Biscuit Cushions

The title pretty much says it all; cushions that look like biscuits. And if you know me at all, you will know how much I love biscuits. The designs are hand drawn and hand embroidered, the cushions put together using the sewing machine, which I have now, after four years of avoidance, discovered the secret of: good quality thread. My previous attempts had used the cheap stuff from the market, causing it to become uncooperative. Apparently Mr S.Machine has expensive tastes, demanding the pricier named brands in order to correctly function. Wouldn't you just credit it.

I am being encouraged to go for a Party Ring next, which of course would be the natural choice, however Icannot visualise how it would work. I made these guys envelope style with removable covers- how does that work on a donut shaped cushion, and more to the point, where does one acquire donut shaped filler cushions? I am also lacking in the confidence to attempt something round. It was hard enough making these guys square, let alone attempting to sew a perfect circle on the machine. Anyone have any ideas or experience in this area?

What I have also discovered is that I am pretty pants at taking photos of the things I've made. I blame the poor quality of light in our house, which perpetually requires lamps to be on. The house also seems thoroughly lacking in corners for lovely little vignettes that other bloggers all seem to have. It is a vignette free zone.

3 Little Birds

L-R A White Winged Crossbill, A Bluebird and a Greenfinch. 

Wedding planning update

Well the date is set, the venues all booked and the I'm trying to do this wedding on a budget, as well as making it as personal and as little the same as anyone elses wedding as possible, so I decided to design and make my own wedding stationary.

Inspired by Mexican Papel Picado, as well as a love of Rob Ryan and all things papercut, I set to work . I have hand drawn each one (in reverse no less) before hand cutting them from paper. The top picture shows the save the date card which I have already had printed on postcards by Moo. I was really impressed with how you could fully personalise the back and even choose your font and colour. Whats more, you can make every single card different for the same price as having them all the same, which makes it useful to designers or illustrators wanting to make prints of their work. 

I spent part of yesterday looking at over 250 pages of wedding flowers on Style me Pretty which has a fantastic gallery feature where you can search by keyword e.g. flowers, and even use pictures to compile your own inspiration board. I'm trying to narrow down colours, flowers and styles to go to a florist for a quote. I know that the advice is to not mention its for a wedding if at all possible, as this automatically increases the price, but I'm struggling to see how I could justifiably be after 3 bouquets and a table arrangement otherwise? I'm considering buttonholes as well. Ben was very confused when I asked him if he wanted button holes in a "well how will I do my shirt up otherwise?" kind of way.

A lot of the bouquets incorporating succulents (which I love love love) tend to be in quite muted colours whereas I want as bright colours as possible and lots of big flower heads like peonies and poppies and zinnias. However I need to find out which of these (if any) are actually in season in July. I'd quite like the table decoration (which is for the ceremony) to be in some sort of unexpected container, like a teapot or watering can. I like the food and tea tins but I need something a bit bigger, but preferably Mexican inspired if anyone has an ideas?

(pictures all from Style Me Pretty)

Zingy

My friend thinks her partner looks like the EDF energy mascot. You know, the cute orange flame? I offered to make her one, and our other friend told us you could already buy them on ebay.

Cue a quick search online which soon revealed the mascot had a name, Zingy, and apparently a cult following. The public have begged EDF to produce a toy version, and thus far they have refused. Apparently he is a custom version of something called a My Keepon, which if you follow the link to the Toys R Us website and watch the video, you will see is a completely pointless and arbitrarily named similarly shaped dancing robot, only yellow. No wonder this hotly tipped toy for Christmas 2011, originally developed for work with autistic children and distributed by Toys R Us exclusively in the US, is down from $39.99 to just $9.99 in clearance less than a year after release.

So meanwhile, to cash in on the demand for his orange counterpart, people have been making their own versions of Zingy, and indeed selling them on ebay. I have rounded up some of my favourites below, fleecey Zingy, fimo Zingy, knitted Zingy and indeed the essential incarnation- a wedding cake topper featuring Mr and Mrs Zingy. If at this point, you are still wondering what on earth a Zingy is, I direct you to watch the advert here. He really is a loveable little character, and for two eyes on an orange poo, incredibly emotive.

DMU Degree Show

I went to the private view of the DMU degree show last night. Other than the free drinks and sweets, my personal highlight was Natalia Kukiel's embroidery. Images of bears and deer were printed onto patterned fabric and embellished with embroidery before being framed in varying sized hoops. The colour pallet, subject method and media were right up my street.

It might be a bit controversial to say this but I was Otherwise significantly underwhelmed by the show compared to previous years. Either my standards and expectations are much increased or the creativity and originality of the students has declined.

Even more Cross Stitch Pendants

Everytime one of these babies pops up in my Google Reader Feed it's straight onto my Pinterest Board. I just can't get enough of them, each one is more beautiful than the last.

Good Knits

From the Workroom Flickr

Jubilee themed by The Gingerbread House

Retro loveliness at Thompson Family Typepad

Craftwerk: Royal Rumble

Tomorrow night sees the return of Craftwerk at the Crumblin' Cookie, the theme; Royal Rumble. Organised by the lovely Anna of Cardboard Cutout, with slight assistance from myself, the past few events (photos of which appear both on this blog and the Facebook group) have been hugely enjoyable. 

The evening has a winning combination of lovely people, and a friendly yet competitive atmosphere alongside music and making things, not to mention the fabulously welcoming venue with a licensed bar.

If this sounds like something you might like you should definitely head down to the High Street for 7.30 to take part. All you need bring is your cheery self, but contributions of supplies are always welcome. Mine are pictured here; some union jack shizz I scored at post-jubilee knock down prizes by trolling the Pound Shops and Wilkinsons. Its all about the En-ger-land stuff now for Euro 2012 and the Olympics.