Etsy sales, more lovely post and messy crafting...........

I really do love our postman well not him but all the lovely little packages he keeps bringing for me.

Firstly, this week we received a pretty package from the very lovely Vicky at Anglesey Allsorts. It was my PIF prize.

Not just for me, but one for Twiglet too, how kind is that?

Hmmm. beautifully wrapped, I don't want to crease the paper, oh I can't help myself..........

Look at these gorgeous little bags that smell as good as they look and lots of little flowers and bits for me to play with.And for young Master Twiglet, 4 cute little finger puppets and a stack of butterfly cutouts and glitter !!!! magic. Thank you sooooo much Vicky. I'm not going to do my PIF immediately as I've just done one but more importantly want to make some bits and bobs for it and will probably make it a bit of a milestone one, so bear with me folks.

Well as if that wasn't enough, I received a totally unexpected Random Act of Kindness from the super ace Queenie from the Crafts Beautiful forum. When I openend it this morning I was overwhelmed. It is a little book on the theme of being inspired (Queenie knew I'd opened my Etsy shop and thought it was apt :) with some wonderful quotes, my favourite being by Ralph Waldo Emerson `Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail'. Queenie wouldn't know this but I'm a big fan of Ralph Waldo Emerson and like to dip into his quotes for a bit of inspiration now and then.

Isn't it beautiful (apologies for my rubbish photos that don't do it justice, the creepy shadow is the light fitting!!!! Such a lot of time and care have gone into this book and I'll treasure it forever Queenie, thank you so much.

To up the magic quota even more I've had two Etsy sales this week and can't tell you how excited and grateful I am, thank you so much to lovely Vicky at Angelsey Allsorts and Jo at Blissed Out.

Oh more excitement - this will make me sound like a complete nerd - my new washer arrived yesterday, so it's like a laundry here today - hooray!!! Phew, panic over.

Finally, Twiglet and I have have had an at home day today and done lots of crafting and even more cleaning up :)

Here's some pics................

Twiglet discovered if you kiss glitter it gets in your teeth, are all 2 year olds this barmy?

Here's a piccy of Twiglets painting apron, just because it's cute. Why can't I get one in my size, I LOVE Miffy, it's not fair - harumph!

3,2,1, blast off as Master T shouts quite a lot, yes I know it's sideways, have you not realised yet I'm not very technological :)

Now keep your eyes peeled because Algernon will soon be paying my blog a visit on his way to my Etsy shop, he's heard about Planet Earth and thought he'd take a look.....................................

Woohoo I've just opened my Etsy shop !!!!!

After much deliberating, I have NEVER sold any of my stuff before because to be honest I think it's a bit pants. Well I've finally done it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that. I've been sewing away all weekend, and this is what I've come up with. Hope you like them...................

A couple of cheery cherry mini cushions ( I realise first one is sideways, but I'm tired ;) ..................And a couple of calorie free scrummy cupcake pincushions.............

Anyhoo, go take a look see, so it looks like my stuff is really nice and I'm dead popular:) in fact save me as a favourite or if you really want to go nuts buy something. Ok, end of shameless self promotion. Link is http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5384097 Would appreciate your feedback though..............

Well I've had one of those days today, don't usually talk about `life stuff' on here, but over the weekend my washer packed in, then remembered we have to pay for our hols this month and my hot pad I NEED for my cranky old back gave up the ghost, cue snivelling Twiggy, oh and it's that time of the month.

Anyhow, alls well that ends well, my lovely father in law has written Mr Twigs a cheque for a washer, I've borrowed my mums hot pad and can buy one tomorrow and if we tighten our belts will be able to pay for hols. So no furtive trips to button/craft/ fabric shops for Twiggy for the forseeable future! Will have to make do with drooling over your lovely blogs.................

Luck Be a Lady Called Twiggy ! and a Lovely Museum Visit

We've had a lovely day today and I received a few lovely things in the post - yay - which has made up for the rather trying week I've had.

Anyhoo, as I'm not working this weekend we thought we'd have a fun day out and visited the Yorkshire Motor Museum in Batley which is nice but I think Twiggy will enjoy it more when he's older. Mr Twiggy was in his element though.

Next we visited the Tolson Museum and it was fantastic. I can't recommend it enough, it is child friendly in a beautiful old mansion house setting and the staff are lovely. We will definitely return, I'd rather like to go along on my own sometime as there is a section dedicated to the cloth mills of Huddersfield and I was drooling over the cloth samples and beautiful Victorian samplers even though I had to have a very quick look at them. Here are some photos for your delectation - proves what a nice place it is to allow photography.

Look at all these lovely needlework essentials.
A Victorian style school room.
An amazing sampler that was made by an 11 year old girl, it really is marvellous, I'm just sorry that my photo doesn't do it justice.
Finally, a childs bedroom, with some amzing old toys, a super rocking horse and the cot has a gorgeous handmade patchwork quilt.

If you ever have the opportunity to visit the Tolson Museum, please do, you'll love it.

Ok, tourist information plug over. When I got home I'd received two parcels - ooh excitement, I love parcels, especially unexpected ones.

The first one was from a very kind and generous lady from the Papercraftersunited forum , Jacqui had asked us to send her a SAE and she sent us by return a lucky dip bag full of goodies as she wanted to rid herself of some of her craft stash.

She had packed so much into my envelope I've had to take two photos!

As if this wasn't enough.................
Look at this!!! Thanks Jacqui your generousity is much appreciated and I'll put it all to good use.

Now as if that wasn't enough I also received a surprise parcel from the lovely Tiggertastic from the Crafts Beautiful forum.
Inside was a beautiful handmade RAK and a stunning handmade handbag charm - how lovely is that? Thank you so much Tigger, what an unexpected and generous gift.

As I had a free afternoon, I've been quite industrious making RAK ATCs and a card.
Here are my cherry blossom trio.
And my vintage beauties!
And a card that I've entered for the 3 and 3 challenge on the Papercraftersunited forum. The rules are you must use three shades of the same colour and three shapes, which was harder than it sounds!

Finally, I received another lovely RAK this week from Karen AKA Copse from the Crafts Beautiful forum, it's so pretty. Thank you very much Karen.

So all in all a good day, what a lucky Twiggy :)

Sals Competition

Over on Sals Snippets Sal has a competition running and has set a challenge. Which is to enter your name into Amazon or Ebay and blog the book titles that come up along with amusing comments. It's good fun so why not go and take a look, link on my favourites list to the right. Now I've cheated a bit, if I looked under Twiggy there were just loads of books about funnily enough Twiggy so I've searched under my non stage name (if you see what I mean) Sarah. I'm not promising amusing comments ok? here goes...................

The key to understanding sarah is to realise that she is in her own little universe.In fact some would say, she is away with the fairies.I mean, just look at this she is now pretending to be a Sarah Jane, just so she can get close to scrummy David Tennant , the current Dr Who and we all know what kind of action adventure she's after!How could she do that to Mr Twiggy and little Twiglet!!!!!Let's give her a wake up call, altogether now, OH SHUT UP SARAH !!!

Here's my view, well sort of..............

Vicky over at Angelsey Allsorts asked us to post a piccy of the view from our kitchen window. Well our window looks straight into next doors kitchen and although it's very clean and tidy it's not very inspiring( also Mr neighbour) often walks around topless - it's not pretty, so I wanted to protect his modesty.

Instead, I've posted the view from our lounge window, which I love and its one of the reasons we bought this house. Hope you like it...............

Lovely Post & Wahey.........

The wahey is because, I don't have to work for the next two weekends - yay !!!

Anyhow, have you had a good weekend? We've had lots of snow in Yorkshire but it hasn't settled - boo!!

Thought, I'd share some of the lovely post I've received recently. I'm a member of the fab forum Papercraftersunited as you know. Recently we had a vintage card competition which was won by a lovely lady called Marianne from Denmark. I really loved her entry and the vintage label she had used , so do you know what she did? posted a packet of labels out to me! how kind is that?

Here they are, too delicious to use really....................The post came early on Saturday so I was able to open a parcel of fat quarters that I'd ordered from Ebay, they are scrummy. I really wanted to stay at home and have a play, ho hum. Twiglet has earmarked the choo choo fabric (that's what it's called honest) he wants me to make him a train. He does have a lot of faith in his mummy which is quite lovely but it doesn't half keep me on my toes. Keep your eyes peeled for Challenge Twiglet, I've still not got around to making him an Idris the dragon from Ivor the Engine. I love the fact that Twiglet loves the 1970s retro kids telly me and Mr Twigs watched during the 70s. The latest programme we've introduced him to is The Magic Roundabout, he loves it and dances when the theme tune comes on - fab!!!

Well after a visit to the pet shop Mr Twigs tells me that apparently our fish died because there was too much ammonia in the water, this was because we shouldn't have introduced three fish to the tank at the same time - hmmm would have nice to have received this advice when we bought them, me thinks.

Anyhoo Sping seems fine and has just discovered his reflection so it's very entertaining watching him flipping around like crazy as if to say, who is that handsome guy, check me out!!!

We are going to wait for a week or so and buy just one more fishy for the time being, however, I'm not sure how our alpha fish will feel about that:)

Twiglet and I love CRAFTING as he calls anything that involves paper, pom poms and glue sticks and we have some ace books. Thought we'd have a bash at something from this book which is terrific for little artists.

and produced this fine looking bus....................

Please note that Twiglet has drawn passengers, Grandma is in the first window, then mummy with Twiglet on her knee and the passenger at the back with the big round head is daddy - haha!

And finally, excitement, our seeds have started to grow, so far we have lots of oriental salad (below), beetroot, one tomato and courgette and two sunflowers. Considering the artic like conditions in our porch I'm rather pleased.
Now don't forget if any of you are Damages fans like me, it's the series finale tomorrow night, oh Glen Close is so scarey...............

It's Friday Already !!!

Above is a photo taken in Whitby on a very chilly January day.

Where on earth has the week gone? Well I hate to be the bringer of bad tidings but Poppet & Emo are no more!!! I suspect Sping has finished them off as he's been very giddy this week - hmmm. Mr Twigs and Twiglet are revisiting the pet shop tomorrow. Just to add to this gloom, I've got a dodgy back and hip now - what an old gimmer. Twiglet and I are very disappointed today as we usually play out with friends on a Friday - ho hum.

Anyway, onto more jolly things. Firstly I've got a few things to catch up on, the first thing to mention is a lovely You Make My Day award that I've received from Jo at Formerblonde. Right back at you honey, I love reading your blog too, thanks very much for the award.

Secondly, I've been tagged again, big thanks to Louise at Home is Where the Heart Is - how many Twiggy facts can you take? If you feel you know enough about me already, feel free to skip the following bit :) Here's my little meme.

4 people I e-mail Jan at Daylily Lane, Helen a friend from Papercraftersunited, Just started emailing Vicky at Angelsey Allsorts, Mr Twiggy - usually to say, will you fetch a pint of milk. home - lol

4 things to eat Chocolate,Cinnamon & Raisin Bagels, Rhubarb Crumble, Creme Brulee (all very healthy).

4 movies I’d watch again Little Women (watched it last night),Into The West,The Godfather Trilogy,Brief Encounter.

4 places I’ve lived Pontefract, Wakefield, Where I am now !!!

4 Places I have been Malta, Ireland, Austria, Rome.

4 TV shows I watch
University Challenge - I don't get many questions right !, Damages, I watch Brideshead Revisited a lot on video - does that count? QI.

4 places I’d rather be Living Would have said in the country (but I do now) so Filey on the Yorkshire coast. Above my own book cum craft shop. In a little farmhouse near the sea in South West Cork. To be honest, I'm happy where I am, for now.

4 things to look forward to.Going on holiday in Wales this Summer. Finally getting off my bum and opening an Etsy shop. Watching little Twiglet grow up (though this is tinged with sadness - sigh). Spending sunny weekends with my little family.

4 people to tag. Daylilly lane. Summer By The Sea. Sal's Snippets. Live, Laugh,Love.(Links on the right hand side). Phew, what an essay.

Mr & Mrs Guggy are very proud and pleased to announce a new arrival - Babby Guggy - aww bless, he's sat on the book that I used to create him, well that coupled with a pair of Twiglets teeny baby socks.Received two nice parcels today to cheer me up. Firstly a lovely Birthday book that I'd ordered, I'm so disorganised I keep forgetting to transfer birthdays to my new calendar every year - no excuses now.

And a lovely surprise from Karen (AKA Copse) from the Crafts Beautiful forum, thanks hun, what a lovely thought, I've met some lovely people on there.

Finally here is a card that I made for the recent Just for You card challenge on the Crafts Beautiful forum. hope you like it. Have a nice weekend, think of me while I'm at work :)

New Additions, Prizes and Tags.........

I haven't been around much this weekend due to work and a very dodgy back but hey, I'm such a trooper here I am :)

Here's introducing the new additions to Twiglet Towers, Poppet, Emo and Sping (apologies for fuzzy photo), we decided that we'd have one each as I've never owned a goldfish, so I wonder if you can guess by the names, which fish belongs to which Twiggy??

Today I received the lovely clutch bag that I won from Christine at Sew Christine, the photo really doesn't do it justice, it is gorgeous, such rich fabric, Thanks very much Christine, it's terrific. I hope Christine doesn't mind me telling you that she is currently having another giveaway of her divine purses, so go take a look.
I've been tagged by Indigo Blue, thanks hun. Here are the rules that I've stolen, erm... I mean paraphrased :) from Indigo blues Blog.
Rules:

1). Name and URL of person who tagged you.

2). Post the rules.

3). Write 7 things about yourself.

4). Name 7 fave blogs.

5). Send email to 7 blogs to say that they have been tagged.

1. Indigo Blue (details on my links on the right)

2. Yeah, done that

3. Here goes, hope they aren't supposed to be interesting............

1. I'm left handed.

2. I love redheads (blokes that is) David Tennant, Damian Lewis, bring them on - just as well I married one - a redhead that is not David Tennant or Damian Lewis !! of course Mr Twiggy is much more handsome and makes a mean chilli, not sure about his abilities as a Time Lord though.

3. I really DON'T like curry - shouted that in case my mother in law is reading :)

4. I spent a long and drawn out 8 years doing an Open University degree in The Arts - ohhh get her.

5. I love George Formby films and have a programme of his autographed to Mr Twiggys grandad - cool - well I think so.

6. My mum is related to Mal King Kong Kirk (the wrestler, I bet none of you know him) so don't mess with the Twigs - lol. They are very distant relatives but we've had a few laughs down the years teasing her about it.

7. I once met Jools Holland, he was playing at a stateley home I used to work at. Got all giddy and excited and when he arrived said erm.... hmmm. hiya !! he stared at his feet and said , erm , hello. Mind blowing stuff.

Bet you'll all sleep better tonight now you know all those interesting facts, now don't go selling this stuff to the papers, ok?

I totally understand if you don't want to do this and you've done it all before, I haven't been tagged before and was obviously just dying to impart all these scintillating titbits about myself to you, if you don't want to get involved, absolutely no problem.

However, have a look at these lovely blogs which are some of my favourites. I'm also being very lazy and classing these lovely people as my taggies too !!!!

Daylily Lane

Sykes Silly Site

Falling Down the Rabbit Hole

Higglety Pigglety

Former Blonde

Maxs Craft Creations

Angelsey Allsorts

All links are on the right, so have a gander and as ever could have listed loads more.

The only crafting I've done recently are a few cards but I'll blog those later in the week as they are for challenges, so don't want the recipients to see them on here before they receive them.

Ok, that's me for now, I'm going to lay on floor, moan about my back while Mr Twiggy ignores me and prepare myself for the excitement that is Damages, am I the only person in the UK watching this???

Lovely Post, Snow Bunnies & Peggy Robin Hood.....

Copyright SJones 2008
Ohh look at this, we had a trip up to Holme Moss on Easter Monday, gorgeous view or what?

I've got so much to say today (yeah, I know what's new?:), I couldn't decide upon a title, that's why it's such a mouthful.

Firstly, I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who is taking the time to read my waffle, especially those of you who leave such nice comments. Ok, where to start? well, although I've bemoaned the fact that I never win anything in the past, I appear to be on a bit of a winning streak at the moment.

I received two fabbo parcels from my postie today. What do we have here?

An exciting Pay It Forward package from the lovely Jan at Daylily Lane. What's inside?
Cupcake heaven that's what. My bundle consisted of some cute cupcake sticky notes, a cupcake magnet, handmade cupcake tags and gorgeous handmade cupcake cards - Wow !! Thanks Jan, they are terrific and you are a very lovely and talented lady.

My second parcel contained...........A lovely selection of card making goodies that I received for winning second prize in the Easter card competition on Papercraftersunited. These will be very handy for the card swaps and challenges I'm taking part in, in the next few weeks. How lucky is that. But, wait there is more.

I received a message this afternoon from Christine at Sew Christine to say I'd won one of her gorgeous clutch bags, oh my !!! This is such a run of luck, I feel I must go out and buy a lottery ticket. Thanks everyone.

Remember the little peggy Robin Hood I won from lovely Vanessa at Just Original? well here he is, handsome devil.....................Now I was going to give him an Errol Flynn stylee thin moustache and pointy beard, however, my felt tip pen was too thick, so I'm afraid he's hairless, but still quite a dish, I feel.

I also found a use for the little yellow bag that Vanessa sent him to us in............

Now, here's a few bits and bobs I've been working on. I know that Josie at Silly Sykes Site has received her Pay It Forward parcel today, well done honey, so here is a photo of the little bags that I made her.

Twiglet moved into a big boy bed last weekend - awww my baby is growing up so fast - sigh !! Anyhow, he keeps banging his head on the headboard so yesterday I made him a little padded cushion. He is tractor mad, so I wrote to Cross Stitch Crazy and asked them to publish a tractor pattern which they did - ooooh my name in print. I finished it ages ago but couldn't think of what to use it for. I had a flash of inspiration yesterday and here's what I made.............

I'm quite proud of myself as I overcame my fear of my sewing machine and actually used it to put this together. Hope you like it (please forgive the fuzzy photos).

Next we have a few of the ATCs I've made for this months swap on Papercraftersunited, I love the bodice template, so sassy.

Here's Mr Twiggys Easter snow bunny that he built at Grandma Twiggys - clever chap!
And finally a couple more thanks yous to the lovely ladies on the Crafts Beautiful forum. Firstly to Tassie for this lovely teeny weeny Easter card, so cute............................

Secondly, here are the gorgeous ATCs that I received in the Oriental ATC swap, from left to right big thanks to,Barb Williams,Boots the Monkey and Silvercustard - great work girls!!!

Phew, after that mammoth post I need to go and eat some choccy and have a giggle at The Apprentice. Hope you enjoy reading....................

Happy Easter Everyone

Happy Easter everyone !!!
What was the first thing Twiglet said this morning? Where's the rabbit mummy? took me a few minutes to figure out he meant the Easter bunny - lol.
We appear to have an Easter egg mountain in our kitchen, even I'm flagging and I'm a total chocaholic. I am looking forward to the lovely leg of lamb I'm slow roasting for dinner though - yum.
Hope you're having a lovely day whatever you are doing and managing to keep warm. We had quite a lot of snow on Friday night and last night but it has now melted. However, we did manage to drive through to my mums and build an Easter snow bunny before it melted ! Will have to post a photo when I've uploaded them onto my PC.

Well I've been quite a busy little bee this weekend, making cards, ATCs and adding finishing touches to my Pay It Forward parcels..... more about that at a later date.

I just wanted to share my news about how lucky I've been, the girl who never wins anything, entered an Easter card competition on the fabulous Papercraftersunited forum and guess what? I won second prize and pride of place on todays homepage, wahey. I'm very excited and very grateful to the lovely ladies that voted for my card. It's funny because I actually recycled a box that had some Easter bunnies in it to make the card. They are really cute little fellas that Twiglet painted for Nana and Grandma. I've attached a photo of my card above and here is a piccy of Twiglets works of art. (Apologies for fuzzy photo!). Hope you like them.

On a bit of a sad note our lovely guinea pig Miss Peaches died last Thursday she was quite old but we were very upset, her sister Miss Queenie died a couple of months ago, so we had a little funeral for her and they are now buried under a lovely white lilac tree in our garden. We'll miss those girls, they were so funny.

I thought I'd post a photo of our fluffy Rex girls, so you can see how cute they were.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, stay cosy and eat chocolate :)