Tagged

I have been tagged by the very lovely LissyLou. All you have to do is post the fourth photo from your fourth file and pass it on to 4 others.
Now my 4th file is called 'Inspiration' so the photographs in it are not mine but things I have saved from the internet for ideas. I hope that is ok!

This photo is a christmas garland from the fabulous Allsorts blog. I saved it because I thought I might try to make something similar for a swap (this actually inspired my heart garland I sent to Lace Hearts) I also hope to make something similar for next Christmas.

I will pass this tag onto:

MelMel

Lace Hearts

Mary Poppins

and Dollydollop

I do gain so much inspiration from online blogs - I have seen so many things I want to make or want to do and I am so glad that I did find the world of blogland as it has inspired me to get crafty in new and interesting ways. I have always been a crafty person and loved drawing and painting when I was little, my love for crafty things increased when I went to school and I became more interested in textiles, design and fashion. I am also really interested in photography and love to photograph architecture thought I'd show you a couple of my favourite personal photos ::

I took these in Canary Wharf for a book project, I designed the book to have a "structure" and stand up 3 dimensionally...here it is ::

A bit of an unusual post today, but just thought I'd show you some of my work :) X

The Kindness of Strangers :: And A Make

Something lovely came through the door today, something that someone had so kindly offered to send me. This is what I recieved ::


A plastic wallet full of gorgeous CK/IKEA rosali pieces of fabric. These were sent to me, free of charge from the wonderfully talented Sal. Sal said she had some small pieces she didn't need that I could use for my patchwork cushion.

Just look at the wonderful little pieces of fabric I recieved. I have been so spoilt by Sal. I will use these pieces to make a cushion, and it will be such a special cushion because of where it came from. I am such a lucky girl!



I think my favourite is the paisley, but I do love those roses too.


My sewing machine had been playing up and I had put it away because it was annoying me, but I thought I would take it all apart and put it back together again, and it worked! So to celebrate that I thought I would make a little something. I had been wanting to make a Union Jack cushion after seeing some gorgeous ones on blogs here, here and here to name a few.

So here is my first attempt. Not sure what I think of it yet, maybe it needs to grow on me. I used some small rectangles of rosey fabric for it, so it is pretty small, but it is really a practice one. Oh and the stitching is not quite perfect...don't go looking too closely!

I also used a length of ribbon for some of the stripes as I found the fabric way too fiddly! Must try harder! And must learn to love my sewing machine, and remember it is not working against me!

Just a little view of the back, I love the fabric, I got a FQ from ebay and have been saving it for something like this. Plus if I realise I don't like it I can turn it around the other way.

Lets Have A Cup of Tea with Our Awards!

Hello, thankyou for popping in, I'm having a cup of tea while I type this, why don't you join me?



It seems blogland is filled with lovely awards at the moment, and I have been awarded four this week, the first from Yvonne at Country Bliss, thankyou Yvonne!




My second award came from the very lovely MelMel so thankyou very much!






My third award came from Beki from The Ramblings Of An Everyday Mummy and also Sandie at Dancing On A Blade Of Grass which is very kind of you, thankyou ladies!

The authors say that blogs who receive this award are exceedingly charming. This blog invests in proximity in space, time and relationships. These kind bloggers aim to find and be new friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandisement. Our hope is that when ribbons of these awards are cu, even more friendships will be propagated. Please give your kind attention to these writers..


Now I am supposed to pass both of these awards on to 8 bloggers, which would make 32 in total, but I think I will just do 8 altogether!!


So here we go, I am passing on these awards to ::


MelMel who has such a pretty blog


A Thrifty Mrs who finds the most amazing treasure


Josie Mary who is so talented at crochet (I am jealous!)


Lesley (Notes From My days) who shares my love of ribbons!


Vintage Tea who also finds great treasures for her 'bottom drawer!'


Lace Hearts for being such a wonderful crafter and making pretty things.


Lajoni for being so funny and making me laugh on the ShabbyChicCafe, and for jumping into the world of blogging!


and LissyLou for a great, honest blog about everyday life and taking fab photos too, also for leaving lovely comments!


Phew that was a whole lot of linking!! Hope you enjoyed your tea, and your awards Ladies! X

I Have A 'Snippet' In My Room!

After winning Sals gorgeous giveaway memoboard I thought it was only right that it had pride of place. Now I did contemplate taking it to the BF's flat but thought it might be too girly for him, plus I wanted to have it with all my other florally girly things in my room so thats where it went. I know it was meant for the kitchen but I want to keep it for myself!







So I had a little re-jig and moved some things about, and this is its new home ::

The floral corner seems to be taking over my room! And I am liking it very much! I do like to have my pretties out on display, although I do believe I am on the verge of 'overdoing it' with the florals! I may have to move some bits into the IKEA glass cabinet that you can see over in the corner. I don't really like it anymore as I don't know what to put in it, its mainly full of photo frames and jewellery boxes, but perhaps I could jazz up the back with some wallpaper...hmm I will have to show you ladies to get your opinion on it.

Now if you were wondering to yourself 'why did she put it over the dado rail?' Well the answer to that is that sadly there are some (now ugly to me) shelves above it so it couldn't go any higher, but I have very limited wall space in my room and I wanted it somewhere I could see it!

The gorgeous mix of fabric and papers has brightened up my room a treat! Thankyou again Sal! X

Crazy Patchwork

At the Shabby Chic Cafe some of us have been playing with our fabric scraps after the wonderfully talented mitmot posted this tutorial link. (It is the same tutorial as posted on Lace Hearts blog too.) This was my first attempt ::





It was a lot of fun to do, and I enjoyed picking the pretty pieces of fabric and seeing how they went together, but I didn't quite get the hang of it (practice makes perfect!) so I didn't make it too big.

Just enough to make this for myself :: Crazy Patchwork heart using Cath Kidston scraps.

I highly recomend the tutorial if you want to give it a go, it is great for using up little pretty pieces that you don't want to throw away. I will certainly keep practicing with it. Perhaps I could make my samples patchwork cushion like this...hmmm X

Swap Sent :: Cath Kidstonesque

Now that I know Liz has recieved her Cath Kidstonesque swap from me I can show you what I sent her. I really enjoyed making things for this swap, I think it has been my favourite so far. I can't wait to recieve mine.

I will work backwards, as if they were being unopened because its always nice to see the way things are packaged too I think. I found this very CK - looking wrapping paper in a little newsagents, you know with the really old fashioned single sheets? Well I thought it would be perfect for this swap.

The bits and bobs inside the little rosey parcel were wrapped in green and yellow tissue paper. And I also included a little handmade card for Liz too, you can see below, this is a scrap of CK fabric with the edges frayed.

I included some purple "smellies" two soaps that got a little CK makeover with some stickers, and a very CK handcream and nail file set.

A handmade strawberry fabric heart...

Little bag appliqued with a piece of rose fabric. I also added some pink ribbon to pretty it up.

Some pale blue spotty napkins and a spotty handmade needlecase....

I adapted this pattern of the flowers in a basket from the CK Make! book and embroidered it onto a piece of felt, added some mini buttons and then I it stitched onto the front.

And finally this 'Rose & Bird' fabric picture, Rose&Bird is the name of Liz's wonderful online store that sells vintage goodies. I used a pink polka dot background and little scraps of fabric to make this and put it in an IKEA frame.

And thats it, Cath Kidston swap month is done! I will of course post about my swap when I recieve it so you can see my goodies! X

Tweed Love

I am loving all things tweedy at the moment, very well suited to this horrible, cold wintery weather we are having. I thought I'd show you how my Christmas bag from Accessorize goes with my tweed coat that I got from Primark last year :: wearing these makes me feel very wintery with a flash of colour.

The coat was a bargain and came with a lovely sparkly brooch which sadly, but typically, I managed to lose within days (it just fell off and I didn't notice!) So I added this pretty blue one to it instead.

I also swap it with this brooch which was part of my Sparkle swap from Country Bliss. This crochet flower brooch is currently living on my green cardigan and I always get complimented on the brooch when I am wearing it. Lovely to walk around wearing something specially made for you.

I have sent out my Cath Kidston inspired swap to Liz at Rose and Bird/Pacific Robin.

So I will show you the goodies I made as soon as Liz has recieved it. X

Free Fabric

Now I have somewhat of a love - hate relationship with Cath Kidston. I love her designs and her shops, but I hate the prices and I hate how stingy they can be when it comes to samples. Ok now I have to admit that when I discovered she sent out free samples I did go a little OTT with it - slightly more than the allowed 4 samples per customer!! But I couldn't justify spending money on her fabrics...



So I gave it a while, and when spotting MelMel's post about free Cath stuff I decided to go straight to the source - ignoring the website and phoned instead.



And yes I was rewarded with 5 yummy samples through the post (and 4 other samples from a different website too! - well they were free!) Not bad for a few minutes on the phone and a couple of clicks.

I am hoping to make another patchwork cushion like the one on my sidebar, but need to find some different fabric for the back of it. I'm also thinking I might need more samples (you can never have enough free samples I say)...how long should I give it before trying CK again? A week...hmm on second thoughts maybe two?! X

A Wonderful Giveaway Parcel

This afternoon I dashed to the Post Office to collect the parcel I missed yesterday (typical!) and it was the lovely giveaway I had won from Sal at Sal's Snippets. I was the very lucky winner of this gorgeous kitchen clipboard. Isn't it lovely...



Beautifully colourful ribbons at the top...

Little Cath Kidston notepaper slotted into the pouch...

Look at the wonderful little details :: Snippets

And the back is just as lovely too :: Sal personalised it with my name!!

Lots of little goodies in the pouches :: fabric and labels and tags

And inside the pouch at the back was this cute little handmade card too.

Thankyou so much Sal for such a lovely giveaway - I love it! It is so colourful and has so many pretty little details. I have not decided where it is going to live yet but when I have decided I will post photos of it in position. X