Summer Speed

Can't believe it's been a few months since the last blog post - I seem to have got caught up in a house move, a leaking roof, trying to gain some inroads into overgrown garden borders, holidaying in the rain, and wishing all my tomatoes would ripen before autumn heads this way.

Seemed to manage to coordinate the absurdities of the UK summer weather when we took our family holiday by dodging showers in the Castle, ensconcing ourselves in the Butterfly Sanctuary when buckets of rain were non-stop and lazing on the beach (after battling with the worse-for-wear beach shelter - who says the tent poles needed that elastic cord) when the sun deemed to pay us a visit.



Oh and the ice-cream helped.

Boxing Clever

No crafting for me lately - house move in 2 days time and everything is currently residing in a cardboard box of one size or another.

Luckily one member of the household seem to enjoy the addition of a stack of boxes - tower block apartment with a view anyone?

If You Go Down To The Woods Today.....

Remember to tip-toe quietly - for this is where the fairies live of course....in their little tree houses with their little wooden doors...


....and their little staircases....


...but I don't think anyone's home today...



You never know what delights you will find in the forest. Over the Bank Holiday weekend we had an afternoon picnic - yummy food, sitting on green grass, meeting up with family, children having fun, - followed by the discovery of the secret fairy houses. Perfect!

(we picnicked at Cannock Chase - follow the sculpture trail through Birches Valley and you will find the fairy houses!)

Buttons And Gadgets

One of my favourite things when crafting and creating is spending an excessive amount of time sifting through one of my many vintage button boxes to find the exact button that will marry perfectly with whatever fabric I happen to be using at the time. And when I was making a few gadget/mobile phone/iPod cases I found myself whiling many a minute away selecting the perfectly perfect button.

Here are the combinations I came up with:


Love this big brown button!



A starry affair livened up with a splash of pink wool


Butterscotch button and tweed.

Must start to put these in my folksy and etsy shops too - that's after I've spent another inordinate amount of time thinking up names for them!

Grey Flowers Looking Bright

Another of my fabric finds has been transformed into one of my clutch bags, which I've been meaning to put online for a few weeks now and finally got round to it today. On 1st description - "grey flowers, yellowish background" you could be excused for not thinking this fabric was too cheerful, but when you see how the sweet carnation-like grey flowers sit amongst little white flowers, you realise this is one sweet unique design. I like the background colour too, whether that's because I'm drawn to things that evoke memories of other eras (70's maybe?) I'm not sure, but I think it works well.



I've popped this bag into my folksy shop and called it the Grey Carnation Clutch Bag.

Now to photograph 8 ipod covers and 10 brooches......

Simple Pleasures

The sun has shone, we're browsing camping magazines and starting to feel a little light-hearted, and a copious amount of chocolate Easter eggs have been eaten. And on a day of intense cocoa bean consumption the question of "what would you like for tea" was answered with the most simple meal of all. Beans. And Cheese. In A Bowl.



Divine.

An Itch To Stitch

Its a strange time at the moment - caught between selling and buying a house, things in boxes, things not in boxes, life in limbo. I felt I needed to distract myself from scouring the web for sites such as "how to move house in 10 easy steps" or for waiting to accost the postman each morning for any letter that might speed up the process.

So I had to find a way to "step away, nothing to see here" and embroidery was that way. Last year I was given some of Jenny Hart's Sublime Stitching books and kits and it didn't take me long to get back into the swing of a little gentle sewing. Embroidery is therapeutic, I curl up on my red chair, feet tucked beneath me, sink back into the cushions, thread a needle and sew sew sew. There is something about the order of sewing, the rhythm, that slows your breathing and thoughts down into a calmness that is so needed right now.

This is the work in progress:





If you're new to embroidery, the Jenny Hart books are excellent - they include a load of transfer patterns that you just iron onto your fabric (I love using linen and linen-type materials). The instructions for the stitches are also very well written - even the French knot can be mastered with ease!



You can find her books on Amazon, but the Sublime Stitching website has a wealth of other patterns and kits too.