Wanna see my buns?

Some Bank Holiday baking - why what did you think I meant? ;)

Ta Da - Tom's present!

At last I can show you the present I have been making for my nephew as it is his birthday party today. He likes Mario and any computer game to be honest so I made him a quilt of Mario.

I am very, very pleased with it and it's not bad for my first quilt is it? It's a full sized quilt for a single bed and I thought it would be perfect for the house in France where it can get very cold. I must be a sucker for punishment as I already have the fabric selected for my second quilt!

More crafts!

I'm on a roll with this catching up with some crafting :) Here are some new goodies - all recycled of course!

Some new gift tags (and there are more half done so expect to see them soon)

And some new envelopes recycled from a Peter and Jane book. These are smaller than normal envelopes (11cm x 8cm) but go through the post easily as I have sent things out in them before. I normally make tags and badges from these books but decided to try some envelopes instead - do let me know what you think :) And if you want some of these you can find them here or here.

Long time no see!

Well I didn't intend to be away for quite so long on the blog but I have been making my nephew's birthday present which has taken up A LOT of time! It's his party on Sunday so you will get to see the pressie then!

I have managed to make quite a few tag sets this week and have actually listed them in my shops too!


These tree gift tags came from a box that I couldn't bear to put into the recycle bin as it was just too pretty :)


These last 3 tag sets have been made from an old fabric sample book that I got from Sams (the scrapstore)

Like this one but this is actually a wallpaper one (I couldn't find any photographs of the fabric ones!) I cut off the useful bit of fabric and am left with the ends of the fabric that is stuck to cardboard to stop it fraying. These are the bits I turn into tags - waste not want not!

Bargains

I went to the charity shops twice last week and got myself some bargains.

A fab old ladies style purse for £1. I have to go for old lady style purse because modern purses tend not to have a decent enough section for change. And it's bright blue!

This is really a present for Bumble as it is the same age as him and it IS his 21st birthday at some stage this month!

I have no idea what I am going to do with this trim but I couldn't leave it behind on the shelf! 50p

A set of 4 Mario and Zelda curtains - I got these for the fabulous fabric!

A skirt that still had the tags on for £2.50. I wore it the other day and it is very comfy - as skirts go that is!

A dress that looks awful on the hanger (and it's a bad photo of it too) but that looks fabulous on especially with a waist cinching belt. I even got a compliment from a stranger when wearing this on Friday :) £2.50

A cute looking yet very expensive new coat for Anya. I think it is one that the local prep school uses so Anya can pretend she goes to a posh school :)

And this will come in very handy for the winter - a nice thick crocheted cardi that can be double or single breasted dependant on how you do it up. This was expensive at £4.50 but it's gorgeous and I'm glad I bought it.

I also got some trousers for Anya (Kenzo no less) for 75p and some books to turn into tags but I didn't get photographs of those.

Someone likes homemade jam!

If you want a quick and easy jam recipe (it is coming up to blackberry picking time after all!) then look here.

A crafty post - surely not??

Yep really - and here is the evidence.

Exhibit A - a purple gingham peg bag. 98% recycled/reclaimed materials. Only the thread is new.

Exhibit B - a mod flower peg bag. Again 98%recycled/reclaimed materials apart from the thread.

Exhibit C - Treasure Birds. A new mixed media shadow box.

See I told you there were crafty things going on!

VW Festival

Here are some of my favourite photographs from the weekend.

Here's what I am doing

Meme from the lovely Pip at Meet Me At Mikes and photograph from Sarahabnett.

Making : A big present for my nephews birthday in 2 weeks! Hoping it gets finished!
Cooking : Some banana bread
Drinking : Fruit tea - as ever!
Reading: Catching up on last weeks papers and magazines. No book at the moment.
Wanting: Re-runs of Dr Who
Looking: At the Cuteable Flickr pool a lot
Playing: Lots of dressing up games with the girls
Wasting: time on the computer - but I am reading nice blogs!
Sewing: the above present for my nephew
Wishing: that I had much more time to make things
Enjoying: the fact that it isn't raining and that my girls aren't back at school yet
Waiting: for the weekend when we will be meeting up with friends from Uni
Liking: fellow crafty people and their generosity
Wondering: if a parcel I'm expecting will arrive this week
Hoping: to have nice weather this weekend
Marvelling: at the fact that my little girl is nearly at nursery part time!
Needing: more time in the week
Smelling: fresh washing in off the line
Wearing: a simple back dress
Following: I don't follow - I'm a leader. Hahahahahahahahahahaahah!!
Noticing: that the garden needs weeding
Knowing: that I need to write some Cuteable posts
Thinking: that I'll sit and sew instead
Feeling: happy
Bookmarking: some tutorials for Christmas gift ideas
Opening: a parcel that I picked up from the sorting office this morning
Giggling: at photographs from the VW Festival last weekend
Feeling: happy and content
Loving: my life at the moment

Weekend

So this is where we have been this weekend! Lots of fun and ogling of other peoples camper vans - we'd never get rid of our Bumble though :) Our photo's to follow at some stage this week - they are still uploading!

Photo courtesy of VW Festival.

Brooch-a-licious!

After seeing Cam's post over at Curly Pops I knew I had to show off my brooches too!

These used to live in a drawer but I kept losing them so I found this hanger and added them to it. It now lives next to my dressing table :)

The vast majority of the sparkly vintage ones are from charity shops or some were gifts from my mum who got them in charity shops! The orange chicken at the top is from Alex and the orange flower is from Alice at Raspberry. The brown one on the right hand side has real heather and moss inside it.

The skanky and pervert badges are from Avenue Q - a musical which I urge you all to see if you don't mind a bit of bad language now and then - it's hilarious! The Haley's comet badge is Matt's from when he was little and my sister made me the light blue collection to the top right. They feature Cool Cactus, Disco Duck and Parachuting Pig!

The crocheted Santa came from a jumble sale and the black button brooch was made by me - I needed something that would go with all the colour that I wear! The circle brooch at the bottom is by Sophie Isobel and is entitled The Artist.

For more detailed pictures with notes then check out my Flickr.

Inspiration

Although there hasn't been much crafting shown on this blog for a while, it has been going on in the background. I can't show any of it to you yet as the majority of the items are gifts although I am working on some gift tags that I will be able to show you soon.

Anyway, while we were in Paris we headed over to the Pompidou Centre to have a look at the artworks. I snapped a few of my favourites for inspiration - either the colours, textures, medium, subject matter or in some cases just because they are sheer genius!

I don't know about you but I am inspired!

A few outfits

I have worn recently :)

This one was worn in Paris for the first time. I thrifted the dress and the black slip underneath while we were in America, the belt came from a charity shop somewhere and the silver shoes are from New Look.

This is all you are getting of the black and white shirt dress I got at UBC in America as the full shots are awful! This was the second dress I saw and was a bargain at $4.79 - the first dress was $79 - I didn't buy that one!

I think I wore this outfit to go to Blackpool in the week between our hols but I can't remember! The shirt was thrifted in America (see below for details) and the stripey jeans were from UBC. The plimsoles were in a £2 bag I got at the jumble sale and therefore work out at about 20p!

Details on the shirt

And the girls had to get in on the action too - they are 100% thrifted too as was Matt but he didn't want his photograph taken!

And just beacuse I love this photograph! Taken at the top of the Eiffel Tower on 6th August 2009 - our anniversary :)