I just spent the most tense half hour - pressing refresh on the BBC Live text commentary and watching Sky Sports News.

and they did it! Super Reds (Barnsley) beat Liverpool at Anfield to knock them out of the FA Cup! Our new Goal keeper Luke Steele had the most amazing debut and kept Liverpool out and Brian Howard got the winner in the 90th minute!

As you can imagine I’m over the moon! I’m off up to Barnsley tomorrow for some wedding planning and now it looks like general celebration!

I have a big cheesy smile this evening!

Sharon Boggon has started a new challenge for the new year - Take It Further.

January’s challenge was to either use the colour scheme suggested or the concept - for January this was someone you look up to. The colour scheme and the wording immediately sparked circus thoughts - looking up to the trapeze artist (!) - there was a nice deep purpley colour that would work well, but I needed more reds..

So then I moved on to people, I actually look up to - my parents were pretty high up the list. My mum is always telling me to aim high, so when I came across the English bird of prey centre when looking for D’s birthday present - I put the 3 ideas together.. Something you look up to, something inspiring..

You’ll need to click on the image to see it properly

The other part of the challenge I really wanted to explore is the concept of taking it further - while this is only a small piece, it’s my first design using silk shading. I used single strands of DMC cottons to ‘colour in’ the hawk.

The February challenge is of course up and running already and it is ‘what are you old enough to remember?’ At the moment I’m leaning towards something sea related/inspired - if you look at the colour pallette there are blues and sandy colours. As a child we used to take the caravan to the seaside for the full 6 week school holiday - it seemed like forever.. I’ll let you know how it works out!

I went to the opus school of textile art’s 10th anniversary exhibition of textile art today. I was one of those bright early spring days, crisp but sunny that suits London so well. The exhibition was at the Mall Galleries just south of Trafalgar Square - lovely looking cafe if you’re passing, but too busy today for me to find a table for a coffee.

Unfortunately I hadn’t thought to take a camera, but there was some amazing stuff - a real mixture, from felting to little people in boots The only photos I can find online are the flier picture, which has a 3-d mix media piece by Gavin Fry and this blog post from altering thoughts, which shows some experimentation inspired by one of the pieces in the exhbition.

One of the things I noticed was that it was the landscapes that caught my eye the most - I guess that’s one step closer to discovering my own style!??

I had time to kill in Wimbledon on Saturday and went browsing in a bookstore - a favourite habit of mine I always make sure I go check out craft and sewing books and I happened across this book

It’s now high on my wish list!

The author has a blog - yarnstorm which went straight in at number 5 on My List of Sewing Blogs!!

Check out the beautiful photography over at yarnstorm. My lack of photography skills is the reason I still haven’t posted my take it further challenge piece for january .. I’ll get Duncan to give me a couple of lessons with the camera!

In the mean time, I hope you all had a good Pancake day yesterday - we had to get inventive with fillings as we had no lemon for my favourite lemon and sugar(!) Banana, honey and whisky was particularly scrummy!

I’m heading off to a rehearsal for the Man of La Mancha now and have a supply of Valentine’s day cards to sell - stage one of suzical store, sell to friends..

So last week I said I was going to launch Suzical the online shop. Step one was tell people, and well - it works! I got a commission right off and a couple of other leads..

A colleague asked my to make an anniversary card for her husband - it was a tricky one, she asked for a picture of a mole. It turns out moles are mainly black fur(!) so I went for an out line.. Please excuse the cheesy line, I couldn’t resist!

I have also ordered mini moo cards to use as business cards and stickers because they’re fun!!

I am still weighing up the pros and cons of Google checkout vs. an Etsy store.

Google seems to have the better rate in terms of fees, but with the shop on my site I’d have to start drumming traffic up. Etsy has a ready made audience and it’s searchable by subject, but there’s lots of direct competition.. For set up Etsy is easier as the template is already there, but as my fiance who’s a web developer, will be building the google checkout - it’s not a deal breaker!

On the other hand with Google checkout I’d have freedom to design the layout how I prefer and any traffic I drum up to my store would be building the Suzical brand rather than Etsy’s..

Let me know what you have used and what (if anything) you’d do different??

I just received an email from Feruzan over at LimonVerde and was very excited to see her tatting - it’s a skill I’ve yet to learn from my Mum!!

Will stumbled upon the animation below over at Crafty Daisies, showing how a bobbin in a sewing machine works! Isn’t it hypnotic!!

I’ll be computerless and home alone for the next couple of days - so I should have lots to report when Duncan returns from his business trip..

I’m hesitant to announce this, in case I don’t quite pull it off, but I figure if I tell people I really have to stop dreaming and get on with things! So here goes - I’m planning on opening an online store in the next few weeks. I’ve been designing cards this weekend and am planning on making up some ipod socks tomorrow - so wish me luck!!

I’ll keep you posted on my progress!

I added the 100th blog to my big list of sewing blogs this week!

Check it out! I received the link direct from Rebecca of Miller Campbell Designs.

She’s an Appalachian artist and makes beautiful dolls, like the one pictured here - have a look at her gallery.

If you’re not on the list, do drop me a line and if you are on there check out my badges.

I met a good friend of mine for a cup of tea last night after work. We had a lovely half hour wondering round the foodhall at Fortnum and Mason Then tea and biscuits in the cafe and a browse around the big Waterstones near Picadilly circus and more excitingly she gave me a fab Christmas present:

buttons, which she got from the couture exhibition at the V&A, sewing related things to embellish with, some Christmas decorations and a Morrocan scarf..

A belated happy New Year!

The 9th of January and I’ve only just sat down to blog! There’s one New Year’s resolution I failed with already

My Big List of Sewing Blogs has grown to 96! It’s been great - people have started emailing with their blogs and putting my button on their site (Ta!) - it just has to be sewing related and active to get in, so if you think your blog fits the bill do leave a comment/send me an email!

The best part for me is exploring the new blogs, I particularly enjoyed finding Kimono Reincarnate and Travel, Fibre and Thread - who’s doing some great work on this month’s Take it Further Challenge. (I will be blogging my contribution to this month’s challenge over the weekend!)

I finished my first card of the year yesterday! It’s a birthday card for a friend who played Pitti-Sing in our production of the Mikado this summer:

Click on the thumbnail to read the line of music! I’m not sure how easy it would be to do without the thread showing through from the back - maybe it’s the material I used!?

Thanks Jo !