When will it stop ....

RAINING !!!!! I'm sick & tired of this horrible wet weather.

And it all started off so well. The sun was shining this morning and it was lovely and warm. I managed to hang a whole load of washing out on the line before we headed out to the Suffolk Show. With it being half-term, Paul took today off work so that we could have a nice family outing.

Now it takes, on average, 40 minutes from our house to the A14 junction of the A12. After 90 minutes we finally reached that junction due to a horrendous traffic jam, only to find that the junction with the A14 was CLOSED because a stoooopid lorry had overturned on the roundabout.

So we had to turn around and come back !!! And when you've got 2 small children, one of whom is potty training at the moment, sitting in the back of the car constantly asking "are we nearly there yet", it's all you can do to stop yourself from screaming very loudly.

The sun had disappeared, but it was still reasonably warm, although overcast. After a quick wee stop (on the potty in the boot (that was Grace, not me!)) we came all the way back home and went to the local country park / farm, which was heaving with people. We managed to stay there for 2 hours (including lunch) before the heavens opened. And it hasn't stopped since. My washing, which was probably dry went we went sailing past our house on the way to the farm, is still hanging on the line, wetter than when I got it out of the washing machine this morning. The carpet in the porch is absolutely soaking because the rain is coming in under the door and has resulted in the carpet actually bubbling up and is now stopping the door from opening properly. And I'm hoping that the ceiling in the bay doesn't start leaking again, even though we replaced the flat roof, there's still a leak ! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

OK - moan and rant over - sorry.

Yesterday I covered the remainder of the buttons that I received earlier in the week and am now waiting to mug Mr Postie every day, in the hope that he's bringing me the other supplies I ordered. As soon as they get here, I'll be putting them on the website.

These spotty buttons are covered in some of the fabric from one of the dresses that I purchased at the boot fair last weekend - they look better in real life !!

In the meantime, I've listed a couple of sets of buttons on etsy, so if anyone fancies buying any and cheering me up - feel free !!!

Sarah x

I'm hooked !

Lovely Mr Postman bought me my replacement etsy parcel this morning and look what was in it

So, because it's half term I haven't had a chance to play with the cover buttons during the day and wished desperately that they could have arrived on Saturday so that I could sit all yesterday afternoon covering buttons whilst watching the rain !

But worry not, after giving the children their tea this evening I sat and cut out lots of little circles of fabric and after fiddling about a bit with the tool that came with the buttons (and a couple of botched attempts), managed to produce these ! (apologies for the poor photos, but the light was fading fast and I was desperate to get some pics to show you)

So now I'm well and truly hooked. I could sit making these lovelies all day if given half the chance. And now I can't decide whether to put the 400 blanks that are on their way to me, up for sale on my website, or just be reeeeeeeeally selfish and keep them all to myself for me to cover !! Not really - I'll still be putting them in my shop because I want all of you to get hooked too !!

I'm off to watch The Apprentice and oooooh, let me see, cover some more buttons !!

Sarah x

Boot Fair Finds

Hiya

What a gorgeous day it has been here in Essex today. Lovely and sunny and warm - sadly I don't think it's going to last, so we'll just enjoy it while we can.

Today my parents took the littleuns to see my sister down in Battle, East Sussex. So we've had a childfree day !

This morning was spent at a local boot fair. Unfortunately this little boot fair has changed quite a lot since I last visited and there were loads of traders there. I was quite surprised because it always used to advertise as "no traders" and the last time I was there it was what I would call a proper boot fair - individuals all selling their unwanted items from their cars and vans. Today, nearly half of the sellers were traders selling things like dodgy electrical goods, toiletries and light bulbs ! I was a tad disappointed, and wonder whether tomorrow might be any better. But I did manage to pick up a few bargains ...

Not the best picture in the world, sorry, but I managed to pick up two lovely white wire baskets for 50p each. I'll be using these to display some of my goodies in at craft fairs. A couple of woolly jumpers which will be felted in the washing machine and turned into something else ... when I've got time ! And 3 items of children's clothing with lovely little prints which will be used for my latest craft obsession ..... fabric covered buttons.


I've had a bit of an etsy frenzy lately and have become obsessed with fabric covered buttons, so I bought these lovely fabrics from mwendas on etsy.






Fantastic service, as they all arrived from Singapore in less than a week. Sadly the blank button supplies I bought from another etsy seller in the US to make up my buttons, seems to have disappeared into the depths of the US postal system, so the seller marymarsh has very kindly sent out a replacement. Thank you Mary - you are a star !! As soon as they arrive, I'll be good to go.

And talking of button supplies, I'll soon be stocking blank cover buttons in my webshop. I'll have 2 different sizes available and you'll be able to buy them in sets of 10. I'll let you know when they're in the shop.

I was going to post a picture of the fantastic Father's Day present that I bought from the children for their Daddy, from another etsy seller, but I've been alerted to the fact that Mr T has discovered and is now reading this blog - hello hubby xx

So, sadly, I can't post the picture or give you a link to the fantastic seller (the pressie arrived the following day after I placed the order !), until Father's Day has been and gone. Sorry !

Anyway - back to today - after the Boot Fair, Mr T and I went for lunch at a local country pub that we hadn't visited before. It was lovely to be able to enjoy our lunch outside !

After that I went down to the Lakeside shopping centre (not my favourite place in the world) in the search for a bed for our little madam. The last time I was in Ilva they had some gorgeous girly beds that I was keen to get for her. Today .... nothing !! I couldn't believe it. They only had 3 or 4 children's beds and they were all horrible. So I then trekked over to Ikea and had a wander round there (or rather a battle because it was packed) and picked up a few bits and pieces for home.

Then, on the way home I suddenly realised that an ebay auction for a button machine that I was bidding on was due to end in around 10 minutes and I was over half an hour away. So I missed out on that one - typical because it went for £41 and that was for a new machine which included over 600 button and badge pieces !! Grrrrrrrrrrr

Enjoy the bank holiday weekend (and half term !)

Sarah x

I did it !!!

26.2 miles in 9 hours and 3 minutes, and it would have been quicker if we hadn't wasted 15 minutes queuing for a loo stop only to find that the loos were broken and it would be another 20 minutes before we could use them. Also, the number of times we had to stop to cross over some very busy roads. But, I am VERY pleased with my time. Considering it took me 9 hours to do 22 miles a couple of weeks ago, I think I did a bloomin' good job !




A massive thank you to my team mates - Amanda, Emma, Alex, Sara, Jude & Lorna who all did a fantastic job in keeping us all going, particularly at the darkest hours of around 4am and the 16 mile marker.


Thank you to all the organisers of the event and the fantastic marshalls who were never ending with their encouraging comments.


And last but not least, thank you to all of my family friends who supported me in this fantastic event !


I couldn't have done it without ANY OF YOU !!


Sarah x

Roses, Roving & Raisins

Hiya

The title says it all !!

Roses - the first rose of the year has appeared in our garden.

I do love roses - I think they have to be one of my most favourite flowers. We have a lot in our garden - quite a few in the borders in the back garden and lots and lots along the fence at the front of the house, climbers and ramblers which when all open, look stunning and smell gorgeous. My favourite rose though is the wild rose that has grown through all the trees and bushes at the bottom of the garden, now when that flowers I'm a happy bunny !

Roving - YAY !! The 40 colours of wool roving are now on the website. Priced at £1.75 per 25g ball, you'll be spoilt for choice with all the stunning colours.

Raisins (you really don't want to see a photo of this !!) - my darling daughter decided to stick a raisin up her nose whilst in the back of the car on the way to Tumble Tots today. Arghhhhhh !! What will I do with that girl ?! First of all both she and I thought it was quite funny and I'm sitting here laughing to myself as I think about it. But as she realised that it wouldn't actually come out and was stuck, panic started to set in and it was no longer funny. I was travelling down a rather fast A-road at the time so had to pull over onto the grass verge and try and extract the offending article before madam started to lose the plot completely. I had visions of us visiting A&E yet again (we spent all of last Thursday morning in A&E as my little man decided to try and pull his sister up the slide, stretching her arms and causing ligament damage ! ) so spending yet another Thursday morning in A&E was not what I had been planning. I had visions of me having to go back home and get the tweezers out to try and remove the damn thing, but fortunately I managed to fiddle about with it a bit and eventually get it out. Raisins (as well as peas) are off the menu for the time being !

I'll be back next week after I've done my Moonwalk Marathon on Saturday night / Sunday morning.

Don't forget - there's still time to sponsor me - over there on the right hand side of this blog !!

Wish me luck !!!

Sarah xx

Sunny Days & Website Updates

Hello, hello, hello !!

How fantastic is this weather ? Essex has been positively basking in sunshine this last week and I'm LOVING it ! At last, the children actually want to be outside - we finished the play centre last weekend and they've spent literally hours on it. And of course with all this lovely weather it would be silly not to use the pool, so everything has been checked and serviced and is ready for the summer season. Unfortunately I didn't realise that we'd run out of oil so had to make a pleading phonecall to the fuel company and beg them to deliver some oil so that we can use the boiler to heat the pool. Sadly they can't come until tomorrow, but there was a teeny weeny little bit left in the tank so we managed to get the pool up to temperature so that we could use it today. Which was just as well because today is hubby's 40th birthday. We had a lovely day, just chilling out this morning and then friends and family round for swimming and drinks this afternoon.

So, with all this lovely weather things have been a bit slow on the website front and I haven't had time to update the site. But, I had a fantastic delivery on Friday and it contained 40, yes 40 different colours of wool roving. They're all 25g balls and will be loaded onto the site this week (my camera is playing up, which isn't really helping things at all!)

I've also had a complete restock of felt balls, along with a few new designs.

I'm now stocking handmade felt shapes - again, these will be on the site later this week.

And this book is on the way to me as we speak - if you fancy giving needle felting a go, there are some really lovely projects in this book. And of course, you can buy all of your wool roving, needles and pads etc from my site at the same time !!

If you subscribe to my mailing list you'll receive an email from me later this week once everything has been loaded onto the site as well as details of some new, very exciting items that are on order. If you aren't currently on my mailing list and want to know about the new items, then get yourself over to the home page of my website and subscribe !!

Sarah x

And the winner is ....

Ethel & Edna's tearoom !! CONGRATULATIONS !!

Please email me with your details so that I can post your bag out to you.

Bad luck to everyone else, but thank you so much for showing your support and leaving lovely comments. I really do appreciate it.

I've had a very tiring day today ... did a 22 mile training walk for the Breast Cancer / Playtex Moonwalk that I'm taking part in on the night of 17th May and am struggling big time with very sore legs and feet. If you fancy sponsoring me (pleeeeeeeeease) you can do so by clicking on the "Just Giving" link further down on the right hand side of this blog.

Thanks again for taking part in the freebie giveaway and I'll be back with a massive website update once I've recovered from today's walk !

Sarah x