A blogging break...

Somehow I seem to have had nearly a months break from blogging.

It has been a lovely time filled with weddings and birthdays  - the downside is that I now feel I have to play catch up!  So very briefly...

We had an amazing time at our fantastic friends and neighbours wonderful wedding (where our little D was a proper little dancing diva - up until 11.15pm dancing with all the grown ups - so hard core she got blisters!!) The bride Vicki looked just gorgeous, like a 30s' film star.



I brought this card from a Folksy shop, Storeystore? Something a bit like that anyway!

The day after the wedding was my 3(mumble mumble) th birthday. Luckily I managed to wake up hangover free and we had a lovely day wandering around Rochester (a birthday tradition it seems - we did the same last year!) followed by lunch at Frankie & Benny's which was lovely.

I was a very spoilt lady and my husband got a me a gorgeous silver necklace from a shop I had suggested on Etsy (I emailed him a link of 5 or 6 possible necklaces and let him choose from there!).

The man did good.

I really love it.

I'm not a big jewellery person. I used to wear lots of silver jewellery, rings on nearly every fingers and I still have 5 holes in each ear from my art student days. But now I just wear my wedding and engagement rings and really wanted a simple and classic silver necklace. Thanks Lols, I love it!

He also picked me out this book...

Which is just brilliant and a lovely suprise. I don't have pics of all the other presents I got but I was a very lucky girl!

I have been busy sewing this last week, I've signed up for a Christmas Market in a couple of weeks so am busy making cushions and things. Pictures to come.....

I'll leave you with this window pane/breathe picture of me by D - so sweet I had to take a picture!!

Inspiration

It's been a busy couple of weeks for us with 91st birthdays...

and a brilliant Hen party for the lovely Vicki...

But whilst I haven't been eating cake and drinking far too much I've been getting all inspired by these gorgeous books that were rescued by the Taking the Plunge ladies from a local boot fair and are on display in the shop.

Such beautiful and amazing collage illustrations.

I think this girl with her umbrella is my favourite!

What's been inspiring you lately?

Little stitches

Thanks so much for all the comments in the last post. It really meant a lot, so thank you.

Just a quick post after all your nice comments I thought I would update on F's cut.

So after the horrible accident and the horrific trip to hospital, he didn't complain once all week about the tape and stitches on his face and thankfully the cut didn't seem to hurt him at all - must be my pain threshold obviously, and not my husbands!

He had one nice day off of school letting the cut heal a bit and setting a train set up in the garden and settling himself down to watch it go round and round.

Then he was back to school and totally fine. The white butterfly stitches fell off on Sunday revealing the cut and other stitches underneath, which looked pretty scary to me. I was dreading the stitches coming out, which happened yesterday.

But my little boy amazed me again. Thanks to Nurse Viv, who was lovely and a true expert she managed to get them out without a whimper.

There was a bit of a scab half hanging off this morning, but the boy has far more patience than me as I would have been picking at it non-stop, but he has left it totally alone!

The Doctor did a lovely job sewing up (her hand sewing if far better than mine!) and I do think he will only have a small scar. 

Once it has healed a little more I was thinking of getting some Bio-oil for it - unless anyone out there has any other creams/ointments they can reccommend to fade facial scars?

Thanks again - hopefully my next post will be something a bit more cheery!

Ps Totaly unrelated but I couldn't resist putting it in, the picture below shows D dressed up for her space day at school - she decided she had to go as an Alien!

Harry Hill and coffee mornings

It has been a busy old week for us and a good one.

We don't go out that much, as is the case when you have small kids and not much money! But a few months ago I treated us to some tickets to see Harry Hill at our tiny little Playhouse Theatre in Whitstable. Harry Hill has a holiday home here and had a week long stint at the Playhouse, which was very exciting. I always hope that I will see him around town, but without those glasses, big shirt collars etc I would think he looks very different!

Needless to say, we had a fantastic time and thought he was completley hilarious. He always gives me belly laughs on TV burp, and live he was just as funny - a bit more random. In between jokes he would suddenly start sining Lady Ga Ga's Bad Romance and other songs!

I also did a bit of making  this week- anyone bored of cushions yet! They are all I seem to make at the moment, but more sold already. I really must make some for my poor, neglected Folksy shop, which incidently has just one item in it, as it was so neglected I failed to realise the date had run out for my other listings and they were all de-listed! One of these days I will add more.

Today it was finally the Charity coffee morning organised by my friend Vicki. She had put in so much hard work, it was such a pleasure to be part of it  - we were all very proud of her as she made so much money! The raffle had some amazing prizes, one of which was a gorgeous handmade apron by a local lady Karen Mansfield - which I won! (the red gingham on the picture below).

I donated one of my mermaid dolls and Me plus Molly had donated a gorgeous clutch bag. There was also a cake stall for which we had all made cakes - the table was bare by the end of the morning!

That is is for now, as we are off for a BBQ at Vicki's now to celebrate a successful morning (and yes, to watch the first England game in some little football tournament that seems to be taking place at the moment!).

Cakes, makes and bits and bobs

It's been a while since I last posted, so this post is going to be a little catch up!

First we had a the christening of our lovely neighbours little sweet pea. Her mum Vicki is a very clever lady and made her christening cake herself - she came to our house to ice it and ended up with a little helper, our little D who LOVED helping Vicki cut out butterflies and covering them with edible glitter.

Thank you Vicki for letting her help and for also giving her a mention at the christening! Here is the finished cake and the maker and her helper!

Talking of Vicki, please take a look at her blog where you will find details of a coffee morning she is organising in Whitstable this coming Saturday 12th June. She has organised it to raise money for Cancer Research and The Pilgrims Hospice, so if you are local or nearly local and fancy coming into Whitstable for the day, do pop into St Alphege Church on the High Street to support her. If you fancy leaving a link on your blog too, I am sure she would be grateful!

Now for one of my favourite subjects - fabric. I took delivery this week of a parcel from one of our relatives who lives in Germany. They have just brought a new house there and it seems the old resident loved sewing as in the loft they found all sorts of needles and fabric. I think lots of it had got damp, but I was sent lots of the best bits, which are quite small, remnants and samples, but perfect for making my baby patchwork quilts.

I loved this one! I have already cut lots of squares out ready to be made into something else.  I do like to use vintage and second hand fabrics for my little quilts. They add a little history and life to them I think!

I have managed to fit in a bit of making over the last few weeks  - a few cushions, but I need to make more as I have sold all of the ones I took to Taking the Plunge, hurrah! I also had an order for this beach hut bag from a friend (I know you read my blog sometimes S, so hello!!), modelled by that same little helper again!

Although the weather was a bit up and down this week during half-term, we managed to pick a good day to go to Druidstone with Nanny. It's a nice very little animal park just up the road, good for a wander round for a couple of hours. We also had a little picnic at the  Tower Hill Tea Gardens, which was lovely.

If you are ever in Whitstable and fancy it is worth a visit. There are fantastic view over the Estuary, beautiful gardens and a little cafe (ok, more like hut!) where you can get a cuppa or an ice-cream.  Just walk along the beach towards Tankerton, go past the Hotel Continental and the public loos and up the steps at the side and there at the top you will find them!

Phew! this ended up being a long and bitty post. I am sure I have bored anyone reading to tears by now, so I think it is time to go and make sure I have everything ready for the hectic school run in the morning!

Fun at the beach

Had a lovely catch up with my friend Zoe on Wednesday. She came for a trip to the sea with her 2 youngest Lily and Max. The reasons we met - Felix and Darcie, whom we were pregnant with when we met at NCT classes 6 years ago, were both at school - well, Felix was actually on a school trip to the Natural History Museum.
It is so nice catching up with friends, especially ones we don't see so often nowdays.

Ahh, don't they look sweet. Never too shy to pose for the camera is our Daisy (on the right!)

A seaside fair - lots of pictures!

Well, the sun was shining and when the sun shines in Whitstable, it means our little town gets very busy indeed. And, thankfully, lots of the seaside visitors, and local folk decided to come along to the fair!

There were stalls a plenty, with so many different and beautiful goods for sale.

I mananged to take a few photos here and there, but not as many as I would have liked!

Many thanks to all the brilliant stallholders who made such an effort with their stalls and to all the lovely customers who came along for a browse and a shop. It was a very busy day and non-stop in the morning. Sales eased off a bit in the afternoon, as I think most people had disappeard to the beach! But we still had a steady stream of people.

Everyone said that they had a really good day, there was a lovely, friendly atmosphere in the hall and all of the stallholders were really busy and people were actually spending money! They all did really, really well.

Emily and Jacquie above sold lots of their spotty cushions. They had come all the way from Surrey, so I really appreciate you travelling so far and hope you had a good day.

It was so lovely to meet some new crafty people, especially Kirsty above (hiding!) from me plus molly who I have met through the blog! I hope you had fun too Kirsty, it was really nice to meet you and I am so glad you did really well.

My lovely mum was there with all her knitted baby things.

And this was my stall. I did really, really well at the fair. Not only did I really enjoy the day, make some new friends, but I also made more money than I have ever made at a fair before!

Thank you to all my very nice family and friends who made a real effort in coming along, and for buying lots of things too.

I also did a live interview on BBC Radio Kent, which was pretty scary but ok! I had to run and hide outside the hall so that nobody would see me blushing whilst I did it! I knew my nan, who couldn't come, was listening so I said hello to her on air which I think she really liked! It lasted about 3 minutes the interview and was fine once I got into it, not too bad.

Phew, it's all over now.

Time to start thinking about planning the next one on the 12th December now........................... well, maybe not just yet!

Boot fairs and pre-fair nerves!

I have finally found 5 minutes to do a very quick post!

I have been very busy the last week getting all the final bits and pieces sorted out for the fair on saturday...eeek! can't believe it is only a couple of days away now.

I managed to squeeze in a boot fair on sunday morning with my friend and next door neighbour Vicki - the lovely lady with the bump in the picture below! I know you look at my blog sometimes Vicki, so I had to put you on here! We didn't make very much, but got rid of some old bits and I did give out lots more craft fair flyers. I also caught the sun a bit too much as after the fair I went on a door-to-door flyer delivering mission!

I am just about there with all the organising now! Gradually I am crossing things off of my huge to do list! I have got some brilliant stallholders for this fair and I am very excited to see what everyone has made and how it all looks together. Kirsty from Me plus Molly will be there with her gorgeous textile pieces, I can't wait to see what she has made. Also taking part are Butterfly Cottage Ceramics, Jane Bourne from The Cloth Hall and Kerry Mayo with her beautiful photographic prints of Whitstable and the local area.

There are obviously lots of other talented people taking part, but they don't have blogs or websites to link to. If you have a look at this post, from the Christmas fair I organised last November, you can get a taste of what treats are in store! (Although not all of those pictured were able to come this time).

Organising fairs is always a bit of a panic, especially when you get a last minute cancellation! My poor friend who was making and running the cake stall has fallen down the stairs and hurt her back, I hope she is ok but sadly it means she has had to pull out today. I haven't been able to find another cake maker who can produce cakes quickly enough for the fair, which is a huge shame. Luckily, underneath the hall is a cafe with a lovely garden, so nobody will go hungry!

I am also going to have to do something on Saturday that I am petrified about! I have listed the fair on lots of websites, including the bbc kent one. I got a call yesterday from a lady at BBC Radio Kent asking if someone could call me on Saturday morning for a 1-2 minute chat about the fair - where it is, what time etc etc. Err, yes please - but oh my god I am scared!!! I am sure I will sound like a bumbling idiot, but I couldn't turn it down could I! Hopefully it will bring some more people along anyway.

Well fingers, legs, etc crossed that all goes well - I will post with some pictures next week!

At least we have the weather on our side on Saturday anyway!