Whose Been Playing With My....

Thank you for the lovely, lovely comments on my during photograph, just waiting for the paint to dry and then perhaps I can leave the varnishing for another day and show you all a little after photograph....

In the meantime someone has been playing with my buttons....good job Master Poppins is at school is all I can say ;0)

Gives me a good excuse though to have a little button playtime....

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Pretties, Craft And A Giveaway....

Well I can't stop there can I, here are some more pretties that have made their way home with me ;0)

I am loving my new necklace, it is perfecto for me and my love, not always, but mostly ;0) of my chine. You can fine the delicious and pretty necklaces here  I love the old fashioned singers, and even have one myself that I found at a carboot for £4.00, tis very pretty, and for display purposes only. This lovely lady helped me date it to 1936.

Here is a thrifted bargain, a sweet oatmeal coloured vest, by, wait for it, Armani :0)

Can you see the price, shall we have a closer look ;0)

When oh when shall I get bored of the UJ thing, not quite yet it seems judging on my purchase, I love my new wallet, it is really handy as can also be used as a little clutch bag and it has a million compartments in it.

Shall we have a little looky at what has been keeping me busy craft wise. I have agreed to do alittle table at a ladies evening event in less than a week, so have been beavering away at the chine. Hearts have been the order of the day. I love the sweet blue and pink gingham ones to welcome a new baby, and the pure white one I think it is a lovely classic lavender heart.

Yes not all my makes are floral ;0)

Shall we have a little photograph of some pretty hanging lavender sachets to break up the heart monotony perhaps.

I hope one or two of these floraly and girly Mary P pretties go off to new homes.

I have also been playing.... with buttons that is. Like the lovely Birgitta who also loves to play with her buttons. We both had bought these fabulouso spice jars and popped our colour coordinated buttons in. Hmmmm which button colours do you think I use most then, here is a little clue ;0) 

Right would you like a little giveaway, would you would you, hands up, baby hands up, if you do. Well, on my previous post I blogged about a little craft book I had bought. I had one or two lovely people asking me where the book was from, one of those lovely ladies was my good pal Helen and as I was going near the book shop I bought my original one from,  I bought one as a little treat for her. Well she is a quick worker that one and beat me to it ;0) So of course it is only fair that I offer the one I bought as my giveaway. Also I have included two of my handmade pretties, a sweet polka dot lavender heart, I have only used lavender as I think hearts bursting with lavender are rather special, and an ickle lavender hanging sachet.

If you would like to be in with a chance of winning, leave a comment here on this post and I shall get Master Poppins to choose a lovely winner in a weeks time, the 18th may. Simples.

Good luck. Right, off to make some pretty bags and cushions :0)

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What I Have Been Doing.....

Well, what have I been up to, hmmmm let me think....

I have....

Been buying pretty buttons. I often see pretty buttons like these and pay 15p, actually 2 were 42p, for each of them....

And I loved these little cards displaying vintage buttons on them, each card with buttons was 60p.

So when I saw X amount in a pack in a crafty store for £5.99, I thought they were really good value for money, I mean one can never have enough buttons. Mmmmm, or can they ;0) The X amount of buttons are in the most delicious candy colours, I almost want to, dare I say it, lick them.

If you are wondering why I am calling them X amount, it is that we had a little family game where we guessed how many there were in the pack. The lovely gentleman in the shop reckoned on there being 500 maybe. Well we thought there wouldn't be that many, so we all had a little guess. I went for 350, Miss. Poppins went for 320, Mr. P went for 250 and Master. P thought there was maybe 2, obviously didn't quite get the gist of the game ;0)

What would you have plumed for....

Well, altogether, including all the ickle ones, there was 413, so less than 1 and a half p per button, bargain :0)

I have also....

Been buying lovely fabric. I thought the caramel and soft pink would look lovely as a cover on a little footstool, hmmmm only need a footstool now ;0)

I have....

been given a new role. I am now a volunteer youth worker at the local youth group that meets once a week in our little village. The age group is 8-13 and I am really looking forward to my new role. I have met and know many of the children, Miss Poppins shall be there too and I am already known as the crafty lady, which is nice. I shall be in charge of the craft room and every week we shall be doing lovely little crafty projects, and the older girls especially, are really looking forward to it. It is lovely that I am volunteering, there is a feeling of giving something good back to my community, which is kind of special. I shall need all the relevant CRB checks and also my little chine has to be Pat Tested a legal requirement, and have thought of some lovely projects we can get on with, with a good olde fashioned needle and thread, whilst I have no chine there. There are also stacks of gorgeous fabric there which I can't wait to get my hands on ;0)

Of course it is always nice to get a little inspiration, and where better than from Emma Hardy's Sewing for Children book. I love Emma's Quilting In No Time and Sewing In No Time, so reckoned on me liking the children's book too. It is indeed, in my opinion, a lovely book with 35 crafty projects aimed at children, but I reckon on some projects us big children would like to have a go at too ;0) Highly recommended by me, and you don't even need a chine.

I can't wait to get on with some of these craft projects with the children.

Projects for crafty boys too :0)

As I am hoping to get back in the world of working soon, eeek, I thought this new role of mine the perfect introduction, and useful too, to pop on my C.V. 

I have also....

been buying pretty cards for framing. I had to have this one when I saw it.

I have been making pretty fabric wrist cuffs  for 3 crafty friends of mine. I love to wear wrist cuffs and think are quite the in thing this season. Mine are made in a very free hand kind of style, not meant be neat, perfect, symmetrical or even with straight lines. I used no template, and I quite like the way they turned out, shall have to make myself one now methinks.  

For someone who likes red.

For someone who likes green.

And someone who, like me, likes those pretty candy colours.

Hopefully my pals like them.

I have also been making more bunting and cushions for orders. All my customers are more than happy for me to display their wares that I have handmade for them, and I really appreciate it as I think it is nice to showcase one's work and nice to see the different fabrics and colours I use.

 Buntings.

Cushions.

The backs, using a retro 1970's fleece fabric I bought. 

I have also been wrapping up swap parcels and hopefully they shall be sent in the next couple of days, my one to Jozen has been sent and hopes it gets to her soon. Talking of swaps I received a beautiful  one from the ever so lovely Mrs Yappy Dog here it is all wrapped up so sweetly, it was a flower swap and boy I got some pretty treats, I shall of course let you all see in my next post. Hope you like the photograph I took of the pretty gifts, the sunlight was shining on them and then the shadows on the outer edge makes it look like a heart, very arty. 

 

Thank you so much B, your gifts are so special to me.

Thanks too to Country In The Town for the heads up on where her lovely smelling lavender came from. I have been using my own stocks for about a year now and only have only one jar left so thought a good replenish of lavender was on the cards. If you click on the photograph you may see the ebay store I got mine from. Tis a lovely smell.

I have also been choosing new labels for my handiwork, as I am doing little makes for boys too, pink really isn't a cool choice for them and so am deciding what to go for. I don't want them too girly, but not too boyish, hmmmm as you can tell I am yet to choose, here is where I get my labels from and I have always been happy with them.

And I have also been buying crafty supplies from ebay.

And last but not least I have been unwrapping pretty Mother's day gifts, yes I know, we do things a little back to front here, don't ask ;0)

Hope you have all been having fun too. Miss. Poppins is off on her first school trip away for one night, and is ever so excited. boy do they have to take a lot of *stuff* for one night. I am sure she shall be fine. But me, I reckon I shall be crying into my cocoa. Think it may only be my 4th or 5th night away from her in 8 years. I shall be *sob* *sob* fine ;0)

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Merci Beaucoup....

Thank you so much dear Blog friends for your very interesting, articulate and thought provoking comments on my last post. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave me a message, I am truly touched that you can share your precious thoughts with me :)

Well I hope you are enjoying your Sunday. It is a little crazy here, wondering when this home of ours shall ever get finished. Yet no doors on the attic bedrooms, so even the pleasant purring of my sewing machine always has an overtone of children's background noise. Is it any wonder I sew into the night, listening to calm and moving classical music. Do you listen to music when you sew, or am I a little strange that when I create I love to be moved by my surroundings and sometimes feel like I am dancing along with the music, whilst creating something pretty.


Well I wonder what you are all up to, I have been playing with buttons and threads. Think I need to get out more ;)


I am loving playing with my new thrifted vintage threads.





Mmmmm, I wonder which is my favourite ;)





So, my little thank you from me to you :)





Any favourites in there :)





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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.

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