Category Archives: Folksy Shop

Love Birds and Hearts for Handmade Monday

Hello, It’s Handmade Monday time again! Doesn’t it come round quickly? It very good for concentrating the mind though, otherwise SO much time could be wasted on Pinterest, purely for research purposes of course!

I would like to say thank you to every one who left such kind comments on last week’s Handmade Monday post about my exciting trip to the hospital. I’m still absolutely fine, but I really appreciated your concern, thanks so much …

I’ve been busy making, but plotting too, so I’m going to run my latest plan by you as it may be something you would like to join in with. A while ago I had two beautiful raised beds put in the vegetable area of the garden. They have lovely chunky railway sleepers which you can sit on, and metal bars over which I can put a polythene cover to make them into mini poly tunnels. (If you’ve been visiting for a while, you’ll know they have featured on several occasions in Higgins type incidences and if you put ”raised beds’ in the search box you will find plenty to have a giggle at, too many for me to add individual links to here!)

Last year I got so tied up with the Open Studio plans that nothing really got started, so I decided that this year, I will get to grips with the whole thing, and see how much I can produce using the two raised beds and some containers. I’m going back to basics, and I will be picking the brains of my friend Gaynor, who lives in the next village. Gaynor is one half of Home Grown Revolution, who specialise in raised beds, and one of her New Year’s resolutions was to get out from the office and to get her hands dirty in the veg garden. As the other one was to start a blog, we are going to be helping each other along, so watch this space, I hope it’s going to be fun!

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching I’ve been turning my thoughts to something new to needlefelt, and so we have the Love Bird…

He’s just 2 to 3 inches tall, but he has some smaller little friends too, who have come to roost in little woolly hearts…

and they’ll be for sale in the Folksy shop very soon.

I’ve been playing around in the button box again…

…and I’ve tried, but not quite managed to produce a crochet square a night with my lovely New Zealand wool…

…if only there were more hours in the day!

With that in mind I will step away from the computer, and leave you to pop over to 1st Unique Gifts where Wendy is hosting the Handmade Monday Linky to find out just what everyone else has been up to over the past week.

See you soon …x

Dolly Peg Angels for Handmade Monday

Hello, and welcome to another Handmade Monday. I hope you’ve had a lovely weekend as we all rev up towards the Christmas festivities. I was very excited to find that I was able to control the weather on Planet Penny and arrange for some seasonal snow to fall!

I’ve just about reached the point of RSI on the needlefelting front now, and I’m longing to spend an evening with the hexipuffs or some crochet. I can’t believe how popular the needlefelted robin baubles have been, I think it’s the Kirsty effect! I’ve just posted the very last ones for this year on Folksy, the result of an experiment, but I really like it.

One of my fellow stall holders at the Pick’n’Mix Makers Market is Fiona Henderson of High Fibre yarns and she makes the most unusual yarns, a bit like french knitting, from lambswool, and I bought a few skeins to try out. So this is what I’ve used to make a little creamy wreath on which two teeny tiny robins can perch….

…they’ve still got the little feet that make everyone go ‘aaaah!’…

Looking at then here they look huge and a bit hairy, but in fact they’re only 2″/5cm long from beak to tail.

I also have a rather gorgeous raspberry pink yarn from High Fibre destined to be a mug hug soon, another reason to get at the knitting needles!

By way of a change, I’ve revisited the Dolly Pegs, and made a little Choir of Angels who are also listed on Folksy…

…and then decided the Dolly Peg Dolls would make a great tutorial to share, and you can find it here! I hope you enjoy it, I’d love to see your versions.

I’m off to do some baking now. We have the Christmas meeting of our Knit and Stitch group this week, and I’m using that as an excuse to get out the Frangipane Mince Pie recipe. I’ll have to get them into the freezer the minute they’ve cooled down though, they are SO more-ish I doubt there would be any left if I don’t!

Finally, thank you so much for the congratulations and nice comments about Planet Penny being on the Ch4 Favourite Craft Blogs list. I hadn’t realised before how many links there on the 4Homes website for makers and crafters, well worth a look. And of course the other place to visit today for handmade inspiration is Wendy’s Handmade Monday Linky over on 1st Unique Gifts.

I’ll leave you browse…

Have a lovely week! x

Planet Penny on Folksy – A Year On

I’ve just sat down at the keyboard with my Reasons to be Cheerful hat on, and realised I have an anniversary to mark this month. It’s a whole year since I needlefelted my first robin and my chums in our little Procrastinators Anonymous group said, “Just get ON with it!” So I put it in the Folksy shop which I had set up months before and then had a crisis of confidence, and I sold it. And it’s a whole year since I took a clutch of robins to the Pick’n’Mix Makers Market in Holt because Emma of Silver Pebble wanted to choose one, and she sold the rest on her stall…

And this time last year I was visiting the Market as a customer, and this time I’ve got a stall, so I think I’ve got a Reason to be Cheerful right here!

(While I was digging around in the archives I found a photo I can’t resist using again…how ridiculous is this…?)

Anyway, enough of all that silliness…

I’ve taken advantage of Tim being back in the middle of the North Sea to commandeer the dining table on which to sort out my packing for Saturday…

Oooh-er, putting it in a photo makes it look so darn little, but actually sitting alongside it I’m sure it’ll be fine.

Needlefelting does NOT lent itself to mass production!

I’ve had some fun with the baubles…

and I’ve made a Christmas Angel…

…or two.

And I’ve put a bigger robin in a wreath which I’m quite pleased with…

I’ll hopefully have lots of pictures of this Saturday’s event to show you next week (note to self – REMEMBER THE CAMERA!)

So all that is jolly stuff, but before I share some other cheerfulness I just wanted to say a big thank you for all the lovely encouraging comments you have been leaving me. I might be beavering away on my own, but I never feel it while I have so many virtual friends visiting Planet Penny. And also, there’s been some interest in the whole needlefelting process, and what it’s all about. Excitingly, I’ve been asked to run some classes next year, I’ll let you know more as I get the information. Obviously that’s only any help if you live relatively nearby, but when things are a little calmer in the new year I can put a tutorial on line if you would like. Do leave a comment if you are interested.

So back to the matter in hand. I’m still finding loveliness in the garden but with the weather turning colder it seemed a good idea to bring it indoors…

…and Sweet Peas in November?

After yesterday’s fog, this morning’s sunrise was beautiful…

…and it was fun getting a Higgins’ eye view of the toadstools!

And finally, and I know I’ve gone over the three reasons but that can only be a good thing, there was a glorious misty sunset the other evening…

…it’s just a shame it has to happen so early in the afternoon!

So, what Reasons to be Cheerful have YOU found this week? Please share them on your blog and link them through the Linky below and spread a little happiness. And if you don’t have a blog, feel free to add them to the comments on this post, I’m looking forward to hearing from you…x

Mid November Cheerfulness

What do you think of that for an Autumnal photo? Albertine usually only does her stuff, very spectacularly, for three weeks in June! She’s a little confused!

It’s been a little hectic this week, and again I’ve had moments of ‘Humph, what is there to be cheerful about?’ but it’s always there when you look for it.

We had a bit of worry over my mum. She struggles heroically with all sorts of health issues and keeps amazingly positive but this week new pills rendered her a bit more wobbly than usual and for the first time she had to use her alarm necklace and we had a call to rescue her. She’s less than a mile away so we were there within minutes to find that she had gently capsized rather than fallen, and had only damaged her dignity. It was so fortunate that Tim was home though as I could never have got her off the floor single handedly and probably would have had to call the emergency services. Knowing my mum, she’d have said, ‘Ooh, lovely, firemen!’

So for a couple of days I’ve been going round every couple of hours but now the doctor has been and the pills sorted out we are back to normal for the moment. Such a worry though.

Any way, The sun’s been shining through the last remaining cherry leaves this morning…

I think over the next week the rest of the leaves will be down, but there’s been a lovely sparkly carpet for a small dog to rush about on!…

If you look in the top left hand corner of the first Higgins photo you’ll see my Drummer Boy rose which is still blooming too…

I rescued it from the ‘Nearly Dead’ bin at the local garden centre some years ago and it has been gratefully flowering every year since! And talking of buying plants, I was very happy to find hyacinths to buy at the Farmers Market last Saturday.

You might remember last winter I had these…

…and now I have these to look forward too…

This morning Selvedge arrived…

Which has gone into the pile with Country Living…

…and Country Homes and Interiors…

…to be read, sometime, when I’m not wielding a a red hot felting needle!

Which reminds me. Thank you for all the suggestions which were made about listing the Felty Balloons on Folksy. I’ve taken them all on board, but I think I will wait now until after the Pick’n’Mix Market which is in 10 days time. It would be rather lovely if I don’t have any left to list, wouldn’t it? We’ll see!

Yesterday afternoon I went out to the studio with express intention of have a good tidy up, walked in, spotted a particular piece of fleece, had a brainwave and ended up needlefelting again! But it was very productive, because I made this little chap…

I thought if he had a couple of brothers, they could go carol singing, and here they are! This one has the music…

…this one rings the bell…

…and this one knows all the words!

They are quite wee, just over 2″ tall, and look SO cute on the mantlepiece. However, I will be sensible, and they ARE for sale! (Ed. to add: and were sold, the very next day! Another reason to be cheerful!)

I hope that you too have found some ‘Reasons to be Cheerful’ even if you felt it’s been a tricky week so far. And I hope too that you’ll be able to join in with the ‘Linky’ so that we can spread a little happiness about. I’ve really enjoyed popping off to other blogs, and sharing the cheerfulness. I’ve decided to start the Linky slightly earlier, Wednesday afternoon rather than Thursday morning to give as much time as possible for people to find it and join in and so here it is!

See you soon xx

Tripping the Light Fantastic!

I can’t believe it’s Monday again, the days are galloping away and I’m scared to look at the Christmas Counter on the side bar! And we’re still having glorious weather here in Norfolk. (I apologise if this isn’t the case where you are, honestly, I’m not gloating!)

We went off to make the most of it the other day, if you’ve seen my Silent Sunday post, you’ll know we went to the coast. I always take my camera, I always take loads of photos – as you’ve probably noticed – but I never tire of the view, the colours, the light and freshly washed feeling in the air. I hope I’m not repeating myself with all these photos!

We went in the afternoon this time, so the tide was further out…

…and you can see there were lines of the most beautifully coloured seaweed washed up on the sand.

We had seen a parasail bobbing above the dunes as we drove up, and it turned out to belong to a dune buggy wizzing round and round on the flat sand left by the retreating tide…

This was our special beach when I was a child, and in all the time we spent there, we never saw a seal, but now we can expect to see one or two on every visit. I spend ages trying to get a photo, and usually end up with an expanse of water and what looks like a speck of dirt on the lens, but I think this time you can see it’s a seal..

…or perhaps not! (If you want to find out about when Higgins met a seal, he wrote about it here! He got much closer than me!)

The seagulls were slightly easier…

…although even they were determined to make a swift get away!

Talking of swift get aways, where’s Higgins going…?

I just love this photo, low flying dachshund!

This time we rather ambitiously decided to climb up and walk back along the dunes, which was slightly hair-raising. Higgins went first, running furiously and sliding back and so needing a hand under his bottom for a helpful boost, then me, in much the same condition (with less running and more boosting…) and then Tim, heroically preventing the three of us from slithering back down to the beach!

Meanwhile, it’s Handmade Monday again, and I’ve been experimenting. With Christmas coming up I’m obviously doing the obvious in the way of decorative items, but I’m also working round the whole idea of pretty decorative bits and bobs which, like puppies, are not just for Christmas. After all, I’ve had my heart and pompom bunting on the dresser for ages, and my origami ball is hanging up in the centre of the sitting room just because I like it. I love fairy lights, and have them round the mirror, but I decided it would be interesting to see if I could make them just a little bit more Planet Penny.

I have an interesting little basket of Blue Faced Leicester yarn which I dyed in order to make the Sophie Digard inspired scarf a while ago…

… and thought it might be fun to play around with the colours and make my fairy lights flowery…

Unfortunately, they are really hard to photograph!

I then moved on to another set of lights, this time with lemony yellow bulbs, so I made the flowers with little yellow centres, and they also look really pretty…

especially when I tried them on my wire tree.

It would be lovely to know what you think? Shall I write a pattern/tutorial? I could sell one or two sets in the Planet Penny shop perhaps, for non crocheters. They could go anywhere, being battery LED they’re very safe.

And finally, a further flight of fancy took me back to my pompom maker for a bit more fun…

(and you can also see I’ve been buying pretty things from Vanessa, don’t you love her ‘thank you’ card?)

Phew, I think that’s all I’ve got to say for the moment! Don’t forget to pop over to Ist Unique Gifts for the Handmade Monday Linky where you’ll find lots of other lovely things going on!

See you soon x

A Push in the Right Direction…

…sometimes you need a little shove. I’ve got rather off track over the last few weeks with highs – birthday celebrations, and lows – the poorly pussy cat, so I’ve been really grateful for a bit of focus. So I’m saying a big thank you to two blogging lovelies who have put in a lot of work to come up with a ‘Big Idea’ which not only concentrates the mind, but introduces a whole new section of the blogging fraternity.

Firstly, there’s Silent Sunday. It’s a wonderful idea, which you can find out all about here, because if, like me, you always have your camera with you, even when the week is such that you just have no words… there is always a photo which will say it for you. Thank you Jay, photographer extraordinaire!

And then there’s Handmade Monday, curated by Wendy of Ist Unique Gifts who has concentrated my mind wonderfully over the last couple of weeks so I’m getting back on track. Thank you ladies!

So what have you been up to, I hear you wondering… Well, I’ve been tinkering around with the idea of making framed pieces using needlefelting, to give more of a context to them, and I’m just beginning to feel happy going in that direction. My first piece was this, which is in the folksy shop now…

And with my Handmade Monday hat on today I put the finishing touches to this…

…a framed flying pig….I’m very fond of the flying pig!

I’ve painted and distressed the frames I bought to experiment with, they are a soft Swedish grey with a beeswax sheen which is a favourite of mine. Quite a few pieces of nondescript furniture in our cottage have had that treatment! I wan’t sure what to put in the smallest of the frames but today I devised this….

…the ribbon along the bottom has been hand printed to say…

And just to add the little extra to the whole ‘handmade’ aspect of this evening, as I’ve been typing this, the room, no the whole house, has been filled with the smell of Banana Bread cooking! I feel SO virtuous!

Which reminds me, thank you so much for all the lovely comments about the Welsh Cakes. They really seemed to strike a chord, especially with expat Welsh ladies! I hope the recipe worked for you, and brought back a little taste of home…

If you want to meet all the other Handmade Monday Bloggers, you’ll find them here. And if you decide to join in, with this or Silent Sunday, do let me know, I’ll be paying you a visit!

See you soon! x