Tree Fall

Princess and the Pea - again

I just wanted to let everyone who hasn't seen  yet,  know that The Princess and the Pea is available through Amazon in the US from April 1st! I can't recommend it enough, it is a truly beautiful book (and no I'm not on commission!)
Also, I'm working on a little set of a Princess, matresses and the pea to sell in  my shop - so if you're interested please email me, and let me know.
:)

Tie One On

The Mapron!
It's made out of pinstripe wool suiting, for the discerning gentlemen.
Jim surprised me by loving this. I really didn't think that he'd be interested either way, but he's been raving about it since I showed it to him last night. Who knew?

Mega Monday Post Part 3

The swap that I had with Blair recently was for the wonderful, wonderful book The Princess and the Pea. When I got it for her I knew immediately that I wanted to send her the mattresses too! Oh and of course you can't have the mattresses without the pea. I had so much fun making these. It made me very, very happy. I will definately be making more (for Bella of course;)).

I just want to make the princess now!

Here's a sneak peak of something else that I've been working on. Orange and red is so pretty!

Mega Monday Post Part 2

As usual we went to a couple of car boot sales yesterday. We have one in particular that is our favourite. It's in a field fifteen minutes along the motorway from us.  I'm not sure why it's our favourite, other than it was the first one we went to here in Leeds. In the summer it's pretty big and can take at least an hour to get around, but at the moment with the weather not being at all nice it's pretty small most weeks. This week it was even smaller. It took us 15 minutes to get round the whole thing.
On the way to the sale I am always full of excitement. I get a real rush, infact it's almost a panicky feeling. What I want to do is jump out of the car and run, run, run around the whole field in five seconds flat. What if someone else wants all those buttons? Or if they want those old, dirty pillowcases? What if they see that book, covered in mold with 30 year old patterns for making a bean bag frog? I mean, good lord, what if they grab all my treasures? See, even writing about it makes me feel a little panicky! I just know that someone out there has my bag of assorted zips! And they're probbably blogging about it right now.
Why does it make me feel this way, I wonder? One thing for sure is that I love to shop. And I'm lucky enough (or if you're my bank manager, unlucky enough) to be married to a man  who'd rather shop than almost anything else - including for clothes and shoes for me! And at the moment we are quite horribly broke (what d'ya mean they don't pay you to be a mom?), so thrifting is the only form of shopping that I can justify. I do also love to recycle. It is a wonderful feeling to create something new from something old - as always Amanda says it best here .  But I think it's more than that. I really seem to enjoy wanting something that no one else wants. I love the fact that other people just see old buttons, when in fact I know that they are little pieces of history. They are as indicitive of a time as any piece of furniture. And don't even get me started on the fabric that other people see as old ratty curtains!
Anyway, this week it was obvious as soon as we got there that it was not going to be a good sale. I didn't have any major finds, but I did get a couple of books.

The 'Something From Nothing'  book has some great ideas in. And I love the cover to McCalls!
I also got that Salt and Pepper set. I can not tell you how much I love them. They're vintage Poole Pottery and cost me 50p!! Very much love!
I also got a set of binders full of some great stuff.

Like this.

And this - I want to make this!

Of course, if you really want to read about thrifting - and please, who wouldn't?? Then you need to go here !!! Heaven!

Oh and while we're here, I got this table cloth last year at a sale. I am so in love with it. It makes me smile everytime I walk in the kitchen. Although it needs something doing to it because the fabric in the centre piece has stretched. It's still beautiful though. The tulips appliqued around the edge are actually pockets for it's matching napkins!

Mega Monday Post Part 1

Having asked a few posts back which was better, mega posts or individual smaller posts,  it was obvious that most people prefer a few individual posts - so here goes (please bare with me!).

I was lucky enough to receive a lovely parcel from Blair on Friday! We arranged to do a swap a while ago and she was very kind and sent me some beautiful wool felts, in the just  best colours!

As well as the latest copy of MSL - it's pretty difficult to get it over here, not to mention costing the equivalent of almost $10! Plus a really interesting new magazine about parenting,  that I'm very much enjoying.

And bless her, she also sent Bella a birthday present. It was an instant hit, and has been read everyday since it arrived  (by me of course, Bella's clever but not that clever). Bella just loves it and I love the fact that it has extra thick pages so Bella can't actually eat it!

Thank you so, so much Blair, I really appreciate it! And I can't wait to get to work with those felts!

Thank you everyone for your kind comments about the photo below. But I have to tell you about the look of absolute incredulity that crossed Jim's face when I told him that you all thought I looked peaceful and serene! Apparently serenity should not be included in my list of personal attributes ;)

Self Portrait Tuesday

Boy this one's a hard one. I enjoyed last months theme of Personal History, but I'm really unsure about this months theme of All Of Me! I've chickened out for the last two weeks, but this morning I decided to bite the bullet and go for it. So here I am. Straight out of the shower, wet hair, no make up, enormous forehead, the lot! I haven't touched this up in any way (although I'm sorely tempted). The background is my shower curtain with the sun shining through it.
Needless to say I don't usually let people see me this way and although I'm not one for a ton of make up or anything, I do prefer to look a little less stark.

Fields On A Sunday

(Can someone tell me whether it's better to have one super long post or several shorter new posts? I find that I sometimes don't notice if someone has a few new posts, so I'm not sure which is best?)

First off here's Megan's Quilt, finished. After such a shaky start I have to say that I've grown to rather love this quilt. I particularly like the combination of the white/blue floral and the torquoise/pink floral and would like to expand on that in a bigger quilt.

And here's the back,  showing the quilting. I machine quilted, as there's just no way I can find the time to hand quilt at the moment. Also I have to admit that I'm not that confident about my hand quilting and when I'm making a quilt that needs to withstand a lot of use/washing, I feel that machine stitching is just stronger.

I just hope that Megan and her mum like it now.

Here in the UK we don't have the type of thrift shops that you do in the US and we don't have house clearances or yard sales, but what we do have is Car Boot Sales. Every sunday, almost all year round, cars drive to a big field, open up their boots and sell their junk from them, from about 6am until midday.
I only really started going to carboots about a year ago, but I am of course completely and utterly addicted to them now. We started going just after Bella was born, when the chance of staying in bed on a Sunday morning was nothing more than a distant memory. We figured since we were up anyway, we may as well go out and do something.
Which is what we did this morning. And look what I got.

I know it doesn't look like much, but it certainly got my little heart thumping. Inside this box was all of this..

Oh my! Look at all those vintage buttons still on their cards! They are just beautiful.

And there's more. On top of all of these there was also a massive plastic tub of cream/white vintage buttons.
And these beautiful mother of pearl vintage buttons.

I wonder where these ones are from for the card to say 'Foreign' on it.

And I love these big buttons!

There was also all of this.

And this.

Egads!!! I almost died when I saw it all. I've never gotten this lucky before. Wow, wow, wow!

I also bought a few pieces of vintage fabric.

And last but certainly not least, I got this fantastic book about British houses in the very early sixties. It's all in black and white but the photo's are amazing. If I can get to the scanner tomorrow I'll post some pics from it. (I have no idea why there's a statue of a naked man on the cover - Jim seriously wondered just what I was buying for a second!).

I've just thought, are carboot sales what you guys call swop meets? Or is that something completely different?

Day of Work

I had a whole day of work today. We took Bella over to my mom's last night and don't pick her up until tomorrow lunch time. And as much as I miss her, it is so lovely to be able get up and spend the entire day in my pj's working, working, working. Of course I didn't achieve nearly half of what I'd hoped, but I did catch up on a few things.
I have now finished the commissioned playmat and cushions and am pretty happy with how they turned out - it's hardly cutting edge design, but they are pretty and pink. They have also led to an order for a second playmat.

I also finished a little surprise that I can't reveal yet, but here's a sneaky peak.

I'm very pleased with it, and hope that someone else will be too!

The other thing that I managed to get finished was Megan's quilt and I have to admit to being very pleased with the end result. I'll post a photo tomorrow.
Jim and I had a date tonight since we were temporarily child free. And seeing as we're old and tired, we chose to drink coffee and read magazines in Borders over dancing the night away! We then ate dinner at Ikea, followed by blueberry pie at home. Honestly we are such cheap dates!
We've spent the rest of the evening finally watching the first 5 episodes of The West Wing on tape. We've somehow managed to never see a single episode even though we bought the entire first and second season boxsets the christmas before last! Needless to say, we are now hooked and therefore up way, way past our bedtimes.

And finally, whilst I was basting Megan's Quilt today I looked up and realised that my front room was awash with beautiful pattern. I am still trying to decide on curtains and sofa covers and had thrown the various fabric around, and it made me feel very happy to see it all, especially with the sun streaming through the blinds.

Sad? Yes I am!

This is quite possibly the saddest post I could ever make. But I simply have to share the beauty that is my new and sparkly clean Dyson vacuum cleaner. This was a recent present from my in-laws and today was the first chance I've had to use it. And just before turning it on and sullying it I had to take a photo of just how clean it was!

Isn't it beautiful? Oh and believe me it works wonderfully too. For the last few years I have been suffering with an awful, heavy, ugly, yellow Hoover that Jim chose for absolutely no discernable reason as far as I can see.
But finally  I have this beauty! I now it's sad but it really does make me very happy!