Hurry to get this!

A free pattern for this lovely throw landed in my inbox this morning from Crochet Me. I think it's only available to those registered, so maybe you'll receive this too if you hurry and join today!

Flickr Galleries

Wow... Flickr now have a great new tool (well, I only just found it) called Galleries! Now you can collate your own collection of other peoples images within your stream. One way to keep your favourites organised! Sadly, you can only put up to 18 images in one gallery... so I made two for my first subject! Below are a small selection from 'For The Love of Cotton Reels'. Get curating!


1. Spools, 2. Four spool clover, 3. pile of spools, 4. Untitled, 5. spun, 6. notions IV, 7. Pinks, 8. ., 9. YIP Day 251 - Cotton Reels

spotlight on... Emma Lamb

One of my most favourite of blog friends and goddess of granny chic is the one and only Emma Lamb. I'm sure many of you are getting to know her name as she is deservedly appearing everywhere lately and slowly taking the yarn world by storm with her cushions and potholders. Which all have fantastic granny names like Audrey and Doris by the way!



Her sense of colour is outstanding and her work is so exquisitely executed... just get a load of those granny squares!!



And I just love all the beautiful little details too...




Emma runs some amazingly inspirational groups on Flickr too including .knit.solid.yarn., granny chic... and all colours in... which are definately worth a look over a cuppa. All this along with a day job as a textile designer - I really don't know how she fits it all in! But I'm glad she does. Here's to you Emma!

nearly smiling

Phew... it's still stress-city here, but I am feeling a tiny bit more encouraged. A HUGE thank you to all you lovely blog-friends who spent the time conversing with me over the past few days. Your comments and advice have been so helpful and I feel much more motivated now. So, watch this space...
Just wanted to post a couple of inspirational bits today. I am so in love with modernist art - who isn't these days. I particularly love the work of Charley Harper.




And I found two lovely websites who have turned modernist giant Alexander Girard's work into gorgeous design items and homewares. The first is Maximo who say they are the 'official agent to the Estate of Alexander Girard and is responsible for re-introducing Girard designs to the contemporary marketplace.'

And then there is House Industries who appear to be a design team inspired by Girard. Not only do they produce great objet d'art, they have also produced a range of fantastic fonts.




I think they're all gorgeous and wonderfully uplifting! Enjoy and have a wonderful Friday one and all!

trying to cope

I just have way too much on my plate right now to blog properly, so sorry for the sporadic posts. I am desperately trying to motivate myself and not let myself slide into depression, and job-hunting like crazy. I have one or two issues in my life which make this a slightly more complicated task for me than for others, but I won't bore you with that right now.
One thing I am trying to figure out is what to do with my crochet skills, money-making wise, but I just keep staring at my hooks. I hope the lightbulb in my head will come on soon... in the meantime, a few shots from my workspace. And all inspirational, motivational comments/stories are most welcome!




And a BIG thank you to all of you who replied to my previous post... you really did make me smile :)

where's my mojo?

I'm back... but not quite myself. Feeling a little down these days and not up to much blogging. So here in the meantime, are some more inspirations from Flickr for you to enjoy. Hope to get my mojo back soon....


1. Untitled, 2. The Book Collection, 3. Untitled, 4. urchins, 5. New Labels, 6. generations, 7. Pearl's Dream, 8. Join the circus - embroidery, 9. ..., 10. happy bike, 11. pencil roll, 12. DSC_0007, 13. Untitled, 14. Silas, 15. Raspberries- nom nom nom, 16. ...

summer's here...

It's that time of year again! The year-end in Greece is usually the end of July. They don't really stop for Christmas - maybe a couple of days off - but you don't really feel that psychological break as we do in England or the US. August is the time when pretty much every Athenian buggers off for a month, while the tourists come in (not so many this year of course). I could never figure out how industry could just sort of shut down for a whole month (they do it in Italy too), but that's exactly what happens, and everyone is in holiday mode from about the end of June! During August, most Athenians will go 'back to the village' where they usually have a country home. This may sound grand, but it's anything but. The notion of actually coming from Athens is pretty new, maybe by only one generation or so. If you ask most Athenians in their 30's and 40's where they come from, they will usually name the villages or islands where their parents are from. As property is very much kept in the family here, most will still have maintained a property there, which will eventually be passed on to their children and so on and so on. It's where most will spend their holidays and maybe escape to for the odd weekend here and there too.

This year, as George and I have no money whatsoever, we are putting a tent in the back of our 13 year-old Nissan Almeira (The Beast of the Asphalt) and driving round the north of Greece. This will happen next Friday. In the meantime, I am off to Crete to stay with a dear friend for a few days and George has taken off to an island this morning with his mates for a bit of male bonding time. I am no big fan of camping, but I will throw myself into the spirit of things this year. Even though I haven't been working, I desperately need a break from the house and the city. Just to switch off, relax and forget about it all for a while. Everything will spring into action come September, I just hope I will be able to too.

Thanks to all of you who have followed along so far, have a great summer and look forward to catching up again in a few weeks!!