the week that was!!

Long rambly post alert!!
I have had a week where everything I touched turned to poo!

Crafting wise the start of the week was a total wash out....not the ideal situation when you are late with one swap and have a deadline with the other!!

I have lots more scraps in my scrap basket, and scraps are always handy, yes???!!!

For example, I made a cushion for my (hopefully opened very soon) blogshop, was really pleased with it, started sewing on the embellishments and noticed that the fabric on the reverse had been sewn on the wrong way round!!!

Like so!! Spot the (not so) deliberate mistake!!!

Then I decided to make some fabric covered hangers...sounds simple? Thats what I thought....I googled and there are very few tutorials and I couldn't find one that would make the hangers look how I wanted them to..with lots of gathers and with the fabric tight to the padding...

So this is my effort....

Can't see on the pic but I needed to shape the corners that was an oversight on my part!! But it doesn't look how I wanted it to :(

I will be keeping it and using it (it'll look great with a cardy on covering it up lol!!) because the flipping handstitching took ages!!

On top of this I had the dreaded 'Flu' symptoms all week...I wasn't 'ill' merely unwell!! I went into the pharmacy on Friday for anti sickness drugs and he took a step back and told me I had SF symptoms!! Well thankfully it hasn't come to much - I feel well again today!! But a week of feeling sick, well took me back to pregnancy - and not in a good way!!

It wasn't all bad....

On Thursday I recieved some samples of CK fabric - without 'sample' stamped all over them so that brought a smile to my face. I smiled all the time I was on the phone placing an order with Cath!! (free p&p with the code that came with the samples!!)

I will be making my friend one of these bags for her birthday next week, so this fabric has come to live with me

and these 2 tshirts for C...they were in the sale....I won't pay £15 for a tshirt for me let alone for a 4 year old lol!! He'll be banned from staining foods so that they keep nice for his younger brother too - I love recycling!!

Is it inappropriate to put a 4year old in a bib???

He likes Stanley best - I prefer the planes!! And a little bird told me (well Mary Poppins!!) that Cath had brought out a new crush mug design......be rude not to buy one when Cath has designed it just for me haha!! And lovely husband is often heard moaning about the amount of girly mugs we have - so I ordered it for him ;)!!

Some crafting went right by the weekend...and a parcel is currently in the care of Royal Mail on the way to a special swap partner :)

And these worked too.....well so far they have worked.....I am looking forward to embellishing my interpretation of a dream catcher :)

The week ended with a trip to see my old friend Harry.

Now, forget the JK bashing that inevitably takes place when a film comes out, I fail to see how anyone can dispute that the Harry Potter films are good family films. I am a harry fan, books have been read within 2 days of release, over analyse the plot etc etc!! But even my lovely husband who has never read the books enjoys and looks forward to the release of the films. The film is a 12a and I strongly recommend for the sanity of the other viewers you don't take a child under 9 or 10. We had to endure a running commentary from the dad behind us explaining things to his 6ish year old son..is that snow? is that his old house? are they really flying? (on a broomstick aaggh!!)

Also go with an open mind..its a film...for older children....... man walking out behind us at the end..

" what a load of rubbish" - sat thru 3 hours though didn't you???

"missed out loads" - well yes the book took longer than 3 hours to read didn't it???

" nothing like the book" - well actually having read the book yes it was - but movies are seldom identical to the book!!!

plum!!! I don't go to the cinema very often - I am not a tolerant cinema goer!!

That was that week - this one is new...and we have no school (whoop!!) for 6 lovely lazy weeks :)

And today was sunny enough to wear my new (thrifted) skirt - its billabong, still had tags on and i think its my new favourite - £2 well spent!!!

Excuse the messy - part re-vamped crafty drawers behind me!!

Seaside Swap

I've been busy crafting lately but couldn't really post about it as its mostly been for swaps, but as Jo, my swap partner has recieved her parcel now, I can show.

Seaside was an excellent swap theme, plenty of room for interpretation...

I went for nautical...

close up of cushion..... an appliqued cushion. hanging boat and a wooden painted rowing boat decoration.

Then a day at the beach...

a cutlery roll to keep them knives and forks safe, with matching napkins, and some flags to put in the sandcastles you build.

And then some retro seaside fun!!!

Teeny bunting in a michael miller( I think?) seaside print and little deckchair tin.

I had great fun making for the seaside swap, next up finishing a swap over at SCC (very late sorry lacey xx) and finishing the sleepover swap.

union jacks in nature...

In the Times on Sunday (well one of the trillion supplements anyway!) there was an enviromental article about saving Britains wildlife. Its a very good article and definately worth a read,and has links to the RSPB who have a Homes for Wildlife programme.
I am loving this picture!!!! picture taken from thetimesonline

C has had a good study of it and pointed out all the things he recognises, but I just love that its yet another union jack!!!

I have to say we are not usually Times readers, but they had a free Specials CD in this weeks paper which lovely husband wanted...however there is a weeks worth of reading and some of the articles have stretched my stay at home baby obsessed brain a little further than it would usually reach!!

Elsewhere......more union jack obsession.........completed felt brooches

(these are for my future blogshop, still a work in progress both mentally and physically lol!)

Vintage Applique

I'm enjoying playing about with applique at the moment, and I'm wondering if its a case of the apple doesn't fall far from the tree!

My Grandma was a wonderful seamstress, she used to 'take in' sewing for extra spends while she was a stay at home mum, mainly dressmaking. One Christmas she made us young cousins fabulous tutus, mine was white, big puffy net skirt and a bodice with silver sequins on *sigh*, I wish we had kept it :(

Even though I had the grace of a baby elephant, a girl could dream!!

I don't ever remember her sewing the things I like to sew (ie things that serve no real practical purpose!!), but do recall handmade curtains, pinnys etc.

And this.....

This was a single bedspread, given to me as a Christmas gift about 30 years ago - how it survived I don't know as neither mum or me have ever been great savers of stuff! With good reason really, we have both moved house a lot over the years.

When my eldest was a toddler, it was found and turned into a floor cushion cover and used for a while before I stashed it away.

I remembered it the other week so dug deep in the loft and looked at it with different eyes!

What a labour of love :)

Its a great example of repurposed fabrics being used in crafting too...I reckon that most came from Grandmas dresses

I had a great time looking at this again, with my new crafty eyes lol -

The umbrella and vase are definately dress fabric.. I love the pram...I think that was clothing from one of my uncles...it looks familiar!!

And I love the queen!
The letter has my name on and a teeny appliqued stamp - I remember loving that as a girl!This sat on my 1970's bed with a skirt made of browny orange bri nylon - yum (some vintage things are best lost with time! )Mum took this off to make the cushion. And luckily she has literally just folded in half to make the cushion cover, and inserted a massive zip.

I have decided to turn it into a quilt. I have unpicked the zip and sides and I'm good to go! I shall back it with something a bit more modern, I think I may just stitch it on to a premade lightweight duvet and one of the little boys can use on their bed.

I've changed my mind, saving stuff is good as long as it has a purpose. This applique is not doing anyone any favours in a bag in the loft and I'm sure that my Grandma would rather things were used and loved.

Maybe one day my applique will be good enough to make something equally fabulous for my granddaughter (yes that specific I have 4 sons I have earnt my granddaughter lol!!). Not sure my embroidery will ever be good enough to go out in public though!!

the good life

When we moved to this house 4 years, we compromised a bit with things we wanted. Actually we compromised a lot! So we have no garage, no big garden and have had to have 2 separate
lots of building work to make it big enough!! But when I saw the fireplaces and sash windows, nothing else would do...

I have spent the last 2 years moaning about the small garden, and this year decided to embrace it. Okay so I can't have an orchard, or chickens, or a kitchen garden but I can do things on a smaller scale!!

So I set lovely husband the task of digging up the concrete path (only put in when we did the kitchen 3 years ago - not thinking about my carbon footprint for that one!!) and building me 2 raised beds - one for flowers and one for veg.

So thats the garden ticked off the to do list...until next door have rebuilt the wall you can see on the pics...imminent apparantly!!!

I'm definately not green fingered but I'm pleased with how things are looking.... We are never going to be self sufficient lol, but we will be able to grow enough to show the little boys that food doesn't always come from Tesco!

I planted a cherry tree and an apple tree, the apple tree and has no fruit on it, and this little red cherry was eaten by a bird! (this was taken a week ago and now nearly all the cherries are red so I am going to net the tree so the greedy birds don't get them all!)Again a week ago, this was what my little veggie bed looked like...a week on and you can't see the soil any longer. (you can see the sorry looking new apple tree on the left!)

We left it too late for planting so its all a bit random so next year I will start earlier and follow a guide I think. I have this Delia book that shows you how to plant a square foot garden - which maximises the space.

The tomatoes are doing well.... (not bothered if they don't all go red, I'll just make green tomato chutney!)

And......patience is a virtue obviously!! My pathetic strawberries are now looking like this .........well a week ago they were!! They went in the Pimms at the weekend :)

Why I shan't be sewing oilcloth again anytime soon...

I decided that I really must have outdoors bunting. Not just put up/take down for a special occasion bunting...I wanted keep it there til the end of summer bunting.

I had some blue polka dot oilcloth from LA - leftover from a tablecloth from way back, and some CK cowboys print oilcloth I bought off ebay - just because I could!!

I cut out triangles with pinking shears...

I thought - lets make things simple - single sided sewn onto white tape........

And that is when I realised sewing oilcloth is.really.really.hard!!!

So nobody is allowed to look at it too closely and I try and ignore the seriously wonky stitching. (this is one of the better ones!!!)

To add insult to injury when it rains this happens.....

the pointy ends curl up, they do uncurl after a while but I wasn't impressed after all my hard work!!!And I am shelving my plans to buy some CK boat print oilcloth to make the boys lovely washbags.

hint hint

Don't you just love surprise parcels in the post.........

I had one this week from my lovely talented friend Gemma.

A while ago on her blog, Gem had shown the fabric she had got from CK and mentioned that she hadn't liked the footballer print one....I suggested she could make something for a friend with blue flavoured children :)

(I know tres cheeky!!)

Look what my blue flavoured children have in their room now....

They are thrilled with it and it looks great on their wardrobe door......

I love this print -shame Ms K discontinued it!!

The baby had a bodysuit I found on ebay with this print on - I like things a little bit different from the norm!! Shame it had been made for a normal sized baby and he only wore it once before it cut off his circulation!!!

Gem had also included a cute cupcake hanger, which now is on my shelves in the dining room.

Love the beady detail.

Now I happen to have heard that Gem has interviews this week, following her fabulous degree result, so good luck Gem, I'll be crossing my fingers for you.

(You can find gorgeous brooches handmade by Gemma here.)