And the winner is............................

TWINNY

Well done Twinny,
sorry to everyone who didn't get picked out.

It's good to give some good news first,
yesterday was such a mixed bag.
We organised our first Christmas Market,
which was really good.
The weather was awful for driving
so we were pleased with the turn out.
If anyone who came is reading this,
thank you so much, we really do appreciate
people supporting us, stall holders,
helpers and customers.

Now I need to load some new goodies onto
my blogshop.
I was chuffed with the response to my stars,
one lady stall holder, who makes beautiful quilts,
bought a star and had to ask where I'd joined the seam.
She couldn't see the join!!!
Anyway, some stars are going on, along with
some snowy people and bunting.
And I'll do my very best to
post any purchases asap.


The down side of yesterday is that my husband
will be finishing work at Christmas,
and as he's the sole earner things
will be tough for a while.
I can't say it was totally unexpected,
though it's never good to hear.
So it looks like I am going to have to work
through my stash and spend less *doh*

With love and blessings in Christ
Elaine
xxxxxxxxxxx

It was on a Starry Night.......

Not long now ..... and am I ready ???
Am I eck as like !!!!!
Been busy trying to get some bedpost bags done,
managed 7 so far, 5 for pressies, 2 to sell.


Only another 12-ish to go
(maybe more.....big family )
These are for my little great-nephews
the older ones are having more individual themes.


The Christmas craft fair went so well,
the best part was my mate Shabby Angel
coming up for the weekend.
She is so wonderful, spoilt me rotten she did.
Bless you sweetest (((Angel)))


Been trying to make more Christmassy things
for the Christmas Market we're holding
next Friday evening.


Stars are quite quick so made loads !!!
As usual, they smell.......... but in a nice way :-)


I'll be announcing the winner of my give-away next week
so if anyone still wants to enter, do it soon!!!

With love and blessings in Christ
Elaine
XXXXXXXX

Bunting Around !!!

Hello lovely blogsters !!!
I'm afraid this year has got me stumped.
I'm sure we've skipped some days, weeks
or even months somewhere.
Or the Month fairies have stolen some
(pesky lil creatures)
See, I posted in September,
blinked twice
and it's the end of October!!!!


Anyway, I promised a give-away for
my second bloggerversary,
Where has that 2 years gone!!!!
And why haven't my writing or
photography skills got any better !!!



Now, to be very honest, I'm not entirely sure
what the give-away will be.
There will definitely be some Christmas bunting,
but other than that all I can say is
that anything else will most likely
(but not definitely)
be Christmassy.


So there you go, leave a comment here,
or on SCC if you are a member but have
no google account.

I'll be drawing the winner in around
a month's time-ish.

Good Luck !!!

With love and blessing in Christ
Elaine
xxxxxxxxxxxxx

My O My, How time flies.....

I have been so slack with my blogging just recently,
time has flown by this last couple of months.
It's beyond the middle of September
and I've nowhere near caught up with July and August yet!
Part of the reason is this little bundle of fun.


Meet Martha Bumpkin!
this was her just under 2 weeks ago,
unlike Cyril, it's very hard to get
a decent photo of her being active,
she loves the camera so much
that each time it's pointed at her
this happens !!!!


Martha is so tiny compared to Cyril,
it's hard to believe there is only
5 weeks between them.


The first 4 days of having them together
Martha spent hissing and spitting,
but now they love each other to bits,
and cause havoc around the house.
I'll try to get some better photos soon,
Cyril has grown so much, and is turning
into the biggest, soppiest,
Mummy's boy ever!

I've been trying to catch up with some sewing
(hard with 2 manic kittens around LOL)
so here are a few pics of recent makes
and our latest Craft Fair.


With love and blessings in Christ
Elaine
xxxxxxxxxxxx

ps. Watch out for my 2nd blogaversary
giveaway soon !!!

Introducing Mr Cyril Bumpkin

He is very pretty (for a boy)

He is very much the Gardener


And loves pruning!


Yummy grass ?!?
Of course, he simply must learn to sew!!!


And after a hard day, he loves to cuddle with Mum


Awwwwwww

Love and blessings in Christ
Elaine
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Fabricitus Nonsewenufus !!!

This week has been a strange one,
Last Saturday we (Claudia & me) did our first
out door event.
It was a local fund-raiser for a community project.
Usually I have *feelings* (normally wrong) about
these things, whether good or not,
but this time I didn't know what to think.
Would it be good or not??
The weather report was awful, but we had
our brand new gazebo
(didn't even know how big it would be)
so off we set.

It turned out to be a lovely day,
the gazebo was really spacious
(we could have fitted loads more in it)
and very good quality, and best of all
really easy to put up, sturdy and beautiful!!!
The table you can see is a large pasting table.
We could easily have fit at least 2,
And in the centre the height is at least 8'!!!



At one point we had several kids, 5 adults
and a large pushchair inside, and still room to spare.
Well done Argos, and all for £48-ish.

These photos were taken at the end of the day,
thankfully we were the only stall selling handmade
goods, and though we didn't make our first
million we did have brilliant time,
and made new friends and fans!!!
(and a couple of contacts too)

From Monday onwards I've felt pretty rough,
some sort of bug giving me mega sneezes
(around 1000 on Monday, I kid you not!)
sore throat, sickliness, and
not being able to face meals
(though ice cream was fine ;))

But I was cheered by an unexpected parcel!
I thought I'd ordered from Alcatrazz in my
poorliness and forgotten,
but is was the most gorgeous Mitty.
Look at all this wonderful fabric!


And more!!


And more!!!!


And even more!!!!!!!!



Thank you so much Mitty, it's all so lovely
(even if I did catch Fabricitus Nonsewinufus LOL)

With love and blessings in Christ
Elaine
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

My lovely Goodies

I have been so blessed over the last few days.

2 of my lovely friends over at Shabby Chic Cafe
have sent me beautiful, though undeserved, gifts.
Yesterday I got in from a whirlwind trip around Mozzers
(that's Morrisons Supermarket to normal peeps)
to find that Mr.Postie had left me an
unexpected parcel!

Me being me
(I'm in the *rip 'em open quick* club)
I never thought about the camera.
Off came the wrapper and inside was a
gorgeous collection on yumminess.
Claire, AKA Dolly Dollop
had drawn me in her Give-away.
Well, I knew I had a lovely teacup picture coming
(though I sort of forgot.... which is good because
it means a surprise)
but I wasn't expecting all the other goodies too.
Not only the fabulous picture
(which I hope others get the chance to own too
when Claire finally opens her shop)
but a pretty little blackboard,
with the tiniest gingham bows


And one of Claire's sweet little UJ broaches
(which was pinned on me cardi as fast as lightening
and did the rounds in Burton even before the photos!)
And some scrummy black bias with bright pink pindots.


There is also a pillowcase,
but I'm keeping that back a while *wink*
Thank you so much Claire *mwah*

Then today, another bump at the door, and Mr.Postie
hands over another parcel to Mr.Myrtle
(I was still in me Jimjams)
Again, I rip it open, faster than a
Maccy's worker says "do you want fries with that"
and inside is the loveliest, sweetest printed fabrics,
2 pieces of lovely fine prints
and 2 pieces of stunning broadcloth!
All from the lovely Mary Poppins.


Thank you so much Mary,
you are a little treasure *mwah*

While I was out showing off my new broach yesterday
I popped into Homus Bargainous
and look at what I found!
Now how could I resist something so
obviously made just for me!


With love and blessings in Christ
Elaine
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lace and buttons and ribbons and stuff!

Hello again.
Firstly, a big thank you to all of you who
wished us well for the Craft Fair.
It was really lovely, and very well
attended for our first attempt too.
For anyone struggling to find Craft Fairs close to you
I would really recommend trying to do you own.



I have been trying to get back into the
swing of things, catching up with sewing etc.
I started last week by making
myself some fabric boxes to keep
my ever-growing stash of trim in.
( I'll do photos for another post)
But this week didn't go to plan.
Sadly, my lovely Poppy dog took poorly,
and yesterday morning she was taken to
the vets for the last time.
She was getting old (14&half)
and what we thought was simple old age problems
was actually much worse.
She was so poorly bless her,
but, thank God, she went down hill very fast
so she didn't suffer too long.

So today I threw myself into making broaches
with my new lace stash.
I've been saving covered buttons for sometime too
so put together with a few other bits
and this is what I came up with.



I'm thinking of putting a few in my blogshop
but mostly they are for the festival
my daughter is doing in a few weeks,
and a fete we're doing a week later.

I've been making these too


Well not actually "making" as such,
but covering them, so spending
far too much time on my derry air
doing the cross stitch ;)

And I have been catching up with swaps etc,
just not posted them yet *doh*
And I have an award from the lovely Mitmot,
but I'll sort that in my next post too.
Hopefully by then I'll be a little bit
more with it!!!

With love and blessings in Christ
Elaine
xxxxxxxxxxxx

It seems a long time........................

It seems a very long time ago since
we started holding open days to
sell our makes from home,
sometimes I quite miss those days.
I don't "miss" the cleaning LOL
but I do miss having the house
clean and tidy (ish)
because at least it got a
good going over once a month.

As I said in my last post, this Saturday (13th)
is the first Craft Fair we've hosted.
We've gone from making and selling
at home occasionally, to selling party style
in other peoples homes
while having monthly sales.
Then to taking the sales to the
Church hall every 2-3 months,
and now to hosting Craft Fairs.

We've also bought a "shop" in the
form of a gazebo
(did I already tell you this???)
Anyway, our old one died a while back,
so now we have a gorgeous
elongated hexagonal one
(sounds posh don't it *wink*)
which means we can do outdoors again too.

Funny though, I kind of miss our
little home sales.
Sometimes I could sit here all day
and see no one at all,
but I was always content that I wouldn't
need to clean for at least 3 weeks LOL

BTW, I've got my stock in a muddle
so I'm hiding my blogshop for a few days,
just until after the Craft Fair,
so I don't unwittingly sell
something twice!!!

Love and blessings in Christ
Elaine
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Craft Fair Delights

Just a week and a few days away,
we are hosting our first Craft Fair.
It's getting very close, very quickly,
and it seems like there is still so much to do.
In between printing posters, letters, leaflets,
running to the pooter shop for yet more ink,
trying to rent out the tables...................
I've been trying to make some new goodies too.

I've had the patterns for these aprons for some time.
Actually there is a bit of of saga attached,
I might have blogged about it ??? not sure ??

Anyway, I bought them.............
and they promptly went missing for about a year!!!
Eventually they turned up but still sat in their packets
for a further year *blush*

Then I found some wonderfully
bargainous bias binding from Alcatrazzzz
(actually it's Abakhan, but the place
holds me prisoner until I pay a ransom)
So out came the patterns at last!!


The Globaltex "Sweetie" fabric came from Alcatrazzz too,
it's looks so yummy with the blue gingham binding.

This apron tells a tale too.

The main fabric is a gorgeous reproduction from RJR fabrics,
part of a limited addition range.
I got this piece about 2 years ago,
and always planned to make something kitcheny with it.
It's part of the Mama's Feedsack range,
this (obviously) being the blue teacups.
It's so pretty, I've tried to get more
but can't, sadly :(

I've teamed it with some lovely fresh gingham,
sent to me by Heather, bless her.
And the binding is another Alcatrazzz one,
sweet tiny red flowers,
the odd tiny blue flower and little creamy-biege butterflies.

The apron is put together by
completing the outer side panels first,
and then work inward, the centre being last.
Imagine my disappointment when
I got to the centre panel I was
about 10" short of bias!!!!!!!!
Then I thought "get a grip gal",
and "invented" the little fold-over panel at the top,
finished off with a little appliqued teacup.

I really like it now, problem is I made it up as I went along
so could I do it again !!LOL
Love and blessings in Christ
Elaine
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx