Thank You

I just wanted to say a big thank you to everybody for your kind words, comments and e-mails. It has been a great comfort to me and our families to read them so thank you again. The funeral will take place on Thursday and I take some strength knowing that her love and lively personality touched so many.

Simon

Alice Cox - The Good Kharma Bunny. 1974 - 2007.

I really don't know how to start this. My name is Simon and I am Alice's husband. I thought you all should know that Alice passed away suddenly in the early hours of Sunday morning. We are coping the best we can and the kids are dealing with it well, little Emi doesn't really understand and Adam is being incredibly brave. We are currently surrounded by family and friends and I guess in the long run we will be fine. This blog, the contacts Alice made across the world due to this blog and the 'secret pals' she took part in meant a great deal to her and helped her through some difficult times so thank you all, you meant a lot to her. She was one of a kind and I will always miss her very much.
Thank you all
Simon

Bunny Boppin!!

Dear All,
Oh so much to tell....
First a small apology to my secret pal for not posting these pickies sooner.
Not long ago I said I'd had my last package well I hadn't.
When I returned there was one waiting for me, It's a great package.
My secret pal was Juliet
She has a great blog with the most beautiful photographs, and she's very talented.
Look what I got.
emi loved the wool
I'm still slightly freaked by the CD, in a good way. Juliet you dont say why you included the cd.
It's odd cos I'd seen them at glastonbury ( on TV) and thought I must remember that name, and promptly forgot. I've soo enjoyed it. And I have a film of emi dancing to it if you want to see it.
The other things were lovely; wool and sweets in the theme of Sweetpea. I also got a beautiful pin all cleverly crafted by Juliet. It's lovely, I'm going to put it on my denim jacket, especially as I'm going out dancin tonight. thank you Juliet for all my lovely packages.

Other things that have happened this week...
I went to the Lutterworth Embroiderers guild summer BBQ.
Now I have to put a big shout out to the ladies cos apparently there are quite a few who read.
SO HELLOOOOOOO, make yourself known and comment, you dont have to have a blog to comment...... ( click on comment at the end of a post)
We are seriously considering a flash mob BBQ next yr, the weather is always terrible. Mum and I went to the workshop before the BBQ. Run by an amazing women called Alyssa Robinson, she was mums tutor for her city and guild and will be mum's tutor for her diploma ( starting in september!!!!!)
The workhop was fab, It was called TEXTURE; creating surfaces for stitch with heat and gloop, Alyssa showed us lots of pots of goo, textured goos and shrink plastics and rubbing things and I have nothing that would work of a photographic medium that I could show you. So instead I'm going to show you how talented Alyssa is by showing you her cloth doll that she won the midlands embroiderers competition with. She is a very talented woman.( I did ask if I could show it to you). This is Cherry she's a Bakewell tart.

Yesterday I went to another workshop, My only living threads workshop this time. It was "Think 3D" by Kathe Panting. It was very good and totally thinking outside the box.
We had to make structures using paper and bonda web and thin fabric. The structures were based on nature. I was very please with what I produced.

A sycamore seed ,
an Honesty seed head,
and a seed head from an unnamed weed in my garden.

Also whilst on the workshop I bumped into Bev from knitting4fun, who has her new batch of banana yarn in.... need I say more
oh and this morning I blitzed some of the garden, and tonight I'm going to the Ceroc freestyle in loughborough, very excited...

So I've not been idle

alxx

The bunny returns!!!!

We're back!!!!!!!
we're fine, we've had a fab time.
just gonna post a couple of pickies and go to bed.
had a fab package from my secret palwhen I got back, who is no longer secret but I will do it and her more justice anon...
SO Wales 2007.....
So mr Tonka truck will be pleased to know that he is the most popular toy on the beach yet again this year, we had dads positively drooling as they went passed!!!
and to prove I do know the meaning of relaxing and quality time....( yes hats are a theme in our family)


and to enter into the whole theme of the weeks weather here in the uk..... emi today enters the most pink water nymph competition before going out.
I think she is a contender...
more very soon, and hopefully some textile news....
al xxx

In the words of Sir Cliff himself!

"we're all going on a summer holiday......."
Life is just soooo manic
Actually I'm not sure what I've been doing...
ooohh went dancing, so much healthy fun,
Adam got a huge black eye from not playing kiss chase....
school sports day
Work
school summer fayre
Work
organising for the holiday...
Great grans birthday
Work
Children coming for tea after school.
Only having one car for a week
All good fun

wound my lace weight and banana yarn so I can take them on holiday.
actually I started the banana yarn and crocheted with my new wooden size ten crochet hook ( thank you)
And most importantly
I got my Prudence book,the freeform crochet book ( second edition), I cant look at it until we are on holiday else we wont get there.
now I have to decide if i need the handbags book as well!!
Going to wales for a week with my parents and the kids.
oooh and the colinette shop is on the way and on the way back!!
did I mention I was going on holiday....
see you when I get back
alx

a multitude of fab parcels

Dear all,
Having extracted my youngest, kicking and screaming from the computer, I have managed to post these.
First package I received was my Knitters treat exchange, all the way from kate in Australia.
There was a whole list of things;
A huge length of beautiful green thai cotton
A skein of bright green banana silk
a ball of jumbuck yarn
a Yarn magazine
a book called the koala who bounced ( very cool story, emi loved it)
a first edition coles magazine
some Lush bath salts, emi keeps picking it up and saying "me bubbles, me bubbles!!", hmm she is definitely my daughter.
needles, crochet hooks, buttons, chocolates, a colouring in book of australian plants and animals, a bag a kinky knits pattern book.
and a postacrd of a sock knitter
all so exciting, thank you so much.
I'm going to take it all on holiday with me and read and play with it all.
this wonderful package came from Kate at Bluemountainknits



then there was the my last secret pal package...

which was a lovely collection of things
a beautiful little manequin, which I'm hoping to display bracelets and things on,
...pins, always important,
lots of love heart sweets, adam is having lots of fun with these. He kept saying "find me find me" this pm and we kept saying no cant see you, and it took us ages to realise he was reading his sweet( pah parents).
I got a great pack of fimo, yes I too played alot with this as a kid, cant wait to make some beads and buttons with the kids.
a morehouse merino scarf kit with yarn and pattern, also going on holiday,
and a ball of gedifra filorosa a fab yarn that has every possible texture in it,in one ball. Might crochet a swirly scarf in it for fun.
and my pal had recently been to Barcelona and bought me a fab little magnet mug for the fridge and this beautiful fimble.
I'm so lucky. thank you very very much.
But I still dont know who you are!! go on give me clue.

So what a week, I'm going to go and lay it out on the floor and play!

Thank you both very much
al x

Soooo very lucky

Dear all,
I have received two wonderful parcels over the last few days
One from my knitter treat exchange and one from my secret pal.
I have taken the photos I just have to extract emi from cbeebies and fight with blogger to post them. Both of which are tricky!
So this is a quick one to say they have been received and I am over the moon with the generous contents.
I will try to post the photos later today.
al x

Flowers and Crochet

Dear all,
I have a few minutes, so I'm going to post some of the things I havent been able to post for the last month, because of the marking situation.Firstly I can tell you all about my Secret Pal 10 person that I spoiled.I spoiled Helen, who lives in Australia.

I've really enjoyed spoiling her, she' s a very talented knitter, who likes jewel colours and turkish delight amongst other things.

For one of her packages I did her a crocheted freeform bracelet which I could'nt tell you about because it would have given the whole thing away. So I have a few pickies.

I really must make some more of these.
Then I have some lovely flower pickies. I was given these by my good friend Amanda, whose boy, Cameron, I looked after whilst she gave birth to her lovely baby Lauren. I've not posted these sooner because I was going to post a picky of Lauren but haven't got around to taking one yet and Lauren is three weeks old!
Very kind of her. off to cord wind with the embroiderers guild tonight
al x

Almost done

Dear all,
Did I mention hubby was marking this month?
He marks AS level exam papers.
So for the month of June he locks himself away.
He's almost done!
But this year I think he's taken it a bit too far.
I think Emi has passed her AS in grubbiness with flying colours.
al x

hiding talents under very big piles of fabric!!

Dear all ( and aunty het in argentina, or wherever you are now)
It's been a busy old week, on tuesday I went with mac's niece and MIL to the loughborough university school of art and designs' degree show and looked at woven, printed and mixed media textiles, and some jewellry, ceramics and furniture. very impressive, but did I feel old, they were soooo young. Emi would have fitted right in.
Yesterday was the fab day My sis and I went to see mums City and Guild exhibitionat tresham college in kettering. She has just finish a city n guilds in embroidery and is going to start a diploma in September!!!!
Now I am slightly biased but I thought it was one of the best there and really gave the diploma exhibtions a run for their money.
But see for yourself how talented she is, these pickies are also for the benefit of little sis who is off travelling again and will return to the uk in August.

First there was mums Doll
her book
and her whole exhibition
and the finally was this piece which is amazing.
and a pink bombshell came with us!
did I mention that mum was on the front cover of the kettering herald and post with her exhibition aswell ( mum was not amused, teehee)
gonna try and get a copy tomorrow!
very proud
what do you think aunty het?

al x

A little crochet fun

dear all,
I really want to do some crochet....
too tired tonight to concentrate so I surfed instead.
So in terms of crochet what would I like to do
I really want to do some socks.... I think I should start small though ( maybe booties....)
Hmm maybe not.
there is this pattern on the crochetme website
I've also just downloaded some pattern pdfs from the fabulous Prudence Mapstone
I now have the
tip, the bullions and beyond and the fab fringes ( go to patterns)
I'm trying to track down her freeform book in the uk....watch this space
I also have some yummy yarn that is still sitting in the bag just crying out to be crocheted.
Mean while I may just go to bed, and try again tomorrow.
here are two pickies I just had to share
dodos a la crochet!!

and star wars the crochet version

fab!
feel inspired?
al x

A ply-split success

Dear all,
So... my life may return to some semblence of order now.... (may be in denial)
I have taught my plysplit braiding workshop.
I think it went very well.
It's only now i realise I failed to take photos of the final samples and the ladies actually plysplitting.
They all produced three samples and seemed to enjoy it.
I did take a few photos
this was just some of my samples to show what could be done and these are the hundreds of cords that I had to prep before I could teach it. recognise the colours from, the previous post?
al x

did you miss me?

Dear all, I am touched that you noticed that I'd not posted for a bit.
I had a bit of bloggers block.
and I've been busy busy!
I'm running a plysplit braiding course on saturday for the leicester weavers spinners and dyers, so i've been busy gettting things sorted for that.
I'll post more photos later but here are a few to tie you over.
First family ( well Emi)
Emi learnt some valuable skills this week, First she learnt how to use a mouse and can now quite happily navigate her way around the Cbeebies web site, could some one reminder her she's only 2 and a bit. and she also taught herself to use a cord winder, she'd seen mummy do it lots this week so she had a go.
I've also dyed lots of yummy Linen for the course.
more later when I've photographed it.
al x

ground force had nothing on us!

So this weekend we blitzed the garden!
and not just a little bit
As you all know it's not easy to garden and watch small kids, so ours has got a little out of hand over the last few years. Our garden is allegedly 150ft long and about 20ft wide.
It doesnt look that big cos of the mass of vegetation.
SO we called in a lot of favours and alot of aunts and uncles and friends came and helped us out on the condition that I would feed them!
there are virtually no photos of the event, a shame but everyone was very busy.
thank you everyone again.
we filled a very large skip and could do it again.
The best photos that came out of the event is courtesy of big aunt em.
this was our site manager!
the next day mum and I dyed some yarn, thats what I'm about to do wind it all back into balls! fun
take care
al x

No really it's meant to be like that

Hello,
Apparently according to blogger I've not posted since the 15th.... Well I apologise it's been a little bit manic. what day is it today??
I've got absolutely no idea of the date! But I know I got paid so it must be after the 25th!!
Any way....
I've got textiley bits and non textiley bits to tell.
First I've been crocheting after a bit of a braiding overload.
I decided to try a pattern, cos I can freeform, but there is a skill to reading a pattern. SO I purchased a pattern from woolly Wormhead
It should look like this. Now in Woolly Wormheads defence It's not her fault that I'm rubbish at reading patterns. It made perfect sense after I'd asked a few people.

So TAKE ONE
The wool I used is from my fab secret pal, I got 4 balls so was able to start again without destroying my first attempt!!
This was the first attempt, I totally missread the pattern and did five stitches into one stitch and then did 2, instead of doing two into one stitch and then a single double into the next five! apparently...
Hence the beautiful ruffles!!I thought it might improve so I kept going, and when I got to the second ball I gave in, and my wonderful Hubby said " but you do freeform....." taking out the rude parts of the response I said "but this was supposed to be something!!!!"
I really like it...

TAKE 2
So I sat my MIL down and said help, and started again!!
and this was the result....
It actually does what it says on the tin!
The only problem being it's supposed to fit me... but I have a very big head! The lesson here is DO A TENSION SQUARE" yes I know I should but I have so little time to do anything....
Can you tell adam didnt want his picky taken!
It sort of fits Emi So I need to adapt it a bit and them I'm going to start again and do one for me.
In the mean time disaster struck
arghhhh my number five hook.
what am I to do..... may be I'm too much of a novice to use plastic hooks.
Back to making cords for the next course I'm doing!!!!! more arghhhh
More on the rest of the last few weeks later
al x

B's beeeeaaaddddddsssssssssssss

Dear all,
SO a few of my mates are heavily into making glass beads at the mo.
"B" who has a live journal thing ( I think) I'll add the address tomorrow when I get it.
And Molten Ivy who just hides her light under a very big bush ( you know who you are!) Come and join us on the blog side, you know you want to.
Any way,
B doesn't hide her amazing talent and we have recently done a little buisness transaction.
I asked her to make some beads for me to braid with and she wanted a braiding disc the deal was done and we traded the balance in beads.....
I couldnt believe what I got in the deal.So the following are just yummy, I had some help with the photography can you tell.
aren't they great!
I dont want to use them though they are just two yummy, can I do them justice?
AL

sp10 goodies

Dear all,
I got a lovely package from my sp10 pal last week. I got a pack of lovely purple threads and 2 books
one on embroidered bags and one one merino knitting. They are both great. I've had a quick flick through both ( time has only allowed that) really fancy the shaped bags.
ironically jenny rolfe has just joined our local emboiderers guild so I could get the bag one signed!!
thank you, thank you thank you.
al
x

A great adventure!

Dear all,
I'm back, did you miss me?
So I didnt quite manage to use the Wifi at the hotel, too exhausted.
But I have got pickies of my great adventure.
It's the first time my wage earning job has really featured here, but the pickies are too good not to include.
Some of you will know, I'm an archivist in my other life, I gather and catalogue photographs for a large quarrying company Aggregate Industries ( go to company history if you want to see what I do ish( I'm the side kick)). We have over 400 site in the uk alone and they all have a vivid and long history, I try to document them through the photographs that are found, some dating back to the 1870s
These few days I've been helping out with an open day at one of our devon quarries. Partly as an archivist because we are in the process of writing about this quarry for a book and I also helped out with the 400 school children ( gulp) that were being shown around.
So firstly I had to get down to Devon..... I was given a pool car which I then gave back, I like my cars in working order, so they gave me this one..... I think they were trying to make a point, but if they were it totally backfired, I've had lots of fun and my boy loves it.
And just to give you a taster of the modern day archivist out in the community.... can you see why they dont let me out very often? do I look cold and wet?
I promise sp10 and beads tomorrow, off to watch eurovision song contest and sleep.

Al x