Knock, knock

Is anyone there? I didn't mean to go away but birthday celebrations and a few time consuming orders kind of took over last week and it's easy not to blog when you have other things to do! So, Anya turned 9 (goodness!), I got some good news about test results, I made lots of upcycled envelopes by hand (RSI anyone?) and drew about a million robins for gift tags :)

What have you all been up to? Anything as exciting as me? :D

Happy Birthday to me!

You may have guessed by the title that it is my birthday today - I'm 34 :) And I'm a very lucky ducky - just look what I had to open this morning!

This record player brooch was bought by Tara - isn't it cute? It was made by Sugar Cookie and I love it!

Anya bought me this gorgeous purple button necklace - she knows me well! It's from Planet Button on Folksy.

I LOVE Mikiep so Matt ordered me this Best Friends print :)

And he also got me some badges from Bean Forest :) I love their badges!

And we also went to an antiques place* yesterday after lunch (we ate out!) where we purchased these 10 Martin Beck books for the grand sum of £2 - yep 20p per book :) I'm hoping we enjoy them (I've heard good things) but for 20p per book we thought we couldn't really go wrong!

*I know these aren't antiques but they have a shelf full of books at 20p each for Help the Heroes and needless to say I always seem to come out with something from there! Plus we did buy some things as presents but I can't show you them here just in case my parents get internet before Christmas :)

Weekend fun

:: Cheeky Monkey Cake

:: Blowing out the candles

:: Present opening

:: A new favourite cuddly toy

:: More present opening

:: A pile of Gudrun Sjoden catalogues being turned into flower cards

:: Not pictured - Plasticine fun, good food, lots of cake, fab family time :)

Hope your weekend was fun too?

Wow - time flies!

I can't believe that Anya is 8 today!! Where has the time gone?

Helping her baby sister exercise aged 3

After many years Bo is still her favourite teddy!

And now 

Happy Birthday gorgeous girl - you are clever, beautiful, ambitious, book worm, avid crafter, the best big sister, funny and we are so proud that you are our big girl. Love you lots!

A rosette for a birthday girl

Tara is 5 today (how did that happen??) and I re-purposed this rosette to give to her as a gift to wear at school and her party.

I turned it into this :)

She likes it which is the main thing and will be wearing it to school.

Updated with Photo's of the birthday girl wearing her rosette :)

Birthday gifts from Alex

And yes I do know I am very late in posting these to the blog (my birthday was in January) But hey they only got their photographs taken on Sunday!

I got one of her very pretty aprons - but only a half apron as I am not a fan of  full aprons. I also got a mini pencil case (handbag size!), some pencils and a notebook. She knows me well! Close up photographs below.

The presents were all wrapped up in gold tissue paper which has now been claimed by the girls for their crafty drawers and they were delivered in this pretty wire box. Alex included it for me as she thought I would be able to use it in some crafty way. I have an idea but I'm not sure if it will work - I will let you know!

Pretty Spring colours - I might wear it later this week when I attempt to make lemon cheese. Yummy! It's also quite fitting that I am posting this on Alex's birthday - pop over and wish her many happy returns!

Happy Birthday Anya

Goodness! My big girl is 7 today - how on earth did that happen?? Anya - you are a beautiful, kind and thoughtful girl who fiercley loves her little sister and you go to great lengths to make sure she is happy. You love reading, writing, drawing, crafting and you have just discovered a passion for cooking and helping me out around the house (when you want to naturally!) You are getting so brave at trying new things and you make me and Daddy very proud. Happy Birthday gorgeous xx

My Creative Space

This is not my creative space today but has been for the past few weeks as I picked it up and put it down again - good job it is one of those kind of projects!

It's a quilt for a little boy who turns one today. To say I am thrilled with how this has turned out would be an understatement - I am overjoyed with it. Yes it is slightly wonky but it has given much more confidence to have a go and take a few risks. It is only my second quilt* (not including the cheat quilt) and as I may have mentioned before I am thrilled with how it turned out! The fabric strips are the ones I got from the scrapstore in Leeds, the wadding is a vintage wool blanket (gives it such a nice weight) and the backing fabric is an old curtain which was made of Laura Ashley fabric. I hand quilted the circles as a) I didn't take my sewing machine on holiday to France with me, b) I like quilting by hand c) quilting on a machine scares the crap out of me and d) I don't think my machine could cope with it anyway!

I have a question about binding though. I bought some ready made binding from a shop and it was about an inch wide which gives for about half an inch on either side of the quilt. My question is, how on earth do you line it up so they the binding is equal on both sides? I tried and then tried again and then gave up trying to sew it on the machine (not possible due to binding not being the same width on both sides) and sewed the binding by hand. This took a very long time as you might imagine! Also, my local craft shop said that they didn't stock binding wider than 1 inch (rough size) Does anyone in the UK know of any stockists that have binding in wider widths than that? I used thick ribbon for my first quilt but it was a pain to sew.

Result - T and his family loved it! I gave it to them in the park and T nearly toppled out of the swing trying to grab hold of it. I think that makes it a resounding success!

*My first quilt is here if you fancy a look.

** Don't forget to go and visit the queen of the Creative Space.

Wheeeee I'm back!

While it was lovely to have time off I am very pleased to be back :) I had to fight hard at some stages throughout August as I wanted to blog/tweet but I resisted apart from annoucing that I was featured on UK Handmade! So what have I been doing? Some sewing (none for Swirlyarts - all for us and presents), lots of bits of mending and fixing, lots of playing, babysitting, reading and relaxing. Some scary ride riding at Disneyland Paris, digging through bargians in rural France, charity shop shopping and spending time with Matt without the girls (bliss!). Buying 7 vintage dresses for £20 in London (!), nearly fainting at the prices of fabric/notions in Liberty, fabric buying (but not at Liberty!) meeting a fellow tweeter (with cute daughter) in London, enjoying time spent by myself and generally having a great time without having to rush back to pack orders etc. Evidently I didn't have take photographs on my list as I have none to share with you today!

So to ensure you have something pretty to look at here is a sneaky peek of the main thing I have been working on in August.

Full pictures tomorrow once it has been given away to the recipient!

Busting some moves!

Busting some moves with one of her favourite birthday treats - some musical High School Musical pom poms! Maybe we should watch the movie soon?

And my favourite photograph is below!

Tara's family party

Ripping open one of her many crafty presents.

Loving the little alien my sister made for her

And loving the cake that Anya decorated specially with Star Wars lego (wonder where she got that idea from!) and a crashed spaceship!

We also went out to lunch and had a nice BBQ in the evening. Such a nice day! Oh and today Tara has been out and spent her voucher for George clothes and is thrilled that she could choose what she wanted :)

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!

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.

Invitations

In just one months time my littlest girl will be 4. How on earth did that happen? I have been making the invitations today using up what I have available (I'm slowly reducing the stash!)

A small card with cupcake fabric sewn on and an added button for a little bit extra :) It will be a small party the afternoon of her party so I only need 7 or so of these.

The cupcake fabric is from an old pj top. I split the bottoms (beyond repair) and then managed to cut a hole in the top. I decided that they were destined not to be used as pj's again so reclaimed the fabric. I'm off to sew up the other few I need :)

Can you guess what it is yet?

Happy Birthday Rolf Harris - he is 80 today :) I don't care if it is naff or daggy (see I'm up with Australian slang!) but I love Rolf Harris. Watch the below and tell me you don't like him too :)







I can't listen to these at the moment as the sound has gone on my computer :( Hopefully the sound will work for you! Happy Birthday Rolf!

A buttontastic present

My friend Alex likes buttons so when it was her birthday this week I knew I had to have a button theme.

First I made a bottle of buttons topped with some pretty flowers that will never fade.

A pretty button box (bought from a Folksy seller via ebay for the Sue Ryder charity auction but I can't remember who!) that was filled with these; EDIT - it's this lovely lady :)

Shortbread button biscuits! I got the idea from here but used my own recipe.

All packaged up in this pretty bag.

And topped off with this cute button card from Ruth.

My Creative Space

I started early in my creative space this morning making these cakes - they look a little flat because I wanted to ice them.

Note to self - buy a decent icing set before attempting this again - they came out ok but I had lots of icing oooozing through the bag all over my hands (it was a kids one the girls had got for Christmas!)

I have also been making shortbread but I can't show you the finished items as they are for a birthday gift. Photo's tomorrow when the presents have been delivered!

I am continuing my gift tag re-stocking and it is very boring! I am getting on with it but they take a long time to make from scratch. I only have 88 sets (880 tags) to go! Wish me luck!!!

For more creative spacers check out Kootoyoo.