Remember this.....

This was the field behind our house back in April, thankfully the yellow rape has long gone and thankfully with it our Hay fever!

This is how it looks this morning, lush and green and sprinkled with Red Poppies, what a delight!

On the home front, hopefully (everything is crossed and I hope that I am not tempting fate!!!) Andy should be home Sunday evening, so that means we have 2 more go to beds to go, hooray

LKH has been as busy as ever and my little hands have been sewing lots of pretty hand appliques for Custom Orders and my Sewing Machine has been sewing at full speed putting them all together. I did however spend a couple of hours to tidy LKH Headquarters (and yes it really did take that long) I am not quite sure how it happened but it had got into a dreadful muddle. I like my fabrics to be in a certain order and they were all over the place, buttons were in the wrong place and I had lots of lovely new fabrics to put away so enough was enough.

Here's a little peek of where the action happens

Just one of the run of shelves I have stacked full of lovely fabric and my Felt Rainbow

To the right of this I have, just some of my bias binding rolls. In the top Ikea storage box and the one directly below are my ribbons and trims, sorted by colour and type. The retro sewing basket has patchwork squares and hexie's waiting patiently to be sewn together ( one day! ) The other Wooden Box has just some of my embroidery threads. My main stock of those are stored in the chest of drawers below

in plastic boxes, in colour order. I won't show you exactly how many I have, but believe me it's a lot!

On the other side of the room ( which is not big! ) I have yet more fabric and in the White Chest of drawers and the Printers Block Chest which you can see more of here , I store pre cut Bunting Triangles

Call me sad, but sometimes I just sit and look at my fabric


and this is my trusty sewing machine, which has sewn many a mile. It sits on a table top, that Andy built for me in a bay window, so I have lots of light. It's where I cut out, take my photo's, wrap and pack and I should do my accounts (eeekk, must get up caught up on those)

and as for what Bunting do I have, well I must confess to have a changeover every now and then, but currently it is gorgeous Mini Bunting in Liberty Blues.

I hope you like the little tour :)

Update on the GIVEAWAY

1 more sale in my Etsy Shop and 3 more Facebook fans to go

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

A fresh look

What do you think.........do you like my new blog look, I LOVE it! It's been designed by the very talented Kathy from Modern Polka Dots on Etsy and now brings into line my Website, my Etsy Shop and my Blog, please do let me know what you think.

On the home front, I had grand plans for this week, however all best laid plans..... Jamie went back to school on Monday, but after a nice walk home and tea, started to flag and said his head hurt. By 8pm he had a raging temperature, which continued through the night. He spent all day Tuesday camped out on the sofa watching tv and Wednesday playing lego, with the odd 'lets see how your head is' restricted session on the computer playing his new Star Wars game that he got for his birthday. By Thursday he seemed back on top form so I sent him back to school........ how bad did I feel when school phoned for me to come and collect him mid afternoon and even worse the fact that I had gone down town, the first time all week and had forgotten my phone. Thankfully Grandpa was at home and went on the mercy dash to school. As soon as Jamie got home, he fell asleep on the sofa, woke briefly asking to go to bed and then slept deeply until 4 am! Anyway thankfully the horrible bug is on it's way out and he is returning to normal. There is a God though and Poppy hasn't caught it, although I've been fighting a bad head for days....... only 1 more week until Andy gets back hooray!!!!

On the sewing front, I have some gorgeous new Buntings going into the Etsy shop, his just some of them

Rosebuds, an oh so pretty Bunting in pink, pink and a little more pink

Nautical, a classic combination of Red, White and Blue

Bliss

Blossoms, a stunning and dramatic Bunting in Black and Hot Pink

And here are just some of the Custom Orders that have been sent on their way, lovingly wrapped in tissue paper and tied up with string

Sherbert Pips and Tutti Fruity Vintage Fabric Bunting

Hand Appliqued Nautical Bunting

and Pretty Tilda

Thank you so much to my lovely customers for allowing me to do what I really do love what I do.....Sewing !!

Finally, I've nearly reached some major milestones, I'm nearly at 300 Sales on Etsy and nearly at 100 Likes on Facebook. SO when I get there, I think it will be time for another

GIVEAWAY

Have a great weekend, 'till next time

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!

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

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

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

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

Sea of yellow

This is the view today from the back of house

We are so lucky to live with open countryside right behind us. The field is just full of rape, which whilst gorgeous to look at, I must confess is making both myself and the children sneeze like mad. I would not however change where we live for all the tea in china and hope so much that the land is never sold to developers for houses to built on.

I've been busy sewing over the Bank Holiday in between outings with the family and making the most of the sunny warm weather. Anyway the children are back to school / preschool tomorrow for all of 3 days before the bank holiday next weekend.

We're off to a friends house to celebrate the Royal Wedding. I am planning on watching all the coverage from a prime position on the sofa with a glass of Pimms in hand and ooing and aaghhing over the dress, hats and outfits. (well that's the plan, we'll see!) I can't wait to see William in his RAF Uniform, good call, but then I am biased, what with Andy being in RAF.

Anyway off to cook tea and looking forward to sewing tomorrow, with the radio for company and a very quiet house.

'till next time

Happy Easter

Ok so it's 9am on Easter morning, eggs are found and one eaten, chocolate Easter Nests made and bowl licked out, the rest of the chocolate is now hidden, but I'm sure not for long..... oh well

Happy Easter

Mothers Day

Breakfast in bed, cards and flowers Love you Jamie and Poppy!

Transformed at last!

Now why is it, as a Mum who can sew, you never get round to making things for your own? Our family clubbed together nearly 3 summers ago to purchase our rather cute playhouse. We painted the outside, we chose blue, so that it would appeal to both Jamie and Poppy, but that's all we did, just how bad is that!! It subsequently became a mini garden shed, full of spiders and invaded by ivy......

......until this week that is! In an effort to redeem ourselves, all 6'3" of Andy spent a couple of mornings inside painting it white. ( I think he was quite glad to go back to work today after all the painting he's done over the last couple of weeks!) which left Nan and I free to pretty it up

There's bunting both inside and out, aprons, bags full of toy food and pots and pans. A little table and chairs, and for storage, one of my all time faves, an old Lloyd Loom chest, given a lick of paint and a new ticking cover

Nan made the gorgeous red gingham curtains, from ever so slightly bigger red gingham curtains that she found at booty

The bedside cupboard bought from a furniture turnaround shop for a couple of pounds, received a rather swift paint over and is now a very sturdy cooker, perfect for baking cakes for a tea party I do believe!

and finally a little heart over the door is a gentle reminder of the love that went into making a happy home for two happy children

'till next time