A scorcher!

We are in the middle of a heatwave here in London, it is lovely to be seeing so much of the sun and I only wish I wasn’t indoors at work for most of the day.

This new notebook has now been listed, I’m quite excited about this little experiment and love how the denim texture fits with the print of my artwork. Other new items are still stuck inside my head trying to get out, but I’m fending them off at the moment as I’m continuing to sew the top of Holly’s quilt. So far she loves it, and has helped me by following the pattern and finding the next pieces for me to sew.

: )

new

It's 8pm here and still blisteringly hot, we have had a great weekend of weather. This is partly why I haven't managed to post until now, we have been out enjoying the sunshine. Holly and I mixed walking (and scooting) along the river Thames with a spot of shopping and a picnic lunch yesterday, oh and of course an ice-cream came into the equation too! Poor Stuart was working so missed out, but we have made up for that today and spent lots of time in the garden. Holly had fun bathing her polly pocket dolls in a lasagne dish, while I tackled the hedges and flowerbeds. We ended the day with a dinner that included fresh lettuce and the first peas from the allotment. And now Holly is in bed, and I have managed to list these two new notebooks, not before time as my shop quantity had diminished to a single lonely one. I hope you have all had a great weekend too : )

together - blue

This is the second original from my new 'together' series, which at long last I have managed to list in my etsy shop, here. It is supplied unframed to help keep postage down but these pictures show you what it could look like framed. Only one more original to list, hopefully in the next few days.

The week is running away with me somewhat, wednesday already and my to-do list hasn't shrunk at all. I keep getting distracted by Holly's quilt, I am really enjoying sewing the squares together and seeing my design gradually coming to life. This is as far as I've got, ignore the stitches holding the papers in place! : )

sleepy

We are all shattered today after the weekend, which was lovely and restful in the middle but quite the opposite both in the run-up to going and then the coming back. I had a great time shopping, cooking, lounging, playing with my nieces, nephews and daughter, and it was good just knowing that I was away from all the jobs that you feel you need to do if you are at home. But I have missed my sewing and I have in my head the ideal evening consisting of a long relaxing bath and then sewing. I’ll have to wait and see if it happens or not.

I have a big to-do list for this week and lots of items waiting to be listed, watch this space! And I have finished making my skirt which got worn for the first time yesterday, I will post some photos as soon as I manage to take some. This picture is of my tester transfer sheet on white denim, I have a few more ideas for these which are one of the things on my list. : )

I have been having fun experimenting this week and this is where it took me last night, a brand new style of notebook with one of my fabric artwork designs printed onto denim and then sewn onto the cover. I have left the edges of the denim raw on purpose so that over time it gets a softer/used feel to it. This is the first and only one at the moment, after the weekend I will hopefully be able to get a few more in the pipeline and listed in my shops. In the post yesterday arrived this gorgeous purse that I bought from here. The wonderful Emma has made them to raise money for Cancer research, if you would like to own one yourself or read more then please click here. I hope you get to your target Emma! X I am looking forward to a restful weekend, partly being spent at my mother-in-laws with my sisters-in-law and the kids, while our other halves go camping and watch the british grand prix. I hope that we all have good weather!

*** I will be away on Saturday 20th June. Orders placed will not be help up, they will be acknowledged on Sunday and posted on Monday.*** : )

156

156 – the number of squares I have cut and now finished sewing onto their paper backing papers! I am now ready to start the fun part of sewing them all together, I’m very glad I have my plan to follow that I showed you recently, here . It did change a tiny bit from the one I posted, as the more I looked at it the more I spotted squares that were too close together so it got juggled a little bit. I can’t wait to get started. And do you remember way back when I posted a picture of a cheeky fox lounging on our neighbours shed roof? (See here) Well yesterday when we got home look what we saw! Not just one cheeky fox but two cute cubs as well. The pictures aren’t great as I was indoors and didn’t want to scare them, but you get the idea. They were there for quite a while, the two little ones jumping and rolling and chasing each other. : )

weekend round up

This weekend has one by in a flash, here are some of the things we have been up to: - a breakfast of scrambled egg and plum tomatoes in the cafe with friends while holly was at dancing class - some shopping time for me which resulted in a new bikini - a trip to the post office to post these - lots of weeding and grass cutting - dinner with friends - lots of boring chores you can't get out of - a picnic in the park - a four mile run - I made a mouse out of a radish (I don't know why, it just looked cute) - and I managed to photograph my newest notebooks which are in the top photo, none of which are listed yet. What did you get up to? : )

new

I've had quite a day at work today which has left me a bit frazzled, so just a short post to show you the other tote bag I made a short while ago but hadn't yet managed to list. It is the pink one above, the green one is already in my etsy shop and the purple one is for me. I will take requests for colours though so a purple one could still be yours if you wanted! I'm off to bath Holly now after her swimming class, then after all the usual jobs I really need to be sewing in time to watch Celebrity Masterchef. I need to get my skates on! : )

together - black

Another week has started already, with a big long list of things to do, tonight I am only going to do the fun ones! We had a great weekend with mum and dad, visiting family, going for a walk in the park (or scooting if you are Holly) and not seeing much of Stuart who spent almost the whole weekend putting up our new polytunnel on the allotment with our friend. They were there from 8.30am until 10.30pm on Saturday (yes it was dark by then!) and then most of yesterday too. But it is done now, hooray! All we need to do now is plant all the little seedlings that are taking over our dining room. These radishes were picked yesterday, and we had our first strawberries too, but we have eaten them all already so no picture! I have also managed finally to list the first of the three originals from my new ‘together’ series of fabric artwork, in my etsy shop. : )

woohoo!

It’s the weekend! Just a quick visit tonight as I have been busy shopping and am still in the middle of cleaning for my mum and dads visit, and am now very ready for a sit down. I really want to finish cutting the pieces for Holly’s quilt this evening so I can get going with the sewing - here is the design I have come up with so far, what do you think? These are the actual fabrics I am using but the scale of some of the patterns may not be right, I just wanted to make sure I didn't end up with two squares of the same fabric too close to each other. And it's fun to get a glimpse of what I had in my head might actually look like! : )

hampton court

A quiet(ish) post today as I have no energy left after going for a run and I'm off to body combat in a few minutes. Holly and I went to Hampton Court on Monday... We walked up the tow path along the Thames, Smelled the beautiful roses in the rose garden, Got lost in the maze, And of course had a picnic! And this is the fabric I am attempting to make a skirt for me out of : )

thank you!

A big thank you today to Earmark for nominating picciolo for an honest scrap award! Ok so I have to list 10 honest things about myself: 1. I am lefthanded but can also write with my right hand 2. I love nothing more than a long bath with a good book 3. I'm not the best at getting up in the morning but it helps a lot being woken with a kiss from my daughter. 4. I have just bought the best pair of silver shoes! 5. I really need to get the brakes mended on my bike 6. I am a sucker for melted cheese and caramel, although not together! 7. I wish there were more hours in the day at least twice a day 8. I am planning on making myself a really simple skirt but can't bring myself to cut the fabric 9. I suffer from dreadful hayfever 10. My mum and dad are visiting at the weekend, hooray! And I also recieved this one lovely blog award from addictive creative , thank you so much! Now I am supposed to choose 15 blogs to pass this onto and 7 for the honest scrap award, I am going to cheat slightly (sorry) and choose five blogs that deserve both, as all the blogs in my favourites I would give every award too. So I'm going to choose: contented iheartcrafts vintagetown redotter bagladee