I'm home, but I have been busy...

I am home, it's wonderful to come home and get back into your own bed isn't it?

My week away was so lovely and relaxing (on the whole), we had a full week deep inte middle of the grizedale forest in the lake district in the most lovely cottage. I fell in love with the place, as did we all and I did not want to leave. For those of you who don't know the lake district this is why we come here:

This is where we have been staying, its over 300 years old and was once an old bobbin mill:

I met the owner (by mistake) on the way in and she was such a lovely lady, the place was like home from home, she had just sneaked in to paint a stain the last guests left and to put vases of freshly picked sweet peas all over the cottage.

Here are some of the old workings from the mill just next to the lounge wall,

This is the beck running through the property, this was just outside out back door and can be dated back to 1537!

We used this cottage as a base to explore the area and spent time in Hawkshead, Keswick, Kendal, Ambleside and lots of other lovely places. We spent the only sunny day in Blackpool at the pleasure beach, which the kids though was wonderful I was just scared for them on the huge rides!

We did spend many happy hours just at the cottage and had a couple of lazy days which allowed for a bit of crafting, I will show you what I managed to create, I did get some crochet done, I cracked it!! This is still a work in progress but you get the general idea, inspired by my friend Amanda this will be a crochet cushion (somehow!?!):

These flowers were so addictive and you should see me go now, I am like a little machine!

This one is a 3d pansy you can't tell from this angle though,

This is my favourite in ice cream colours,

In addition to these I sewed 110 hexies together until my poor finger actually bled (lets hear an awwww) the needle kept going into my skin and I can't use a thimble it gets in the way! I will show you my hexies once I can turn them into a cushion of some sort.

Thanks for indulging me with my holiday ramblings. x

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~

Hexies

I have made a start with my little hexies, I think I will attempt a hexie bag as a quilt would just be too much effort at this stage. I sat and carefully sorted the hexies into similar colours and then thought bu*%er it I will just mix it up and that way I get to see all of my lovely fabrics in one place, we have bits of Alexender Henry, Michael Miller, Cath Kidston, old bed sheet and random vintage scraps from all over the house!

I am hoping it will be ok once it's all clagged* together (is the word clagged known outside the North East?).

I have really enjoyed sewing these into little flowers by hand; it's a lovely thing to be able to do when it's not appropriate to get the machine out. As you read this if all went to plan I should be on holiday in a lovely house in the lakes with a tin of hexies in my lap!

Here you go, my pile so far:

I had an idea once I saw the little flowers and set to making a padded coaster:

I cut a back for it from a vintage pillowcase.

I trimmed and ironed it to fit the shape of my flower.

I interfaced each side,

then added some fleece as padding and blanket stitched all round the edges.

And it now makes a lovely coaster for a lovely cup which is part of a gift for my best friend, who is moving jobs 40 miles away from me! I will miss you so much xoxo

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~

* Clagged - meaning to stick together.

Cath Kidston Makeup Bags

You must be sick of the sight of these by now, but here are more makeup bags! These are made from Cath Kidston cotton Duck in Spray Flowers:

I added a little beaded embellishment with a silver bit in the middle, I think it looks a bit like an angel.

Obviously I made two at the same time as I just can't help myself. This one looks a bit wonky but honestly it's not.


I made this for my husband's beautiful, stylish and just all round lovely Aunt who was 70 years young a couple of weeks ago. She was after M&S vouchers to have a shopping blow out but I couldn't just do vouchers I just had to make her something so this is what she got, I added a few M&S toiletries to it and it went down well. I made the other for Nadine as I mentioned the other day.

Please feel free to ignore me I am just self indulging as I really love making these and I love having them. I was sorting through my toiletries and makeup last week (in preparation for my hols) and came across a small mountain of makeup bags that I have on the go, not ones I have made but ones I have bought over the years. I think I love making these as you need a relatively small amount of fabric and you get to use and carry around with you some of your favourite fabrics all the time without looking odd!

~ ♥ Back Soon (no doubt with more makup bags) ♥ ~

My new obsession..

Have you seen all of the beautiful crochet about in blogland? I love it so much but have always been rubbish at it! I can turn my hand to pretty much anything crafty but crochet has always eluded me.

Well, no more, I am just not having it, I am determined to be able to make lovely crochet items like Amanda, Lynda, Myhandmadehappiness , Joe (and many wonderful others). I wish I lived closer to you guys I would move in and not leave until I could crochet!

So I know very little about it and went and bought some lovely yarns in some lovely colours, not sure they are perfect for crochet but they feel lovely and the colours are so pretty.

I bought some more hooks, as I only have one and I bought a book.

It's not the best book out there and the one I want I couldn't find in town and I needed one now!

So, I am off on my holidays tomorrow and I am staying at the edge of a lovely forest in a house in the Lakes, so I figured that when I get the chance to take a minute for myself I am planning to teach myself to crochet from this book. Wish me luck, I will be sure to let you see what I create, even if it's rubbish!

I will be scheduling some posts for when I am away so you don't forget about me, but if you wonder why I'm not replying it's cause I am crocheting in the Lake District (hopefully)x

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~

Little Commission

I was asked to make something for my lovely friend as she wanted something of mine to give to her sister as part of her birthday present.

My scope was, make a couple of little things for her bedroom, perhaps a little lavender mouse and a lavender heart. There was no definite colour mentioned and her bedroom is mainly creams, so I opted for delicate pinks, in these lovely Tilda fabrics.

I love making these little mice they are cute, this time I gave them cream whiskers instead of the thick black ones and before I added their ears I thought they looked like a little pile of shrimps (admittedly the shrimps from the Muppet Show Tonight).

Anyhow, this is them all done and dusted, not sure how many are needed but I usually make a few of the same thing once I have the machine out.

I also made a couple of simple lavender hearts and hand embroidered a little patch for the front onto a lovely cream silk fabric with the word Love, quite appropriate we thought as a sentiment from one sister to another.

I hear she really liked them, Happy Birthday Amy! Xx

p.s. I have noticed that I am creeping towards 150 followers, how amazing thank you all! You know what that means, another giveaway... if there is something you would like to see in my giveway please feel free to let me know and I will rustle something up.

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~

More beautiful things from beautiful people...

After a tough day at work I came home to this one night not long ago, I was not expecting anything so was really suprised to find this;

A beautifully wrapped gift from the lovely Sue, this was a thank you gift and just look what was inside;

A most lovely vintage patchwork cushion, I adore it and it is currently pride of place on my bed, as if that was not enough there was also a lovely lavender heart in there too which is on my bedpost.

Thank you so much Sue this arrived just at the right time when I needed it most, isn't it funny how that happens?

You remember the Tilda book I won from Lynda, well she went mad and sent me extra gifts, she forgot to add one and sent it later and I love it loads and wanted to show you, its a beautiful brooch:

Thank you lovely friends!

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~

Pay it Forward

It may appear that I have been a lazy girl and not been making much recently, but I have been busy I promise. I have been making stuff to give away so couldn’t post about it before now.

I joined in the pay it forward and promised to make gifts for three people, expecting nothing in return, in the hope that they will also send on three gifts to three people thus spreading a web of happiness!

I tried to make them something I thought they might like and asked if they wanted anything specific, none of them did so I made surprises. As I have posted them now I can show you what I made.

This was for Alex, her only guidelines were nothing pink!

I know she loves green and reading so I made her this green charm bookmark, I made her a bracelet from the same beads and a little keyring with her name on.

Hope you liked it Alex.

For Sue, I made a little Tilda button bag, from Tilda cotton and hand embroidered with ‘Sue’s Buttons’, the bag is full of a mixture of new and vintage buttons to hang on her lovely new peg rack. I made her a little coin purse too from CK fabric and added some CK smellies in there. I recieved a wonderful present from Sue yesterday, I will show you what she made me soon, thanks so much you clever thing xx

For Nadine, I made a good sized makeup bag from CK Candy Flowers Cotton Duck, I embellished it with lace, ribbons and glass beads and added some CK smellies to that too.

I know I had 365 days to send something but I got excited and was afraid I would forget and then I would have felt terrible!

Hope you liked your little gifts ladies; don’t forget to Pay It Forward.

p.s. I knitted a cotton dishcloth to send to the lovely Annie as a small thank you (as I know she likes them).

I managed to crochet a little flower to add to it, this was a great achivement for me and took some patience but I was pleased as punch with myself, thanks for the guidance Amanada. x

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~