September - A Happy Birthday and A New Beginning

September has a arrived bringing with it some beautiful weather, I do wonder if we will have an Indian summer. As I write this part of my post, the kids are just about to jump into the pool, although I think the water is a little cold from all the shrieking that is going on!!! I'm enjoying having the windows wide open and, the sun on my face and a nice cool breeze - perfick!!!

The beginning of September has been busy for us as a family, we arrived home from our holiday in Wales on the 1st, completely shattered from our week of beach days, rugby matches, millennium stadium tours and much more. (more about that in another post!)

The next two days were spent doing washing, washing and doing more washing! I really don't believe we took THAT many clothes with us and that we wore them all!!! This was followed with lots of relaxing and organizing last minute school bits and pieces.

Tuesday was a big day in our house as Jack turned 13, we now have 2 teenagers in the house, so God help us!!! 

A lovely friend of mine makes beautiful celebration cakes and made this super rugby themed cake for Jack.

You can check out Barbara's page on facebook here

Talking of rugby for Jack's birthday we have manged to get tickets for him and Paul to watch 

Wales v New Zealand in November and they are both very excited and looking forward to their boys weekend away!!!

Today was also Tomas' first day in infants school, which Paul found harder than me so he stayed in the car whilst I took Tomas into the playground. 

It was a good job he did because although Tomas had been very excited all morning I think he felt a little overwhelmed by all the people in the playground and had a little cry, but he came out beaming at the end of his first day and said he had had a lovely time. (phew!)

Today Rachel and Jack returned to school, I can't quite believe that I have one child starting GCSE's and  one just starting infants!! Both were excited to be returning which is always a good start.

Paul and I enjoyed our first child free morning by going out for breakfast unfortunately i was so engrossed in eating my Wall Street Mash Up that I forgot to take a photograph.

Before we knew it, it was time to pick up Tomas from school as he his only doing mornings for this first week, then we had a home visit from Tomas' reception teacher and  LSA. Not knowing what to expect I was glad that I had tidied Tomas' room this morning because as soon as they arrived the LSA asked Tomas to show her his room and then they went to draw a picture in the conservatory, during this time his teacher asked us a few questions and explained some of the topics that the children will be covering this year.

This visit was new to us as parents because both Jack and Rachel attended a nursery that was attached to their school and the school didn't have home visits.. Anyone else had experience of a home visit???

 So that's been my first week (almost) of September I'm hoping to get back into crafting very shortly and have already signed up for an Autumn Swap. I'm also hoping to exercise a bit more to be a bit lot healthier and to lose some weight and I think that if  I mention it on here it will give me the motivation that I need. Now where did i put those gym clothes??? 

Hi everyone, sorry I've not been around much lately, July was a busy month with school events, family life and with a lack of anything exciting to say this has kept me away from blogland, oh that and Big Brother and never being able to get a quiet minute on the computer!!
I have tried to keep up with all your goings on but with over 600 unread blog posts to read I might just have to bite the bullet and hit the mark as read button as I fear I might disappear under that momentous number at some point.
We (well the kids) had quite a few birthday parties to attend during July and I made several presents
A tiger themed personalised cushion - it took ages to sew around all those letters!

A personalised PE bag for a Scooby fan.

A fold over clutch make up bag and personalised initial fabric heart.

I'm finding that with the kids at home for the holidays my crafting time has pretty much stopped although I did manage a bit of a tidy up today in my workroom and as Rachel wants to earn some extra pocket money she is listing lots of destash items for me on eBay (for a percentage of the profits!)
So if you fancy some bag patterns, jewellery project books, fabrics and much more then take a look at my listings. We (I mean Rachel) will be listing lots more over the few days so keep popping in to see whats on offer.
EBAY

Monthly Makes for June

I had quite a busy month for makes in June, firstly there were birthday gifts for my daughters friend, the first two were commissioned by her mum.

Armed with the information of a liking for roses and the colour purple I knew exactly what fabric to use to make this make up pouch 

and drawstring washbag

The birthday girl was getting a new guitar for her birthday and when my Rachel asked me to make her friend a bag we found this amazing purple and pink guitar fabric on ebay and I made this small messenger bag.

The birthday girl loved all her presents and has had some admiring comments about her bag!

I always try to make something personalised too so using the purple rose fabric i made this lavender scented heart.

This next make isn't really a make but as it's kept me pretty busy over several evening I thought I'd mention it. A friends parents are having a wedding blessing and they find the perfect dress but the beading didn't match the wedding colours so I was asked to rebead the front band.

Here it is half way through, the original beads were blues and greens, which I removed and then using the pattern on the dress re beaded using blue and gold seed beads and blue flower sequins.

and here is a close up of the beads. I have to say initially I  thought it was going to take ages to finish but once I got into the swing of the beading it didn't take too long at all.

I've already mentioned my lovely handmade love swap that I did with Kezzie but I just thought I would show you my makes for this swap, Kezzie has a love of music and gingham and pink so I married all three together to make a little lunch/book bag.

And then using the same music fabric I made a hanging heart

and added this ribbon tape to the back

With June whizzing by my thoughts turned to end of year teachers gifts so I made up this lovely lunch bag using a rosy apple fabric teamed with a green check fabric for the base and handles. This one is still available on my facebook page if anyone is stuck for a teachers gift.

We've booked a lovely week (i hope the weather improves by then) away in the Mumbles for august and thinking of holidays and all the lovely kids fabrics I have in my workroom I decided to make up some kids wash bags, these are lined with a showerproof fabric and are just the right size for a toothbrush, flannel etc.

I seem to be making things on a them this month and one of those themes is Wimbledon, or tennis to be more precise, I've had this piece of tennis fabric in my stash for a little white and decided to make up this handbag

 

I teamed it with blue linen for the base and handles and a blue and white stripe for the lining

this is also available on my facebook page and would make a great gift for any tennis fan.

My final make of the month was a Pay It Forward, after much deliberation as to what to make I finally decided on a craft sellers apron for Claire from Beautiful Things by Claire Mackeness, using the colours and the logo on Claire's blog page.

Claire loves her new apron and is now running her part of the Pay It Forward on her blog, so if you fancy the chance of receiving a handmade gift from Claire pop over to her blog

Right that's all from me for June I hope you have all had a busy month with makes too and if not remember there's always July!!!

East London Cabbies Outing

Yesterday I decided to spend the hour before picking Tomas up from pre-school sitting by the village duck pond with my camera watching all the comings and goings. I managed to take a few snaps for the street photography theme which is happening over at A Kitten Called Betty on facebook, the British do love a queue don't they!!

Whilst sitting on one of the benches I got chatting to one of the locals, he has lived in the village all his life and i love talking to him about that changes that have happened. During our conversation he asked if I was here to photograph the East London Taxi event that passes through the village every year. This is a fantastic event where decorated taxi's ferry children with special needs from the London boroughs to Maldon in Essex to enjoy a day of fun and entertainment. You can read more about it here.

 

 I'd watched them pass through last year but had completely forgotten about which day it was happening this year. They pass through Danbury at about 12.45 so I had just enough time to pick up Tomas from pre-school and head back to the village green to stand and wave to the children and their families and I hoped to take a few pictures too.

 This event always brings a lump to my throat as you watch the children waving from the taxi's and the noise can be heard all around as the cabbies beep their horns all the way through the towns and villages.

They are escorted by both the police and civilian motorcyclists so that they can all stay in convoy and its was such a lovely event not only to stand and watch but also to participate in even in such a small way. 

People came out from the local shops to stand and wave and I did see three elderly ladies sitting on their fold up chairs outside their homes on the main road waiting to see the children go by. 

I'm sure the children all had a fabulous time and I must definitely make a note of next years event so I don't miss it.

Cheering Myself Up

I've been feeling really bleurgh today! I'm full of a summer head cold and feeling very sorry for myself, Paul has been looking after me, and after sleeping for most of the day I am now feeling a bit more human!!! So to cheer myself up I thought I would post some pictures of the lovely things I have received in the post recently.

I was lucky to be the winner of a birthday giveaway Gill was running over at Dosie Rosie

Pretty packages tied up with string..

with cute teeny tiny crochet flowers

 Gill sent me three things for my workroom

Sunlight, Fluid and Sustenance

Sunlight - this pretty glass star suncatcher

Fliud - a starry Cath Kidston mug

Sustenance - a cute lunch bag

My suncatcher is now proudly displayed in my workroom, I have enjoyed many a lovely cup of tea in my new mug and shall be trying out my lunch bag on our next picnic.....thank you Gill for such lovely gifts.

I have been popping back into the Misi forums lately and back in May signed up to take part in the red, white and blue themed swap. I received this very pretty necklace from the lovey Karen of Just K Jewellery. It's made from a pretty blue and white liberty print and is just gorgeous - thanks Karen.

Well that definitely cheered me up seeing all those lovely gifts, but now my head feels like it is full of cotton wool so I shall head off to bed shortly, I'm on strict instructions not to sit up and watch Big Brother, but I'm not sure I can do it!!!!

Handmade Heart Swap

I feel like I need to start every post with an apology as my absences from blogger seem to be more frequent at the moment, it's not through lack of things to say or post about but just a general every day busy-ness that seems to keep me from my keyboard..... I have been trying to keep up with all your lovely posts but am feeling a little daunted by the 534 (at the last count) unread posts that have built over over the past few days. I don't like the idea of marking them as read without actually reading them so I shall be catching up as best I can over the next few evenings...

Anyhow onto what this post is really about and that's the wonderful parcel that I received this yesterday morning from Kezzie over at KezzieAG. 

We were partnered in a Handmade Heart Swap organised by Mary Poppins.

Kezzie's blog was new to me and it has been lovely getting to know her better by reading through her archives and following her latest posts.

As I opened the box I noticed that Kezzie had written a message on the inside it did make me chuckle, I think most of us bloggers and swappers are into recycling packaging and Kezzie was worried as she had used lots of recycled bags etc to protect my goodies, I have to say I didn't notice any ugly packaging just lots of gorgeously wrapped gifts in a box!!!!

Here's what was in the box.... 

Kezzie made this brilliant map envelope and handmade card (which I forgot to photograph) made from the heart stickers used as templates for my mug design (you're see my mug in a bit) 

I really want to try making some hearts and envelopes from maps and have been really inspired by Kezzie's envelope to attack the old readers digest map book that I picked up from the charity shop, I have the envelope template just need to make the time now!!! 

How cute is this woollen heart and badge!

Kezzie makes lots of cards and papercrafts is one of her many talents 

Inside this pretty box was 4 handmade cards. 

When Kezzie and I discussed our likes and dislikes I mentioned my penchant for a cup of tea or seven so Kezzie made me this pretty button bracelet complete with heart and tea charms, she also added some extra buttons in case I needed to lengthen the bracelet but it fits perfectly but I'm sure I can find another use for them. 

Beauty products is one craft I've never tried but Kezzie's mum had shown her how to make these divine smelling bath fizzers, I really wish you could smell them and I can't wait to try them out in my bath. 

What I love about swaps is trying new things and Kezzie certainly did that for this swap, here are my stained glass tea light holders, Kezzie explained that painting on a curve was much harder than i sounded but I think these look great! 

Did I mention that I drink copious amounts of tea!!!! Well I definitely mentioned it to Kezzie and look at this handpainted mug she made just for me..the colours are just perfect and I have already enjoyed a lovely cup of white tea in my new mug. 

See the little hearts..well Kezzie used hearts stickers to create the design and then recycled them to make my handmade card - brilliant!!!! For some reason I didn't photograph the other side of the mug so can't show you the teapot design that Kezzie drew (doh!!)

In my last parcel there was this pretty paper jubilee themed heart 

and I very nearly missed the chocolate lollipop that was underneath the tissue paper, good job I didn't as it was delicious. 

And finally there were these delicious Green and Blacks chocolates which I shared later with my eldest two. 

 

Here's a picture of all my Handmade Heart Swap goodies together

Thanks Kezzie for being such a brilliant swap partner it's been a pleasure getting to know you and I look forward following your blog and reading about your adventures xxxx

*********

Kezzie has now received her swap parcel from me and will do a blog post about it shortly so here's a little sneak preview of some of the things I sent.

you can also see what else everyone received over at the flickr group page