Sewing from the heart...,

This week, I have some pressing projects to be tackled.  I haven't started my mobile yet for Elsie Marley's mobile swap (although I do know what I'm going to make, the design is done), but before that, there are cushion covers to make.

The design for the original flower garden cushion comes from the one I made for my Mum last christmas.  There is a story behind this design, a very personal story, which I didn't share at the time...,

...the three hearts within the appliqued band represent her three children, the seeds she has planted.  The buttons and flowers growing above are for her nine grandchildren, all at different stages in their lives.  The heart button towards the top, is for Lilly.

Lilly was my youngest brother and his partners second daughter.  Sadly, she died 31 weeks into the pregnancy, and was born an angel two days later.  

It is experiences like this, that shape who we are and help us know where place any future unsettling events.  On a scale of one to ten as to what is really important in life, flickr, and other things that have cropped up this week, are a zero.

(Just to lighten the mood, I don't do serious very well, I'm typing this while my son is shooting foam discs at me, I think I'm meant to be Power Ranger 'Pink'!)

The good, the bad, and the...,

just plain ugly!

First the good, thank you so much for all the sympathetic comments regarding my skirt mishap, am glad to hear I am in good company with making the odd mistake.  I've been making some more shoes, brogues this time, and all of my squidgy shoes are shortly off to the USA, to be making an appearance in the next issue of 'Stuffed' magazine!

Now, for the bad.  Again, a big thank you for all the Flickr sympathy.  I am still none the wiser as to why, despite my emailing Flickr asking for an explanation, the response has been zero.  I've dug around in their forum and found some thought, that if a photostream consists of entirely work related images, and gives the impression of an online catalogue, that can cause an account to be deleted.  I have to admit, mine was all work, as I'm not comfortable sharing family and home life online.  Anyhow, I have today, tentatively rejoined!, I am a bit nervous having done so, and given I still don't know what I did wrong last time, am very worried about making the same mistake again.  It's going to take a while to get up to speed there again, if I haven't yet made you a contact again, please feel free to give me a nudge!

(oh, and there are a small smidgen of rather boring, personal photo's on flickr, in my new "not commercial in any way" photostream) 

And the ugly?, well, that's me!.  I feel really run down, ulcers in my mouth, coldsores on my lip, spots on my chin.  I'm nearly 40, and I haven't looked this bad since being a teenager!

Am giving up chocolate for a few days (gulp!), to see if that helps!

I think I'm having a bad week!

Guess the mistake...!

Answer is below,

(sorry, bad photo alert, this was in the evening, artificial light!)

I've sewn it to my skirt.

Feeling a bit blue..,

I don't like blogging about negative things, but as I'm only human, sometimes this stuff does seep to the surface.  As you may have spotted in my previous post, my Flickr account has been deleted.  The good news is the groups as linked to in the sidebar are still there, but all my own images, comments, contacts, and favorites are all gone.  Why?, in all honesty, I'm not sure.  Flickr did this with no warning, the only contact I've had with them is a very short message in response to my email telling me I had broken their 'terms of service', I can only guess as to how.

There were links back to this blog within the description of some images, and a handful photographs which referenced Etsy.  I'm feeling very frustrated at not being given the chance by Flickr to put right what was wrong, and trying to remain as professional as I can, but it is hard not to point out there are far worse crimes against the terms of service being committed on Flickr.  Best I can do for now is to say to all of you, please, please check your own photostream if you are a Flickr user, I'm not the only person this happened to, hopefully in posting this, it may help save others from the same fate.

I'm not sure if I will rejoin Flickr, am going to leave it for a while.  

In the meantime, some things to cheer me up, the copious amounts of Green & Blacks chocolate in my tummy were joined by a rather lovely meal from a girls night out yesterday evening, and I have this sat next to me on my desk...,

I managed to grab one of these in Stephanie's valentine shop update, of course because Mr LK got the love letter I made for him, I get to keep this, yay!

There is also some sewing to be done.  A new shoe waiting for a bit of decoration.  And next on the softie shoe list are some brown, brogue style ones, and my favorite, red t-bar shoes!

Can I just begin by saying...,

...a huge thank you to everyone who stopped by to comment on the previous post.  I'm really chuffed that an idea that came to me while drifting off to sleep one night last week has gone down so well!

It was well received on valentines day here too!

Choosing a winner for the giveaway after reading through all the nominations has proved an impossible task.  There were so many deserved people (don't we all have a lot to thank our mums for when it comes to our sewing and crafty skills!), I would have dearly loved to send something to everyone mentioned, but sadly, I'm just not able to make quite that many pin cushions.  In the end, I decided to leave it in the hands of the children, and after putting all the names of the commentators in a bowl, they picked out...,

Karen from Sew Many Ways, who nominated Jodi from Simply This That and the Other.

I'm very pleased that Jodi is the winner as she does an awful lot of blogging on other peoples behalf by featuring them on her blog, she did a lovely write up on Lucykate Crafts.

A few people did mention about putting the pin cushion up for auction to raise money for aid needed after the Australian Bush Fires.  Well, hopefully, this is going one better than a pin cushion.  I have donated Marmalade the Cat...,

The lovely Trashy has organised a raffle, if you visit her blog, you will find the details, and there are lots of prizes to win.  To be included in the raffle, all you need to do is visit the British Red Cross site or the Australian Red Cross and make a donation to the Bushfire Relief Fund, let Trashy know, and you earn tickets for the prize draw, which is being made on Saturday the 21st February.  There are some fantastic prizes up for grabs as well as my little Marmalade, including a purse from Lisa of U-Handbag, and the raffle poster girl herself, gorgeous little Annabelle from Little Cotton Rabbits.

So, what are you waiting for?!, go, go, GO!!

Edit - just a quick note to say I am having a problem with Flickr tonight, my Flickr account plus all my images seem to have disappeared, it just says 'this user is no longer active'!  I did not do anything to my Flickr account, I promise.  Have emailed Flickr, so am just waiting (and hoping) to see if this can be resolved.