Hands Challenge

This week we have chosen 'hands' as the word of the week. Why hands? Well in the last week both Jon and I have cut, bashed and bruised our hands in one way or another and it reminded me just how important to me my hands are. Without them life would be very difficult.

If you want to join in the challenge this week all you have to do is share with us something inspired by the word hands. You can either send me you item via Etsy conversations or put a link in the comments on this blog post to what you have made/written/photographed/seen. All entries will get full credit with a link back to any website/shop you might have. It's all just for fun so let your imagination run wild.

Artisan of the week, Caroline of Kitty Pink Stars

So it's Sunday again... where did this week go? Today's artisan makes the most fabulous, brightly coloured creatures you could ever hope to snuggle up with. Their long arms and legs are perfect for giving big squidgy cuddles. Caroline of Kitty Pink Stars quite obviously lavishes these wee beasties with love when she creates them and her son, Noah, tops off that love with a giant hug... I'll let Caroline explain.


1.Could you please introduce us to who you are and what you do
Hello..I'm Kitty, I'm a 33 year old Mum who is inspire by...my little boy, Japan, Kawaii, bright colours and makes sock and knitted creatures and knitted accessories!

2.What led you to take up your craft?
My Nan made all my toys as a child and along with my Mum, taught me to knit! When my son (NOAH) was born in 2001 I started to knit again after years of not doing it. Then I bought him a Paul Frank sock monkey for Christmas when he was 3! He named him little blue and took him everywhere, one day he lost him and was so heartbroken, it felt like a death in the family. This really made me remember the importance of toys! My Mum bought me the Paul Murphy sock creature book and I was inspired then to make my own, in my own style....The long legged sock monkey appearance was what I wanted, but with a creature feel that I could make my own! I knit each one a sweet treat or snack to take with it to its new home and I now knit some of the creatures too..I created my own pattern so I could extend the range of colours and the textures!! Now Noah has lots of creatures..Raymond is his best friend (He's a skinny blue one!) And he has been promoted to chief hugger, so every creature is preloaded with hugs before it leaves! All his friends have one as well!

3.Which part of your work do you most enjoy?
The smile on Noah's face when I make something NEW!! I enjoy all of it! The colours, the bringing something to life!! I love to be able to use my imagination and create something unique that can bring people together! I am still in contact with many adoptee Mums and Dads from around the world!

4.Which part do you find hardest?
Finding time to fit everything in!! Life gets in the way of all I want to do..There are so many ideas in my head bursting out!

5.Where do you hope to be in 1 year’s time?
I say this every time but..I would like to have my own website set up and be doing regular craft events and fairs! Mostly I'd like to be still enjoying doing this as much as I am now..If not even more!

6.What is the best advice you have ever been given?
Go for it!! Always be true to yourself!!

7.Name other artisans sites/shops would you recommend are worth a visit?
Lupin for the greatest, kookiest collection of felty goodies!
Lauren Smash Toys Cutest fleecy plushies!
And any of the UK street team!!! They rock!!

8.What is your favourite sandwich filling?
Cheese and chilli!

Thank you for quizzing me!!! It's been fun!!

Thanks for joining in with our blog Caroline. I think we need Gordon to come and sort our garden out and plant us up a veggy patch. We never seem to get around to doing it. My hoop and wool obsession and Jon's computer geekiness just somehow seem to take up all our time. I hope that your years goal gets to become reality as I think a website dedicated to your fabulous creatures would be brilliant! Have you considered giving the adoptees a blog page each on the site so they can keep you up to date on how your creations are getting along?

Dear readers, Caroline quite obviously adores her woolly babies, go to her etsy shop and see just how gorgeous they all are, or keep up to date with all the new creatures as they are made on her flickr account.

The joy of family and friends

Today Jon and I are awaiting the arrival of Jon's dad. He will be turning up in our new van, which he kindly bought for us. It's not brand new but it's new to us and we are uber excited about it arriving.

Jon's dad is one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet, so I'm really looking forward to seeing him again. The last time I saw him was at Christmas, so to have him come and stay is fabulous!

I woke up today with a pounding headache that has hung on all day so I'm going to cut this post short and just end it with a link to the lovely Rosebud's blog where you will find her Tree challenge post. Thank you for joining in Rosebud. That palm is so pretty!

Etsy joins in the Tree challenge

I noticed today on Etsy the front page fitted in perfectly with our tree challenge.


This is the Treasury of backwoodsophisticate.

High Desert Divas blogs also has some articles that fit in with the theme. You can see them here and here.

Trees and bees and fleas and tea...and Star Wars

Today is Thursday. Thursday starts with the letter "t", which coincidentally, is the same letter that our first featured piece does: "trees"!

Now, these trees are not actually made by vintagechoochoodoc however I thought Id feature them as there is a small story to them. The gentleman who used to own these, is now 84 years old, and due to this, he can no longer use his model railway. As such, he is selling off all his old model railway bits and bobs. Its well worth a look, though I hope you aren't as disappointed as I was when I clicked "Transformers" - there was no Optimus Prime, or any Autobot for that matter , in sight.

In the words of one of my favourite cartoon characters ever: "Once I take care of the humans, I will start my war… against the bees!" - well thankfully in this picture by starshinegallery there are no robot bees in sight. There are however, a swarm of them, attacking the nasty man that is trying to steal their honey!

This pretty flea market painting of a tree was painted by phantomcrimes and I think its rather cool. I'm a fan of hexagons and the colour green, so this painting has it all for me!

One of my favourite drinks in the world is tea. Tea is awesome and tea rocks. Milk and sugar for me, though I'd rather sit inside in front of a warm fire, snuggling the cats, rather than sitting under a tree. Where we live, there are little bugs in the tree that I'd rather not have fall into my tea! This picture was made by pipodoll

So we come to the final piece today, and my, my, my. What a piece! This is a "custom" made Star Wars Return of the Jedi Endor Ewok treehouse! How awesome in this? Its 3 foot (one meter) tall and is made entirely from Lego parts! This beautiful creation was beautifully created by the capable hands (and I hope feet) of Fullybrickmodels (Id just love to think of someone making a lego model with their feet!)

We hope you like today's blog. We are off to play with lego, whilst drinking a cup of tea, stroking some bees in a tree, but only after flea treating the cats. See you tomorrow gorgeous!