Sunday Snippets

Joining in with Sunday Snippets for the first time with Tinniegirl.

More charity shop goodies :)

When I went to buy the charity tea cosies from White Stuff for NWATCOYHD I used it as an opportunity to browse the charity shops :) I went to Ilkley first but White Stuff didn't have any so I had to go to Harrogate!

Pretty flour sifter :) I doubt it will get used but it will look good on the mantle in my kitchen!

A brand new travel journal from Paperchase but I paid £1.50! It has space for photographs and bits of paper as well as copious notes.

2 of these cool plates for £1.50 each. The 'food' has numbers on it and on the back it tells you what it represents - this is meat of the day with chips and peas :)

And the sweetest doggie dachshund blackboard! The girls have claimed him as theirs at the moment but he might accompany me to fairs to shout about my wares!

And these little guys came from a shop in Skipton - I spotted the middle one first for 50p and then his friends said they wanted to come home too! For 75p each I couldn't say no!

P.S. I am going to be joining in with Blogtoberfest again this year - posting something every day for the whole month :) It'll be challenging but I've planned put some posts so hopefully I can do it! If you are going to join in too then let me know :)

It's National Wear A Tea Cosy On Your Head Day

I'll bet you didn't know that did you? It's run by the company White Stuff for their charity, The White Stuff Foundation so it's all in a good cause. They are selling tea cosies for £3 with all proceeds going to the charity and once you are done wearing it on your head today, you can use it as a tea cosy or sew up the sides and use it as a hat! We don't really do tea pots in this house (I'm a tea bag per cup girl) so I will be sewing mine up to wear :)

Me and the girls messed around with some tea cosies last night and got some cool pictures that I know you are just dying to see!

I don't think I will be wearing the chicken one or the house one but I will wear the striped White Stuff one :)

Charity shop goodies

I went to the charity shops in Accrington yesterday and found a few bargains :) I didn't have high hopes as the charity shop God's haven't been favourable of late but I did quite well!

I grabbed a nice pile of books! I finally found some damaged Christmas ones so expect some Christmas bunting soon. The recipes in Feast sound great and pretty varied and for £2 I couldn't resist (although it was a pain to lug back to the car as it's very heavy!) I also grabbed a couple of gardening magazines that focus on fruit and vegetables as I am determined to get some veggies going for next year!

I've pretended that I've bought this book for the girls but I think I might hide it in my studio :) It was only 50p and unused so I couldn't resist!

I spotted these Lisa Stickley notecards in TK Maxx a few weeks ago and very nearly bought them at £4.99. I'm glad that I didn't as I found the full set unopened in a shop today for £1.25!

This deer was hiding on a bottom shelf but I spotted his glory peeking out and snaffled him up. He is fabulous and made from a non shiny tinsel. I'm sure he is only meant for Christmas but he might have to stay out somewhere as he is fab! And the best bit - he was only 50p!

I also bought a green dress but is is plain one so is boring to photograph :)

Horrible Histories

If you follow me on Twitter then you will know that I am a huge fan of Horrible Histories and I particularly love the songs that they do. Here are a few of my favourite ones - they do change quite often though!



The Horrible Histories boys at their best - I like an RAF uniform and love that they are taken the mick out of Take That songs in this!



Du du du du *snap snap* du du du du *snap snap*



Just brilliant - it should be on the curriculum :) Matt and Anya know all the words, me and Tara are learning them!



Not as topical as it would have been a month ago but still great!



If you like Kate Bush then you will like this!



Go compare......... :)

My Creative Space - playing with fabric

This morning I have been playing with fabric and it has been fun! I've been focused more on the upcycled paper side of Swirlyarts recently so it's been nice to get back to some fabric fondling!

I've finally found some interfacing that doesn't pucker my Liberty fabric when it's ironed on! So these will be used to make the long awaited Liberty chicken pincushion/paperweight range! Woooot! Hopefully they will make an appearance soon.

I've also been raiding my scrap pile to make some more business cards. I've sewed about 70 today to finish up the pile I had. My next task is to order some new card bits and also finish off these ones,  which should do me until Christmas!

And this is my favourite toy at the moment - my sidewinder bobbin winder :) Lots of fun to play with and so easy to use. It will come in handy for winding bobbins when my new spool rack finally arrives.

I'm joining in with this weeks Creative Space and if you want some yummy fabric scraps them you can get them from The Organic Stitch Company :)

Notebooks, get your notebooks!

I have been planning some new style notebooks for a while but haven't done anything about the new design as I still have some old style in stock. So to get my bum into gear and actually start making the new notebooks I am offering the last 4 notebooks for sale at half price - yep half price! They are perfect for Christmas gifts!

In my Etsy shop you can find

It has 80 pages and measures 20cm by 29cm (8in x 11 1/2in)  and it's down to $5/£3.08 now.

This one also has 80 pages and measures 18cm by 25 cm (7in x 10in) and is also $5/£3.08. The tear on the front cover has been covered with some green striped washi tape which looks good :)

In my Folksy shop you can find

This one has 50 pages and measures 21cm by 18cm (8in x 7in) and is now down to £2.25/$3.64

And this one has 70 pages and measures 18cm by 27cm (7in x 10 1/2in) and is reduced in price to £3.25/$5.27

They are all filled with blank paper although some of this is reclaimed from local companies who have changed their headed paper etc. 

Go grab a bargain!

P.S. The new notebooks will still be made from book covers but will be refillable :)

Look what 1 euro can buy you!

We found a 1 euro stall at the Vide Grenier (like a car boot but the whole town/village gets involved) when we were in France over the summer. We bought quite a few things (some will be going into Anya's Attic) but this picture kept attracting my attention. We left it there but I ended up going back for it later - the guy saw me coming and smiled as he'd obviously noticed me checking it out earlier! It's quite big (up to my knee) and it's bloody heavy! I have to find a place to stand it up as we don't have any hangers strong enough to put it up on the wall!

It's not to everyones taste but I couldn't leave it behind as an awful lot of work has gone into it and for a euro! I didn't spot any saucy ones like Chantal (I like a bit of sauce!) but I did spot lots like this one but no more for 1 euro. I love bargain hunting in France!

More bunting but this time cute mini bunting!

The new mini upcycled bunting is made from vintage cigarette cards - the artwork is beautiful!

You get 20 flags on each set of bunting and it measures approx 1.5 metres in length and each set is for sale at £5/$8 :)

Do let me know what you think!

Buttercups? More like buggercups!

We have a patch of buttercups in the back garden that I left because they covered up the soil quite nicely and looked good. However, I wanted them gone as that spot by the wall is perfect for beans/peas and I was claiming it back.

You can see they they spread out over the driveway a bit - they also spread through that plant on the right! They grow by putting out runners (like strawberries) and that means they are buggers to get out of the ground! And although their roots are fairy shallow they are strong! It took me and hour and a half to clear that patch!!

Ta da! It looks much better now and will be put to good use although not this year!

I also tied up the honeysuckle (I think it's honeysuckle anyway!) It had fallen onto the top of the bin and is much happier in it's new home. It also means I don't get wet through every time I need to put a black bag in the bin!

'I heart' paper bunting!

If you follow me on Twitter you will have heard me exclaim the other day that my brain can be really quite clever sometimes (only sometimes mind you!) I'd gone up to the studio with an idea I wanted to try out and my brain suddenly jumped to a new idea that I loved and had to try out straight away!

And that idea was paper heart bunting :) Or 'I heart' bunting so that I can have bunting made from Yorkshire maps called 'I heart' Yorkshire and music bunting called 'I heart' music. I think you get the idea! I made up some samples to take to Saltaire (which went very well by the way) and nearly everybody who stopped at the stall picked them up and had a look or commented on the display ones :) I even sold two packs which was great!

And this is what they look like in the packaging - complete with little red love hearts! The first set is listed up on Folksy - more will be coming soon!

Oh and I will be making the original bunting soon too!

My Creative Space - mistakes

I make lots of different things and often make things in batches so they will last a few weeks rather than having to make things as one offs all the time. So, the other day I was making some owl gift tags and because I hadn't made any since the start of the summer, I forget what colours they should be! I knew roughly what colours but forgot the actual colours!

So instead of pink and orange we have pink and yellow and red and orange! There is also a red and pink but the photograph was awful. Sometimes mistakes can be good :)

Joining in with My Creative Space this morning.

Back to it!

So the girls are now back at school and so that means I am back to full time Swirlyarts with a bit of part time Cuteable thrown in for good measure! I'm currently getting ready for Saturday which is the  Makers Fair Special in Saltaire (Victoria Hall) It is part of the Saltaire Festival so there will be plenty to do!

To get ready I am building up stock of my best selling gift tags and I've also tried out some new ones that you can see below.

I wasn't sure whether to go for the faux stitching around the edges but in the end I decided that it looked good and matches my cards! I'm going to get a few sets made for the fair (hopefully!) and they will all be made up of mixed colours and patterns.

And don't tell me your sewing doesn't end up covered with gift tags like this? No?? :)

P.S. Thanks for the comments on the brain vomit post. I'm just ignoring any thoughts like that for the moment and burying my head in the sand. It'll get figured out at some stage but I'm in the run up to Christmas now so....... :D