phew!

Todays new piece was inspired by Claire , who asked me to make her a custom keyring in these colours a few weeks ago. I liked the combination so much I had to make something else, and these are the result. My new items have been coming on well over the weekend, a bit more work and then I will be able to reveal them. I have heard from fantazya and my diary page has arrived now, phew! That was cutting it a bit fine! I hope everyone had a good weekend? I had another migraine on saturday which started at ten to nine in the morning, how mean is that? Then I managed to mostly get the better of it and have fun at Holly's school fair. : )

better late than never

Ok so it wasn't late, but I certainly almost left it to the last minute to finish my page for fantazya's 2009 diary! I have now sent it off and am looking forward to seeing the finished diary. There are some wonderful artists taking part. Take a look here if you haven't heard about this project. ***UPDATE 30 JUNE, 7am: I am now panicking slightly, as after three days I have had a message back saying my email couldn't be delivered to the diary email address!! So if you are reading this Fantazya, I have sent it again, and also added it to the flickr group of the project in the hope that you will then know that I have been trying to get it to you. I'm hoping it is just because you have had so many emails, I've got my fingers crossed that one of the emails I have sent you this morning will get through.*** And thanks also to the lovely waterrose for awarding me the 'Arte y Pico' award! What a wonderful surprise. As I have recieved this award a while ago I'm not going to choose five people again, why not check out the other blogs that waterrose has chosen? Her blog is always interesting and her handmade items beautiful. : )

new

This week is going by in a flash! I have had some wonderful fabric delivered as you can see in the top photo, I love the bird one so much I have ordered more from the same range and can't wait for it to arrive. And the Amy Butler full moon is one of my favourites that I couldn't resist getting more of as the colours are just perfect. And the second picture is of my latest work in progress, it came to me in a flash of inspiration on tuesday evening and I managed to get his far with it last night. My aim for tonight is to finish it ready to post tomorrow, but I might get distracted by the huge (no exaggeration) pile of branches in my garden that need chopping up. (We cut about 1.5 metres off the top of an extremely tall 60 foot long hedge at the weekend, and I need to get it all out of the garden before it kills my grass!) We have also been eating lots of strawberries this week as Stuart picked 4.5 pounds on monday, and last night we ate the first baby carrots, delicious! : )

twirls

Late last night I finished Holly's skirt! I am so pleased with how it has turned out, and Holly is wearing it as I write this. Hopefully it is just the right combination of looking good and lasting too, I have tried to make it as washing machine friendly as possible. This last picture shows the strip of patchwork that I put together before attaching it to the skirt, I had great fun choosing which fabrics to use. : )

gift guide!

Thanks today to my sister for letting me know that one of my 'homes for pins' is in the gifts for crafters gift guide! A nice way to start the weekend. : )

getting there

Here is my latest little box, it will appear in my etsy shop later! And this pile of pieces are for Holly's skirt, the skirt itself is all finished (and it fits!) so now I'm on to the fun part. I wanted to add some decoration to it but also not make it into something that doesn't get worn for fear of ruining it. Hopefully soon I will be able to show you what I came up with. : )

something different

This week I have tried something different, I have created my first ever mood board for a room! I had such fun. The above is my entry into decor8's Amy Butler mood board competition which is running at the moment, take a look here to see all the other entries so far. If any of you are budding interior designers you might like to have a go too! The only trouble is that now I wish my bedroom looked like this... : )

richmond park

I thought I would share some photos of our walk last weekend around the Isabella Plantation, which is in Richmond Park on the edge of London. I had never been before and it is an amazing garden of windy paths and open spaces. I think you could walk for hours and never go down the same path! We played hide and seek... saw gorgeous leaves and flowers... ... and this glade full of beautiful foxgloves looked just like somewhere that fairies would live! We will definately be going again, we still have lots more paths to discover : )

boxes

I have been busy with boxes this weekend as I only had one left in my etsy shop, this one will be listed later and I have a couple more waiting in the wings for later this week. I think this rose coloured one might be one of my favourites, I'm not much of a pink person but this dusky colour has grown on me! : )

its friday!

Here is a look at my newest project, following on from my sets of christmas decorations this set is made to hang anywhere in your home that needs a bit of brightening up, such as doors and cupboards or even pinboards. I am hoping to list them later, but my friend and I are planning on going to the cinema tonight after our postponed trip last week, so if not tonight then tomorrow! And look how Hollys skirt is coming along, I didn't get my sewing machine out in the end, I have done it by hand, and I am very pleased with how the gathered waistband turned out. It just needs the elastic putting in, then we can work out what length we want it. Have a great weekend everyone : )

I couldn't wait!

I came home to find this little parcel poking out of the letterbox, and as you can see I didn't hang around in opening it! Inside was this gorgeous fabric from alittlegoodness all the way from Japan. I can't decide which one I like best! And a big thanks to pippindesigns for including one of my fabric artwork pieces in their treasury : )

patterns and colour

spinach and sorrel (and a rogue lettuce) strawberries onions, red onions and garlic (had to leave the poppies in, they are gorgeous!) tomatoes, cucumber, melon, chilli peppers peas, courgettes and potatoes Now you know how much I love leaves, and I have this source of inspiration right under my nose! I need to take the time to look at things more often I think, there might be some new pattern ideas lurking among these shapes and colours! : )

lost things

I didn't manage to cut a new 'home for pins' last night, as I spent all of it hunting for my summer clothes. I found some instantly, and all of Hollys, but there were three dresses that I simply could not find. I spent three hours between our bedroom and the loft and could not find them. And there are only so many places to look! I am quite organised and clothes are only really in one of three places, so I was very frustrated and gave up and went to bed not happy! Then I woke up this morning thinking 'I wonder', went back in the loft and found them in two seconds flat. AAAHHH. They were in a bag I had dismissed as full of Hollys bedding. At least I found them I suppose! Today I thought I would show you some snaps of our allotment, Stuart does most of the hard work and we have lots growing at the moment. The polytunnel is new this year after we lost all our tomatoes last year, we spent a 'fun' sunday in the rain putting that up. The first two shots are taken standing in the middle of the allotment on the edge, one picture looking each way. It is quite a big plot! And the last one is of our shallots coming along. This is our third year with the allotment and the best thing is going up there with Holly and picking what is ready, this week we will be eating lots of spinach and sorrel! I'll show you some other things we have growing tomorrow. : )

the other side of the world

My dear Annie has featured her new 'home for pins' on her blog today, here , thank you so much Annie! It's funny to think that it is now so far away around the other side of the world, and it's really nice to see it in use. I hope you find it useful for a long time to come! I have posted another one off to France today, and the pictures above are of a new one which I have just listed. We have had fantastic weather over the weekend and I've taken lots of pictures to share over the next few days, until then I am off to cut out a new 'home for pins' : )

I'm back

Hi all ,thanks for your kind comments, I am nearly myself again. I was better yesterday but had a heavy day at work involving lots of staring at the computer screen (devising a cutting form for a folder I had to send off to print) which meant I wasn't fit for much by the evening. I was disappointed as I was supposed to be going out with a friend to see the Sex and the City film, but we have postponed our outing hopefully only for a few days. This picture of not much will hopefully miraculously turn itself into a skirt for Holly, I found instructions here for how to make a skirt without a pattern, and it seemed worth a try. You can see how far I've got so far! I need to get my sewing machine out for the next part. I hope you are enjoying the weekend, the three of us are off out for dinner soon : )

migraine

I now have my comeupance for being a worrier, after a week of lots of worrying I came home from work today only to get a migraine. I don't get them very often but it isn't nice. So I think all my plans for this evening are out the window, I might get the ironing done later but I don't think I will try using my sewing machine which is what I was looking forward to doing. Oh well. Sorry I won't be reading any blogs tonight, hopefully I will be back to normal tomorrow. I will just show you my latest purchase, from Lara Cameron in Australia, (will add the link tomorrow). All her fabric is absolutley gorgeous and in the end I couldn't resist one of her fabric packs. : )

custom keyring

Now that I know that she has recieved it, I can show you the custom keyring I made for Claire last week. It was fun making something with someone else's colour choices, it was a good challenge and it was refreshing to look at things from a new direction. My new work in progress uses slightly different colours to my usual favourites, I'll keep you posted. : )

pink and purple

Here eventually is the result from the second sneaky peek photo I posted a couple of weeks ago. Its been finished for a while and seems to have taken up temporary residence on this cupboard! It is double sided so could also hang somewhere where it could spin in the breeze. The weather today has been dreadful, I got really soaked cycling to work, and my waterproof trousers turned out to not be very waterproof. I looked a bit like a drowned rat, but never mind. And then it turns out that Stuart drove instead of cycling, lucky him! I have plans for a new piece of fabric this evening, my scissors can't wait to get snipping! : )

weekend cooking

Holly and I had a bit of a girls day on Saturday, as Stuart was working and then going straight to a leaving party. So we spent the day doing a mix of useful things (weeding and tidying the garden, cooking the dinner) and fun things (eating ice cream, playing). Holly had great fun making chicken goujons, she loved dipping them in the flour, egg and breadcrumbs, and we got very sticky fingers! We also rescued these beautiful buttercups and forget-me-nots from the pile of weeds, we thought they were too pretty to throw away. After she was in bed I watched a film I had rented, called 'p.s. I love you', it was really good but a real weepy to watch on your own! Today has been a hectic day at work, I hope I get some sewing time later on : )