All The Fun Of The Summer Fair....

Phew I am shattered! I have made more pretties in the last week or so than I have have ever made. I thought it would be nice to have a little table at the Summer School Fair. Now you clever people would be very good at doing your organising, making your pretties, working out your costs and the like well in advance of your fair. Well moi, organised nada, gave myself 10 days or so notice before the fair and then as some of you know went on a mad making frenzy, fell out of love with my sewing machine many times, and had moments when I NEVER wanted to see a piece of fabric again.I am happy to say it was all worth it :) Here are some of my makes.


Handmade all things pretty 'business' cards.





Personalised children's tote bags.





Girls lining.





Boys lining.





Eco Shoppers.








Personalised photo frames.





Pretty scrunchies.





Children's drawstring bags with handmade bookmark and sweeties.











Fabric buckets.





Personalised bunting.





Happy hearts :)





More bookmarks.





So, the day of the fair came, and I enjoyed setting up my table.














Thank you so much for all the encouragement and support I have recieved, I am very inspired my many of you, and you have all helped me believe in myself and it was lovely to have people want to part with their hard earned cash to have one of my handmade pretties in their home. I very much enjoy making pretties aimed at the children's market, I love playing with pretty fabric, and maybe this is where my talent lies, making for babies and children, who knows. I have decided to have an overhaul of my blogshop as many mummies were wondering if I had an online shop and liked the idea of being able to order handmade personalised gifts for children's birthday's etc.

So, I would say the day was a success, I recieved many personalised orders, the bunting was a favourite, I think I am quite competitively priced, I have seen many personalised buntings for sale in shops for £25.00/£30.00, I would never pay this for my children, though of course I am yet to really sit down and work out my costs. The hearts went down well, especially with the young boys who bought a couple for their 10 year old girlfriends ;)

I have a pencil booking for a fair in October so hopefully, have given myself plenty of notice to work out all the things I should have worked out for summer one LOL.

I would say though the highlight of the day was seeing people walking with one of these in their hands, my all things pretty bags. Thanks to Lesley who managed to get me my pretty bags, packs of 10 for under a £1.00, and also to the lovely CS ladies who I have come to know so well at my favourite CS, who got me the pretty raffia.



Thank you too to the wonderful Lissy Lou And The 2 Little Boys for her wonderful giveaway I won, it was a delight to unwrapp everyting.


Beautiful and gorgeous smelling chocolate candles that smell of the most wonderful, well, chocolate.





A beautiful handmade in England jug.





Some delightful dolly pegs, place setting holders and a pretty washbag.





And some fantastic scrap booking goodies and stickers for the children.





Thank you so much Lissylou, a very generous and thoughtful giveaway. I love it :)


I believe thanks are needed too for the lovely invitation I had.





I am very honored, but have to decline on this occasion from sheer tiredness I am afraid, I would most probably be asleep in the lovely rocking chair underneath the apple tree, and if awake I reckon on me slurring my words, no, no, no, no, no not from the Pimms, but from lack of sleep !

Do have a lovely time and have lots of fun :) Can't wait to hear what you all got up to.


I have found a lovely gem on freecycle, a beautiful old sewing box piled high with goodies, some of you know my love of butterflies so to find the pretty butterfly lace inside was a lovely little treat. You never quite know what you are going to get with freecycle but when I saw the sewing box, I definately went home skipping.





I think it is really sweet and in my favourite colours too.


Righteo, have to remember it is Father's Day and need to go and have some fun :) Hope you have a lovely day, thinking of those of you, who, like me, for very different reasons, don't have your fathers around at this time.

Have a lovely week.

X

FRIENDS....

Thank you all so much for your wonderful and heartwarming messages on my previous post. Words cannot express how much they all meant to me, apologies if I haven't got round to thanking you all personally but for now, thank you so very much :)

So, to my beautiful and special friends swap. As some of you know Beki has been holding a friends swap and I was partnered with Rachywachywooo and a couple of days ago I received a wonderful parcel from Rachel through the post.


You probably all know by now how the swap was working, you were to send a little gift each representing the letters in the word friends.

Here is everything so beautifully wrapped.





So, F was for Fragrance and a beautiful Fresh Cut Roses fragranced Yankee candle in a sweet glass holder, dressed in the most prettiest handmade lace and buttoned jacket.





R was for Roses, I knew I was going to love this one. The most gorgeous and exquisite Road Pottery china little bowl with lid. The lid is decorated with the most gorgeous Yellow Rose, a special favourite of mine. It really is so pretty.





What, a little gift inside too, how can a girl be so lucky. A delightful and beautiful vintage floral rose brooch. A definate for special occasions, I love it.





I was for Initial, and the sweetest little handmade pillow with my initial on. It is so lovely and now resides on our hallway table looking pretty.





E was for Edibles, now I have to admit Lindor is a firm favourite in our house so can you please use your imagination for that one. I am afraid we ate them all. Also with the yummy chocolates were the loveliest little sweeties for the children inside a sweet silicone cup cake case.





N was for notes and the cheeriest Classic Pooh notecards and envelopes. There are two designs with the words, If friends are near, all bothers disappear and Friends are worth holding onto. Very true, special words.





D was for Dusting and Dishes, a real treat here. A very useful and lovely to look at CK duster, though knowing me I shall find a non dusting use for it. And the most magnificent 1921 Sylvac dish in the wonderful, and my favourite, colours of green and pink. I shall feel like the queen bathing with this beautiful dish by my side, or delving into the pretty dish to decide which piece of jewellery I shall wear on that day. Indeed it has many uses and is so very me.





And, finally S was for Soak, a beautiful heart shaped lavender bath bonanza. I shall so enjoy using this after a hard days work looking after Master Poppins.





Rachel, you have touched me so very much with your special gifts. I adore each and every one of them and could never have dreamt to have received the wonderful and special gifts that you have sent. I really enjoyed doing this swap with you and thanks too to Beki for organising it.


Right, someone who shall remain nameless who lives in this house has decided it would be a good idea to have a little stall at the School Summer Fayre. Mmmmm yes I guess that would be me than ;) So if you don't see me again for a while I shall be knee, no ceiling deep in fabric, ribbon, buttons, pins, threads and all manner of crafty things.

Looking forward to it, only wish I gave myself a little more notice, Ohooo well that's me, everything last minute. Would you like a little lookey at some of my hearts, here you are then, a little taster.





For some of my makes, I have been taking inspiration from my wardrobe, here are a couple of colours I am loving right now, the necklace is a beautiful vintage one I purchased from my favourite CS, I love it and it seems to go with everything.
And the top, very Mary Poppins!





Right guess I better go and make something pretty :)

X

Happy Birthday Baby Joshua....

It is someone very special's 4th birthday, yet sadly, he is not with us and I miss him so very much. He was my son, born so very prematurely, who hung on so very well, but was too small and too weak. He was born weighing 1lb 9ozs.

 Life of course goes on, and time is a healer and I am truly blessed and lucky that 14 months later I had the most gorgeous and precious little boy, who, even after being born 11 weeks early and weighing 3 lbs, is here safe, well, and the love I have for him astounds me at times.

I do however sometimes find it hard to come to terms with the fact that my most sweet little baby, with 10 perfect little fingers and 10 perfect little toes, I shall never see grow up. Have no idea what he would look like, won't see him go to school, get married or have a loving family of his own. It is the hopes and dreams of eagerly looking forward to bringing a new member of the family into your life and then, for those hopes and dreams to be so cruelly snatched away, hurts.

The sun is so very bright and happy and I know he is here watching over us, proud of his big sister who coped so well, and gave him the most precious cuddle a sister could give her brother. Proud of his so very special little brother. We are going to have a happy day, and I am going to enjoy every precious moment with my children. Mr. Poppins has taken the day off work, it is Miss. Poppins sports day and we are going to have a special tea with cake, Mmmmm yummy :)

I always remind myself how lucky we were to have him, to hold him, to see him, that is something I shall forever treasure :)


X

We're Off To Button Moon....

I don't know about you, but I am always on the look out for treasure in CSs and when I handed over a big plastic jar filled with all these, and asked how much, what do you think was the reply.






£3.50 ?






£3.00 ?







£2.00 ?



When the kindly lady replied £1.00 my dear, I wanted to give more, and her a hug, but the thrifty girl in me took over and I practically skipped out of the door.


I had so much fun picking out some of my favourites and felt especially pleased as I had already used some of the ones a fellow Blogger kindly sent me in a pretty handmade bag. So felt someone was looking over me that day.






Anyone else have a button thing going on.

X

Bargains Galore and A Lovely Kitchen Swap....

Thank you so much for all your wonderful help, advice and fantastic tips for my little mouse problem. He seems to like it here, well that makes one person who does, and we hopefully shall have him evicted very soon, hopefully in our little mouse friendly trap :)


Doing my best to forget about my little friend I decided to go on a fabric hunt, Ohooo look what goodies I found. Some really pretty ones.





I couldn't wait for my fingers to get busy making.


I found a wonderful Orchid in M&S half price, was £9.99 now £4.99. I wouldn't be surprised if one of you have bought this bargain as everyone in the M&S I went to seemed to have one in their arms.

Having a certain lack of pretty pots at the moment, the pretty Orchid is now in one of Master Poppins tin buckets, and I have covered that in a pretty little fabric holder. I think it looks really sweet.





The pretty fabrics look perfect together.





I have also popped into Mr Tesco to buy one of these. Miss. Poppins had to have one also and we saw some lovely matching accessories that we may go back for.





Whilst there, being a robust bargain hunter, I saw something Union Jacky looking for a little boys room. Well a, I love UJs, and b, I have a little boy. Brilliant, in the shopping trolley it went.

A beautiful Union Jack fleecy throw, and a bargaintastic £2.00, they were originally £8.00. I would get down there if you likey as they were selling like hot cakes. Appreciating the UJ love could more than likely only be a sweet little phase for me, I was more than happy to hand over my 200 pence.





Ohooo it looks like a cosy UJ swiss roll.






Talking of pretties, look at the beautiful 'Kitchen' swap I recieved from the lovely Country Bliss over at the SC Cafe.


A beautiful card with the most adorable handmade little knitted cupcake lady, she is so sweet and what intricate work the little beads are.





A gorgeous handmade egg sign, I love, love, love, love it.





A wonderful pair of Espresso cups and saucers, I think would make sweet little egg cups too.





The most gorgeous handmade felt Home Sweet Home heart, So pretty, and a beautiful colour.






And a wonderful and quaint teabag holder, too pretty to use.






Thank you so much Y, I love everything, so pretty and so me and all in my favourite kitchen colours. You are very clever, and your beautiful makes shall take pride of place in my kitchen.


And now for the upstairs bathroom, well that needed prettying up and I found a sweet little 2 piece bathroom set in my local market for £3.00.

A pretty pink polka dot bath mat with matching toilet mat. I almost wasn't going to use the toilet mat as I don't really do toilet mats, but actually it does look rather sweet. The mat looks lovely againt the white bath.




I really am so happy to find the lovely bargains I do, especially in the current climate. I have seen a beautiful bedspread I purchased for approximately £40.00 on a website selling for £145.00, now that is one mark up and in my opinion doesn't seem fair. Yet I see it so often the same goods being sold with very different price tags. I am all in for making a little profit when it comes to selling vintage and handmade goods, but these brand new items, I really don't get it.


Now that I have some more yummy fabric and really don't waste my time fondling it anymore, my next little project is to make a seat cover for Master Poppins highchair, he has the Tripp Trapp

His seat covers could do with a makeover, so am going to use one of them as a pattern and make him up a new one. If you have this chair I would love to know how you are getting on with it and if you like it, I love the idea that can be used as an adult chair too.


I would like to thank Blooming Myrtle for her present. The prettiest handmade bag of buttons I have ever seen. E thank you so much, the buttons are very special to me and shall be well used. Thank you too for the beautiful bag, so pretty.





Happy making :)


X