Charity shop success!

My 'real-life' sewing friend Jules of The Awkward Niche had a rare day off this week so we decided to have a girly day of trawling the local charity shops.  We went to a town that had about 10 charity shops - however, neither of us had ever been to any of them before!  It was an exciting day, one of those filled with hope and excitement of what we might find.  I'm very pleased to report that we certainly weren't disappointed!

As always, my mission was to find fabrics and I knew I'd also be keeping an eye out for any great toys/books for my 2.5 year old.  Julie was hoping to find buttons and some plain fabrics she could embroider.

So you wanna see what I got??

The first shop we went in had some gorgeous vintage bits and pieces, I got these 2 pieces of pretty fabric -

I also got these -

The top fabric is just so pretty, the piece is a decent size too!  The bottom piece is a brand new napkin (never been used by the look of it - originally from Habitat).  It's a lovely denim coloured linen and I thought it would be perfect for doing some embroidery on.  Julie also managed to snap up a couple of these for embroidering too. 

I also got a massive piece of royal blue fabric from here which you can see in a pic further down.

We then ventured further into town and managed to find a few more bits and pieces.  We found a LOT of these -

You will be VERY surprised to hear that I didn't buy a single button!  Honestly!  I remembered all my button jars...full to the brim..., I was very good :) 

A few more shops later and I had accumulated a fantastic collection of solids -

The solids in this pile are all brand new pieces of fabrics, the blue will be so handy for backing/lining 'boy' projects, and the neutrals are fabrics I go through so much of.  The largest piece of cream fabric here is easily 2.5m long.

I worked out that the total of ALL the fabrics I bought came to.....£3.00!! I'd say that was a very successful day's charity shopping!

Of course, Joshua was not forgotten, I found this little pile of goodies for him -

Julie and I have agreed that since our charity shopping day was so successful we should definitely make it a regular event in our calenders!  Here's to next time ;)

PS -  you can head over to Julie's blog to see what fab charity shop finds she bought too! 

I'm still here!

Oh dear, it seems I have neglected my blog lately...but I'm still here! 

Last Tuesday I came down with the flu....I have spent the week with no energy whatsoever.  I am pleased to say that it is slowly returning!

Just before I fell ill, I received some lovely post -

I had a quick flick through them, and from the Rainbow of Stitches book I was instantly filled with so much inspiration!  You can imagine my disappointment at then ending up so ill and not having the energy to try out any of the designs in the book!!  Since learning a bit more about embroidery at the recent Meet and Make embroidery workshop I went to, I have been really keen to try out some more designs - I found this book and love it!

I did not manage to do much in the way of crafts last week, in fact, the  most useful thing I managed to do was transplant some tomato and pea seedlings into bigger pots.

I also had a few creature comforts to keep me going...including this - my new subscription :)

Some of these -

And some of this - well known for helping the ill -

I also managed to pick these up from the library -

So all-in-all it's been a pretty lazy week, but boy did I need it!

Easter weekend

Easter weekend comes with an excuse to make little 'springtime' themed gifts for Joshua, and luckily today, we had dry enough weather (this morning anyway!) so that I could hide a few little things around the garden for him to find. 

I hid these little creatures -

Joshua was delighted to find them! (The birdie is from this tutorial on Attic 24 blog, the rabbit is my own design and the lamb is Tilda, both of which you can read more about in my previous post)

A few weeks ago I gave my mum this old copy of Mollie Makes magazine and asked her to make some of the crochet carrots -

She enjoyed making them so much she carried on with some others (using free tutorials online) and ended up with this lot of fruit and veg -

I also left these around the garden for Joshua to find!  There's pumpkin, pear, turnip, tomato, carrots and radishes. 

My mum also gave Joshua a set of cute books about 'Gossie' and even managed to crochet him a Gossie of his very own -

So cute!  Joshua got him yesterday and insisted on taking him to bed last night too. 

My other half also gave me some lovely flowers today -

And whilst it was dry and bright outside I also managed to pot on some of the beans I planted a few weeks ago,

And I've also made a hot cross bun loaf...

So all-in-all, it's turned out to be a nice weekend of treats for us all :)

Springtime sewing

We seem to have gone from Spring to Summer right back to Winter, all in the blink of an eye.  We are forecast for snow tomorrow, I can hardly believe it!  It was nice to have the flip-flops out for a whole week...now it'll be back to thick winter coats and cosy boots!

Well, whatever the weather, it is Spring, and with Springtime comes Easter.  You can see here what treats I prepared for Joshua last Easter.  Of course I had to make him a few for this year too!  

I've been really busy lately so it's lucky that I started creating quite a few weeks ago.  The first thing I wanted to make was a Tilda lamb from the Crafting Springtime Gifts book. 

Isn't he cute?! I used lovely soft cream fleece for the body and sweet blue/white polka dots for the inner ears and heart on the tummy.

Tummy detail of a hand-appliqued heart.

For the face, I stitched on the mouth and used fabric pen for the eyes.

I also made up a batch of these bunny rabbit softies - my own design. 

Joshua specifically asked for a red one, so here it is....

I am also having a go at crocheting one of these little birdie decorations from Attic 24.  It's all made, I just need to stitch it up!

My mum has also been busy crocheting some food (fruit/veg) for Joshua - I'll do a crochet unveil in another post!

Usually for Easter I'd hide all of these little bits and pieces in the garden for Joshua to find, fingers crossed we don't have a garden covered in snow on Easter Sunday!


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