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If you ask me what my very favourite thing is I would not hesitate to say my family. I came into motherhood quite late on, and was immediately overwhelmed with how amazing it is. Now I would like nothing more than to be a Domestic Goddess, and surround my family in love, good food, beautiful things and lots of happy memories. And like the majority of families these days, we need to do it on a budget!

I firmly believe we all have a little bit of the Domestic Goddess inside us, just waiting to break out. Whether that is knowing how to make a roast chicken feed a family of 4 for a week, being able to make, repair or recycle clothes, hunting down a bargain, or simply turning everyday, simple things into pretty or useful items, with a little bit of imagination we can all dip in to the Goddess inside and make our lives that little bit more interesting.



I hope you enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy sharing my (challenging) journey into Domestic Goddessness!



Sunday, November 13, 2011

A bit of a begging blog!

Here we are again, another week closer to Christmas! I hope you are getting yourselves organised for the Big Day?
Another week means another Handmade Monday over on Wendy's blog, and of course I am linking up with other lovely crafty bloggers again. Don't forget to have a wander over there, there are some really nice blogs showcased there, and you never know, you might find some great ideas for Christmas gifts for your loved ones.



Before I get on to this week's craftiness, I want to make a little request. As many of you know, I have polycystic ovary syndrome and I belong to a fantastic support network and charity, called Verity. I have blogged about PCOS before here so I shan't bore you with the details again. However those of you who are my Facebook friends will know that last week was PCOS Awareness week. In celebration of that, and to do my own little bit for awareness I wanted to dedicate a bit of my blog this week to Verity. I've told you about Verity before. They do a fantastic job of bringing information to the public domain, and offering advice and support to ladies with the condition. They are also involved in research into the disease.Unfortunately despite affecting millions of women it is not a well known condition, and receives little financial support. and there is a real threat that the website and forum will not be able to continue without donations. We are all too well aware of other charities out there and I'm sure that the majority of you will donate to one or more of these charities. All I'm asking is that you take a few minutes to read the Verity website and consider just for 1 month making a donation to Verity instead of your usual charity. They desperately need to raise £5000 by the end of the year. You can find the Verity blog here so you can see how they are getting on. Thank you.

On to crafty things and I was asked last week to make some Christmas cards for my mum and step dad to give to the sponsors of the brass band they are involved with. It was my first 'commission' and I was very excited! I was asked to make 11 cards, and the only remit was that I had to include a musical theme somewhere. It didn't take me long to find some vintage music on Ebay, and as soon as I had decided on that as my backing paper, the rest slotted together. I added some Christmas trees die cut from mulberry paper and some 'Merry Christmas' ribbon for the greeting. They were pleased with the end product, so job done I think! Can't exactly give up the day job, but it was very satisfying to make them.


This week I will be spending my time and creative energy making a cake for the Flop's third birthday. I can't believe she is 3 this week, I have no idea where that time has gone! All being well I should have a photo of a successful birthday cake to show you. If it doesn't work as planned, I know there's a Hungry Caterpillar cake in the supermarket she quite liked the look of...

Til next time!

18 comments:

Donna Mosley said...

Gorgeous card Helen, love the fab design and cute little xmas trees.

Donna x

Jam Dalory said...

Love the card and can't wait to see the birthday cake! I don't know much about PCOS but after reading this i'm going to make the time to have a read of the Verity website. x

Unknown said...

Knowing several women who suffer from this, am going to introduce them to the Verity website... it is definitely another condition that people do not understand. Not an easy condition to live through.

Now, I want to find out what the music is on your Christmas card, which is really lovely. :)

Carolee Crafts said...

Lovely card, well done and good luck with your PCOS awareness.

Christmas Pie Crafts said...

Lovely card Helen - Mulberry paper makes lovely trees, doesn't it? Good luck with promoting PCOS awareness.

Caroline Lovis (Redneedle) said...

OOooooh a commission, how exciting. I love music paper and I think it is esp. apt at Christmas time, although I appreciate why it was requested for these lovely cards

Unknown said...

Hi helen
Hope you popover the first linky party ~ only a test one ~ real thing 1/12!
Lesley

Penny said...

What a lovely card, love the effect of the musical paper. Great that you are raising awareness of such a good cause.

Kat Shenton said...

I LOOOOOOOVE that card :) I'm a bit of music geek (or is that school band geek) so when I see manuscript I get all sentimental and excited. Sad isn't it. Great post!

Jan said...

Great cards, I think the musical paper is very effective, I love the colours.

I think it's great that you are raising awareness about this condition, it's not something I have suffered from but I will certainly pop over and check it out.

Jan x

CarolC1 said...

Sorry I am late leaving a comment but I have to change all my details to be able to post on your and one other so I save it till I can do you both at once. I wonder if that makes sense as I am rambling again. Lovely you have been asked to make those special cards for them band. They look terrific, I am certain they will be over the moon with them. We have PCOS in the family so I would like to support you but as I have only done quilts and cards lately I don't have anything ready and my cards are not good enough. I will have a sort out and see what I can come up with.

Helen said...

Thanks for your lovely comments ladies x
Ros - definitely show them the verity website, it was a brilliant source of advice and info when i was diagnosed, in fact they know more than most medics i think!

Carol - thank you lovely, they aren't asking for handcrafted items atm tho, only money but you know what you gave me an idea. They generally hold a conferwnce every year maybe they could have a few craft stands there too to help with raising funds...? If there are enough people in the crafting community who would get involved maybe we can think of a unique way they can help raise some money.
I meant to mention as well that they sell pins and bracelets too. My husband wears a bracelet (they are the colourful rubbery ones) and i have a pin.

June said...

Nice interpretation of music, lovely cards. Good luck with PCOS cause.

Handbags by Helen said...

Can't wait to see the cake! Will pop over to the verity blog this evening.

CATHY DANIEL said...

We have a lot of musical people in my family so these cards would be ideal! What a great idea - they are so effective. Just been drooling over all your foody pictures in your previous posts - yumm!

fatmonica said...

Love the card.Glad to see it all came together so well.

Your Friend Susie said...

Love that Christmas card and the musical theme. Beautiful. And three years old? Where does the time go? I don't know, I'm sure. Of course, it goes very very quickly, wherever that is. Treasure it tho. :)

Wendy said...

Love the card - really effective use of the sheet music behind the trees.