Christmas Panto - he's behind you!!!!!!

Sorry I haven't posted lately but probably like the rest of you I have been extremely busy (not too busy to read other people's blogs but just too busy to write my own!!)

Well my busy world has finally stopped spinning as I have finished all my orders and my daughter who was performing in the local Am Dram Panto - Goldilocks and the Three Bears has had her final performance today, Rachel played Katy the Wasp and was fantastic,

the rest of the cast were pretty good too. I took lots of photos during each performance so have been busy picking out the best ones and putting together an album for all the cast and crew... It's tiring for us mums too as we act as chaperone's, man the kitchen during the interval and for me make emergency repairs to costumes.... the bees wings kept on flopping about!!!

You can find out all about the Danbury Players and see pictures of their performances on their facebook page.

CACTUS UNDIES

A little white ago Clare from Expressorize was telling us about her son, who when he drops something says "Cactus Undies". So she put out a request on Misi and both myself and Amy from Artbymimi came up with these

Cactus Undies Cushion

by Artbymimi

Cactus Undies Plushie

by Madaboutbags

So if you need an extra special or unusual present then you know where to come there are lots of talented and creative Misians just waiting for your custom orders

Calorie Free Chocolate, Unicorns and Builders!!!

It's been a busy week or so in our house, I managed to crack on and make two more bags...

The first one was a Calorie Free Chocolates fabric totefor a friend who works for Chocoholics and needed a bag to carry all her catalogues etc to her parties, I'm really pleased with the bag as this fabric is gorgeous to look at and to work with and I tried out a new bottom technique and now my bags have nice firm bottoms, perhaps I should try it out on mine!!!!(hot iron and vilene- hmm not sure it's going to work!!!)

The second bag is for a secret santa so I'm having to stay stumm for who it's for...this one's made from a lilac unicorn fabric with silver detailingand I've added a grosgrain ribbon key fob with a little silver hand made with love heart - I do hope that whoever this bag is for loves it!!!

Finally, we have the builders in, about 18 months ago we had plans passed for a conservatory and have put off starting work for a variety of reasons, but last Wednesday Paul decided that work should start and has since spent the past few days on the phone arranging builders, bricklayers and supplies, we now up to ground level and its all starting to take shape. The kids had a competition running when the cement arrived as to which builder barrowed the most cement into the footing - Builder Darren won - his prize? digging out the footing for the porch!!!!

Sarah-Jane' Bag........

This is my latest creation made especially for Sarah-Jane, one of the mum's from school. Sarah-Jane works at our local pre-school and wanted a bag to carry all her "stuff" to work in, she had a favourite green bag but wanted to keep that for other occasions and as I've made bags for her in the past she asked me to make her another and here it is.

I think the school playground fabric works brilliantly with the green and the black and white polka dot ribbon on the handles was just a little extra touch. There's plenty of room for all Sarah-Jane's "stuff" as this bag measures 21" across the top, 16" across the bottom and 15" deep with a gusset (bottom) of 5". I've added lots of internal pockets for pens, mobiles phones and keys. There's also a small extrnal pocket cleverly stiuated in between the handles.

Sarah- Jane hasn't seen it yet and I'm taking it up to school this afternoon so I hope she likes it.....
Now onto the next custom order.......
A chocolates fabric tote and money apron for Nicky.....

All Halloweened Out!!!

That's it I'm finally halloweened out...we've had two nights of Halloween fun which has been great but boy am I tired!!!!

On Friday we went to a friends house where she put on a Halloween Party, there were about 15 kids there plus mums and Ruth had decorated her house all spooky, the kids played bobbing for apples and got completely soaked Rachel washed off all her facepaints and Jack got his Scooby nose all wet (which we said was the sign of a healthy dog!!).

I took along a feely box which went down well we had eyeballs, intestines, dead flies, a witches hand, rats and spiders and eyeball sockets.....which were really......

Then it was onto doughnut eating (no hands) very sticky and lots of fun and then food and dancing finally managed to drag the kids away and then it was all go again tonight..we thought we were going to be rained off but it was really mild out...

We live on a very dark lane so it was really spooky and I think we may have been a bit too scary as a few people didn't answer the door, but we did managed to meet up with some other neighbours and the kids merrily trick or treated and I took along the feely box and got everyone to have a go!!!

So now everyone is in bed and I'm catching up online with a cuppa!!!

Lots to do next week as the kids are back in school...half term what half term!!!

And the Winner is........

I've finally got everyone off to bed and asleep and am sitting here guiltily eating haribo super sour monsters, it is a halloween giveaway afterall - and the kids won't know as I hid all the halloween sweets!!! - mental note to self must buy more sour monsters tomorrow!!
Right now down to business, I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone that entered my blog giveaway, we had 17 entries and the winner was

Louise your winning streak is continuing and the bag below will be on its way to you.

For those of you that weren't so lucky this time but would still like one of my Halloween bags I have discounted them all by £1 to £5.50 so grab a bargain over in my Misi Shop.
I've nearly finished the sour monsters so I must remember to hid the evidence (empty packet) in the bottom of the bin!!!! shhh don't tell the kids.....

LAST MINUTE HALLOWEEN GIVEAWAY!!!!

I've been meaning to run a giveaway for one of my Halloween Bags all week but I just been soooo busy with running/organising the book fair at school that I just haven't had the time....until now!

So this is your chance to win one of my Halloween fabric trick or treat bags, you can chose between 8 different fabrics:

1. Purple Witches
2. Scooby Doo - Scary Castle
3. Halloween Kids
4. BOO!
5. Orange Witches & Black Cats
6. Pumpkins
7. Trick or Treat
8. Scooby Doo - Haunted House Party

So there are your choices now all you have to do is enter -

just leave a comment saying which bag you would like to win here on my blog and I will pop all the names in a bag and pick out a winner. You have untill midday on Monday 26th October to enter and I will annouce the winner Monday evening - Good Luck

BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH - OCT 2009

We are all affected by the dreaded 'C' word at some time in our lives, whether it's personally or someone we know. I lost a friend to breast cancer 10 years ago at the age of 30 and it's definitely made me much more aware of how precious our lives are and sometimes how tragically short.

I've had this Pink Ribbon fabric in my workshop for a little while and as it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month this month I decided to make up some bags and donate 20% of the retail price to Cancer Research UK. I have teamed the fabric with a bright pink heavy weight cotton blend and it closes with a gold coloured magnetic fastener. This bag is just big enough to carry all your essentials or would be a great way to carry your lunch to work. It measures 9" tall x 10" wide with a 3" bottom, has 1" wide handles that are 15" long giving a drop of 7". It is interfaced with volume fleece so will stand up on its own but is soft to the touch. It costs £12 plus £2 p&p. I will be making a larger version of this bag sometime this week and will be adding them both to my Misi shop. If you are at all interested in purchasing one of these Pink Ribbon bags then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Latest Halloween Trick or Treat Bag

This is my latest Halloween fabric Trick or Treat Bag, I made this one last week but have only just got around to uploading the photos.
This fabric is full of lovely Halloween colours and characters and would make a great gift. There's plenty of room for all your treats and what's great about it is it can be washed in the machine and can be used again and again!!!!
These bags measure approximately 7 1/2" tall, 5 1/2" across the to and 8 1/2" across the bottom with a 3" gusset (bottom) and the handles are just under an 1" wide and and are about 16" long giving an drop of 7-8".
If you would like one of my Halloween fabric Trick or Treat bags just pop over to my Misi shop where you will see a great selection to suit all tastes!!!
They cost £6.50 plus p&p.

Why is it......

that when you get a spare two hours and you think "right I'm off to my workroom to be creative and everything starts off well and then for what ever reason you just can't sew!!!!! Well that was my day today, Paul was busy outside, Tompom was asleep so off I popped down the garden to my workroom and I thought I'd make some more of the ID wallets, cutting out was fine but then when it came to sewing I was just getting frustrated, I wanted to use a bit firmer interfacing in the wallets as I don't want the ID CARD/bus pass to fall out of the top. I think I was trying too hard to get everything just right and the seams pulled when I turned the wallet right sides out. So its back to the lighter interfacing tomorrow. I don't know about you but sending off your handmade goodies in the post is so daunting, I'm always casting a critical eye over every little stitch and thread....when you sell at craft fairs the person who buys has touched your handmade goodies and can see how they are made and can make a decision, when someone online says "can you make me one of those" I'm always worried that they might not like it. Paul's always saying I'm too critical but I do like things to be right....well tomorrow's another day and perhaps it should be MUST NOT TRY TOO HARD rather then MUST TRY HARDER!!

ID/Bus Pass Holder

Last week whilst browsing the Misi forums I saw a request by Candyapple (don't forget to pop over to her Misi shop and have a look!) for a bus ticket holder. Apparently when you buy a weekly bus ticket all you get is a flimsy piece of paper that will, if Candyapple's bag is anything like mine, have disintegrated by Friday! So after finding out Candyapple's favourite colours etc I decided to give this a go....Well three protypes later and quite a few swear words I think I have finally conquered the ID/pass wallet. So here is my design it measures approximately 4.5" x 3", but can be made smaller or larger depending on what you want to keep in it. My daughter saw one of the other (arggghh!!!) prototypes the other day in the same fabric and shouted "Can you make me on too"...

As I said this is my prototype and if Candyapple likes the design then I will make one for her too. They will cost £2.95 plus p&p
I have lots of lovely fabrics in my workroom so if you know of anyone who would like an ID

/Bus Pass Holder then send them my way!!!!
Thanks for stopping by

On-Line Magazine Feature

I've been featured in an on-line magazine, well not me personally but one of my Halloween bags.

You can take at look at Creative Crafting, an on-line magazine for crafters by crafters, here at Creative Connections. This is the first issue and has been put together by Anna, The Crystal Lady, from Mystic Earth. It features lots of articles, tips and patterns so go on over and take a look. I'm off to join the Creative Connections website now!

Our first balloon returns!!!

I popped into the school office after school today and was handed an envelope with not just one BUT seven balloon returns. We released 147 balloons on Friday and a few of them managed to make their way to down to Dover. So if anyone lives down that way keep your eyes peeled for a green or white Macmillan Cancer Support balloon and if you find one send it back and you could win a prize.!!!!

Last Friday (25th September) I organized a Macmillan Coffee Morning at my children's primary school and we also held a Balloon Release just thought I'd share this photo with you all and let you know that we raised just over £410, which I think is fantastic!!! We were inundated with cakes and scones on the day, especially scones as Year 4/3 had to make them for homework the night before!!!
We shall see how far our balloons travel over the next few weeks. Last time we got as far as Holland!
I hope that all the Macmillan Coffee Mornings that you went to were great fun and raised lots of money for this worthwhile cause.

Monica from MyFunnyBunny is holding a Mother & Baby Mega Giveaway
This is what it says on her blog -
"To celebrate the birth of my baby girl Mylie I am hosting a gigantic give away!!!It will also mark put us back on track after our "give away holiday" because of moving and the birth.We are collaborating with many other companies & crafters to bring you the biggest give away ever!!! So if you want to enter, keep checking our blog for updates!We will be posting the items that are to be included as they arrive!!"

So I decided to make a nappy holder in this really cute retro baby fabric and even tried out the button holer on my latest sewing machine! I took the photos before I did the button hole but it went like a dream and I added a large white button.






There's plenty of room for two nappies and a pack of travel wipes and a couple of nappy bags too! And it could even be used later on when you need to carry spare pairs of knickers and pants for those "Mum, I can't wait any longer!" "oops I did it!" moments.


Obviously with a workshop full of fabric (and I mean bursting at the seams full!) you can choose your own fabric design colour etc and it doesn't have to have a baby theme, if you would like your very own nappy pouch then please just contact me at mail@madaboutbags.net they cost £5.95 plus p&p.

And don't forget to follow Monica's Blog to take part in the Mother & Baby Mega Giveaway when it starts!

What A Great Idea!!!

Whilst checking out what's been happening in Blogland I'm came across a brilliant idea from Sew Scrumptious. Louise's mum will be 70 this year and Louise has set herself the task of making, collecting, buying and possibly begging 70 presents. They don't have to be expensive just thoughtful!!! Louise is asking for ideas, links and a bit of encouragement to make her complete her task.....
I've already added a few ideas and now my brain can't seem to think about anything else, I should be in bed but as Tompom is feeling poorly I'm putting off hitting the sack as I can see me getting up alot tonight..poor little thing!!! Tompom that is, not me!!!
So if you have any bright ideas that will help Louise reach her goal pop over to her blog and leave a comment!!!
my ideas so far have been a photo of her mum through her life in a collage and a coin from 1939..

Right I'm definitely off to bed now see you all later x

Misi Amazing Autumn Giveaway!!!

During September there is an Amazing Autumn Giveaway taking place over at Misi. Lots of the very talented ladies (me included) from Misi have donated prizes and all you have to do to take part is to pop on over the the Misi Blog take a look at all the fabulous prizes on offer, pick your favourite item from one of the shops and leave a comment about it. The closing date is 12 noon 26th September so get over there now and take part!!!!

P.S - There are two lots of prizes to win so twice as many reasons to enter!!!

Can You lend me £59.....

A little while ago on Misi Jean from Talking Beads wrote a forum post with the title " Can you lend me £59..." . This was because Jean had her eye on one of Little Scruffs teddies and was wondering how she could save up the money for 'Alfie'. Well at the same time I had my eye on this fabulous scarf from Vikki0908. which got us wondering how we could help each other raise the cash for our much need purchases and we came up with the idea of linking items from our shops to encourage buyers to purchase more than one item but also making them aware of the wonderful goodies that Misi has to offer. So this blog is all about linking together different handmade goodies that would compliment each other either as a gift for yourself or maybe as a present for that someone special....

So firstly we have

Pink Fairy Charm from Talking Beads and a Pink Fairy Glitter Mini Tote from Madaboutbags

Then there are all these super chocolate truffle gifts - some calorie free and some not!!

We have Chocolate themed cards from Jaqueline

a Chocolate fabric mini tote from Madaboutbags

Cheeky Cherry Truffles from the Chocolate truffle Company

and a Chocolate truffle bracelet from Lej Jewellery

Hopefully that has whetted your appetite as to some of the fabulous offerings available on Misi it's certainly whetted my appetite and I'm off in search of a choclate bar or three!!!!

Twitter, Flickr, knickers in a twist!

I have finally taken the plunge and joined Twitter

you can see my tweets at

http://twitter.com/madaboutbagsuk

apparently it will be updated everytime I blog here so no double typing!!!

I've also joined Flickr and am starting the slow process of uploading my many bag photos onto my photostream if you would like to see some of my creations then please take a look

http://www.flickr.com/photos/madaboutbagsuk/

from what I can gather I will now get my knickers in a twist with all this tweeting, blogging, facebooking, uploading, forum chatting and general computing!!!!

ohh I almost forgot my facebook page

right I off for a lie down in a dark room - Goodnight X

GRRRRR!!! nearly did get my knickers in a twist with the twitter feed but think I'm there now!!!

Devon - we had a great time!!!

We had a great time in Devon albeit a little wet (well a lot wet on the Wednesday!!!), we stayed in a beautiful barn conversion not far from Clovelly. I gave the kids their travel journals in the car on the way down and they loved them, i did have a sneaky peek and they were quite funny to read.

We visited Illfracombe, Clovelly, Bude and Hartland Quay - we didn't make it to Bideford but maybe next time!!!

Hubby wants to go back as he liked the area so much - just wish we were a bit closer as it took 7 hours to get there and 7 hours to get home!!!

Rachel and Jack thoroughly enjoyed body boarding at Bude and Tompom had his first taste of sand and I mean literally had his first taste of sand!!!

We arrived home suitably shattered with lots of washing and have spent the last few weeks catching up with friends and relaxing!!!!

********************************

My last blog was about the Misi talent from Devon and although I would have liked to mention everyone I couldn't but I couldn't believe I missed fairlygirly as she lives in Bideford not far from where we were staying. So as a way of making up for that terrible faux paux I just have to mention her Blog Giveaway so pop along and join in and you might even win a pair of her fabulous butterfly earrings

The Devon Appreiciation Society

In honour of our impending visit to North Devon I thought I would blog about all the talented and creative Misi members from that part of the UK.
Firstly though I wanted to give a special mention to Kelso Kreations who (although not from Devon) created two fabulous Personalised Travel Journals for my two eldest children to capture all their holiday memories in. They look great and I can't wait for them to arrive to give to Rachel and Jack.




Now onto the creative and talented Misi members from the whole of Devon:


First up we have a beautiful Swarovski Heart Pendant Necklace from Mystic Earth



Then this beautiful blue and turquoise glass bead charm bracelet from Designs by Hanson it really reminds me of the sea



This fabulous bracelet called Sweet Sixteen from Gems with Love has gone straight onto my wishlist and i think i might get this for my daughter for her 16th (only 5 years to go!!!)

I can't resist smocking and this outfit from Anna Miranda Roses is absolutely gorgeous

From Cute to Quirky - we have bright felted cat brooches from Kool Kooky Kreatures

From Puss in Boots to Babes in Boots we have snuggly fleece boots from My Fiber Studio

Alice's Palace has a beautiful flowery feel to her handmade cards

Who says baby changing bags have to be boring, this Made In Britain changing bag by

Devon Bears is a must for any Yummy Mummy!!!

Just For You - could be for your pampered pooch or any dog lover - a whimsical dog card by

The Crafty Nut



Having already bought a necklace from the very talented Designs by Isis I couldn't leave her off the list, this is another one on my wishlist!!!

Simple and elegant - a timeless piece from Nifty Thrifty

There are many more talented Misi members from Devon and beyond so don't forget to take a look!!!

Right I'm off to tackle the ever growing mountain that is my ironing pile!!!

thanks for looking

x