New Pictures...

Just a few snaps of some recently acquired charity shop gold....

Please may i introduce you to Betty (on the left) and Balthazar (on the right), you can see one of the pretty handkerchief's i have taken to pinning to the wall, and the strange but appealing skiing lady)A collection of five white china horses for £2! they are not shown in their best here on the tatty, soon to be painted and re-vamped, shelves. only one of them has a broken leg but their previous owner had repaired so its all good.Some new brass owls to sit upon the 'knick-knack' shelf, i didn't intend for it be mainly full of feathered things but its going that way.

Anyway, time to go and make in the shop

xx

A Favorite Part of The House...

It seems that i stop by here just about often enough to clear the worst of the cobwebs away doesn't it?

i just wanted to stop by and show you one of my favorite spots in our house at the moment.Its on the wall directly opposite to where the sewing table is. the cabinet is one of my prized possessions a) because it is lovely and b) because i carried it all the way to the house from town (about a 25minute walk) all on my tod....i honestly thought i was never going to be able to raise my arms above my head ever again, they hurt so much)

I'm not sure what it is about this set up but i just really like it, i plan for the whole wall to be almost covered in lovely framed pictures of various birds, there are a few up all ready.

The little set of shelves was a bargain from a charity shop, i think it was the princely some of 4 pounds! i intend to display all of my very important nick nacks which seem to magically appear in my shopping bags whenever i go into charity shops.
anyway, I'll post some more pictures when i finally get the space finished, there's not much left to do just a few more licks of paint here and there.
anyway, have a wonderful Sunday evening!!

Things That I Am Liking Quite A Bit...

hello!!

I wanted to pop by and show you some of the lovelies i have acquired in the last few days...much to the dismay of my bank account...

I guess this one didn't break the bank. i stumbled across a rather lovely vintage bed sheet in the charity shop, which was perfect for some curtains i had been planning. Ive been slowly but surely renovating my sewing corner of the house...poor old Arth gave me free rein in the colour department...hence the teal and ochre yellow scheme!You can see some lovely teal here, Ive yet to pin up all of my 'notice board/mood board' whatnot's. I'm really pleased with it and think the curtains came out lovely...very dottie angel.
The next two are the ones that did the damage to the bank account...

well the print and pattern one did anyway, the other one was a bargain from Oxfam. The Print and pattern one is packed with inspiration and I'm glad i brought it despite the lack of pennies residing in my poor bank account!

I couldn't leave this little fella behind, hes a candle and i have no intention of lighting him ever, he's going to sit by my button jar and guard my them and my pretty coloured plastic knitting needles!
Well, that's all for now...
Have a lovely evening.

P.S. If i don't mention my shocking blogging skills I'm hoping you wont notice them either. I'm sorry to be absent but its just a bit busy for me...shopwise and not shop wise.

A Friend From Across the Sea...

We've had a visitor staying for the past few days...Arthurs baby sister came to stay with us during some of the half term. As a little present for her (its her birthday next week) I secretly made this little creation...Please excuse the rather dark picture, but I had to make her once the little lady had gone to bed. I like looking at the first sketch of something and then the real thing, this one turned out allright.A little embroidered face.She was gratefully received! The little rabbit is called Lopsy Lapin, and as I type this she is employed in a complicated game of hide and seek. I was going to call her lopsided lapin but its been abbreviated to lopsy...which i think is better. Might make some more of these for the shop...

We went to Cirencester yesterday, they have a good museum which we thought that the sister would like to go to. I wanted to go too because there was an exhibition of this ladies work there...I really enjoyed it and brought lots of her post cards because there's no way my bank balance could afford an original...but i can keep dreaming! Why not take a peek, it really is lovely work.The postcards have been stuck straight up on my sewing wall. My favorite is the lion one.(please don't look at the nostalgic picture of me and my sister in the bath! got to love the colour of the bath tub!)

Speaking of art, I've mentioned my friend Chris Rixon before, he drew me the Bex's Button picture...well he drew some birds recently and as i love birds and have grand plans for a 'Wall of Birds' (when i finally get around to decorating my bit of space...its going to be a wall of pictures of birds, all in brightly coloured frames, and the wall they hang on is going to be either a pale blue or pale yellow, so the frames stand out nice and bold.) I asked him if I could purchase two of them, he was really kind and actually gave me two prints! look at them!!!

As you can see, being the highly organised person that I am, I don't have any frames for them yet, but I had to put them up because they are soo wonderful. He uses only drawing pens, which is amazing when you think that that means its all individual lines on the feathers! If you like what you see please check out his website, I bet you wont be disappointed!

Well, I think I've bombarded you enough for one day!

Be back soon.

xx

Bonjour!!

Hello my lovelies? How are you all today?

I've been super poorly over the last few days...some sort of extra strength cold...I've only just gotten my voice back and I'm left with quite a good raspy cough (which makes me sound like a velociraptoroff of Jurassic park...that scene when they are in the kitchen...remember?)

Needless to say...i was knocked for six...soo much so that i couldn't even sew 'Woe is me!' But that didn't stop me thinking about what i wanted to sew! Which leads me onto some pictures... (and probably some explanations...)

That lightly drawn moustached critter you can see in this picture is called a Crabbitz; we've had a recent invasion of them at the shop... not that El or I are complaining. They are a cross between a cat and a rabbit and like most things in the shop we kind of came across them by accident. I decided i wanted to embroider a picture of one due to a few reasons 1. El recently drew some super cute pictures of them 2. we had a few embroidered pictures in frames at the shop but sold some in the last few weeks so needed some more and 3. i was probably hallucinating on cough medicine when the thought crosses my mind!!

Anyway onto the next picture...half way through sewing... please excuse the slightly blurry picture...I'm using an old camera which was kindly given to me by a friend (my other one gave up the ghost!) You can see that the Crabbitz has a speech bubble...inside that speech bubble you can see that he is saying 'Parlez-vous francais?' The idea is to do a little series/collection of them all saying funny little french sayings...What do you think? we are going to put them into some cute little wooden frames we have...i think they would look really cute up on a wall and i have to admit I've grown a little fond of this one...he might have to stay...well its always best to test run new ranges right??Here he is with his body all finished. i plan to keep the colours quite simple...black with one other colour...here it is green in his bow tie...I'm also thinking of doing the outline of the speech bubble in green too, i think it will bring everything together nicely, what do you think?

I'll post you another picture when I've finished embroidering the words (i get an hour break at work so I'm going to save that for then!)

Anyway...I'm off for a quick browse around the charity shops before work (first shift back since i got sick...fingers crossed I'm OK for it!)

Speak soon

xx

My Bargain Sense Was Tingling...

Soooo...

i wondered into town with Arthur (i say wondered but really i battled my way through near Arctic conditions...that's right followers, Cheltenham has finally got the snow!), at the time he thought he was going in to work but they called him on the way in and said he didn't have to come in because of the snow (later on i had to tell work that there was no way i would be able to walk in to town from our house...its literally a skating rink!.) Anyway, i digress, we thought we might as well have a wonder around the shops which were open. We enjoyed a delicious bacon sandwich and coffee,and i also picked up the most recent sew hip (FINALLY Smiths got it in). However i was satisfied...i had an itch still, i knew there were bargains to be had...so we wondered around a few charity shops, and by the end of it had definitely found the source of my tingling bargain sense.

In one shop i found 2 hand knitted bunny shaped egg cosies, a new Richard Scarry book, and a lovely little mouse ornament for the grand total of £2.50.

In the next one i found 8 square metres of some lovely heavy grey and black tweed fabric for £10, (an absolute bargain as i was looking at some similar stuff in a fabric shop and it was just under £10 pounds for 1 metre!) This fabric is going to come in sooo handy for the shop! I also found a brown leather belt for £1. (apologies for the paint pots and untidy bedroom picture, we are in the midst of decorating and this was the only room which had any where near enough light)

But the best was definitely saved for the last shop we went in. The weather was terrible by this time, i couldn't see a thing because i had to take my glasses off (they were getting covered in snow!) But we battled through and as a reward for our Arctic Explorer skills i found the most wonderful hand embroidered throw/wall hanging. It was priced at £5 and i didn't hesitate to take it to the till it was beautiful, love at first sight! But it got better, when i went up to the till the lady told me that all linen was half price! This beauty cost me £2.50!! Just look at it...

I am in awe of the time and skill this must have taken. It's lined with a linen type fabric, but this is only sewn on the sides...leaving the top and bottom ends open which is why i think it may be a wall hanging...I'm probably going to use it as a throw on our bed tho'.i think this is my favorite part...thousands and thousands of little stitches all hand sewn on. i consider myself quite a patient sewer (who spends 2 hours sewing on sequins onto a cardi) but when i think of how long just little piece took the person who made this....Those pretty pink flowers...yep...french knots!i wonder how many?I'm in love with this stitch, I've no idea what you call it but it looks soo intricate, i love the colours too.Lovey blues and satin stitch, this is one of the many flowers.

O.K. I'm going to stop bragging about my finds now...i may be snowed in but that doesn't mean i can't potter about the house.

Ohh, before i go...i made five more of the little monsters for the Indoor Picnic on Sunday...

There are a few more snaps and info of the event over on the shops blog.

Stay Warm and Safe! (and sorry for a rather long post!)

xx

Back So Soon?...

I know. I can't believe it either...but here i am...and its only been a few days since my last post!! (Well i said i would try didn't i?!)

I'm writing this after a shift at the cinema. Its quite bad there at the moment, and most shifts are a struggle for me. There will always be something which irks me or upsets me. i had a shift on Wednesday which was one of the worst I've ever had. the queue was constantly out of the door and almost to one of the entrances to the complex which the cinema is in. It was horrible. People were trampling and shoving an old lady who was struggling to get off the escalator because the foyet was soo crowded! an old lady for petes sake!! COME ON PEOPLE! its a cinema not a sinking ship! There were also people who found it highly amusing to watch me clean up a drink that they had spilt...yeah cos its funny that i get paid a pittance to clean up their mistakes! Seriously guys..it was such a bad shift i rang Arthur up and cried at him on the way home! my mantra whenever I'm in there is 'think of the shop' and 'this is a job not a career';if you see a crazed looking lady mumbling these words to herself then you know that's me...pop over and say hello because (despite the tirade of abuse that has just spilled out of fingertips and onto this blog) I'm actually a nice person!

Right...where was I?ohh yep...i just thought you might like to see some frosty pictures i took whilst on my way into town ( i was on a paint buying mission...but more of that later!)

i like this one the best. it was a really peculiar type of frost...it looks super spiky but soft at the same time!
ohhh....just wanted to let you know about this event which El and I will be at this Sunday...Bristol Biggest Indoor Picnic. Its to celebrate the launch of The Love Of It website, and it looks to be an awesome day...soooo many cool stalls and what nots going on! if your local please come and say hello. El and I will be teaching people how to make little critters that look a little bit like this guy
Right....

And So To Bed

xxx