Recent Misi Purchases

My mum and dad usually go away around this time of year for about three months travelling through Europe and last year I was completely unorganized (me!!!) and forgot to buy my mum's birthday and mother's day cards and presents in advance. This year I was a little more organized and as I'm 40 (arghh!!!) this year and they won't be here for my birthday, yesterday they took me, my sister (whose birthday it is today) and my nan out for lunch at Prezzo's. We only really organized this last week and I have spent my time since browsing the wonderful shops on Misi trying to find the perfect gifts. I found lots of lovely gifts but they all seemed to be for me and not anyone who I was supposed to be buying for.

So on Saturday I finally decided that I would buy this vibrant polo mint king ring from
Just K Jewellery for my sister who loves horses and always keeps a packet of polo mints in her pocket as treats for them.
On Sunday came a Mother's Day present for my mum (obviously!) I had been searching all weekend for a bookmark and couldn't find the right one. I finally came across this beautiful one from forgetmenotgifts. The photograph doesn't do this bookmark justice as the heart is all sparkly. Now my mum's presents can't be too big or bulky as my dad has become obsessed with the weight and packing of their campervan. (he only takes three pairs of trousers with him - one for each month I think!!)

Last but by no means least I found this amazingly soft corsage by Maisielu
for my mum's birthday gift. Amanda from Maisielu is incredibly talented and makes jewellery as well as lots of other beautiful things.

Now all three of these lovely Misi sellers deserve a big thank you as I sent them all an email over the weekend saying please can you send me my purchases asap as I need them by Tuesday - and they all arrived in time, so thank you Karen, Bryan and Amanda.

I received some early 40th birthday presents too yesterday and will post about them tomorrow.....

Red for Heart

Recently LissyLou was asking for donations for her fundraising event in aid of British Heart Foundation's Red for Heart Day this coming Friday. The idea was to make something red or heart themed for LissyLou to sell on a small craft table, initailly I cut out some red hearts thinking I would make some brooches or some bunting, but, I finally decided on making a lovely tote with some pinstripe wool blend fabric that I had picked on on one of my charity shop shopping days! I padded the hearts slightly and then hand sewed them to the wool fabric and added the little red and white polka dot ribbon tab.


I used a lovely bright red gingham for the lining and added another red and white polka dot ribbon tab to attach your keys to. It has a split ring and a tiny "hand made with love" heart.

I always find stripes and checks a bit of a challenge as I am a little bit of a perfectionist when it comes to things lining up, so i decided as the wool had a wide stripe and these would get lost in the length of the handles i would make the handles stripes run horizontally, I added a red topstitch to the handles and the rim of the bag. I really pleased with the way that this bag has turned out and I have enough wool fabric to make a few more so I think I might make a handbag sized one and another tote and see how they go. I feel that this bag has a certain city chic to it....Oooh how about a smaller flat bottomed one for you working ladies to carry your lunch in!!! (mmm that's an idea!!)

Finally I like to wish LissyLou huge success for her fund raising event and I hope that everyone has lots of fun raising money for the British Heart Foundation.

Sunshine - on a cloudy day!!!....

...when it's cold outside I got the month of May...
All my post titles seem to have a musical theme to them at the moment. That song was by the Temptations for those of you that weren't sure!!!
But my spirits have been lifted by the gorgeous sun shining today.
Rachel, Tompom and I spent the morning, playing, chatting, and ipoding with friends and then this afternoon Rachel and I popped into to town for a bit of retail therapy and left the boys at home...
Rachel managed to get some new tops, school trousers and a lovely soft pink hooded top that she has been after but just couldn't find the right one.
I unfortunately didn't buy myself a bean, as we aren't great shoppers at the best of times and had had enough after a few hours.
There is a definite French/Parisian/Nautical them going on in the shops at the moment which has got my creative juices flowing and with Rachel off to Paris in May or June I just may have to rustled up a few bags and accessories.
I'm even tempted to run a french themed swap - what do you all think????

WET WET WET

No i'm not talking about my favourite 80's pop band just the lovely weather that we are having during this half term holiday....

you can tell its a school holiday as we have all gone down with this horrible sickness bug which has kept us quarantined since Friday. And now that we are starting to feel better it has started to rain and rain and rain....I've forgotten what the outside world looks like, have you seen the sun? if you have let me know!!!!

In a bid to brighten up these dreary grey and cold days I have joined a couple of swaps.

Firstly, Louise over at Sew Scrumptious is having a "Flowers" themed swap and you still have time to take part just pop over to her blog and leave your details.

Secondly, there is a "Colour" swap over at Dolly Dollop's again plenty of time to take part.

You can use the links on my blog to find out more...

Here's hoping that the sun shows its smiley face soon......

Life's like that....

full of ups and downs....
i've purposefully haven't written my blog for the past few weeks has i have been feeling a bit sorry for myself and have lost my creative mojo and felt that all i would be doing was moaning about all the things i haven't done, wished i could do and maybe would never do!! - and then tonight I commented on this fact on a forum post over at Misi and the lovely Mo from MornieGjewellery replied with words of wisdom which have proved very true....
"Go on Tracy have a good old moan it's great for the Mojo, and you know your Misi friends will be sympathetic and help if they can. Sometimes it focuses the mind when you commit it to paper and you can see where the problem is. You know how difficult it is physically to give yourself a boot up the bum, metaphorically it can be just as hard and someone has to help."
as i started writing i found myself answering my own questions and telling myself where i was going wrong and all the good things that I am doing at the moment rather than dwelling on the negative and before i knew it i had given myself the proverbial kick up the bum and it didn't hurt a bit!!! So a big thank you Mo i feel so much better.
I've also been reading some of your posts over the last few days and my gripes and moans are rather minor in comparison so i am going to be grateful for what i have got, what i am doing now and will look forward to what i can do in the future
P.S if you find my mojo can you be gentle with him and slowly but gently guide him home!!!