another grey week

sorry I haven't been blogging, time has been flying by, its not even as if nothing has been happening, but it has been grey a lot, and rained a lot.

the photo isn't rain, it is the sea, it hasn't been raining quite that much, just almost.

Some nice things - Anamama and family came to visit last weekend and we enjoyed spending time with them, and I managed to forget to take any pictures, what has been going on with the photographing part of my brain recently??? I did have to do quite a lot of tidying up the week before. In fact now would be a good time to drop in, the house is still quite tidy, but dont wait until the end of this half-term week as it will be sure to be trashed again. The week before was also my Dads 60th birthday and we had an eventful train journey to have a lovely tea with him, lets just say it was long but worth it to share the day with him.

So, I haven't been making anything much recently, though there are lots of things I want to do and this blog is supposed to encourage me to get on with things. I need to stop thinking and start doing.

Must try to blog more and make more this week.

oops, here I am

Unannounced blogging break! wow, its been a week. I do have an excuse though, well two really. the first excuse is that my hubby is off work with a bad back and has been hogging the computer every waking moment. the second excuse is we lost the battery charger for the camera, so I have no been able to take any photos. And whats a blog post without photos?

Anyway, here I am again, The pic above is a snippet from my pinboard here by my desk, a little vintage fuzzy felt girl I found yesterday when sorting through some toys. we had a whole set from a charity (thrift) shop, I will have to find the rest, I am hoping they are in their box somewhere (yet to be located).

I felt I needed something sweet and pretty to counteract what I have to show you next.


This doll I have rescued from Meithrin, she doesnt get much love there, but she is pretty ugly isnt she poor thing??


I tried to find a flattering angle for the photoshoot! Who would make a doll to look like that, intentionally. I know you can get funny looking dolls, ones with their tongues sticking out and stuff, but this seems more sad as she isnt even trying. I feel pretty sorry for her, so I bought her home for a bit, even though she sometimes makes me jump when she catches me unaware. Maybe she would look better clothed, I dont know.

I was going to add her to a flickr group I found the other day, but now I cant find it so I will have to search again.

The kids have got photos at school today, why is it impossible to do decent hair bunches with a decent centre parting when you really need to? Esmes is really wobbly today, oh well. And Lauries tie, where did that go??

WIP - learning to sew.

Esme has been wanting to learn to sew for a while now, as she sees me doing various projects. I was a little worried to let my 5 year old loose with a small sharp pointy needle, but yesterday she heard that her cousins were learning to sew and that was it. They were going to make Wees, and I thought this a good starting project, but when we went to Wee Wonderfuls to download the pattern, Esme wanted to make the bear from the pattern book instead, she follows after me and likes to jump straight in, rather than trying something basic first.

Luckily I recently purchased a copy of the pattern book and it was sitting patiently here on the side waiting for me. I too like the bear best, I think Esme has fantastic taste.

Anyway, I simplified the pattern by joining all the pattern pieces together, so she has one 2-D bear shape to sew around. This makes it probably as easy as the wees, just bigger. On a search for pink fabric I had the idea to use an old pillowcase, extra handy as the two pieces of fabric are held together as she sews, and we can cut around the shape when she is finished, flip it inside out and stuff, and voila!!

Look at the concentration required.


she also has plans to accessorise her bear with various hearts and so on. She has proved a natural, her stitches are pretty impressive I think and she only went wrong once when greatly distracted by her little brothers game on the computer!! So, today she has done more(despite having a friend round after school, she sewed regardless!), and I think she will be done on the main bit of sewing if she does some more tomorrow. And she is so excited by it. I will keep you updated.

Other news, I had fantastic post (again!!) today, a parcel from Mirre just because she is nice!!! look what she sent me.


oops, I posted the photo on its side, well you get the idea, tilt your head left!!

She sent a hanging pocket thingy (these have a name, what are they called?) plus a tissue holder, and a rubber pig eraser (that Lucie wanted to swipe) and a tiny cute magnet, and one of her new postcards. What a lovely surprise when I walked in from this mornings school run. And it fitted through our supersized letterbox, so no visiting the depot to collect today yay! The littlest bits were cutely wrapped in a page from a vintage childrens book, ripped out (gasp-naughty!).


Lucky me. I have hung the wall pocket hangy thingy at the bottom of my stairs for now, so I can put bits in that need to go up. the colours go best in my kitchen so I might need to go look for some wall fixings for it in the screws box. Love all the fabrics she picked, and especially for the tissue packet, which I have stuffed with Cath Kidston tissues (that match, should have taken another pic) and popped in my baby bag, they will go everywhere with us. Thankyou Mirre, you are fab!

The best wedding cake ever

If I were having my time again, I think I would want a cake like this! Isn't it fantastic, it is by Mary Rose Young, who lives and works pretty close to here. Her house and studio is less than an hour away, in the Forest of Dean. I love her pottery and would own more of it if I could afford it (not that it is especially expensive, just that we are poor!). I think she is also more famous in the States then here, as she has many shops there.

We went to another wedding yesterday (seems like we have been to lots this year), this time of friends Danielle and Carl. It was a lovely wedding, the sun shone again, the hat came out again. oh and I got a picture taken of it this time.


Nobody said they wanted to see me in the hat! I think Esme models it very well.

We enjoyed catching up with friends at the wedding and being part of the wedding at the church, the large village church was totally packed with people, and the service had a great time of worship in the middle. Then we had drinks on the (slightly blustery and chilly) village green, complete with castle ruins, before moving onto the reception. The reception was at a farm in a large barn that had had hay bales, tractors and a 1951 Landrover in it up until last weekend!!

We were also childless for the reception, a rare occurrance indeed, as my lovely friend Rufi took on the children and allowed them to wreak havoc at her house for many hours (thankyou Rufi, you are brill!). It was nice to be able to go out just me and Andrew and be able to talk to friends and to each other uninterrupted.

So, another lovely day was had by all.

exciting parcels!

kids pre-tea feast.

yesterday I had to walk to the other side of town to collect two parcels from the post office depot. One of them had nearly been delivered, but we were not in, and the other had a charge on it (stoopid customs charges). Anyway, I left happy (although nearly £8 down) with 2 yummy parcels to open.

I knew what was in the first one, fabric I had ordered from Ebay (US) with a customs charge too, which hurt as it was a lot more than the postage costs had been. Im sure you want to see:



Mostly Denyse Schmidt fleamarket fancy, with some other bits of other freespirit fabric too. hopefully to make some softies with, and to have a go at some childrens clothing.

The second parcel was even more exciting, all the way from Amity, my Red and Pink colourswap partner in the Netherlands. It came in a small but heavy box, and look what she packed in there for me!!


So many lovely things, please excuse the photos here and the variation of colour, it has rained terribly here today (I got soaked 3 times) and its really not the weather to bother getting a camera out.

You will notice that lots of the things have been opened, the chocolate didnt even make it home and the cone of sweets is not as full as it once was. in fact, the sweets at the top of this post are some of the cones contents (the half I saved for the kids lol!), and now they have all been scoffed too. I do have some very happy bouncy children to show for it though. The (drinking) tea has also been sampled, I dont know what it is but it's yum.

She sent some little beads that wouldnt photograph very well, and I shall have to photograph them again as they are beautiful. and take a closer look at this felted bag she made me, and these scrummy pencils.



So, I have been truly spoiled, thankyou Amity.

Edited 10.55pm (ps: not sure whats happening with blogger photos, but if you only have a blue square with a ? where the photos should be click on it and hopefully the pic should appear.)

10.58pm:(actually, some of the time they appear not to be, but just nonsense instead, pretty freaky huh??)

stand still and I'll stick ya!

Ive never had a glue gun before, but after borrowing a friends recently, I realised my life wasn't complete. so I got one, and I must warn you, I am just looking for things to stick.

The photo is of new pins on my noticeboard/inspiration board that I have by my computer. You can click on the picture to make it bigger. it doesn't have much else on it yet but I am sure it will be full before long. I couldn't find any drawing pins (thumb tacks?? pushpins??) in the house at first, when I did find some they were very boring, so I glued some buttons on to make them look nicer.

I wanted to use more of my little retro buttons, the picture ones that I have been collecting recently, but it was difficult to remove the backs, I will have to find a good way of removing them.

The method I used was to hack off the back plastic loop with my rotary cutter held in a stabbing position, down onto the corner of the table without a cutting mat. I would not recommend this, as it is bad both for the ends of ones thumbs and for the table. ouch. so, when I find a better way (maybe pliers? - they are in the attic, will have to send hubby up) and my thumb heals up - I exaggerate heehee, I will do some more.

When I first started reading blogs, there was someone who used to make the most fantastic little pins for noticeboards, little characters that were really detailed, I am not sure what they were made of, maybe polymer clay?? does anyone know who this could be??? because I have tried to refind her blog, and cant, and we have had a new computer since so she isnt saved in my favourites anywhere. can anyone help?

anyway, more for the noticeboard,


I got this postcard from my parents who are on a cruise (spending our inheritance as they say) and it is going up, it's pretty cool, though I don't know what the front says. I am hoping to get a translation from my spanish sis-in-law soon.


I should stay on this subject (I was going to waffle off on a tangent then) so I will show you these, I bought this small book of Yoshitomo Nara postcards today, There are some cool pics, I like these two so far although I have only flicked through quickly.




anyway, Im off now to stick some more things, bring on the broken toys!