...mossy...

...shades of green...

...inspired by these mossy pics i took in my mam and dads garden over the easter break, and yes i know that was weeks ago ;)

...i love this one with those gorgeous leafy tendril thingies :) they also inspired this mosaic collection too, yep i discovered the flickr mosaic maker, and yep i'm hooked!

1. new stash! by semiplume
2. 11.Unbidden_Generation_I by jamie lea karoses
3. Collection 2 by Claire Prenton Ceramics
4. Portpatrick ropes by jilly40uk
5. lining up the eggs... by T Does Wool
6. ode to growing older by jamie lea karoses
7. you are not forgotten by Robes of Earth
8. star light star bright by knitalatte11
9. for him :D by rosaechocolat

...if you want a closer peek at any of these pics hop on over to my flickr photostream :)
~~~
...now, i remember saying that i would show you the results of my etsy shopping spree once they arrived, i do have several things here waiting to be photographed... so if the sun wants to pop out from behind the clouds this afternoon i can get some lovley pics, instead of those dreary grey ones that no amount of tweaking will improve!

emma
x

...

...understated...

...serene, soothing, calming, soft, gentle, delicate, beautiful, simple pleasures...

...a moment of calm inspired by the stunning collaboration of these two extremely talented ladies, t does wool and black dog knits. whenever i need a moment of calm reflection you'll be sure to find me gazing at their sublime photography, if you don't know these two ladies already i promise you won't be disappointed... :)

...i have needed many a moment this week, my creativity is struggling but i have found comfort with my hook and yarn in the last few days. it is soothing and theraputic, it is giving me much needed time to think and start to cleanse my thoughts of negativity. i know, in time things will get back to normal... :)

emma
x

My wee man...

...is four years old today...

Happy Birthday Spanner!

Dainty and delicate...

...gold with a hint of blue...

...these last few days i've been seeing so many gorgeous items on etsy with this soothing colour combination. i think my love of those mustardy yellows is maturing and evolving into a love of these more golden tones, especially when combined with a touch of teal and indigo...

...speaking of teal, today has been the first sunny day since the easter weekend and i finally managed to get some lovely pics of my finished Stormy weather jacket (btw, you'll need to have a ravelry account in order to view this link)...

...so now my knitting needles are bare :( ...but hopefully not for long, i've got one of my own designs in the pipeline, my first real garment with different sizes and everything! i think i've finished most of the maths, just the matter of yardage to consider and the actual write up to do. then i want to test it myself before sending the pattern to others for more testing, once i've started i'll get some suitably cryptic, sneaky peek pics to tantalise you all ;)

...hoping you're all having an equally sunny sunday...

emma
x

Any one for lemonade...

...just before the easter break the lovely Bonita (of Beaky) awarded me the Lemonade Award, given to fellow bloggers who show a positive attitude and/or gratitude...

...as always there are a lot of rules to go with this award, but honestly it would be very difficult to pick out just ten people who are deserving of it. everyone i have met in blogland shows positive attitude and/or gratitude, so... i'm awarding it to you all! if you're reading this and you want to follow it up on your own blog then feel free to do so, you are welcome to link back to this post if you like... :)
...

...after my easter break i came home to find a beautiful wee parcel waiting for me, and inside was this eternal ray of spring sunshine... much needed at the moment because the weather here is so damp and dreary!

...this perfectly made daffodil brooch was also gifted by the lovely Bonita, a wee thank you gift for helping her with pattern testing. i love it Bonita, thank you very much... :)

...Bonita also sells these sweet little daffodil brooches in her etsy shop so if you're in need of your own eternal ray of spring sunshine you can find it here...

...happy friday to you all...

emma
x

Back in blogland...

...11 days between posts, i think that's a record! i have to say it has been a very lovely break, time has been spent visiting family, eating chocolate and generally keeping ourselves distracted from things that aren't going so well. i've got so much blog reading to do and lots of friends to catch up with that it may be another 11 days before i find time to post again... ;)

...but before any of that i couldn't help but squeeze in a new treasury - all colours in...

...as most of you probably know already, just before my wee break i started a new flickr group called 'all colours in...' i'm really excited about all the people who have already joined and all the amazing images that have been added. it's the perfect place to go for a little pick-me-up, especially on the dreary dull day that edinburgh has today! if you enjoy colour in all it's kaleidoscopic glory then you are very welcome to come and join the group and start adding your inspirational pictures... come on, don't be shy... :)

...i also want to announce that my mam has opened her second (!) etsy shop called Sixpence Supplies. where she is listing lots of crafting goodies including rubber stamps, gift tags, card blanks, embellishments and those cute multicoloured cat bells in my treasury. go and take a peek, you might find something useful... :)

...now to raid my chocolate stash and pop the kettle on...

emma
x

For the love of all things tin...

...if you're not a fan of tins ~ first of all, i don't believe that such people exist in the world! secondly, if you really are out there you'd be better making yourself a cup of tea for the next five minutes ;) and for all you tin fans, feast your eyes on this beauty!

...another beautiful find from the charity shop, i love all the bumps and scrapes, the poor lid has been scrubbed almost bare and there's a split in one of the corners :( if only it could tell it's story, i'm sure i could find out a lot if i carbon-dated the cake and biscuit crumbs that were still in it, an archaeologist would have had a field day with what i tipped out!

...i've got no idea how old it is or what it was originally used for, the decoration is mostly birds, butterflies and flowers surrounding these lovely ladies who seem to be walking in gardens. i'm guessing it probably had tea in it, but it would have been a whole lot of tea, it's 9 inches tall and wide, by 6 inches deep! once i've given it a good clean up i'm thinking of using it as a bin for all my scrappy bits of fabric and trims rather than having them scattered all over my desk...
...

...a couple of weeks ago the inspirational Katie posted this, and yep it was love at first sight! so armed with my birthday pennies the first stop of my shopping spree was little black rabbit on etsy. Nancy makes the most beautiful jewelry and bird artwork from re-purposed tins, my gorgeous little package arrived a couple of days ago...

...i love all the little tags with black rabbits and the pretty printed papers, the necklace itself is gorgeous too! it's far more dainty than i'd imagined but i love it all the more because of that :)

...gratuitous flesh shot!
...

...and finally, thank you to Cathy, aka Tinniegirl, for her post about my post about her tinnie that i bought... did you get that, either way pop over to her blog and have a peek, and for more lovely tins be sure to drop into her etsy shop :)

...well i think that's enough tin talk for anyone, i'll let you know more about my shopping spree once the results arrive :)

emma
x

I heart crochet...

...yummy yarn and buttons :)

...just a few of the beautiful things that are inspiring me at the moment, and how cool is Big Al!? he's only one of the amazing creatures crocheted by Ang Davidson, i urge to take a peek at her etsy shop, her attention to detail and the amount of work in each of her pieces is just incredible!
...

...yesterday i managed to get some pretty pics of the little crochet pieces i've been pottering away on. first up is the button necklace, i've been wanting to make something pretty with my favourite vintage buttons for a while, then a couple of weeks ago i thought of this...

...i dug out the finest crochet hook i had, some vintage silk embroidery thread and set to. i'm really pleased with how it turned out and love how the mother of pearl buttons catch the light and change colour. i used one of my most favourite buttons for the fastener, this silver decorated glass flower. i've got one more of buttons that i think will look great on a red strand...

...spurred on by my success i was inspired to try a second one, but this time with tiny little crochet flowers and brass sequins, also finished with a glass button as a fastener...

...i love the textured grey/brown colour of this yarn and the two of them look really sweet hanging together, see here. i really enjoyed making these and now i can't help wondering how many different colourways i'm going to need to co-ordinate with all my clothes... ;)
...

...btw, thank you all very much for your comments on my last post, i'm touched by how you're all thinking of me :) i haven't been very good at getting back to you all this last week or two, but i promise it's on my to do list and it will be a welcome distraction from some much needed accounting that's also on that list :(

emma
x