~ Giveaway Winner ~

Many thanks for all the entries to the Tea Towel Swap.

I added the names to my trusty jug and Thomas plucked out...... 

 Vix - Vintage Vixen ~ yay congratulations lovely please let me have your details and I'll bundle it all up for you.

I'm so sorry you couldn't all win :0(

In other news several people have asked about the little lego men melts, I have popped a few in my folksy shop and will make some more as soon as my latest order of soy wax arrives.

Right, back to the felt!

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~ 

Lego Makes and a Reminder

First up many thanks for all the entries for the Tea Towel Giveaway, I will close it this Saturday and announce a winner then, so there is still time to pop your name in the hat, just click the link over on the right --->

In other news I've been working like a dog for the past couple of weeks and I have not had any time to myself, I am so far behind on all my blogs.  Please don't think I've abandoned you I will be back in circulation when work is less mental and I hope to have a little catch up tonight and at the weekend.

One thing I did manage to do last weekend was play with my soy wax.  I've been making more little melts, these are bubblegum scented but it's the new mould I love, little lego men!

Aint they sweet?
I'm a little mean and I love to stand a little man in the burner and just watch him slowly melt away *evil laugh*.

Right I'm off to catch up with you lot and to crack on with some makes for my swaps, back on Saturday with a winner.

p.s. Many thanks to my lovely Annie The Felt Fairy for sending more of her beautiful felt my way, it's my absolute favourite felt in the world and I have Christmas shaped plans for it all.  Mmmmwaaaahhh Annie xx

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~ 

Tea Towels & Giveaway~ NOW CLOSED~

~ NOW CLOSED , THANKS FOR ALL THE ENTRIES~

I was approached by All Tea Towels recently and they asked if I would like to review a couple of tea towels from their lovely store.  I have to say I have had many offers like this in the past and I usually decline, but I just couldn't decline this one as Tea Towels are a bit of a soft spot of mine.

After browsing their store for ages, I decided upon these two, it was not an easy choice...

 How cool are they? They are really heavy duty, very well made and both are made from organic unbleached cotton.

They look and feel fabulous and the first person to use them is sure to shed a little tear.

Actually their website has lots of good ideas for uses for tea towels, from making tote bags, to covering a pin board ~ I will definitely try that one!

Just a few more from their site that I love:

I will be back for more of these. Thanks Al for sending these I'm glad I was introduced to your site, my purse however might end up disagreeing!

  I really am a bit of a tea towel addict, I took this snap of my own tea towels on the washing line today, and these are just a small selection of the vintage tea towels I own.

I don't have a drawer in the kitchen for tea towels I have a cupboard, a drawer wouldn't come close!

These new Tea Towels really are too good not so share so I though I would offer one up as a little giveaway treat.

You get to choose which one you would like and I will send it to you with a box of my favourite tea (Camomile ~ to keep me calm at work!) and one of my vintage tea cups to sup it from.

Simple Rules:

To enter the giveaway you don't have to follow me but I do need to be able to contact you. If you don't have a blog please leave a valid email address.


Just leave a comment on this post mentioning which tea towel you would like (Tea or Tunnocks) and I will add you to the list.
 If you have your own blog and if you wish, please add my button to your sidebar and link to this giveaway and I will add you again. Please let me know if you do and I will add you twice.
 I will draw the winners in one weeks time on the 24th September.

xX Good Luck Xx

 P.S. Thanks for all your kind words and advice on the Folksy Issue, when I get a minute to myself I will review all the suggestions and look into the best way forward forward xx

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~ 

Bye Bye Folksy?

Well, as Folksy have changed their guidelines for what they consider to be handmade I am forced to remove my natural soy candles and melts from my Folksy shop by the beginning of November.

Folksy's new guidelines would not consider my candles to be handmade.

If you are interested you can read more about the changes here

I have to say I’m quite sad about this, I would consider my melts and candles to be ‘handmade’; I make them from scratch using the raw ingredients, experimenting with scent blends, consistencies, colour and wick ratios to achieve the item I am after, often using re-purposed/re-cycled cups and containers/moulds.

 Besides the above, I have invested a lot of my time and money in promoting Folksy and my little place in it. Many fellow Folksy sellers are also a little baffled, some of the new guidelines are not terribly straight forward as to what is and what is not deemed acceptable.

Don’t get me wrong, not all of my stock is going to be affected by the change but the candle/melt element will. This has made me think about whether I will continue to sell on Folksy and if not, what should I do instead? It’s not a case of ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater’ it’s just that I feel like it’s going to prove to be more trouble than it’s worth for my little ‘hobby’.

Many lovely people do often contact me for repeat orders for candles and melts and I will of course still oblige, I will continue to make these as I use them myself all the time it’s just a matter of where I will sell them.
I will keep you posted.

In the meantime I have made a start and I have had a blitz on my Folksy shop.  I have removed some items already and have reduced the price on each and every item in my shop.

Over 90% of my stock is now £5 or less, so if you want to grab a few bits for stocking fillers or swap candy then pop over and have a quick look, before the shutters possibly come down :0(

To all my lovely Folksy customers thanks for the support thus far, it's been brilliant!

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~ 

Gifts Made, Given and not Given ...

First up I would like to share something I made last week from Issue 4 of Mollie Makes. 

My lovely friend and I were perusing this issue and she looked longingly at these and said, Ohhh I wish I could crochet I love these (she did the doe eyes too), I quickly set to and came up with these, Mary go Rounds.  I made them for her whilst she was on holiday and handed them over yesterday.

 

I could fancy some of these myself and will need to make time to make some, just need some more plastic bangles from the pound shop first.

Said friend also had crochet on the mind whilst on holiday and bought me this beautiful hand crochet cushion from Greece, it's just perfect and sooo pretty I love it.

It will obviously have to live on my bed to keep the boys grubby mits off it!

In other news my eldest started college last week in Durham City, which now gives me the perfect excuse to spend time in my beautiful hometown.  

 Picture from http://www.walworthcastle.co.uk/places.php

I don't often get the chance to visit Durham so I spent a while showing my boy the sights, best shortcuts and of course which pub is best to start the pub crawl from...

This trip afforded me the opportunity to drop in on a North East Jewellery Maker whom I follow on Twitter and have been in contact with, the lovely lady Laura the maker and owner behind Vintage Princess Jewellery.

I took a couple of snaps of her lovely setup.

 

I had intended just to browse but I couldn't almost immediately I spotted a beautiful necklace that I thought would make a beautiful Christmas present for one of my friends, so I bought it.

  The closer I got to home the more I loved it and so I kept it!  Isn't that terrible, but it was rather nice.  Laura has an online shop too, if you fancy a browse, beware though there is lots of things you will want!

Right I'm off to crack on with makes for the Autumn Swap, and I have an idea for a little giveaway soon.

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~ 

Thrifty Finds.. almost

Well on one of my many charity shop scours I came across the sweetest little coffee set, 6 little cups and 6 little saucers in the sweetest range of colours, all for the tiny sum of £1.99.  The sales assistant and I carefully wrapped each one up in newspaper and I handed over my dosh!  Within 3 feet of the counter I dropped the bloody lot, still don't know how and this is what remains :0(  I know they were less than £2 but I loved them.

 

 Just look how dinky they are next to my Cath Mug...

... RIPieces Pink Lemon and Orange little cups and saucers... *gently weeps*

On the plus side though I have finally won a little family battle!

See this monstrosity, well it's a rather expensive electric Baby Grand Piano belonging to my beloved husband...

... yes it lives in my lounge!  I don't hate it per se, the only tune I get out of it is when I lean on the keys when I dust the bloody thing each week.  But it is a proper eyesore, not sure if you can tell but it's huge and it takes up a big corner of my lounge (please pretend not to notice the clothes I pile up on it waiting to be taken upstairs).

Well, now it's gone!  Woo Hoo, it's been moved upstairs to the attic room, still available to play but out of my sight.  It's taken almost 10 years to get shot of it :0)

Now I have a big corner to play with and it's quite exciting, not sure how it will end up but I'm thinking a glass fronted vintage cabinet stuffed with old china and a cute little chair?

I found my cute little chair on Saturday!

I know it's a little grubby (even after lots of cleaning by me) but I love it's shape and it's really comfortable, it's by the Thomas Glenister Company.

There is a good chance I will re-cover it in something yummy and change the colour of those legs but for now it's making me smile in a piano shaped hole in my lounge.

In other news, have you seen this?

Yes it's Advent Swap Time!
I didn't join in last year as I already had too many commitments but I am determined not to miss out this year.

Could you fancy it, have you joined ~ pop over to LaaLaa's and see what it's all about.

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~ 

It's Swap Season...

I have had the busiest time these last few months with lots of lovely swaps, after the two Magic balls, and two Fabric Swaps I also joined in the Cupcake Swap, the Autumn Swap and the Handmade Christmas Decoration Swap... I am loving it!

The only drawback to swapping is you can't show what you've made until you have sent your things, so it may look like I'm not making much but trust me I'm beavering away in the background.

The most recent swap was the Cupcake Swap, organised by my my twitter friend Jodi I was paired with Jo from Pickle Lily.  We got in touch and agreed to send 6 items and we turned this around quite quickly.

Look what arrived this morning...

 

Gorgeous! I love it all, especially the felt needle case made by the talented Pickle Lily, Jo's daughter.

 

This bag is my new crochet bag, it's just perfect!

My current WIP, mini crochet squares for my throw,

Jo has blogged about this too here, but this is what I sent to Jo, I actually missed a little gift out and have posted it separately (not shown here!) due to my scatterbrain!

Great minds think alike, we both sent a very similar cupcake keyring,

Thanks again lovely people, and thanks to Jodi for hosting it really enjoyed this one x

I mentioned above I've joined in the Handmade Christmas Decoration Swap hosted by my friend Lynda over at Hookin' With Laalaa ~ pop over and have a look, I'm looking forward to this one.

Right, on with the Autumn Swap...

... before that, I think I need to make a few cupcakes now, it would be rude not to use those pretty cases wouldn't it?

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~