This little Ellie Jo doll by bitofwhimsyprims has tickled my imagination today.

I’ve created a cross stitch pattern based on her face & hairstyle, as a freebie for you to sew.

All I have to do now is put it together into a pdf, so that you can download it.

The name of the design came about because the shape of the hairstyle reminded me of a lolly wrapper, and also because Wren’s other nickname is Lolly.

(and she’s super-cute too)

The free cross stitch pattern will be finished for download, next week!

You’ll need:

~ Alfalfa seeds
~ Sandy soil (seed raising mix is best if you have it)
~ 1 stocking or “knee-hi”
~ Marking pen or fabric shapes

What to do:

~ Cut a stocking to knee-length & drop a small handful of seed inside.
~ Then, put the stocking over the mouth of the cup of soil and tip the soil carefully in.
~ Tie the stocking in a knot to create a firm ball shape and cut off the excess fabric.
~ Draw on face with your marking pen or stick fabric features on with water proof glue.
~ When you’re ready to grow your sprout head, soak for about ten minutes in water. Then place in an empty saucer and fill daily with water.

Other thoughts:

~ The knot goes at the bottom – make sure your face is on the right way up.
~ Alternately, decorate a plastic cup and place the stocking-full of soil & seeds inside.

Homeschoolers:

~ Try using different soils, sawdust or sand in each of your seed-heads & compare.
~ You can also use mustard seeds, grass seeds or something similar.
~ Keep a graph of which grows fastest & highest, and which lives longest.

Since Kathy published my doodles as digiscrap freebies on her blog, I’ve taken a look at what else I’ve done that she could use, and come up with quite a few things.

In particular, I’ve been experimenting with watercolours this year and been having a lot of fun.

Just simple little bits and bobs, but I’m pretty pleased with how they’ve come out.

Kathy’s more into the digital side of things, and said she’d love to use more of my designs for her site.

So from now on my “artworks” will be featuring regularly on her site as digital scrapbooking freebies, with some little watercolour hearts coming next Sunday.

Exciting, huh?!

I’ve never been part of a collaborative effort, and I’m really looking forward to being a part of this.

Who knows where it might lead to?

It’s been a couple of difficult weeks for us, after I overdid things by taking the kids to school twice last week!

Since then, I’ve needed to sleep quite a bit and had a really foggy brain. It takes me a couple of minutes to understand what people are saying when I’m like that.

Not good for the ol’ social life (if I had one).

I seem to be getting back on top of it again now though, and I’m hoping to be well enough to play around a bit with the kids on Sunday.

~ It’s Mother’s Day, and I’ll need my energy to ‘oooh’ and ‘aaah’ over the gifts the kids are working on .

I also thought I’d share with you some pretty little paisley drawings I was working on at the beginning of last week.

My friend Kathy is going to try turning them into transparent png’s for digital scrapbooking!

It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten out my pencils and drawn, and I’d forgotten how absorbing it can be.

Note to Self: Must do more of this!

This is the first award I’ve received in a loooooong time.

I think it must be a sign from upstairs that I’m moving in the right direction, especially as it’s not as a result of my fantastic blogging skills.

In fact, I know it is, because my benefactor Gina is actually a dear friend of mine from RL, and she awarded me the erm… award… before she knew I was in the process of actually making changes happen.

I’ve also quite neglected our friendship while I’ve been so sick in the past year, so it’s a doubly lovely surprise to receive this award from her. Thank you so much, Gina.

I’ve chosen a number of wonderful bloggers to pass this on to, which is an especially appropriate way to thank these lovely people for sticking by me over the past year. 

You rock, ladies!

• Tonja, my ex-pat buddy
• Amy, @ Six Flower Mom
• Nicole, aka Planning Queen
• Kate, from Picklebums
• Tina, aka Mummified times Five
• Trish, from My Little Drummer Boys
• Candid Carrie
• Dewdropbabbleson

Now, here’s the Official Rules:

*Copy the logo (picture above) onto your blog in a new post.
*Pass the award onto other bloggers.
*Link these bloggers within your post.
*Let them know they have received this award by commenting on their blogs.
*Share the award and link to the person from whom you received this award.