Goodies

The Inspirational Summer Swap was a lot of fun, I hope the next one is as successful.

Here are my goodies, which I am so pleased with.

I wish I had taken pictures of how beautifully Doris wrapped everything, but I was just too eager to see what I had.

A gorgeous journal, and a moleskine.

And this sweet box of prompts - just the thing for some inspired crafting!

And now my turn ... the winner of the FQF giveaway is ....

Junie Moon!

Please send me your address so I can send your soap.

Tagged!

I have been tagged by April with the "four things meme".

Four Movies I'd watch over and over

• Roman Holiday
• The Wizard of Oz
• Twelve Angry Men
• Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

Four places I have lived

• With my parents
• With my ex
• In Cheltenham (Uni)
• In Wales with Mr Marmadaisy

Four Shows I Watch

• Buffy
• Ashes to Ashes
• Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares
• Gavin and Stacey

Four Places I have been

• Budapest
• Vienna
• France (various)
• Paphos

Four people who email me

• Mum and Dad
• Random "enlarge your penis" spam-type people
• Guide Dogs co-workers
• People I used to work with

Four things I love to eat

• Crisps
• Pizza
• Homemade tomato soup
• Curry

(Not very healthy, is it?)

Four places I'd rather be

• In bed
• Walking in the countryside
• In the bath
• At a spa

Four things to look forward to this year

• Having a holiday somewhere
• Getting the bathroom done
• Not having to do ALL the gardening myself
• Finding more animals to rescue

Now I'm supposed to tag four people so I choose:

Nikki

Joanna

Sylvie

Julia

Birthday Draw

Thanks everyone for leaving comments for my give away. I used the random number picker, and it chose comment number 2

Which was this one:

Nancy said...
Happy Birthday!! Hope you have a wonderful day..
06 March 2008 13:26

Please step forward and email my your snail mail address, and I'll send you a little hand made giftie.

Happy Birthday to me!!!

It's my birthday next week, so I am posting a little giveaway in celebration. I don't know what I'm giving away yet, it might be some soap, or a purse, or some fabric bits, or something made from silver or ... something else.

Anyway, please leave a comment and the random number picker will be used a week on Sunday (16th March), which is the day after my birthday, to pick one name to get some goodies.

Thank you!

I'm delighted to have received two awards in the past couple of days.

I have only been blogging for about 6 months, and only in earnest since Christmas, so I'm absolutely stunned and honoured. I was never one of the popular kids at school, and it honestly never bothered me. But it's nice to know that, even though I'll never be as cool as Heather, Meg or Emily, I at least can hold my own when it comes to making "stuff". I put a Craft Blog link on about a month ago and I'm generally around #35 in the UK blogs- so I'm really, really pleased about that.

So, first of all I have the "You make my day" award, which I was delighted to get from Lisa, who was the first craft blogger I ever found and who has helped me immensely to grow in confidence in both my blogging and crafting. Thank you Lisa - it goes both ways.



So, dear reader, I pass this award on to YOU! Because it makes my day whenever I get a comment, or see that someone has used a tutorial, or found me interesting or inspiring. It's the only reason I do it. (Does that sound narcissistic?)

The second award I got from Jo. This is the Art Y Pico award from Uruguay.



Again, another of my favourite reads so mightily proud making that she returns the compliment. I have already got one of these awards, and so I won't pass it on again. If, however, any of my lovely Marmadaisiettes would like to pass the award on to someone who inspires them, please feel free. It will make someone's day!

Mr Marmadaisy is driving over to Liverpool tonight to go out drinking with his "bezzie mate" so it's a curry, bottle of wine, and a Gavin and Stacey marathon on BBC2 for me tonight.

Getting into a lather

Have I ever mentioned how I hate commercial soaps? Well, some are better than others, but generally I find they don't play too nicely with my sensitive skin. And an awful lot of them are still not bunny friendly (you have to watch this, because they often say "this product is not tested on animals", but that doesn't mean that the ingredients haven't been either, or that it hasn't been made by a company that is a bit mean about putting crap in animals' eyes).

So, I tend to buy handmade soaps from nice people who only put nice things in their products. My favourites are Lush and Tigermuffin.

And now there's Marmadaisy! Actually no, I'm not going to sell these because you have to get all sorts of health and safety regs sorted out and I don't think my kitchen full of dog hair and Aga dust would quite cut the mustard.

It has taken me the morning to whip up batches of:

Magic Love Spell (lilac coloured) - a blend of jasmine, ylang ylang and rose with real grated nutmeg

Patchouli (pink) - you either love it or hate it

Gardener's soap (green) - Tea tree and Aloe Vera, especially for use after gardening or emptying the bin (blech)

Citronella (yellow) - fresh and lemony and great for keeping the midgies away

They came out a bit more bubblegummy coloured than I wanted.Perhaps it was because I used an opaque base. I love how they look though, like little cakes. I have just washed my hands with the tea tree one and they smell lovely and feel quite moisturised. I really will have to get making more of these. I think I have just found my new favourite hobby!

By the way, NOTHING in these soaps is tested on animals, unless one of the dogs rolls in something this afternoon and then they might very well get a dose of tea tree bathing.

I have been thinking of doing another giveaway for my birthday (which is in about 2 weeks) - so I would love some feedback on whether a couple of soaps would be enough to tempt people to comment. (Because there's nothing worse than saying "comment for this draw" and then nobody does)

One World One Heart, the result!

Thanks to everone who entered my draw, which is now closed. I used the random number picker to draw one comment as the winner.

Drum roll ...... the winner is .....

"Michelle said...
Oh, I love your rings! Please count me in and please visit my giveaway at www.completefragments.com/blog"

Well done Michelle. Please pick your prize and ping me your snail mail.

Onwards .....

Thanks to Christine for this link, I just love this cat. What were they thinking?

Addendum

I hope Meg doesn't mind, but I read this the other day and thought it was just lovely. It has just occured to me that I missed this blog off my "awards" list, although I do love to read it and look at her fantastic pictures.

And this post is inspiring - especially for someone who doesn't "do" Valentine's day.

An Award

This Art Award has been passed to me by Joanna, and I gratefully and humbly accept it. It orginated at Arte y pico and, apparently, has been passed from crafty hand to crafty hand ever since. So, I am honoured to bear the Blogging Olympic torch (or albatross) and quixotically pass it on, with the caveat that I don't actually know why it was originally awarded, because I don't speak Portugese.

The rules are:

• Post the award on your own blog with a link to the blog it came from
• Indicate its original link and link to that site.
• Pass the award on to your five favourite bloggers - people who inspire and stimulate.

So, my favourite blogs to inspire and stimulate are:

WhiMSylove:

I love reading Nikki's blog. I love how weird she is (in the BEST way). When I drop in on her blog, I never know what I'm going to get, and yet, I always know what to expect because she is consistently original and open.

The Magpie files:

Oh, such a clever and witty lady. This blog reminds me that I have an above average IQ, a university education (almost 2, actually), and am a distant descendant of Lord Byron. This makes me want to write beautiful, well thought out, artistically illustrated and intelligent prose. But then I come back to my own blog and see that I've written about poo and I lose my resolve.

Wibbly-girl:

I recently found Wendy because she is on the same OU course as me. I might be bending the rules here, because she doesn't write a craft blog, but I'm feeling rebellious. Anyway, writing is an art, especially the way Wendy writes.

Beachys Cape Cod Cupboard:

Another new blog to me, I found this one through the OWOH giveaway. I love the pictures and I love the vintage feel of the blog. Also, I'm very fond of sand dunes and salty air (that's a song, by the way).

Protect the cookie: Marie was my bestest friend about six thousand years ago when we were at school. Although our lives are now quite different, we share a love of crafting. I love reading about her crafting triumphs and disasters (and knitting that looks like a willy), and seeing pictures of her frighteningly minime-esque children. Marie keeps me 15 years old. And she has far too much on me to not be included in this list :)

So guys, please accept this award from me, and pass it on. I'm going to post on all these blogs, then I'll have another cup of tea and do my OWOH draw.

One World One Heart

Thank you to Nikki for posting this, which is where I heard about it.

I am participating in the One World, One Heart giveaway, and you can read more about it here.

My stats tell me that I get a few hundred hits a week, but hardly anyone leaves a comment. So, in order to win anything from my shop, please leave me a comment on this post and I will use the random number picker to draw one on February 14th.

There are no restrictions, you don't need to have a current blog. But you will need to watch this space because Blogger doesn't let me find out your email address so you will need to look out for the announcement to see if you win.

Good Luck!

*********UPDATE**********

THIS IS NOW CLOSED. FEEL FREE TO COMMENT, BUT THERE IS NO LONGER A PRIZE ON OFFER.

Pauli's PIF (again!)

And here's another one I've made for Sissy.



Again, if you'd like one comment or send me a mail and the first one to do so gets a nice hair band.

Pay it forward ... Monday 1st October

I have been doing a lot of reading in blogland and there are some really sweet little blogs about. I was reading this one this morning and this lady has been involved in "pay it forward" or, "calculated acts of kindness" (CAOK). Inspired, I have decided to join in (without being invited, I hope that's OK. I know, it's a bit cheeky but there you go!). I promised my friend Pauli that I would make some hair thingies for her daughter and I hadn't actually got round to it because I had been too lazy busy. So, here is my firt PIF.



These are on their way to Pauli in Philadelphia, and I hope Sissy likes them. I have a few more bits to make some more so if you would like one, free of charge, please send me your snail mail address and I will pop one in the post to you. The only catch is that you have to send something nice to someone else. Good plan? Yes, I thought so too!