Tremendous weekend

This weekend has been so great for me. Not only did I get a surprise gift and won the gypsy challenge but I also received a beautiful doll from Linda Kay Murphy. Linda and I were swap partners for one colour swap. We decided to swap with each other whenever we finished our dolls. I gave mine to Linda when I went to EDAC and Linda sent me hers now. My it has been worth waiting for her doll it is beautiful.I love everything about her. Thank you Linda for being such a great partner. Linda also sent me lots of goodies along with the doll I love everything she sent. I am in 7th heaven now!

She Won!!

Yipee!! she won! She won The Best of Show! Oh yes Judi I am floating at the moment that I am not feeling one bit sleepy. I really should be tucked in bed now.
When someone congratulated me I thought well either she has got one end of the stick wrong or I have. But everyone joined in the chorous as it were and it slowly started to sink in that I had actually won! Wow it has been a great day for me. I almost did not enter the challenge. With my house move and going to US and back again and going to India and trying to get the house in order I almost gave up. When I came back from India I started on her and I had barely 2 weeks to finish and send her off before the deadline. I wasn't even sure that she would reach in time. I am glad I did. This is my first ever major Challenge win oh I think I will keep floating for a while.
Here is the link for Susan's photos of the Gypsies http://tinyurl.com/7upxj
Thank you Susan for the photos

Here she is!!

Well I think I can now share my gypsy with you all. So here she is. Her name is Apsara which means heavenly being in Indian language. So be careful that she doesn't cast her spell on you with her big eyes and her little bag of tricks she carries with her . Mind you she is the gentlest of ladies so she won't harm you.  I believe she is having a great time in Houston with all her mates who I hear are amazing. Can't wait to see their pictures!

Lovely surprise!

Last night when I got home from work I had a lovely surprise waiting for me. When I opened the packet I found this wonderful ATC and fabric and trims and a birthday card with it. It was Patty from Washington and the last person I thought who would remember my Birthday. Actually I don't even remember exchanging Birth dates with her. We met in London a couple of times when Patty visited UK with her DH. Since then we have kept in touch but I was so touched when I got this little gift. It is a long time since I have had a surprise like this.

I came across the wonderful link while surfing through some blogs http://www.marquise.de/ It has even got patterns that you can download to make.

Easy Peasy Pattern

I got this link from one of my doll groups. It is for a free doll pattern. http://www.abracreations.com/Free-Pattern.html
I thought of posting it here because it is such an easy pattern that anyone can make it up. It can be made as complex or as simple as you like and it can be such a wonderful gift for a special friend for Christmas. I have no affliation with the lady just thought it is such a cute pattern if anyone is looking to make up little gifts for Christmas.

Just for fun

Some of you might have seen this before but I hope this brings a smile on anyone passing by. Stress Test The attached picture was devised as part of a stress test developed by researchers at St. Mary's Hospital in London. It is the final picture of a series of stress determinators to gauge the amount of stress a patient has built up over a short time. Look at the attached picture of two dolphins jumping out of the water in tandem. The research has shown that the more differences you notice in the two dolphins, the more stressed you are. This is attributed to the concentration and recognition influences intensifying when stressed. The two are very similar, so if you can tell the difference without looking hard, you should pack up work and go home immediately 

My visit to Ally Pally

I went to Ally Pally on Saturday. I meant to spend at least 6 hours there but ended up spending only 2 hours. Getting to Ally Pally was a nightmare. Usually on a normal working day with all the traffic it takes me about an hour to reach London but on Saturday it was unbeleivable.It took me 3 hours to reach London. So I had to rush here there and everywhere. There is so much to see but I couldn't linger on anywhere.
However I did manage to meet Barbara Willis, Patti Culea and Betts Vidal. As always they had many lovely dolls on display and I simply had to buy their patterns.

This is Barbara and Betts at their Stall.
I was very extravagant in the bead stall. I am not going to tell you how much I spent! I have to forget it somehow. But hey I don't usually spend so much on beads so once in a year is allowed I think. I also bought some lovely yarns but limited myself to buying tiny bundles.

This one was beautiful and so sparkely but too expensive, so I settled for smaller bundles

I thought I would try out more felting with this fibre. I want to make something out of felt for the dolls.

Loved the colour of these yarns so I got a small bundle.
I wish I had had more time there were some lovely yarns this year.

I love these silk cocoons. I got some plain ones too so that I can dye them to my liking. Have to experiment got lots of ideas.

Time just flew by and it was time to say goodbye to Barbara and Betts. Patti had disappeared as she was going to the theater for a show. I hope she got there on time as getting away from AP was as bad. Met up with Jan too. Again because I was pushed for time I just about managed to say hello to her.
It took my husband more than an hour to come and pick me up even though he was not far away. Next time I will take the train.

What I bought

AN ANGEL


THESE ARE REALLY CUTE COULDN'T RESIST THEM


THE ANGEL


THE BAUBLE


Got some Christmas decorations which I want to show you. They are lovely and the pictures don't do them justic. I bought them mainly as they gave me ideas for dolls. The angel wings are just so cool. Judi I think your microbeads will come very handy in making wings like these.
The bauble has some lovely colours so I thought could use that colour combination and the design in my dollmaking. I don't know how I am going to do it but well had to get it as it looks so pretty.

Back to normal

Thanks to Isabelle my blog . Isabelle corrected the template and sent it to me. Thank you again Isabelle. I am back to normal too and I am excited about going to Ally Pally this Saturday. Will be meeting up with Patti, Barbara and Betts. Its always such a pleasure to meet them again. A pity I couldn't take any of the workshops that Barbara and Patti were giving.

The Christmas decorations are out in a lot of Departmental shops in London. One of my favourite passtimes after work while coming to meet hubby is go and look at the decorations. This year Selfridges have got some lovely decorations. I am getting a lot of inspiration by looking at these decorations. Already a doll is begining to dance in my head! Of course I end up spending!

Oh dearie me!

I don't know what happened here. I was trying to insert a link and look what happened to my blog! Don't know what I did wrong. Can anyone help? Must have changed the format somehow somewhere but I don't know what I changed. I am clueless help.

Cold

My head feels all stuffed up and the nose is runnig feel awful. Wish I didn't have to come to work and was all nicely tucked up in bed. Well it will pass. Hope I can sleep tonight as well as I slept last night. Feels like a long time ago though.

No sewing done

Ah all my well laid plans didn't work. Thought I would keep this weekend just for sewing but alas ended up doing other things than sewing. Saturday went for a wedding didn't realise we were invited for the wedding breakfast as well! Only when we got there someone told us so we had to stay. That was the end of Saturday. Today I thought ok I will start on Isabelle's bags, got the fabric out and in walked hubby saying he would like to fix the cupboards and shelves and needed a hand. Soooo that is the end of my weekend. Hope you all had a much more productive weekend.