International Cat Day

Seems like a good time to return to my poor, poor neglected blog.  There are, as ever, lots of reasons why I haven't been posting but one of them is more important than all the others:

This is Deeley, and she was The Best Cat.  For 14 years she was my best friend, and then on 20th July she was hit by a car just outside our house and suddenly I was stroking her side and sobbing as she took a last few breaths.

It is very quiet around here without her loud meows and chirrups, and a bit cold too without her sleeping on our bed, always rolling in so close she nearly pushed me out of it.

Many years ago I had the idea to get a little black cat tattoo - in fact I planned to do it on my 30th birthday, but then I was 8 1/2 months pregnant at the time - but I never got around to it.  The day after Deeley died, I went to a very nice, friendly tattoo parlour called Painted People and made my appointment.

So now I have a little reminder of her on my left shoulder, just under my collarbone.  I'm pleased with it, of course, but I'd rather have Deeley back.  Her ashes are in a little wooden box on the sitting room windowsill, in a sunbeam where she liked to sleep.  She was The Best Cat.

Aaand finished.

My last bit of Christmas crafting done - a pair of stockings for my brother-in-law and his wife, commissioned by my lovely Mother-in-law, who has always been my best customer, bless her!

I forget where I found the pattern but you can find variations of it all over the internet, such as this one from Diary of a Quilter.  And now it is time for me to pack away the Christmas fabric 'till next year, and maybe get on with some Christmas Eating.

Craft Fairs! All done now, though... oops.

Egads I am the worst.  MOVING ON...

So, me and some more organised and confident mates have set up a little group doing craft fairs about the place.  It seemed like a marvellous "last-push" idea for my aim of reducing my stash!  And then of course, as previously mentioned, lovely Alison generously offered to give me a large bundle of Christmas-themed fabric to use, so it's not been so great on the stash-reductions... but at least I didn't buy anything new?

We did one stall at the village lights switch-on, and another craft market in town, and I must say we didn't do too badly.  I had some Christmassy aprons based mostly on the Seasalt & Stitches pattern with a few tweaks - I lined the bibs, shortened the straps etc - some wheat bags, lavender bags, gift bags and the like.

It all looked terribly festive, even if it was blinkin' cold.  In January I'm hoping to get back onto some quilting, and we'll see if I can sell some crib blankets I've been putting together.  I have a few specifically Christmassy bits left over which I'm listing on my Facebook and will probably take into the Emporium on Wednesday if they have room for them.

Eye pillow and two lavender bags, commission.

Plan for today...

A Fairy Door!  My son and I are big fans of our local toyshop, The Magic Box, who recently started stocking Fairy Doors from the Irish Fairy Door company.

Now, I am all about supporting local business, and I would always buy Trainboy's endless stash of Brio from the Magic Box, but these fairy doors cost £20 and I was pretty sure I could make one myself.  So when Trainboy stated categorically that he wanted one, I got on Google and eBay and sourced the items above for £6.05, including postage.  Now I just have to get on with painting enough coats of enamel paint to make an MDF door glossy, and hopefully Trainboy won't have lost interest by the time I'm finished...