Craftroom Detash.....

The time has come for a craft room detash...........

even if I live to be 315 i will not be able to use all the craft supplies that I currently have stuffed into my workroom 

and as much as I keep saying that I will use it all before buying any more, we all know that that isn't true, as there will always be that lovely new must have fabric, wool, buttons etc. 

So if you would like to buy any bag handles, fabric, books etc then pop on over to my facebook page and take a look. 

As you can see from the photo below that there is just too much "stuff" in my workroom

I would like to say that it is this tidy all the time but i would be lying, 

this photo was taken after my last tidy up and it now needs doing again as i sorted out lots of memory boxes (the kids drawing, certificates etc which is a lot of boxes i can tell you!) from the house and bought them down here so to fit them in  some stuff has got to go!!!!

 I have listed the first lot of bag handles today and will be listing lots more in the coming days and weeks so don't forget to like my page or pop back regularly for status updates.......

Mad About Bags

Pay It Forward the lucky three.....

Thank you to everyone that entered my Pay It Forward, seven lovely bloggers left comments so I popped all your names in a bowl 

 and got Tomas to pick out the three lucky winners....

Congratulations to 

Jille from Love to Craft 

Callie's Cottage

Claire from Beautiful things by Claire Mackaness

These three lovely ladies will receive a little handmade goodness from me within the next 365 days and I am very sorry to the other four ladies who missed out this time but thank you very much for entering.

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Back to School or NOT as the case may be......

Today the kids went back to school well I thought they did anyhow!!! 

The older two definitely were and they were suited, booted and ready to be dropped off by 8am but I had the urge just to check to make sure the Tomas' pre-school actually went back today and boy was it a good job I checked! Apparently due to a funding mix up we aren't actually back until next week, yes that's right next week!!! Poor old Tomas was so upset this morning as he was looking forward to going back to pre-school so we had a few tears and a loud stamp of the foot....

With that in mind and all my best laid plans for this week gone out of the window this is what we have been up to, this morning we enjoyed tidying up, which I have to say he is a dab hand at (when he wants to that is), 

he played out in the garden with Daddy and Barney

 until he fell over over and hurt his hand on the shingle and came in crying! 

This afternoon was more leisurely and bit of TV and colouring in whilst I cracked on with some ironing. 

Then once the older two were home it was back out in the garden to play with Barney again. We are trying to teach Barney how to catch rats as last week we saw, on quite a few occasions, an old rat sitting happily in the middle of the gardens, we have spent days trying to look for him again only to find that he had already been exterminated by our next door neighbour!!! I'm sure he's not the only rat in the garden as being surrounded by farmers fields and with chickens, birds and dogs in ours and our neighbours gardens they are a regular occurrence which means Barney has to do his thing! So there has been lots of throwing balls behind sheds, under shed and showing Barney the rat holes not entirely sure it's going to work though...

Tomorrow if the weather is fine Tomas and I will be off to visit our old toddler group then chips for lunch to be eaten in the park and a chance to play with a friend....

Finally I haven't forgotten the Pay It Forward and thank you so much to those of you that have entered, especially my new followers I shall being putting all the names in a bowl tomorrow and picking out the three lucky winners, so there is still a little time to enter if you haven't already.....

Right that's me signing off for tonight I'm off to read my book Possession by Peter James a rather chilling thriller but I just can't put it down!!

Pay It Forward

This is a two part blog all about Pay It Forward..... for those of you that haven't heard of it it's a lovely way of sending and receiving a little handmade goodness through the post from some of the wonderfully creative and talented people here in blogland, there will be a chance for you to enter my latest Pay It Forward at the end of this post :)

Part 1

Back in January I blogged about the lovely gifts that I received as part of  Heather's (The Patchwork Heart) Pay It Forward, I then continued this on by picking three people to receive some handmade loveliness from me....it was supposed to be three small gifts but I chose to make one big gift in the form of a bag for each of these lovely ladies.

I sent this bag to Kimberley (Creative Chaos)

and this one to Emma (My Red Wellies)

and finally this one to Claire (Cute and Cosy)

Part 2

At the same time as entering Heather's pay it forward I also entered Vintage Vicki's one too and was lucky to be picked to receive some gifts. Here is what Vicki sent me in my favourite colours of green and purple....

 some delicious chocolate

 a pretty organza bag filled with....

 green thread, buttons and more chocolate

 some gorgeous crocheted bunting

 

 a super cute felt owl

 and a darling crocheted flower brooch.

so now here is your chance to take part in the Pay It Forward the rules are nice and simple

 I need to find three bloggers who would like a handmade gift from me

 and who are prepared to do the same, and I have 365 days in which to do it.

If that appeals to you just leave a comment on this post telling me your favourite colours.

The closing date will be 16th April

and if more than three people are interested, names will be drawn from a hat.

I don't know what I'm going to make yet but I can guarantee you'll like the colours

and I promise it won't take me a year!

So if you would like to take part and continue on the Pay It Forward please leave a comment below and don't forget to let me know your favourite colours!!!

Happy Easter.....

Hi everyone I hope that you are all enjoying the Easter break, I'm sorry that I've not been around much but I seem to have lost my blogging voice just recently although I have been keeping up with all your goings on and have even been whispering a little on some of your blogs! No reason for my quietness other than not having much to say (for those of you that know me personally will find that statement shocking I know!) although I have managed to keep the creative juices flowing.

I'm not sure if it was the combination of lovely weather, birthdays and crafting that seemed to make March fly past so quickly but what I do know is that it would be too much to write about in one post so I think I'll break it down into a few posts. Wouldn't it be lovely just to stop time for a bit whilst I catch up!!!!

So first up is Birthdays, I turned 42 at the beginning of March and received some lovely flowers,

 a new set of brightly coloured crochet hooks (no photo I'm afraid I will have to make a crochet roll for myself and show you then!), a silicone cover for my DSLR

 (a must if like me your camera comes everywhere with you and is never in a bag these silicone covers just make all those knocks and bumps less of a problem!),

 a very practical present of a new ipad charger (with the kids using mine for their ipods they don't seem to last very long)and some delicious Lindt chocolates. I had a wonderful day with my little family.

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Tomas was invited to a birthday party in March and the little girl in question likes Tom and Jerry, good old Ebay came to the rescue when I found some vintage Tom and Jerry fabric squares with I teamed with some spotty dotty fabric, cross stitched her name for the centre square to make a personalised drawstring bag....

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The biggest birthday celebration of the month had to be Tomas' 4th birthday, 

he received a Fireman Sam bike and helmet

 which he could hardly see under all those balloons and has been whizzing around the patio ever since shouting "Emergency, Emergency".

He also had a little party with a few of his friends at a local soft play centre, and my friend Barbara made him a fantastic caterpillar cake and creepy crawlie cupcakes for all his friends!!!

Barbara has just started out with a new venture making cakes and cupcakes which look and taste delicious, she also needed someone to take photographs of her creations for her portfolio over on facebook and I was only to willing to help!!! Check out more of her scrumptious looking cakes over at Cakes by Barbara Jane.

So that's the birthday blog written and posted I think it will be Pay It Forward gifts tomorrow and there will be another chance for you to take part and receive some handmade goodies made by moi!!!