Do You Have the Allure?

Do you have "the Allure"? I bought this handwash liquid simply so I could produce it from the shopping bag to my kids with a Ta Dah, proclaiming that I do indeed have "the Allure". (I know the spelling is not quite right, but was pretty sure my dyslexic son was not going to pick me up on it.) Who loves Miranda? I have to admit that I probably didn't get her first series, but I now love her brand of slapstick and silliness. But what I really love is watching my children watching her.

They sit (together for once) on the sofa giggling hysterically throughout the programme.  Other comedies that used to leave me a bit cold, but I have now come to love through my children are Mr Bean, and shall I confess Some Mother's Do Have Em. Someone lent us the complete box set of the later. Kids definitely like physical comedy.

Is there is a comedy that you have grown to love because of your children?

I was also going to write about Friends. For several years me and my son would watch this together, and while having a thoroughly good laugh, it would often lead us sideways into conversations about boy/girlfriend issues, babies etc. A much better way than sitting down one day to have  "the big talk". Both my children are IVF, and it was particularly useful when this was covered.

But our other favourite is The Mighty Boosh. I know some parents may not approve, and my children probably watched The Boosh when they were a bit too young, but we love the surreal humour. The picture below is from my favourite episode. I think it follows in a British tradition of surreal comedies, Python and The Goodies etc. I can remember my own parents being completely perplexed by The Goodies.

Sorry crafters, I have gone slightly off-beam with this post. But isn't it nice to know you can wash your woollies in the Allure.

Stitchwort and Lavender

Meet Stitchwort and Lavender!

Meet two more of my little fairies. I delayed putting them on as I was trying to photograph them with their flowers. Unfortunately the lavender in my garden is a small sad straggly plant with no flowers, and I set off to a wood and tried to take Stitchwort with her flower, but the pictures were just awful.  So here they are anyway, and a Stitchwort flower that I photographed in Devon a few weeks ago. There are still a few more fairies in the pipeline.

Sorry, very short post this week, as I am getting ready for the craft fair tomorrow. Have a look at Ginx Craft on facebook for more information.

Bazinga Bee!

So I was lying in bed pondering a name for this post, and suddenly BAZINGA! or perhaps I should say BEEZINGA! Nice play on words I thought. My family really love watching The Big Bang Theory. As well as being incredibly funny, Sheldon reminds me of some of the autistic kids I have met through my work. Clever, funny, (and also perhaps challenging some people's preconceptions about autism) able to build good friendships.

 

I have been knitting some bees from my Bumble Bee Pattern. I saw this net fabric in a shop, and thought if I sewed it onto felt it would make quite nice bee wings. The original bees had acetate wings, the template for which comes with the pattern. I like them as they are very realistic, but I thought the gold might also look good especially if they were to used as a decoration.

But imagine my surprise when I typed Bazinga Bee into Google to find that it already exists. Someone has named a new species of bee in South America the Bazinga Bee. Click on the photo if you want to read more. I know he looks nothing like my bee, but I think his greeny sheen is rather beautiful. How hard it is to come up with anything truly original!

An Enchantment of Flower Fairies

 

 The Song of the Apple Blossom Fairies
By Cicely Mary Barker

Up in the tree we see you, blossom-babies,
All pink and white;
We think there must be fairies to protect you,
From frost and blight,
Until, some windy day, in drifts of petals,
You take your flight.

You'll fly away! But if we wait with patience,
Someday we'll find
Here, in your place, full-grown and ripe, the apples
You left behind-
A goodly gift indeed from blossom-babies,
To human-kind!

Here as promised are some fairies. I have slightly adapted my mermaid design into a fairy one, and have been busy making fairies all week. 

Apparently the group name for fairies is a herd (definitely not going to use that) or a frolic (quite like that name). But I have decided to invent my own collective noun, An Enchantment of Fairies. Perhaps it will catch on.

The Song of the Forget-Me-Not Fairy By Cicely Mary Parker     So small, so blue, in grassy places
My flowers raise
Their tiny faces.
By streams my bigger sisters grow,
And smile in gardens,
In a row.
I've never seen a garden plot;
But though I'm small
Forget me not!
It may not be clear from the photos, but these fairies, and the mermaids from last week, are really tiny, about 6-7cm. Even taking these photos has been really tricky. The slightest breeze and the fairy has gone flying from the tree, or I have found the right flower, but in a dark dank corner of the garden.

I have tried to decorate the fairy dresses according to some of Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairy Poems, but I do not have all the flowers I have embroidered in my garden. So today I am setting off with my camera, and a little bag of fairy folk, in search of the flowers of some of the fairies I have not photographed yet. So if you see a strange women crawling round the bushes, that will probably be me ...   

The pattern is now available on ravelry. Just click on the link in my sidebar.

The Song of the Daisy Fairy
By Cicely Mary Parker

Come to me and play with me,
I'm the babies' flower;
Make a necklace gay with me,
Spend the whole long day with me,
Till the sunset hour.

I must say Good-night, you know,
Till tomorrow's playtime;
Close my petals tight, you know,
Shut the read and white, you know,
Sleeping till the daytime.

  

Little Mermaids

I have a craft fair coming up in May, and have realised that I need to make a few new things for my table.  Usually it is my little knits that sell best, and as this is not just a craft fair, but a family fun day, this will probably be the case again. So keeping with my seaside theme, I have been knitting these little creatures all week. 

Frankie would like the little mermaids to have bras, but I am insisting they are just baby mermaids, and so don't need clothes. Really it is because although I am dipping a toe into the pool of cuteness, I don't want to completely dive into Disnification.

I am thinking that I might make a few fairies, or just little dolls. Though they would also need clothes I guess. So watch this space! I can't quite decide whether to put the mermaid on ravelry as a pattern. It is such a little knit, but perhaps if there were a few other options, it would make a nice pattern. It is quite fun deciding on hair colours and styles.
 

Confessions of a Secret Technophobe

Are you a secret technophobe? I know you are sitting at a computer, reading my blog, so you must be techie to some extent. I also know that I have been running my blog for over a year now, so you would probably say "of course you are not technophobic!", but I am, I just try to keep quiet about it.

I am fine once I get used to a way of doing something, but new versions of software etc. can completely throw me. It is partly an age thing. After all the most sophisticated thing I had as a child was probably an EtchaSketch. But I will call out to hubby (who is older than me) if I am stuck, and he is more than happy to click around in a programme that he is not familiar with and explore. I like to know exactly what I am doing before I begin. I think I put off blogging for about a year, as I thought I would have to know everything before I started. But it does seem the best way to learn is to just get on and do it, and probably make a few mistakes along the way.

It is not just computers, I am just the same with household appliances. I have still not made a cup of coffee from hubby's new coffeemaker that he got at Christmas. I love some of the functions of our new telly now (but when we got it was so upset by its size that I would sit upstairs watching the old portable one). And do not remind me of the trauma of adjusting to a new car!

What has brought this to mind is that I have been trying to branch Ginx Craft out. I have created a Ginx Craft facebook page, thinking this might be a good way to separate my crafty self from my other facebook self. There is a link to it at the top of this page. I would love it if you want to pop in there and have a look. But even this hasn't quite worked as I intended, as anything I link to my new page still seems to come up in the newsfeed too, but I am working on this.  I have also opened a Pinterest account. I've not got very far with this, as I have just pinned a lot of my own pictures.  But early days.

So I would love it if anyone has any tips on how they link their blog to other social media, and how useful they have found this? 

Or just tell me in what ways you are a secret technophobe.

Little Seaside Bags

Firstly thank you for all the kind comments on my spiral shell pattern. 

 And now another mysterious set of little bags.

Inside them are some sets of my beach creatures. They could be used as an educational toy, but are also very decorative. A little reminder of happy days at the seaside.

The bags are hand dyed. (You may remember my recent tie dying project which I was being a bit secretive about.) They are a heavy duty natural cotton, with a silk pull cord. Each one contains an individual set of hand-knitted and embroidered beach creatures: a spiral shell, scallop shell and starfish.

The sets are for sale in my Etsy shop. (Apologies that I keep plugging my shop, but I am really trying to make a go of it.) As I have made quite a mixture of colours, you can request a specific set, or just leave it to chance. I will try to accommodate any colour requests.

Set A

Set B

Set C

Also I just thought I would mention that I have set up a Ginx Craft Facebook page, so if you are a Facebook user you can follow me there. You just have to like the page. It is at https://www.facebook.com/GinxCraft  and there is an icon to link there in my sidebar on the right. I am still getting to grips with the technology, but I will link all my blog posts there. At the moment I have just put on some of my favourite photos, as it was looking a bit empty.