phew!

Today has been a good day, busy but good. I have had the unknown luxury of a day at home on my own, so I have been armed with a big list trying to get lots of things done. I was scuppered slightly this morning when I ended up spending about two hours painting our front door frame inside and out, but then I could get down to business. I haven't done any sewing at all (yet!) but have been busy taking photos, retouching them, organising myself and generally getting up to date with everything. I haven't quite managed that but it was a tall order and I will have to be happy with getting a long way down my list if not to the bottom (I think it is neverending anyway!) The biggest thing I managed to do was create a new set of cards, I have put these in my etsy shop now, before the original fabric artworks, but I will show you the originals and list them soon. And every time I walk past our dining table I can't help but smile at these flowers, collected for me by Holly, who came home from the allotment clutching them for me last night. What a sweetie : )

totes and shopping

At long last I can reveal one of the two new tote bags I have been working on! Do you remember a little while ago I made one like this for myself as a test? I handstitched it which took a long time, but I was very pleased with the finished tote and it gets used all the time. The two I have since created I have machine sewn to make them a bit more durable and hardwearing but they follow the same style. This is the first one, in soft light blue denim with a fern green cotton lining. It has a felt circle embellishment on each side, one incorporates a complementary fabric and the other has a handpainted leaf motif. Great for holding all your essential everyday items and lots of shopping too. This one will be listed in my etsy shop shortly! Yesterday I had a great day out with my sister and Holly, we went to a wonderful fabric shop in South London and as you can imagine came home with lots of bags! We even drove so that we wouldn’t have to carry everything back on the train! I stocked up on my essential items and got some more fabric for Hollys quilt, and also the wadding for the inside which I was very pleased about. I also got some gorgeous fabric that I am going to attempt to make a skirt out of, scary but exciting! : )

weekend sunshine

hooray for sunshine at the weekend, letting us do lots of gardening and work on the allotment, and we had our first picnic of the year. I hope it stays this way for bank holiday monday tomorrow! : )

I started writing this post yesterday in the half an hour I had between my run (while Holly is dancing) and my body combat class. But I ran out of time to take the photos, and when I got home I was too tired to move! So I didn't make much headway into completing this pile of new notebooks that are hoping to get done, but hopefully I will tonight. And here are a few more of the fabrics I have got for Holly's quilt, I have certainly had fun choosing, and I still have more to show! : )

pink and orange

Hooray! After a very long evening on friday I got Holly’s hairbands done in time and I think they turned out much better than my trial run. She certainly looked very pretty at the party on Saturday night, and danced from about 8-11pm, only stopping for food or a quick cuddle. The party was a surprise for my mother-in-laws 60th, and it was a great evening, she had no idea and was very suitably surprised. Little sewing has happened over the weekend, I’ll be back to it later tonight I hope! So I thought I would show you the beginnings of a new project - after the blanket I made for my new little niece I have been inspired to make a quilt for Holly. I want it to be a mixture of something she will want to keep for a long time but that also gets used and not kept for special occassions. For a few weeks now I have been ordering fabrics, here are some that I already had and some of my new acquisitions. As you can see the colour theme is to be orange, pink and white, I haven’t decided on the final design yet I will do that once I have completed my fabric gathering! : )

hooray for keeping scraps of fabric!

Friday again already, it’s the weekend! I have the second cushion cover to show you, this one is a heathery/aubergine colour. The third one is a lovely leaf green, but I must admit I haven’t started that one yet, I need a moment of calm where I can sit down and choose fabrics. This one is going to be listed in my etsy shop shortly. I had some fun last night making something for Holly, we are all going to a party tomorrow and her hair is getting a little bit too long to look its best (ok, she needs a haircut! I’ve done her fringe but don’t dare tackle the rest) She has decided what dress she would like to wear, so then I suggested that we put her hair up, the outcome is that I need to whip up a pair of hair bands to match this dress! I’ve not made anything like this before but had a vague idea in my head of what they could look like. We don’t have any time to go shopping so we had a look through my fabric stash and found some tshirt material in two shades of pink, and I managed to find an old white tshirt that I could add to it too. This is the prototype I came up with last night, it’s a bit wonky but Holly loved it when she saw it this morning, hooray! So tonight the plan is to make two more, ready for tomorrow. What are your plans for the weekend? : )

Last night I was intending to write a new post as I have loads of new things to share, but I got distracted first by ordering some fabric and then by feeling a little bit under the weather. Both Stuart and Holly have got various coughs and sneezes at the moment, and I ended up spending a restless night with a mean sore throat. But you don’t need your voice to write a blog, so here I am, ready to unveil the first of my new items that have been in progress for what seems to me like a very long time! So here it is, a unique and very comfortable cushion cover, embellished with three soft padded circles that are attached with metal poppers. This means that you can swap around where each one goes, and remove them to wash the cover. The cover itself is from Muji and closes with a zip. I have two more of these to come, one in a green colourway and the third is a sort of heather/aubergine. The blue one is listed in my etsy shop now. And thanks to cocoabeans for choosing one of my soft keyrings for her treasury. And last but not least, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! Love you xxxx : )

it's Friday!!

Hooray it's Friday! We had a short week this week with the bank holiday on Monday, so why did it seem so long? But we are home now, and look at the muffins Holly and I have just made, we are off to a friends for lunch tomorrow and this is our contribution. Minus one, as my chief tester needs to make sure they are ok. apparently. I have also been looking at these roses we have outside, they make me smile, not least because we are rubbish at pruning them and these flowers are at the roof height of our extension! Must remember to prune it this year... And this book is going to be listed in my folksy shop later, after I have had a go on my wii fit, got Holly into bed, had a nice relaxing bath and perhaps poured myself a glass of wine. : )

red, then a bit of pink

Ok, so this little red number is now listed in my etsy shop! And here is a look at what I was up to on Monday, it is almost done and ready to show you but not quite. I have an evening on my own tonight so I am hoping for some sewing time, but I might just fall asleep! I am getting good at multitasking on wednesdays, I take Holly to her dancing lesson, and then have just less than an hour where it isn't quite worth going home or doing much else. Last week I came up with the idea of running, and this is the second week now where I have been for a run under the time limit of Hollys lesson finishing. I did 5.4 miles tonight, which for me is great, what is not so great is collecting your daughter with a bright red face! Oh well! : )

listed

Ok, so this little notebook has now made it into my etsy shop! Have you all had a good bank holiday? (if you are in the UK) The weather today hasn't been great, so this morning we spent getting me some running shoes, then some banister painting, then the beginnings of a new project on my sewing machine. (I know, I already have projects started, but I couldn't help myself!) : )

notebook crazy!

I've been a bit notebook crazy lately, here are just some of them! One of them is the first one using a new style of notebook that comes in different sizes, and the red one is a much thicker Moleskine 'volant' which needed a different approach. None of these are listed yet, but I have taken the photographs so I am a step closer to getting that done. I've also started a new project, this picture shows our spare bed covered in fabric, sketches, and things slowly starting to take shape. It's lucky that noone needs to sleep in this bed at the moment! : )