Felt Badges, An Exhibition and Some Summer Day Gardening

This week has been intense, long but fun! I've been working lots and out most evenings which is unusual for me (I enjoy a peaceful evening in  these days hehe). On Tuesday I ran my little craft group and we made felt badges.I've been hanging round on craftster.org a lot recently and they're quite obsessed with them so I thought I'd try my hand.

After an awesome weekend spent with my BFF Miss Appletinitiny I was inspired to make an apple! Of course I had to make a little toadstool too :) I think I'm gonna make a few to give to nice people. On Wednesday I went with my friend Chris to see Iron Sky a crazy b-movie about nazis from the dark side of the moon! It was funny in parts but not as good as I'd hoped unfortunately. I love a good b-movie new or old.

On Friday I'd dropped off a piece of work to The Gate where they're putting on an Open Exhibition for the next two weeks in the foyer. I choose to put in a piece I'd made for the 50/50 show a few months ago. It's a favourite of mine called 'Up and Away' :)

Today it has been heat wave hot! Yesterday I was stuck in a ware house packing boxes and sewing labels :(

So Today was garden day, I armed my self with my nifty anti hayfever trick of smearing vaseline round my nostrils and eyes (it works so well) and started planting up all the flower I had. some of my bulbs are staring to come through too; I can't wait to see what they look like!

Here's a peak at how it looks!

I've started spray painting the old garden furniture. I've used two different shades of blue. Its my first go at it and it's really fun. My friend Sophie from the Printhaus does a lot of work using the medium (but it's so versatile) and she let me buy a few cans out of her stash. I need to finish the legs of the table, I was going to do the the darker blue like the two smaller chairs. The top of it is the lighter turquoise, it's just so nice and summery :).



Broken Girls Club

For the past few weeks I've been doing some sewing work for Hollie from Broken Girls Club. It's a fun label that she's put together that has a right mix of gear. I met Holllie when I did a small sewing job for her through the tshirt printing company I sometimes work for. She got in touch and I ended up customising some tshirts for her.

Since then I've constantly had some of her work on the go! She gave me a pile of cut off denim shorts with pinned on bits of fabric which looked like an exciting prospect and this is the result!! I'm quite inspired to get the old tye dye out tbh.

 I hope they sell well on her site, they're super fun to customise!

The past week I've been on a dress making kick. One evening Hollie popped over and had a good rumage through the pile of vintage patterns that I have in that suitcase. She chose an awesome design and I got to make one of the prettiest dresses ever!! hehe

She's left a bin bag full of curtains to make lots more in the same design. I'll take photos as I do them and of course share with you guys!

The Mushroom Footstool!

For my dear ol' boyfriend's 30th birthday a few weeks ago I decided to make him a toadstool footstool. It's an idea that I've been wanting to make for ages but this just seemed like the apt moment! It took about 4 evenings but over the space of about a month - I was keeping it secret and only really had a chance to do work on it when he'd gone out!

It stands about 20" high and is filled with about 1 1/4kg of toy stuffing rammed firmly inside! I put a circle of cardboard in the bottom too so it has a good flat base. Its also crochet out of robin chunky knit wool.

His face was a delight when I finally gave it to him! I'm glad, as I'm super proud of myself for making the pattern up and just the scale - it's definitely my biggest crochet piece to date!

As you can probably tell from the photos, I've made it up in the round just increasing my stitches until I felt it was big enough. I was surprised how easy it was to do (although had to use the stitch counter religiously!). So far I've only put 4 spots on it, one big un and the rest are the same size, not sure whether to do some smaller ones as well. It is looking a tad Mario at the moment - this wasn't intentional! Would love to know what people think.

Amazing Gifts

You always meet such a wide variety of amazing people when you do stalls at craft fairs. You don't always get amazing people like my new buddy Val who give you piles of stuff! Val's mother had been a serious dressmaker and knitter and having passed away not too long ago, she was left with all her craft stuff. Thankfully I have been the lucky receiver of all the amazing things her mother collected over the years!

A whole vintage suitcase full of vintage 50's/60's/70's dress patterns. Most are still in a fantastic condition and there are some great styles!

A sewing tin full of vintage tape measures, lots of needles and pins, tailors chalk and a tracing wheel and more hooks and eyes than I could possibly ever use in my life time!

Two whole buttons tins, I was fizzing over the top of the glass when I found these bad boys! There was also another carrier bag full of buttons that she'd sorted into colour and design!

And a whole another vintage suitcase filled with trimmings, bias binding, ribbons and zips! Talk about 7th heaven! I'd asked Val if she wanted the suitcases back but her reply was to chuck them down the tip!! I don't think she realises I've got quite a collection of vintage suitcases and vanity cases and these two are just as good as the contents hehe.