Author Archives: pennygj
FollowMy Planet Penny Facebook Face
I’ve had a Facebook Page for Planet Penny for a while now, and very slowly the ‘likes’ have mounted up. It’s been very long winded, so when I reached the magic 200 I had a ‘giveaway’, and one lucky person has just won a needlefelt pin cushion in a little drawstring bag.
( I think I need to make more of an effort with Facebook, so if you’ve got any tips I’d love to hear about them, and if you want to ‘like’ me, I need all the friends I can get! ) But for now I’m heading off towards 300, and then I’ll do the ‘giveaway’ thing all over again!
Anyway, having a little gift to parcel up made my own surprise package in the post very useful indeed. I have recently been awarded Fave Blog Status by the Dotcomgiftshop which is quite an honour in itself, and I was also sent a selection of gift ribbons from their Mothers day gifts range as a present.
Perfect timing!
And hugely useful to me as not only is Mother’s Day fast approaching, but my mum actually has a birthday at the beginning of March, as does my son, my niece and most of ‘Rabbit’s friends and relations’!
so I’m very well stocked for all the gift wrapping, all I have to do is make the pressies!
Sharing our Reasons to be Cheerful…
…just one more time!
Which doesn’t, of course, mean we can’t keep looking for them!
Here on Planet Penny, I’m still finding little flashes of springtime promise, (even though as I type the wind is howling and rain is lashing against the window!)
Higgins is not quite so cheerful because although the ‘boss’ came home from work last week, he’s had to go away again on a course…so Higgy hasn’t got his early morning vantage point. The routine is that Tim sits in the reclining chair to drink his morning tea, and Higgins gets as far down the chair as possible, so he can lie on ‘ a person’, always the best place as far as he is concerned, on red alert, looking down the garden ready to leap, like a coiled spring when the post lady and the paperboy arrive. This is how he does it…
After my last post it’s been very cheering to have lots of enthusiasm and lovely comments (thank you!) for the Planet Penny Cotton Club project, and I’m still trying out different ideas…
…and I’ve been happy to pack up the cotton packs in the pretty pink mailing sacks!
(If you’d like to join in do get in touch, there are still some packs left, and if I sell out there will be a waiting list!)
This is the last Reasons to be Cheerful post and Linky for now, I hope you’ve enjoyed it, either joining in or just following the links to meet other bloggers. I know I’m really happy to have gained some new bloggy friends!
Please join in for this last Linky below, or leave a comment so we can go out on a high, I do love to hear from you…thank you for taking part x
Wearing my Miss Marple Hat…
(not the most dynamic of sleuths, but the only one I know who knits!)
It’s time to tell you about my detective work, which started back in the Autumn and all because I really, really wanted something.
And what I wanted was a rainbow…
And I knew there was one to be had, because I kept seeing them, out there in cyberspace…
Lots of beautiful crocheted bit and pieces, in a rainbow of glowing colours.
I looked and looked, but couldn’t find anywhere to buy exactly what I had seen in the UK.
So, having got the bit between by teeth I trawled around the net searching for clues until I found the supplier, in Europe, who confirmed that they didn’t have a UK stockist.
The good news was that I could buy the yarn, my rainbow, directly from them. However, the bad news was that I would have to buy…a lot…
More than I would probably manage to use up in a month of Silent Sundays or Handmade Mondays.
But it occurred to me that if I love it, then maybe you out there would love it too, and maybe it could be the start of something exciting, and something we could share.
I took the huge step, and ordered the minimum order, which was still a great deal of money and yarn, and three months after started the search and the negotiations I took delivery of a large carton of gorgeousness. I opened it full of trepidation, having chosen from a huge colour chart of tiny swatches but it was a bit like opening a treasure chest…
…just an explosion of colour!
I’ve shared with you some of my experiments over the weeks, the crochet carnival bunting…
The Hearts and Flowers Garland…
and all the other bits and pieces.
…so I hope it’s whetted your appetite! The rainbow packs of mercerised cotton DK, comprise one 50g ball (125m) each of 14 different shades priced at £36.50 per pack. It has a lovely sheen, and I’ve found it very easy to work with, sometimes cotton’s lack of stretch can make it less easy to use than wool. It knits beautifully too, and I imagine would lovely for bold and colourful embroidery.
You can find out all the details on the Planet Penny Cotton Club page here.
So, what do you think? Is this something you’d like to try, or will I be giving my family and friends rainbow coloured lovelies for the rest of my life!?
Edited to add: The yarn is now available via the Planet Penny Etsy shop via this link
I’m linking up with Handmade Monday again on 1st Unique Gifts, I hope I qualify even though this week has been mainly sorting balls of yarn and getting ready for the needlefelt class I’m teaching on Tuesday at the OutHouse Studio.
I’ll be back soon, I’m looking forward to hearing from you! x
Silent Sunday
Reasons to be Cheerful
I can’t believe it’s that time again, time flies by so quickly! I’ve just looked up when, officially, Spring starts in the UK. Not that I’ve found the definitive answer, the Met Office say it’s the 1st of March but historically it’s the time of the vernal equinox, 20/21st March. I think it’s best to let nature decide, and we’ll just watch!
But it’s not far away, and so I’ve decided that next week will be the last Reasons to be Cheerful Linky for a while, as I started it to get us through the winter gloom. Not that I shall stop looking on the bright side wherever possible, Planet Penny is supposed to be jolly place to visit!
So I’m going to share my own Reasons to be Cheerful this week, and hope that as many of you as possible will join in for this week and the next and we can finish on a high.
Firstly, there were flowers, Valentine’s Day flowers, flame coloured tulips, frilly orange roses and lilies, such a lovely surprise…
Despite the cold the seeds I’ve sown in their mini propagators are beginning to germinate, always a moment of magic. If you are interested in my garden project for this year I’m keeping a note in The Garden Dairies, with weekly updates on the drop down menu at the top of the blog. Nothing much is happening just yet, mind you, but it won’t be long!
And yesterday I had a small parcel, which made me very cheerful…
Sometimes you see things you just can’t resist, and this was one of them. Over on Fan my Flame, Gina is on a mission to raise funds for an exhibition and has started a project, putting little books in altered match boxes. You can read all about it here.
Anyway, one of the had my name on it! And this is it…
Alice in Wonderland, a teeny tiny Alice in Wonderland, in a matchbox…
She is just exquisite, so tiny… Don’t forget, a matchbox is only 2″x1.5″ or 5cm x3.5cm, and even enlarged here, the details are perfect.
Gina is making 50 little books in altered matchboxes, for the incredible price of £10 each, no matter how intricate they are. If you visit Gina’s blog you can follow the project, and see whether you fall in love with a matchbox book like me!
I hope you’ve liked my little dose of cheerfulness this week and I do hope you join in by adding a link to your blog on the Linky below, or in the comments. It’s always lovely to hear from you…
See you soon…! x
