Saturday, 21 May 2011

Front Page!!




Hooray, I was included on the Front Page of Etsy today, in a gorgeous Treasury called "If you love Anthropologie..." you can see it in it's full glory here. Thank you so much Lucy.

I LOVE Anthropologie do you?


What is even more exciting is the gorgeous photo's I was kindly sent to me by Whitney only yesterday. Just take a look at these, they include my Tutti Fruity Vintage Fabric Bunting I long to be able to take photo's that look like this!













Thank you SO much Whitney, you're a star!!


This made my day, which has been a long one, Andy leaves tonight at midnight. I've had a stinking headache all day and it broke my heart when he said goodnight to the children. But on the brightside, when we all wake up tomorrow, we're on countdown to him coming home and this little trip is a short one.... 31 days and counting!


Thursday, 19 May 2011

Busy busy busy

We woke up this morning to a lovely sunny day, a perfect washing day! As I waved good bye to the children as they left for school, (Andy was on school run) I realised that the front garden is about to burst into glorious colour. The front garden is my garden and unlike the back garden that is now full of fruit and veg ( more of that later this week) slides and footballs is full of of my favourite flowers and plants



Ladies Mantle, zesty lime, and the leaves catch rain drops and make them sparkle like diamonds

Allium Christophii, in a couple of days this will be a stunning sphere of star like petals



Rosa Fairy, teeny tiny roses, but masses and masses of them, stunning!



Lavender, oh the scent, what more can you say



Hardy Geraniums, so tolerant and hard working, yet so beautiful



I would like to say there was a planting plan, but I'm afraid other than there being a vague blue, pink and white colour scheme, it is just full of pretty flowers, which are left to self seed as you can see in the photo above. The Lavenders in the wall of the house are all self sewn and there are loads of tiny seedling in the cracks on the paving which I can not bring myself to pull up.




Now to a WIP, totally Andy by coincident had this week booked as leave to decorate our kitchen/family room, which as you all know is not Andy's favourite activity. It has although been lovely to be at home together before he leaves.




So to give you a sneeky peek, the walls are painted, I've hung new wallpaper and we've painted the kitchen cupboards





In between, I've been finishing bunting, answering emails and yes for you eagled eyed readers, reading the fabulous new magazine Mollie Makes, which dropped through my post box this morning. It's a fab read and has the most gorgeous crochet apple jackets tutorial , oh I SO want to learn to crochet, a great feature on Dottie Angel, who's blog I follow and ..........



a feature on bobble trims and just look who's photo is included.



I hope you're having a lovely day!


'till next time





Sunday, 15 May 2011

May the force be with you

I can honestly say I am shattered! I am normally bounding with energy and will sew, be mum, keep the shop updated and sew a little more, from first thing in the morning until I go to bed at night. But tonight I am collapsed in a heap on the sofa.

I've had a marvelous weekend, baking, cake decorating, icing personalised star ship cookies, packing party bags, clock watching (giving an hourly countdown from 6am 'till 6pm party time!) shopping, walking around gardens, having a birthday lunch out with Uncle Mal and Auntie Tina, lots of chatting, laughing and general excitement.



Both children are in bed exhausted and with any luck sleeping later than the usual 5.30am, which they still managed this morning despite an extremely late night last night. I have a glass of wine and I'm snuggled up with Andy making the most of our last few evenings together before he goes away on Friday.



So I'm going to love and leave you and will be back bounding with energy in the morning!

Here's some pictures of the cake (and call me mad, but I'm going to make it all over again in 2 weeks on Jamie's actual birthday!)


Jamie loved the twinkly stars, hooray for edible glitter!



'till next time



Thursday, 12 May 2011

A new look

On Tuesday I went on a product photography workshop run by Lyndsey, it was a great day, I learnt lots (and I mean lots). It was fabby to spend time with other like minded ladies, all of whom had fabulous products!


We did lots of theory (phew) go on ask me a question about Exposure or Apertures or Depth of Field (only kidding, please don't!)


I came back and spent a sleepless night thinking about bunting and photo's, here's the result


To show the scale and the gap between each flag, I'm now going to photograph each and everyone of my buntings, like this, on a gorgeous polka dot background with this lovely willow heart



I have decided however, that whilst I love the green, I'm going to stick with red and blue, to match my shop logo and pink, which is probably my best selling colour scheme. (The green will however come into its own come Christmas time when I switch to my winter graphics! )

I've also been re shooting my close up pictures, using different Aperture and Shutter speeds (hope you're impressed with the terminology)



Darla in Pink and Yellow


Appliqued Owls



Sunshine



Stars and Stripes


and Rainbow


So what do you think?


I've got a HUGE task ahead of me which is clearly going to take some time, but I'll get there.................eventually.

I've got a busy few days ahead, we're celebrating Jamie's birthday early due to his Daddy going away next week for a whole month (groan!!) I know it's part of forces life, but it doesn't get any easier! I can not believe it's a year since I was making these


This year, we've booked a laser party and I think this will be the last 'big' party. Jamie has requested a Star Wars cake, huumm could be interesting. I'll show the results next week. Hopefully by then I will have convinced Poppy that it is not her party and that Jamie really does not want a butterfly cake.


I hope you all have a great weekend!


(May the force be with me)


'till next time




Monday, 9 May 2011

I LOVE Union Jacks

the original LKH Union Jack




military brass




pretty flowers




totally tropical


retro revisited




and a Rubber Duck!



'till next time





Sunday, 8 May 2011

A little colour to brighten your day....








Having woken up to showers this morning, I thought I would show you a picture of the latest bunting about to hit the shop. I have to say the grass is looking greener, the strawberries are fattening up and the tomato plants are reaching for the sky. (Promise I'll take some pictures this week)







Hope you are having a lovely weekend!




'till next time




Wednesday, 4 May 2011

A sad little story

Once upon time there lived a beautiful Allium, in the grounds of a castle (well ok, my front garden)





Standing tall and proud, it was the most beautiful shade of purple.


The Queen (me... tee hee ) was taking a tour of the royal gardens, with her pretty daughter Poppy. Having always taught her children to look with their eyes and NOT their hands, you could imagine the horror of the Queen, when all of a sudden with no warning, the beautiful Allium was plucked from it's position by the pretty Princess.


You could could hear the cries of anguish across the entire land, however the Queen's broken heart was instantly mended when the ever so slightly tearful Princess did proclaim, "but Mummy, I picked it just for you!"



Oh well all is well, it's amazing what a chocolate chip cookie and cup of tea can do!



.....and they all lived happily ever after



'till next time



Monday, 2 May 2011

My first ever treasury

I've been luck enough to be included in lots of other peoples Treasuries, but I've never made one myself. Last night, I decided, was the night, so needle and thread was put down and I spent an enjoyable few hours searching through Etsy (never a hardship!).


The starting point was one of my absolute FAVOURITE shops Nest Pretty Things. There you will find the MOST gorgeous jewellery. Andy bought me this for my Birthday, and I just love it, I wear it so much





Back to the Treasury, I finally decided to use these pretty earings, taking the lead from the Blush Pink colourway, with the pale aqua in the background










I decided also to add a touch of soft mink brown and found this gorgeous set of Cards from Jessamae Photography






and this most adorable chiffon petti shorts from Babyellis





and many other wonderful things, this was the final treasury, which I called Whisper, it can be seen it's full glory here, What do you think?




gosh wouldn't it be soooo exciting if it made the front page!! Anyway I think this may be a touch addictive, I'm thinking Summer Garden next, right off to have a look at Nest Pretty Things again
I hope those of you in Blighty are enjoying the Bank Holiday Weekend!

'till next time






Friday, 29 April 2011

Hip Hip Hooray




I am SO excited, I just love a good Wedding. We made cupcakes rather quickly yesterday afternoon in between After School Club and Beavers and we used the cutest little decorations in red, white and blue. Paper chains made, Pavlova made (I'm in charge of puddings), right that's it, we're off to my friends house to sit all morning (can't remember the last time I just sat and watched telly) Do you think wearing a hat would be a bit overkill?


I hope you all have a lovely day and PLEEAASSEE don't rain!

'till next time


Thursday, 28 April 2011

I'm on facebook

Having had loads of customers ask, I can now confirm that this rather techic phobic person, has taken the plunge and opened a Facebook page. I spent the morning adding a load of lovely pictures and I'm really pleased with how it's looking



So who is going to be the first person to 'like' me? (hopefully someone will)

'till next time