Hello and welcome to my blog. My world consists of being a working mummy to Amélie (aged 4), dreaming of one day having a converted barn and a dresser full of Emma Bridgewater pottery and creating gorgeous things along the way. I live in Redhill, Surrey and work as the government engagement manager for a fabulous online collaboration company in central London.
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I have found a new toy to play with. It’s free, addictive and allows you to enter a world of make-believe where your wardrobe is full of gorgeous things. I heard it described as fuzzy-felt for grown-up girls and it’s true, although my daughter has become quite hooked by it too. Here are some of my creations.
And how cute is this one created by Amélie, aged 4? I’m proud of her ability to put a co-ordinated outfit together at such a young age.
Have a play here!
Here’s what on my 2011 crafting to-do list so far.
Pretty candle holders made from doilies. I’ve been meaning to do these for the last year.
A Forest Friends quilt like this one for a new baby due in 2011.
Some cushions for the bedroom (once I have decided on what wallpaper to have), like these from Blueberry Park.
This lovely rag doll from Hop, Skip, Jump.
Nothing to do with making or crafting, but I thought I would share some wonderfully happy moments from 2010 as it’s nearly at an end.
A gorgeously sunny visit to Paris in early April. We lucked out by having Eurostar tickets as everyone else waited patiently to get airborne thanks to the ash cloud. There’s not a plane in the sky! We had a fantastic brunch at Laduree.
This photo is of Amélie and I on holiday in Tenerife in April. Amélie adored this holiday and still talks about it daily even now. Plus of course she thought it was great fun being stranded there thanks to the ash cloud. One of the best holidays ever.
A superbly warm and sunny garden from July. Many a happy day and evening was spent out here basking in the sunshine.
Awesome tea in a mug on South Beach, Studland, Dorset. A wonderful long weekend away in late August. One of the best beaches in the UK by far.
Another one from August. Yes, that’s *my* face, right there. Not sure if she’s protesting about the amount of beige food being served.
Amélie started school in September. It took a little while for her to settle in to a new place but judging by the report that came home at the end of term last week she’s grown in confidence and has made some firm friendships. One very proud Mummy.
And lastly the cats, in their usual position on the sofa. Every night they’re there and snuggle up next to me. And every day they drive me batty by bringing in leaves, mud, slugs and worse. It does brighten my day to see Tiger leaving the house dressed in whatever Amélie has decided he will sport that day. It normally involves a tiara.
Happy holidays!
Here’s a Christmas present I’ve made (I won’t say who for just yet - it’s a surprise). It’s a linen cushion cover with felt petals sewn on. I sewed the sequins on to the petals by hand which I weirdly find very relaxing.
The end result is very sparkly and I think I might have a go at some more of these in other colours for the bedroom. You can never have too many cushions (although my husband would strongly disagree).
Here’s the paper snowflakes I promised, made from parcel paper this time. I’ve hung these ones on the stairs with gold ribbon at the top of each one.
I have developed an intense dislike for any traditional Christmas decorations this year so I’m avoiding red and green and anything with a Christmas print. The tree goes up this weekend!
This is the easiest, cheapest and most effective Christmas decoration. I found the tutorial at Three Red Apples and had a go myself this afternoon. I made mine from standard A4 printer paper cut in to squares and because I couldn’t find any staples for the stapler, I just used sellotape to tape mine together.
I’ve made some others out of parcel paper and will post a photo of those tomorrow. I just need to buy some ribbon to hang them in a garland on the stairs.
Sorry for the posting hiatus. I have been ridiculously busy with Amélie’s 4th birthday and more recently work, but in a good way.
All this snow has kept me mostly housebound so I decided to make a Christmas stocking for Amélie so that she can hang it on her bedroom door on Christmas Eve ready for all the goodies that Santa will bring.
It’s Amélie’s 4th birthday party tomorrow and I’ve just finished making these cupcakes. I think the kids will love them although I hope they actually eat the cake and not just the buttercream and sprinkles!
Next week, Amélie has her 4th birthday party. We’ve hired the local village hall and I’ve been spending too much time looking at wonderful party styling blogs such as Mrs A in the Cove, My Life My Loves and Amy Atlas.
I am trying to bear in mind that the party attendees are three and four year olds but I can’t help putting a little creativity and effort in to making it as pretty as I can without overdosing on Disney Princesses. I’ve made some tissue paper pompoms (easy peasy - instructions can be found here) and bagged up some sweeties with pretty heart ties.
I’ve also made some paper bunting to hang in the hall at the party.
And finally some super-cute card baskets with ribbon round them. I think I’ll be putting some berries or grapes in these at the party tea.
After finishing the living room a few weeks back, my attentions turned to the kitchen. Not much really needed doing in here but I was itching to change the table and chairs we had which came from my previous, very small house.
I’m happy with the look of black, red and white with pretty Cath Kidston accessories.
I haven’t blogged for ages but it’s a rainy Sunday afternoon and daughter is happily playing so I have a few minutes to update this and show some recent makes. I made this linen cushion at the request of Amélie who demanded one for her bedroom, without any buttons on (due to a complete aversion to anything that has a button on it).
Christmas isn’t too far off now so my thoughts are turning to homemade gifts and decorations. Now I have my beautiful new wallpaper in the living room, my Christmas decorations have to tie in with the new colour theme.
I made these felt hanging hearts with some lovely felt I got from the inspirational Manda at Tree Fall Design. The felt is so wonderful to work with and not at all like the scratchy, cheap stuff most craft stores stock.
I’m not sure what to tackle next. I need some more tree decorations so I shall have a little scout around and see what inspires me.
We moved in to our house just short of three years ago and for all that time we have been living with magnolia new-build walls. We have always struggled to agree on home furnishings and art work for our walls but we did agree on this beautiful wallpaper from Orla Kiely. I am so thrilled with how it looks and it goes so well with our dark floors and sofa. I have fallen in love with our house all over again.
If you have eagle-eyes, you can see another cushion I made with one of my favourite fabrics from Alexander Henry.
Having owned a sewing machine for the best part of a year, I found that I was pretty limited in what I could use it for so I decided to book some sewing lessons. I found a wonderful local teacher who came to my home in the evenings for an hour. She taught me a variety of new techniques including applique, buttonholes and pattern cutting and gave me some great tips that I would have never learnt on my own. Self-teaching is fine but I had reached a point of needing someone to show me new things in order to advance.
The result of my lessons is this wonderful cushion made from linen. The heart fabric is from Liberty and is appliqued on using yellow satin stitch. I am rather pleased with how neat it all is.
And I am so proud of my beautiful buttonholes! I always had a fear of buttonholes but actually they are quite straightforward when you know what you’re doing.
The finished article, complete with some antique lace embellishment.
I’ve done a lot of machine sewing over recent months and now the evenings are drawing in I thought I would go back to a bit of hand embroidery which can handily be done on the sofa whilst watching trash TV on a Saturday evening. And of course it gives me much needed practice on my hand stitches.
I came across this blog during the week as well as this project which I intend to attempt as soon as I can find some decent quality wool felt.
