Listen, do you want to know a secret...?

Well, now I can tell!  Manda, from Tree Fall Design has made an announcement this morning about her involvement in a brand new sewing magazine, 'Sew Hip'.  It is all very exciting and I'm chuffed to say that she has asked me, along with some other very illustrious crafters, to be involved.  Pop over to the magazine site and you can find out more of what it's all about, and when the first issue will be available, which will be including a Lucykate Crafts... softie pattern!.

Noses...

I'm on a quest to find a new way of adding noses to the larger cat softies that I make, like this one here, which popped up on Softies Central this week.  After being unable to find suitable triangular shaped pink buttons, it was suggested to me to try polymer clay, and make my own...!

Well, I've given it a try.  Maybe the weather is too warm at the moment, I found it really hard to shape as the clay had gone a bit too squidgy or maybe the tools I was using were inappropriate (they were from the kids playdoh set!).  I will give it another go, has anyone made their own buttons before?  Any tips to share would be much appreciated.

PS, the tantrum free summer is going pretty well, there have been a few close calls but so far, so good! 

Pandora's Box...

Apologies for the unexpected hiatus, our kitchen fiasco has become a bit all consuming this week, but we are now on the way back up (I hope!).  Our kitchen has been a bit of a 'Pandora's Box' from the start, so, trying desperately to stay positive about loosing the floor, has led us to finally start decorating the room.  So, today, I have painted 3 coats of white (it still looks patchy) onto what was a bare plaster ceiling, and being such a messy job, I have virtually turned myself into a human paint brush and am covered in white paint drips!!

(latest wip, which has unfortunately had to go on the back burner due to kitchen mess)

Now, down to the serious business, first, there is an interview with me here, and second, the winner of the toadstool giveaway is...

Amy from My Zoe Bug

So, if you can email me your address, I will get the toadstool off in the post.  

All I need to do now, is swap the paint brush for a sewing needle and camera, and there will be a new tutorial to post, watch this space...!

Help!, the summer holidays are coming... and a GIVEAWAY!

I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling a state of panic coming over me.  School finishes on Tuesday for the summer, 6 weeks of attempting to keep everyone happy, entertained, and fed on a very tight budget, what fun!  So, what better way to start the summer fun, than with a giveaway!

Come September, things are going to change for me.  Luke is starting pre-school, which will give me 3 whole days a week to work, and chance to begin putting all my plans for this little business into action.  Every move forward means leaving some things behind, this is a philosophy I often apply to my work.  I'm an ideas person, hence all the tutorials popping up, and after posting a while back about me not being a sketch book person, I actually realised I use my blog kind of like a sketch book, a place to note things down, try things out, some I use again, some I will go back to in the future, and some I wish I'd never posted!.

So, moving on from some of my older work, leaves space for the new to flourish, and means  I'm going to give away my tutorial toadstool...

leave a comment by midnight, Sunday 20th July (tell me your tips for a tantrum free summer!), and I'll do the draw for a winner on Monday morning.  This is also a way to say thank you, I've had so many visitors and inspirational comments left recently, I'm struggling to find the time to visit everyones blogs to comment back, and keep sewing!.  I might have to throw in a few left over birthday chocolates too, I'm starting to feel ill, I think I've eaten too many! 

EDIT TO POST

I'm going to have to leave this running for a couple more days, we have had a bit of a disaster this weekend, involving our kitchen floor, damp, what looks like could be a leaking pipe and worst of all, ants nests, so it's all hands on deck in the Lucykate household!

Toadstool round up...

I think it's time to round up the toadstool swap.  Here is just a small selection of the lovely things that were made...

(can you spot the tiny mouse?!)

I wish I could show more, but it's taken forever and a day just to build that mosaic, you can see more in the Flickr toadstool swap group pool.  If you are still to receive your swap toadstool, you are in good company, mine hasn't arrived yet either, but I did get this in the post...

(look at that amazing stitching, it's so neat)

It's from Louise at Prairie Mouse, and it's beautiful!

Thank you for all the lovely comments for the cotton reels, I won't be posting a tutorial for those just yet, I have other plans for them.  But don't worry, there will be plenty more tutorials coming up, I'm certain, one day, there is a craft book inside me just bursting to come out!

Well, I'm going to take a couple of days off, it's my birthday tomorrow and I will be...

a 38 year old, shopping, eating take away and in denial that I'm one step closer to the big 4 0!