A Little Find.

After a bit of disappointment yesterday (i was expecting a parcel and waited for AGES for the postman....i even went down the stairs to look out of the door ,about five times, just to see if the postman was there!! but when he came all he brought me were bank statements!!! RUBBISH!




So to cheer me up i went for a wonder around the charity shops, i didn't have a lot of pennies so it was going to be challenge...but i think i came up trumps....

(AHHHH but i forgot to turn it around and i cant figure out how to just flip it round on blogger or delete just the picture and not the whole post!!!)

Hope you guys can see it...the sugar bowl was a pound and the wool was 40p!! i think the bowl is a little bit old...it has a stamp on the bottom anyway so I've put it on the shelf with all of the china my ma and pa brought me for Christmas.

Well.....guess what?.....I've got to go to work!!! a lovely concessions shift for me!!! "Would you like to go large for just under 50p!!" (every time i say it a little bit of me dies!)

Bye for Now!!

xx

No Makes Today....Instead I Give You CUPS!!

I follow a blog called crafty fish. and one of her recent posts was about favorite cups and crockery. She asked people to put up pictures of their favorite cups so i have!!These are just a few of my favorites. We drink ALOT of hot drinks here so we have a ridiculous amount of cups and mugs for two people. The one on the far right has puffins on it....i found it in a charity shop and i don't know why but the puffins just made me smile! ( i normally drink out of this one when I'm feeling worse for ware or poorly.) The one in the middle is my absolute favorite one!! i got it this Christmas from Whittards and its covered in different colored and patterned apples, The little one is from habitat and Arth has a black one to match which sits on top of it. And the last one is another one from Whittards which arth brought me 3 years ago...i have a little tea pot to match.

Hmmmm, that's a lot to write about cups....ahh well...its the little things that count. Everyone has favorites of one thing or another, like i have a favorite piece of tailors chalk and a favorite needle.

What about you guys?? any strange favorites??

xx

Here They Are As Promised!!

I said id post these yesterday but i got the batteries later than i thought. Here you go...What do you think?....

It has two zip compartments on either end and folds in the middle. after using it yesterday i think the only thing i would change would be to make it a bit smaller. Whenever i make a first of anything i get this phobia that i wont cut enough seam allowance and so i go a bit crazy and end up with a purse a bit on the large side!! but at least its big enough to fit everything in.

Ive noticed that i am nearing a hundred posts.....or will be in about two weeks. i would like to do a give away but I'm not sure. what do you think?? i was thinking of offering up a wallet...the person who wins would just have to give me a colour and i will make them a lovely wallet in it. hopefully some people will enter!!!

Right....Ive got another one of those fabled days off and the flat is a tip....as dot (Arthur's baby sister) pointed out 'its a bit messy in here isn't it?' soo....I'm going to put on my rubber gloves and tackle the all sorts of different monsters wee have.......dirty clothes monsters....dirty dishes monsters...dust monsters....need i mention more??

take care!!!

xx

P.S. i thought id just post up these pictures of this little unicorn i made today. Ladies and Gentlemen i give you Angela the Sleepy Unicorn. She is a brooch which ive just finished for a very good friend, who i missed a little bit today but get to see tonight. hope you like it Sarah.

A Happy Monday Morning? Surely Not?

Hello everyone!! (imagine that in a horribly cheery voice....a voice which you would hate to hear on a Monday!)
So far Monday has gone great for me. i had a bit of a rough weekend...really busy at work and taking on too much. But after a lovely nights sleep, some bargain spotting yesterday and a great make this morning i feel great!!!

I mentioned a while ago that i brought some fabric on eternalmaker, I've already made one purse for the folksy shop out of some of it. This morning i made a purse for myself out of (what i think) is my favorite fabric from that batch. i keep looking at purses a bit like this one but i did not want to pay allot of money for it if it was something i could make myself. turns out i can...well in my own way... I was going to post pictures now but my batteries have died so I'll have to pop out to get some more and then I'll show you!!!

Right i think its time for a coffee
i hope that i wasn't to sickeningly happy!!
take care
xx

Almost Finished.

Hello everyone out there.

I hope that you are all well and are slowly getting out of the gloom that is January. I think out of all the months January is my least favorite. It just seems to easy for me to get all gloomy....so im looking forward to February.

I dont start work until five today but Arthur started work at nine until half five so ive been myself all day. What did i do?? No surprises.....i made a bag (well almost i just need to do a strap for it)

(Sorry about the creases!!! The blue fabric is a bugger for creasing everywhere.)
You can see the cut pattern on the fabric here...it has some letters on it and pictures to match. The whole thing used to be a childs bed cover which i picked up from a local charity shop.

It was a change from all of the purses i've been making, I think I enjoy making the purses a bit more because they are smaller and so easier to cut out but they are also a bit complicated so it gives me a chance to work my brain a bit.

Righto then...i'm going to browse the world wide web for a bit!!

Thanks for reading

xxx

oh...i thought id stick up another blog which i like to read because everyone seemed to like the last one (hyena in petticoats) so why not try this one....ive only just found it but ive been drooling over what she makes!! the blog is really cute to...http://ayumills.blogspot.com

This one went well.

Hi everyone....how are you all??

I woke up today with a stinking headache...stupid allergies. so im kind of walking around in a haze trying to not move my head; which means i probably shouldn't have done this but it didn't seem to make my head hurt any more so i carried on...

i messed around with the pattern for this purse yesterday and after that one went well i thought id take the plunge and snip into one of the new fabrics from eternalmaker and it turned out ok. i'm a bit fussy with the rickrack on the top...theres a little gap but i think its good enough for the shop!!
oh... ive been looking at this blog and i think its really cool, the lady who writes it is funny and she makes great things... hyena-in-petticoats.blogspot.com

Take Care all
xx

Day Off Number Two!!

Whats that?! "two days off in a row" i hear you say. Yep, that's right.....two in a row!!! lucky me. Very lucky me if this is anything to go by...and this...

Today i got: 3 new lovely fabrics from the eternal maker and a zakka sewing book I've been waiting for. Ive been building up the little pile of fabrics. I've not put them in with my other bits and pieces because I've ear marked them for the folksy shop...and i think they look pretty all together!!!

The book is great...full of really cute projects. i love the way that linen is used throughout it and the way that the projects are 'jazzed' up with cute prints.

i hope your all OK...thanks for the suggestions about the purse from yesterday. i decided to take out the poppers and put them further in...so the purse will do for me! (not a complete waste!)

Take Care All

xx

I Thought This Had Gone Really Well.

Evening all. How are you? I'm a bit frustrated!!

I've just finished making this purse

I thought it had gone quite well after a few glitches at the start ( not enough of original fabric which i realised after id cut out 3/4 of the pieces!!)

However after having something to eat and going back to it its not OK because i missed some of the applique on the front and the poppers are pulling the fabric too much so every time you unpop it open a little bit more fabric comes out from underneath the popper!!! grrrrrr. i really want to increase my folksy stuff so i can finally sell something on there but that's never going to happen this way!!!!

HUMPH!!

on the plus side checking the blog cheered me up because you guys said nice things about the purse i made yesterday....so thank you for that. whenever i get a bit grumpy about the stuff i make i go back to the comments and re-read them it cheers me up!!

Right....I'm going to make pompoms out of embroidery silks....how wrong can that go??

xxx

That Didn't Take Me Long

TAA DAAA!!!

I really wanted to make something out of the tea towels i mentioned yesterday that evening but i was too tired and i have to concentrate quite a lot when i make these because the measurements are quite important. So today i went straight to my sewing machine and this is what came out after a few hours!!!

Its already listed on my folksy shop because i kept finding myself thinking 'oh this is rather nice...maybe i can have it' so i thought if i put it up quick then i couldn't have it. i was a bit worried to cut into the towel because i really like it but I'm pleased with the purse so i guess it was worth it.

i hope everyone is OK....guess what???...i have to go work (eurgh) Never mind day off tomorrow!

Take Care

Looky Looky!!

Hello every one, how are you? i finished work about 2hours ago and i think I've only just recovered....it was SOOOOOOO busy!! As was last night too...and tomorrow will probably be the same to!! i guess its better to be busy than bored.

Before i went to work i had a rummage in the charity shops.BOY! was it worth it!! I'm always hunting around for vintage and tourist tea towels because i think they make really good material for purses...there are often an awful lot of detail on them. I always look for them whenever I'm in a charity shop, but hadn't found any for sooo long.....until today!!!! LOOK!!

Four Lovely tea towels....

I love the bottom of this one. The 'Kitchen Adventure' bit make me laugh!
And i thought the colors on this one were pretty (sorry about the blurry letters)

Too make it better most of the tea towels (apart from one which was a pound) were 45p!! You cant complain at that!!

To make my day even better El finished my monster from the monster shop we organised between our self earlier in January. Ladies and Gentlemen i present to you....

POXY!

She has lovely long legs. I love the little monsters that El makes!! and don't tell anyone but we might be making some together to sell on folksy...maybe. Were going to have a making session Monday or Tuesday to put our heads together...see how it goes.

Well....I'm off to play with my tea towels!!! Have a lovely evening!!!!!

These are for the folksy shop....not me...honestly.

Hi everyone. i hope your OK. my wrist is still pretty sore...it woke me up last night (i think i acted a bit like a child and got all stroppy....but i was tired!!!)

Its strange because i can sew using my sore hand but if i pick something up or stretch out my finger it shoots me through the wrist....hmmmm curious.

Despite the pain (i sound like a soldier) i managed to make these for the folksy shop...I'm not sure if anyone will like them...if they don't I'll just keep them. (I'm sorry for the pictures but my silly camera was feeling argumentative.)

A sleepy brown bird brooch (the wing is made from a yellowy stripy fabric from my scrap box)

A happy sleepy apple brooch (not a red blob with eyes...a rubbish camera instead.)

It was enjoyable to just sit at the sewing table and do a little sewing. I'm tempted to go and make some more pompoms...i made some last night and i have plans to use them in the jewellery i make.

Anyway guys...Take Care...I'm off to put some more deep heat on my hand!!

xx

Some Little Bargains

Hi every one. i hope you are OK. I've got a bit of a poorly hand/wrist at the moment...i think I've sprained it or something, its a little swollen and fairly sore. i rang the doctors and they said to take ibuprofen...hot or cold compress' and try to keep it elevated...boooooooo! its not so bad now, just achey. It didn't stop me from having a wonder around the charity shops though....i found this little collection....
Yep more buttons to add to my tiny collection (if i say its tiny then i don't mind buying more....who am i kidding...even if i didn't make the stuff i do id still have buttons.) A strange children's craft book about making funny looking animals out of pompoms...seriously some of these pictures are a bit scary but it made me chuckle. Last but not least they had a bag of the really thin wool for 25p....i thought it would be good for making pompoms....or something like that...I'm not sure i need them but the colours are pretty and i like them.
Joanna from www.thingshandmade.blogspot.com tagged me... i have to let you guys know about 5 things i love soo....
1) the feeling i get after i make something Ive been thinking of for ages. the way that all of the processes come together (...from my scruffy sketches...my guesses at measurements...changing the sewing machine needle before i start....) it just gives me a wonderful feeling to think that i came up with that on my tod.
2) my mum and my nanny without whom i would never of had the first original interest in making stuff my self. my nanny made all of aunty's bridesmaid dresses and my mum was always ready to try anything (from the stuffed elephant which she made whilst pregnant with me...his head is Velcro so always falls of but i love him.)
3)hmmm tea....and coffee....and cake (these don't count as three separate ones!!!) i love the fact that you set aside a few minutes to this one thing...a tiny bit of enjoyment in your day. Like when you sit down and go 'ahhhh lovely cup of tea.'
4)my friends. They are a never ending supply of inspiration and suggestion to me. From them going 'hey can you make me this?' to them going 'be quiet Bex. there's nothing wrong with the (blank) which you've just made.
5)the fact that people like my stuff and buy it. Its such a compliment to me that an item myself and my sewing machine have worked on can be good enough for someone to want to buy it.

O.K. there you go
now i need to tag 5 others....nicky,shabby chick, kim,debby and karina.

Have a great evening everyone....(I'm going to go to the cinema and watch Che...I've been there working all day but i want to see this and i don't think it will be there tomorrow.)
xx

Look what i got!! Thankyou Nicky

I got my first award today from Nicky at http://www.nicky-hollypops.blogspot.com/ ...
The Marie Antoinette Award- A real person, A real award

Rules of the Award are:

1) Please put the logo on your blog

2) Place a link to the person from whom you received the award

3) Nominate 7 or more blogs

4) Put the link to those blogs on yours

5) Leave a message to tell them

I would like to give the award to:

Debby at http://www.d-e-t.blogspot.com/

Jo at http://thingshandmade.blogspot.com/

Shabby Chick at http://countryinthetown.blogspot.com/

Kim at http://brigantiadesigns.blogspot.com/

Lisa at http://u-handbag.typepad.com/uhandblog/

Nicky at http://nicky-hollypops.blogspot.com/ (I'm not sure if i can nominate Nicky because she gave me the award but i would give it to her if she hadn't nominated me so....)

Kirsty at http://kirstyfish.blogspot.com/

i have to confess to not knowing how to put links up so I've out the email addresses down instead hope that doesn't break the rules.

Thankyou very very much Nicky...it really made me smile.

I've just been tagged as well... this is what i have to do (hope i can do it properly)

1) Link to the person who tags you
2) Post the rules on your blog
3) Write 6 random things about yourself
4) Tag 6 people at the end of the post and link to them
5) Let each person know they have been tagged.

Here are my random things...

1) i'm petrified of injections...seriously i cant even watch someone having one i just freak out. i think its from when i had appendicitus when i was little...too many needles.

2) the little finger on my right hand is missing the top. i shut it in a gate when i was tiny and (sorry for this) just yanked it out....eurgh.

3)i have a horrible obsession with david suchet...only as poirot tho'!! (like that makes it any better!)

4) When i was at school i used to have the nick name of Jiff...only one person still calls me Jiff and thats my best friend.

5)i'm really alergic to dustmites and cats...if i get close to them i get horrible migraines.

6)i used to be a complete tomboy...i remember telling my mum i wasn't going to my leavers ball in a dress. i was told "you'll go in a dress or not at all." im not like that now thought!.

so...i'm going to tag

Debby at www.d-e-t.blogspot.com

Jo at www.thingshandmade.blogspot.com

Shabby Chick at www.countryinthetown.blogspot.com

Kim at www.brigantiadesigns.blogspot.com

Kirsty at www.kirstyfish.blogspot.com

Lisa at www.u-handbag.typepad.com/uhandblog

phew....that took some figuring out!!

Take Care

xx

What a Lovely Day (despite the grey!)

Hello everyone!!

I've had such a lovely day off today. i met Tanya and Gethyn (her not so baby boy...last time i saw him he looked like a new born baby....now he looks like a proper baby...make sense?) I had the best carrot cake at Andersons...it was like a mountain dotted with walnuts and lovely icing.

Then i came home and started on a purse...which turned out great (see below) half way through me and El made a cake...or biscuit....or Frisbee.

Yeah so.... it didn't rise too much (i think that maybe the tins were a bit too big) but it does taste nice even if its a little on the low side.)

After we iced the cake i finished the purse i started. i decided to make this purse after i brought a lovely red art deco style buckle from Sue's Craft it was tucked away in a reduced bucket. it seems a little bit strange...making a purse around a buckle but it all just sort of clicked. Theres only a few things i would change. id put the coin section on the bottom not the top (seems obvious now) but its kind of top heavy. also id make the bottom card holder a little bit wider than the others because quite a bit of it gets sewn into the purse. apart from that i really like it. its made from a reduced napkin from habitat as well...which adds to its charm for me!!

What do you think?

Oh...i nearly forgot...i just wanted to let you all know that if you like the idea of watching lovely old films on a lovely big screen then you dont have to go a little cinema (although that would be good!) once a month on a monday at all cineworlds there are digitally re-mastered showings of old films...like Its All About Eve. Arthur also says that if you live close to Bristol you could try The Watershed (on the water front). I really would recommend seeing any of them because it makes you feel all nice and warm inside!

Hope everyone had a lovely day as well

Take Care

xx

All About Eve

Today we went to see All About Eve at the cinema...it was January's monday classic. I really really enjoyed it. i love the bit at the start when its the old fashioned version of the film comapny's logo. I had a really lovely time...the dresses looked great and everyone seemed to drink out of great cups and saucers!!! There were some really snappy lines and great dialogue...the character of Margo was fantastic!! i dont really want to go to work but hey ho!!

see you later

xx

im sorry for two posts in a day but LOOK WHAT CAME ARRIVED AT WATERSTONES!!

you should have seen the silly little dance i did when i got the message from waterstones to say it had arrived!! i had to wait a while because it came from America but i had a waterstones gift card to use up so i did.....

let me tell you the last hour was lovely..crumpets...chocolate hobnobs...roobush tea...and stitched in time. what more could i want? (i recommend this book even if you don't like any of the products...but u probably will....the pictures are beautiful!!)

Right...time for tea
xx

taa daaa!!!

Morning everyone!! I hope you are all OK!!



Fresh from the sewing machine is this rather big lady...

shes about double the size i thought she would be...and the darts didn't go to well. i wanted to make one with more of a rounded bottom but this will do me...I'm not going to put it up on folksy because I'm not 100% happy with it...i guess this is what happens when you try to make your own patterns!!! Anyways i like her!!

i thought id just say Thank you to everyone who has left comments on here...it really is a lovely thing to read what other people think of my stuff and to also get in touch with people who think the same as me about a lot of things.SOOOO.....THANKYOU!!!

Right, I'm going to meet Arthur from work!

Take Care

xx

Right! Thats It!! No more sulking around!

I'm done being all sulky...it makes me feel bad and lazy so I'm not going to do it anymore!!

To prove this i made all of these things today...

Its a colorful navy blue cord shoulder bag...

The guy who this is for likes crazy bright colors which is why i went for the bizarre blue butterfly fabric for the lining ( and also the funky buttons on the front.)

This is for one of our friends...he's the artist in residence Swansea University (i believe) and he recently completed a series of photos which i fell in love with straight away!! After pussyfooting around it i asked him if he would swap be a print for one of my bags and he agreed!!! Look what i got in exchange!! (excuse the rubbish photo!!) I love the confused look on the mans face and the green of the berries. you can find pictures of his other stuff at http://www.tompope.co.uk/

I also finished off these today.

After i showed some people the phone pouch which i made last week two of my good friends asked if i had any of the fabric left and if i could make them some ipod cases...which i did. AND I've still got some of the felt left too!!!

So far that's all I've done today...I've got an order for a necklace and need to adjust a bracelet i made also but i think i may have a few minutes on the Internet first.

Thanks to everyone who told me to cheer up and that I'm not the only one who gets all mope-y.

Take Care

xx

sorry about yesterday

i just re-read what i posted yesterday and i realised i sounded like a very grumpy person so i think i should apologise....sorry. I haven't done a lot today but then again i have got to go work in half an hour...so my shift has kind of been looming over my day.

Arthur an i have just has the most amazing sandwiches and know i think i ate so much that i may resemble a sandwich a little bit (i look a bit doughy around the edges if you look close)

Anyways here's a picture of a bag I'm making for one of our friends in exchange for one of his lovely pictures...i got to indulge in my love of buttons!!!

I'll be back again soon....hopefully with something more interesting!!

Take Care
xx

Eurgh!!

I had some making planned for today....instead, after i got in from town, i started to feel really grotty and felt like i couldn't do any of the things i wanted to do. saying that i did bake these...

Apple and Cinnamon Muffins. i don't have a good track record with muffins...i think i usually mix them up too much and then they don't rise up, but these ones went OK. They stick a bit to the paper case on the bottom but apart from that they went OK.

So after i baked these i rounded up some buttons and a duvet and sat on the sofa listening to music and sewing buttons onto a bag I'm making for someone....all this whilst feeling a bit sorry for myself and sniffing.

A little bit pathetic but that's how the day went!!!

Right...i cant stay here forever...I'm going to hang some washing on the airer!

Brrrrrr!!

A few days ago something happened which i hoped would be a one off. We woke up a few days ago, came down to make a cup of tea, pulled back to curtains....except they were stuck to the window.....with ice!!! I found this funny for a few minutes then i found it a bit ridiculous!!! I'm tempted to put another storage heater on but they cost soooooo much!!! Anyways the window was iced up again today!! Ahh well....it will be funny story to tell when we are old!!

Anyway to beat of the cold time blues i made some things.... These are only snippets because they are a present for someone and they may look on here but I'm really pleased with them so i decided to show a little bit of them off...

I LOVE THIS FABRIC!!! i think its the teal and beige/cream color that make it so lovely. I'm glad i used it to make a present for this person because i think they will like it as much as i do.

I also made this for someone birthday at work...I'm pretty sure they don't look her too often so I'm going to put the whole thing on.....if she does then....SURPRISE!!!

Right...I'm off now...going to carvery with some friends...oh before i go i thought id put a picture of these up...Arth brought them for me and they make me smile.( whoops...forgot to turn it around.)

Take Care!!!

xx

Snow Snow Snow Snow!!!

There wasn't much but what there was lovely and crunchy when you walked on it. i must say that it did make the walk into work more enjoyable. But i couldn't enjoy it as much as would have normally because i think that a cactus may have crawled into my throat the other night because its really sore now!!!! (or maybe i just have a little cold and no cactus...either way it hurts,) So I'm feeling sorry for myself and drank lots and lots of honey,lemon and ginger....yummy.

i did manage to get these done in between moaning to Arthur about my throat. A friends sister ordered these...they are like the other sputniks I've made except these all have Velcro bums so that the people who get them can stuff them with whatever they like (and if they uses plastic bags like me they can use it as a plastic bag holder?) it also makes them a bit easier for me to post as well!!! hehehehe

Right I'm off to drink more honey and warm up the bedroom with our lonely little heater.

i hope your all well!!!
Take Care M'Dears

xx