Thursday 29 April 2010

My mum is back from the States and look what she brought with her! I ordered it from Hawthorne Threads and had it delivered to my cousin. It's soooo delicious! Look at the combinations...




Christmas!



I don't want to cut this!


Reminds me of sweeties!




Unfortunately I had to leave them at mums as we are moving out in 6 wks, to stay with her whilst the house is being done. It was sad leaving them but I'm not planning on using them until my swaps have been done! I'm so excited about them though. So pretty!
I've been hard at work at a couple of swaps but I have also had to make the birthday cake! I made the error of giving Liam a muffin before bedtime (in my defence, he never eats anything I make!) and he scoffed it all! He then screamed for more- oh dear. He has my appetite!
Just heard that it is supposed to rain on Saturday- oh no!! Our house is the ugliest thing ever and I don't really want people to be here! We were going to get out all the chairs and toys and sit in the garden. I wonder if they mind squeezing into the garage...









Monday 26 April 2010

Er- where is the sun?

Ok so I shouldn't really complain as April is normally all about the rain but today is miserable!
Anyway, finally mum has arrived back! She is in Ealing at the moment, at her mum's. Then she will come home but I have no idea if she is coming to ours before the party or if we will go to her place. I have so much to do! I want to get some swap parcels sended off, then I have the house to tidy and cake to make and food to buy!
Right, I am aware of the need to put more pics up so here we go!

First up, some 'buys' from a recent car booty trip!


I've no idea what this is- maybe a sarong? Who cares- it's polka dot AND red! Whoo hoo!

This cute set of 6 teacups and saucers cost me £3.50! Floral tableware is not my bag, but I am going to make some pincushions out of these!

Then I found this book:




It's really old but I think the patterns are so cute! 50p again!

Now to see how much fun you can have with a Sunday newspaper. You know the type- the one with all the sections you don't read?





Now to think of the swaps....
I finished the Little and Large Swap yesterday (Liam and I had to make something for a little girl- courtesy of Mr Wilkinsons, we bought something which we/I decorated, then I had to make something for her too. I also made something for her mum and sent them a few extras)
I also finished the Handbag Swap on swap-bot! I'm quite pleased with it and it wasn't that tricky to make!
Another swap-bot swap that I am on is a Cupcake swap. I've picked up a few bits for that one so that can be sent off before the party.
I'm doing a Spingtime Swap- this one is quite hard! What capitulates spring, and can be sent to the States?! All I can think about is foodie type items that will get crushed! I'm making an item but I need some small extras!
The next swap to go is the Good Enough To Eat Swap. I was going to make a felt cupcake pincushion..until I got my partner. She is the Felt Fairy so anything made out of felt by me wouldn't be different enough! Hmmm, thinking cap on there!
Then it's all hands on deck for the following swaps...
Fairytale
Pillow cover
Sewing colour
Fabric addict
Fabric FQ
Apron!
Some of these are swap-bots, others are from blogs. All sound fun! Once these are out of the way I am going to concentrate on the stuff I want to make for our house. Promise!

Friday 23 April 2010

The Felt Fairy!

Annie , aka 'The Felt Fairy' has a monthly giveaway on her blog. You will either win a bundle of felt square (of every colour imaginable!) or some embroidery skeins! Or you might be one of the lucky ones and win this:




Look at the colours!
(she is also my 'Good Enough To Eat Swap' Partner!)

Thursday 22 April 2010

Another giveaway

Wow- look at this blog! http://sunflowerquilts.blogspot.com/

Not only does she have the most amazing quilting bag (I love it so much I might have to try to make it- eek!) but check out the giveaway!

A Copy of Handmade Home by Amanda Blake Soule, and- AND- three Moda charm packs!!

Get entering girls!

Monday 19 April 2010

I want my mummy!

She's stranded in Florida. Ok, so not the worst place to be but she was due back last Thursday and thanks to a big angry volcano, she is waiting to come home. Liam misses her and so do I! She's been told that she is booked onto a flight to Detroit then Amsterdam NEXT Tuesday. I'm not sure if she is booked on a flight from Amsterdam to London or if she then has to make her way from there.

Luckily she is staying with family out there so she doesn't have to fork out on accomodation- that would be a huge expense. And she is retired so no need to take time off (she looks after Liam while I work so Ricky and I are taking a couple of days off) but she is with my aunt who needs to take time off and my cousin who should be playing in his band in a pub in West London as we speak.

I neeeeeed her though! I have a certain little boy's 2nd birthday party next weekend to sort out - which means party bags to make and fill, a cake to bake and decorate, bunting to sew, a house to tidy, food to buy and make...argh!

Florida, give us her back!

Friday 16 April 2010

Hapi-Ness: fairytale swap!

I've found another swap!! Luckily I have now aquired my mother's sewing machine (she's stuck in Florida so she can't do anything about it!) so I can dedicate time to planning and making!


Hapi-Ness: fairytale swap!

Tuesday 13 April 2010

It's lonely here...

I was going to apologise for my lack of substantial posting but I don't really think anyone reads my blog! I know I have a few followers but my blog really has nothing of worth compared to their own and others- my, there are some amazing blogs out there!

I don't want to share the blog with anyone I know for some reason. Maybe one day. They can look at my FB page if they want to know what I am up to! So why am I doing this? I guess it's a way of tracking my progress into the world of handmade, homemade crafting. It's also a little bit catharic, not that I am delving into my innermost feelings!

Anyway so there is my not-an-apology. Now for the fun bits!!

SO I am into this swapping thing, big time! Not the greatest of timing with a broken sewing machine. I took it to the shop to get fixed but we can't really afford it- not without my mum seeing it first. If she can't fix it then we'll get it done at the shop. I have one sewing related swap from Swap Bot coming up so I need to get a working sewing machine for that! I am also doing a handmade Swap to do but that will be handsewn. The other swapbot swaps are a 50gm of scrap fabric and a profile swap.



I'm also in...
Em's Shabby Shack's -Good Enough To Eat Swap
Modified Mix- Accent Pillow Swap
Clasheen- Spring Swap (on Flickr)
Crafty Helen- Fabric Addict Swap
I'm really looking forward to them! I have some ideas for the pillow swap but I'll have to see what style my recipient wants before I get into it. And I need that sewing machine!!



In other news... On Saturday we visited Puddle Ducks Quilts in Sevenoaks. I love that shop! For some reason Ricky offered to stay in the car with Liam and let me shop in peace. I don't think that will happen again! I bought...

4 red and white FQs
A scrap bag of Moda fabrics
This.


I LOVE it! It's going to be a garden quilt for us in the summer. I'm going to hand-quilt it somehow but I have three weeks to get it done (in time for Liam's 2nd birthday party!) so I won't be hand-stitching ALL of the owls. I think I might do wavy lines.
The FQs are going to be used for the kitchen/diner. I'm trying to get as many scraps, FQ, charm squares- whatever - that are red and white to make cushion pads for our dining room chairs, a table runner, dishtowels and pot holders. So I'm scouring thrift stores for dresses, shirts, cushions- anything! Once I get my hands on some batteries for the camer I'll show you what I have so far. I'm thinking of picking up dark purples and reds for cushions for our living room too.
But what good is all this without a sewing machine?!










Thursday 8 April 2010

Look how pretty!

I've just come across this website- it's so lovely! http://bittybitsandpieces.blogspot.com/

It makes me want to drop my knitting and do another quilt!



She is also doing a giveaway of a crochet roll. Have a go ladies! If you don't want to enter it, she gives a fab tutorial here:
http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/04/crochet-clutch.html


Saturday 3 April 2010

I'm on a roll!

Ok so now I am getting the gist of this, here are the pics of Liam's room. We did it in June last year but I am still so proud of it (and envious, if you saw the state of the rest of the house!) The inspiration came from this CD cover http://www.africancreammusic.com/web/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=85&Itemid=1. and involved me, Ricky, Ricky's dad, my mum and my brother Navin. Oh and our Swedish friend, Ikea.










Mum made the curtains and I painted the rainbow. Bugsy came from a craft fair in our park. Lamp from Ikea (totally useless as the light is no brighter than a match but it's so funky!)


My brother made the stencils and we painted round it





















I sewed a cushion and did the quilt!












I made this quilt and the cushion!










My brother did this, for the door!











This blanket box was left at our house when we moved in so I painted it white and re-covered it. It's now a toybox!
er -why does this look like a hyperlink?!

Tree painted by Daddy!
Lampshade bought at a funky store in Greenwich Market

And finally the chalkboard door! By the time this was taken, I don't think Liam wanted to share his room with us any longer!
We love the end result but boy was it time consuming. We stripped the walls and found a few small cracks. So bought some polyfil. Realised that we aren't very good at that kind of thing so got a plasterer. It took a couple of days to get him to do his thing and let it dry. Then we had to paint. Argh. Paint ceilings. Paint two walls half orange. Let it dry. Second coat. Then do the other two halves green. Dry. Second coat. Do the other walls white. Dry. Second coat.
Do tree. Second coat. Third coat. Stensils, rainbow, clouds. Argh, argh and argh! All with Liam crawling around. It took ages.
The next baby is getting a magnolia room!

Look what I got!












This was my lovely flower parcel from Claire aka dollydollop. Isn't it pretty? I am not a flowery kinda girl but this was so beautiful and thoughtful! I love it all! The ring is so pretty and perfect for me.



I love the bunting! I wish I was neat enough to make this. I'm going to rope Ricky into planting the herbs and flowers on Monday (I'll bribe him with the promise of lots of lovely meals!) I'm getting the book that Claire got the idea of the softie from! Our garden will look so pretty with the bunting, flowers and the lantern.

The tissues are too good for runny noses so they will just be displayed somewhere! And the lavender cushion is so neat and cute. I'm using the notebook to keep in my handbag as its the perfect size.

Thank you sooo much Claire!






And then I got this....







from Clare aka littlebearstories! The teacosy is going to take pride of place in our new dining room when it is done along with the little knitted red heart (both perfectly knitted) and ladle! I love the candle as well! I'm not sure I will use the cupcake cases- they are far to pretty to stick in the oven at 180 degrees! The pegs are so cute, with little lady bugs on them!

I must apologise- there is a rose candle missing from Claire's picture, and a red bracelet and red magnet from Clare's. A certain 2 foot thief took off with the and I haven't seen them since. He has about 3 hiding places so I will track them down, fear not!

Ok- I am about to hit 'PUBLISH POST' so lets see if it works!


Uh oh...

I've discovered http://www.swap-bot.com/. It's basically a site with hundreds of swaps. I'm a 'newbie' so I need to get my rating up as most swaps don't let newbies in. So I am in a newbie only swap (stationery), two private swaps with swap-bot users (one is a letter swap, nice and simple and it's via email so I can get a rating pretty quick, and the other is a profile swap- so we look at each others profile which has our likes, dislikes, hobbies etc on it and send something according to it).

I've also requested to join group swaps. As I said, they don't normally let newbies in but sometimes the co-ordinator mentions that if you are interested, to message them. So I have been allowed to join a 'yarn and chocolate' swap, and a handmade handbag one.

I'm VERY excited! I can't wait to find out who my swap partners are for these ones and Em's so I can get hunting and making!! I'm taking my poorly sewing machine to the docs next week but if they can't fix it I'll have to borrow my mums when she gets back from the States.

Tomorrow we're off to Ricky's parents for the day and spending the night. I need a night away from the laptop otherwise I'm going to end up with nothing else to swap but Ricky and Liam!

Thursday 1 April 2010

And breathe...

What a hectic few days! On the plus side, I got my swap parcels from Claire (at http://dollydollop.blogspot.com/ ) and Clare (at http://littlebearstories.blogspot.com/). It was the flower swap on Sew Scrumptious' blog http://sewscrumptious.blogspot.com/ and the color swap on Claire's blog.

The parcels were lovely! I have no idea how to post pics but I will attempt it in a second, but I really am touched by the effort that these two talented ladies put in.

So being a swap, I had to give them something in return. I knitted some things for Clare (it might get confusing with the two Claires/Clares!) but had to rip one item out totally and start again. Bah. Then yesterday I was hoping to finish off sewing some bits on the sewing machine and somehow the foot came off. No idea how, and no idea how to fix it. So off I toddled into Dartford to get some bits to supplement the package and the beamer on the car was on and wouldn't come off. I had no idea how to do turn it off - well, I do but it wouldn't come off for love nor money. So I drove round and round looking for a garage and eventually someone agreed to look at it and said 'oooh love, you need a new thingymajigtechnicalword but it obviously needs a good looking over. Thingymajigtechnicalword costs £100 but I couldn't tell you how much it would be to look over it. I won't know till I open the car up....but it does need it.'

Oooookay. So flick a few switches, scratch your (balding) head and throw in a few mechanical words and you think you have me conned? I don't think so! Luckily my OH knows a mechanic and in the meantime they had spoken so Ricky told me to go back home and just turn on the engine every 40 mins. So I carried on shopping for a bit then went home. Shortly after I got in, Ricky got home, looked at the car, and wouldn't you know it, he turned the lights off! Argh. I had one mechanic, one mechanic receptionist and one kind random stranger look at it and switch things on and off and nada. Smug hubby comes along and voila. Bah.

So anyway it really took up my sewing time so I was burning the midnight oil (well, the 1am oil) sewing. Not happy with it but I have sent it off as I felt awful that I had received mine and Clare and Claire hadn't. The queue at the post office was massive (WHO sends Easter eggs in the post?? Well, half of Bexleyheath do, apparently)

Anyway, I have swap-itis. I really need another swap to get my teeth into! I've signed up for this one http://notesfromlapland.blogspot.com/2010/02/secret-post-club.html but need more!! What am I saying?!