Happy New Year Everyone!

I promise that I am going to make more of an effort to blog in 2010!


Please come back to check on me!

Vanished without a trace!

I did not mean to be away so long but I have an excuse, I have had 5 craft stalls at varying location days and duration, which has meant a lot of sewing and arranging child care what with me & hubbo splitting up. I have also joined NOTHS and I really pleased with the results so far, I do realise it is the busiest time of the year for them but I am pleased with the variety of goods been purchased and the number of orders I am getting. My best seller so far is the Reindeer dust which pictured below and followed closely by my personal favourites the Tea Cup candles.

We also had the news that Keswick got flooded in all the recent rain. Luckily been a 2nd floor apartment we did not get flooded, but unfortunately the 2 ground floor flats were wiped out. Also our cleaner and family got flooded so for the interim they are using the flat up until New Year, when after they have got a house for 6 months until there has dried out and been done up.

Any way I must dash as I am at work, so I guess I should be working. Before I go I don't know if anyone has done this, but my little dear received a message from Santa from here and she thought it was magical, she had tears in her eyes. All that they ask is a few details plus one photo of your child and voila a truly magical thing.

Hope to be back soon

How cute is this!

My little dear has always put some reindeer dust out on Christmas Eve for Rudolf and his friends. It was always provided by her Pre-school, but now that she has gone to big school the responsibility has fallen on my shoulders. As the labels says its magic stuff!

All that it is is porridge oats with glitter, not very imaginative but little dear appreciates the sentiment it part of her ritual along with putting out a Gin & Tonic and kit kat for Santa!

If anyone else is in need of some Reindeer Dust let me know I am selling it at £1.50 and this includes postage.

The best bit!

I had a order from my nail lady to make her Christmas gifts to her customers, apparently last year she had an idea in her head what she wanted to buy and how she wanted her gifts to look, but she struggled with time and in the end spent far too much cash. So I showed her my tissue holder/lavender bag gift sets and how they looked all gift wrapped and she jumped at the chance the only decision she had to make was what to put on the label(not Best Teacher as the picture shows) and what Cath Kidston fabric design she wanted!

5o gift sets later all complete, I handed them over on Tuesday morning and she was over the moon. She thought they looked gorgeous and all she had to do was write on the label.

So one happy customer!

Tea cup love!

What do you do when you want to get rid of the smell of a curry brewing in the slow cooker, you make vanilla teacup candles. I love going into charity shops and spotty gorgeous vintage teacups & saucers! As I suspect many of you do!

These beauties will be going into my NOTHS shop if it ever gets approved.

My favourite one is this yellow one, I only have this one and one left to make up so I have to make a tough decision soon!

A different kind of fair!

I was child free yesterday and my sister was attending a wedding show so after a phone call requesting lunch as she was starving, I made a short trek down the road to Hodsock Priory to provide refreshments. I don't know how the fair was for her as unlike my shows it does not provide instant results but the vibe felt good!

What's in your stash!

I have an idea mulling around in my head and I need your help. I buy some of my basic sewing supplies e.g cording, seam binding, bias binding from a lady on my local market and she supplies it in bulk e.g 30 metre rolls. I also obviously go through a hell of a lot of white guttermans cotton. There are probably also a lot of items you do the same but I want to know what they are and how you get them e.g do you buy from a wholesale haberdashery, from your local sewing shop in small amounts or from some where like Dunelm Mill.

Please let me know as you have probably guessed my idea it to start supplying it.

Thank you

Long time no see!

Well what can I say, it is now October and I feel like I have been away for ages (well I have). There has been so much going on, well my last post was full of happenings and plans, but they all went up in smoke. Me & hubbo have split up, no drama attached just we were both unhappy with each other and it took the possibility of a new house to realise we were probably just covering over the cracks. We are still friends and we are trying to move on.

Anyway onwards and upwards!

Got loads going on, craft fairs, joining Not On The High Street, Little dear starting school, sorting out a mortgage, decorating the house. So hopefully I will have lots to blog about over the next few weeks.

I have joined Twitter, its great!

Sorry!

Sorry I have not been around much lately, loads going on!

1. Went on a weeks holiday to Crete, great and very warm.
2. Two days before our holiday we fell in love with a house.
3. Came back from holiday, started the onslaught of putting house up for sale.
4. Went up for sale last Tuesday.
5. Sold yesterday (Yeh!) so excited.
6. Hubbo says we need to go and check out another house to make sure my dream house is right (Deh! I know it's right)
7. Go on holiday again on Sunday down to sunny Devon (the weather forecast suggests otherwise).
8. And in between all of that me & hubbo celebrated our wedding anniversary and both our birthdays.

Phew take a breath now!

Will catch up soon.

Loveliness!

I was trying to be really good and not buy any new fabric, but I was lead into temptation by a need to treat myself. I went onto Holland house fabric website and to be honest I was quite restrained, I treated myself to 1 metre of Pink spot fabric, and 1/2 metre of the other designs. I have to say the patchwork design fabric is gorgeous. The ribbon was a must too, OK so not really but I love any thing with mushrooms on at the moment.

Mrs B!

As some of you will know my Nan Nan died earlier this year, and my Grandad has been having a clear out of some of my nan's treasures, in particular lots of her books. My Nan's taste in books was very stable throughout her life it consisted of Poetry Books, Great classics, books on Scotland, Crocheting and fabulous Housewife books. My Mum has been coming home with a very wide selection and has been distributing them between various sources. My mum had this on her kitchen side the other day and I was admiring it/drooling all over it. So when I arrived at my Mum's on Thursday and she passed it onto me I was dead chuffed.


It looks like it has been in the family for quite a while as the above names suggest. Mary Cuthbert is my Great Great Great Nan, Agnes Cuthbert is my Great Great Auntie, Mary Bagshaw is my Nan and than there's me. For some reason I think something to do with tracing the family tree my Mum has put my name in there, but as my maiden name!

Look at the fab pictures, look at that bunny, talking of bunnies look at the picture below this little beauty appeared in our garden today, not just once but three times. Little dear wants me to pick it up and stroke it!

My Grandad as practical as ever recovered it some years ago to protect it.

Have a great Bank Hoilday weekend!

Gift Workshop

Sunday 25th October 2009

10.00am - 4.30 pm

Barnby Memorial Hall, Blyth, Nr Worksop, Nottinghamshire.

The workshop includes:

Vintage Teacup & Saucer gift Ideas

Ribbon Brooches

Dried Fruit Wreath/ Garland

Gift Wrapping Ideas

The price includes:

All Gifts made

Worksheet & Buying Guides

Lunch (Soup & Sandwich)

Afternoon tea & cake

£40 per person (£10 deposit reserves a space)

Great idea for a get together or as a gift for someone special

This idea has been in the pipeline for a few months now after both me & Sara at All about Eden spent some time looking for day courses in the area and also after we spent some time giving tuition. If anyone is interested please drop me an email.

Ta Da!

Just to show you some of the photo's from the refurbished apartment in Keswick. The best thing about the apartment is the view, look at it an admire them fells!

The main room, how funky are those cushions!

The main bedroom.

The main room.

The kitchen.

The kitchen.

The 2nd bedroom.

Some accessories.

The new table & chairs

The 2nd Bedroom.

I hope you have enjoyed my little bit of bragging, and if you are interested in renting a 2 double bedroomed apartment in the centre of Keswick drop me a line to check availability and price!

SHAMELESS PLUG I KNOW!

Custom Order!

I do get some requests by customers for things, but to be honest the majority of them are things like cushions, which are a little boring. So when I was asked to make a baby wipe case I jumped at the chance of doing something different. I was rather pleased with the outcome to the point where I have decided to produce them and add them to my stock.

I have some serious sewing to do this weekend as I have decided to do a show at the weekend, last minute decision to help with the cash flow. So I might not be back until after the weekend.

Show & Tell

How gorgeous is this, I am now kicking myself as I should of got more. Can you beleive this only cost me 99p from Dunelm Mill. It is quite a decent size tin as well. I may pop back for more next week with fingers crossed that they are still there!

It's the Good Life!

This strip of land is at the side of our house next to the garage, before the transformation it had a raised bed in filled with scrubs and was the bin storage area and general dumping ground for all of hubbo's work stuff eg old radiators, boilers etc! (Scrap yard it is not!)

But in 2 weekends and a lot of effort from hubbo this is how it is now, the old raised bed was filled with 19 bags of top soil and was made up of 5 railway sleepers, which have been re homed. I have sown carrots, beetroot, onions, garlic and potato, the beans & courgettes are still to be planted.

Happy days!

Northern Belles Swap!

Go have a see at The Northern Belles blog, there's a fab swap happening.

Catch Up!

Sorry for my absence it was not intentional, just life get's in the way. So today I promised myself that I would make the effort to blog. I have been keeping up to date on you lot, but again I have been lazy as I have not left any comments, so again this week is going to change. I promised myself that I would leave 3 comments an evening.

To ease my self in gradually I thought I would let you know what I have been up to.

My great swap partner Kirsty from Ruby's Mamma Makes it, sent me this great set of gifts, the bracelet that she made me is gorgeous and has been worn on many an occasion. The mug is used on a daily basis for morning cup of tea.

Little dear had her Pre-School Easter party.


Over the Easter weekend we visited Keswick and thank god there was no DIY involved! Little dear loves any thing Peter Rabbit/Beatrix Potter, so we decided armed with my Mum's Scottish National Trust card to visit Hill Top Farm, I have to say it was great the guide took a shine to little dear and showed her all the hiding places of 'Samuel Whiskers'!

We bought little dear her 1st pair of proper walking boots so it was only right that we christened them with a 4 mile walk, but little dear also thought they were climbing boots!!!!

I will be back later in the week (promise) with my new vegetable plot and things I have been sewing.

Chucky eggs!

Just to show you some of the things I have been getting up to. I was going to list them on Ebay but I am very disappointed with them at the moment, so if anyone is interested in one they are £3.75 (P&P inc), they would make great Easter gifts instead of the usually eggs.

Have a good weekend, what with this glorious weather.

Bye Bye Nan Nan!

I don't want this post to be all doom & gloom as my Nan Nan was not that kind of person. My Nan passed away with my Mum & Auntie by her side on Thursday the 5th March. The funeral was last Friday and it was a little sad, but at the same time very nice!

The most important thing to me was that my Mum was OK, and surprisingly she is, she keeps having a little cry, but overall I think it has come as a bit of a relief!

Any way I have been very busy in my studio, my 1st show is on the 5th April at Weirlow Hall Farm in Sheffield.

Catch up soon

PS thank you for all your kind words on my last post x

Ta Da!

At last on Saturday the carpet was fitted at 11 O Clock and by 12 O Clock we were beginning to build up all the furniture. My sister took little dear away for the afternoon which meant we could really get stuck in to putting my plans into action for how I wanted MY studio to look. Hubbo even commented how well thought out everything was, I did not tell him that I had been planning this out in my head for over a year now!

I had to give in to the fact that little dear would have to come into here at times or I would not ever get in there, so we bought her a desk and a pop up tent to play in!

It is not completely finished as I have to put up the blinds that I have made, hubbo has got to make my cutting table and I have got to strip down my bargain 1950's kitchen cupboard that I won on Ebay a couple of months ago.

Sorry I have not been around for a few weeks there has been a lot going on as well as getting my studio ready. I have been organising the refurbishment of the flat at Keswick which has turned into a bit of a rush as we have someone in on the 26th of March.

Also my lovely Nan who is in a home is sadly fading away, which is heart braking to see, my Mum is been so strong. I made the decision last week not to visit her anymore as it upsets me too much as she has changed so much, and I don't want to have this image in my head of someone who doesn't remind me of my Nan.

Hope to catch up soon of I can tear myself away from my new playroom!!!!!!

Love is in the air!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

I hope love is in the air at your household today.

A place of one's own!

Finally it has got plastered thanks to my Mum & Dad helping us out, I think they got sick & tired of me moaning about the state of the house as it is getting put on hold until this is complete. Hubbo installed the radiators at the weekend and I have to say what a clever heating engineer he is. I think I may never leave my office as it is warmer than the house even with the fire been lit!

Hopefully hubbo will put the skirting boards and raise the floor with further insulation this weekend and then I have to step in to decorate and put the blinds up which will be complete tomorrow at my sewing class. I quick trip to Ikea will then just finish it off apart from the bits of furniture that need doing up!

Progress on the sewing front is going well 5 more eco totes complete, 10 of my lavender hearts and one more egg cosy. I also sewed 7 paper heart garlands for my sister, and 30 of her hearts for the shows.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow on the crafting front as its Half Term next week, so nothing will get done!