Baby it's cold outside

I got home today from work and I could not feel my feet so Miss G offered to feel them for me! Made me laugh anyway.

I almost forgot to ask how everybody Christmas was!? We had a lovely time slobbing about in our pj's, eating and playing our new Wii console...and getting eaten by a giant brown paper snake...as you do....

....even Gizmo was getting in the festive mood hiding among the pressies. Spot the cat...


I have had amazing success with my gloves recently and have been featured on the front page of Etsy no less than 5 times! It's slightly overwhelming but I'm very happy to go with the flow of it and give it a go of making my shop a success. My only complaint is that I am so busy with my current orders I'm not getting to play with my new wool that I have bought.....I want to play and I want to play now!

My most resent feature on the front page was from the very lovely MyissaG who makes beautiful crocheted items. These dishcloths look beautifully made and tasty enough to eat!


and here is the front page in all it's glory...


Well, the year is drawing to a close and me and my wee family are off up to Forfar to see in the New Year. Hope you all have great Hogmanay and I'll see you next year! xxx

PS...if anyone is interested in my Christmas top 10 here is the final 4 in my rockin' chart!:
No.4..."Merry Christmas Everyone" by Shakin Stevens
No.3..."I believe in Father Christmas" by Greg Lake
No.2..."All I want for Christmas is You" by Mariah Carey
No.1..."Last Christmas" by Wham (an eternal classic..!)

I'm in trouble

So sorry for not posting anything on my blog for so long. As you all know it's this time of year that has eaten all of my time and I just wish there were a few more hours in the day.

We have been getting in the Christmas spirit today as we went to see the Wizard of Oz at the theatre with Grace, who loved it but I think it tired her out!


I have just written my Christmas cards and I'm looking forward to eating pizza watching the Strictly Come Dancing final tonight on the TV...very exciting and I do hope Rachel and Vincent win.

I have also neglected my Christmas music coundown so I would like to give you No.5 and No.4 today as a Brucie bonus!

At No.6 is a song that nearly always brings a tear to my eye. Such a beautiful song sung by a beautiful lady, the late Judy Garland featured in the movie "Meet me in St Louis".



In at No.5 is a true classic and my second entry by the crooner, Mr Bing Crosby. It's more likely to be a wet Christmas here in Paisley this year, but we can still dream of a white one....These are both dedicated to my dad xxx

I'll protect you from the hooded claw...

...has to be the strangest line in a Christmas classic ever! (the Hooded Claw being from cartoon The Perils of Penelope Pitstop). In at No.6 is "The Power of Love by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Such a gorgeous song and was released in November 1984, reaching No.1 early in December that year, but was pipped at the post by Band Aid "Do They Know it's Christmas?" for Christmas No.1.

On the bonny bonny banks o' Loch Lomond

I've been told off by hubby for not posting anything of any substance (he doesn't like my Christmas countdown...bah humbug) so I thought I would post my paintings of Loch Lomond. I still need to do some work on the 3rd one, but I think the other two are finished. Let me know what you think of them.

""Inveruglas, Loch Lomond", Acrylic on canvas panel, 60x40cm unframed

"Inveruglas, Loch Lomond", Acrylic on canvas panel, 28x36cm unframed

"Tarbet, Loch Lomond", Acrylic on canvas panel, 28x36cm unframed

A Little dedication

At No.7 in the hottest top 10 Christmas countdown in town is one of my favourites and has been on my ipod all year! 'Fairytale of New York' by (the tragically late) Kirsty McCall and the (still going strong) Pogues was released as a single in 1987 and reached #1 in the Irish charts and #2 in the British charts.
I would like to dedicate this song to Ben McFuzzylugs...let me hear you sing!

pa rum pum pum pum

Such a wonderful juxtaposition (big word for midnight on a Saturday night!) of David Bowie and Bing Crosby singing this classic and was recorded in 1977 a month before Bing died of a heart attack. I recommend reading this article I found in the Washington Post about the song and how it came about....pa rum pum pum pum.......

Not 'arf

Good morning pop pickers and coming in, down two places, at No.9 is "Rockin Around the Christmas Tree" by Mel Smith and Kim Wilde which reached No.3 in the UK charts in 1987 and was released for Comic Relief. So silly, so 80's, yet so good!

A little something to get us in the festive mood

I think now it is past 1st December and I've made a good start on my Advent Calendar I am officially allowed to crack open my collection of Christmas tunes...hoorah! So as a gift from me to you I would like to share my top 10 Christmas songs with you over the coming weeks. Right pop pickers at No.10.... Wizzard "I Wish It Could be Christmas Every Day". First released in 1973 by Wizzard, when it reached #4 in the singles chart, famously beaten to #1 by Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody which remained there for five consecutive weeks. I much prefer Wizzard...rock on XX

When there's a will there is a way

My beautiful friend and neighbour Laura has shown me where to find the treasury I was featured in and it turns out I was on the front page of Etsy, which is truly amazing, and here it is in all it's glory.


A huge thank you to kaleprimitifs who featured me. She creates these beautiful pieces of jewellery out of Precious Metal Clay and I especially like this delicate flax flower buds & stem captured in fine silver. It would make a lovely Christmas pressie for that someone special.

Knitting the Night Away

My KnitTwits shop on Etsy looks like it had a good week as I think it was featured in a treasury then possibly posted on the front page of Etsy as I received over 500 hits on one pair of my fingerless gloves! I almost fell of my chair! It's just a shame that no one told me I was featured as I couldn't thank them....thank you whoever you are.

I've been having lots of lovely comments on my gloves which is so nice to hear and lots of orders so I'm off to do a bit more knitting before I collapse in my bed. Suzanne from Bliss Soybean Candles and Gifts has featured a pair of my fingerless gloves on her blog. Thank you so much for the feature and in return I would like to say how gorgeous your candles look and only wish you weren't so far away as i would have one in a heartbeat! I bet they smell delicious XX



My neighbour commissioned me to knit a pair of cosy pink leg warmers for her friend's birthday and I think they turned out rather spiffy! I wouldn't mind a pair myself.


I'll post my paintings of Loch Lomond this week. My mother-in-law had a look at them and reassured me that they were good, but there is still one that needs a bit of tweaking. How has your week been? Anyone all organised for Christmas? I was just looking at my diary to organise a lunch date with my friend and the days are slipping away before my eyes. I don't really mind though as I LOVE Christmas and I plan on doing all of my shopping online!

It's about time!

Hello.....I am still here, alive and well (almost!). I have just had the busiest week ever with an exhibition opening at work (I work in a commercial art gallery) and a tea party today for Miss G who turned 4 this week. Hopefully this coming week will be more peaceful and I'll sleep easier.

Grace had a lovely birthday and her gorgeous Daddy made her a visual treasure hunt to find her box of treasures. Each clue led her to somewhere in the house where the next clue was and the final picture was on the computer showing her where her pressies were hiding (under the kitchen table!). She loved it and had so much fun doing it....thank you Daddy X






Here are some pictures from today's party and the cake that you see Grace with was made specially for her by one of my sister's friends and it was truly amazing. It tasted like a shop bought cake and it looked amazing. Miss G loved it.

Looks like I'm not the only one

I forgot to post this the other day. Hubby came home with the Metro (free paper found on public transport routes) the other day with a reassuring article affirming that my knitting is not madness or a bit odd (I knit on the trains to and from work and I get a few strange looks!). The article is worth reading and gives some handy websites for patterns and wool etc.. Looks like knitting is making a much deserved comeback.

Neglect is a terrible thing.

I have been neglecting my blog and I think I am having withdrawal symptoms...I'm irritable, tired, anxious! Or I could just be busy being a mum ha ha x I have still been busy creating things but I just haven't had the chance to show you all. On Monday I took a day off work to concentrate on my paintings and to hopefully get some natural daylight...ha! It ended up being the dullest day ever and worked all day with the lights on, but I did get a big-ish painting almost completed and worked on the other two. I'm still not overly happy with them. I should post them and let you tell me what you think, but only constructive criticism would be allowed....telling me they are lovely won't cut it!

Thanks to my beautiful friend next door (LauraBaillieDesigns) I have 4 commissions of gloves and I sold a couple of drawings last weekend. Happy days.


I've started my Christmas cards and busy trying to think of creative things to make for Miss G's butterfly tea party which is a week on Sunday. I thought of butterfly paper chains and butterfly cakes so any other ideas would be appreciated.

Miss G and I are chillin after a busy trip it Ikea and Marks and Spencers who has 20% off everything today...sooo many people! Definitely an incentive to do all of my shopping online this year.

All at once

I have been meaning to post most of this for the last week but just haven't got round to it! Such a busy and creative week. It started last Thursday when Miss G and I had a day and home (which is not the norm) as the weather was howling and it was just nice to bum around in our PJ's for half the day. My lovely neighbour Laura gave us some gorgeous beads and wee cardboard boxes and Miss G had a bead set left over from a few Christmases ago so we decided to make more bead bracelets and decorate the boxes with sequins and beads having covered them first in PVA. I must admit that I did most of it as Grace was having way too much fun playing with all the tiny beads, mixing the colours up and spending half the time on her hands and knees picking them up off the floor. But I must admit she did a really good job of finding all the escapees and she is still finding them as she found two more on the chair in the kitchen! Who knows how they got there as we were doing the boxes in the living room!

This beautiful hedgehog was created by Grace at nursery and has pride of place on our mantelpiece.

Grace also helped me make the invitations for her birthday party. It's going to be a butterfly tea party with butterfly decorations, a butterfly shaped cake and butterfly inspired food etc. I know butterflies are a bit out of season but I think it's a shame that her birthday is so late in the year so we thought we would bring a touch of spring/summer into the house for one day before Father Christmas descends on us. As you can see I drew the invitations and Grace coloured them in with her paint set. We had red ones and yellow one and green ones...such a clever wee soul.


Grace had her play mate Leah over today for some creative doings and here are two of the plasticine jungle animals that we created (I did the elephant but Grace added the green ears!). I love plasticine but I get a bit neurotic about the colours getting mixed up!

Since my final year of secondary/high school I have been doing life drawing of some sort so I was thrilled to discover that there was a local drop in class which is only £3 for two hours (very reasonable). I was a bit rusty so i am only going to show you the drawings that I was semi-happy with. I'll try and post my drawings every Wednesday/Thursday so you can see what I get up to. Hopefully my drawing skills will improve and I can gain a bit of confidence. Is there anything you have been wanting to do again that you used to do or want to learn a new skill etc?


Sorry this has been such a long post but I've been dieing to share with you what we have been up to. How has your week been?

Drum roll please.......

As you might have suspected I have decided to open a knitwear shop on Etsy. It's called KnitTwits and I opened it this morning with just two items for sale but I have at least another five items to add in the next few days. I hoping to sell fingerless gloves, leg warmers and scarfs, but I have grand plans to learn how to knit big chunky bed socks, beautiful hats and mittens. So as always watch this space.

In all its glory

I am so happy with my second Treasury on Etsy and had lots of fun creating it. I got the idea from my magazine Easy Living (see below) that I get on a monthly basis (thanks to my lovely Mother-in-Law for generous subsciption) and they had a gorgeous Christmas Gift Guide with a whole page of Russian themed pressies saying there is a "current vogue for all things Salvic". Anyway, it caught my eye but I think I prefer my fellow Etsian's take on this new trend.

I am still knitting like a demon and still really enjoying it. I am desperate to learn how to knit socks and hats and I am considering opening up another shop on Etsy with my knitted wares so watch this space.Some fingerless gloves still to be finished....

Another Treasury

I managed to bag myself another treasury! I thought this time I would do a Russian inspired treasury as every magazine I open at the moment seems to have lots of Russian themes. I hope you like it.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=19366

The Cocker's New Coats

I thought I would share this gorgeous photo of my ma and pa's four Cocker Spaniels who have had their haircut. Going from front right anti-clockwise we have Phoebe, Scarlet, Millie and Dexter. Don't they look handsome.

Ghouls, Gigs and Great Treasuries

Pumpkin hand carved by hubby

I have had a very busy day today which started this morning at 6:30am finishing making Grace's Halloween costume...what a gorgeous wee pumpkin she made. I made it from two white t-shirts sewn together, which I dyed orange. I then stuffed it with padding and used a stencil and black hair spray/dye (fab idea by sis) to do the face on the front. Grace's tights were adult ones, so they spent the whole day round her ankles! bless XX

Then.... 9am this morning Take That tickets went on sale so sis was on the Internet and I dialled the telephone numbers all the way to Glasgow on a half hour train ride with nae luck. But just as I was giving up hope I called sis and she was just in the process of buying two tickets to see them in Wembley Stadium, London!! We we are off on an adventure next July (so far away) and I'm thinking of making it a wee family holiday for all. Can't wait. This was all before I got to work...and work was pretty busy. No rest for the blessed so they say.
Grace had her Halloween party at nursery so we were all very tired by the end of the day...zzzz

As I said in my previous post that I was very excited to get myself my first Treasury on Etsy and here it is in all its glory. It runs out Saturday am, so check it out before it goes.

I treasure my treasury

I am so excited...I have my first treasury on Etsy and I think it looks rather fab if I don't mind saying so myself :O) However, I got so excited that I misspelled 'tartan'! I am a disgrace to the Scottish race and am thoroughly disgusted with myself! Anyway...check out my treasury:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=17909

I'm off to bed...all this excitement has worn me out. night night X

knitting the night away

Well, since my holiday in France I have been knitting like mad and I'm really enjoying it. Although I think I am enjoying it a bit too much as I'm not getting any artwork done! I was in Edinburgh over the weekend for my friend's 30th birthday and here are the fingerless gloves that I knitted for her. I'm quite chuffed with them and I'm busy knitting myself a pair.

Part of my friend Katy's birthday weekend was help decorate her dining room chairs. Sounds a bit strange I know, but it all becomes clear when you see the photos. Katy wanted something permanent to remember her 30th and we all had great fun doing it...my contribution were the teacups with flowers.