What I'm doing this afternoon

I'm going to take these bubble envelopes

Combine it with some of this pretty wallpaper

And make pretty envelopes - and use up some of my stash at the same time! You never know I might even make some of my recycled bubble envelopes :)

New style packaging

I am trying to have a big sort out in the craft room i.e. lots of stuff being used up, sold or given away and I have a huge pile of wallpaper pieces that I got from Sams. I do use it for making my mini matchbook notebooks (that incidentally are included free with each order from my shops!) but I still have a huge pile left over. In addition to this I have a very good friend who saves all her bubble envelopes for me. I usually just use scrap paper (school letters etc) to cover the address but it gets a bit boring. Cue new packaging!

The scraps of paper with the address on now go on top of this rather fancy paper :) I have to add that this idea is not mine (I received a package like this within the past year) but I have since re-used it and can't remember who the idea came from. If you know (or indeed are that person) then please do let me know as I would like to credit correctly. Doing this also means that I have a use for the blunt pinking shears I couldn't resist picking up in France at a car boot sale for 1 Euro! Its strangely therapeutic just to sit in front of the tv with a pile of wallpaper and match it to envelopes. I think I might be doing that this evening!

Bargain camper van!

No it's not a brother or sister for the lovely Bumble but a new toy for the girls. We went to a car boot yesterday (via the farmers market first) and I spied this little beauty hiding behind a big box of books.


It was absolutely filthy and covered in cobwebs etc - I gave it a good hose down outside before it even went for a bath!

Both sides fold down to reveal a kitchen at one side (complete with fridge, cooker and sink) and on the other side are the table and seats with an extra fold out bed.

Barbies simply must have a wardrobe in their camper van (as an aside I always laugh when I see tents that have wardrobes in them!)

It came with all these bits and bobs too - lots of plates, cups, food, cooking utensils and a huge radio! Barbies like dancing you know!

And as you might have guessed, the girls love it. I had been prepared to pay up to £10 for it and had thought this would be about the right price - the lady completely floored me by saying £2! To say I was thrilled was an understatement :) I'll show off the other bargain later if I can be bothered to photograph them!

Happy Easter!

It's a bit late in the day to be wishing you a Happy Easter but I am doing so all the same. I hope the Easter bunny was kind :)

And Snow White wishes you well from her desert island paradise. Anya entered this at school for the Easter egg competition and won :)

Morecambe....

....on Thursday was lovely! And I'm very glad that we decided to go on Thursday as yesterday it was chucking it down and was very nasty weather wise (typical UK bank holiday!) We parked near the Lifeboat station and the girls were disappointed not to see the lifeboat out and about on the rough sea. I explained that that was a good thing!

Picture by Lifeboat1721

We walked along the prom for a bit (photo by Lizgent)

This is the wonderful Midland Hotel - you can't miss it as you walk along the front! Photo by Jeannie_H.

And the reason we chose Morecambe over any of the other seaside resorts near us was so that I could visit a new fabric factory shop in Lancaster :) It was great but I only spent £2.60!

Chickens

Sound is restored to my computer (thanks to the wonderful Matt and his manipulation of Linux code) so to celebrate here is a good chicken song. Enjoy :)

Just a quickie

There is no creative space today as we have been out all day! I hadn't planned to be but the internet connection here was awful this morning and the weather was good (in Morecambe anyway) so we headed to the beach. I forgot the camera but I will tell you all about it tomorrow :)

Photo taken from Happy Camper's flickr stream. If you have no idea who this man is then check out this.

Charity shop goodies

I had hoped to get out to the charity shops on Monday but forgot that I had to stay in to wait for a courier to collect a parcel - grrr. However I made it out to a local town, Accrington, yesterday and I am very glad I managed to go. Accrington hasn't let me down yet (I got my massive button haul from there) and it didn't let me down yesterday :) In fact if you search my blog for Accrington you will see the many bargains I have got. Anyway, back to yesterday's finds!


Innocent looking boxes you say? Hah - they house treasures :)

Gorgeous thread - the colours aren't captured here very well.

Buttons!

And some intriguing wooden buttons - some have been painted/drawn on already. I'm going to have fun playing with these!

Tara was wearing this funky half apron while I was taking the photograph hence the blurriness. She wouldn't stand still!

A book to chop :) It has two pages missing.

A lovely tablecloth with matching napkins still in it's original packaging! All of the above was mine for £5! I couldn't quite believe it either! I then went to another shop where I bought.....

A top for Anya - there are cute birds and bikes on the red fabric.

A faded pillowcase

A hanky for 10p

Two pretty linens - one was 30p and the other was 65p!

Two lots of bias binding for 50p

These placemats/napkins (there are 12 of various sizes) for £1.50. They are very sheer fabric - organza perhaps?

And this pretty dress from Marks and Spencers - it is brand new!! It cost me £3! It also has lots of nice details which are lost in the photo.

I got these 3 books for £1 in a different shop. Destined to be cut up as they have damaged covers/pages.

This Dirndl dress was the 'piece de resistance' of the whole trip. I spotted the back first so didn't realise it was a Dirndl dress until I turned it round. The embroidery is gorgeous and it fits like a dream :) The only snag is that is shows quite a bit of boob and while I do have it, I don't necessarily want to flaunt it quite *that* much! So the hunt is on for a top that I can wear underneath it - I may just go for black long sleeved at the moment. Or I can wear it backwards - looks just as good :) I'll just have to remember not to wear Heidi plaits on top of my head at the same time as wearing this dress as it may enter the realm of costume!

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!

Stickers!

I have been a busy bee making lots and lots of stickers recently.I love the way they use up the tiniest pieces of paper so that hardly any bits from the books I rescue is put into the recycling.

2 different sets of people stickers.

A set of nature stickers (these have already sold!)

And these are my favourites yet - 3 little pig stickers!

Check out this guy hanging out his washing!! Fabulous :) I'm seriously considering taking this set of of my shop as the pigs are so cute!

These are available in my Etsy and Folksy shops.