New Ventures and Revamps

Well ladies sorry I've been AWOL, but I have been working through my list of things to do.

Besides the things I planned there have been unplanned things too like a broken oven and dishwasher on the same day! And an impromptu trip into work!!

Anyhoo, I have been able to tick some stuff off my list, I did finish my coffee table re-vamp,

Before, nasty orange pine:

and after, shabby cream legs with natural waxed top.

Poor hubby stood looking horrified after I spent 5 hours sanding and waxing and painting to get the sander out again and take bits back off!

I am really pleased with it and it's bigger than my last coffee table which gives me loads of room to spread my crafting crap out all over it!  I did toy with the idea of Farrow & Ball Dimity, but all my other woodwork is Crown Period Eggshell Parsonage Cream, so I went with that.

I also wanted to try making wax melts.  Lovely Laalaa put me onto the idea and I love them, they smell divine, this little pile are lemon meringue pie!

Another thing I managed to tick off my list was to open my Folksy shop.  That was a greater task than I had anticipated.  Digging through my stash, photos, descriptions etc. it took many, many hours but I have listed a lot of my stuff.  I was amazed at what I found.  As I have made things through the year I have boxed them away for gifts and such and found that there was still a plethora of things I have made, hence Folksy.  I still have lots more to add and will continue to fill it up.

Pop over and let me know what you think.

 Anyhoo I must dash and dust off my best hat for the wedding tomorrow!  

I wonder what her frock will be like?

~ ♥ TTFN ♥ ~

~ ♥Blogiversary Giveaway Winner ♥ ~

Thanks again everyone for joining in my little giveaway.  I scribbled your names all down and added to you to my little pink bowl.

My beautiful assistant Thomas picked out 

~ drum roll please.....

THE PATCHWORK HEART

Please email me your address and I will send some goodies your way!

Thanks for entering everyone x

Are you enjoying this Easter Break?  I did the 'buy 3 get 11 days off work lark', and I'm so glad I did.  

Trouble is there is so many things I want to do when I'm off that I will be going back to work for a rest.  A few of the things I'm planning craft wise are:

Open my Folksy Shop

Tidy and plant stuff in my garden

Make Two Roman blinds for my kitchen

Revamp my Charity Shop Coffee Table

Make some more cushions

These are besides the usual family things and general life, I thought if I write them down here I will be encouraged to crack on.

Yesterday I made a start on the table;

and the plants;

the rest will happen I'm sure :)

Happy Easter lovely people hope you have a relaxing time.

Check out my chick, courtesy of my lovely LaaLaa.

~ ♥ TTFN ♥ ~

Easter Swap Goodies

The lovely Lynda of Hookin' with LaaLaa kindly organised an Easter Swap.  I was paired up with a very talented lady Gill The Vintage Gardener.  

This parcel arrived really early yesterday morning just as I was on my way out of the door heading to work.  I couldn't wait until I got home so I tore into it with passion and only took photos after the ripping had finished (sorry).

Look what arrived:

 Softest scrummy yarn...

 This little guy has lavender inside ain't he sweet?

 Beautiful collage of vintage bits

 Sweet handmade card

 And my most favourite of all, this little book

It's just the most wonderful thoughtful gift...

A beautiful book handwritten with beautiful colour pictures, full of ideas and inspiration for me to make myself a container garden

The pages also contained seed packets of things that were mentioned in my little personalised guide,

I have a sorry garden, to be honest it's mainly due to the fact that I have four boys at home who play in this garden and I never wanted to be a nervous wreck watching footballs clashing off my lovely plants!  That being the case I have never really allowed myself to be a gardener.  Now my boys are getting older and they are not so boisterous I think it's time to inject some colour into my bare garden.  I mentioned this and my lack of experience to Gill and she created this for me.  I kept getting it out of my handbag at work today and just flicking through it and grinning like a mad woman! 
I was really touched at the time and effort that had gone into it, I promise to take your advice and ideas on board and bring some colour to my garden this year!

I was so exicted I popped out at lunchime and bought this propagator thingy to get my seeds going.

I will show you my lovely flowers when they arrive.

Thanks again Gill I love it all and thanks Lynda for organising us all again xx
 

p.s.don't forget there is still time to enter my Tea Cup Candle Giveaway.

~ ♥ TTFN ♥ ~

A little catch up post...

Well this week I have been dabbling in all sorts.  I have been making a few bits for my Easter Swap organised by the lovely Hookin' with LaaLaa so I can't really show them until my partner Gill The Vintage Gardener has received them.

What I can show you though is these cards.  

I dabbled in cardmaking many moons ago but pretty much gave it up as I am rubbish at it.  However recently I got some free Cupcake stamps with the Simply Homemade Magazine and they were just to sweet not to use.

I had never used these rubber sheet stamps before; back in my day it was all red rubber on chunks of wood.  I took advice from an expert card maker (thanks Judith) and got cracking.

 

 They are quite simple but I really enjoyed getting my stuff out again messing with promarkers and ink ~ I had it all over!  

I'm quite pleased with how they turned out.

Last week I won a giveaway hosted by the lovely Vintage Vicki, I was delighted and really pleased with what arrived, everything was right up my street!

There was a definite Red White and Blue theme, can't imagine why :)

 

Im a sucker for a brooch.

I will try my best not to kill these!

 I love it all thanks again Vicki x

p.s.don't forget there is still time to enter my Tea Cup Candle Giveaway.

~ ♥ TTFN ♥ ~

The Softest Crochet Cushion

Remember a little while back I made a colourful crochet cushion following the guidance from the brilliant Lucy - Attic24 I made these little summer garden granny squares and they eventually morphed into a cushion.

Well I did love it very much, but my taste leans more towards the 'muted pastel' colours, so I thought that I would gather some lovely soft Baby Cashmere Yarn and knock another one up.

No two squares are alike, this confuddled my poor old brain a bit but I managed.

I laid them out on the coffee table and mixed them up many times before settling on where I wanted them to be.

This one has been a while in the making, as was almost finished but I got distracted with candles and beads ~ I have the attention span of a gnat!

It's even nice on the reverse with all the neat little single crochet (UK) lines joining it all together.

Making these little squares was a pleasure, the colours are just perfect and this yarn is so soft and such a treat to work with, every time I picked up that pink I smiled.

I was looking for a contrasting wool jumper to cut up for the back, but I found this cotton cardigan in white which I thought would be better.

Snipped and hand stitched to the front with a dainty crochet edging and little button holes.


(it's less wonky in real life honest ~ it's the cushion inside thats off kilter!)

I have put this one away for now as there is no more room on my couches, perhaps it will find a home on my bed but it does not match the Rosali set on there at the minute, for now it's stashed away unloved ~ it's yarn cruelty really, please don't report me :)

I am entering this as my April Monthly Make organised by Sexy Annie.

p.s. Don't forget there is still time to enter my giveaway - button top right of blog :)

~ ♥ TTFN ♥ ~

Tag, I'm it... and a little blog makeover

The gorgeous and talented Bethany tagged me in the handwriting meme.

Bethany is my handmade bag hero from Philidelphia, her sewing talents are incredible. If I lived closer I would be camped out on her porch with my nose to the glass (in a non creepy way) begging for sewing lessons.

Read on for my responses...

In case you can't see my crazy scrawl answers, here they are:

1. Kandipandi

2. kandipandi@blogspot.com

3. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

4. In this world you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant; well I've tried smart I recommend pleasant - Elwood P Dowd (Harvey)

5. Prince of Darkness - Indigo Girs
Sign O' The Times - Prince (can I have two?)

6. Love you all lots ~ heartfelt thanks for your wonderful support and friendship!

Ta Ta for now!

As always I open this out to you all, I am nosey and would love to see your handwriting.

Did you notice my new blog header up there?  What do you think?

I contacted the wonderful Angie of Artwork by Angie as I was in desperate need of a blog tidy up and a new header.  I also wanted a header for my shiny new Folksy shop, and not knowing where to start and not having the time/skills to do it myself Angie jumped in and made this for me.  I gave Angie ideas of the colours and styles I liked and she created this from scratch ~ I was well impressed I think it's very me :)

(The shop is still not ready but I am working on it, I hope to have it stocked over Easter).  

Pop over and have a look at what Angie does, she is a super talented, friendly lady and worth every penny ~ thanks lovely lady x

Back on the subject of crafty things; I did make a start on some knitted and crochet flowers from this book I got my hands on a few weeks ago.

The thing is; even though they are tiny they take ages, well the more complex ones do, perhaps it's just me?

Not entirely sure what I will do with them once I have them all done, I was contemplating a cushion (never, I hear you cry) with them sewn on all over to plonk on my bed.

I made a little pile of them but stole a couple to make into brooches as they were quite cute.

This one is currently residing on my denim jacket. Right must crack on and get some more flowers made or this will be the longest work in progress ever! 

Back soon with my latest crochet cushion finally finished. 

p.s. I have finally dipped my toes in twitter, please feel free to follow my ramblings there too (and let me find your ramblings too) x

~ ♥ TTFN ♥ ~