Last Order Dates

Here are the last ordering dates for my shops.  So hurry up!  Also for you lovely blog readers I am offering a special discount in my etsy shops 20% off.  All you have to do is quote BLOGSPECIAL .  So hurry to my Bigbluebed shop Alix Beech shop   South & Central America, Caribbean, Africa, Middle East, Asia, Far East (including Japan), Australia  and New Zealand  - Friday 3rd December Eastern Europe, USA and Canada Wednesday 8th December Western Europe  Friday 10th December UK - Monday 20th December

 

Button Wednesday - Handmade button, interrrupted but finished.

Last Wednesday I was going to post about a button I was making. I had taken the before shot and then would take another photo when I had finished the button. It was a pink button for my sister to go on her newly made ipad case.

Then I had an urgent message from a friend asking me to take over her half of a stall at a fair on Saturday. 'I cannot do it. I have no stock.' I said. But I thought about it and agreed to do the half table for her.

When I got home from work in the evening I was told the other person was unable to make the fair and could I do the whole table. So my mornings quiet relaxed button-making went and was replaced by frenzied sewing for the fair.

So to continue where I was last Wednesday - here is the before photo of the button. A naked button you could say.

And here is the finished button.

For more Button Wednesdays pop over to Kraplap's P8 Buttons & Fabrics Blog here.

Christmas shopping?

Wordless Wednesday - New Ornament?

New Car Booty Finds

Well an Indoor Car Boot.  They used to hold a flea market in the sports hall before the refurbishment. Not it is an Indoor Car Boot but it looks to me like the flea market stalls are coming back.  Which is a good thing.

I had a wander a couple of times round. Passed over responsibility of child to my mum which gave me the time and space to go where I wanted.

And I was rather lucky.  I bought two dishes with gloriously kitsch ducks on them for 10p each.  A lovely lady gave me free a Singer machine attachment as she had no idea what it was (mum tells me it is a buttonholer).  And I saw this lovely plate and purchased it for £1.

It is by made by Arabia in Finland. I looked them up and they have a huge production supplying a lot of Europe. But I could find nothing about this particular design.  I would love to know when it was made. At first I thought 1950s but now I am thinking 1970s.  If you know please tell me.

**UPDATE** The loevly Louise of ThirtyFive Flowers blog found the name of the design for me (see comments). Thank you so much!   It is called ' Emilia'.

Button Wednesday - Google it!!

I didn't really know what to do for Button Wednesday this week.  So I thought I would put buttons in Google and see what comes up. What a lot, and lot, and lot and lot.  But what is much more fun to do is to put the work buttons in the Google IMAGE search. This way you can look through the lovely images (ignoring the badges and computer buttons etc.). And if there is anything that appeals click on it to see where it came from.

So this way I found a couple of great tutorials for making your own buttons.

Click on the links to go and have a look:

How to Make Singleton Buttons

How to Make 9  Hole Buttons (and a fantastic idea for embroidering letters on them).

So go explore and have fun.

For more Button Wednesdays pop over to P8 Buttons & Fabrics blog.

Halloween - a Night for Witches (one of them a bear!).

I live in the UK and I am in my 40s.  This means that Trick or Treating never played a part in my childhood.

Not so for my daughter.

For the first time I went trick or treating and okay all the costume I had was a spider drawn on my cheek with an eye pencil.  But my girl certainly looked the part.

And she spent the afternoon making Halloween decorations:

And I carved my first ever Pumpkin.

I am now looking forward to next year.  I might have to wear a costume myself next time. 
Thank you to everyone who gave my girls sweeties and made her feel welcome.  Thank you.

Musings on Photographs

I have always loved action photos. Seeing my girl run and jump about - her joy of that moment captured in a photo.

Recently we met a cousin not seen for 40 years. At my parent's house we looked through old photographs some I had never seen before. Photos of my gran as an young lady when all I could remember is an old lady who died when I was seventeen. Photos of my uncle who died young and photos never seen by his son now in her 50s, and last saw his dad when he was a child. Photos of my dad as a young man laughing with his parents and brothers and sister.

When I am old I will love those pictures of my Mary dancing down the street. I will feel her happiness and that moment of joy encapsulated in that moment the shutter clicked.

I will also pour over photos of people that show them facing the camera and looking out at me.  And I will look at their dearly beloved faces, their smiles, their laughter, the lines on their faces. The faces of the people I love, now gone but always in my heart. And photos of people I didn't know except as stories told by the family.

And when I am gone, long gone, and my great great grandchildren look at photos of me, I would like them to look into my face and maybe they will wonder about the person looking at them but now long dead.

My Medieval Girl

Transforming 

Button Wednesday - new buttons from me! (and some from others).

I know you are amazed - I have finally listed some new buttons on etsy. I would like to say that I have just made them but to be honest I made them ages ago and have just taken the photos of them.

 You can find them in my etsy shop here.

Here are some more handmade buttons from other etsy shops:-

From Deep Indigo.

From Star of Supplies.

From  Tina Bozjak.


Just a few. There are lots more to feast your eyes on so do pop over to etsy and have a look.

For more Button Wednesday pop over to P8 Buttons and Fabrics Blog.

Cat on Fire!

'Oh goodness. Is she going to disturb me with that clicky flashy thing?'

'Here she comes closer. Cannot a cat be left in peace?'

SWIPES!!

'

'Bother! Just missed her!'

Button Wednesday - A Box of Buttons

On Saturday we went to an Indoor Car Boot sale. How I love to walk about and browse through the stalls, hoping to find something to treasure.
Luckily enough I found a lady selling buttons. £1 for 5 packs. So I chose 8 and gave her £2.

That evening I enjoyed myself looking through the buttons. My lovely Dad had given me a box he recently bought in an Austrian flea market.   So into the box the buttons went.

The red ones are glass, the blue ones in the bottom left are wood. The ones in the top left and top right are some sort of metal.  Sorry about the photos but it was evening when I took them.

For more button love visit P8 Buttons & Fabrics blog.

Teeny Tiny Mouse

tiny mouse 004
Originally uploaded by bigbluebed
In my hunt to find small things that crochet in one piece..I do believe that I have struck gold.

Isn't this a cute mouse. Crocheted all in one piece from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail.

I found the pattern here.  It has been designed by Lucy Ravenscar and she has a great blog here.

A Little Amigurumi

You have probably seen amigurumi everywhere. The word means knitted stuff toy and it comes from Japan. Now of course there are little crochet toys as well as knitted and they are always cute.

I took up crochet this year and decided to try an make amigurumi toys.  Not only do I have a cute and cute-loving daughter but I work at a children's after school club and I wanted to make some little toys for the prize box.

If you look towards the top of this page you will see some tabs.  One new one is  Useful Links.  I am going to be adding links to sites and sellers where you can get patterns.  So if you know of any then please let me know.  I am particularly after very small toys.

Here are a few amigurumi that I have made recently.

This is the latest one. It is a tiny whale and the pattern is by June Gilbank of PlanetJune. I love this one as not only is it tiny but it is also made in one piece. (I hate sewing up!).

The next one is from  a pullout called 'Christmas Toys' in 'Let's Knit' magazine October 2010 edition.
Lots of parts to sew up (sniff!)

 And here is the finished penguin.  It is not perfect and the eyes are a bit too big and too high but he has been well-loved byt the child who received him.

And I think that is something lovely at making toys for children - how much they love them.

RIP Ultrasauros Luna Park

Loved by the people all Summer.
Destroyed by fire in a few short hours early Friday morning.

Treasure

As promised, ages ago, this post is to show some of the beautiful jewellery that is in the British Museum.

I do have to admit that I may not be able to remember what period it came from so I suggest the best thing is if you pop along to the museum yourself or if unable due to distance, then check out the website here.This is the collection database here.

So all I am going to show is the photos I took. Bear in mind that this is just a tiny tiny proportion of what there is in the museum.

My photographs are pretty bad but I did try to capture some of the amazing detail.  Alot of these photos are of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon jewellery and it amazes me that goldsmiths some 1500 years ago could create such beautiful pieces.  Truly inspiring.  Oh yes I think there is some photos of Roman and possible Egyptian pieces too (bad Alix! Take notes next time).

London for the Day

As promised in my last post I am doing a post about our day trip to London. However, I am going to do another post which will be dedicated to photos of some jewellery in the British Museum.

We caught the early train and woman, man and child went to the capital.



We were so lucky with the weather as it stayed fine but was not too hot. Paul had made Mary an I Spy London guide of her own and this included such things as the statue of Boudicca. She loves the tv programme Horrible Histories and now owns the books, and a couple of audio cds. It is quite remarkable how much she has learnt from them.


On previous visits we had a delicious ice-cream in an Italian cafe in Regent Street. Look at these cakes:


Small girl child was rather anxious to get to our next stop so we only had an ice cream to eat as we walked. I chose chocolate and it was a wonderful as it looks:


We popped in to Hamleys and Mary spent some of her money.
And we had a play.


And then we walked to the British Museum. I really recommend a visit here. I know that not everyone lives in easy reach to London, and that the cost of travel can prohibit a visit. For the 3 of us it cost £40 return and that was using my network card. We walked everywhere so did not have to pay for the underground.


The collection is amazing. Due to small child tiredness we could not see everything and a return visit sans child and with child is planned for the future. I also enjoyed a visit to the shops and the restaurant where we had a refreshing much-needed cup of tea.


I think if you do plan to go then it is worth having a look at the website and see what interests you, as in one visit there is so much to see that you do not really want to rush round.

And the verdict of the child? It was a wonderful day out and the British Museum is better than Hamleys.

She certainly enjoyed taking some photos of things that interested her!

Last Few Days of Summer

With the return to school and work near approaching, it feels like we must fill our remaining days together with lots of things.

And indeed we did go to London (which I will tell about in another post). But sometimes just being together at home or in a park is enough.

And for me it is lovely to picnic in the park and watch my girl play.