Two posts in one day!

Well two posts in one day hasn't happened in a while but I just had to say a very big thank you to Funky Finds who have featured me and my work today. So pop over and say hello!

Yeah!!

New goodies

Well I have been busy this last few days and I have been making like crazy and sketching out ideas for new products - so watch this space! The things I most enjoyed making are these journals - recycled of course! This first one is my favourite purely due to the colours and the fab 70's graphics.

It has 100 pages of reclaimed paper (from the scrapstore) and would be perfect as an ideas book or just for doodling in. I was very tempted to keep it for myself but it is in my Etsy shop instead. Here are a couple more pictures of it.


Keith and Sally's plant book journal is fairly large so wouldn't be suitable to take with you anywhere unless you have a big bag. The one below though is perfect for taking along with you wherever you are though!

This one has 60 pages which again have been reclaimed from the scrapstore. Snow White and Rose Red is available in my Folksy store.


As these are vintage books and have had a life with children then they do have bumps to the edges and the large book has the previous owners name in the front - I think these all add to the character of the journals and give them something over boring shop bought journals.

I'm envisaging more of these coming soon as I use lots of books for envelopes and tags and have plenty of covers lying around! If you were wondering, I haven't forgotten about the giveaway for my 300th post - I was just figuring out what I was going to do. Come back tomorrow to find out more about it :)

Bloody Torchwood*

*Imagine it said in a Welsh accent by an older woman while looking at a blowfish driving off in a car. If you have no idea what I am talking about then look here. If you do then yeah - it's great isn't it!

Torchwood (the spin off tv series from Dr Who) is very good but it makes me forget to write posts that I said I would write about yesterday! We are currently on Series 1 as we didn't watch it when it came out and it is very addictive hence the follow up post didn't come yesterday - sorry!

Anyway, yesterday I said I would write about some goodies I have recieved and here they are.

The map and the Yorkshire playing cards are from the lovely Jenny at Jennyflower in thanks for some goodies I sent her a while back. She was right in thinking I could use some yummy Northern things - I've already earmarked some of the cards for a card for my dad! So thank you Jenny - it brightened up my Friday :) The chicken brooch has been made for me by the lovely Alex - that girl knows I like my chickens! I'm still thinking of the perfect outfit to wear it with but if I can't do that then it will go onto my jacket so everyone at school can see it. It's in bright colours too so it's perfect for me. Thanks Alex :)

I'll be back tomorrow with some things I have made that I am very pleased with - kitsch and recycled! It doesn't get much better than that!

My husband is a genius!!

He turned the banner at the top of this blog into a banner for my three shops. I'm so glad he did it as I have been *this* close to throwing the laptop out of the window in frustration!
Thanks must go also to Amanda at Colourart who also helped out!

I'll be back later with a post about some goodies I have received recently.

Avast me hearties!

No I've not gone mad - I've just made a card for Joshua whose party we are going to this afternoon! I used two fabulous pirate toppers from my good friend Ruth at Tip Top Toppers and finished it off with a pirate sticker from my stash.

And here are some photographs of the pillowcases I got at the charity shop yesterday.

These are the bright ones that are still in their original packaging - chickens I think!


This one is for a special project but I'm not telling you what it is until I make it! Then I don't put pressure on myself to make it as it'll sit in my to do pile for a few months at least!

I got 4 of these diamond ones and again they will be used for chickens I think!

I got 2 of these embroidered pillowcases too and they will be used for the same purpose as the frilly edged one. God I love charity shops!!

Thrifty goodness!

Well I was due to go to the accountants this morning to drop off paperwork etc and on the way back I was going to go to Rawtenstall and call in at the charity shops there. However, it turns out that I didn't need to go to the accountant today (probably next week instead) so instead of Rawtenstall I went to Bacup and Todmorden. Bacup has 3 charity shops and I only went there as I had spied a new RSPCA one a coupe of weeks ago when driving through. That was dissapointing but the church ones just up the road were good. I got some fabulous pillowcases (2 were still in their original packaging and bright yellow and orange!) and the sewing goodies seen below.

The buttons are to make more button rings with for the craft fair which is coming up soon and I couldn't resist the bag full of thread! The bias binding I have in mind for a project so it's legitimate crafting spending :)

I then trundled through to Todmorden to have a look around. Tormorden is a much more affluent town than the normal places I go and you could tell walking round the charity shops there. And I got a fabulous Betty Jackson Studio wrap dress for £6! A similar dress is £80 online! I haven't got a photograph of it so I'll wait until I'm wearing it and you can see it then.

I grabbed a few books (surprise surprise!) and also a cute little hand knitted jumper for Tara. I find loads of baby knitted items but I can never find bigger girls stuff so when I see some I always grab it. It's in a lovely peach colour and has some button detail on the back - cute!


Tara also got a book and a little dog - she inisted that I take a photo!

On Tuesday I also got chance to pop into one charity shop that I rarely go into as it is quite a way out of town. We were in the car anyway and Tara wanted to go - honest! Well I am very glad I went as I got some wonderful patterns for 5p each. Yep 5p each! The woman tried to persuade me to take the whole box but I really didn't need any dodgy 80's and 90's patterns. I stuck to the dodgy 70's ones instead!

These are only a few of the large pile - the rest can be seen on my Flickr page!

If you were wondering what happened to me running.....

...then I can tell you that I really hurt my knees a while back doing it i.e couldn't walk without a stick hurt my knees - that was fun!! So after a few days of not being able to walk I went to see the doctor (something I do very rarely) and he told me that I was too unfit and overweight (nice!) to be doing that much exercise and that I needed to build up the strength in my knees by walking for a couple of months and go from there. So that's what I am doing - with a little bit of prompting from this wonderful blog* - and I'm hoping to be back to jogging sometime in the next couple of months. Good job too as I really enjoyed it and the sense of achievement when I ran for 9 whole minutes was fantastic. So expect more posts soon boring you with my walking routes!

I just have to share this picture I took the other day - I really like it!

Bye for now - I'll be back tomorrow with some new things I've been working on.

*They have started a routine of walking everyday which is something I can't do but I can go a few times a week. They are hoping to turn it into a habit!

On my desk....on a Wednesday

I'm afraid it's very boring today as I have to crack on and get some Cuteable posts written and things listed in my Etsy, Dawanda and Folksy shops. So no creating for me today but lots of computer watching instead.


Hopefully there will be more inspiring things on my desk next week!

Yeah first day of school!

Anya is so excited to be going to school today. She is very excited about her new P.E. bag and kit and having her lunch with other children. She is especially excited to be seeing her best friend Lucy.

Her sister is also very excited and she is going to carry Anya's lunchbox into school for her and help her find her peg. She also told us this morning that she and Anya were going to stay at school and me and Daddy would come home - bless her! We've tried leaving her but they won't let her stay as she is only 2!

Last night Anya decided to change her mind about the fabric she wanted for her P.E. bag (thank goodness!) and she went for the left over fabric from her new curtains. There's loads of it left so she will be getting a cushion too.

So today I am going to celebrate Anya staring school by going out for the day somewhere as I don't have to be back until 3.20!

This is......

........my favourite fabric/craft shop.

Well I don't actually have any pictures of Sams so pictures of the things I have made (and one from Anya) from items from Sams will have to do! Sams isn't a proper craft store but more of a scrap store that takes surplus items from companies and offers them to others (for a tiny fee per year) so that they don't go into landfil. I LOVE it there as there is always something different every time you go and you can never really plan which makes for a better rummage in my mind. It is tempting to grab lots of things though because you are never sure whether they are going to be there again - but for £3 a bag, £5 for 2 bags or £13 for a shopping trolley full it's well worth it!

I also love charity shops too for a rummage and fab fabric and my local post office is good source for the books I turn into envelopes and tags.

Thanks to Handmaiden for this weeks theme and to Three Buttons for the idea!