Two princesses

....dressed up for lunch!


They wanted to get dressed up for my birthday lunch - I wasn't going to deny them!!

31 years ago today....

....I was born! Happy Birthday to me!!

*The fabulous calendar was a present from my sister in law. I'd spotted it in a brocante near their house in France and cursed when I didn't get it. Months later they went back and it was still there!!! It was obviously meant to be :) I'm off to have fun now - later xx

Another treasury

But one I have made!

It's called Cute Overload! and I have cheated a bit as it is also up as one of my Cuteable posts for today! I'm off ouut now to drop off 2 more bags to the charity shop - I like this tidying up malarkey!! Oh and I meant to say yesterday that I went to drop some stuff off at Sams and I didn't buy anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was very restrained :)

Treasury love!

Yeah!! Don't you just love treasuries?? I do especially when I'm featured in them! And I was featured in this one that celebrates colour!

So a big huge thank you must go to Zoe Woods who curated it! A set of my recycled envelopes are on the bottom right!

Hmmmmmmm

This is what happens when you get a distracted mummy + Tara + a highlighter pen. It all equals this!!

It's a good job she's got those big blue eyes to look up at me :)

The drop!!

Yeah!!!! The little guy from the other day was dropped this weekend in Cumbria. We went away for a long weekend to Whinfell Forest and I thought it would be the ideal place for my first drop for The Toy Society as it was heaving with families with small children! We chose a spot that was in the middle of the village at the junction of several trails - the only trouble was that it was very, very busy and Matt and I had to hang around pretending to look at the map for about 5 minutes until we could leave the toy without being seen!


We tied him to a gate at the junction and when we came back after about an hour he had gone! I hope he finds a good home :)

And below is where I really wanted to leave him (also at the same junction) but I hadn't brought enough stuff to tie him up with - it wouldn't reach round the top of the toadstool :( Oh well!! Maybe next time!

The Toy Society

I've read the blog about The Toy Society for a while but didn't really think about doing a drop myself until I sorted out my craft room and realised just how much stuff I have! A good way to use up my stash and also brighten up someone's day would be too make something and drop it in the name of The Toy Society. So that's what I have started doing! I started off with these felt offcuts from the scrapstore.


They immediately suggested softie to me when I spotted them! Normally you get very small pieces of felt as offcuts so I was thrilled when I spotted these. And then *magically* they turned into this little guy.

And here's a close up of his eyes and buttons - I think he secretly wants to be robot!


So the first stage has been done and the toy made - the next stage is the drop which will take place this weekend :)

A parliament of owls

Today it's all about the little ones and the fab owls they made when playing with some bits from my stash. The first 2 up are Anya's owls and the last one is Tara's.



And here they are making them.

They made about 20 more after these photos were taken but Anya insisted that I stop taking photographs and put them onto my computer so that they could go on the blog tonight. That's me told then!!

Seriously...

.....if you hear me mention that I am going anywhere near to Sams (my local scrapstore) then remind me of the many hours I have spent sorting through the stuff I already have from there and the desperate measures I have had to employ to get the stuff into my craft room!

You will be getting lucky out of this though as I will be hosting some giveaways to get rid of some of the vast amounts of stuff I have hoarded from there. And believe me, the 5 bags of fabric I took back to Sams last week didn't even make a dent into it!

Goodies from Raspberry!

Yesterday I got 7 parcels through the post - all of them for the Cuteable giveaway, or so I thought! Nestled in among them was one that said it was from Raspberry. Hmmmmm thought I - I'm sure I haven't got Raspberry down on my list of people that are sending me something. Then I remembered that I had won some goodies from Alice for suggesting on her blog what she might do with some left over clotted cream. Well I didn't actually suggest it as that might get the wrong kind of people to her blog - if you catch my drift ;)

Anyway - this is what greeted me when I unwrapped the outer packaging!

A beautifully wrapped parcel that Tara was eager to get into - 'Take the red ribbon off' was all I got as I was taking the pictures!

And these little beauties were inside some more individually wrapped parcels - it was like it was my birthday :) I LOVE the pink brooch and I'm already figuring out my outfits for the weekend so I can wear it (I'm only half joking there too!) Tara really wanted the flower brooch so I've hidden it from her - mean mummy that I am. The chocolate is already gone as the girls and I thought it would be best to eat it to help us warm up from the snowball fight we'd had on the way back from school.

And this fabric bundle and lavender sachet was also included - the one at the bottom is fabulous and I already have half an idea of what it is going to be used for. I'll photograph it in it's full glory later as it really is lovely. So thanks Alice - I love it all!! Don't forget to go and visit Alice's shop as she has some beautiful items there :)

The artwork in my craft room

All of the artwork below will be going up onto the wall at some stage but at the moment it is resting on the little shelf that I am not sure what to do with!

Here are some details of the artwork I have and where I got it from!

These first 2 are from Cooplet - love them!! Anya and I had great fun the other evening deciding what to call the girl. We still haven't decided!

This next one is an original from Jellybeans. There is a print hiding behind the original too that Matt surprised me with.

This next photo has two artists in it - Mikiep and Lu Summers. The girl power print is from Mikiep and the houses are from Lu Summers.

And this next piece of original artwork is also from Lu Summers. I could shop in her shop all day long!

This piece of gocco'ed loveliness is from Paper Sparrow. It jumped into my basket on Etsy when I was shopping for cards!

Apologies for the blurriness of this photo below - it was getting close to bedtime and I just wanted to get the girls to bed! I won this print from Eggman Studios in a giveaway - I was thrilled and got to choose whichever print I wanted!

And this final print below is so very me! It reads 'George wanted to be an iced gem more than anything' and can be found over at Little Doodles store. I bought it with my Christmas money from my lovely MIL.

Featured!

I love being featured on peoples blogs and this feature is my first of 2009! So a big thank you must go to Kitschy Coo :)

Kitschy Coo was looking for upcyled goodies over on Folksy and found my Snow White and Rose Red repurposed journal/notebook. It's the bargain price of £4.50 so if you fancy a new notebook for 2009 then this one might be the one to get!

In other news I have finally got my supplies and vintage shop together on Etsy so please go and check it out - it's called Anya's Attic!

The craft room so far...

It's looking good and the old sofa bed is out, as is the storage chest and they will be winging their way to my sister in law today!

Whoooooo hoooooo - the sewing desk is in as are the bookcases. It's slowly all coming together although there is still A LOT to do.

All this stuff isn't staying on the desk although I'm tempted to keep the shelf unit at the back there that has all the art work on it. I'll post more about the artwork from fabulous people later.

And look there is carpet!!!!!!

And my buttons have new homes in these fabulous jars. And it's nice to see them out and not in tubes where I can't see them!

I just realised....

....I didn't show you the pictures of our finished bathroom. If you want to see what it looked like before then check it out here. And this is what it looks like now :) No words for these - just the piccies.

And of course the obligatory feet on the floor shot - and yes I am wearing red tights :)

And I'm pleased that Anya thought it was amusing that Mummy was taking pictures of herself in the mirror!

Craft room and study!

This is what the craft room looked like on Tuesday evening after I had shifted the mountain of stuff off the sofa bed and moved the said sofa bed out too.

And this is what the previously tidy and spotlessly clean study looks like now!! At least I know that all this stuff is going back into the craft room eventually!

And as of this morning all the stuff below has been moved out and replaced by two new bookcases and my new worktable is set up too :)

I'm going out now to buy some new storage boxes and a new adaptor plug as I only have a double socket in this room and it is under my desk and isn't really suitable for a sewing machine at the other end of the room!! I'll show you pictures of how it is progressing later x

And can you believe that we are up to 545 comments over on the Cuteable giveaway???? People really want to win a basket full of handmade goodies!!

Just a quickie

To say that if you fancy looking at some lovely vintage dresses on Etsy then check out my new treasury. I figured I didn't have enough to do and thought I would grab a treasury too - LOL!

Just in case anyone is looking for my birthday (which incidentally is at the end of the month!) I really like the blue one on the bottom row, the blue one on the second row and either of the pink ones on the second row. Well you never know who might be reading :)

Cuteable giveaway

As I'm sure many of you know I also (alongside being a busy mum and crafter!) run a website called Cuteable. At the moment I am having a huge giveaway on there featuring a basket chock full of fabulous handmade goodies from UK crafters. You can find out more details here and feel free to blog, tweet and generally shout about it everywhere!

This is one of the items we will be giving away - a Mrs Flower from Peggy Crafts. Aren't they adorable??

Get rid of stuff Monday :)

Cor I've had a good day getting rid of stuff today!

To the tip;

a door (the old one from the bathroom)
two bags of general rubbish
lots of very wet cardboard
the cistern top that came with the new bathroom but was broken
lots of pieces of tiles
bits of wood that the plumbers left in the garden

To the charity shop;

a black bag of Tara's old clothes
4 board games that we don't play with anymore
a box of glassware that came with a boxed lot we bought at the auction and didn't want
a carrier bag of books
other bits and bobs that we found in the study
the old metal medicine cabinet

To the school;

a slide (for the nursery)
2 bags of toys for the toy sale :)

I've also just finished cleaning the utility room and the bread is on for tomorrow morning - life is good!!

RIP - fluffy jumper

Alas the fluffy jumper that I got in the charity shop the other day is no more. He went into the washing machine full of life and bounce and flexibility and came out misshapen and about 4 sizes smaller than when he went in.

Rest in peace in felted jumper heaven, fluffy jumper.

Tidy study!!

I'm still amazed that we got so much done yesterday - all the expenses are now up to date, lots of washing was done and the whole of the study was tidied and cleaned. I didn't get a before shot of the study as we were keen to get stuck in and get it sorted! Here it is afterwards though :)

This is as you are looking in from the doorway - if you want to see more details of any of these pictures (with notes - you know you can't resist!!) then head over to my Flickr.

This is over towards the window which looks out right over the park.

This is the computer area :) With even more bookcases.

Looking towards the area with the games consoles set up and the pile of stuff that needs to stay in the study but we have no where else to put it pile!

And back round to the doorway!

And the reason it got tidied so quickly is that we moved a lot of the stuff that is crafty stuff through to my craft room next door which now looks like this.

Under that big pile of crap (although you won't believe me) is a sofa bed!! Which is eventually going to my sister so that I can have a worktable for my sewing machine to live on as it currently lives in the dining room :) My aim is to move the stuff back into the study (yes really) so that I can sort through it all and put it away in the right places. The sofa bed will be coming out and I'm hoping to get to Ikea at some stage to get a worktabley thing! Exciting things are happening Chez Swirly!