2014 Catch Up - Baking

One thing for sure is that we're never short of baked goods in our house.....

Zebra cake, sun-dried tomato and mature cheddar cheese bread, baked dough nuts, victoria sandwich cake and Miss E's marshmallow bread and choc chip bread...

...dirt cakes, strawberry tea loaf, bread rolls and another victoria sandwich cake...

...and most importantly a bowl cleaner outter!!

2014 Catch Up - Sewing

There have been several sewing project this year already.....

Dino themed cushion and drawstring bag for a 4 yr old friend of mine who loves nothing better than to play dinosaurs and go raaaaaaaagh!!!

Miss M had a bedroom makeover and we had great fun choosing fabrics for me to make into curtains and cushions...the turquoise polka dot is the main fabric and looks lovely and fresh in her room.

I have also got my sewing supplies into some sort of order, just look at those lovely threads and ribbons and two new pin cushions, one for my wrist and one for my machine....both are very handy and much used already.

A red polka dot top and belt for me, a yellow ditsy print vest top for me and gathered skirt for Miss E and a grey patterned pleat top for me.  

Then I found this lovely bow print dress in the charity shop although it didn't look much like this when I bought it but with a bit of the left over polka dot fabric it's had a lovely make over.  The navy floral top was also a charity shop find but it was a long unflattering smoke like dress until I got my scissors out and chopped it into a top for me and refashioned the chopped off part into a top for Miss E...must try not to wear them at the same time...far too twee!

I really should take before as well as the after photos!

This fleecy rug was a birthday gift for my sis...Sarah's cosy cup of tea rug...more of that red polka dot fabric coming into play here for my appliquéd teacups.

Denim Corsage Brooches

Now jeans are quite a staple in our house....Mr A wears smart jeans pretty much every day at work, Miss M is as happy as a pig in mud in her jeans, Miss E likes a pair of skinnies and a girlie top and I like a denim skirt and boots combo.  So all in all, we create quite a lot of worn out or grown out of denim which I was sure could be put to good use and so created these Denim Corsage Brooches.

Each one is different even if I create the same design several times due to the colour and thickness of the denim.  These ones below were born from a friend's cast off pair of Levis.

The petals of the two below are from a pair of my old Monsoon jeans and the centres are from a pair of Miss M's Gap ones.

I love how each one has a history and that it's having a second moment of glory in another form.

The circular corsages with large buttons (below) layer several types of denim together.  As much of the denim I have has a element of stretch, I have pulled the outer edges of these circular flowers to help give the flower a bit more texture and dimension.  I'm a bit fan of letting the denim fray as well so I'm purposely quite brutal with how I handle the fabric to help encourage the fraying.

 The five petal flowers are mounted on felt to give them a bit more body and strength and I have played about with teal, navy and red felt....ah now which one is my favourite?

Pom Pom Garlands

No snow here yet and it's not baring well for a white Christmas so these pom pom snowballs may be the closest we get to the real thing for the time being.

I find pom poms so addictive to make and so simple....the perfect TV accompaniment as I can watch and wind.

I have both the white and red versions up in my house at the moment.  The white one hanging with some delicately cut paper snowflakes and the red ones on my dining room mantle piece with twigs with red berries and pine cones.

I love this bluey grey garland so much and might well put this one up properly in the New Year once the Christmas decorations have come down.

Toowit Toowoo!

I'm taking a risk here, as it's my Mum's Birthday and this is the cake I've made for her...only thing is that I'm not seeing her until tomorrow evening....aaargh!  Don't look Mum!!

As you can see in this photo, the cake is all made from individual cup cakes.  I arranged them in the shape I wanted on the tray first and then iced each one individually before filling the gaps between the cakes with the icing.

I also put a little bit of icing on the bottom of each cake to help them to stay in place on my tray especially as they have to survive a car journey.  I don't want those little owls slipping and sliding about!

I hope you like it  Mum...Happy Birthday xx

Pom Pom Flowers

You might remember last month I'd shared this picture of a bag of pom poms I'd made in deliciously, soft,dusty, pastel colours with the idea that I'd make them into flowers...and now I have done just that.

I was so impatient that I took the photos as soon as I'd put the flowers in the vase rather than waiting till morning when I'd have lovely natural daylight,  so unfortunately there are some rather horrid shadows and the focus is a bit blurry!  Hopefully you can see through these misgivings to the gorgeous soft, fluffy pom poms. 

The twigs are from the trees in our garden so there's some lovely recycling in this creation as well.

Following on from the robins I felt I just had to hit the snow effects again...it's just too tempting!!

Candy Coloured Flower Clips

I remember as a child being told that red and pink simply don't go together...it's just not the done thing.  Well I guess one of the benefits of being a grown up is that you can bend the rules a little...or in this case, completely throw out the rule book and create a new one where red and pink can live in perfect vibrant harmony.

Each one of these clips will be ever so slightly different as not only did I stray off piste with the colour rule book...I did the same with my template.  I made a rough flower shape template but then let my scissors run a little loose in their own way.

Which one is your favourite?  I just can't decide but I do love the teal one with the light blue inner and the red flower with the pink inner.....and the pink flower with the red inner for that matter too...yep still can't decide!

Little Robins

So we're in November now and although I'm not ready to be all Christmassy yet, I have been busy creating these little winter robins to perch on your tree...tweet tweet!

As always I design and draw my templates by hand and then use them to cut out my pieces of felt and fabric.

A lovely pile of paired up little red tummies and brown flappy wings.

These birdie shapes are ready to have their little black brad eyes, lovely, plumb, red tummies and flappy wings sewn into place.

Then at the end I have a very satisfying pile of cut offs ready to go into my scraps box ready for when I need tiny bits of fabric and felt.

I just couldn't resist the Winter Wonderland section on PicMonkey any longer...I can see snowy overlays coming on everything from now on!! Brrrrrrr

More pom poms

Who doesn't love a pom pom?  Well we certainly do here.  I mentioned the other day that over the summer Miss M, Miss E and I had our very own back garden Pom Pom Workshop 

Well that was just the start of it.  Since then, I've been a busy bee with my natty Clover pom pom device cooking up these little beauties.

I don't want to say too much yet but I'm going to create flowers using these soft dusty shades ...

....and these red and white ones are going to make lovely Christmas Pom Pom Garlands.

You may have spotted some rogue blue ones who have snook into this bunch, well they are destined for a garland for my breakfast room at some point soon.

Chirpy chirpy cheep cheep

"Last night, I heard my mama singing a song, 
Ooh-we, chirpy, chirpy, cheep, cheep"....oh 70s music hey!

Well meet my little chirpy chirpy birdie.  I've been playing around with this idea in my head and on paper for a while but hadn't got around to making it until now.

I'm planning on making this little birdie some friends.  I think a sunny lemon yellow canary bird would be very cheery.  

I have a stack of twigs collected from our garden just waiting to have little birdies perched on them.

I'm not sure this little birdie is singing "chirpy chirpy cheep cheep"....she looks rather sleepy.

And just in case you were wondering...Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep was a number one hit for Middle of the Road in 1971 and sold over 10 million copies world wide..."Where's your mama gone? Where's you mama gone?....."