Accoutrements to fill my burgeoning craft drawer never go neglected…
Stamps - A bargainous $8 each from Etsy
Tape measure ribbon - $3.90 a yard
Postcard reprinted onto kraft paper for transferring/printing/labelling etc… $2.90
I turn my back for ONE DAY and Etsy suddenly comes over all crafty supplies and prettiness. Or did I just miss the boat altogether???
Oh and this prettiness:
Which I’m sure I could do myself but for only $6 for 4 cards, it barely seems worth it!
xxx
Approximately one hour and forty-five minutes into this show and you will hear my dulcet crafty tones describing to Simon Mayo how to make a teapot costume for a 10 year old girl who has been cast as Mrs Potts of Beauty and the Beast…
I emailed in the details below and ten minutes later, received a call from the Radio 2 studio and forty minutes later was chatting with Mr Mayo himself!
For those who really actually want to make the costume, my suggestions were:
Teapot costume idea for a non-sewing mummy for a 10year old daughter:
An oversized white long sleeved t-shirt for adults with white tights and white bobble hat.
If you connect one sleeve to the tights or hip of the tshirt and then fill with a strip of pipe insulation that will get your spout.
The other sleeve can be permanently up with a bit of insulation foam at the top to hold the spout...
A length of elastic run around the bottom of the t-shirt will hoik it up around the hips and then the abdomen can be stuffed or wrapped with quilting wadding to 'round' her out a bit.
A bobble hat will be the lid, and a bit of fabric paint to be the floral design on the middle along with a stripe around the hem will do it....
Feel free to call me on the number below to explain in more detail but this should work, for not much money and not much time/skill requirements!!!
As I said to my friends, autographs and appearances can be coordinated through my PA, Matilda.
Excited beyond all measure… And sorry for not mentioning the blogosphere and my little shop – I got worried that the BBC would immediately cut me off for plugging and advertising!
Any lurkers lurking on the radio and heard me??
An article written for my local parenting magazine, Seeds & Saplings. I hope you don’t mind my duplicating it here for you.
I recently finished a book that I had picked up in the library, believing it to be a kind of grownup, female Adrian Mole – Bridget Jones with wellies on, I guess. The Desperate Diary of a Country Housewife. I anticipated amusing mishaps involving mice and attempts to pluck pheasants. I anticipated jolly japes and cultural malapropisms… Instead, the yawning chasm between Country Living idyll and hellish, wet, lonely, dilapidated nightmare chilled me to the core. The author, abandoned in deepest rural Shire by an international jet-setting husband barely functions as a mother of two (and subsequently pregnant with number three), friend, wife or even human being, for the eighteen months of their self-imposed exile. The (female) community attempts to absorb her into their carousel of lattes and ponyclub but the author feels they share little common ground…The final discovery of the wholly untouched ‘craft drawer’ and the realisation that the idyll of perfect parenthood is largely unachievable regardless of your postcode and organic surroundings, I found all too familiar…
A large proportion of Seeds & Saplings readers are, no doubt, ex-commuters or at least ex-Londoners, moving out of the Big City to the Little City for the simultaneous convenient proximity and satisfying distance. The standard S&S mother seems (by my extraordinarily unscientific guesswork) to be driven, intelligent and passionate, forever suspended in a dream of guilty cross-roads, decisions, career what-ifs and potential commuter-widow to boot. Or maybe that’s just me.
I know I’ve done little to undermine the idyll of flourishing creative housewife in this column. I wanted to take this opportunity, in my first birthday article, to set the record straight. I’ve spent the first nine months of my daughter’s life meandering in and out of bouts of blackness. Call it Post Natal Depression, call it almightily skewed expectations, call it an extended lack of sleep and a VERY active baby…
As an ex-Londoner, an ex-career girl and an ex-most-other-things, I have spent the last year ‘trying’. Trying to maintain my creativity for my own sake as well as for my daughter (‘Oh yes, I learned to bake at my mother’s knee, from as young as I can remember…’)… trying to maintain a shell-shocked marriage without leading my husband into thinking that sex (and therefore, horror of horrors, another baby) may be in the offing… trying desperately to make this life, this new version of me, this ‘Home Counties Mummy’ label sit comfortably without feeling entirely fraudulent.
It hasn’t been without its ‘moments’, nor without prescription medication, but I can honestly say that throwing myself headfirst into NCT life and, by extension, St Albans life, has allowed me to see behind the veneer. You well-turned-out mummies with the beautiful buggies and wholesome vegetables in the reusable carrier bags are all also trying. Trying to get your kids to eat. Or sleep. Or take turns on the slide. Or not thump my daughter for her umpteenth attempt to steal your kid’s ricecake.
Motherhood, indeed parenthood, is a great big conspiracy, a great big club, a great big gang, and it has taken me two thirds of my daughter’s first year to be grateful I’ve joined and not regret, in every waking moment, my unsuspecting lifetime membership.
In my experience, local mummies can be guilt-ridden, frazzled, stretched (in every, and I mean every, sense of the word) and exhausted… But they are also friendly, honest, caring, thoughtful and eager to help. And so, with that experience in mind, I hope you take my one and only suggestion for holiday fun with the requisite KILO of salt… I will be trying to do this activity too, but for now, the husband’s at work, the dinner needs cooking and my daughter’s bathtime is looming… Excuses excuses…
And that’s the activity. I have spent all year trying to be and forgotten to actually be a mum. I remind myself that washing up can wait, that laundry can hang from the radiator for another hour and that presents can be wrapped, with wine to hand, late on Christmas Eve if necessary. The house may be an utter bombsite and we’ll be having fishfingers for tea (again!), but Tilly needs to have a story read to her, a song sung, a rattle shaken, and by golly, I’m the one to do it.
I personally can’t decide if the more sparkly brooch options for sale are somewhat… gaudy??? Inappropriate…? Or am I missing the point? That is, whatever it takes to get support and raise funds: if that requires a bit of diamante then so be it…?
I do rather like this idea, though…
And so have made myself this to wear this Sunday. And I will continue to donate my £1 this year and in the years to come, safe in the knowledge that my poppy will remain safely attached to my jacket.
Anyone else going to join me? A day late and a dollar short, I know, but in time for Remembrance Sunday if not for the 11th itself.
It’s official.
She can PLAY.
And she can HAVE A GOOD TIME.
And as she takes after me (and in fairness, the Boy too, on this front) it’s not exactly tough to read her feelings…
I know they’re dens of sin, hives of bacteria and source of many a visit to A&E but, blimey, do they just knacker her out or what????
I have never been so grateful for padded scaffolding in out-of-town industrial estates…
Gotta love this cushion…screen printed on linen…
Great cotton canvas storage too!
Washed linen apron…
All of these simple, raw and fabulous textiles are available from H&M!
And these little napkins too! So cute!
Who knew??
It’s Fifty Days until Christmas.
Begin weeping forthwith.
And then dry your tears, pick up your gluestick and get making!!
If you can forgive them the ignominy of having Christmas in the summer, the Aussies at this website have got some gorgeous little crafty tutorials. Have a wander and a wonder. Pretty!
I’ve got a plan to decorate everyone’s presents this year with a Christmas ornament of some form (it started off being these birds, but will now likely be a range of bits and bobs)… and the buttons may very well contribute to this idea…
The obligatory fudge-as-present recipe I suggest here is from the Foodie Porn Star, good ol’ Nigella…I have never quite mastered the faff of sugar thermometers (truth be told, I don’t own one, but the degree of accuracy (scuse the pun) required scares me to my nougat core. Pretty packaging and vintage tins an obligatory accessorising for this giftie… Gotta love a good boot fair for that. May be worth wrapping your food in greaseproof paper in the tin, though, if you’re not sure of its sterility!
With the recent fashion focus on tunics, too, I’m going to be running up a few tops for friends as the fit and the shaping is inherently generous and therefore there shouldn’t be any embarrassing issues… I’m delighted to have already modelled what I promised to finish in time for the holidays, and indeed it has been upon my shoulders for the last TWO nights out that I have enjoyed. Boden & Toast, I salute you, and then bow to my sewing machine powers. And acknowledge my terrible photography – and forgetting to take pictures in daylight. Pictures to follow. Post to be posted. xx
The perks of blogging are by no means limited to the potential for countless devoted readers, endless riches, publishing contracts and film deals…
This summer I have been contacted by a number of individuals who have been lurking around here for longer than I could believe, sending me love and happy thoughts in amongst the grey fogs. Turns out my whinging, whining, waiting, wishing and hoping has struck a chord and I’m delighted to say that I met one of my lovely readers for the requisite Mummy latte last week (on her birthday, no less) and chatted of cakes, crochet and Calpol for over an hour. As Anne of Green Gables would say, A kindred spirit indeed.
What with the gloriously generous swops I recently participated in, on top of free luxury knitting needles, new friends and hugs sent across the ether… this world wide web may just possibly consist of a little bit more than an awful lot of dirty pictures and offers to expand your manhood. Modern technology, traditional meetings and vintage knitting. Everyone’s a winner.
Present spoilers – all SIBLINGS – LOOK AWAY NOW!!!
Are you gone???
That means you, Cate!!!!!
Another blog post about speedy craft projects has been put on hold as the subjects were overlapping, but with that thought process in mind, this first project (COMPLETED before the end of October – how much do you hate me??) has been a blinding success…
Needless to say, it will look much better on him.
Finally though, in a bid of madness, how fabulous is this project??? And by fabulous, I mean, of course, completely sodding bonkers.
From ‘Simple Knits with a Twist’ by Erica Knight… Loon.
Winter for me is all about the combination of jewel tones, wooly tweeds and sequins and beads. The unexpected spangle, the warmth of opaque tights, the layers of interesting textures…
Toast has always summed up my ideal wintery layers perfectly… And their party collection is simply scrumptious…
I have already been inspired by this to make this…(doesn’t look great here, but trust me that I’m delighted with it!!)
The attendent sparkly in their pre-holiday collection is stunning – check it out!
Stunning Alessia Dress, but not quite sure how it’s £395… Oh, maybe cos it’s silk and is detailed as Elegant dress in an opulent silk jacquard woven on a traditional narrow loom and painstakingly finished by hand.
Wool devore Lina dress for £185
Wool Aida coat comes in at £495 – probably cos all that embroidery on the STUNNING collar is done by hand. Blimey.
Scrummy Silk Velvet Tunic for £129…
(this one from Boden is £49)
Good thing I’ve got some teal silk velvet left over from a ballgown below that is simply DYING to be brought out over the winter. Watch this space…
Yum, Yum and once again, Yum.
Hello there
As you may have noticed, I have recently been trying to drag this blog, kicking and screaming, back in the direction to which it was originally directed…That is, crafty, creative, bridal, beautiful and less of the nappies and neuroses…
This has coincided with, or maybe demonstrates, a rather more uplifted spirit in these parts. My head is feeling better. My daughter is much more fun, and the days are going by in a blur of broken toys, rescued ornaments from orally fixated babies and incessant rounds of laundry… With the occasional knitting and crafting. If it weren’t for the size of her, I’d highly recommend to the powers-that-be that babies were born at this age. She’s active enough to wear herself out, she’s cheeky enough to be fun, she’s sentient enough to try her luck, but also know where the lines are being drawn (well… kinda) and… well…
The dark days are over (so it seems) and where once these lyrics filled my head, now I can’t stop humming this.
The relief is palpable…
Normal service will be resuming shortly.
And I can’t thank you all enough for sticking around and by me for the last few months. The catharsis of writing to *you* has helped more than I could ever have known.
Lovely M&S comes up trumps again…
And even the usually-vomitous Per Una has upped its game…
*Would have ALL these in my sights were it not for the fact that EVERY SINGLE ONE is made from polyester. Which my delicate sensibilities simply cannot bear (ie it makes me sweat like Niagara Falls)… Which is probably just as well… The lack of pennies and suitable invitations is too tragic to contemplate.
Ravelry swaps are now a bit of an addiction…
From Trash To Treasures was a swap that had no budget at all… The intention was to spend as little money as possible for your project – the focus was on recycling, re-using and re-purposing!
From Australia I received the most stunningly impressive parcel of goodies…
And the BEST BIT:
In the other swap, entitled Shiny Pennies, you had to spend a limit of $10, send yarn, a pressie that would be considered a shiny penny (ie a happy thought!) and a little note…
I was sent all the way from New Mexico…
Aren’t I a lucky girl??
And I have now caught the swap bug… watch this space for as many post-Christmas sign ups as I can manage…
With the crafty season fast approaching, I have been asked by a friend to suggest some formats for labels for her chutney jars that she plans to give come December…
Vintage style labels from Suzee Que
If you’re clever with Photoshop, you could amend these with your own text.
And then I just gave up altogether and got very excited about this font…
These vintage style images of courgettes (zucchinis) and tomatoes and a fruit basket of apples …
And so I made my own…
Searching images ‘Botanical Fruit’ in black and white (also works for veg of course) gets you the most wonderful line drawings that shouldn’t use up ink too much and will add just a little *something* to the labels…
On an aside, I’ve also been enjoying the glorious Making Time column…and will be showing you some crafty goodness that I’ve been working on shortly.
Now I’ve long been a fan of the stylish-yet-comfy shoes in the fashion collections of Clarks, but until this week I’d not been too much a fan of their bags. By my reckoning, there seemed to be a lot of pleather, dodgy satin evening bags and not much else…
All change for this autumn, however…
Tiara Sparkle in brown leather £59.99
Tiara Reign in tan leather for £44.99
Tiara Reign in brown mock-croc leather for £44.99
And last, but not least, Rowan Berry in yellow leather for the bargainous £14.99
Autumn Geek Chic, here I come…
In my imagination, of course… I’ve yet to sell anything of great enough significance to justify ANOTHER bag…
