We baked :) Me and El decided to make Birthday biscuits for Grandpa. This post is just to show that I can do some baking, of sorts.

So, all is well on the mixing front and a lovely smile from El as she sifts the flour.

 

Cutting out the shapes - some lovely hearts for Grandpa. Check out serious El!

Managed to pop outside whilst the cookies are cooking and take some snaps of my new buntings that I have just finished. (Snaps, lol, who says snaps these days!!)
It was a bit grey outside, trying really hard to get this natural light thing going!

And the biscuits/cookies are done - dusted with icing sugar and presented in a pink tin!
Not sure Grandpa likes pink as much as we do but it's the thought that counts.

Love Elliemagpie x

Sunday Sunday

Planning my new studio/office/stock room - I decided to get straight too it today and swop over my cellar rooms and store all our garage type stuff in the smaller room and move the desks and tables into the larger room ready to kit out further with shelves etc once a lick of paint has been applied.
Luckily the radiator works, yay, despite being off for 4 years, so at least I won't freeze down there.

This is not my studio.... yet! I am loving these ideas and this is what I need to aim at. Thanks to Riki Treleaven, I heart Shabby Chic and We heart it, for the ideas!

I am going to need some storage for all the lovely fabrics I am going to have in. Here are some ideas I am toying with. Thanks to Craft Storage, Little Quilts and Polkadotmum.

And this is how it looks at the moment:

hmmmm, a long way to go, but it is functional if decidedly uninspiring :(

And the tidy bit:

Oh and Ellie wants a mention in this blog so here she is modelling my new bunting finished this weekend (but yet to be listed!)

Have a great week everyone :)x
Oh and whoever broke twitter this evening - naughty!

I Jinxed the Gingerbread :(

What a busy busy weekend! Turning up at my old friend, Loula Belle at home's house on Saturday, 45 minutes late - mums and dad's fault, found her in one of her gorgeous pinnies, having made a fresh batch of gingerbread dough ready for the kids to rolls out and cut out the 'men'. Yum.
Now I love gingerbread dough, more than the cooked menfolk and sneaked many small portions from said dough whilst the rolling/cutting was being done by the little tinker.
This behaviour was of course then copied, personally I think we should have foregone any rolling,cutting, messing with flour on the table and just eaten all the dough, but procedures must be followed and the 'men', both large and small were duly made. I did try to 'personalise' one the the little men with a lovely J on his naval but being upside down I did this the wrong way round and in trying to correct my poor attempt made the little fellow look like he had undergone a serious operation.
The little tinker was even less dexterous than me (only just though and I have 32 years on him!) and almost severed one of the poor men in his attempt at branding!

So having sillied the making, I then proceeded to gossip non stop to Loula until we smelt that familiar, oh dear just a couple of minutes too long, kind of smell coming from the kitchen. What she needs is obviously a louder ringer on her timer, that can drown out my rants!
I am pleased to say that most if the gingerbread men were able to be saved and eaten although some of the extremities had to go in the bin!

I also notice that Loula didn't blog about baking this weekend - sorry love!

Here's some Loula and tinker made earlier. I was not involved in this batch :(
I was not offered the decorating tools for my men either :(


So to make up for this and to allow you all to get the proper recipe for these delicious treats I am linking  Loula Belle's blog and etsy shop for you all.

http://loulabelleathome.blogspot.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop/loulabelleathome

Check it out - she has some seriously nice stuff to bake and also to wear while you bake - just make sure you get them the right way round!

New Lovelies...

Despite the hectic weekend I did manage on Friday night to finish off some of my next round of goodies that I had been working on. Then on Saturday morning, in the freezing cold, I photographed them outside in the garden to take advantage of the best light.
All these pretties will be available on Etsy this week, by tomorrow I should expect!
Enjoy!

These lovely hearts are my first real spring time project. There are 6 available in the white and I have also done another couple of prints too - I will photo these soon.
They are 7" (9" including the ribbon) and look great hanging from any spare knob or knocker!

What a sweet bear! He's just a little one and he looks a little sad :( I made this one from some boiled wool so get a lovely fuzzy texture.

Look at this pair! They make me laugh so I have to give them some equally comedy poses. Just noticed I have to straighten some of the neck wobblers (or whatever they are called - should I know chicken anatomy before creating them in fabric???) on the standing hen!
These are going to look fab on any shabby or pine kitchen sideboard or wall shelves. Or perhaps in the peg basket!

Some of my largest characters to date and these are just great for kids to play with (no under 3's though pls as I haven't had my button stitching tested to 50 newtons!) They have finger and toe nails too - I embroidered one set on and painted on the other - I think both applications look great.

  Okay okay, the third picture is just ridiculous but I couldn't resist! Taking photos early on a freezing morning, outside in pyjamas and a coat, must do this to me!
These G Raffes are my tallest creations to date at 22" (56cm) to the top of their horns. Like Ellie Phant above these are great for older kids and make excellent dance partners.

Hope you like

xx

Next does the shabby chic..

Noticed that Next have a whole new range and look for spring and have done their take on the shabby chic, vintage theme. Will have to look into this more, quite like some of their ideas!

I hope they reciprocate and post pics of my shop and wares on their site! I could do with some of that publicity!

3 + 6 = 9

Crazy weekend with way too much going on! Friends Kirsty and Dan came over from York with their 4 children for  a day out at Legoland Manchester and a sleepover! After much planning and debating on the sleeping arrangements we settled on a compromise of sorts....
Lauren, age 10 months didn't have to sleep in the hall, with stair gates for a cot and a travel cot was found and erected in the back hall, blocking access to my sewing supplies! I had a mild panic and managed to stash as much as I thought I might need in the kitchen in case of later withdrawal!
Millie, Becky and Ellie (6, 4 and 6) were to share although however many times we have tried this before it has never worked - one or more has always had to be dragged out in the middle of the night, to allow everyone to get some sleep, but still we tried again. Without success, although it was looking good at one point with 2 out of 3 asleep, and whilst Meatloaf sir might believe that that ain't bad, in this instance the awake one, my Ellie, didn't take kindly to her entertainment having shut down for the night and promptly roused her sweetly sleeping friends for more mischief and general tomfoolery.
Anna, 2 and a half, was allowed to stay up late, for fear that if she bedded down before wanting to go asleep, in her makeshirt duvet pile in the top bedroom that this would lead to certain escape and possible stair nightmares. So we entertained until we were all knackered and she was still going strong! That girl doesn't need much sleep - she was the wake up call in the morning at 6.20am!
But the sleeping arrangements are a digression from the days events at Legoland......

Donning the 3D glasses we are all set for our 4D adventure with Chuck Powers - the girls loved it!
Do under 3's see in 3D? I can imagine it would be mighty confusing in an already confusing world!

Ry was the star of the day with a completely out of the ordinary spot of parenting! I saw spot but it was a good 2 hours session he did with little Anna, climber extraordinaire, in the under 1.1m soft play area. Fearing for her (and his own) safety he gallantly followed her up climbs and down slides until luckily a need for the toilet allowed him some respite (her need, not his!) Well done Ry!
I think he secretly made a new friend though as later that evening saw Ryan patiently allowing her to post pennies into  a piggy bank and empty them out again so she could start over. He still managed to drink his ginger beer though!

We shared a fab curry take out in the evening, with all the kids getting stuck into the poppadoms, naan's and korma's with mango chutney and Ry quietly perspiring in the corner after ordering the hottest curry he has ever eaten in the form of a vindaloo. Allegedly they are not normally so hot!

So, thanks to our friends for an entertaining weekend, I hope they all manage to have a good nights sleep tonight, I know I will!

Yay, good day today and accomplished a lot things and there are a lot of things in the pipeline too!

My first meeting with 'The Arts Partnership' in Chorley http://www.theartspartnership.co.uk/, a charity set up to get more people, especially young people, involved in the arts. We have some grand plans together for a new venture in Chorley that could be very beneficial to the local community and is very very exciting. The project involves all things crafty; especially paper crafts and fabric crafts and we are in the first stages of looking at how this can get off the ground.

If any of you nice readers have any contacts with anyone who has run a business in the crafting field could spare some time to talk to me about ideas and experiences, then please contact me!

Then home as my new sofa was being delivered! I have wanted this sofa for ages and it has been on order but today it finally arrived! Isn't it beautiful :)

Unfortunately I have my current sofa stored end on just out of sight in these pictures in front of the window! I hope someone buys it soon - it is listed on ebay if anyone is interested or message me!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/160714570291?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Then rushing off to complete some work for my day job and to the factory! Again I love this part of my job, working with the factory and seeing things made and finished - garments at the moment but I have plans for this place too! I am sure they can change from garments to home wares!!

Did go the wrong way home though so my journey took considerably longer than anticipated, still made it home and made a lovely lamb stew for dinner which was polished off in no time!

Not sure how much crafting I am going to get done tonight, I did finish a large elephant last night and thread more garlands of apples, all of which will be listed on Etsy soon.

Need to start planning the first market; anyone know any good places to sell???

xxxx

So today was a mixed day, I did get loads done - took El to swimming lessons, went to mum and dads for lunch, discussed all our craft project plans (more about those in later blog) and persuaded the father to help in creating the hobby horse components for the hobby reindeers I have made but not finished ( again more about those beauties later!)

I get back home and shortly after a nice gentlemen is knocking on the door to tell me that 3!, not just one but 3! windows on my car have been smashed :(
Little ba**ards! I am presuming it was the kinds who knock about round here, or perhaps some disgruntled Man City fans, being as it happened just after the 3-2 defeat in the FA Cup. I could be wrong, it could have been some little old lady who miss timed her handbag swing or maybe some budding stunt birds doing some synchronised car bombing or such but hey, guess we will never know!
Police have been round as someone else has kindly reported it too and we are just sitting here now waiting for Autoglass to come and replace said windows.

On the crafting front yay I did make my first sale - a lady from the US has bought 7 items - so I have packaged them up, cue panic how how to package goods, what to include, how to says thanks etc, and take them too the little postie tomorrow in my lunch hour!

I am working on millions of projects at the moment, I like to have a lot of things on the go and then they come together all in one.

I have finished some cushions with an adorable little birdie design (not one of the stunt birds I hope) and these will be listed his week on Etsy.
As always if anyone fancies these I can make to order to suit all décors and tastes!
I am working on some brilliant large giraffes and elephants in cute dresses and dungarees, these are going to make fantastic gifts for a child; can't wait to finish them.

Also working on some more garlands of apples, some teddies and sheep in a delicious boiled wool fabric, and some cute hanging hearts with rabbit motifs; all of which should be done by next week and up and ready for listing on Etsy.

Next are the bears in the mohair fabric I bought to try out. I can just squeeze one small bear from each 1/8th of fabric I bought - hope they turn out well!

Love to all xx