Question Time???

I hope you all survived the winds and rain of the storms yesterday, we took a few precautionary measures in the garden,

• putting away anything that was likely to blow away
• making sure the animals were safely snuggled up and warm
• weighted down the trampoline with a huge rugby tackling bag
• kept our fingers crossed that all the trees in the garden would survive

I think we were lucky as all the trees are still standing and other than a garden full of leaves (Tomas and I will be out there later with a rake each!) we haven't had any damage.

We were supposed to meet up with friends yesterday but thought it would be safer to stay indoors as many of the roads were blocked with fallen trees and I just didn't want to drive in the strong winds. So it was a day of games, (computer ones and board ones), jigsaws, colouring and for Rachel revision!!

Today is one of those bright, sunny but a little chilly autumn days and I hoping to get out in the garden later and have a tidy up and pop some last minute bulbs into some pots to add a little colour in the springtime.

So what's does my title mean then, well I have a couple of questions for you relating to blogger........

1) replying to comments - we all love it when followers leave us a comment on our blog and I do try and reply to as many as I can, BUT, and here is one of  my question, 

is it better to reply by email (for those of you with no reply blogger email addresses see question 2)

 

OR

do I reply using the reply box after the comment and hope that the person who left the comment pops back and sees it (is there anyway or be notified that your comment has had a reply) There seems to be lots of questions in this question!!

2) Are you a no reply blogger?

Up until now I have been using the email way of replying to a comment BUT sometimes I can't reply as the return email address is no reply@blogger which means that if I do reply the email just disappears into the ether and never reaches its destination. Now I know many of us want to keep our details safe on the internet but if you are a blogger and like to leave comments and would like a reply but wonder why you never get any it may just be your settings or you might not have even realised you are a no reply blogger. There are some really good blog posts about changing your settings to receive emails and your email address isn't shown it just says "email" under the contact part of your profile. I just searched "no reply blogger" on google but here are a couple of links to some blogs that seemed to explain it quite well HERE and HERE.

Hopefully between us we can find the answers or solutions to these questions. 

Mad About Bags.....

Well that is my blog name after all and recently I have been completely mad about bags.....

There have been riding hat bags.

Japanese grab bags, these are so addictive to make!!

And more personalised drawstring bags

Proud Mum Moment

On Thursday night I spent the evening listening to some of the pupils at Rachel and Jack's school perform in a Cabaret Evening. The talent was amazing and I am always slightly envious of their youthful courage that allows the students to get up in front of their peers and the parents to perform songs especially on their own!

My main reason for going was to listen to Rachel perform Popular from the musical Wicked. Now I have heard her sing many times in the choir and at home but on Thursday night she did an absolutely amazing job and her performance was superb!!!

Can you tell I am just a little bit proud of her!

I did try to video her performance but did a terrible job because as soon as I pressed record on my iphone the flash light came on and I quick had to hide my phone so I caught about 5 seconds of her singing!! Luckily my mishap didn't distract Rachel from her singing.

As I write this she is in the conservatory singing!

Autumn Makes

I thought I would just share with you a few of my autumnal makes......

Last year I made these pumpkins using curtain and upholstery fabrics, I posted them on facebook again this year and some of them found new homes.

I was then asked if I could make some teeny weeny hanging ones to decorate a twig tree 

and around a doorway and this is what I came up with. 

I can't wait to see them in their new homes.

As part of the Autumn Swap I made a french inspired autumnal bunting for my swap partner AnneMarie. I was given a charm pack of fabric squares as part of a swap a couple of years ago and had wondered what I could make with them and they turned out to be ideal for this project as Anne Marie likes blue.

I also made her this cute mini pumpkin from a autumnal fabric which I love and just can't remember where I got it from to buy some more!

I'm always trying to think of new ways to send buttons and make them look pretty so I turned these orange buttons into pumpkins to add to AnneMarie's parcel.

and finally this isn't one of my makes but an ebay buy, my new gas heater for my workroom. I can't believe how toasty it makes my room, so much so I have to keep turning it off!!!

International Dishcloth Swap

A little while ago I signed up to an International dishcloth Swap organised by Leonie over at Kiwi at Heart. The idea was to knit or crochet two cotton dishcloths and send them along with a few other goodies to your partner. This was a secret swap so the person you received from wouldn't be the person you sent too. 

Well, my parcel arrived a couple of days all the way from New Zealand and I was eager to open it and found out what goodies it contained.......

It turns out my swap partner was Leonie herself and she had imaginatively wrapped with pattern instructions (why have I never thought of that! I have lots of old patterns I could use)

 Inside were my two dishcloths. 

A pretty colourful one

And a bright red spotty one.

I have never used handmade cotton dishcloths before, these may be too pretty to use and I'm definitely not letting the kids anywhere near them.

 Leonie also included lots of other goodies.

This lovely soft and squidgy ball of grey wool.

A pretty zippered pouch containing some this cute buttons.

Three lollipops which I generously shared with the kids!

A hedgehog necklace (which Rachel has squirrelled away).

Two fat quarters of pretty fabrics.

A finally a handmade bar of almond milk & honey soap.

Here is a photo of all my wonderful goodies together, 

thank you Leonie for organising this swap and also for being a fantastic swap partner.

EDITED : I told you all this was a secret swap so secret in fact that I mixed up my swap partner!!! My swap partner was the lovely Leonie from Sunshine X 3. Sorry Leonie and thank you for being such a brilliant secret swap partner!!!

Birthday makes....

October and November are already looking like being busy for parties and today was just the start.

Rachel had a birthday meal to go to and I made this personalised reversible half apron for one of her friends. 

He enjoys cooking so it seemed the idea gift and although this looks a bit like an a-line skirt it does in fact fit straight when it is on!

Initially I was just going to line it in the red but then came up with the idea of adding the big "C" to give two ways of wearing it. I hope he likes it!!

Tomas was also at a party today, this one was a joint swimming party for two of his school friends. When I asked their mums what sort of things the girls liked it was pink, fairies, princess and glitter. 

I had the perfect fabric in mind this Michael Miller glitter fairy in pink, I teamed it with some hot pink fabric to make these two personalised cushions.

 I been perfecting my appliqué stitching

and this font was nice and simple to sew around.

I was really pleased with how these turned out.

It's boys parties next so I have football and ninja turtles in mind!!!

We're going on a conker hunt.......

On Saturday we headed off down the lane to find conkers. It's become a tradition, of sorts, to collect this huge bucket of conkers which even the older two still enjoy. Here are a few autumnal sights we saw along the way. 

These oak leaves changing colour. 

Crunchy leaves and shiny conkers. 

I found an old jam making pan in my Nan's garage which makes a much nicer conker collector than a plastic bucket!

Double conkers or 'bums' as we like to call them. 

I do like finding the conkers still in the spiky cases. 

Tomas find a teeny weeny conker. 

A bucket full of conkers I have no idea what we are going to do with them all!

I couldn't resist the chance to take a few more photos as the children headed back to the house. 

Our lane still looks pretty green but it won't stay like this for long. 

We also found a few pine cones to add to our bounty. 

And finally I found these 'fun guys' in the garden. 

I hope you enjoyed our conker hunt I do so live autumn and can't wait for more photo opportunities.