I’m not normally a viewer of shopping channels but, I was off sick today and channel surfing and happened to spot one of the shopping channels was featuring a sewing machine. The make was Brother and it not only automatically threaded itself, but also had no pedal - you could set it going and go put the kettle on (if you’re doing straight lines), and I sat watching just thinking isn’t that cheating? I’m not quite sure why I felt like that or how much automation would be ok!? I’m not sure I’d feel the same if it was a machine to clean the kitchen floor(!) I guess it’s because I love the traditional feeling that I associate with sewing and producing my own skirt/bag..

Yukkk how I feel right now! I have a cold and Yukkk was about as far as my befuddled head would go! I’m going to head back under the duvet now..

This is where things might get even more tenuous! Obviously when I hurt my arm and went to see the specialist I had an x-ray(!) to see if the bones had moved.. they hadn’t! My wrist is still really painful, it’s getting very frustrating now! but I’m trying to keep positive and I have a course of physio starting next week..

As I don’t play the xylophone and I hate the abbreviation Xmas (!) I might have run out of things to associate with the letter X..

Whip up A great collaboration of a blog - with so many different contributors there’s generally something of interest over on Whip up- and I just noticed they’re now taking article and tutorial submissions if anyone has anything in mind??

Wimbledon We went to Wimbledon on Friday, for the Davis cup - Great Britain vs Croatia. I was my first trip to Wimbledon - in fact my first live tennis match! I love watching live sport - I was brought up with fortnightly trips to watch Barnsley play football and still go when ever possible! The atmosphere was amazing! We saw Andy Murray win in 5 sets, which was great as we were sat with a huge crew from the Andy Murrary website! and then watched Tim Henman play his last professional singles match (he played doubles yesterday!), which as you can imagine was hugely emotional!! D’s Dad had us sorted out with signs - you might recognise the Arise Sir Timothy sign from yesterday’s press! We’ve never had so many tabloid’s in the flat!! Finally, to top the day off as the ball boys were walking off we were thrown towels used by the players in the match! So I’m the proud owner of Tim Henman’s very sweaty towel - we are going to wash it and use it for the gym as it’s really quite stinky!!

Whisky Duncan’s favourite drink, we generally have about 12-15 bottles of whiskys and bourbons in, so I’m getting to be a bit of an expert! In fact, he also owns a share in a cask that’s maturing as I type, you can buy a bottle (due to be bottled in 2015) here.

Visual journal Sharon Boggon over at in a minute ago has some really good posts on using a visual journal. She touched on it in the Sumptuous surfaces course and took a lot of the fear out of it for me by saying that they’re meant to be used as a working journal, not a work of art. I’m not sure I actually use a visual journal yet, but I have an ideas book I carry round with me, it has little sketches in as well as many, many lists of the things I’m going to do at some point.. soon!? - so I think I’m half way there!

Video stitch library A great way to learn on line - over at needle and thread, this is a fab resource for embroidery stitches,, they’re organised into stitch types and give you a clearer picture than trying to follow text and photographic instructions.

Video tutorial Duncan sent me a link to this video tutorial for making notebooks. I’m going to have a go at some point, try and do a fabric cover.

U-handbag A great site with everything you need to make beautiful bags!! I bought some great fabric from there waiting to be made up in to a bag. The author has a great blog giving lots of handbag eye-candy and has just launched a second blog CraftBoom - giving advice on running a craft business - a must read for someone just starting out!!

Uhu One of the things on my to do list this weekend is to go source stronger super glue!! I made one of these sun jars for a friends’ birthday and my glue obviously wasn’t strong enough - so I really need to fix it!!

Tuggle - A recent find from a friend, this website showcases the work of over 80 crafters in the UK - an etsy for the UK!! Hopefully somewhere I may apply to sell things through when I my self sorted out!

Trains - I know an awful lot more about Trains than I ever thought I’d want to - my nephew is obsessed with them! By 18 months he could recite the stops between London Kings Cross and Cambridge, he can now tell you what type of GNER train you’re looking at! Trains are also important to me as I love to read and I get 25 mins on the journey to and from work to spend reading! a great start and end to the day!!

Time - Something I’m sure we could all do with more of! I often find there’s not enough time to fit everything in, especially when I start browsing craft websites/blogs! I think it’s something I need to plan better so I can get more done!

Twelve 22 - a lovely blog with delicious photos!

Scrap-paper notebook - a bit tenuous but Duncan emailed me a great video tutorial for photo journals and notebooks. In the video Judy used scrap paper - which is why I sneaked this in as an S!

Studio envy In a one bedroomed flat, we don’t have room for me to have a proper workspace, so I squash everything into our living room - I’m sure it winds Duncan up something chronic! I dream of the day when I can have a space to spread everything out in, until then I drool over photos like these..

Samplers - Now I can’t remember how many samplers I’ve done - I did a lot of cross stitch for various weddings and for my nephews birth and then I branched out into crewel embroidery for my niece’s birth sampler. I started a sampler for a friend’s wedding just before I hurt my arm and I can’t wait to get back to it!

Robin My parents often get robins in the garden and I thought it would make a great R, so I had a bit of a google and randomly found a great bead artist Robin Atkins - I just love it when that happens! So this post is a bit of a side track!! There are some beautiful landscapes in Robin’s gallery and some great tips well worth taking a look at! I’m just going to make a cup of tea and check out Robin’s blog.

Queen’s wedding dress I was very excited to visit the state rooms at Buckingham Palace to see the Queen’s wedding dress earlier in the summer. Duncan’s mum was visiting, so I dragged her along - left Duncan watching the rugby - we had a lovely afternoon. The embroidery on the dress was just beautiful.