.2 – Three gift cards – goes to Sharon at   http://schutt.net/sharon/

Prize No.3 – A set of three birthday cards – goes to Becky at artofzinkibaru.blogspot.com

Prize No. 4 – Two pairs of Earrings – goes to Angie at quillysilly@yahoo.com

Prize No.5 – A set of Toppers – goes to Linda (Craftygallinda)

***Congratulations to you all***

If you read this before I get to email you, please send your address via a comment at the bottom of this post. Comments are moderated, so I will not publish any personal details, names addresses, email etc, and will only make the comment visible after editing, if there is anything else left!! I will, however try and contact you all by email.

This has been fantastic fun Lisa, thank you for organising it. It is such a good idea, and the fun continues now as we explore each others’ blogs and make new friends. I can’t wait until next year!!

Congratulations to all the winners across the event, commisserations to those who didn’t win prizes, but I suspect that most of us were in this for other reasons. Anyway, I will certainly be organising other giveaways on this blog, so keep in touch. I look forward to seeing you all again.

Hugs to everyone,

Susie.

Giveaway No 5

Right! here we go! Gosh…I’m getting giddy here.

On offer for giveaway no 5 are some card toppers. They can be used for A5 and A6 cards. I have also included a set of toppers which are small enough to be used on tags.