Goody for the First Advent Sunday

Since I can't invite you all for Advent afternoon tea, I've decided to give you another kind of goodie: a snippet from the WIP. In this scene my heroine, who spent the past few years at a (finishing) school far away from London society, attends her first ball. Enjoy!

This, this wonderful ball was magical -- from the candles blazing from the chandeliers, bedecked with crystals that glittered like icicles, to the sweet sounds of the small orchestra.

Imagine that! An orchestra playing the music for a ball! It was so much more ... refinded than Miss Riggs's efforts on the piano during the dancing lessons at St. Cuthbert's.

And best of all: to dance with a gentleman instead of a fellow student! Why, her insides had been all aflutter during the first few dances (even though she had told herself sternly that such silliness was the first step of becoming an utter henwit).

Loads of Cuteness for Mirabel

Here are some examples of softies that were donated by other people to this year's Softies for Mirabel. The sight of so many sweet handmade softies always gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

1. Daisy for Mirabel 2011, 2. Lambkins, 3. DoodleGirl , 4. OWL Parade, 5. softies for mirabel badge, 6. Pumpkin, 7. DSC_5099, 8. Posie for Mirabel 2011, 9. Purple Dino

I particularly love the "Polly" pattern (No 1 und 8). It's from Softies only a Mother Could Love, and I can't wait to try it out myself! It seems to be rather popular in the crafting community as well: you can find oodles of pictures of Pollies online. What's your favourite? The sweet lambkin? The little miss in red? Or perhaps the row of owls?

Three Musketeers for Mirabel

It's that time of year again: Softies for Mirabel, the handmade toy drive organised by Pip Lincolne from "Meet at Mike's" to benefit the Mirabel Foundation, which "assists children who have been orphaned or abandoned due to parental illicit drug use and are now in the care of extended family (kinship care)". The dolls and softies are exhibted in the shop window of "Meet Me at Mike's" in the first week of December before they are given to the Mirabel foundation. It's a charity project I'm more than happy to support.

So this year, I sent along three softies:


The giraffe might look familiar: Corduroy Wes (remember him?) was made from this pattern, too. The doll is a Tilda Christmas angel minus the wings, and the little guy is Henny House from the fabulous book Softies Only a Mother Could Love (= Most.Adorable.Softies.Ever!!!).

The patterned fabrics are from Tante Ema, a fabric design studio based in the Black Forest of all places! Naturally I have to support them by buying many, many, many yards of their fabrics. ;-)

There and Back Again

In case you were wondering: teh Kitteh and I haven't fallen off the edges of the earth, nor have we been abducted by horrible aliens, nor buried under an avalanche of crafting books (though mountainous piles of crafting books seem to grow in my library these days ...). What happened was that I didn't have proper internet access. Or rather, it took me ages (two years to be exact) to install my new computer. But now the 'puter is connected to all the important stuff (except for the printer -- still need to buy a new printer) (there's a pattern emerging here, can you see it?), and I'm properly back online. Yay! So there's hope that I'll get back to posting regularly. :)

Much has happened while I was away from my blog:

• I bought a Kindle
• I got addicted to Kindle books
• I started to think that the Kindle is the best thing since the invention of chocolate
• I sewed softies for Softies for Mirabel
• I went to academic conferences in Canterbury and Leeds and at a castle on the banks of the Rhine.
• I also went back to the Black Forest for the first time in 25 years and visited the small town in which I spent a part of my childhood and which was the model for Kirchwalden in CASTLE OF THE WOLF.