Happy World Down Syndrome Day!

I just wanted to share with you all a couple of videos that are especially important today.

Today (21.3.14) is World Down Syndrome Day and of course we celebrate this enormously in our family to show our appreciation of our how our family has been so positively affected by Down Syndrome.

Holly our eldest has Down Syndrome.

 She attends an amazing facility called Shabang here in Huddersfield and the Up Club kids have made this awesome video explaining how Down Syndrome occurs. Please watch it's fantastic. 

 

A friend of mine also shared this video on my Facebook wall, its so amazing it made me sob!




We feel truly honoured to have Holly as our daughter, she is amazing and inspires me daily, without her and the obstacles we've overcome since having her I can truly say I would not be the person I am today. She makes me a better person.

If you can please support the work of the Down Syndrome Association here in the UK.

TEXT: SOCK77 £1 (or however much you want to donate!)
to 70070

Thanks so much xxxx

a little Amitie giveaway!

So you all know I'm a huge fan of bright, eclectic fabrics right? You also realise I'm not afraid of colour or pattern clashes and that I love love love unusual fabrics? Good!

Well here's one way that I indulge my fabric obsession and it helps me tick all the above boxes - woop!

It's the Amitie Textiles bi-monthly stash club! You receive 16 fabrics plus directions on how to make a different quilt block every time! The fabrics are all Fat 16th cuts and fill me with joy, Every. Single. Time.

Amitie are a super awesome fabric shop from Australia (don't worry they ship worldwide) who have the most amazing collection of fabric and patterns. I'm sure you will have seen around the interweb quilts like these:

Midnight At The Oasis - Jen Kingwell

Steam Punk - Jen Kingwell

I love them all so much don't you?

You can find Amitie on IG & Twitter with the following tag @amitie_textiles and I really urge you to go and follow them as they post the most brilliant pictures of fabric and quilts.

The lovely ladies over at Amitie have given me a stash club bundle to give away to one lucky reader so if you'd like to win the bundle pictured above just leave me a comment telling me what you'd make with it and I'll pick a winner on Friday 21st March. 

{Closing time for giveaway is noon 21.3.14. Winner picked by Random.Org}

a grand weekend!

The weather here in Yorkshire over the weekend has been like a breath of fresh air! Seriously Spring like which makes for a happy Justine, don't you find that you get lots more done when the sun shines? I know I do.

The weekend saw lots of fun occurring round these parts. Firstly I made a great start on sewing a bag pattern that I've wanted to try for ages, The 241 Tote by the lovely Anna of Noodlehead fame.

Here's where I started on Saturday morning

Fabric on bolts from my shop Simply Solids

And by Sunday afternoon here's where I was at

{requires pressing}

I've also constructed the lining complete with pocket and I'm just waiting on magnetic bag fasteners arriving before I finish this gorgeous, quick and easy bag! As ever the instructions from Anna are so easy to follow, even for a bag making novice like me!

I was only sewing in short bursts over the weekend as I was spring cleaning and wanted to hang out with the kiddos too. We took a walk around a great local park on Sunday:

The sun was out and the first ice-creams of the year enjoyed. It was lovely to see Holly & Max helping Hunter on the playground equipment and watching the little fella's growing confidence in his own abilities. He's growing up way too fast!

Finally this weekend the hubby and I watched a hair raising few hours of TV on Saturday night. A couple of good friends of ours were performing live on TV, in separate events! 

First up was Danny 'The Cheesecake Assasian' Mitchell making his UFC debut at the O2 Arena in London.

This was one of the most gut wrenching things I've ever watched and I'm no stranger to MMA!! Danny went the full 3 rounds and lost on points but what a debut!! Awesome stuff, Max was screaming instructions at the TV which was very funny!!

Second up was the gorgeous Georgia, a good friend of mine who is competing in this series of 'The Voice UK'. Thankfully she won her battle and is through to next weeks knockouts!

I hope you all had a great weekend too!