jingle bell hop

I seem to have got into a routine of blogging everyday and I like it!!

John phoned me at work today to tell me there was a parcel at home waiting for me BUT not the fabric parcel
:-(
I'm beginning to think the postmen have lost it but I can't think like that for long because I would cry AND tomorrow there is a post strike and it won't come even if it tried!!!

Please send some parcel receiving thoughts my way.....



This is the contents of the parcel I did receive
Christmas? In JUNE? well when inspiration strikes you gotta go with it!!
(I just realised when I took this that I ordered Silver bells not gold ones but hey, it's Christmas!!)

dotty monster

The other half of my fabric order is still not here.
I'm not panicking yet but I am feeling impatient !
I have had a few comments asking where the fabric is from but I want to wait for my whole order to be fulfilled before I recommend the shop I used.
So now you have to be impatient too, sorry!

So, what to do whilst pretending not to wait for the post?

Make a monster of course :-)

What a gymnast!

ooooh where did he go???

oh there he is with his best friend Cecil

The Sewing Machine (song)

Well, the postman didn't bring the second half of my fabric order :-( SO here is a song that cheered me up! WARNING this song gets stuck in your head VERY quickly, you will be singing it all night!! xxx

fabric? for me? yippee!!

ummmmmmmmmmmmm

So I ordered some fabric!

I got some dots....

Some great patterns.................

and two fantastic picture fabrics.........

And the best bit? My order was posted to me in two envelopes and this is the contents of just one!! Hopefully the second will be here tomorrow!!!

So I'll see you tomorrow for the next fabric shopping installment :-)

I think i'm addicted!

It's raining today.
A lot.
John is in his workshop and I have the house to myself.
I have spent the day flitting between sewing and the Internet.
I haven't got a lot done but I've had a great day!
I've spent the last half an hour trying to work out how to put the entire bloglines list of blogs I read on my blog. But I give up, it's too hard for me!
Instead there is a link which will take you to bloglines and the entire list. It's over there on the right...scroll down till you find it!
DO NOT GO THERE UNLESS YOU HAVE HOURS TO SPARE.
you can't say I didn't warn you !!
If your blog isn't on the list then leave a comment with your blog address and I will take a peek :-)
thanks xxx

Our trip to Goodwood Festival of Speed

We certainally made the most of our day and spent a full 10 hours there. I was so worried about the forecast rain that I kinda forgot about sunshine and as a result I am a little pink today! oops!

This is a craft blog so I win't talk about cars too much but here are a few pics of our day :-)

look how grey the sky was...

John renovated a Saab just like the red one on the rally track above and it was great to see one racing.

This was our view of an awful crash. It happened to the right of us and the car spun about 8 times. Bits of turf and car were flying in our direction and we had to run out of the way (I ran as fast as I could but all the men just walked quickly...I didn't know I could move that quick!) The driver walked away thank goodness but the car was smashed to pieces.

If you ever get the chance then I would highly recommend visiting , the atmosphere is fantastic and there is so much to see and do.

I'll be back soon with crafty things I promise!

I made something!

The last three days at work have felt like 2 weeks. Happily I have 4 days off now and have spent today catching up with laundry (yawn) and crafting (yippee!)



This morning I was Internet browsing for a good few hours, catching up on blog world and sorting out the bug in my flickr account (all done now thank goodness) and breathing some life into
ye olde etsy shoppe



I have also done some sketching and hope that means there will be some new things to show you soon :-)


I have placed a rather hefty fabric order and have already worn a groove in the floor pacing around waiting for the postman! It should be here soon......
I love that when you have new supplies on their way your head is full of new ideas and exciting things you can make, mind you when it gets here I am sure I will hesitate over the first cuts with the scissors!

John and I and a few friends are heading over to

Goodwood Festival of Speed tomorrow so please send some sunshine thoughts my way!

Can tags go out of date?

Assuming the answer is no then here goes:

I got tagged a while ago by
CupcakesforClara so here are 7 interesting (?) things about little me!

1 :: I have a degree in Theatre Studies (Design Option) where I spent 3 amazing years learning to sew and pattern cut all manner of wonderful things. I once made a dry stone wall quilt for the play within a play in A Midsummer Nights Dream.

2 :: I was on Child's Play (remember that show?) when I was 7.

(I didn't get to meet Michael Aspel though)

3 :: I worked at Pizza Hut during my A levels and degree course and it's my longest job ever! 5 years....I still remember all the toppings on every pizza.

4 :: I found a bomb in a stream on a school trip. I was about 9 yrs old and the whole class were in wellies walking up a stream on Dartmoor noting down all the rubbish we saw. My friend and I were a bit bored and we saw a drinks can so we kicked it a bit to see what drink can it was. Unfortunately we were kicking a bomb.. The teachers face was funny when he saw what we were doing.....strangely enough the trip was a bit shorter than planned!

5 :: I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. All sorts of ideas have featured in this decision but none have really come to anything. I wanted to be a Royal Marine (so I could be in the marching band) or I wanted to own a shop (but I had no idea what to sell). Other ideas include: running a guinea pig sanctuary, raising chimpanzees in Gombe with Jane Goodall, playing Sax with Harry Connick Jnr, being a composer, Interior design (I blame changing rooms for that one!). Honestly the list is endless. I am very envious of people who 'always knew' just what they wanted to do . BUT I am very happy where I am now....I wonder what I'll be doing in a year or two?

6 :: I can't watch films. I don't think I have ever EVER watched a film from start to finish without doing something else at the same time. Sewing, obviously, eating, flicking through magazines, jigsaws...anything really!

I do love this film though. Especially the dancing on the table 'I got life' bit

7 :: I love cheese. Maybe I'm a mouse.

If you are still reading, I thank you :-)

If you would like to take part then consider yourself tagged...7 interesting things about you as soon as you like !

All pictures courtesy of Google search.

hhhmmm

blogger seems to have gone mad. I have posted a post about purses but it won't publish. I went to the help centre and another member said that posting another post cleared the 'blockage' so I'm giving it a go...consider this post a blockage-clearing-plunger-of-a-post !
and hopefully, just below, will be my post about purses!!
xxx

pennies....

....should have a pretty place to hang around in!

I made these yesterday .

Choosing colour combinations has to be one of my favourite things.

Closely followed by sewing in zips and ironing!

And I never thought I'd be saying that!

Have a good weekend :-)

why do they make the post ofice so dull?

All the freebies are packed up and ready to go, it took a while to gather all 8 addresses I'm afraid but now they are all labeled and ready for the trip to the post office. I don't enjoy trips to the post office. Our only one is the main post office in the town centre, it's only takes about 5 minutes to get there and even though the queues are huge they move pretty quick BUT it's so boring...they even have a t.v. playing 'take out a loan' ads and I'm sure it takes approx. 3 seconds to turn into a queue zombie, staring at that dull TV !!
I like it more when someone in the queue strikes up a mad conversation with you, weather you want them to or not!!! I think that when I am of the age that I need a shopping trolley I WILL be that woman who talks nonsense whilst in a queue, that's something to look forward to isn't it???

I'm enjoying making new items at the moment. I'm still working on the samples I mentioned before but I promise I will show you those as soon as I can!
Every spare minute is consumed with making these.....

Tiny tiny yo-yos. They even manage to look colourful in this 'no-sunshine' photo :-)

Today I am sewing some purses and later I will be listing some fabric on eBay. It's new old stock. It's vintage. It's gorgeous. It needs to be sewn into lovely things. Have a look later and see it there's anything that catches your eye :-)
:: update :: it's in the shop now

and the winners are.....

Sorry this is being posted so late !! I'm afraid the camera went with John on the London to Brighton Car Rally and he's only just got home!! I had everything ready so here we are .....
the very glamorous tombolas!
and the winners are:

in the order they were drawn:
odd dotty :: fabric card toppers
heidi :: fabric (yes, it is chocolate lollipop !)
jen :: gift tags
monda :: felt flowers
fibrespace :: topper
laura f :: topper
meghan :: gift tags
cindy :: topper

woo hoo !! that was fun :-)
please can everyone email me their address and I will pack them and send them once I know where they are going :-)

I'm sorry I didnt have a prize for everyone, but there will be another freebie on the first Thursday of July, see you there!

June freebie day

It's a freebie extravaganza!!
It's a combination of it being the first Thursday in June and a celebration of my 100th post here on this little blog. There is a little bit of everything up for grabs, take a look...

There are 8 different packages up for grabs.


two packages of hand made gift tags

a pack of felt and fabric flowers

a fat quarter of my new favourite fabric


heart and flower fabric card toppers

and 3 packages containing a handmade card making or scrapbook embellishment

All you need to do is comment here. I will leave this post up until Sunday afternoon (10th June) when I will do the draw. All comment writers will have their name placed into one 'tombola' and the prizes will be in another. I will randomly pick a winner and then pick which prize they win!

I don't know about you but I'm excited about this one!!

wednesday round-up

Calender minded blog readers will already know, but for those of you that need reminding: tomorrow is freebie day. It nearly coincided with freebies to celebrate post 100, but not quite (this is post 102) but I am combining them both anyhow, so expect good things tomorrow....

But for today we have some photos and some answers to some questions!

Yesterday the postman bought me my prize from cupcakes for clara 6 gorgeous cards with hand lined envelopes and a little gift tag and a lovely business card too, all packaged in a lovely cupcake bag :-) thank you thank you thank you :-)

Today the postman bought me this:

Two more gorgeous flowers, which will be sewn to bags, which will be sewn as soon as possible! But look at that super cute card! Cecil is in love !!

I've been busy making samples for someone the last few days and he hasn't seen them yet so I can't show them here yet BUT I have also made these...

...little gift tags to add to the parcels I send out...see, once upon a time the name
paper-and-string really did stand for the materials I used, perhaps i should now be called felt-and-fluff !! hahahaha

Now for the questions. I have had a few emails recently asking me which sewing machine I use and it's this battered looking Toyota. Believe it or not, John found this for me in the bin alley at the end of our road! The plan was to raid it for bits and spare parts but it works perfectly! I have a newer Toyota which I have had since college, but the flywheel keeps coming undone (every 5 or 6 stitches!) and this baby was going to fix that one BUT now this is my everyday machine and the other one is relegated to a box in the back of a cupboard! It will get mended when I need it!

I have sewn one of my cupcakes to some cotton tape and tied it to the machine and use it as a pincushion.

Another question which comes my way quite regularly is 'how on earth do you find the time'? Now don't get excited, I don't have a recipe to create 3 spare hours a day or anything as wonderful as that but I do have my sewing trays. Honestly, a simple tray can turn your spare few minutes into craft time!

All I do is have a project on the go all the time:

This is my tray with unfinished projects so when I have a spare few minutes I can just pick it up and sew something. The trick is to have lots of half done things so you don't have to think too much, just grab your needle and sew!

My tray is so great I have two!

I constantly swap between the two and, for me anyway, this works!

Of course, if I had a dedicated sewing/craft room my trays would be made redundant, they are only trays after all!

See you tomorrow for freebie extravaganza day....