been crocheting triangles...

When I saw how lovely this bunting by tania of Ninon is I knew I had to try to shamelessly copy it! only for my own personal use and I do hope she doesn't mind, take a look at the awesome stuff she makes while you are over at her site. I have only really dabbled with crochet before and had to kind of make it up as I went along. I also crocheted 17 triangles, yes 17! I am very bad at doing anything more than once, I get bored easily, so I was very pleased with myself. It is also a long time since I last made pompoms, and they did turn out a little huge and over-enthusiastic, but I like their exuberance!




and then, while I was uploading my photos, I came across these pictures of Isla playing ('scuse the mess, its always like that here!) and was reminded of a few more little bits of crochet I have done, The bunny is a hand me down from a friend(bought), but I made the little orange doll last christmas, and also made the little blanket some time this year, I don't think I have ever posted them here before. I love seeing her play with them and enjoying them.

vintage swap-sent items

just looking through my photos and realised I never added pics of what I sent to Merle for the vintage swap. so here it is. just because I am nosey and like to see what other people have got in the post, and maybe other people are just as nosey as me??!!



the cup very nearly stayed with us, it is a kind of copper colour print and is so kitsch, love it, queenie dear!

upcycled linen napkin doll

These slender feet belong to a little doll I have just finished for my good friend Julia. She is made from old linen napkins, including a lovely embroidered one for her bodice.




I gave her frilly pantaloons so as not to lose the nice green edging. The buttons are vintage too, in face the only new bit is the silk dupion for her hair. a bargain from a recent shopping trip!



She turned our really elegant, don't you think? I love all her different textures, she was a little hard to wrap up and post, and I had to grit my teeth and say 'no' when the post office man asked me if there was anything of value in the parcel. Glad to bring a smile to a good friend, she arrived safe and will, I'm sure, be loved.

vintage swap goodies

this happened oh so long ago now, but every day I think about posting and it doesn't quite happen. so, gonna do it now, even though my photos are wonky and blurry. had a lovely parcel from Merle with fun and crafty items for my enjoyment!

I am really looking forward to having a go at the garland kit, once I have got on top of some of the current projects; finishing a doll for a good friend, making my son an Ash costume (fantastic mr Fox's son!) and, biggest of all, a 3 way bedroom swap (thats every bedroom) upstairs. I will leave you for now with a still life from my bedroom.

a night in a castle

to make last weeks half term more memorable and holiday-like, I went in search of somewhere fairly nearby where we could stay for a night. It had to be close and reasonably priced - I never thought we would find a castle, but look!


a castle!


slightly scary twins at castle, actually Lucie and her little cousin playmate.


the stairs to our bedroom in the tower, where they locked us up at night (really!). they spiralled steeply round the corner there. The bedroom had bunks and single beds in typical YHA style, but deep deep walls and inset windows.


stocks in the castle grounds, and there was also a jail, which the people who checked in before us had to sleep in. a great adventure that we will all remember for a long time.

collecting in the sun

We have been at it again, collecting conkers, So nice to have enthusiastic children set out with empty bags to see what they can find. And this is a new stomping ground for us, a park in a neighbouring town that has a veritable avenue of horse chestnut trees laden with conkers, brilliant! It also has a few funky tree sculptures, like this one Luce is admiring.




Back indoors, I have wanted to fabric-wrap a traditional lamp shade frame for ages since I saw the idea in Marie Claire Idees. I finally found a suitable lampshade at a local charity shop, and when my favourite green linen trousers became threadbare this month, I decided to chop them up! So here it is, not a very good pic as the sun is making it tricky :)

Micro beer festival

Last weekend my husband had a gig with his ukulele band at a lovely little beer festival. It had a lovely atmosphere and lots of chilled out crafty kids. It was at some artists studios, and we had a lovely day.

Today I ate 1000 cupcakes

(awaiting photos!!)

Well ok, so maybe not 1000, but a good few! This week is National Cupcake Week, so really, it was the least I could do. We have a tradition of Cake Day among some of my friends here, so we had the perfect excuse. It is such a lovely way to catch up with each other, relax and let our children hang out together, and even to get some new garden furniture built. I must take photos of that too, as this is a really random stream-of-consciousness post without pics!

tibetan prayer flags

After seeing this different take on a type of bunting, I knew we had to make some. So, one rainy summer day we set to cutting squares from my extensive scraps collection. the children drew images to do with summer using fabric marker pens on some old calico curtain fabric, then we sewed them together, sometimes with a line of stitching, other times using buttons or beads.
I also made a 'summertime' stamp in three pieces on three tiny erasers and stamped some squares with those.



This is how I would like more of our free time to be spent, all happily crafting away, but so often more time is spent setting up and then tidying up afterwards. The girls especially really liked doing this though and it kept us busy for most of the day! And Lucie revealed herself to be a talented little seamstress, sewing more than her elder brother and sister put together, unfortunately I didn't have the camera out then, and just realised I havent got any pics of the finished flags, now they are all hung up.

summer in a tent

The summer holidays always involve lots of camping trips, long weekends and weeks away, festivals and camps with groups and with friends. We have taken all the children since they were tiny, Lucie was 7 weeks old on her first camping trip. They always seem to sleep better too, all that fresh air and fun!

in no particular order

Fancied a return to blogging. no really. I was never any good at keeping a diary either. And Blogger is as good a place as any, what made me think a different host would make any difference? so i return. so here we are a diary of sorts. to inspire me. day-to-day. and to share. This photo is one of many from our summer holidays - collecting conkers in August. Autumn is here before we blinked in the summer sun it seems.




a few tree moments.

moved out

fancied a bit of a change to revitalise myself a bit so I have moved my blog over to wordpress, I am still gentlytiptoe so please come and see me there!

Button Your Eyes

Tuesdays snowman must have known about this, a new film Coraline that is out this week in the US, not sure when it comes to the UK, soon I hope. After first reading about it at Craftzine blog I have spent the evening watching trailers and playing with the website and looking at the boxes they sent out to 50 different blog sites to promote the film. check it out, it looks really cool. It is stop frame animation, and has lots of crafty things, tiny knitting, sewing, circus mice, cool music including a song by They might be Giants, and of course buttons! you can download the button poster(above) and several others from their site, you can find it in one of the pictures in the sitting room of the house. I am going to frame mine and put it on the wall, its slighty creepy, but I like it.

snow day

Esme's mini snowman.

Please bear with us if you live somewhere snowy, but it doesn't happen much here, today it snowed! We made a big snowman, bigger than the children, and some mini-ones, threw lots of snowballs, and sledged down the main road, as there were no cars and the roads were snowed over. Then back into the house for homemade soup and homemade bread, and to warm up in front of a cosy log fire.

I am regretting throwing out my wellies a few weeks ago, my shoes aren't really up to snow play, being open on top and smooth underneath, which is kind of skiddy when pushing big snowman body parts and at the same time carrying a 9 month old in a sling. all good fun though, now the gloves and hats are drying out, I wonder if there will be any snow left to play in tomorrow?

paper butterflies

I have been enjoying cutting out lots of these little butterflies this past week, an instantly gratifying craft activity.


I have been using the teensiest cuticle scissors, and tracing the butterfly images from a book of insects and flowers. All the butterflies I have cut are native to western Europe. Way too chilly here for butterflies at the moment though, maybe we will have snow this weekend?

Hello again!

I guess I should first wish you a happy new year. It has been a while hasn't it. Sometimes, with 4 kids and all that, stuff gets hectic. Excuses, excuses.

Anyway, I crocheted this little hat just before christmas using a ball of lovely wool that I received in a red and pink swap from Amity a gazzilion years ago (a long time anyway). I got the pattern from this funny book of crazy hats. Strangers stop me on the street to comment on it, I think that means it is cute, thats the reason I'm hoping anyway. I went in the Pound shop this afternoon and the lady on the till said to the other assistant, look, its that baby in her sling with the hat who we saw this morning.

I'm the talk of the Pound shop.