Thursday Treasures, Friday Finds and Recent Makes

My Thursday Treasures this week, 

a brand new leather wallet for £2 

more pictures frames (I haven't photographed the ones I picked up in the afternoon so there is only this one from my morning shop)

a lovely big bowl to brighten up my kitchen

and some Mr Men books to add to my growing collection!

In the afternoon I also picked up a book for Tomas for our bedtime read and another copy of Peepo! by Janet and Allan Ahlberg I love this book, the rhyming words and the illustrations, it's has been a favourite of ours since our big ones were small and my copy is a little bruised and battered so I was pleased to pick up an almost new version. (not photo as it's still in my car - not sure why?)

At the beginning of last week week I posted out these two bags as parts of dips that I'd sold on Vintage Bazaar over on Facebook. 

The pink heart one was an UFO which had been sitting forlornly in a pile of UFO's when I suddenly decided that pink gingham lining and red polka dot handles were just the things it needed to make it beautiful.

And this hedgehog bag was ready and waiting to find it's forever home

This week I made another version of my heart bunting cushion, this time using up the last pieces of the owl fabrics that I had left over from making this bag. I'm really pleased with how it's turned out and I have also managed to squeeze out three more cushions from the fabric too. These aren't quite finished as I ran out of stuffing but hopefully they should be finished next week.

Talking of bags I have finally got around to making a start on upcycling this woven basket that I picked up from a charity shop trip ages and ages ago. The top rim is a little damaged so I thought I would repair it by chain stitching all the way around the top two rows with green yarn and adding lots of flowers to the rim. After working out how to do this by reading some tutorials about crocheting around polystyrene wreaths I now just need to make some crochet daisies and add the pretty daisy fabric as lining. The crochet daisies are proving trickier than I thought, especially as I'm watching a video on how to make them in a foreign language with no subtitles!! 

My Friday finds; I haven't bought any magazines in well over a year as I tend to use Pinterest and google to search for patterns and ideas but I couldn't resist these ones today, the creative pastimes was actually for Tomas as it has some brilliant dot to dot pictures and mazes in. He has already completed one 370 dot to dot picture and tried out a few of the other activities too.

Both the sewing magazines came with lots of patterns and ideas. I really wanted to look inside the magazines before buying them as you are never really sure what you are getting when they are in these packs but I'm not sure if you should open them or not. Do you have a peek or do you take a chance like I did today?

I think I was lucky this time as there were lots of really good ideas and patterns in both magazines and I found the perfect pattern to make a bag using these fabrics. Just needs a few tweaks!

Finally I've been trying to have a tidy up in my sewing room and I thought I would share a quick photo of my swap treasures shelf. Please excuse the messy piles on my cutting table there is still some work to do.

 I have realised I still haven't shown you all the photos of my sewing room revamp so I must dig those out over the next few days and share them with you. Don't all my swap treasures look fabulous, I do love that fact that i can now have them out on show and enjoy them everyday.

Being Crafty

I'm going to try and be crafty every day for the rest of this month as I don't feel I'm making the most of my evenings once Tomas is in bed. Today I made on a start on these fabric hoops, which are part of a swap I did with Hannah over at Lady H.

I still need to finish off the embroidery but it has a rude word in it so I thought I would share it with you as a work in progress! 

Hannah makes the most amazing paper cuts, here are a couple she has made for me..

and here is one of her latest makes

Hannah also organises an online monthly market called Handmade which showcases just some of the UK's wonderful crafting talent. Pop over and take a look, their next market night is June 7th.

I had a last minute drive out with rachel tonight so there isn't much of the evening left but I'm going to dust off the knitting needles for a wee little project!

March/April Round Up!

I have some March and April makes to share with you, back in March I took part in a Secret Easter Swap with some lovely talented ladies over on Facebook, we had so much fun taking part in the Christmas Swap that many of us wanted to do it again!

I've really been trying to only use fabrics in my stash and after a bit of stalking of my swap partner Charlotte, whose hobbies included horse riding and star gazing, I decided to make a bag using a small piece of horse fabric that I had, it's funny how a piece of fabric can sit there all forlorn in your stash and then as if by magic the perfect project comes along. I really wanted to use the horseshoe fabric in the bag too but there wasn't enough for the handles and too much just for pockets so I used it to line the top part of the bag so that it made the most of the fabric.

I had an even smaller piece of the space fabric and after a bit of umming and arring over how to cut into it I made this mug rug. I was quite pleased with how it turned out as it was one of those make it up as you go along types of projects!

Here is what I received from the super talented Melanie, you can read her blog here.

I also made some bags for my last Oak Tree Events market, the theme was woodland, again I only had small pieces to play with but this is what I came up with.

It was a quiet market for me this time round (the ladybird messenger found a new home) and I shall miss taking part in them but I have decided to spend more time making for us as a family and taking part in swaps. I will still do the odd custom make but I won't be taking part in any more on line craft fairs.

I think I'm doing pretty well on the no fabric buying front, although I have been tempted a couple of times I have stuck to it, my only purchase has been some fabric for a swap, which is allowed under the rules!

I did purchase an downloadable crochet shawl pattern the other month but have been very good and not bought the yarn for it (yet!)

I couldn't resist after seeing it over at Little Woolie

there are so many amazing variations to be found over on instagram, just type in #sundayshawl

We have been continuing to pop change into daily money jar and I have already had to make one trip to the bank to empty it, we have decided that this money will go toward taking Tomas to see Father Christmas in Lapland in December. I can't wait!

Operation Craft Room is well under way, we made several trips to the tip last week and have ordered a new window and door and with several things selling on ebay the room will be almost empty very soon.

May started with a big birthday for our daughter Rachel, who turned 17 on the the 1st.

She had her first driving lesson after school and we have been out several times in her little car getting in some stopping and starting practice. It all seems to be going well so far, although it does feel a little strange her driving me and her Dad around.

I am making Rachel some bits for her new car with some really lovely Deena Rutter fabric called good works which I bought last year. I can't wait to share them with you.

A Swap Makes Update….

I was looking through my photos and reflecting on my makes over the past couple of months I thought I would share some of my swap makes now that they have been received, but first I must apologise to Joy from Daisy Row for not only was I really really late getting her swap parcel to her but I didn't even post about what she sent me in the first place!!!

Ages and ages ago Kimberley from Creative Chaos organised a kitchen swap and I was partnered with Joy from Daisy Row and this is what she sent me…

can you see the chubby fingers of Tomas who couldn't wait to eat his Kit Kat??

This oven glove certainly isn't as clean now but has definitely come in handy!!!

a lovely friends magnet

a lovely bright red the cosy

Thanks Joy for being such so patient and for the lovely swap gifts. 

Okay so here are some of my swap makes, I signed up for the dish cloth swap over at Leonie's blog Kiwi at Heart and my secret partner was Cat at Catalina's Cottage, I stalked read Cat's blog and found out she liked Cath Kidston amongst other things and I found a fabulous pattern on the internet and here are the two dishcloth's that I made.

The tiny centre roses were rather fiddly but I got there in the end

Cat has a son and daughter and I remembered that I had some Cath Kidston floral fabric  and some of her rodeo cowboy fabric so I made a hanging heart and a hanging star

I also found a piece of floral and check Cath inspired fabric in my stash so I wrapped a ribbon around it and popped it in the parcel.

Here are all my swap goodies for Cat 

not sure if I went a bit overboard of the Cath Kidston theme!!!

Next up was the Cracker swap just before Christmas I was partnered with Belinda from Frugal Workshop who told me she liked the colour orange, lighthouses and books so I made a book bag from some lighthouse fabric that I had in my stash.

It wouldn't fit inside the kitchen roll so I wrapped it around the outside.

I also made a little lighthouse tag.

I found a beautiful piece of orange fabric in my local fabric shop and teamed it with bright blue ribbon for the cracker.

My other swap partner in the Cracker Swap was Debi over at Busy Little Chicken

who lives near Happisburgh lighthouse so keeping with the lighthouse theme I found this painting on the internet of the lighthouse 

and turned it into this mini quilt picture

This is the first time I have made anything like this and it was hard to get the dimensions and the depth right but I was pleased with how it turned out.

Initially I thought it would be easier  to hand stitch the edges but it was quite fiddly and I decided to use the sewing machine.

I think that is me up to date on my swap makes for the time being and I am now busy working on my next swap makes as I have three swaps on the go at the moment and I've been pinning like mad for inspiration!!!

Christmastide

So here we are in the no man's land between Christmas and New year.

It seems I not the only one to find this time a little bit nondescript!

The excitement of Christmas Day has passed, the presents have been enjoyed and packed away ready for another day, the turkey has been eaten in a variety of ways along with a mountain of other delicious goodies and the time has come to reflect on the year that has passed and to think about the opportunities, hopes and dreams that the new year will bring.

We had a lovely relaxed Christmas but I am now getting a bit twitchy for the new year to start.

As I get older the need to keep the tree up until the 12th day gets a little harder to keep, in fairness our tree does go up on the 1st of December so we have enjoyed it's loveliness!

I have already used some of this in between time to pin new ideas and inspirations to my pinterest boards, with one friend commenting that I was so over Christmas as I pinned an Easter themed pin on Christmas day!!!

I'm also thinking that it's time to organise another swap to get my creative juices flowing again - anyone interested???

I am making use of a notebook sent to me by Kimberley over at Creative Chaos to list the things I would like to make over the next 12 months, and I have also been using this time to reflect on my makes and swaps that I haven't had time to share with you in the run up to Christmas, 

here are just a couple of things that I made that were opened on Christmas Day. 

It is strange to think that people all over the world have things in their homes made by me!!!

Here are just a few of my November and December makes

personalised aprons

bunting

japanese knot bags

personalised cushions

make up bags

personalised half aprons

Christmas sacks

angel wing hearts

Christmas stockings

and finally a personalised brownie blanket!!

Phew, I'm not sure how I managed to cram that lot in before Christmas Eve!!!