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....

************

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!!!

February Makes

I know, I know we are over half way through March already but I thought I would just show you a few of my February Makes. I haven't been able to show these before because they were gifts for either swaps or Pay It Forwards, but now they have been received I wanted to show you what I have been up to.

 I made this bag 

for Kimberley from Creative Chaos all the way over in New Zealand as part of her Pay It Forward gift, I decided rather than make three small gifts I would make one big one. I used some of this lovely red floral vintage fabric,

 I can't honestly remember who gave this fabric to me but I am lucky to have several metres of both the red and a very sunny yellow too. I teamed it with a remnant of grey corded fabric for the base

and the handles

and lined it in a bright red poly cotton before added a little tab of "Follow your Dreams" ribbon.

Kimberley and I have sent a few items to each other across the pond now, and our sons write to each other too which is lovely so as a little gift I also sent this football bag over as well.

I think I might do my makes in stages otherwise this post will go on and on and on!!! (no change there then!!) until next time........

Blogging from my iPad

Hi everyone, just trying out this new iPad app from blogpress which I am hoping will make blogging on the move much easier!




Thanks to Jean from Talking Beads for letting me know about it!!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Chelmsford, Essex UK

Creative Connections CraftFEST

The spring Creative Connections CRAFTFEST starts tomorrow 

10th of March until 17th March

over a 125 worldwide crafters will be showcasing their work and all you have to do is to sit back in the comfort of your armchair, cup of tea in hand and browse the amazing gifts and creations that will be on sale.

oh and don't forget I will have a stall there too!!!

Mad About Bags

New Friendships and Blog Love Swapping

Blogging brings you into contact with lots of lovely people most of whom are spread all over the country and beyond so when you find a blogger that lives in the same town as you there is only one thing to do and that's meet up, which is exactly what Gem from Gem's Country Life Dream and I did on Thursday evening.
I've been following Gem's blog for some time and have enjoyed reading about her creations, her love of books, her charity shops buys and most recently her engagement to boyfriend James.
So when Gem partnered us together in her Blog Love Swap it was the ideal time to meet up have a chat and swap gifts, we arranged to meet at mine and after introducing her to my husband Paul and son Jack, Tomas was fast asleep and Rachel (who was so disappointed to find out that she would be out the night Gem was coming) was at a school play, we headed off to my workroom.

With a cup of tea in hand we settled down to an evening of chatting, finding out about how we started blogging, our mutual love of charity shops and much much more. The time flew by so quickly as we chatted away and we almost forgot about our swap parcels. We decided to open our gifts there and then, which did seem a bit strange at first but was soon forgotten as we opened our gifts. And neither of us felt at all odd as we photographed our piles of wrapped presents. Here are the wonderful gifts that Gem put together for me...

My wrapped goodies

 my unwrapped goodies minus a super cute blue plush penguin keypal which Tomas seems to have run off with!!!

 Chocolate love bugs - I'm eating these as I type! nom nom!

 3D scrap booking stickers I can't wait to use these as I've never tried scrapbooking before.

 some super soft heart socks  which means that i can now chuck out a pair of my old threadbare ones!!!

 A brilliant Keep Calm notebook (which I have had to hide from Rachel!!!)

 two luscious bath fizzers from LUSH - I tried the leap frog one tonight and it was in the shape of a frog with bright red lips it fizzed and popped and turned the bath water green and when I emptied the water there was a little square piece of paper at the bottom of the bath with a picture of a handsome crowned prince on which read "Prince Shaun was made to kiss you" now I don't know any Shauns but the prince does look surprising like my hubby with his ginger goatee and moustache and bright blue eyes!!!!

 We both gave each other books I can't wait to start this one.

 Our family mousemat is really old and has been used as a doodling pad I shall be keeping this beauty all to myself hiding it away each time so that no one can get their doodling pens on it (anyone else live with doodlelers - Paul and Rachel are the worst you can't leave any paperwork on the desk or they'll doodle on it!!)

I love all my gifts from Gem and it was wonderful to finally meet up with her and although (as Rachel and Paul keep telling me) I am old enough to be Gem's mum (only just mind!!)I hope that this is the start of a new friendship and we will be meeting, making and chatting sometime very soon.

Thanks Gem for being a wonderful swap partner and for organising such a lovely swap.

Afternoon Tea Swap

Do your swap parcels even cause the postman to comment on what might be inside? 

Well that's exactly what happened when my parcel arrived on Tuesday morning from Holly. We had been partnered in Jewel's Afternoon Tea Swap and this is what she sent me.... 

 A lovely heart shaped parcel brightly wrapped which lead me to explain to our postie all abouts swaps and blogging, we do have quite a few parcels arrive here at our cottage, either from swaps or from eBay which as our postie says does keep him nice and busy.

It was also lovely to notice that I'm not the only one that gets caught up in the wrapping of a present only to realise that either I have forgotten to add a card or even forgotten to add one of the gifts 

(both of which I have definitely done!)

Right back to the parcel I bet you're dying to know what was inside.....well the heart shape turned out to be this fabulous red dotty tin for my kitchen, I'm not sure what to keep in it yet but I think is should be something delicious don't you! ...

and what was inside the heart shaped dotty tin, well there was this handmade tin can tea light holder which Holly had hole punched with the word LOVE and a heart (which was impossible to capture in any pictures).

Some red silicon cupcake moulds, I explained to Holly that I might not be the world's best cook when it comes to cakes etc but with these new moulds at least I'll look the part!!! 

 There was also some cupcake themed coasters and a cupcake pen ( which I have had to hide from my daughter Rachel but as she reads this blog will now know about the pen and pester me to give it to her!!!)

Holly also popped in some bunting peel-offs which I can't wait to use on some cards 

and lastly some individual teabags beautifully tied in an organza bag with purple heart ribbon (which I shall definitely find a use for in one of my next projects). 

Receiving all these wonderful gifts in the post makes me realise what a special place blogland is, 

thank you to Jewel for organising the Afternoon Tea Swap and a BIG thank you to Holly for being such a brilliant swap partner. Holly should receive her parcel today (I know I'm a day late sorry!!!)so as soon as I know it has arrived safely I shall post some pictures for you to see what I sent her. 

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I'm also really excited as tonight I'm meeting up with Gem from Gem's Country Life Dream, we will be meeting for the first time and were partnered together in her blog love swap so will be swapping gifts and chatting over a nice cup of tea!!