Gifts for New Babies and Little Girls

Handmade4angels on MISI (aka Mother and Grandmother, Stella Parkinson) sells enchanting gifts for new babies, crocheted blankets for dolls, headbands, jewellery, and hair slides in her online shop.

Here is a baby's hat and mittens set, shown in lavender (but can be made to order in the colour of your choice). It features little star-shaped buttons as the perfect finishing touch! This set costs £3.00.

The perfect gift for a little girl: this charming doll's blanket is hand crocheted, and again, can be made up in the colours of your choice. It costs £2.00.

Finally, a pretty matinee set for babies aged 0 - 6 months, made up in pink and featuring heart buttons. This set costs £6.50.

Visit Stella's Handmade4Angels store at MISI to see the full range and to contact her with custom orders.

Handmadeology Voter - EtsyVeg Featured

Handmadeology's Handmade Top 10 Etsy Teams contest is now taking place - you can read about it here:

www.handmadeology.com/handmade-top-10-etsy-team-challenge/

Here is the EtsyVeg team list.....http://handmadetop10.com/#/Lists/66og7jnco

Our list is live here>>>. handmadetop10.com/

Please click on the EtsyVeg Team voter and mark each item out of ten. It's fun, and you might spot some lovely handmade items along the way that you can't resist!

The Green Tea House, Moniaive

Rob and I had a trip out to Thornhill and Moniaive today. We had coffee and cakes at Thomas Tosh and Lunch at The Green Tea House (above) at Moniaive.

Thomas Tosh is an art gallery, shop and cafe all rolled into one and is well worth a visit. The staff are very friendly and the coffee and cakes are excellent. It is a large, bright, high-ceilinged room with a lively atmosphere. There are paintings on the walls and food, toiletries, crafts and gifts on sale. We had two cappuccinos, a huge slice of coffee and walnut cake and a gluten free macaroon, for around £7.50.

The Green Tea House sells homemade food, locally sourced and organic, where possible. It is quite a small cafe with an outdoor seating area. The walls are decorated with the work of local artists and there are a few cabinets with craft work for sale. The cafe has wi-fi if you ask for the code. The staff are helpful and friendly and we have enjoyed eating here on quite a few occasions.

Today I had stuffed vine leaves with houmous and salad, plus mineral water; Rob ate lentil cottage pie with salad and a green tea. Mine was very nice, Rob's was, unusually for this place, not so good. The aubergine slices were a bit tough and it was not hot enough.

I would still recommend the cafe, as the drinks are very reasonably priced and some are fairtrade. There is a huge range of food available from soups, to sandwiches, daily specials and a good range of vegetarian (and some vegan) choices available. The cakes and puddings are also very good - although we were too full up to sample them today. Our bill came to £14.40.

Baby Rabbits

It seems to have been a good year for rabbits. We have had loads of them coming into our garden. Here are a couple of photos:-

Making Silage

Rob and I were doing the washing up tonight, when we saw this view from our kitchen window. The farmer has just cut this field for silage and it looked quite interesting with the black bags dotted all over it.

Our raised beds on the patio have just started to produce some tasty salad plants. This one has rocket, mustard greens, spinach, land cress and a few veg coming on. The beds are about 3' square and the same deep. We plant a bit of everything in them and keep filling up the gaps as they appear.

Rag Rug, Recycled Denim Cushion

Here is one of my latest handmade items. It is a large, highly textured, one of a kind rag rug cushion.

It is made from recycled, laundered denim jeans, with some mustard yellow cotton fabric and multi-coloured yarn.

The techniques used for making the cushion are hooking, prodding, couching and punch needle, worked on a hessian base. This is finished on the inside with a fine layer of latex.

The lines of colour differ in width and height. The varying tones of worn denim give a mottled effect to some areas. The reverse is made from another pair of jeans, and is an envelope style with press studs, finished with vintage buttons and a Fire Horse Textiles label.

The cushion measures approx 18.5" (47 cm) square, when stuffed (measuring to the extremities). A hollow fiber pad is included.

This unique cushion costs £75 from Fire Horse Textiles on Etsy.

Posted by Julia of Fire Horse Textiles.