it's that time of year again ....

Dorset for Singing Christmas Concert

An evening of musical entertainment from one of Dorset’s largest choirs!!
Featuring well known popular songs and much more!

7:00pm on Thursday 3rd December
All Saints School Hall, Wyke Regis

Adults £2.50, Under 14’s £1
(Cash bar available throughout the evening)

Proceeds to be donated to
“South Dorset Alzheimer’s Society”

Musical Director - Ed Hintze
Produced by Michael Anders

Tickets available from Christopher Robin Party Shop,
70 The Esplanade, Weymouth, DT4 7AA

Phone Jenny on 01305 759644 | email info@dorsetforsinging.co.uk

giveaway ... bear with me ...

here is a bear who has been around since 2004, one of the first things i ever made with joints ... now i have decided not to be sentimental anymore and send him home with one of you ...

so please leave a comment below, and if you want to come back and include a link to you blog or other, sharing news of this bear giveaway, then of course you will get another chance of being pulled out of the hat ...

now when shall i do the draw? well i want to give you a few days, but not make you wait too long ... how about next tuesday? tuesdays are not very exciting ...

look at him. he just wants a cuddle ... again!

Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Anniversary ...

i am thankful to be celebrating our 4 years of marriage, and am taking stiv out for dinner tonight,
thankful for my little healthy family,
and my stabs at creativity ...
thankful also for my blog visitors and kind comments over the past couple of years i have been blogging ...

Please come back tomorrow, for a giveaway, which you can have in time for Christmas, urgh did i say that word already!?

hugs
cat xxx

extreme machining ....

trying to get things done, with an 18 month old that wants a piece of everything ...

her very clear speach includes the following words -

sewing
made
needle
sharp
careful
stab
pins
mummy's
sissors
and yes, machine ...!

of interest to UK HErs, a petition, if you please ...
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Home-ed-families/

five fat hamsters .....

...sitting in a row,
four went to a local shop,
and one,
well i don't know !

where is he?

art on portland, dorset ...

pin cusion from 1 square piece of fabric ...
Originally uploaded by RaggyRat

well it was windy on portland yesterday, and if you fancy both a bit of portland wind and some carcking local art see my paintings and more at the portland arts centre ...

http://portlandartscentre.yolasite.com/5th-december-exhibitors.php

shows all the exhibitors and the expo opens after the private view, and untill 20th december ....

have a look at the rest of the website while you are there ...

bound for the new portland arts centre ...

mary admires them, and now my old 'could have fooled me too' entries are going into a christmas exhibition ...

House Work ....

there will be no more blue paint on my house ...




becaue as you can see, damien and darren have been hard at work ... but dont worry, they didnt go up there in the high winds we have had this weekend !

just lion around ....

some news clippings to pootle through ...

a bit about kim's new shop, and a mention of thhe artwey events-to-come ...



and artwey articles run during the event - we had someting in the paper nearly every week ...




wow, here's a pic of steve in the paper!



inbetween lives, i was an adult ed tutor for a while, and did some photo album/scrapbooking workshops ... this is a fun picture ...



the first costumes i made were scooper sonic and scooper woman, used by weymouth and portland bc to remind people to clean up after their dogs ...




first i made the dog costume, and here was his launch ...

preschool curcuit building ...

not really ... just some upside down duplo, and some glo sticks left over from our floodlit walk at abbotsbury gardens...

and daisy and matty dont go to preshool, either, i was just refering to their age bracket ...

i took these pictures in the natural light hoping to capture some of that glow. i love the busy hands. daisy and matty put this construction in a nappy box and you could really appreciate the glo sticks ...

hardware ....

we have legs ....



steve and i have been building the NXT alpha rex over a series of evenings. i love putting together lego. steve is good at finding the bits, and then likes doing robot programming on his laptop.
the robot can almost walk, with just legs like this.



the robot still needs arms and his head (twin sonic sensors), so that will keep us happy for a few evenings yet ...

rawwwwwrrrr!

ok so it might have looked like a an angora show-rabbit for a time ...

but wow i had fun felting these eyes, first the balls, then linings and tear ducts, pupils, highlinghing and finally a white dot - ding !

lets face it ....

halloween is over, and it will soon be christmas ...
and nearly all the apples are gone from the tree ...



but never mind
i had my first stab at needle felting, making this animal face for that project i mentioned the other day ...

a new craft project ....

i have two projects on the go at the moment, neither of them are soft toys, but both of them use lovely long fluffy white fuax fur..

here are some WIP pics for one of the projects -
a quick sketch to help me place signiicant features ...



this pattern piece is a strange shape, and here i have fitted a loop of faux suede
fabric with two strong D-rings ...



i have been very carefully scissor sculpting an area in the middle of this piece of fur ... it is secured inside a large embroidery hoop.



these look like ears, of course !



and here are the inside and outsides of the back of this piece ...



what am i making?