Friday 30 January 2009

ETSY front page!

I was in a front page treasury overnight!


The curator is
LilithEvy and the treasury itself is called Texture - you can see why. If you're quick you can catch it here.
In case you're wondering, my item is the set of hair scrunchies

I've been having a look in LilithEvy's shop. She makes beautiful little gift boxes which are very tempting, but my favourite item is this gorgeous necklace.

Good enough to eat!

Vinegar cake or diet...what a decision!

I'm not *just* a knitter, you know - I bake cakes sometimes. OUr family favourite is known as vinegar cake, for reasons which will becomre clear. It's the softest, moistest (is that a word?) easiest fruit cake in the world (a light sponge fruit cake, not the dark Christmas type)



For the Americans amongst you, I'm getting my own back. I often read recipes that state "cups", and have no idea how much a "cup" is.

Here's what to do.

Sieve together 12 oz Plain flour, half teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon mixed spice. Rub in 6 oz of butter or margarine (it doesn't seem to change the taste much) then add 6oz granulated sugar and 12 oz dried fruit (raisins, sultanas, whatever you have to hand)

Now it's the fun bit!
Put half a pint of mixed milk and water in a BIG jug, then add 2 tbsp of wine vinegar and 2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda. Stir. It will froth up like mad - pour into your other ingredients, mix to a batter, and put in your greased cake tin (I've used all sorts of sizes, it's a very accommodating cake). It will look quite runny, and you will be convinced it will drip out of the tin and make a mess - it'll be fine, I promise!

Sprinkle a handful of demerar sugar and oats on the surface if you wish.

Gas 3 or 160 degrees for around an hour and three quarters.

Wednesday 28 January 2009

I've been playing with my new Light Box

I don't know about you, but I struggle with my photography. It's much much better than it was, mostly due to help from lovely fellow Etsians, but with all the bad weather we've been having I decided to splash out £33 on a
light box from Amazon. I told so many people they've put the price up (sorry!)
I've set it up on a table in my spare bedroom.

I'll probably leave it out until I need the room, but it all packs away (box, lights, camera tripod) into a neat little bag.


It comes with several different backdrops, so I've been experimenting.


It's so nice not to have to wait for the rain to stop!

To try out the dark blue and black backgrounds I've taken shots of some flowers I've made using

thread packs from Overspill




Tuesday 27 January 2009

My LOLcat

I miss Tom :-(

It's been almost a year since our cat died at the ripe old age of 17. He wasn't the brightest of cats and was forever knocking things over or falling off the settee



so it was unbelievable when we discovered he'd taught himself this lttle trick.





Sometimes we forgot to leave the lid up and he had to improvise...



why LOLcat? I can haz cheezburger

Monday 26 January 2009

Good morning world :-)

I hardly dare tell you that this morning the postman brought me another prize!

A really stunning photographic print from a blog giveaway at MNH photography.



The print I chose is also available in their etsy store of the same nameMNH photography

I'm going to really enjoy looking at an amazing sunrise (without getting up early!)

Saturday 24 January 2009

Another day, another prize :-)

My run of good luck continues with the arrival of a package from over the pond!

I entered a competition on Patti's blog a short while ago, and was lucky enough to win.

Even though I am a crocheter myself, I've never made anything like these nylon net dish scrubbies.



Mine are in all colours of the rainbow, and will look great in my grey kitchen!

They came complete with a lovely crocheted tote, but I think I will use that to keep my tangle of bracelets safe.



Plenty more in Patti's shop, Peacox Creations, so why not check it out?

And as always - if anyone else has a blog giveaway going, I'm always happy to enter!

Thursday 22 January 2009

Guess who was on ETSY front page yesterday?



I suddenly had a flurry of emails saying LOOK AT FP and there I was :-)

Many thanks to Jeremi, the treasury curator. He's got amazing photography in his shop, why not check it out if you have a moment?

Since being on the front page I've sold two more meerkats and have an order for another 3 - so it's really worthwhile :-D

Wednesday 21 January 2009

wordle blog




Add your blog's url to wordleand see what it comes up with!

the great folksy blog circle!

so - have you met Dan Jackson yet?

You haven't? Then you're missing out. He's a great photographer but with a cruel streak when it comes to jelly babies :-(



Check out his shop Dan Jackson
today, and read his ramblings here

Monday 19 January 2009

My flutterbutt has arrived!

First of all - oops! If anyone was reading earlier today, I'd changed some settings and was suddenly writing in Hindi...no mean achievement, I feel!

As you were...

A short while ago I was chatting on the Etsy Forums when the lovely Raisinlike asked me about trading. I was absolutely thrilled, I've loved her shop for ages. Convos flew backwards and forwards as we tried to decide how many items we could bear to limit ourselves to.

I asked for a flutterbutt for my husband, for Valentine's Day - but it was impossible not to rip open the envelope and share straight away.



As you can see, she's already found a home watching over my meerkats!

I also asked for an Etsy Sales Fairy so I probably won't have time to blog any more - I'll be too busy wrapping parcels and going to the post office.

Last but not least, the perfect Valentine's Day card.

Sunday 18 January 2009

Famooseness

Skully has blogged an interview with me today - I feel quite famoose ;-)

Now, who shall I thank?

Obviously
Skully who has the most gorgeous model I've ever seen used in an online store and twinklyspangle for teaching me the word "famoose" :-)

Saturday 17 January 2009

I've been blogged!

I'm cheating today - why not pop over to
Raisinlike who has blogged about me and the meerkat mob.



I've just been reading the lovely comments, and feel thoroughly "stroked".

I love my virtual friends, don't know where I'd be without them.

Wednesday 14 January 2009

The meercats have arrived!

I challenged myself a while back to make some meercats - and yesterday was the day I finally settled down to the task.

It took several attempts before I had got the shape of the head to my liking, and I had to have a break to watch a rerun of Meercat Manor for inspiration. Here's my first meercat, obviously a juvenile who hasn't quite worked out how to stand up tall on sentry duty.



I slept on his problem - and when I awoke I'd sussed how to help him. Meercat (or is it meerKat?) number two has much stronger back legs and tail owing to their pipecleaner "bones", so he can stand in the traditional "tripod" stance.




There are two more waiting to be sewn up, I'm aiming for a whole troop (or whatever the collective noun for meerkats is!) Even two look super-sweet together though. Coming to my shops soon! Niftyknits.folksy.com


Niftyknits.etsy.com






Tuesday 13 January 2009

Folksy Make the News...

Well folks - it was a long and nerve-wracking day of waiting for the winner to be announced.

DaisieDavies (whose entry was a response to Facebook's decision to remove "offensive" photos of breastfeeding mothers)




and my shop's entry

(in memory of Oliver Postgate)




were neck and neck all day long, but at the end of the evening there was a sudden flurry of very dodgy-looking votes so poor old Folksy admin had to burn the midnight oil sorting out individual IP addresses.

The judges decided to award a tie, so both Daisie and myself now get £20 to spend in Robson and Mason.

Thanks very much to all our voters - and please come back and check out FOLKSY at your leisure, now the excitement of voting has died down!

Monday 12 January 2009

Only 342 days to Christmas (I think!)

Some while ago I entered a giveaway on Bagladee's blog and the prize has arrived!



I've had great fun gloating over my winnings and reading the little craft mag - I now feel much more confident about tackling some beading, so look out world!

Bagladee has some great bags of all sizes (well, the clue is in the name!) so check out her shop if you have a moment.

As I keep saying about blog giveaways...you have to be in it to win it!

Sunday 11 January 2009

Compare the meerkat

boojewels just showed me

compare the meerkat
What a brilliant site! My favourite meerkat is obvously a knitter:




I'm planning on knitting a meerkat soon, check out my shops in a few weeks to see how I get on.

But your task for today is to VOTE VOTE VOTE
Make the News on Folksy

Saturday 10 January 2009

Vote Vote Vote :-)

I know I know - I've neglected my blog shamefully, and have only come back to pimp for votes for a competition (again!)

The brief was to make something that reflected a News Story.

My first entry is my clanger,


an homage to Oliver Postgate who died recently.

My second entry is in response to the rather premature stories about the demise of
Morris Dancing.

So...what do I want you to do? Please vote for niftyknits by placing a comment on the Folksy blog BEFORE midnight Sunday (UK time)
thank you xxx