Break time

Today I am hoping to crack on with a lot of half finished jobs that I have lying around in the front room. I have heart bunting, envelopes, stickers and chickens to finish off, photograph and list and I don't think I am going to get them all done today (or even this month!) However, when I have a break today I will be looking at this magazine.

I bought the first issue and wasn't sure so I thought I should buy the second issue just to see if I did like it or not. There certainly seems to be more in it that I like this issue so we will see.

I had a sneaky peek and this image is gorgeous - just imagine how much light would bounce around. It might be just the thing for our dark hallway!

Fun in Skipton

The girls had today off school as it was a teacher inset day so we decided to make the most of pretty much everyone else being back at school and head over to Skipton!

The castle :) The 'long drop' i.e. toilet suspended above the river was a big hit as always with the girls!

Girls with a canon!

And 3 more reasons to visit Skipton - the fab little newsagent that sells a huge range of craft magazines including ones from America! Thanks to Sarah aka Ditsy Bird for pointing the way!

First giveaway for Blogtoberfest

Grab yourself a copy of Marie Claire Idees which is a French publication chock full of gorgeous items :) There are tons of pretty pictures and the need to read French isn't necessary. Want to see some pretty pictures?

To enter the giveaway (and I will post anywhere!) just say something in French to me :) Nice things would be appreciated!

Edited to add that this giveaway will close on Friday 4th November at 12 Midday :)

Enviable envelopes and an adorable Tweed chick

Those two phrases were said about my work in national magazines recently :D :D Chuffed is not the word!

My pincushion Tweed chicken was featured in the August edition of Cross Stitcher magazine and was described as adorable!

And Knit magazine (also the August edition) featured some of my mini envelopes upcycled from a knitting book. And called them enviable to boot :)

Chuffed :)

Speaking of magazines....

I also bought some to keep and not chop up for the pictures :) Some thrifted and some bought at Barnes and Noble.

These are stacked next to my bed waiting to be read :)

Magazine fiend

That's me - a magazine fiend. And I love the thrift stores in the USA as they often have lots of old homes/craft magazines for 25c each. Imagine my delight when I went into one and found a HUGE rack chock full of Martha Stewart Living and Homes and Gardens etc all at 25c each :) As these would have been ridiculously heavy to bring home I flicked through them in the hotel and tore out the pages I wanted to keep for my inspiration book/s. In a different thrift store I spotted a pile of new paper folders and treated myself to a couple so I could keep the aforementioned pages nice and neat.

See? Nice and neat! So I think my plan for today is to add these pages to my ideas/inspiration books. I'll need lots of sellotape!

Why I shouldn't be allowed in WH Smith by myself!

I seem to have bought a few magazines! Private Eye, Handmade Living and Mollie Makes which are both new craft magazines, Simply Homemade and Vintage Life which I haven't seen before and Easy Living which has a free Cath Kidston bag :)

I'm not going to be allowed out myself!

*This post was due to go up on Friday but due to the Blogger outage it has been stored in my draft posts instead. Hopefully it will show up today (Monday) rather than on Friday when it was supposed to show up. I won't know until it is published :)

The Craft Tonic

There is a new online magazine out there called The Craft Tonic and in the first issue they have featured me :)

My recycled London Underground stickers were featured in a great London themed article. Thanks guys!

P.S. The wholesale order is progressing nicely so I should be back to regular blogging again after the weekend!

I love my local Post Office because....

....it sells second hand books which for a book lover such as me is fantastic. It's £1 for a hardback book and 50p for a paperback book. Children's books are 25p-50p. All the money raised goes to Pendleside Hospice.

So this morning I went to post some parcels fully intending to come back with one or two books and I came back with these instead!

A pile of 31 craft magazines! Some are from last year and some are from as far back as 2003 but they are perfect for looking through and sparking ideas. Some of them are card making mags so will be going to Ruth if she fancies them. And how much did these 31 magazines cost me? £1 for the lot :) Steve the post master (is that even a post office title?) spotted me looking and said I could have the whole lot for a quid. Oh ok then!

And of course I didn't leave without some books. I very rarely do!