for me.....

When my lovely friend and blogshop owner announced that she had made some wrist cuffs, I emailed her 3 times to say I needed one!!
Not just any one...this one....
I did wonder if I was not a little too old for a cuff, but then decided swiftly that of course I wasn't!!! I just love the colours Beki is using at the minute, and cuffs are so easy to wear, she has others listed in her blogshop or in her Folksy shop, aswell as other lovely items made in the same gorgeous neutral shades.
I've been very lucky in the giveaway department lately...today I received a really cute badge from kittyeden,

I was her 175th follower on facebook and won a prize!! The kittyeden website can be found here, where there are more lovely items just like mine...

Tomorrow I'll be letting you all know what I've been up to for the past month or so......

the end of the month

Thank You to everyone who has offered to help me in my quest to find the little boys Christmas pressie... I am still a hunting and hopeful ebay will come up with the goods before long!!

I really haven't had the greatest of weeks, lack of sleep and discovering the baby has more food allergies than we first thought means I'm feeling really sorry for myself....so I'm sulking and eating too much, not the best idea when I want to lose a stone before my 'honeymoon' in NY in just a few weeks...about 6 I think?? (I've been preoccupied with Christmas forgetting our trip comes first).

Anyway I won't focus on the crap.....I have a few pics of what I have been up to......

tidying the workroom.....the shelves and drawers anyway, the fabric cupboard will have to wait.....

machine sewing the advent calendar...not quite there but it will be done before Christmas I have shocked myself!!!

Making and gathering some pretties for a charity auction for KIN over at SCC.

Winning a charity auction for KIN (lovingly put together by Mary Poppins) - oh what a delight this parcel was this morning..I wish you could smell it :) Mary's lavender smells more lavendery than mine!!!

Lovely fabrics for me to make lovelies with - my fave Cowboys (Mary also gave me some cowboy ribbon - will be treasured x) and my new fave green paisley.

lovely vintage postcards....need a changearound on my holders I think....

Thank You for a gorgeous and generous lot of pretties. xx

A bit of retail therapy, new boots, a new dress, a couple of cardies (although its been really hot here and so my new autumn winter wardrobe hasn't had much of an outing yet!!).

And this

lovely beach hut - lovingly and expertly made by elaine...who can be found here.....very fitting for my seaside home :)

I have done another swap....Lesley sent me some fab crocheted flowers that I wanted for a project...and I can not crochet :( - lucky for me Lesley can....she has blogged here about the swap.

(I also got a fab crochet brooch that I photographed then deleted somehow....)

I have received the latest Cath catalogue...yes another!!...and have started making my Christmas list lol!!!

love this jumper and as my hair is the same colour I know it will suit me lol!! The £75 price tag exceeds my what I will pay for a jumper limit though!!!!

still love this dress carrier -

and really love the london charm bracelet...I love the cowboy one too......

Also I was thrilled to hear that the new Sew! book will be out at the beginning of October rather than the end...mine has been on pre order and Amazon tell me it is due to despatch on the 2nd...however I have heard that someone (you know who you are....) has got hers today...here's hoping mine comes tomorrow!!!

Back soon with a WIP and to do list...have decided its the only way i'll get anything finished!!!

X

Emily Pickle

I found this lovely blog whilst blog hopping at the weekend.

Aswell as her lovely blog, Kate makes lovely things and I happened to notice she is having a summer sale in her folksy shop.

You know how one thing leads to another.....and today this was delivered...

how special did this make me feel!!!!

wrapped so beautifully..

oh what did I get??

3 gorgeous fat quarters in shades of blue

There are still some lovelies left....hurry over just a few more days :)

SC do London - pretties!

Aswell as the fabric and haberdashery (I love that word!!), I managed to purchase a couple of other bits.
In a gorgeous (if not overwhelmingly pretty!) shop that Lacey introduced us to.
I found these hooks
A tin bird to hang up...somewhere!And, ever the romantic, I bought my new husband a little pressy ...Now who says romance is dead!! It was a very thoughtful present as he has been annoyed to death about the fact that, since decorating, we haven't managed to find a loo roll holder we like/agree on - so here we are! Posh flowery loo paper courtesy of Heather!!
In 'All the Fun of the Fair' I got these fab knitted biccies. They are sitting on my windowsill in this pretty pink bowl. Well they are supposed to.....the small boys love them and I find them in the playroom a lot :)
The window of that shop was fab. I can knit...but I'm not a knitter, I know practice makes perfect but with 4 boys time is limited and I sew every spare moment I get (of which there are few !) - maybe one day. And perhaps I will even get past making a chain with the crochet!!! Then I will go back and buy wool to knit instead of knitted stuff!!Emma Bridgewater was next...now I love her designs but I really don't think I could ever justify paying her prices for a mug. But she has some gorgeous melamine items. Plates and Bowls in vivid colours, with matching beakers. And beakers with the same design as her china.

I got these for the boys. The men at work matches C's lunch box and money box - so he was happy! And the big boys share my union jack love so more happy customers! The baby couldn't give 3 hoots but he got one anyway!!
In Cath's place - I showed great restraint! Obviously I got the fabric (some of it essential) and I got a Stanley bag - I have the cowboy one of these and the baby takes it to the childminder. And a change is as good as a rest!!I had promised myself the thread tin to match the pin tin. I haven't use the thread yet so have no idea if its any good or if its as crap as the pins are (blunt)!!!And these boxes were on sale so I bought a few to keep sewing room stuff tidy.Thats it now for day out posting! Apart from the inspiration!! I really did have the most fantastic day, and can't wait for the next one :)

SC do London - haberdashery!

Here's the first part of my shopping from the SC day trip!
I had no real shopping list. I had been saving up my pennies just to buy things I didn't need. My favourite type of purchase!!
Except these...
This was on the list - I needed oilcloth to cover the table I use in my workroom. And as I was in CK, it would have been rude not too!!
And the little boys need a blind in their room- so with a little help from my friends I chose this.....
and may I say how nice it was to shop with people who offer more than a 'buy it if you want it' or a 'yeah its alright'!!!
These are CK dusters which will be turned into a cushion at some point - not the most exciting purchase!Liberty was a real treat, I think it had been 15 years since my last visit. I managed to (finally) choose some prettiness....just a small amount of each....At the moment we are still at the stroking stage. Is it wrong to like fabric so much. I'm an amateur in the fabric stash stakes but I'm enjoying working towards professional status!! Just have to make the odd thing now and then so that the husband thinks it is all Really Useful and Essential!!

In Macculloch and Wallis I got some fab bias binding. And ricrac.
I've used the sexy red gingham binding today making this......And last but by no means least buttons -
cute transport ones....
fab London ones...
and cute gingham pastel coloured ones from Liberty.
Totally random unnecessary purchases - fab! There are more non-haberdasery pretties to come later!

Some of you have said how you can't read my posts when they show on your blog....could be my playing with the post dating thingy - its not working properly!!

shabby chic'ers do London - a day in pictures!

Saturday saw me getting up at 5 am to catch the train to London to meet up with some friends. Friends who, until yesterday I had not met in real life.
6of us from here met up in Covent Garden to begin our tour of fabulous shops! We shopped til we dropped -well until our trains called us home - but it was a long, but very fun, day.
Cath KidstonI only managed to get 1 shot inside....just before someone got told off for taking pics!!! (MM is very brave so in our 2nd CK shop of the day a few more snaps were took)
After a short chatty walk via The Bead Shop and a vintage magazine store.....kicking ourselves that the Jackie mags of our youth weren't saved, we ended up here..All the Fun of the Fair
(I bought something knitted in here- decided that my 'i could make that' thoughts needed to get real!)
We made time for this at lunchtime.......

LibertyLove these cushions....

MacCulloch and Wallis
(Gok shops here - I didn't get interior pics as I was too busy fondling the haberdashery!!)V V Rouleaux
Emma Bridgewater
We really did have a great day - there was perhaps about 5 minutes of shyness when we first met, but I suspect that anyone would have thought we had been shopping together forever. Thanks girls for a fab day xx
We all got tons of inspiration from the places we visited and each other, I can't wait to get some of the projects from my head into reality!
We shopped til we dropped...In case anybody's interested I'll post some pics of my haul later?