French Knots

Jumble Luck

On Saturday, in a break from picture making, I went to a jumble sale and struck lucky. Some gorgeous angora and lambswool jumpers for felting, a lovely plate ( for 10p!), a pair of curtains in what I think is a Laura Ashley print ( for cutting up) , a cute '70s Mr Men pinny and some books. We love Richard Scarry and snapped up another to join the ones that I have from my childhood, the spine is a bit torn but for 25p who's complaining?

My favourite is a book called The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast by Alan Aldridge and William Plomer, another '70s book but in lovely condition. The illustrations are wonderful and I will enjoy it even if the children don't

   

The jumpers have felted well, one heavy grey one that was giant sized is now really thick and I'm going to make a bag with it I think. Will have to visit Lisa at u handbag to get some handles and read her excellent tutorials. Another pink one has come out just the right size for my daughter so it will be customised with a flower and some ribbon and once she has out grown it I can use it for the project I had in mind.

Busy busy..

Guess what I've been doing this weekend ??

I've had a lovely time, mixing shells, stamps, feather, buttons and snippets of fabric, playing with the colours and enjoying myself

I'm just enjoying looking at them all finished and ready to go, feeling productive and with the mojo in full flow am going to do some sketches of other projects whilst unwinding with a glass of wine. Hope you had a satisfying weekend too. 

Shadow Boxes

The next few days are going to revolve around these

and little else. Samantha of Plump Pudding issued an invitation which was impossible to resist. Did anyone want to supply items for the Country Living Fair? Oh my goodness, how exciting she is taking some of my Shadow Box Pictures! Have spent the day gathering supplies, literally as the tags are made with recycled and found items. My Little Helper is only 3 but already knows to keep his eyes open for feathers when we are out for a walk! The shells and sea glass are from Anglesey and luckily I have some jam jars full so I'll be able to start tag making once the children are in bed.

Happy

I was chatting last night on the phone to a friend, we've not spoken for a while so I was bringing her up to date with 'the redundancy' clearing my desk, saying good bye to people and so on. I also told her about how I went out for lunch with a couple of people from work the other day and called in to say hello to a couple of other people in the office, I was a bit nervous as I spent 17years of my life there but found I felt fine - no 'I miss this' or anything, not a pang! Yes there are people who I miss, whose company I value but the whole work thing, no not at all. Yippee! She also asked me how I felt now, it's not something I've given much thought to perhaps because I was subconsciously worried, but actually I replied 'happy!'. I am really enjoying being at home, nesting, nurturing, mothering. Perhaps it's novelty value as I'm only in my second month, who cares I'm loving it, ok not all the time ( I'm not Pollyanna)but mostly. Perhaps slightly less so when my daughter is screaming like a banshee as she doesn't want to her homework! Thanks Gill for making me think about it.

I have been reading The Happiness Project which is an investigative blog into what makes us happy. For me I think it is simply having time. Time to do the things I enjoy ( sewing, creating, baking, cooking, reading with the children curled up on the sofa)as well as things I have to do ( washing, cooking, running to the post office ) the pressure of trying to cram everything in is gone, I was driving along the other day and it hit me - I was just pootling along! Not madly trying to get from A to B as fast as possible..long may it continue.

Baking Bag

One of my Nephews will be two in a few weeks and I had an idea for a present going round in my head. I used some snazzy checked fabric to make

And I also made an apron to go inside, keeping him clean when using the biscuit cutters to make tasty treats

We are off to the cinema later with the children to see Peter Pan, it'll be My Little Helpers first time so I wonder how long he'll last. We got the tickets for free fromSee Film First, you just register and they email you about upcoming films and you can choose which cinema you want to go to. We'll need to answer a questionnaire afterwards which hopefully wont be too taxing!

Crafty action

Despite it being half term I have been able to grab a few minutes for me. These cards were inspired by A to Z who has used machine stitching to great effect. I put my own spin on them using some pieces from an old quilt and some name tapes I had made saying Happy Birthday. The name tapes were a bit bright and white so I soaked them in tea to get a softer colour.

I also whipped up a notebook to send to my sister and a little card for one of my nephews. I'm half way through making his birthday present and hopefully will get 10 minutes tomorrow to finish it off

There's something consuming about working on a project, your mind is totally in the moment and other pressures and worries don't get a look in, at least it's one thing I really enjoy that must be good for me unlike wine and chocolate!

Half Term

The half term breaking is whizzing by, we have been visiting friends, watching Scooby Doo and making cakes

Of course you need to make sure there is no chocolate left in the bowl once you've finished making the cornflake cakes

Saves on the washing up!

Thanks for the advice re felting jumpers, I'm going to have one more try with the one that steadfastly refuses to felt and then it'll go to the charity shop instead.

 

Felting

I have had a couple of ideas floating around in my head for a while and wanted some woollen jumpers to felt, so I could put the ideas to the test. All the wool jumpers in the charity shop were £4 or even more and as I've never tried felting in the washing machine before I wanted a cheaper option. There was a jumble sale on Saturday and I managed to pick up a huge blue Ikea bag full of treasures for only 3 quid, that's more like it! The Big Sister came with and helped read the labels to find the right sort of jumpers, she learnt a new word ' acrylic '!

In addition to some wool jumpers I got some old hand embroidered tray cloths and hankies that I'll be making into pin cushions, some jeans and a checked woollen skirt that I'll be recycling in projects too. I like giving old clothes and fabrics a new lease of life as something different.

I put the jumpers on a hot wash , with the jeans for friction, and am mostly pleased with the results apart from a couple of lambswool jumpers which came out exactly the same as they went it. I put them on a 90 degree wash and they still stayed the same, so I'm going wrong somewhere or does lambswool not felt? Any ideas welcome please

It's in the genes..

A quiet afternoon was much improved when My Little Helper said  ' Lets do cwafts Mummy', so we did. He enjoys cutting things up and loves stickers, he decided that he wanted to make a 'folder' influenced I think by The Big Sister who needed a folder to keep the lines for her play organised.

The next few weeks are busy with birthdays for family and friends, I have finished off a couple of projects so far with a fairly long list still to go - why do we set ourselves these challenges?! I enjoy making things as gifts and hope that the recipient feels the love with which they were made. I bought these scarf and gloves sets in the sales but they needed spiffing up a bit so I made some little felt corsages to make them a bit prettier.

After taking the photo I decided I didn't like the decoration on the back of the glove so I moved it to the cuff which looks better I think. So just a couple of note books, a baking set, some birthday cards, a valentines card to go in the next couple of days plus a half made toy to finish, several half done embroideries and the wretched sketches for the embroidered ballerinas and cowboys ( which I knew were beyond my drawing skills before I started !) for the tshirts......all activities to ward off the February Funk here, thank goodness.

Exciting parcels

Today's post brought some lovely surprises! I was lucky to be drawn out of the hat by Dollie Daydream or more accurately her Little Fella, she was celebrating her 100th post and today this parcel arrived.

Tied up with ribbon, with a super postcard and also if I'm not mistaken a lovely Moo card with a picture of some embroidery on it. Of course I exercised restraint and didn't rip the paper off as fast as I could...!   

Look what was inside! A wonderful tote bag made from soft baby cord in a lovely palette of colours. Thanks Caroline, I'll be using this a lot! I'm not usually lucky in draws and raffles.....unless you count the time about 20 years ago when I met my husband by buying a tombola ticket from him!

Also in the post was a lovely little package from Sarah at Paper and String which opened up to reveal a dinky little heart and some ribbon

The ribbon will be used later on a project I am working on for a friend's birthday. Thanks Sarah!

The final loveliness is some fabric from Kitty Craft, when Molly Chicken mentioned the shop was open on her blog I knew it would be dangerous to visit, but throwing caution and the weeks food budget to the wind I bought this

And this too

So what was a bit of a dull and ordinary day ( no snow here sadly) was transformed!