Spring Fling 2010.......

was a great afternoon out I must say! Myself, my mum and the two little peeps headed down to the Millenium Galleries, Sheffield yesterday for craft candys annual spring craft fair, it was brilliant with a great mix of stalls selling a variety of hand-crafted items and the quality of workmanship was excellent - I have a long way to go me thinks!

Here are the little guys patiently waiting for lunch to arrive before we head into the fair. I always find it best to do these things on a full tummy, stops the whining half way round if you know what I mean and makes for a more positive day out all round...

The picture of 'Little Miss H' is poor as too much light in the background but she was in a funny old mood all day and not in any sort of mood for having her photo taken, unlike her camera shy little brother, 'Master M'!

After lunch we headed into the craft fair and here is a picture of the goodies that we acquired...

We got a selection of lovely items ranging from the gorgeous rabbit down to some vintage button earrings for moi. I've taken more photos of the items grouped by seller so that I can link to them, you must definitely check them all out as they were really lovely people whose products were of the highest standard. So here goes:

First of all we have a great rabbit that 'Little Miss H' has named Rosy. This was bought from Manda of Treefall Designs, if you don't already read her blog you should start to....

The rabbit is totally gorgeous (I've been eyeing them up on Manda's site for some time now!), is made of linen and wearing a very cute patchwork dress, 'Little Miss H' loves her and has not left her side!

Next up we have a gorgeous gorgeous knitting project bag from Sarah Waterhouse - Hand Printed Textiles.I adore this calico bag, screen printed in pale pink with images of knitting yarn and needles - Fab!

The wooden button on the bag is even embossed with 'Sarah Waterhouse' - so lovely. You really should check her out as she has a great array of screen printed items that are just so tempting! Next we have some fab designs from 'Jaygo', I really love these....

I bought for myself these lovely things, a key fob and a zip purse.The key fob is in a great tangerine colour and on one side has the fab saying 'Calories Schmalories' and on the reverse it has the gorgeous sitting ducks fabric by Lizzie House, available here. The purse has loads of detail on it and has the infamous Obi Wan Kenobi saying 'May the Force be with You' on the front and a gorgeous appliqued heart on the reverse side. I also bought a gorgeous fabric covered notebook from Jaygo that I gave to my mum as it was the last one on the stall - I've since contacted Jill via her Folksy store and custom ordered a notebook to match my purse!!

Next up we have some gorgeous vintage fabric fat quarters...

These are from lillidrawspictures and were such a bargain, Holly chose them and they are to be put into the stash for her quilt which will be in pinks and greens and an eclectic (I hope!) mix of vintage and modern prints. Lilli makes gorgeous goodies from recycled/reclaimed fabrics and paper and it was from a vintage magazine that 'Master M's' Spiderman badge was made, you can just see it on the stripey fabric!

And finally we have a picture of the last few items bought....

The bobbles are from Mollys Mum and are freestyle machine sewn. The stall had lots of items (tea cosies, egg cosies, hair accessories, purses, brooches) made using the same technique and they were all great prices. At the back left of the picture there is also a pair of vintage button earrings in purple and unfortunately I didn't pick up the sellers card so if anyone knows who they are please let me know so I can link to them as they too had some amazing accessories made from vintage buttons. Finally 'Master M' chose a blue sock rabbit from Siansbury's which he adores and has called Timmy, check out her sock monkey store and blog as she does some great designs!

Thank the lord, it's returning.....

my sewing mojo that is! All be it slowly but I do feel I have the need again, you know to get crafty.

On Friday I decided it was about time I made my best pals son a little crafty birthday gift, it's a tad late but she understands (I hope!) and better late than never I always say! Here's how it started out......

The colour scheme matches his newly decorated bedroom and also incorporates my pals favourite ever fabric, no not the blue gingham the gorgeous Cowboy print from Cath Kidston of course. I wanted to make him a picture with his name on it and so came up with this....



Now as a first attempt I quite like it, looking at it from a distance the letter 'x' needs to be bigger and I'm feeling too much red going on. I'm going to make another and change either the star or the felt that the letters are mounted on into green, probably the felt that the letters are on. Yes. The inspiration for the picture came from similar ones that can be found here at blueberry-park, thanks to Karen for highlighting that my source of inspiration had been missed off my original post (this is an ammended version!)
Friday also saw much more excitement in the form of a highly anticipated package from Seamstar that contained the Anna Maria Horner Voiles I had ordered to make 'Little Miss H's' dress for the big wedding this summer. I photographed the occassion just for you....
Here is the package before it was unwrapped,lovingly wrapped in tissue paper and bound with ribbon. The joys of receiving fabric through the post.....
And here are the prints I chose, 2m each of Forest Hills Sweet on the right and on the left Four Squares also in Sweet. They are gorgeous. I love them. I am definitely going to make my wedding dress from them. I ordered a sample from Seamstar of 'Froth' (I think its called that) a solid voile which is aptly named as it reminds me of the froth on a latte, as this is the nearest plain voile to a cream, which arrived today and is just right for my wedding dress, I just need to decide on which patterned voiles to use, though I have a strong suspicion that Forest Hills Sweet will be in there 'cos I just love it!!!
I also ordered some ribbon at the same time not because I need more ribbon, just because you can never have enough...
The ribbon is embroidered and very cute, the aqua one having daschunds on it and the pink has turqouise alligators on it - cool or what!
The final bit of craftiness for today is the news that I attended the Spring Fling Craft Fair at the Millenium Galleries in Sheffield, here I met fellow blogger Manda from Treefall Design who had a stall but more on this tomorrow.....

Wedding Dress Decisions......

As you may or may not know Mr. G and I are getting married this July in Florida, at an intimate beach wedding with just close family in attendance.....sweet, I think so!

Anyway as the date is looming I thought that I'd best consider my options for suitable attire. I don't want to spend a fortune it's not that sort of wedding, so up until today I presumed I'd just head off to Monsoon or Coast and buy a floaty number off the peg. Having checked out their websites I know that there are a number of floaty beach wedding dresses that would be suitable.

Mmmm, today however I ordered some gorgeous Anna Maria Horner Little Folks Voile from Seamstar, one of my favourite online fabric stores. The colourways I had decided upon some time ago when planning my little girls outfit for the wedding. I am going to make her the Emma outfit from Patty Young's Modkid Boutique collection using Anna Maria Horner fabrics. As I'd not checked out AMH's blog for a while this fabric purchase prompted me to head over there and it was then that I saw it.......

Well what do you think? I'm thinking this would make a great wedding dress - I'm not feeling love for the colourway shown but what if I made it in cream with just a coloured bodice and straps and a few coloured zigzags around the bottom??
I'll leave you all to ponder on that one, I'm sure I'll be having sleepless nights about it so why shouldn't you??!! Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

What a weekend.....

it was the most painful ever - seriously, more painful than giving birth.

I got up nice and early on Saturday morning, I like the early morning quiet, the peacefulness and calm before the children wake up and stamp all over the day! I wanted to teach myself how to use the washi digital frames that I bought a couple of weeks ago from Danielle over at Kitschy Digital. It took me ages to work out how to layer the images in photoshop but eventually I mastered it and then it wouldn't upload to my blog - how annoyed was I??!! Anyway by this time said children were up and about so I escaped back to my bedroom to try and get the photo to upload, in my annoyance I bent down awkwardly and did my back in - don't laugh I was stuck, much to Mr. G's amusement, bent over the bed like a cardboard cut out! Really I couldn't move, Mr. G was hysterical until he saw the tears rolling down my face and realised I wasn't joking. To cut a long story short I have been like an invalid all weekend in complete and utter agony with the poor kids having to help me get things from low down and Mr. G getting things from high up! The weekend has sailed away amidst a fog of painkillers interspersed by 'Esau De Heatrub' - fantastic.

Thankfully Monday has seen an easing of the back problem and a clearing of the head which has allowed me to work out why the photo's would not upload - I'd saved them in the wrong format. D'Oh! So at last here are a couple of pictures that I have put into frames just for practice and not sewing related at all!

This is 'Little Miss H' trying not to pose, see that slight smile trying to win its way through?

And this is 'Little Miss H' looking rather glum at having just been invested into Rainbows! Really she loves going!

Now onto the more serious stuff of crafting, having currently lost my sewing mojo - I'm not the only one it seems from the blogs I read.....this weekend I have been taught how to crochet by my mummy - why she waited until I was 33 I have no idea! I bought a crochet taster kit from over at Blueberry Park a few weeks ago (a great place for handmade and unusual gifts - I just keep buying for myself!) which my mum helped me to get started with this weekend. I have now made two, yes two lovely crochet corsages.

They are pictured above on a lovely fabric from Jennifer Moore's Mingle Circle collection in the Summer colourway. I'm really pleased with the corsages and just need to sew brooch bars onto the backs. I'm also deliberating whether to add some lovely ribbon and turn them into rosette style corsages or add some knitted leaves? Let me know what you think in the comments please!

Ta Dah!!

At last I've found time to blog!

The worst week ever has turned into probably the worst month ever what with still living out of boxes, lack of storage in our new place and still no kitchen floor it's been/it is still a nightmare!!

Anyhow on a more positive note my new camera has finally arrived, I opted for a Panasonic Lumix FZ35.

I'm still getting used to using it as its way more advanced than any camera I've owned before but its all good fun! I've also just purchased Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 so that I can create some interesting photo shots using layering for the blog - once I've figured it all out that is!!

I got the idea for all this from a great blog I stumbled across whose author Danielle is a great digital scrapbooker/artist - check it out its great! I ordered some of her digital scrapboook stuff which will be used once I've figured out how!!

Anyhow this is the first picture I took with my new toy, it's my beautiful daughter 'Little Miss H'.....

And here are a couple of shots of my little crafting heaven, essentially a fab bookcase from Ikea that holds all my fabric and crafty bits!

I will endeavour to read the help section of blogger tomorrow and find out how to insert better pictures with frames etc and take some close ups of my fabric which will hopefully highlight my style a bit better! So from me its goodbye for now - I promise to be back soon xx

Arrghhh.....

I think I've just had the worst week ever!!

My sewing machine is somewhere in a box, though thankfully I know where my fabric stash is! My creative space (ie: the kitchen table), is still in pieces, the kitchen floor of my dreams is yet to be laid, we have no washing machine (help) or Sky (how will we survive), until Saturday and to top it all off the camera that I ordered online over 2 weeks ago (yes I'm aware the website promised delivery in 5 days) has yet to arrive, though I am assured it has now been despatched and should be winging its way to me via DHL Express as I blog!

Yes you're guessed correctly, we've done that thing we all vow never to do again, we've moved house - again! I must say in a week or so when some normality has returned it will have been well worth it, we've gone for a new build for the first time and its a lovely feeling I must say.

Unfortunately chaos is reigning at the present time with boxes everywhere and to be honest not much is being acheived as I really don't know where to start, the feeling of spring is in the air, a great time for fresh beginnings (well so one would think), I've opted to let chaos rule a little while longer so I can walk my lovely dogs! Mr. G will be pleased when he comes home tonight.......

On a more positive note my dad called earlier to say my delivery from fabricworm has arrived at his house - lovely fabric to make my schoolhouse tunic in. (If I had a camera I'd post a lovely photo, hopefully it will be here asap and my blog will then have accompanying photo's!) I've also received a felt delivery from paper-and-string which is all very exciting.....well it would be if I could get on and get some crafting done!