Big news, big giveaway!

I have been holding off posting for a number of reasons..., firstly as the 9th March it will be my 3rd Blogiversary, I wanted to wait till closer to the date, secondly because this is my 200th post, so it makes sense to tie the two events together, and thirdly I have been waiting on the go ahead to announce this!

Say Hello to 'Little Birds'...,

I am very pleased to say that I am part of the C&T Publishing Design Collective which is evolving and will be known by the name of 'Stash', 'Little Birds' is one of the first publications under this Imprint.  As you may have guessed, it is full of projects involving birds as the common theme, and includes a talented bunch of designers including Melly & me, Abigail Brown, MummySam, Bari J  and Resurrection Fern.  The book is a real selection box full of delights to quilt, embroider and sew, all complied by C&T's Susanne Woods, and now available for pre-order.

My contributions, for there are indeed two, are...,

 

 the pattern for a Peacock softie, 

 

and a Stork mobile.

The Stork's heart even has a space to embroider a name and birthday!

Ok, now all the formalities are done, lets go back to the fact that it is almost 3 years since I began blogging, and 200 warblings posts.  There have been good times (designs published, kits made, softie's sold), and bad times (broken teeth and falling asleep while sewing and headbutting my sewing machine to name just two).  I pride myself on being human, there's no perfect house or perfect life here.  I am the Calamity Jane of sewing.

So, to say thank you for stopping by, thank you for leaving a comment, and thank you to anyone who has ever linked to me and/or written about me, I'm going to offer a giveaway.  

A commission, from me to you.  In celebration of 'Little Birds' inaugural outing from the C&T nest, I will make one of the patterns for you.  You choose, Peacock or Stork mobile.

Leave a comment, making sure I have some way of reaching you, between now and midnight (GMT) on Tuesday 9th March, and after then, the trusty random number generator will do it's magic and pick a winner.

Flying visit...,

Can't believe a week has gone by already since my last post, time..., slow down please!

It has been a busy week, a bit of sewing, a trip to the Lake District, and a trip to Birmingham.

Now, I'm home again, it's back to the sewing,

 

and to finish adding spines to this little guy!

Button necklace,

A couple of weeks ago, I was in the mood one evening to do something crafty.  Whatever it was going to be, it had to be easy (as I was tired), and quick (as it was late).  I'd always fancied a long button necklace, White Stuff have a nice one, but I don't live near a branch or have that much spare spends right now.  But seriously, how hard can it be to make one?  Not very so it turns out, here's mine...,

  

It's quite long, and with a big red square button I bought a while ago, but wasn't sure what to do with it, as a central feature.  To make one, all you need is a length of cord and a selection of buttons.

  

The cord is a fair bit longer than I wanted the finished necklace to be.  Fold it in half to mark the center point and anchor the first button there.  Then, working up each side, thread on buttons at roughly 1 1/2" (4cm) intervals.

 

 

Each button is  secured in place at the back with a knot before moving on to the next.

  

Once the whole necklace is threaded with buttons, simply tie the ends in a knot and trim off any excess cord.  The first one came together so easily, I made a shorter one for Lucy using pastel coloured buttons alternating with a white flower.

 

Don't tell her I'm wearing it, I'll be in big trouble! 

ps, just noticed I am 2 posts away from 200, and about 3 weeks away from a 3rd blogiversary!

Red,

Given how much I like the colour red, I guess today's theme is quite appropriate.  We don't usually go in for elaborate gestures on occasions like Valentines, but after glancing around the internet a couple of weeks ago I did see something which caught my eye.  There are cuflinks made from wooden scrabble tiles, much nicer then the modern plastic equivalent.  You can choose the letters, I chose A & L, the message to my husband being,

...the A is for Amy (me), the L is for Lucy & Luke and together we make you, AL.

(scrabble cufflinks via PennyDog)

We've also eaten red today, Thai Red Curry to be exact, even made my own curry paste, recipe from here.  I then used about 3 tablespoons of paste with 2 can's of coconut milk, sliced baby sweetcorn, chopped spring onions, sliced red pepper, 4 tablespoons of fish sauce, 2 tablespoons of cane sugar, king prawns and some crushed kaffir lime leaves.  The 2 cans of coconut milk instead of my usual 1 was so we could have it as a soup with some noodles in it too.  I didn't have any dried chilli's for the paste so used fresh this time, they worked fine but it wasn't quite as hot as we usually like it!

We're lucky as both Lucy & Luke are quite happy to eat hot and weird food, so recipes like this are pretty commonplace in this house.  Given the chance, they would much rather go to somewhere like Wagamama's or Yo Sushi than Macdonalds.

Happy Valentine's Day

My mirror needs cleaning!

Since dipping my toe into the world of wardrobe refashion, I've discovered on Flickr the Bloganista's group.  Here, Bloggers from around the globe are posting their outfits for all to see, I thought it looked fun and decided to join in.  It's been quite an interesting experiment (also inspired by Ali), the theory being that if you are going to photograph your outfit, it will encourage more effort into putting it together.  I work at home, alone most days as Lucy & Luke are both out at school, and Al is usually out and is also often away abroad, so other than the school run or popping out for bread or milk, don't really need to make a huge effort with my appearance.  I always suspected that, despite having plenty of clothes to chose from, I only ever really skim off the top 10% and end up wearing the same outfits over and over again.  

So far, here is what I've discovered,

1. The mirror needs cleaning

2. The wall in our hall needs decorating

3. I stand the same way each time I take a picture

4. I do lots of layering, a sub-conscious side effect of it being so cold

5. I actually only wear the top 5% of my wardrobe, not 10 as I previously thought

and

6. At least I am getting dressed.  I have been known to do the school run with my pyjamas still on under a big coat.

My plan now is to try harder and dig deeper into the recesses of my wardrobe and see what I can find that I've not worn for ages, make better use of what I have, or alter what I have if it's not working as it is and see how long I can go without buying anything.

(my husband will be pleased!)