More Swap spoilers...(Tanza)

While crocheting some of the 12 inch squares for my sisters Christmas blanket, I kept getting a sense of deja vu. I was getting some fresh bedding out the other day and I suddenly realised why. I made this blanket over 10 years ago. It was the reason I learnt to crochet! At the time, M and I were living in a house with no heating, so blankets were oh so necessary! It's only acrylic, but it's as fresh and bright as the day I finished it! I threw it on my bed because it's still getting a little cold at night and the girls do love a blanket on the bed to sleep on.

This is a tiger lily hair clip I made at the weekend for PurpleHeather's swap package! (I remembered to take photos as I was going along so I could do a quick tutorial. ) I plucked the silk flower from the plastic stem and hot glued it to some copper wire.

I made sure to tuck the end of the wire into the hole where the stem had been and liberally glued it.

Then I covered the glue with some florists tape. It's a semi tacky tape which is almost crepey in texture, you pull it slightly to activate the tackiness, then pressed it into place.

I snipped the wire off leaving a good length, and wrapped it through the decorative holes of the clip.

Using some fine wire, I wrapped a few sequins and beads to the clip as well, and finally some ribbons.

And using a textile glitter glue pen, I applied glitter to the flower for some sparkle!

Another swap, another partner. this one will be going across the world to Australia. My partner Tanza loves dragons so hopefully this will fit the bill. I just need to finish painting it.

I've also made this goddess pendant for her. I'm so pleased with this; it came to me Sunday night in a dream, and I made it Monday evening. Blue is Tanza's favourite colour and I wanted this to look turquoise. I may paint the spiral silver to accent it. I found a tiny piece of heart shaped sodalite which I put on her head. She came out just the way I envisioned her. She has a hole for some thong at the top where her 'hands' meet in prayer position over her head.

Can you tell what she is? She seems so clear to me, but I just wondered what everyone else thought. I made another one in purple with an amethyst stone. I haven't fired them yet, that's a job for tomorrow.

Remember Sunday night I was off to watch a Terry Gilliam film with M (on DVD), well, it was Tideland, a film which is compelling and disturbing at the same time. As he says, he found his inner child in the making of this film and his inner child is a little girl. Anyway, I find it impossible to just sit and watch the TV, so I started this Flower and Mesh Patterned Scarf.

As I didn't have the ginormous yarn required for it, I cast on in regular DK yarn (I think that's sport weight to you in the US). I imagined that it would drape a little better and be less cumbersome. It's not as long as I'd like, but it might get longer when I'm finished and tassels are added. I like that it's a simple black that will go with alot of things.

And I got a phone today! Hurray! My old phone drowned at the Sealife Centre last Friday, not in a spectacular incident involving the roping together of a pair of sea turtles, because that would mean Captain Jack was around somewhere and believe me, if Johnny Depp was hanging around, the last thing I'd be worrying about would be my mobile phone *lol* Anyway, my phone drowned in my bag when a bottle of water leaked. Luckily I found the same model online very cheap :-) I put my old Sim card in and my memory card and I have all my photos and mp3 tracks at my fingertips again. Hurray! It actually arrived yesterday, but as there was no-one in, the courier took it to another town for the night! :-( M went and picked it up on his bike for me today!

I love my pretty little phone!