Decembering

And the winner of the giveaway is.....(long pause for dramatic effect)



Caller No. 7, who I believe is LIZZY. I can't seem to access your blogger profile to contact you, but hope you are reading this! Can you email me with your address - fmjstainedglass (at) aol (dot) com? I'll post the birdie pronto.

OK, that's me done for the year. See you in 2010! I'm off to get started on the Stones Green Ginger Wine....

Sorry!

Ok ok, whose idea was it to do a giveaway this close to Christmas? Oh, mine apparently. Well, I haven't picked a winner yet, but I may find time to do it tomorrow (she says vaguely, looking at calendar and seeing School Church Service and Toddler Playgroup Christmas Party scrawled in for tomorrow).

In the meantime, I'd like to point you in the direction of this post which just managed to make me laugh and cry and nod my head in comradely recognition (is that a phrase? no matter, I know what I mean)

Laters, potaters

I can sew too you know.

Oh yes, it's not all glass, glass, glass round here. I can do felt and blanket stitch too. I was going to show you my (other, non-Playmobil) advent calendar a few days ago, but then the whole 100th post thing and Auction business kind of got in the way. You're probably all bored to tears of lovingly hand-crafted advent calendars now, but just in case you can still stomach another, here's the one I made last year. I put a couple of Haribo (gets the kids all nice and crazy first thing in the morning) in each stocking, and also, because deep down I actually just love a plain and simple open-the-cardboard-flap style calendar, I put a little picture cut out from last year's Christmas cards in each one too.



Don't forget, still plenty of time to add your name to the hat for my Giveaway, just leave a comment HERE!

100th Post Baby Bird Giveaway!

I know, I am rather shocked that I have managed to find 100 things to say myself.

But before we get on with that, I've got more important things to do. Namely, blowing my own trumpet. Parp. There. You see, I got runner-up in the Folksy Upcycled Xmas Competition. In the Quality of Craft Work category, which I am really delighted about. This is what judge Louise Roe said:

"I’ve always admired the craftsmanship that goes into Stained Glass, and I particularly love this piece and the inspiration behind it. The colours from the individual bottles and glass sourced really compliment each other, and I like the fact that it is inspired by a Suzanne Vega song. Music is increasingly an integral part of the inspiration behind fashion and art, and there is fantastic expression in the little girls face."

Anyway, enough about that - more importantly, bidding has commenced and there are 146 wonderfully hand-crafted items up for grabs, with all proceeds going to Sue Ryder Care - when I last looked the total bids on items was up to £400, but I think we can do much better than that! Folksy are hosting the auction on Ebay for greater exposure and because people are more familiar with the format. You'll see I've added a link at the top of my sidebar, so when you've finished up here, go and have a little potter about over there and bid bid bid!

In fact, in order to check that you really are going to have a look, the proviso for my Giveaway is that you have to leave a comment telling me what your favourite item is (other than mine, obviously). And then you'll go into the hat to win a lickle wickle baby fledgling birdy. This one to be precise:


Everyone clear on that? Comments before 12pm on Wednesday 16th December please!
This is open to regular listeners and first-time-callers alike as well as far-flung-folk.

P.S. for some reason, I have decided it is now a GOOD IDEA to be on Twitter. So I am.

Generally...

...I get an idea for a window or decoration, and I spend a bit of time working out how I'll do it, and then I forget about it for a bit, and then I come back to it some months later and rehash it, and finally I might even get round to making it. After a couple of weeks, I'll photograph it and eventually I'll list it in Folksy and it'll hang around there for a couple of months.

Very rarely, I'll have an idea, scribble it on a scrap of paper whilst in the Morrison's cafe (not my favourite place, I might add, I'm just there filling in the hour in between dropping elder daughter at school and taking younger daughter to toddler group), then go home, start it that evening, list it on Folksy as soon as it's finished, only to sell it some 12 hours after that. Actually, that's just happened the once. I am optimistic it will happen again though. Maybe.


Next post is my 100th. There may be a Giveaway. If anyone sees Mise, could they let her know.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas.

Yes, you too can now have that song on repeat in your head. God knows it's been swimming round mine for the last week since they put the lights up in town. But I love all the pre-Chrimbo razzamatazz. We spent about 2 hours assembling Playmobil advent calendars last night. Mmmmm...small woodland creatures, fir trees and a cute little Santa with real gripping action...funtastic.

And I'm jumping on the bandwagon too (I really should just get an Oyster Card I get on it so often...) and have put a few Christmas items in the shop.

There's a bit of a Russian Folk theme, with fir trees inspired by St. Basil's Cathedral and a Matryoshka nativity set:
*UPDATE* Sorry, the Russian dolls have now sold. I can make more to order though - contact me for details.



Which do you prefer - au naturel or red and blue? Not sure which way I'm swinging at the moment.

In other news, I was very pleased to receive the new batch of postcards I ordered in this design

...so any purchases from the shop will get a few of those included in the parcel.