weird crochet...and last day of the Stamp Man Blog Hop

Crochet keeps me sane!  Whilst the rest of the family were plugged into machinery (computer games, nintendo dsi, psp) I sat crocheting in front of the real fire and felt a bit like an old granny!!  Except I'm not sure this is what granny's crochet!!  :)

 

It's a bit of a late entry, but I'm hoping that, with postal delays, and closure between Christmas and New Year, that it'll still be accepted for Manchester Craft Village's Yarnbombing exhibit!  They're wrapping the balcony rail with crocheted or knitted pieces.  I meant to enter this earlier but completely forgot then over  Christmas remembered and gave it a go.  Even if it gets sent back, I had great fun making it :)

Especially as John Lewis had wool in their Sale so I treated myself to a couple of balls of thick, chunky wool.  And a lovely crochet book fell into my basket whilst I was buying a book for my Dad on Amazon, which gave me the instructions for the leaves etc  :)

 

If you've got a lazy Sunday ahead of you, don't forget that the Stamp Man blog hop, candy and award event finishes tonight, midnight GMT.  I've loved being a blog on this hop.  I've met new people, and found one lives close by - yay!!!  My contribution is HERE, but you need to start at THE STAMP MAN.  Happy Hopping!!

The Stamp Man Blog Hop, Candy, and Award Event

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas, and welcome to the Stamp Man's first blog hop.  Not that it's a just a blog hop!  Oh no, this is a special award event too, and a place to win blog candy.  To hop in the direction of the beat you need to start at the Stamp Man's blog so head over there if you came to me first.  If you're already hopping you should have come to me from the lovely Lisa's blog, Lisa's Craft Garden. 

Jill's wonderful idea is to share a project of your own from this year that is your best or favourite.  Isn't that a lovely idea!  A kind of show and tell of your best work.  I'm really looking forward to seeing what people choose to share.

For me, my favourite work has been art journalling.  I finally got going with it this year and discovered that it's an amazing stress reliever.  I've had a tough year with work and illness and found a quiet, peaceful space in my head when working in my art journals.  Splattering paint, spraying and smooching ink then cutting and sticking my favourite images are my favourite things to do and I get to do them all in my journals!!  I'm not a great journal writer, more of a 'colourer in' :)

I particularly like splatting paint with the adirondack paint dabbers :)  VERY satisfying!!  And I love getting the paint/ink to dribble down the page :)

It's also been a great excuse to buy new stamp images and I now have a better collection of Tim Holtz stamps, amongst others!! 

 

To get this award for yourself, head over to the Stamp Man blog for the info, and don't forget to leave a comment and link to your own favourite/best crafting project from 2009 whilst you're there!  We're looking forward to visiting you to see what your best crafting project has been.

Now if you fancy winning some blog candy, my giveaway is ... [imagine drum roll here :)]

 your choice of one Aspects of Design stamp sheet

So if you've been longing for Tracey's fairies or butterflies, or Kay's flowers and dragonflies, here's your chance!  Although there are lots of other yummy sheets available too.  Click here to have a look.

The code/letter you need from me is

Y  

At the end of the hop you'll be back with Jill where you'll email her with the answer.

And you now need to hop over to see the cheery Christine on her blog 'Ladylace's Crafting Space'.  But don't forget to leave me a comment before you go - you need to leave a message on ALL the blogs to be eligible for the prize. 

Happy Hopping :)  You've got until Sunday 3rd January 2010 midnight [GMT] to play so plenty of time to join in.

and breathe...

What I really want to do is shout AAAARRRRGGGHHH!  The Play Date Cafe starts tomorrow [don't forget, if you add the above image to your blog sidebar and leave a comment on Julie's blog you're in with the chance of some one of a kind blog candy] and my picture editing software has died!  It wouldn't crop earlier so I duly switched my laptop off and back on again [the answer to everything in IT], and now it won't even open the photos!!!

Don't worry, I'll find another way to do it ready for tomorrow.  But to keep me calmer, and to add a bit of pictorial interest to my post, here's the lovely Vernon Kay!

ps a colleague of mine was on a course last week, in the same building as Vernon!!!  He was doing  a journalism course.

pps  aaarrrgh, now virgin tv isn't working

wow! what a stash!!

My very good friend Julie is celebrating 100 followers on her blog by giving away this stash! My holiday stash looks tiny next to this - isn't it amazing. Julie works really hard on her blog, sharing card designs, fabulous blogs that she finds, and of course her designs for AI. She'd love to hear from you so please bob over and say hi, and you never know, you may win! Just click here and follow her instructions. Good luck :)