Fun on Fursday...

Firstly, Hello to all new visitors, especially if you have dropped by from Shimelle's BFS forum!  Glad to have you here, please take a look around, feel free to read and explore any posts you fancy; I love to read people's comments, so don't be shy - tell me what you think!

Okay, so today the BFS prompt was about having a regular slot on your blog, where you post about a particular topic/subject.  I'm not sure I'm into this idea really, but I thought I might have a try....

So here is the first of what might become a regular feature, if I feel like it...

Fun on Fursday

(well, I can't spell it with a "Th" or it wouldn't look right and "Thun" is a Non-Word!

and no, it has nothing to do with furry creatures - well, not today anyway...)

To kick off... Try following this link, to Hopeitrains' blog.  This is quite possibly the most hilarious blog post on the whole internet.  I stumbled upon it from my LizzieMade page on Facebook; it is the blog of the owner of a business called FionaT, which I follow on my page. 

If you don't agree that this is Fun, then I won't bother with any more... but if you like it, leave me a comment and I'll look out for something to post about next week!

Video First!

Hello All Blog Friends - old and new! 

Welcome if you've just come to visit my blog for the first time!  I'm joining in Blogging for Scrapbookers for the second time round; I've been a bit pushed for time in the last couple of weeks - preparing for the Workshop I taught on Saturday, visiting a new baby niece, making books...making other books!

Today I thought I would try and join in with the BFS prompt; I'm glad I did as this is something I haven't done before (must have missed it last time, though I did recognise the pictures in the prompt...hmm..)

Anyway, I don't think I have ever posted a You-Tube video before... so I found one I really like and here it is:



This is the first of a series of Simon's Cat films on You Tube.  He posted this one about 3 years ago.  Since then, Simon's Cat has become something of a phenomenon.  He had amazing success with this film, so posted several more, then produced a book of Simon's Cat drawings... more videos, a second book... It's gone from strength to strength; but I'm not surprised, because these are very funny and he's really caught a cat's behaviour so well. 

Hope you loved this as much as we do here in our house.  If you search for "Simons Cat" on You Tube, you'll find several more!

Sock-cess!

Today I finally taught my first Workshop day for Frontiers Club - the Saturday club that J. goes to.  They offer courses to children on the schools' Gifted and Talented student register, to give them a bit of extra value/ interest beyond the school syllabus. 

I taught an all-day workshop about making Sock Creatures.   Regular visitors will know of my fondness for sock pets.  Like Bella the Monkey, my cute little White Puppy, the Apres Ski Bunny and Snowman I made at Christmas, the Easter Bunnies from last Easter time,

the Three Sock Amigos....

But today it was others making the creatures and me busy all day, showing techniques, discussing ideas, encouraging ideas, choices and decisions, helping, demonstrating, rescuing, sewing, rushing around a bit... It was a busy, busy day; but I felt that it was generally a success. 

There were 11 students and all but one went home with a creature that was either finished, or very nearly so.  The last girl was a bit unhappy about her creature; she opted to try a dog, made with 2 socks, like this one:

It's the simplest 2-sock creature I have made - for a reasonably ok sewer, it is easy; for a 10 or 11-year-old who doesn't sew well, it's not simple...  As she said (rather too late to do anything about it) "I should have made a bunny too!".  Poor lass.  She took home a body and two legs that were stitched and stuffed, with the extra sock to make the head, arms & ears, plus spare stuffing, buttons etc. to decorate it.  Apparently her dad has sewn some sock pets before, so he would help her.  Some good news for her at any rate.   

We had a number of rabbits - all made to the same design, but all very different.  There was a beautiful bee - designed and stitched by the student with only a little help deciding which bits of sock to use for which part of the bee - it was fabulous!

There was a great octopus; a white cat with button eyes and a felt bow on its head; two "Funny-foot" creatures, with fat bodies, knotted ears and fun features; a weird and wonderful something-or-other; finally, a "Thingummy-whatsit" - an alien-like creature with long atennae/ears and fat little legs.  This one had odd-button eyes, patches stitched on, a ribbon on its ear and a general air of surprise about it.   They were all fabulous!

The wonderful collection of Sock Creatures made by my students today!

So you see, today was a great Sock-cess!

At Last!

Fanfares of Trumpets! (actually, maybe not... shh...she's sleeping....)

Announcing the Birth of my new Great Niece!

Mia Isobel was born today, 24th March, at 5am, after 55hours of labour (!). She weighs 7lb 11oz.

Obviously, we're all very relieved, very excited and very proud of her and her brave, hardworked Mummy! They are now at home, resting and getting used to one another.  Both are well after their long ordeal.  Mia is beautiful (as are her mummy and big sister).  I'm thrilled to bits! 

A Few of My Favourite Posts!

Today I thought I'd join in with the new Blogging For Scrapbookers prompt.  I've been working hard on the course notes, for the Sock-Pet making workshop I'm teaching on Saturday, but my niece is in the hospital, having her baby (slow going but all ok), I've been up since very early because DS has gone on a school trip today (7:30am at the school... yawn...) and I have the fidgets; I need to Do Something Nice!!! So I'm writing a blog post - yeah!

Shimelle invited us to post about some Favourite Things.  I thought about the notes she wrote and decided to do something slightly different, but which I hope is still in the "spirit of BFS"!

The list below is all links to posts on My Blog.  However, almost all of these reference other Blogs and/or other places on the Web, where you can go and see all sorts of interesting things, read other fab blog posts, meet other bloggers or artists... They hop around all over the place, from very recent posts, to some I posted at the start of my blog (November 2009, on BFS!).  My 100th post is featured there somewhere too (the Sock Pets one).

So why not start with the one that you fancy and have a read or two?  Some of the posts are quite long, I will warn you - so maybe you'll come back another time, if you don't have time for all those you would like to look at?

I don't expect you to read all of these and I won't be offended if you don't read any at all - I chose these because they are among my own Favourite Posts and all include some of my own Favourite Things, in whatever form!

Lizzie's Favourite LizzieMade Blog Post List

Books

More Books (I love books - well, I make them so I must love them!)

Bunting

Nice Food

More Nice Food...

And Something for Dessert...

Pirates and Treasure!

More Treasure...

and Treasure Again!

Sock Pets

Real Pets

Visiting Oxford 

and Last Year's Day 3 BFS Post about Favourite Things!

And of course, another way to find out about my Favourites, is to look in the sidebars of my Blog.  There's a list of some of my favourite blogs from the original BFS (but which probably needs updating now!) - that's on the left.  On the right are lists of Clever Things I've found on other blogs, also Recipes I think others might like, from my blog and other people's. 

Have fun!