Pincushion Swap part 1

I entered a pincushion swap organised by Claire the other week and my swap parcel arrived on Saturday :) I was partnered with Lisa and I love the goodies I got.

First up is this very cute mouse pincushion - the girls have already tried to claim it but I said no! He is quite small and so is the perfect size for living in my sewing box :)

Lisa likes quilting (check out some fab work on her blog) and so she has passed this pattern onto me. I don't really like patterns (I find most of them tricky to follow) and have never made a 'proper' quilt before but this pattern looks like it might be fairly easy to follow. I also like that it is scrap friendly :)

Some yummy ribbon that will come in very handy - check out the cute frogs!

A set of alphabet stamps. I have some already that I use quite a lot and these ones are different so will get used lots too :)

And I needn't say more really need I? Those girl ones in the middle are going to be saved for something special.

Thanks Lisa and thanks Claire for organising it! I have sent my return parcel to Lisa but I sent it a day late and now it will be caught up in flights delayed by the volcano - it is on it's way Lisa I promise. I'll show off what I sent when I know it has arrived.

De-stash

Well, before Christmas Matt and I had a huge tidy up of bits of the house and took about 6 black bin bags of stuff to the charity shop! We've started again today after sorting out loads of stuff to go to the tip and we already have another box of stuff to go to the charity shop! I also know that I have 3 huge boxes of stuff in the loft from when I used to be a teacher that I won't need ever again as I am never going back to that job :) I might give it to Anya's school if any of it will be of use to them - some of the games will be I'm sure. It will also give us enough room in the loft to put some of the stuff that is cluttering up the study at the moment!!
As my craft room is next to the study I have been popping in there to sort stuff out too and I have some things to put into the swap group on Flickr. There will be more coming soon I can assure you! Here's a couple of pictures.

Bag of leather scraps

Bag of bits of broken and tangled jewellery. Oh and the picture at the top is the view out of our study window over the park - we've been in the study tidying for most of today!

Goodies!

Now I know I promised a post about Ikea goodies but I'm afraid that will have to wait as when we got back from Ikea there was a parcel waiting for me on the doorstep (stupid postman but that's another post.) Anyway I had a quick peek and it was my secret swap parcel!!!!!! I'd joined a secret swap over on Etsy and I've just posted mine out to my swapee this week. Anyway - I got a gorgeous, fabulous bag from lovealittle. These aren't my pictures - Jane from lovealittle took them and I'm glad as the ones I took in my kitchen were too dark and I just had to show off the bag. It's got a little owl on it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I really didn't think it was possible to be in love with a bag but I am - just got to think of what to call the owl now! So a big thank you to Jane - it's fab!

Ok - you can have a little bit of Ikea stuff then! I bought lots of fabric (would you believe!) and I also got some great wrapping paper with gnomes on it! I like gnomes as well as birds! One day I'll have to take photo's of the ones in my garden.

Here's some photo's of the girls on their new chairs. My mum bought a chair for Anya but it has been climbed on and dragged round and it finally decided last week that it's leg wasn't going to stay on this time so it's gone to bin heaven!

I think Tara is pleased with her chair! Her sister, on the other hand is much more refined!

It's obviously a 'I'm nearly 4' pose!

And here's the picture that we had to take of the chairs on their own - they are quite bright and I'm not sure they will go in our Victorian house but nothing else does so why worry!

Off to do some crafting now!

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!!