A little rest

Hiya

Well, today is Sam's 5th birthday ! I know, I know - he had his party 3 weeks ago, but it was a joint party with his best friend so we had to choose a date in between the 2 birthdays. Consequently, we seem to have been in a constant state of party ever since, what with Grace's 2nd birthday on Wednesday as well. Hopefully this evening will see the end of it all and we can try and get back to some sort of normality. The house is a mess because we've been having our windows replaced for what seems like an eternity and the lounge has turned into a toy and card shop !! Added to that the fact that our boiler seems to have packed up and we have no hot water or central heating and I have a house full of wet clothes which I don't know what to do with because it's chucking it down outside !!! Arghhhhhhhh

Still, I will soon be having a little rest and Sarah time (she says) as on Thursday I am off to sunny (hopefully) Florida for a week. My parents are moving house and I'm off to help them pack up. Unfortunately I am leaving Paul, Sam & Grace at home because of school and work and know I shall miss them desperately, but I can hopefully recharge my batteries a little and come back raring to go on the run up to Christmas !!!

Talking of Christmas (sorry!) I have been starting to get some stock together and last night finished this. It'smade up of felt with button portholes and a button at the top of the mast and lovely blue rick-rack at the waves

I will be taking it to the Charity Christmas shopping event I'm doing at the beginning of November and I'm hoping it will sell. Of course, if anyone else would like one, I would happily do one for them as well - just contact me sarah @ pictureitinstitches.co.uk (just remove the spaces) - price £7 each with free postage.

I am also working on lots of yoyo hair bands for Sam's School Christmas Fair - the girls have to have their hair tied back and so I did a couple of these for one of his little friends and so many people have asked where they can buy them, that I've decided to do a whole load to sell at the Christmas fair. Pocket money priced at £2.00 each, I'm hoping lots of the little girls will want to buy them for their friends.

I just had an email from Crafts Beautiful magazine regarding their website and a new feature called "Crafty Corner News". They want to feature me and are sending me a whole load of questions for me to answer !! Hooray - more free publicity !! I'll let you know when it's published / live and you can all have a nosy ! ******UPDATE ~ the article will go live on Friday 5th October and be up on the website all weekend - www.craftsbeautiful.com ~ half way down the front page is the "Crafty Corner News" feature ******

I'll be back on the 13th October so all orders and enquiries placed through my website or this blog will be answered as soon as I get back.

See you soon

Sarah x

Yo Yos !!!

Today my Dad very kindly gave me the afternoon off work so that I could get some more sewing done for the craft fair - and this is what I made !! YO YO's. I really loved making these and have bought some buttons that you cover yourself so that I can have lovely colour co-ordinated centres on them. I've sewn brooch pins to the back, but I think the larger one will look good on a bag or maybe a belt.

Whilst I was sewing, the printer was churning away and printing my fliers for the craft fair. I need to do the packaging now !


I also got my little sewing machine back. Sadly the repair cost more than I paid for the actual machine but hopefully it will serve me well for the next year or so and once I've mastered it and am producing amazing stuff (yeah, right !) I will be able to upgrade to a different model.

Remember I mentioned rag rugs last time? Well, this is the pile of Grace's clothes that she has outgrown - I'm going to recycle them and turn them into a keepsake rag rug for her room. I can't bear to get rid of her lovely little clothes and was going to use them in my textile pictures, but then after reading ragged roses blog about how she made a rag rug from her daughter's old clothes, I decided that would be the perfect solution ! Goodness knows when I'll get round to doing it, but it will get done ... eventually.

The rain doesn't appear to be stopping, but the garden is blooming and so is this mock orange in our garden. It has the most beautiful fragrance and is perfectly sited just outside our dining room french doors - sadly, the rain is stopping us from opening the doors and having the lovely smell wafting inside, but I do keep popping outside every so often and having a sniff !


One last thing - I'm rapidly running of time for the craft fair and all of my time is spent producing stock. I need to produce some sort of banner that says Blooming Felt (I have a textile picture that says Picture it in Stitches), but nothing advertising the Blooming Felt part of me. So, I would REALLY appreciate any suggestions as to what I could do that is quick, easy and cheap and won't take too much time away from producing my much needed stock. ALL suggestions welcome .... pleeeeeeeeeeeeese !!!

Right - am off to sew more yoyos and watch The Apprentice !

xxx