happy halloween

we've just come home from an afternoon of spooky fun. While I cheated an bought a costume for the boy, I spent this morning on the machine, quickly adorning our clothes in scary spiders

However, it became clear almost immediately that the Boy was not happy to particitpate in any kind of fancy dress...so we went with face paints instead

apparently what I'd overlooked, is that while he was no longer willing to wear the bat costume that he chose yesterday, he would have been perfectly content to wear a witches costume... so much so that he stole a little girls hat and broom!

well, I know what to get next year!

Happy Halloween.

PS I'm putting a last call out for Bev to claim your giveaway gift!

friday find

I've been struggling with lights for the Boys room for some time now.. in the run up to bedtime having a main light on always seemed a bit too bright, and the opposite of the calm space required to persuade him that night time is for sleeping. However he's already managed to break two lamps (don't ask) Lately, I've gone a tiny bit shelf mad in his bedroom, and managed to find a small Lack shelf in ikea that fitted almost perfectly between his chimney breast and wardrobe, which I decided would be the perfect spot for a lamp, as it's quite well protected by a large laundry basket. The only problem with this plan was having to hide away the wire for the lamp. or so I thought...

...until I found this little beauty in John lewis. Having a bright green flex trailing down the wall is entirely another matter in my book (although I have to hope that this won't make it become infinitely more tempting for a small pair of hands - eek!) The photo on the JL website really didn't do the colour of this lamp justice, which in the flesh is just the right vibrant shade of green for a little boys bedroom. The lovely silkscreen printed giraffe card is waiting to be framed, and was a Folksy find from Nant Designs.

Lets hope that this lamp lasts longer than its predecessors!

take one boy, add a bit of brown paper...

and have lots of fun...

hummm...

Fun for who though?!

tuesday treasures

Two little groups waiting to be made into something

I may even bring myself to chop into some liberty lawn for this.

autumn prints

I have finally been brave enough to join my fist swap - it's being kindly hosted by GiddyStuff and is on the theme of autumn leaves. As I'm still building up my stash of fabric, I can't yet rely on being able to delve into the cupboard and just see what I can come up with... so I now have the perfect excuse to do a little fabric browsing (because obviously I needed an excuse) ..

ok, so at this point I started getting a little distracted and going off the autumn theme..

but you've gotta love crosshatch..

I found all of these at Fabric Rehab. Right, time for a bit more .. 'research'

drumroll please...

votes have been counted and verified

And aided by my helpful assistant

I can now announce the winner is...

Bev

Congratulations! If you could please send your address to alittlebirdtoldme@twoforjoydesign.com then I'll get it in the post to you.

Thanks to all who entered.

a focus on...

Hope bags

For some time now, I've been wanting to do a feature on this bag pattern

All money raised by the sale of this pattern goes to the very deserving Velindre cancer research charity. It's available to buy on line from the Cotton Patch - and here are the details: Sally Ablett just so happens to also be my very talented Mum, and this project was inspired by a good friend of hers very saldy loosing a long battle with cancer.

Designer Sally Ablett has created this charming "Hope Bag" that's available as a pattern. It is generously proportioned at 40cm wide x 40cm high x 17cm deep. It has two side pockets and a large internal pocket.

The bag can be made from just 6 Fat quarters plus 1m of coordinate for the bag lining and base

But the best thing about the Hope Bag is that all the money raised from sale of the pattern will go to the Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff (www.velindrefundraising.com). So if you would like to make a practical and stylish bag and raise money for a good cause. Hope is the answer!

So go on, and treat yourself to a great pattern, and feel good about helping a very good cause too

it's Folksy Friday!

I've gone a little bit off-piste this week, and decided to just focus on one shop that I really like on Folksy. And that shop is...

The whistling Cowgirl

I've chosen this shop because...

...I think the items being sold are adorable....

...I think the shop has a really clear brand....

...and I think that the photographs display the products really well.

Lovely.

On a different note, today is the last day to enter my blog giveaway so get your entries in quickly!

Have a good weekend, and keep warm x

PS, thanks so much to Dab and a Dash for featuring one of my purses

a focus on... Persephone books

Or more specifically, Persephone book endplates.

As if you even needed a reason for a good read, books from Persephone are also a work of art. Lurking below their delicate grey exteriors lie the most beautiful endplates you could imagine

Here are just a few (well, more than a few, I got a bit carried away) of their fantastic collection:

beautiful.

Find out more about Persephone here

work in progress

So, I decided to try and machine some really teeny birds, which I would then use to cover buttons. I had a picture in my minds eye of exactly the way they'd look, and exactly how I'd package them. I couldn't wait to make them. It was all a perfect plan. But then they didn't turn out right!

The problem was that I'd forgotten quite how small buttons actually are. It was impossible (for me at least) to do one of my more real looking birds, so I had to go for a more cartoony style one which I didn't like. And then I just got that horrible fidgety feeling in my fingers from working on something so small and fiddly (which probably sounds like a very odd thing to say unless you also experience this). When I got home from work today and took some pictures, I realised they weren't quite as bad as I'd remembered. I guess they're just not I was aiming for. But that's life - sometimes things just don't work out the way you plan!

purses, purses and more purses

We had an unexpected weekend at home, so I took the opportunity to finish off the las to my purses. Thankfully I did not produce any seconds (although there does seem to be a surprising amount of love for the wonky one)

I'm really happy with the way they've all turned out

But I think this one has to be my favourite.

Whenever I list something new, I always have an initial feeling of excitement, sparked by the thought that perhaps, this might be the product that starts to increase my sales. I thought that might be the case with the purses... it doesn't seem to be yet, but I'm sure that it's just got to be a matter of time and well, if I'm wrong, at least I'll have a decent stock of Christmas presents! I'm really quite taken with my little birds, which I'm starting to work up into some other products.. but more about that tomorrow.

All of these purses are available in my folksy shop

PS another reminder about my giveaway. Oh, and a little plea for anyone who hasn't voted to please vote for me here. Thank you!

some Folksy finds..

I had a little bit of a shopping spree on Folksy last week. and my goodies have steadily been winding their way to me. I happened to read a post on the Folksy forum enquiring what people did with their scraps, and as a result, stumbled upon this lovely bag of leather scraps from HJD Crafts

As well as some smaller scraps, there are some really reasonably sized pieces of leather, all in beautiful colours, which it just so happens match these threads I picked up at the weekend perfectly. Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?!

I also happened to notice a selection of vintage sewing items for sale in the shop too, which i felt it would be rude not to buy to prettify the printers tray on my sewing table. Here are a few of them:

Finally, I spied this amazing chopping board from Finkfurniture. All of their pieces are made from offcuts of wood that are produced in the furniture-making process. It's super-chunky, and super cool - I didn't know it was possible to love a chopping board this much!

My (never great) camera skills seem to have deserted me altogether today, so here is the picture that sold it to me that does it much more justice..

Finally, just a quick reminder, I'm running a giveaway .. if you haven't entered then please leave a comment.

*** giveaway ***

My impatience at getting some purses made up, coupled with my sometimes cavalier approach to measuring has resulted in a beautiful purse, which I've freehand machine embroidered with a flying gul, but embellished with a slightly wonky ribbon

I realised before I started assembling this that it was wrong, but carried on regardless, somehow thinking that the wonkiness would be lost it if I added some buttons on the other side to balance it out. So I've learnt the hard way that measuring and pinning is a must (which surely I should have known by now anyway!)

I wouldn't feel comfortable selling this, but it's still too good to throw away so I thought I'd host my first giveaway!

If you can live with the wonky ribbon, but otherwise perfect purse and would like to be entered into the draw then please leave a comment below. You will get an extra entry for each of these; following my blog, following me on twitter, following me on facebook, or following me on folksy (please let me know when you leave comment.) Entries will close on 23rd October.

On a different note I've just added this (non-wonky) purse to my shop...