Phew - we are back!

And I've just noticed that the videos I posted are slightly too big for the blog template I use - oh well! I'll just have to do lots of posts to ensure they drop down the list!

We had a lovely time in France this past week but by goodness, it was hot! We have an annual pass to Disneyland Paris so spent 2 days there on the way down to my sister in law's house and it was 33/34 degrees - too hot for the little ones and me too actually! It's great having the annual pass as we don't have to queue to get tickets to get in and we don't feel like we have to spend all day there to get our moneys worth - well worth it when it's too hot to queue and go on the rides! We got the paddling pool out when we got to Nic and Johns house and the girl spent a lot of time in there cooling down and I popped in on occasion to cool my legs down.

I made lots of gift tags for the fair that is on Saturday (how did that creep round so quickly?) and I will show them to you once I get the photographs off Matts camera. I'm not sure in the mass of bags where exactly the camera is so that's why this is a picture free post! I'll be back soon hopefully with some pictures to show you. I've also got to sort and photograph the goodies I found at the local Brocante (junk shop/secondhand shop). Expect some exciting posts soon :)

Norway Eurovision

And the song that won - it's good but not the best in my opinion!

Germany Eurovision

I quite like this - and you've got to love a man in shiny leggings!

Albania Eurovision

Green man anyone?

Greece Eurovision

How much stomach can one man show?

Estonia Eurovision

I liked this one too :)

Portugal Eurovision

This was my favourite!

UK Eurovision

The UK entry that came 5th!

Turkey Eurovision

It's going to be lots of videos' this week while I am away!!

Custom badges

I was asked way back in January if I could make some custom badges for Jenny for A Makey 'Do' and she confirmed the numbers this week so my badge machine has been busy! Too busy in fact as it decided halfway through the batch to start eating the plastic covers that normally go onto the badges! Luckily Jenny was understanding about it and didn't mind some matte badges!

I also whipped up some sewn paper envelopes to house the badges as I had a few bits of old map that needed using up!

As you can see I made some maker, helper and do-er badges. I'm not showing you pictures of the actual badges as I want them to be a surprise for Jenny. I have also made some d0-er stickers for the children who attend the fair. Again I won't show you pictures but will show you the box that they are in.

Once Jenny says I can I will reveal the photographs of the badges and stickers. You may even see them over on A Makey Do once they get to Jenny.

4 little elephants all in a row

Aren't they cute?

It's Africa Day at school today and these are the very simple elephant costumes I made for M, L and Anya to wear. Just a tunic and mask. Of course Tara had to have one even though she doesn't yet go to school or nursery!

And here are my 2 elephants - they played a very detailed game of mummy and baby elephants as they walked up to school :)

When chickens attack.......

.......you need to be careful. Look what this pesky mini chicken did to Andreanna from Glamasaurus. Naughty chicken!

I have to add a note that not all my chickens do this - it seems, so far, to only be this one. Do, of course, let me know if any of my chickens behave in disgraceful ways. Thanks ;)

I think it runs in the family!

I was finishing off the elephant costumes (picture tomorrow hopefully!) in the craft room today and the girls were upstairs with me playing on the toy sewing machine. Tara wandered off and Anya was getting very frustrated because she couldn't sew properly. Luckily Super Mummy came to the rescue with some embroidery floss and a piece of plastic canvas from the scrapstore! She didn't put it down until tea time and then picked it up afterwards and wants to do it tomorrow before school :)

It's going to be a treasure map :)

And of course little sister had to be in on the act too with cutting (plastic scissors so she didn't actually cut my fabric!) and sewing.

I don't know where they get it from :)

My first crack at embroidery

Features a little turtle I got at Sams, my local scrapstore, the other day.

He was in a pack of offcuts of fabric - he was at the front and I knew I just had to get him. I didn't think for a second he would actually get embroidered as I hadn't done a stitch of embroidery work until yesterday. As of this morning, his head has been finished and he has pink spots and 3 pink toenails.

I also got these 3 guys - I am going to embroider them too and then make a small quilt with the offcuts that came with them as they are child themed. It won't be the first quilt I have started but it may well be the first one that gets finished! Speaking of which I must dig out Tom's quilt and finish it if he is going to get it this year!

Cool blog feature

Yeah!!!!!! I am Featured Artisan of the Week over at Autonomous Artisans and the write up Lynne did made me blush. It's a cracking write up!


Click here to go and read it - feel free to leave a comment too :) And thanks Lynne - it was much appreciated!

Mmmmmmmm cake

The little church where Anya goes for ballet and tap on a Saturday morning had its May Fair today so of course we had to pop in and have a look around! I bought a couple of things including a new notebook (Paperchase no less!) and a fabulous purple 70's pillowcase! The best thing I bought though was this cake - we are going to have some after lunch.

Here are some close up shots of the creatures on the cake.

These rabbits look like they are drowning in the middle of the cake!

A pig hiding in the grass.

A dog or a bear? I think it is a dog.

And this is my favourite - a little owl. He's not cute enough that I won't eat him though! Not bad for £2 eh?

More notebooks

I've finally got the last of the notebooks listed! I am also spending today going through my Flickr photographs and seeing which items I have taken photographs of but not listed yet. Going to be tricky and time consuming and I don't think I will get it all done today!

Anyway - on to the notebooks

5 Minutes Peace and the Peter and Jane notebooks are listed in my Folksy shop.

What to do in Summer and Little Martha are listed in my Etsy shop.

And The Story of The Little Red Engine was listed in my Folksy shop for about 2 hours last night before he sold! I like quick sales :)

Right better get looking through those Flickr photographs.......

My creative space

I am mainly finishing things off today.

- colouring in the beaks and cockscombs of cheeky chicken gift tags
- listing and packaging recycled journals/notebooks
- making matchbook notebooks from the strips of paper left over from journal making.

And here are the matchbooks - I said the other day I had an idea for using up the scraps!

I'm going to sell them at the fair - 2 for 50p and if they don't sell then they will make great freebies to send out with my orders!

For more creative spaces head over here to Kootoyoo.

New mixed piece - Kings and Islands

The starting point for this piece of work was a piece of vintage map of Canada and the islands above the mainland. These are all names after kings and queens hence the picture of King Edward!

And I have been doodling houses on and off for the past few weeks so some of them made it into my work!

This is available in my Etsy shop.

Some journals at last!!

Yeah - about time too! These are all in my Etsy shop ;)

I love this fabulous book and of course it has the honour of coming from a fantastic year - 1978. I think all things from that particular year are great :) I will be using the pages from the book that are salvageable to make envelopes and tags and as you can see I used the covers to make a notebook/journal. The 120 pages inside are unused reclaimed paper from a local company (via the scrapstore) that just changed their note paper!

I have already used the pages from this fantastic book to make (and sell) gift tags and again used the covers to make a notebook. This one has reclaimed paper pages and has 80 pages.

And this one is slightly different because I used proper bind it all chipboard covers and paper to make this one. I covered it in an incomplete Vogue pattern I got from the charity shop and used the model from the front of the envelope to give it some detail along with 3 vintage buttons. This one has 80 pages too.

Yep I'm resorting to blogging about a pizza

Really I am! It's a handmade one that me and the girls made (and for the pedants out there I know it should be the girls and I!) that when measured (yes I really am that sad!) a huge 2 inches deep. Yep inches, not cm's!! The girls went to town on it with peppers, ham, mushrooms, pepperoni, tomatoes and cheese. I hope you have noted the artistic way the base has turned out - I went for a rustic look with the dough!

Looks yummy doesn't it? Well I can ascertain that it was indeed very yummy.

Tara was very pleased with it

And Anya just wanted to show off her ballet moves!

I'll hopefully be back to show you the notebooks I made years ago (not really but it seems like it!) but I am not promising anything for tomorrow. We will see :)

$1 and $2 goodies in my shop!

I've had a sort out of my Etsy shop and there are lots of new things in the clearance section - go and check it out!

Things like these cards

And these envelope sets

And these cheeky chicken pincushions/paperweights

All at $1 or $2!!

More thrifty goodies

From Hebden Bridge and Todmorden last week.

I have been looking for a pair of boots like this for a very long time so I was thrilled when I finally spotted some in a hospice shop in Hebden Bridge. They are very comfy too!

Some fabulous patterns

A huge bag of buttons

And this machine knitting pattern book. It doesn't look exciting from the outside but it is!


I'll be back tomorrow with the recycled notebooks as I was too busy all day to take photographs!