Shoes and vintage dresses

My husband would tell you I have too many pairs of shoes but I don't agree! Anyway the shoes in this post are all for my two girls. We went to Tommy Ball's in Blackburn and it is just fantastic!! They stock all sorts of shoes but they mainly have Clark's shoes which normally cost about £28 a pair - that's for the kids ones! They also have Start - rite shoes which are also fab but cost £35 a pair for kids. Anyway the top shop (as it is known locally) stocks slight seconds but they are £9.99 a pair for shoes!! The bottom shop has worn once shoes at £4.49 and they do have a bargain bit where the shoes are very, very worn for 50p. Anyway I got 3 pairs of shoes for the girls from the bottom shop, worn once (although they look like they have been worn once in the shop!) for a bargain price of £13!! They are all Start -rite so would have cost £105 new! Here's some nice pictures of them.




I've also been promising pictures of some vintage dresses I have. Finally managed to get a chance to take photo's of them! I wore this one to a wedding at the weekend with black linen trousers and turquoise shoes - very smart! It looks a bit old ladyish on the hanger but it's not really once I've got it on. It also looks like it has been made for me as it fits perfectly and shows off my (ample) curves!

Close up of the fabric here


This yellow dress is gorgeous (and much brighter than it looks here) and was bought in Oxfam for the bargain price of £5! It's slightly too snug at the moment but I'm hoping that it will fit soon - I'm going to wear it in winter with a long sleeved black top and black tights - I will look like a giant bumble bee!


I bought this next dress on a recent trip to London. It was in a vintage shop and is more than I would usually pay for a dress (£30) but I just love it! It's handmade and looks like it used to be a tablecloth - it's that kind of material. Some of the smocking is going but I have a book that tells me how to fix it. Whether I get round to it is not the issue!




And last but by no means least is the red dress! Again a bit old lady looking but it does look good on - I'm picturing it with black tights and patent shoes. It reminds me of a mod dress - but that could just be the long sleeves and the hem!!



Close up of the buttons on the bust area. This dress was £3 in my local charity shop. It's one of those that are independent and it has the most fabulous stuff in there. And the best thing is it's name - it's for a horse rescue centre and it's called Only Foals and Horses - hee hee hee!!

Panicking now!!

Ok - so I've realised that my first craft fair isn't too long away - little over a month!!! I need to start making lots more stuff it seems. I had got big plans to make a new range of Christmas decorations and cards in time for it but I don't think I am going to be able too. The ideas are all there but no time, no time - arrrggggghhhh! I think I will have to make a list of things to take and post back here when they are done - you can come and kick me up the bum if I'm not making enough progress - sound good?

At least 5 chicken doorstops - easy to custom make you see.

10 chicken paperweights

10 sets of envelopes (at least)

A couple of sets of recycled Christmas decorations

Individual Christmas cards and at least one basket of various cards

Knitting needle bracelets (must try out that new technique)

Badges and at least 5 brooches

Business card holders - if I ever get the pattern sorted.

Another nappy cake - just for displaying as I can take orders for those.

Does that sound like enough stuff? Not enough? Not enough variation? Etc Etc! I already have some of my mum and sisters crocheted and knitted stuff so they can help fill out the table. Eeeek, better get making - oh I have to sort out my wholesale prices too!!

Busy busy Lynsey for the next few weeks I think!!

Monster cards!

Here we have two cheeky monster cards for two cheeky monsters. These were done as a commission for this lovely lady Ruth. They have goggle eyes so should cause some amusement when opened!



I think the purple guy is the cutest but I do love the teeth of the red monster too! Hope your two boys like them.

Elizabeth's craft party

Yesterday was Lizzie's birthday party that I organised - another string to my bow is that I 'do' craft parties too. There were 5 girls there, Elizabeth included, and they were the nicest girls I think I have ever worked with (ex- teacher talking here too!) Lizzie had chosen the crafts that she wanted to do - suncatcher photoframes and small jewellery boxes. Alex (Lizzie's mum) came up with the idea of taking a photo of the girls as they arrived with the birthday girl, to put into their photoframes as part of their party bags at the end. I thought that this was a great idea. She'd also bought some lovely jewellery to go into the jewellery boxes they had made too. Makes a change from the plastic stuff you normally get in party bags that disappears as soon as you get home!

Anyway, back to the party! We made the photoframes first as I hadn't tested the glass pens out and I wasn't sure how wet they would be and how long they would take to dry. It turns out that they are just like normal felt pens and they were dry pretty much straight away. Next we made the jewellery boxes - they had a good selection of paint to use and lots of sparkles, stickers and rick rack to add. The glue was a bit tricky to use and the next picture is of me helping to squeeze it!


The boxes dried pretty quickly too so next it was on to the party bags. I gave the girls large brown paper bags - the kind normally used for takeaways! They are strong though and big enough to hold the things that have been made plus a few other bits and pieces. I got out my glitter glue (very popular), stamps, ink pads, punches, felt pens and lots of bits to stick on. I must remember next time to make the party bags first as the glitter glue took a long time to dry - I ended up upstairs with the hairdryer trying to get them dry before hometime!! Here's a picture of me and Lizzie - she is proudly showing off her party bag!

So all in all it was a very good party - the girls enjoyed it and as I am Alex's friend, I got to stay for homemade cake and scones. Yummy!!!

Presents!

Since I am a crafter I have decided that I should make presents for people and not buy mass produced plastic rubbish! I started this off my making some coasters for my friend Nicola but I'm not sure they went with her decor. I then made some baking sets for Anya's friends Emily and Mia. They were mentioned in this thread here. It's my friends daughter Elizabeth's birthday tomorrow and I have made her these. The pattern was a little difficult to follow - especially at one point but I'm pleased with how it's turned out. I made the bag this morning as a little extra something for her - it's a bit long but I'm sure it will be appreciated!






I'm also running the craft party that Elizabeth is having on Sunday - I'm a bit nervous as it's only the second one I've done but I'm looking forward to it too. There will be 6 girls there so it should be easy to manage (especially being a former teacher!) and I'm sure lots of fun will be had - more details after the party!!

New things on Etsy

Here's a couple of things that I've been putting onto Etsy recently. My favourite is the egg box sewing kit - you know how I like my recycling!! It's a great little present and I'm currently thinking who I know would appreciate one of these - hmmmm - no one I don't think!



The sewing kits come with thread, needles, pins, a fluffy pincushion, tape measure and some vintage buttons. Egg boxes of the future will have different things in them - depends what I can get for them.

Here's some envelopes I have uploaded too recently - I really like the Dandy ones and I think the photo's have come out very well.



I've also added to my badge selection on Etsy too - these ones I really like! There are more Peter and Jane badges and some Snoopy badges too.

So if you are interested in any of these or want to see what other things I have been adding then go and check out my Etsy shop!

New fun thing to waste time on!

I've been sending some out with my blog details on and just the general etsy link on it too - not brave enough yet to put my actual Etsy shop on there! It's very addictive and I get excited when I see a bottle bobbing around!

http://www.oceangram.com

What could my mother in law possibly mean!!

Pat, my mother in law, sent me this card a while back and I've been wanting to share it for a while but I've never had the rooms in quite the right state with a camera handy! It reads 'Like most creative people, Van Gough just didn't see the clutter'. Quite right too!

I don't know what she means! Front room and dining room.


Here though is my tidy kitchen - it's not like this often!!

And again!!

My badges are at the top! Peter and Jane at Christmas!

Etsy Treasury!

Hee hee - been featured in my first ever Etsy treasury!! How exciting is that!! The lovely lady who included my items is Kimberly and her etsy shop has lots of yummy things in it so go shop - oh and call by my shop too!!

Here's a screen shot that I managed to get.

In case you can't read the writing, my object is the red and mint striped bag!

1st camping trip....

.......and it threw it down pretty much all of the time!! I also forgot to take the camera so no pictures of the wet mud, Anya being filthy or the tent I'm afraid. We stayed at Low Wray campsite on the shore of Lake Windermere in the Lake District. My sister is an assistant warden there and she had Friday and Saturday off which turned out quite nicely. She and her boyfriend Graeme (who is also a warden there) helped me to put the tent up in the pouring rain on Friday afternoon - thank goodness they were there as I wouldn't have managed by myself - I picked Matt up at the train station on Friday evening as he had been working in London. Even though it was wet, it was quite warm, which allayed my worries that the girls would be too cold - they were toasty and snug all night. The tent we have bought has a canopy at the front so we were able to put that up to cook under and so we were protected mostly from the rain while cooking.

On Saturday we walked up to Wray castle which is above the campsite and we caught a ferry from the jetty there across to Waterhead, which is just outside Ambleside. We had a wander round there and had lunch at (to Matt's disgust as he likes his meat!) a vegetarian, organic cafe called the Rattle Gill. It has gorgeous homemade food so if you are ever in Ambleside then check it out - it's in Bridge Street. Being where it is Ambleside has a lot of camping, walking and climbing shops so we had a look round for wellies/walking boots for me as I had forgotten to pack anything waterproof for my feet!! How daft? We spotted some but they didn't have any in my size so we decided not to bother as I have walking boots and wellies at home - not very useful though when you are in the Lake District and it's pouring with rain!! Anya was shattered when we got back (having caught the ferry again) but was very good to have walked so far - about 3 miles in total, not far really, but when you have little legs it is quite a way!

I'm quite glad that we went away as we were in a gorgeous spot up above one of the two bays that the campsite is on. Anya got to see lots of boats so she was quite pleased. I'm also quite glad that it rained while we were there as we now know that we can camp in the rain with two young children and not be pulling our hair out! We will be going again soon - but we might wait for nicer weather!!

I know I said there were no photo's but here are some of the tent drying and the stuff waiting to be put away. Tara has obviously decided that the pile of stuff to be put away doesn't look nice as she has brightened it up with shoes and Tinky Winky!

Tattooed Anya!

So I've been busy on the forum and generally checking out ways to promote my Etsy shop - ignoring my children really! So I turned around to find that Anya had been drawing on herself to get a tattoo like Mummy - wait til Matt reads that!!! But she couldn't draw a dragon so drew lots of squiggles instead! Anyway - she looks pleased with herself here. God knows how I'm going to get it off though as she used a CD Marker pen! Lots of scrubbing in the bath tonight I think!


And so she doesn't feel left out here is a picture of Tara pulling one of her best faces - the frown! She'll suddenly turn to you and pull that face - it's hilarious! And if you ask her if she is frowning then she will frown at you then giggle!



Kids eh? :)