Three into One does Go!

Not so much as whats on my desk but around the house. Wipso and Twiglet have been making little pillowcase dresses (by the dozen) for the dress a child appeal. I haven't any spare pillow cases but do have an assortment of dresses that I don't wear anymore so I decided to transform some of them. This is the first one. I forgot to take a before photo of the dress but this is it after I had spent nearly 3hrs unpicking it. It had two layers of flounces so I judged there would be enough to make up 3 little dresses.

Here they are on my makeshift washing line. I left the flounces and pockets in situ which is why you can see a left and right hand pocket on the two outside ones.

Close ups are not very clear but you can just see the flower hair bands I made to match each dress.

Every thing has come from my stash. The lace is about 20yrs old and is from 'The Doc's Mums old nighties/petticoates. The elastic is from Nans 'knicker elastic drawer' that we found still intact when we cleared FIL's house out.

One of the dress belts made the new ties for the top of this dress and the old shoulder straps made thw two check scrunchies.

The under shirt was made from a much thinner plain material so I used it double thickness

to make this slightly larger dress for an older child. The back elastic smocking has now beccome the new front feature whilst the other tie belt made the thin straps and the elastic casing on the back. The scrunchie hair band came from the inner linning on the old cumber band.

So did I have anything left over? Well judge for yourself. This really is all of it!

So three little dresses made up from stash from three generations . My Dress, MIL's lace trimmings and Nan's elastic.

These are now on their way to Louise of Sew Scrumptious

to send onward to Africia. I have a long way to go to catch up with Wipso and Twiglet but already have the next dress linned up for unpicking. Must remember to take a before photo this time.

I had loads of fun making these and hope I will make 3 little girls happy with their new dresses and matching hair bands.

The boys have their own post today so see below for a bit of fun.

If you like to have a good snoop at other peoples desks or floor or even dare I say it their closets! then pop on over to Julia's blog where you will find much to keep you occupied.

Two Monkeys. WOYWW.

The boys have their own post today!

Monkey is so in love with Mitzi.

Norm is so exicted as he has received a post card from his friends Darrell, Monkey & Nigel who are on holiday in Brixham. How brilliant is that.

Blogging Friends.

Look what was waiting for me on the door mat when I got home on Friday. Not one but three parcels from my blogging friends.

1st one was this lovely book mark tag from Susan. I had sent her the altered cream bag that I made for the Artful Bag challenge and this was a thankyou gift. Monkey thinks it looks just like him. Thanks Susan. My own personal tag!

Second suprise was from Sherry. I had wanted to enter a swap that required the Tim Holtz Bird cage and birdie die cut which I don't have and when Sherry found out she very kindly sent me three cuts outs to use. Isn 't Sherry the tops!!!!! Thankyou so much.

The last parcel is a complete mystery. Even Fluff is clueless! It contains these super goodies.

Halloween papers, Halloween clear stamp, blank cards and envelopes, Christmas papers and Christmas toppers, ric rac braid and christmassy /halloween coloured buttons.Such a lot of goodies. They are all gorgeous.Have I won someones give away stash? I'm very blessed to have such nice blogging friends.

All I know is that the parcel was sent on 24th August from YO41 (Yorks). There was no card or return address or any clue who sent it so please if you are reading this and its you please step forward so I can give you a huge big hug!

Upside Down Experiment!

I have just been doing an experiment art course on the web and this is one of the completed assignments. We were sent this picture to download which is a drawing done by Picasso in the 1920's of a gentleman called Igor Stravinsky.

We were told to print it out upside down and then to sit and draw what we saw. Apparently when a drawing is upside down the right hand side of the brain takes over and concentrates on the lines only.

Then we were told to wait 20 mins and turn the picture the right way up and draw it again where the left side of the brain would take over and see much more detail.

Here they are side by side for comparison. It wasn't until I turned the picture the right way up to draw that I realised he was sitting in chair!
They look like two completely different people. One from the Simpsons and the other a Bank Manager!!!
A very strange experiment but one I enjoyed doing.


I'm also having to write this in HTML code as I am doing this in a different application which is the reason it looks a bit different from normal.
Also have been having difficulties blogging and commenting due to changing my service provider. (Hell of a lot of teething problems going on but have received some credit for it on my account)

Linking up to 1st unique or at least attempting to.

Lucky Clover.

It has been a while since I showed you some more of the playing cards I have been doing. Here is the 3 of clubs depicted as balloons on wobbly wires tied together with a bow. This little worm is the only one that has been allowed to stay in my computer.

As a child I spent many summer lunch hours on the school playing field searching for that elusive four leaf clover. I never did find one but know someone whose Aunt and a friend that saw one once!!!!!!!!

Below are the backs showing the butterflies of course.
Posts are looking a bit different as I'm using a new system and can't find the font or colour to change. It's here somewhere I know.

Wordesk Wednesday 114.

Wipso and Twiglet are busy making little dresses for the African appeal so as I have these 3 of mine that I don't wear anymore I thought I would join in and make some too. Each dress is quite frilly so I reckon there should be enough material in them to convert into 3 dresses each.

The appeal is being co-ordinated by Louise over at Sew Scrumptious if you'd like to join in.

Meanwhile Norm is busy on my laptop. He has heard that his mates Dafydd and Marvin have arrived safely at their new adopted homes so he wants to say Hi to them. (It's a bit of a Monkey thing).

Why not check over on Julias blog and see what loads of other bloggers are getiing up to on their desks this week. I assure you it can be very addictive.

Snape Marshes.

I recently did a 1 day watercolour class down in Suffolk with a lovely lady called Katherine and thoroughily enjoyed myself. Katherine has a studio in a converted barn in her garden and we spent the whole day in there just painting to our hearts content. This is my very first atempt at a water colour. Looking through her pile of pictures to copy I found a postcard of Snape Marshes in Suffolk which were just down the road from where we were so I thought it quite apropriate to try and paint. (The God parents just might recognise the scene!!)
The finished picture is quite big 13"x18" and is draped over the radiator in my craft pod at the moment until I decide what to do with it!!


And this is the real Mcoy.

The Doc & I, 40yrs on.

It's our Ruby Anniversary today. This is the card 'The Doc' sent to me. I have darkened the picture down a bit so that you can see the Ruby jems on her dress and the sparkle of the flowers on the table. Gorgeous isn't it.

I love you too. G.P.


And this is the Orchid that 'The God Parents' gave us. Taken in our bay window 1hr ago showing the rain and wind outside. (No change there then as we had rain, hail stones ,wind and I kid you not fork lightning on the day!! The Doc said it was a sign from above.

Workdesk Wednesday 113.

Unusual for me to take a photo of my desk during the day but I'm doing some alterations to the two beach robes I mentioned in a previous post. They both needed new zips. The Doc's is finished and hanging up in the background.

I decided mine could do with sleeves so it felt quite a surreal moment to get out the orginal pattern of over 4oyrs ago and cut sleeves from towelling that I managed to get to match from the fabric shop. The pattern is marked up in (£sd ) 6/- and 30p (new pence) as the two prices were shown on all goods for 18months prior to the change over to decimalization in Feb 1971 (I'm sure it was only yesterday!!!!) The packet even has Inclusive of P.T. marked under the price. Good old Purchase Tax the forerunner to VAT.

The denim material on my sewing machine is from Jo who very kindly sent me some Fimo that she didn't want anymore and enclosed the fabric saying she thought it would be enough to make trousers for Monkey.

Speaking of which he has been nowhere to be seen all day.

I eventually tracked him down to the garden where he has been sunning himself with his new friend Norm. He said it was much too hot to be inside working!

Norm has come to live with us as we have adopted him. Monkey has been talking to his friend Darrell on his blog for some months now and back in June he put out a distress call for other bloggers to adopt some unloved Monkeys rescued from Ebay. After quite a few emails it was agreed that we could have Norman (Norm to his friends) so here he is. I expect the the two of them will be up to no good monkey business before too long.

While your here why not pop on over to Julia's blog to have a snoop round some more desks.