Some treasury love

I have been very lucky to have been featured in a few treasuries over on Etsy recently.

This one is called Beauty by the Sea and was made by Applecorecrafts.

This one is called Never Mind The Football and was made by Rachel Lucie

And this one is called Color Beautiful Color and has been made by srajab1

Thanks for featuring me guys :)

As an aside does anyone know how you can search to see if you have been featured in a Treasury East? I have tried on Craftopolis but nothing comes up even when I know that I have clicked on the treasury just like it says. Any advice would be gratefully received!

As if I'm not busy enough already.....

.....I have another online shop! This one is over at Artfire and I have been hearing very good things about them so thought I would join. I'm only on the basic level at the minute meaning I don't have to pay anything but it's good as an extra shop for the moment.


I'm slowly moving all my things over from my Misi shop as although I get lots of views over there, it very rarely transfers into a sale (and I really don't like the new system of listing over there now - you can't list an item unless you have two categories but unless there are two categories that fit what you have made then you can't list - argghh!) I will keep both shops running in tandem for the moment until I am ready to shut my Misi shop. Feel free to go and browse and let me know if you have an Artfire shop so I can come and be nosey at your things too :)

Folksy party - the full details!

Right, you have already seen my stall so it is time to show off everyone else's. First though have a look at the space in Keighley Arts Factory - it's great and the light was very good too.

From one end

And looking back from the other. If you are wondering what the sheep are in the middle of the space then look here. I can guarantee that they look great in real life too!

In no particular order here are the stalls.

My Furoshiki

Angels and Butterflies

Mrs Sew and Sew

A.Deegan. I think my next purchase may have to be one of her 'Betty's Hen' prints!

Dig The Earth

Print For Love Of Wood

Ruby Spirit Designs

Buri Boo

And I have a confession to make - I haven't got a photograph of Kirsten (Quernus Crafts) stall as every time I got my camera out she had people there. And everyone knows you don't disturb a crafter when they have people at their stall! I know Kirsten took a picture of her stall so I will try and grab one for you later.

Also there were some Folksy folk who attended who didn't have stalls. Laura's Little Lovelies, Sadi Soul and Dichroic Dazzle, who should get special mention as she travelled all the way up from Birmingham! If I've forgotten anyone then let me know!

As well as setting up stalls so we could show off our work we also had two workshops to attend. Wax batik run by Jo of Glassprimitif (who incidentally organised the event too) and a Letterpress workshop run by Jax of Print For Love Of Wood. Both were excellent and below you can see what I made in the Wax Batik workshop.

Not bad for a first attempt I thought!

I also didn't leave empty handed and bought a couple of things too :)

A gorgeous button print (that just had to be mine) from Dig The Earth and a cute Santa cat from Quernus Crafts. I'd been eyeing up the print for ages and was then mortified when I thought Mich from My Furoshiki had bought it - luckily she was just holding it so she could look at the equally gorgeous butterfly print behind! Phew!

Well that was a mammoth post - pat yourself on the back if you got to the end :)

Folksy party

I know I promised the full Folksy party details today but I am just too tired! You will have to look at my stall there instead as I am heading up to bed shortly as it's nearly 9pm!

I must sort out my wonky swirlyarts tablecloth one of these days!!

My new chicken display - I really liked it and it gave much needed height to my stall :)

The rest of my stall - lots to see :)

I won't promise I will be back tomorrow but I will try very hard. The crazy two weeks are over but I have another few, not quite so crazy, weeks ahead!

New chickens!

Finally I have photographs of the new chickens I have been making this week - they are going to be part of the 'Nana' range and you will see why in the photo!

They are made with what I call Nana linens - old tray cloths, sofa cloths and tablecloths/napkins etc that have been lovingly embroidered. The doorstops don't have their zips in yet (hence the 'sticky up bum' syndrome in the photograph) but the pincushions are done and came with me to the fair today. The little one in the middle nearly sold today but Kirsten chose a different chicken instead!

I used iron on interfacing to make these doorstops stiffer but my goodness it is hard to sew through. I have an attractive scratch on my forehead where I caught myself with my fingernail whilst trying to push the needle through one of the pincushions!!

I will get these listed hopefully in the coming week and will, of course, let you know where to buy them!

Oh and this is an aside to the people who have copied my chicken doorstops in the past - please don't copy the 'Nana' range of doorstops. I will be very pissed off if you do. Thanks :)

P.S. I will be back to blog about the Folksy day tomorrow as I am shattered now!

Wowsers! Or the ultimate creative space (4 years later!)

4 years ago today I gave birth to this little one - she is literally minutes old in this photo. They had just flipped me over (I gave birth on all fours) and they laid her in my arms. She was wide awake and alert as I'd had no drugs (they tried but I threw them back up!) I think she was a little surprised to be out so soon, as were the midwives who told me I was being silly when I said I needed to push. Needless to say when they could see her head they soon changed their minds!

So much has happened in the last 4 years and we love you very much - you are our bright, funny, gorgeous blue eyed girl. Happy Birthday Tizza Tazza.


*I'm adding this post to the Creative spacers list today as I did have a hand in creating this little one :) Visit Kirtys for actual craft happenings though!

The new improved garden

If you go back a few posts you will see the patch of mud that was left after mum and dad took out the raised bed for me :) Not a pretty sight but far better than it was. On Sunday we decided to make it pretty so I was out there at ten o'clock digging. This is what it looks like now - I'm very pleased with it :)

Looking at it from the driveway

As you come round the corner to the back door

My new herb planter! A bargain at £7.50 and I have been using the mint everyday this week to have in chilled fruit tea - nice with lots of ice!

Lavender and honeysuckle in my new planter

The girls each chose a plant - I wonder if you can guess whose is whose :)

And we bought a pepper plant. There are a fair few peppers on it and we have already harvested 2 of them. Fingers crossed it grows well as we eat an awful lot of peppers!

Meet the Maker!

I am going to be at Keighley Arts Factory on Saturday as part of their 'Find out about Folksy' event.

There will be 12 other makers there showing off their wares including Dig The Earth, Ruby Spirit, Quernus Crafts, Pamdas and many more :)

It is open from 10am until 3pm and can be found here

Keighley Arts Factory
North Street
Keighley
BD21 3DF

If you are a Folksy member and you come along then you can take part in the workshops which are all about wax batik and letterpress. I fancy the letterpress one :)

See you there?

Monday mending

Today I mended a dress.It wasn't intentional - I'd managed to walk up to school this morning with a huge rip in the front of my dress. It's very floating and not always obvious :) Well that's what I like to think anyway!

Hence the patch that was sewn on when I returned from the school run. I couldn't find the red and white fabric I wanted (perhaps I imagined it) so the stripey will do nicely in it's place. Oh and a word of warning, don't be expecting a mending Monday post every week even though my mending pile is huge! Today was a one off. Until I put it on my to do list of course!!

Two fabulous dancers

It was the show on Friday and Saturday night and both girls took part doing ballet and tap. They loved it!! Saturday night was better than Friday according to Anya as they had a 'practise run' on Friday (when we were watching) and she said she felt much more confident on Saturday. It didn't phase Tara at all - she was going for it both nights!

The show was split into two halves with the ballet being the focus of the first half - the ballet they performed was a cut down version of Coppelia. Anya was one of the monkey toys in Doctor Coppelius' workshop and Tara was a rag doll.

The second half was much more of a mixture - tap, street dance and musical theatre. Anya did a version of 'Leaning on a Lampost' with her tap group and was one of 4 girls who had to blow kisses to the boys who were leaning on a lampost! She practised that quite a bit at home!

Tara did a version of The Sun has Got his Hat On with her tap group and the group as a whole got lots of ahhh's and ooooh's especially the littlest who is only two and a half!

Both girls thoroughly enjoyed the show and want to do another one soon!

My Creative Space

Is all about the fabric this week although I'm not being very creative with it. Remember this task? Well it is finally (after a whole year - bar 13 days) coming to it's conclusion today.

The basket above is the very last of the huge fabric mountain to be washed and by the time you read this it will be on the washing line drying - yippeeee! Of course that is until I buy some more fabric!

However all is not done as this is the pile that awaits to have the edges pinked (and it's actually doubled in size since this picture was taken thanks to all the glorious drying weather!) Also this pile must be gone by next Thursday as it is Tara's party and the table that the fabric is piled onto needs to have food on it to feed hungry party going children!

I suppose if all else fails I can put food into the clear hallway outside the craft room? Although by the time the party arrives that space will be filled with freshly washed and pinked fabric!

Pity my craft table isn't as tidy (but at least I know where everything is!)

For more creative spaces then check out Kootoyoo :) You won't be disappointed!

Presents galore

It is Tara's birthday next week (she will be 4 - eeeeek!!) and I wanted to talk about number of presents. Last year I think we gave her 2 presents and Anya gave her 1 present. This year we are giving her 3 presents (a box of Lego, a thrifted yellow handknit cardigan - her favourite colour - and a skipping rope) and Anya is giving her 1 present. She doesn't need anything really (but Lego is always good in this house!) and I really hate going over the top on birthday (or Christmas) gifts. She is having a party for nursery friends the day of her birthday so will get gifts then and we are having a family get together at the weekend so she will get lots of gifts then.

So does the above gift list strike you as stingy? It doesn't to me as she will be getting plenty of other gifts but others (I'm not going to name anyone but for those of you who follow my Twitter you will know I mention a lady* sometimes) think that we are stingy and that we should spoil our children with lots of gifts on birthdays etc. We already have a house filled with enough toys/books/clothes etc to start our own charity shop and I have no particular need or want to add to that pile.

Honestly, what do you think of the list? Would your children be accepting of 3 gifts from their parents? Or are you a believer in spoiling your children? I would appreciate honest opinions too :)

P.S. It's not the cost that bothers me (gifts cost us £35 this year and were about £10 last year - Lego is expensive!)

*I know that this lady is going to quiz Tara next week about what she got for her birthday and will continue asking 'and what else' and 'what else' which winds me up beyond belief but we are not here to talk about my inability to get on with this woman - maybe that's another post!

Photograph taken from Money Saving Expert.

Link within

If you are reading this through a reader then you probably can't see the new widget I have added to the blog but feel free to click over and have a look!

I have added a widget to the bottom of each post which looks for related posts within my blog that you might also like to have a look at. I first spotted it over at Curly Pops (although I think she has changed it now!) and then Dig The Earth and I really liked the look of it. Hopefully it might give you a bit more to read :)

As I have only just added it, the related posts probably aren't that related as the little 'bots' need to trawl through my blog and look for keywords etc.

Garden - thanks Mum and Dad :)

Here are some before pictures!

Huge overgrown hedge and a blossom tree that is much too big for the patch of ground it is in.

And this is what it looked like with the hedge gone (a huge job done earlier in the year) Please note the nasty wonky wall behind Tara. There is also half a large skip full of earth behind that wall too - I know because Mum, Dad and I shifted it all on Monday!

And this is it now. It still needs a lot of work like gravel, pretty pots and possibly a bench but it is looking sooooooooo much better!

From the driveway looking down

And on the other side of the driveway (it's a double width one) is this little patch of garden which has had a tidy up - not that you would be able to tell, but it has!

Gorgeous huge blooms on my clematis this year :)

And Tara pretending that the clematis is actually the beanstalk and she is Jack :)

And a little patch I forgot to tidy up - I'll do it soon :)

This month is hectic what with little girls turning 4, parties for little girls who are turning 4, 3 school trips (2 of which I am going on as a parent helper), craft fairs, restocking some of my suppliers, ballet shows with rehearsals - you get the picture! So something has to give a little over the next month and I am afraid it can't be Cuteable as it brings us money in (!) so it has to be this little space. I'm not abandoning it altogether but there won't be daily posts for a bit. I also have about 300 photographs to go through on Flickr to see if I have listed the items photographed or if they are just lounging around 'unshopped' Oh and I have the mother of all to-do lists.

Wish me luck?

BBQ

If it's BBQ weather this weekend then we know this will happen at all major supermarkets.

Luckily we went to the farmers market at the weekend so have farm fresh food :)

Clever people!

Look what the clever ladies over at Craftsville have been making.

Some rather fetching padded envelopes using a very clever person's tutorial :D Oh that would be my tutorial!!

My new mug!

That's as exciting as it gets around here at the moment!! We were away at the weekend and the girls don't go back to school until tomorrow. My mum and dad are over for a few days and are demolishing a huge raised bed we have (had) in our back garden. So nothing much to report at them moment but I will be back when there is!

Tea tastes good out of this mug especially when you have been lugging half a skip full of soil around all day! 20p from a local church sale :)