Half Term Hint

I found this recipe as i find most brilliant things via Ali’s blog.  Follow the links, they are just amazing and so easy to make.  I agree with Ali re the Nigella recipe for a similar bun.  These are much easier, make a portion for one family and so no wastage.  The only tip i would say is go easy with the icing, if you use any at all.  Enjoy!!

Chillis when its chilly

Hello, cor where have i been.  Very busy time really, new years resolution of keeping a tidy house seems to take all of my time especially when my two year old follows me around like a little destructer droid! I honestly have never seen anything so little be capable of such chaos.  My sewing/writing room is now the room where i throw things in an effort to keep visible rooms tidy.  I don’t think even flylady would use the words hot-spot for this room in fact my sewing room may be the one thing that causes flylady to give up and retire.

I have yet to put anything new in my shop or write the article i was hoping to get accepted somewhere (anywhere) or start the second draft of my novel that i finished in November.  But, a quick slap on the face can come from the most unlikeliest of places – Masterchef.  One of the contestants on yesterday’s program said that she was pursuing a career in food as she didn’t want her children growing up thinking that their mummy had not followed her dream as what sort of example was that.  It really hit home as apart from the sewing, which lets face it is a new addition to my creativity, writing has always fuelled my creative drive.  I am not saying that i am particularly gifted but i can tell a good story.  But what am i doing about it, not even finding the time to write my blog….

So i have an idea for a sewing article which i need to construct a proposal for, a fab idea for a childrens’ book that i need to write having found an illustrator and an already written novel with a bloody good story line that i need to re-draft.  Not to mention sewing projects.

I need to spend less time on facebook, less time thinking about doing stuff and not actually doing it and more time getting off my ever growing backside and doing it.

Obviously in between looking after two children, trying to keep on top of the housework and being nice to Andrew.

It is ten years since we got engaged tomorrow and we are having an old fashioned date.  An early dinner at Ask in Milton Keynes followed by a film.  We are going to see Revolutionary Road, i am really looking forward to the film.

Then in a couple of weeks time it will be Andrew’s fortieth which finally gets me around to the title of this post.  I am hosting a Mexican Evening for his friends and some of the ingredients arrived today plus a new Mexican Cookery book that i have treated myself to.  The reason for the Mexican theme is many of Andrew’s family are Mexican or have at least lived there for a good chunk of their lives.

I get a lot of my ingredients from here.  I ordered them at two o’clock yesterday afternoon and they were here this morning.  Marvellous. Unlike the television that i am supposed to be waiting in for!!!

I will post photos of the party when it gets here, needless to say i have given myself a huge menu to cook but it should be a good laugh.  she says hopefully………………………………

Anyway a little photo of our snow to end a long, ranty, will it ever end post.  Have a good weekend bloggers

Check this out

I am a newbie to Twitter but having followed links found this charity event called Twitchiker.  How fab is that.  Twitter is a very strange thing but let me know if you become a Tweeter or Twitterer and i will add you to my list.

I dont think to blog unless….

…I have made something in which case i take photos and write a post.  But this evening after putting the children to bed, i started looking back into my old posts and was surprised to find it really interesting.  Things from last year that i had forgotton about, i then found myself reading about.  Marvellous.  So, i am afraid it means that you will be hearing a few more odds and sods about me and my life and not just sewing. 

It has been a strange and particularly stressful week as Andrew is in Kuwait.  well to be exact he was in Italy and then flew from there to Kuwait.  martha has been ill (surprise surprise i hear you say) and her sleeping patterns have hit an all time low.

Thankfully my mum and really good friend Liz have offered to have her for an hour or so each so that i can get to the gym.  i find going to the gym a real sanity saver.  Just time for me, too exhausted to stress about anything as i go to classes where the instructor constantly shouts at you.  Yoga keeps me reasonably calm and i am assuming eventually my body will start to show the benefits in the same way my head does.  I hate the fact that when i get really tired i get irritable with the children especially Oliver and then we all find ourselves in a catch 22 situation when noone is happy.  Last night Martha decided to cry, well scream for 2 hours solidly.  It was not a good evening.

I am still planning to put stuff into my shop on Folksy but have yet to make anything.  I did however make a card for a friend who is having a low patch at the moment, following the instructions from the book i wrote about in this post here.  It looked really lovely and not at all twee as i had feared.  I have started work on a headband for me to wear for “those hair days” but after my initial excitement at fabric painting, the novelty of bead sewing has worn off slightly.

Anyway, let me know what helps to keep you sane if anything

In the end i am pleased

sorry about the lack of light and the odd stray thread.

Do you ever get the feeling that…….

some bags just do not want to be made??

The bag order i am currently working on should have been straight forward and simple.  Let me tell you, if it could have gone wrong it has gone wrong.  Primarily because i just went sailing through with it and actually ended up sewing the bag to the lining before i had attached the clsoure tab and handle tabs.  SO lots of unpicking there.  Then, the handle hoops didnt work too well so i am still working on an aesthetic solution for that.
The fabric is a beautiful canvas but as such is really tricky to work with as it is so thick. I should have used the lining fabric for the handle hooks but decided to perservere.

Then when top stiching the outside it wasnt until i had finished that i realised not only how uneven it was but that the needle needed changing – so more unpicking.

Attaching the bamboo handles was another nightmare as i couldnt find handle hooks.  I looked high and low, sent an email to Lisa, panicked, panicked some more and then realised they were attached to the handle in the first place.  AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH. 

Thankfully, the turn and lock fastener worked because if that had gone wrong it would have been starting from scratch.

it does look phenomenal though and once i have finished the last couple of bits, i will post photos.

The fabric was “interesting” to work with but because of the thickness of it the bag has a fantastic shape even though the only interlining is sew-in.

I hope you are having better sewing experiences.

Photos tomorrow i promise.

Rant finished

Thanks to Ali

I have just ordered this, as i feel i simply HAVE to make the corset Ali speaks about in her post.  I love the idea of making beautiful things and not being hunched over my sewing machine constantly.

Anyway, hoping to have the latest bag order out by Friday, even if I did make a gigantic mistake that i will explain with the pictures.  Even now i can’t believe i did it.  But hey, here is keeping everything crossed the bag comes out ok.

Have a good day everyone

Happy new year to you all

Hello

I really hope you survived the holiday period.  well actually I hope you did more than survive it, I hope you had a bloody good time. We did.  Although to start off with it looked like it could all be over before it started as along with the rest of the country the children were plagued with ill health.  But thankfully, it was one of the best christmas’s ever.  Each year the children seem to enjoy it more, Oliver especially.  he seems to have gone from the stage of ripping open each present and then moving onto the next one without looking at what he has already opened, to opening the present and then actually sitting and playing with it for a while before we remind him that he has a few more to open.  Not many though, we dont go mad.

this year, oliver nearly had me in tears when over breakfast he sat munching on his croissant before looking over at me and saying

“mummy do you know which present is my favourite?” to which i obviously replied

“no darling”

“all of them, this is the best christmas ever.”

I completed all of the bag orders and have one more to work on over the next couple of weeks, the fabric arrived yesterday so i will show you photos of it tomorrow.  I do have photos of the completed beach bag but instead i thought i would share a photo of my two playing the piano at granny’s house.

Happy CHristmas

Happy Christmas to blog land I hope you all have a fantastic holiday

First Sale

Well i have had my first sale from Folksy albeit a small one.  I have sold this hair slide.

So, i figured that i should make a little gift box for it following the marvellous tutorial from the one and only Lisa .  Obviously, after my lack of success with Etsy i didn’t expect to sell anything so soon, so had no card to make the box with.  Off i popped then with Martha in tow to our local craft shop where i was met with open arms as i haven’t been there for a while.  It would be nice to think they loved me because of me but most probably it is because of the amount of money i spend once i enter the doors.  Two pieces of card does not cost a lot, a bag full of beads, ribbons, new ring templates adds up to quite a bit.  Hoping to put a few rings in the shop when i have completed my bag orders.  If that ever happens, the beach bag is not going well although the internal zippered waterproof pocket using iron-on vinyl is a success.  Thanks to Julia for that tip. I have now run out of thread for the bag and invented new words this morning as i tried to complete it – failing miserably.  For the sake of my families sanity i have put it to one side for now, with the intention of completing it later. 

I also need to finish the bag for Martha and a bag for my sister-in-law which will be coming from my brother as a present.  So 3 sewing days left until Christmas – i can see a lot of caffeine being drunk over the next few days, especially as the children will be at home and Andrew will be at work. 

The thing is, when i have stuff that i SHOULD be doing, i end up having millions of creative ideas just popping into my head.  This happened when i was writing the book for Nanowrimo.  Halfway through the book, i had an amazing idea for a children’s book, which made me want to stop what i was doing and start that.  Luckily i didn’t.  But, i am trying my best to persevere with what i should be doing rather than what i want to do!  The children’s book though i intend to crack on with after Christmas.  I have big plans for it, especially since one of my old school friends is an illustrator.  Watch this space.  I am very excited.  Anyway to end, here are a few pictures of the box i made with the chocolates i have bought to send as little gifts with my purchases.  Obviously for health and safety i had to test them first………

I hope all your Christmas plans are going well.