Sweet Goodness Swap

Well today has been exciting - not only because I will have done two blog posts in one day! The postman came just as I was getting lunch organised and he popped his cheery head over the gate with a parcel. 'Something else Matt has ordered' I thought - but no it was a parcel for me all the way from The Netherlands! My sweet goodness swap summer fun partner is Monique and it was her parcel that arrived for me!

Right this post is going to be picture heavy!

This was how my parcel arrived underneath the paper - got me wondering as to what it might be. My first thought was a washbag, then I thought maybe just some fabric but it turns out that it is a bag!! With lovely long handles! It'll be perfect for walking up to the post office with my parcels!



Some little goodies that came in the bag - Anya and Tara really liked the garden spiral - we've just got to figure out where it is going to go! The notebook is the perfect size for my handbag and the ice cube tray will get used a lot if this nice weather holds up here in the UK.




I love the pot holders and the fact that they came from a charity shop. The Mentos won't last long in this house and the soap sheets (bottom right) will come in very handy for our camping trip!




Being a true Yorkshire girl I was happy to have some tea sent to me and it came in such a pretty box too that Monique had painted and decoupaged herself!

All in all it has been a good day today!!

Poisoned Apple Jewellery

I've been meaning to write about Seahorse for a while now - I 'know' her through the craft forum. She is a prolific poster (!) but offers lots of help and advice. Anyway this post isn't just about how great she is - it's also to introduce you to her fabulous work! Seahorse is a jewellery maker and my favourite things on her website are these bracelets.



They are inspired by great films and have a very vintage feel to them - luckily without the cost of vintage jewellery. I am very lucky to own a Moulin Rouge inspired bracelet of my very own and it always gets lots of comments when I wear it - the most frequent being 'Wow that's gorgeous, where did you get it?' I can now point people in the direction of the website!

Another thing on the website that I have never seen before are slide pendants. What a great idea - I love re-using things in my own work so these get a big thumbs up from me. I especially like the Glamour girl one.

She looks so sophisticated!

Check out the necklaces too - I love the Pirate Princess necklace but my favourite has to be the Lilith Black Shadow. It would look great with the Chicago bracelet!


I know for a fact that the website has been very busy so get over there quickly before the jewellery sells out!

Must be feeling odd!

Yesterday (Monday) I bought a pack of 8 French Fancies from Asda at 2.38pm. As of now, 9.04pm on Tuesday there are still 2 left!! Anya has had 3, Tara has had 1 and I have had 2. That's a record for me - normally they don't last the day (if that!) I'm also not tempted to go and eat them or any of the delicious ice cream in the freezer, which again is not like me at all!

I have also done (drum roll please) a total of 60 sit ups today - 20 this morning and 40 this evening after putting Anya to bed. And this is a woman who doesn't like exercise. Actually I enjoy badminton and walking but I don't get chance to do it often enough to get my body to the stage where it feels yucky if I don't do anything - do you know what I mean? How long does it take to form a habit - is it a month? I might have to try doing some sort of exercise for month and see how I go. The trouble is that I can't do anything during the week with Matt being away unless I get a babysitter - hmmmm worth some pondering I think!

Anyway back to the subject of French Fancies - have a look at these!

Hols/London

Well I've not posted for a while as I have been away - well I'm actually still away but have a little time so thought I would update this! Matt, the girls and I came down to London at the weekend so that we could go to the Star Wars Celebration Europe convention. It was fun but stupidly busy so not really the best place to go with two young children, especially as Anya was scared of the actors dressed up as the characters! That was fun when this bunch of people came to say hello!!


On the Friday when we got here we went to the science museum and Anya got to see some rockets and she was especially excited about seeing this lunar lander.


We also went to see a show featuring Bob the Builder at the Science Museum - we got to help him rebuild a wall!


We came back home with the girls on Monday, deposited them with grandparents and then me and Matt came back down to London. As you may well imagine I have done lots of charity shopping and I managed to get some for my swap recipient! I'll post photo's of the things I bought when I get back home and have photo's of them!

Supplies swap group

Well I have succumbed to the pressure on the crafts forum (only joking!) and finally set up a UK swap group - an ideal place to get rid of any crafty supplies that you don't want and gain some more! It's here so if you are in the UK and want somewhere to swap supplies then please join. It's ideal if you don't belong to Etsy (I belong to the Etsy swap group) or any other group!
Anyway please go and join - oh and tell all your friends!

Competiton results!!!!

There are actually 2 winners because Anya pulled two names out of the hat and wouldn't put one back!! Lucky I've made more than one isn't it! Drumroll please.......................the winners are Anice and Sally F! Well done! Sorry to those who didn't win but I will be having more competitions!

Here's a sneaky peek of what you have won although these are photo's taken when the chickens aren't finished. They still need eyes and stuffing with rice. They are baby versions of cheeky chicken and are designed to be used as paperweights although you could use them for doorstops if you have tiny doors :)
Please can you get in touch with your details please so I can send the chickens on to you.

Here's what else I have been busy with today. Anya is going to two birthday parties tomorrow and I thought it was high time I made some of the presents instead of buying them. So I wanted to make something that 4 year old girls would like and that wouldn't be too hard to make. So I ended up with these - baking sets.


As you can see I made one for Emily and I made one also for Mia. The bags are just simple drawstring bags that have an Ikea child's baking set in (complete with mini rolling pin and trays!) and recipe cards. I also made aprons (which I am very proud of) with the girls names on. I'm also going to put some of these onto Tuggle I think and I'll see how they sell.

Random stuff

Here's just a couple of pictures to tide you over until the big announcement tomorrow of who has won the prize!

Here is Anya's much loved teddy bear Bo. Big Bo to be precise as she has a baby one too who is called, suprisingly, Baby Bo! Anyway here he is having been punked up by having hair clips attached to him!
Here is a dish we had for tea the other night. It is a tomato sauce based dish that was very nice. I made the tomato sauce myself - and I have never made a sauce myself before except for a very dodgy cheese sauce once. It had beans, baby corn, onion and garlic. It also had some pork but it didn't taste great so next time I make it I will make it without the pork. It is topped off with sweet potato and carrot mash - yummy.

2,000th post!!

Not on here but on the forum!! To celebrate I am going to have a present giveaway! Only of something small but it has not been seen anywhere else before - clue, it's related to cheeky chicken! I can't show you any pictures as it hasn't been made yet but it'll be good I promise! All you have to do to enter the competition is to leave a comment - anything will do! Just a quick hello, a poem, a witty and insightful quote etc etc - I think you get the idea! This is open to anyone else too who isn't on the forum although I would urge you to go and join as it's very good!

The competition will be open until Friday at midnight (not that I will be up but......)

Cool!

I just wanted to say thanks to the guys over at cuteable for featuring me on their website! Well when I say me I actually mean Matt as he sat for ages making these little beauties - he secretly enjoys craft I think!!


I've also just finished a diary page for this project which I was very lucky to get into - I was on the waiting list and then you had to be the first to email back to get a page and luckily on Sunday evening I was! It took ages to do though even though it may look a little boring..... but I am very pleased with it. I wanted something that was fairly understated and that showed off a lot of my work at once!

It's a bit tricky to see on here so here's the link to my Flickr page with it on - it does look good in real life!!

I'm famous.....

.....well sort of! I did the interview for this a couple of months ago and Mr Media on the forum told me it was on the site! I was very excited and it's come out very well!

Very exciting when you lead a life as sad as mine!

Lots of little things

I've been meaning to get onto the computer for a while now and write another blog post but it was a case of doing lots of orders and other stuff instead! I finished the mini quilt although it is just a mini picture at the moment as I haven't attached the backing or put the quilting in yet. Here it is!

I'm a bit disappointed with it to be honest - the face isn't right and I would have liked to show much more of her body and hands but I'm not a good enough artist! Anya likes it though so I think it will be going in her room - once it's finished anyway! I will keep making more but I think I'll stick to simpler designs from now on.

I also forgot the other day to show you the booty I got when I went charity shopping! I got fabric (of course) and books (double of course!) and some old maps etc to use for cards, envelopes or whatever takes my fancy!

Books and shoes - all the books are actually destined for other things. I got some art catologues that will become envelopes. And of course some shoes!!
I think this is my favourite lot because it has buttons in it - all those buttons were 20p! The doilees are going to be sewn onto something but not sure what yet - maybe a pretty dress?

And of course the fabric! The big sheet is going to be a skirt and chickens and I'm going to attempt to make the two pillowcases into skirts as well (if they will fit!) And to finish, here is a photo of Tara wearing the hat from this picture!