Phew - last day of Blogtoberfest

I made it! 31 days of continuous posting! I didn't think I would when I realised that we would be away for half term in France but with some frantic blogging and timed posts I made it! So to celebrate I am hosting yet another giveaway :) This time it is for you jewellery makers/lovers of sparkle!

On offer is a mini drawstring bag of Swarovski crystals - there are about 50 in the bag ranging in size from tiny to quite substantial. Some are flat backed and some are the more traditional gem shape (you can tell I'm not a jeweller can't you!)

I will post anywhere in the world and the giveaway will end on 4th November at 12 midday. Just leave a comment and it doesn't even have to be in French this time!

P.S. Congrats to fellow Blogtoberfest bloggers - we made it!

First giveaway for Blogtoberfest

Grab yourself a copy of Marie Claire Idees which is a French publication chock full of gorgeous items :) There are tons of pretty pictures and the need to read French isn't necessary. Want to see some pretty pictures?

To enter the giveaway (and I will post anywhere!) just say something in French to me :) Nice things would be appreciated!

Edited to add that this giveaway will close on Friday 4th November at 12 Midday :)

A girl and her (borrowed) frog

In Year 1 and 2 at school they have a reward system that is basically traffic lights - green is good, amber is not so good and red is really not good. When you try really hard all week to 'Be Green' then you get rewarded with Fantastic Frog who gets to come home with you over the weekend. Tara won Fantastic Frog last week and because it is half term at the moment we have had him all week. He has been on lots of adventures (which I'm sure will be documented here over the next few days) but I think his favourite thing was snuggling up with Tara at night in the hotel in France :)

I think it was her favourite thing too!

Come back tomorrow as I am finishing off Blogtoberfest with two days of giveaways!

Getting ready for Winter

The hats, gloves and scarves came out earlier this week and we dug out these snowsuits for the girls.

We bought them over the summer for the girls (cue much puffing and panting trying them on!) but they were half price so well worth buying!

We are now set for Winter - are you?

Creative Space - afternoon sunlight

Got to get it where you can when Autumn is creeping towards winter :)

For more Creative Spaces check over here!

Reflection of me!

A double image of me in the spoons from yesterdays post. Well it made me smile anyway and at least it's not a dodgy image of me naked like the ones you see from ebay. On that thought I will leave you for today :D

Cellar find

You know how I've been sorting the cellar? Well we have two rooms in our cellar and I went rooting in the smaller one of the two the other day. It is damp and full of crap so I was surprised when I found this.

I vaguely remember buying this at a car boot fair for £5 when I was pregnant with Anya so it has been sitting down there for about 8 years.

It has some *ahem* attractive decoration! Don't worry - the mould came off with a good clean :) Want to see what is inside?

Pretty so far but look at this bit!

Pretty eh? It's a gorgeous picnic set and I just can't believe that I forgot about it!

Tea anyone?

New shoes :)

You've got to love new shoes haven't you?

I might change the laces though as they look (and feel) a bit like floppy wool!

And the inside is very pretty and covered with tiny blue flowers!

Ilkley Fair :)

I had such fun yesterday at the Ilkley fair. I saw lots of people I recognised and met lots of new faces too.

My stall was pretty much the same as it always is although I had my bargain box set up next to it where the airer full of quilts was due to go.

The bargain box was full of goodies at half price or less but it needs renaming to something like 'slight seconds and end of line items' Some thing like that anyway!

And the new packaging for the mini envelopes works well and I'm really glad I decided to make up the envelopes rather than having them flat like I used to.

New chickens!

Here are some new chickens - they will be coming to Ilkley with me today but if you can't see them on my stall then they will be in my sewing basket waiting to have zips sewn on :) Feel free to ask for them and I can sew on a zip there and then for you :)

I haven't thought of names for them yet and they aren't in the shops yet either but will be soon. If you want one desperately then shout and I can list one specially for you!

Craft Fair in Ilkley!

 I will be at the lovely Riddings Hall in Ilkley tomorrow for an Arts Market Extravaganza!

Aren't these flyers gorgeous?

I have been busy making lots of gift tags, chicken doorstops, stickers, cards and mini envelopes and lots of one off designs! Do come and say hello if you pop by :)

My Creative Space - executive decision

I have made an executive decision - I am my own boss after all!

These quilts were due to be coming to Ilkley with me on Saturday (more about that tomorrow) but they aren't finished. The bottom one has all of it's hand quilting done but needs binding and the top one has half of it's quilting done and no binding. I would have to sew like a mad thing to get them finished in time and I'm just not going to get them done. So they are now not going to be coming with me but will be finished over half term instead ready for two fairs I have coming up in December (hopefully along with another few!)

I've decided that my time would be more wisely spent making some owl gift tags (as I have run out completely!) and some more 'one off' or limited edition chicken doorstops. So I don't have a picture of what I'm going to be doing in my Creative Space this morning but I do have a picture of what I won't be doing. That still counts right??

On the Shelf

I'm playing along with Punky and Me's meme called My Place and Yours. The theme this week is On the Shelf so here is my shelf!

This is my shelf to the left of my sewing machine in the studio - it's full of lots of stuff!

Here you can see Rolley Monkey, jars of buttons, postcards and Long 'Stretch' Johnson.

More buttons, Mad Catter and a Kokeshi doll that Tara made for me at school.

My radio which is essential to me when I'm working :) I listen to Radio 2 in the morning and Radio 6 in the afternoon. You can also see jars full of sew on patches (they are destined to be sewn onto a blanket one day) and some empty tins.

Yet more buttons (who says I have a button obsession??), some paper buttons that have been through the sticker machine and are waiting to be added to cards, some map badges and a gold coloured box full of paper waiting to be turned into stickers.

I hope you've enjoyed my shelf - play along if you fancy :)

Hahahahahahahahaha!

This made me laugh when I came across it this morning and yes, I was eating a bar very similar to this when I found it!

Found on Enhabiten who found it here.

Flour bags

I grabbed some unused flour bags from the scrap store last week to use as bags at my fairs.

As you can see they are rather large. And please ignore the cheeky model - she was used for scale! They will be used as bags for my quilts as the other bags I use aren't large enough. However, they are rather boring at the moment and I am hoping to jazz them up this week with some fabric offcuts and a whole lot of glue! I also have a fair on Saturday with two more quilts to make as well as other stock so I will be working super hard!

Relaxing Sunday

Today we spent 4 hours at two car boot fairs this morning and got a few nice things - books for the girls, some stick on glow in the dark stars for Tara to stop her being afraid of the 'night crocodiles', an embroidered tablecloth to turn into Nana chickens, a present for my dad and a fold up pink mini scooter thing for Anya which cost us the princely sum of £1 - yep really!

This afternoon I was planning on doing a bit more work in the cellar but a) we did a lot yesterday and b) the Saturday papers were calling to me!

Hope you have a relaxing Sunday too!

Craft Soup Zine

I belong to a group on Facebook called Craft Soup* which is chock full of lots of lovely crafty ladies and a couple of crafty men from Yorkshire. Although I live in Lancashire I luckily still qualify! We decided to make a zine to show off our collective talents and the zine is available now. If anyone would like to order a copy then let me know and I can get one for you. I will also be giving away some free with any purchase from my Etsy and Folksy shops! The first one has gone out with an order today and there are only 8 left now!

*If you live in Yorkshire/Lancashire, are on Facebook and would like an invite to the group then do let me know :)

Whoops!

My wall seems to be falling down!

And it left a big pile of crap!

Don't worry though because a) it's in the cellar and b) I may have actually helped it along a bit with my trusty mallet and big chisel thing! When we bought the house we got a builder in to fix a leak in the roof and he actually did a good job of that. However we made the mistake of asking him 'if he did cellars' Big mistake!!  He didn't and firstly cocked up the floor. The walls looked good for a bit but as it's a cellar and therefore damp, the walls started to look crap and the plaster fell off in big clumps. Next the skirting boards he insisted we needed, rotted. Not a good look and it now looks worse than it did when we got the house! So the skirting board is coming off and so is the plaster. The huge pile of stuff that is just sitting there getting damp is going into a skip and the room will be a lot more user friendly with all of the stuff hopefully off the floor.

Well that's the plan anyway!

And here is my team of building inspectors! I'm sure they are sucking through their teeth saying 'Ooooh, that'll cost you!'

Some half made chickens

Well I promised you some photographs of half made chickens yesterday so here are some :) These will be heading to Birdcage Vintage in Skipton, North Yorkshire tomorrow along with some envelopes, gift tags and cards - all upcycled!

The chickens just need to be filled with rice and sewn up and they are ready to go. I meant to take a picture of them before they got their eyes sewn on but I got carried away while watching Homes Under The Hammer and forgot!

Check out some more Creative Spaces here - almost guaranteed not to have half sewn chickens :)

A quick round-up of things I like

I'm getting to the stage now where blogging everyday is becoming a bit of a chore. Particularly this week when all I am doing is getting stock ready to take into a shop on Friday - it's not finished enough to show it off yet I don't want to bore you with yet another picture of half finished chickens or gift tags! So I decided (for the sake of you all and my sanity!) to browse some blogs and show off some of the things I like. Enjoy!

Pip from Meet Me At Mikes will be posting a how to for this fabulous Arcade blanket soon so if you crochet then head over there. However if you don't crochet but have a very talented little sister then you need to smile and wave. Hi Sarah! *waves* :D :D

I will certainly be trying out this tutorial from A Beautiful Mess for these fabulous floral suitcases! I'm thinking some Liberty fabric would work very well here. And it gives me a chance to use my rotary cutter!

Also from A Beautiful Mess is this rather fabulous idea for elbow patches. Makes me think of a geeky but very cool librarian (which is my other dream job!)

And how cool is this book headboard????? I want, I want, I want! I spotted it over at Recycle This who are having a book week this week. Head over if you fancy finding out some cool things to make using damaged books.

Be back tomorrow hopefully with some finished things to show off. If not, it's half made chickens for you :)