Sewing & thrifting

I made this quick one hour bag using some Globaltex fabric, above photo is the front and below is the back.

Couldn't resist this bright, simple flower fabric, it was only £3.45 a metre and thought it would make a fun tote. I bought some with a pink background as well, Lily chose it so I'm going to make a duvet cover for her with it, pictures to follow eventually.

Another Globltex fabric was used to make a runner for my kitchen table.

And some really simply quilted coasters, did I mention I was bored on Friday, hence the sewing spurt.

A peg bag to match my carrier bag holder.

I made Lily these two skirts the first one was cut from the hem of a very large, 20p, skirt from a jumble sale.

A skirt for the beach.

I know I shouldn't but she was so cute and only £1.

A pretty rose plate, the rim is really a very bright turqouise that you can't see in this photo.

Some more brooches and pins.

Two Royal Albert moonlight rose mugs.

Another picture, yet more frame painting to do!

I went to a 30p book sale on Saturday and got these, first some gardening books.

I bought this one for the illustrations, so sweet.

Fab Twinkle annuals.

Fairy tales to add to my collection that I started after doing a storytelling course.

and more children's books.

I spotted this one just up the road from my house isn't she so cute?

I bought this to keep the flies away when we have barbecues but it didn't get used this weekend.

Didn't dry my washing either!

Busy,busy catch up!

I thought it was about time I did another post. As usual it's been very busy here absolutely gorgeous weather although I do wish we could have some rain, just a little for my wilting veg.

So this is what we have been up to, last year I bought Lily Emma Thompson's book Lili's wish and inside there was a pattern for a rag doll. Well I finally got round to making her.

Then I made a new carrier bag holder as my old one was yuck!

I've partaken in some siiting in the garden, finished my hexagon blanket and started another.

And mainly I've been gardening, gardening and more gardening!

This morning I've cut all my hedges, by hand and it's so hot out there but no thunderstorms here. We've also been walking the dog, who is fine now, these are the fields near my house.

admiring the magestic foxgloves and looking for fairies.

A couple of purchases were made from Amazon. I'm loving the Abel and Cole book some fab recipes in there, haven't had chance to look at Sophie Dahl's yet.

I've probably also been spending too much time on Facebook and Twitter looking at everybodys updates thus neglecting my blog.

And I've been given these awards from Little Gem and Marble Rose, who incidently makes the cutest pencil cases I've ever seen so pop over and have a look. Thankyou both, your blogs make me smile too.

Another thing that made me smile was the label on the RockNRolla DVD I bought last week, must be something to do with health and safety or a new diet lol.

Such sad news last night, RIP Michael Jackson, he was a music genius! I remember being so excited staying up late for the showing of the Thriller video.

Happy Birthday Lily

Lily's third birthday in pictures as I've not been well for the past few days and am too exhausted to type :)

F.R.I.E.N.D.S. & other random bits.

I was delighted to receive my friends swap from Bekimarie on Friday. Beki organised the swap and the idea was to send an item beginning with each of the letters in the word friends. All of the items were initialed.

I had F- a very pretty decorated frame, R - lovely pink rose tealight holder, I - a gorgeous decorated inspiration box full of lots of inspirational goodies, E - really cute vintage egg cup.

N - a handmade notebook - too cute to use, D - a beautiful pink mug with roses on for drink

and finally S for soaps. As you can see Beki really spoilt me and I love all of it. Lily is still munching her way through the sweets, which her beady eyes found as soon as I opened the parcel!

Thankyou Bekimarie for the parcel and for organising the swap, it was such a fun swap to do.

***********************

I also received another lovely swap from Fabrose over at the SCC. This was a Spring/ Easter swap, which was slightly delayed as Fabrose was moving house. I had some lovely cards, embellishments, stickers and mini eggs, two pretty spool birds, which are now hanging off the leaves of my kitchen light fitting.

And these gorgeous handmade yoyo napkin holders with napkins.

Thankyou Rose for all my lovely goodies.

**********************

And these are the swap things that I've made/sent out first the FRIENDS swap to Bekimarie.

F- felt embroidered heart with friends on it, R - crochet rose brooch, I - Amigurumi icecream, E- embellishments, N- felt needlecase, D - die cuts, S - scrapbook papers.

And these went to Mary Poppins at the SCC for the May's kitchen swap, spotty espresso cups, Amigurumi cupcake, Eggs sign, teabag holder and an embroidered home sweet home felt heart.

*******************

I sent off for one of Snapdragon's toadstool badges and in return I had to take a photo of it which, may be used for a catalogue montage. It's a gorgeous badge, so cute as are these hand knitted socks. I wish I could say I knitted them but they were made by one of Jodie's friends Grandmother, very clever lady.

Some things I'm loving right now- bargain goodies from the garden centre.

Sweet Williams from my garden and my stripy crochet jar cover. (photo at top of post)

And finally being able to take a picture of a blue tit on the fat ball, albeit from a distance!

Now I ought to go and update the other blog. Have a great weekend.

Yay new camera!

In my last post I mentioned that my camera was broken well now I have a new one. It's my birthday tomorrow so I had the camera for that, only I managed to get it a week early :) I'm amazed what good cameras you can get now for very little money and have spent the week trying to work out all the things that it can do.

I took some photos to add to Kitschen Pink's utility china group on Flickr, there's a link in my sidebar. Then some of the beautiful cars at Launceston steam rally,

all was fine until we went to Looe on Saturday. The view was stunning, brilliant blue sky and sea, sailing boats on the horizon. I took loads of photos, of which the one below was probably the best! The rest were white, of course it helps if you read the instructions thoroughly, which I did before going to Harlyn Bay on Sunday.

All I needed to do was press a button for taking photos in the snow or on the beach, phew!

I managed to acquire some photos of Jodie's prom this is the outfit she wore, the third outfit bought btw.

She was aiming for a vintage look and it worked.

Her GCSE's started today with Maths, it's not her favourite subject so hopefully it went well, English tomorrow so that she be a doddle for her. My eldest Jemma takes her first Chartered Accountants exam today too, good luck both of you.

*************

As I said on my last post my wonderful freestyle swap arrived form Lyn - everydaylife. I had a beautiful handmade bird, some lovely china napkin rings with gingham napkins, sunflower seeds, a ladybird plant stick and some really sweet 1/12th scale jars and a really pretty card. Thankyou Lyn for a lovely swap.

Here's my hexagon blanket that I been crocheting together, still not finished but the end is in sight, I blame the sunshine.

I've also had a bit of button love this week I picked up a tin full at a car boot then

Bloomin Myrtle kindly did a RAK on the SCC and very genorously sent me this lot in a cute little bag, thankyou Elaine.

I heard about about Abakhan fabrics from the lovely lady above so obviously I had to take a peak and ended up buying these brilliant bundles of binding at 49p a pack, there are 3 packs in the picture, metres and metres of the stuff!

While I was there I also bought a couple of yummy Globaltex fabrics and a rosebud fabric.

And I added some more fabric to my stash at the car boot.

This little lady (which we thought was a boy, for the last 20+ years) has just laid 3 eggs this morning! Unfortunately no males were present nor have been for 20+ years, apparently after mating it can take up to 3 years.

Well that's enough of my rambling, the sunshine is waiting outside!

A stressful week

I've had a really bad week, lots of stress and insomnia. The main cause of this has been Bebo + one of my children. Of course when something has stressed you big time everything else just becomes too much. Just to make me feel better my camera decided to break, this could have been due to the fact that my bag, with camera in, fell off the kitchen table onto the slate floor! I've tried banging it a bit but it's still won't work, why do these things always happen at the wrong time! Today is Jodie's last day of school and the leavers prom is tonight, so there's been lots of excitement happening here. We are going to her friends house first where 28 of her friends + their parents are meeting for champagne and canapes before the kids leave in a limosine and a party bus to the prom venue. I'll be there with my disposable camera taking photos ....... how classy will that look, lol! After the prom they are going to another friend's house to party the night away in a marquee in their garden. Then the revision will start in earnest for GCSE's in a couple weeks time, more stress!!

*****************

Now for the good bits, firstly my dog is absolutely fine you wouldn't know that she'd had an operation, mind you if she tramples over all my potato plants again she may need another op! Also my wonderful freestyle swap parcel arrived from Lyn, sadly I couldn't take photos but will as soon as I get a new camera. I do however have photos of what I sent to Lyn.

I sent a fabric bucket, a crochet flower brooch, an owl bookmark, felt needlecase, a lavender filled bird, a chicken teabag holder and some chocolate.

I've also made 2 pairs of 3/4 length trousers and 2 skirts for Lily, here's the fabric cutout, pre camera breakage, photos to follow!

And I've started crocheting my hexagons together, at last. Because I hadn't crocheted them together on the last round, I'm doing it now with a lilac colour, in dc so it will have a ridge effect.

I managed to buy these a couple a weeks ago about 2m of new fabric only £2 in the CS

And these gorgeous barkcloth curtains for 25p at a jumble sale, not sure what I'm going to do with them yet though.

Now if I had my camera I would show a picture of what I did yesterday. My sewing machine has been sluggish lately and the tension had gone to pot, so I changed the needle and thought I'd clean it at the same time. Now if you're like me and forget to do these things I suggest you go and do it soon. This machine is only a year old and is kept under cover but the amount of dust and fluff inside was attrocious, works like a dream now :)

Have a great 'long' weekend, the sun is shining here so that may help to lift my spirits.

Poorly dog!

As I write this my poor little dog is undergoing an operation.

We took her to the vets last night as she had a lump that had suddenly got quite big.

It turned out that the lump was a cancerous growth on the mammary gland and it had become infected hence the sudden increase in size.

On further inspection the vet found another small lump behind the large one. So she stayed at the vets last night and will be operated on around about now.

They are going to remove the large lump, put her on a course of antibiotics and then remove the smaller one at a later date. They also said that it may be an idea to get her spade as well to stop any recurring growths. But we'll see what happens as she's 12 years old now, I don't know yet how beneficial it would be to her. I have a friend who's a vet so will have to see what she recomends when I see her next week. In the meantime we just have to wait and hope that she comes out of the operation ok, we'll know at 2PM.

You may wonder why I have littered this post with various doggy pics rather than photos of the real thing. Well there is a photo of her on my sidebar, not a great one as she doesn't like to have her photo taken so she tends to hide her head when she spots a camera, bit like her owner :)

Edited to add she is now home minus 1 yucky growth! Looking well but feeling a bit sorry for herself, which is exactly how my wallet feels as it's £201 lighter! She has painkillers and antibiotics to take then has to go back in 10 days to remove the stitches and to check on the smaller lump. Thankyou for all your thoughts.