2011 .....

..... a year to relax a little more and make sure that I:

spend more time in the places I love:

 

 with the people I love:

wining and dining wtih good friends:

enjoying the finer things, like my beautiful Iced Gem Abigails:

 

and taking a little more time to smell the flowers:

happy 2011 .... here's wishing all of us the very best of everything!

sew much to make .....

..... sew little time!

I've had a very creative weekend (yeah, I know - same old, same old) ..... but today I am exceptionaly proud of myself.  I'm not a natural "sewer" but when the mood strikes I can rattle of a mean bit of bunting, which I did yesterday for a friend at work:

However, today I excelled myself which, given my limited sewing skills, isn't hard!  I wanted to make an apron and, after spending hours on the internet without finding an easy, free, downloadable pattern, I decided to draw my own.  So I did :-)  then I cut it out from my chosen material, sewed it up, undid a few bits a few times and eventually I made a rather sweet apron!  It's taken me a while and it's too dark to take photos today but I will share it with you soon if you promise not to laugh!

I also made these little beauties over the course of this weekend:

A book for a friend to give as a Christmas present.  I've totally fallen in love with Cuttlebugs embossing folders, especially the paisley one:

And, behind the drag curve, I've discovered Nestibilities ..... I think all my photo mats will be made this way in future!

I also made a word book which is a rather lovely mix of lilac and turquoise (not grey despite how it looks in the photo):

And, I was lucky enough to feature in my friend Joy's blog - she's taken loads of lovely photos of the baby book I made for her granddaughter.  I had so much fun making this and I'm thrilled that she likes it (and looking forward to making two more as soon as I get a moment!).

almost a .....

..... MISI meet up

At the Landsdowne Arms on the 13th November, raising money for Help for Heroes.  Lots of lovely stalls and several lovely MISI ladies ....

..... Jean and Janice - Talking Beads

 ..... Mo - Mornie G Jewellery (that's Mo, opening chocolates that she made us eat!)

..... Rachael - Rosy Tint

..... and me

It was a lovely day, and a great chance for us to chat!

And, look what I picked up for Otis .... 

A fab bandana that Rachael made .... isn't it cute?

it's beginning to look a lot like .....

..... craft fair time!

After saying I wasn't going to do any, somehow I've signed up for five craft fairs over the next month.  The first is on the 13th Nobember from 11-4 at the Landsdowne Arms and is raising money for Help For Heroes.  There are several MISI ladies attending with a fabulous range of handcrafted goodies including beaded items, jewellery and knitted items and it would be great to see you there! 

Want to see some of the things I've been making to sell?

Snowballs ... well, mint imperials actually.  I''m a blog junkie and I've fallen in love with the "rudolph spares" and "pumpkin poop" packaging for sweets that I've seen and thought I'd give it a go ... I wanted something Christmassy and couldn't find anything that would suit a red nosed reindeer so plumped for snowballs instead!

 

Word books .... cut with my craftrobo and then decorated with hand embossed paper.

And explosions boxes ... old favourites that I've rediscovered.  Made with stunning DCWV papers from the Mango Frost range ... lovely, even if I do say so myself!

And, you ask, what has that lovely puppy of yours been doing whilst you've been slaving away over a hot desk?

Relaxing of course!

I do hope that you can make it on the 13th - should be a great trip out with some lovely crafty finds!

a week of .....

..... craft loveliness :-)

well, you know what it's like, I've spent a fortune over the past few weeks on things that I really didn't need ..... but, of course, had to have.  I've been beavering away in my craft room making stuff to sell so that I can (begin to) justify the amount of money that I've spent. 

I'm particularly pleased with these:

I made the pattern for these"magazine files" so that they would hold 2 spiral bound notebooks.  I recovered the notebooks by unwinding the sprial using the original cover as a template to make new ones.

I used by craftrobo to cut the cupcakes which I bought a while ago from one of my favourite sites, MyScrapchick.  I've had several sets from here and have been really pleased with them, I should use my craftrobo more but we have an on off relationship .....

I'm in the middle of making some gift bags, rather lazy of me but I bought a set of Paper Purses from K&Company and have been pressing them out and making them up:

And I got carried away with making laminated bookmarks:

Lots of shopping on the interweb means lots of good post days .... have a look at these buttons, all ready to be sorted into colour order to join the jars on my windowsill:

I've got four craft fairs and a house party lined up for the next month .... so much to make, so little time ;-)

happy birthday dear .....

..... Otis, happy birthday to you!

one year old today!!

and the winner is .....

.....  mystic moonshadows jewellery!  if you contact me either through here or MISI and let me know your address I shall get your Halloween goodies in the post to you!

Please let me know what you think of them! 

A big thanks to everyone who entered - I've got some other giveaways coming up soon so keep your eyes open :-)