Shameless Folksy plug!

I apologise for the totally shameless plug, but I have finally updated my poor neglected Folksy shop. There are only 3 new items (the cushions below) but hey - you have to start somewhere. Hopefully more to follow soon, including some baby pram quilts.

Run, run as fast as you can...

If you had asked me a year ago if I would ever get up at 7am on a sunday to go for a run I would have said NEVER in a million, trillion years! I am naturally a night owl, I can easily stay up reading till midnight and am a groggy mess in the mornings.
But fast forward one year and that is exactly what I am doing. On Sundays and a couple of days in the week I am up at 6am and out running along the beach.
Joining me in this madness is my lovely best pal Vicki and her crazy dog Megan.
Luckily they live next door, so we don't have far to meet before we head off.
The craziest thing about this early morning running is... I  love it.
I love being on the deserted beach so early in the morning, just the occasional dog walker passing you by (and the strange man with his metal detector who is always there, no matter what time our run is!).
I love being up when most people are still tucked up in bed.
I love the company, we still manage to chat even when we are gasping for breath.
I love the feeling that I have achieved something good for the day, before it has even properly started.
I love our sleepy children waving at us from the windows to welcome us back.
I love the idea of getting a bit fitter.
I love that it's free!
I can't recommend it enough (as you can probably gather), although I do keep thinking 'Why didn't I do this years ago?'

Mind the gap

Another post, what already? I know! I can't believe it either! The reason is something special that happened in our house this evening. My 6-nearly-7 year old son has had a wobbly tooth for a few weeks now and it was really wobbly today, so I felt the need to photograph his mouth, with all his baby teeth, as I was wondering if it might fall out at school!

The tooth obviously had other ideas as less than an hour later after his bath, the little blighter went and fell out! There was a frantic search on the floor and a bit of blood which freaked F out a little, but once that stopped he was the proud owner of a lovely new gap!

I was so excited for him as I think he is one of the last in his class to lose one of his teeth and lots of them have shiny, new grown up teeth already.

He was also excited to use one of these!

He'd picked this one out when I made a batch of them a while ago, so we had a bit of a hunt for this too. Luckily we found it and he has gone to bed very excited tonight.

I wonder what the going rate is for the tooth fairy these days?

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!

Binding

I had another commission from my lovely friend Laura for a baby quilt - this one was for a 1st birthday present , so I made it a little bigger than the pram quilts that I normally make.  I changed from using the pillowcase method and decided to make the backing bigger so that I could use it as a binding on the front. It was really satisfying to do and made the quilt look much more finished.

Laura was really pleased with it, she especially loved the vintage duvet cover I had used for the backing! I love that fabric, I still have quite a bit left thankfully. I was quite pleased with it too. I am hopefully going to try and make some more as it would be good to have them for my Folksy shop (sorry, poor neglected shop - I think a sale is due soon and lots of new things!).

I also had a commission for doll with a crown for a birthday - hopefully they liked her.

I got some new labels a few weeks ago (as seen in my new blog header), which was very exciting - my last ones had pink text, but I decided to go a bit more simple and use grey. A bit more simple to go with 'Simply' H. Next on the list is a new logo....err if I ever get round to it, I have been meaning to do that for a couple of years now!

Adding some colour

The walls in our lounge have been blank since we decorated about 2 years ago. Just plain old white, with a mirror on one wall.  Much as I love these smooth,white walls, I have been longing for some sort of artwork up there.  I have some nice photos to put up eventually but with regards to artwork, me and L just don't seem to agree on anything. Plus when money is tight, it seems outrageous to spend money on something like a picture.

But eek...we both saw this Whitstable Oyster picture in a shop in town and HAD to have it. We both loved it! It was cheaper than we expected, but way out of our price range!  Luckily I sold a quilt to a friend and some bits in Taking the Plunge - so had some money to put towards it. Although the money should probably have gone on something more worthwhile - you know what, we love it so much that is was money well spent as I LOVE looking at it on the wall. It makes me smile. Sometimes you just have to treat yourself, don't you! (it's not original by the way, it is painted by a local artist onto wood - copied from an old postcard!)

I have been busy making lately. Some of the bits I have in Taking the Plunge include these new cushions.

I have already sold the little Union Jack one.  I have also had quite a few orders via friends for bags, dolls and another baby quilt - which I will show and tell another time.  I will leave you with a gorgeous embroidered table cloth that I got in one of the charity shops in town the other week.  I just love it, I can't wait to use it on the table at the next craft fair I do and am going to be on the look out for more as I think they would make lovely cushion covers - although I think they would have to be ones with marks as I am not sure I would have the heart to chop them up!!

Ps Yes I know I am not being very topical today and commenting on the fact that the UK has a new Prime Minister, David Cameron - I just can't really be bothered to go into it! Let's see what this lot get up to shall we!