A small victory!

And no, I'm not talking about Arsenal's fantabulous 5-2 win over Spurs in the North London Derby. (And once again, can I apologise to my twitter followers for any sweary  outbursts!) Instead I am referring to the fact that not only have I discovered a new craft as I promised I would here, but I have found a use for the wool tops I bought when I decided to give wet felting a try. (and have been sitting, unloved, in my craft box ever since!)
It's fair to say I have been influenced by a lot of the lovely crafters, whose blogs I read regularly, and also Kirstie Allsop must partly take the blame as well. I watched her series on different crafts in Handmade Britain just before Christmas, and she she made all the different crafts not exactly look easy, but accessible. I think that crafting can sometimes feel as though it is too difficult, or only certain people can do them, and it can be a bit off putting to the novice like me. But I have learned something, give it a go, you never know!
So one of the crafts that I saw Kirstie attempting, and have read about in the blogs too, is needle felting. I have to admit to having been put off by wet felting. I had a few attempts and never got the effect I wanted despite what seemed like hours of work. I think this negative experience made me steer away from felting full stop. But I really like the idea of making my own embellishments for paper or fabric crafts, and I have seen such lovely things made by needle felting. So I bit the bullet and purchased a kit.
Yes, I know, I promised to not buy any stash for 3 months. But can this really be counted as stash?? It is for a new craft after all!
Well it was a success! I thoroughly enjoyed making my first little piece, and I'm looking forward to making some more.I was surprised with how quickly it started to come together, not like the hours of pounding wet wool with a potato masher and a rolling pin!  Ok, it's not perfect by a long stretch, but practice makes perfect you know! And you never know, it might just inspire me to venture into wet felting again in the future.

Not a great picture, but you get the idea!

I promised you an update on Hermann's progress. Well today I split him into 4 and passed him on to 2 other people. I decided that I would keep 2 portions, one to bake now, and one to carry on the process all over again. So tomorrow me and the Flip Flop will bake one of our Hermanns, and I have had my orders about what we're going to put in to him. of course, knowing my daughter, chocolate had to feature. We're also going to add dried fruit, a lovely tropical mix actually not just raisins, but also dried papaya, pineapple and apricot. I'll let you know how he turns out!

I've also been doing a few ATCs for swapping on UK Scrappers

And I've just signed up for a Fabric tag swap... I'll probably regret that but it seemed like a good idea at the time. At least now I can attempt to needle felt some embellishments for it!

It's time again for Handmade Monday hosted by the lovely Wendy, so don't forget to check out what everyone else has been up to! Something I will be doing...just as soon as I've watched Match of the Day!

5-2. Blimey!

Til next time!

History repeating itself.

Hi folks, and welcome to the beginning of another week. We're nearly a quarter of the way through the year already. Time is certainly whizzing by! I am yet another Handmade Monday nearer to being a working mum again, but the least said about that the better really! Thanks once again to Wendy for hosting the Handmade Monday blog hop. Looking forward to reading what everyone has been up to over the last week. And here I need to make a bit of an apology. For some reason I am not always able to post comments on blogs and I don't know why. I do most of my blog reading on my ipad, and I have always been able to post without a problem until recently. I'm hoping it's just a glitch and will work itself out soon. I just wanted to tell everyone that I do read the blogs, even if I'm not always able to post a comment about them!

I don't have a lot to show this week. Last week was half term as those of you with kids will know. It was also my first half term with a term-time child, so I had a full week with both my girls for the first time since the Christmas holidays. I wanted to make the most of it. We didn't do as much as I wanted to in the end, but we did have a trip to the canal museum at Portland Basin museum and caught up with our play dough making, story book reading and dvd watching! Caoimhe loved Portland Basin. It's a really good way to spend a few hours if you are in the area. The museum covers industrial and social history of the region and is quite interactive. They seem to have set the place out with kids in mind, as there is a learning centre and a play area too, plus some of the exhibits are very 'hands on'

Twirling in a 1920's dress

Trying on hats.

It's the sort of place I would have loved to visit as a child. Definitely worth a visit!

My girl was also far more productive than I was, making a beautiful blueberry cake with grandma



I love that Caoimhe enjoys spending so much time with my mum, inevitably baking. It's something I remember doing with my grandma too, and I loved our Saturday afternoons spent making jam tarts and sponge cakes and so on. I'm so glad that my own daughters will get to do the same things that I enjoyed as a child, too.

My own contribution to Handmade Monday is a little sad and unfinished. I had hoped to get most of it completed for today, however my youngest had something to say about that, and refused to sleep last night, so I couldn't do it!

I shall reveal more when it's finished, as I know what I want to do but it just might not end up that way!

Well unfortunately afternoon naps don't last very long in this house, and I am being shouted at by a certain young lady so that will have to do for today!

Don't forget to have a look at Wendy's blog.

Til next time!

Meet Herman

Herman is a sourdough friendship cake mix that you lovingly stir and feed for 9 days and on the 10th day you split it into 4 and pass it on keeping one portion back to make your own cake. Or start the whole process off again of course!

I got mine from my dad this morning. Caoimhe was very excited and couldn't wait to get him into the bowl when he arrived!

I'm not sure what kind of cake we'll make him into yet but there are loads of versions on the internet so I'll have a good look with Caoimhe and we can decide together.

I'll keep you updated on his progress :)

Liebster Blog

I had a lovely surprise yesterday, an email from Mich at Mcrafts-the blog saying that she has awarded me the Liebster Blog award. I still find it quite mad that people choose to read my ramblings, let alone think it is worthy of any kind of recognition! Thanks very much Mich, it gave me a really big smile on my face!
(Incidentally, please give Mich a visit, as her blog is lovely and she makes some really pretty, and unusual jewellery, not to mention her crochet work too! )

The Liebster Award is given to bloggers who have up to 200 followers in the hope it will bring them new followers and friends. The tradition is that is is then passed on to five other bloggers to help them too.

To accept the award, you need to:

1 Link back to the person's blog who gave you the award and thank them (done!)

2 Post the award on your blog (done!)

3 Give the award to five fellow bloggers who inspire you (below!)

4 Leave a comment on their blogs to let them know

It really wasn't easy choosing 5 blogs from all the ones I read. So I have tried to pick the ones that inspire me most.

Liz @ iampisspot I love reading this blog, Liz is a very special lady who writes beautifully and runs a lot!

Feverpitch Be warned, he's a Gooner, and I find myself nodding with every word he writes.

Rach @ This Woman's Work Lovely lady who makes being a mum seem so easy. Really wish I was as calm at it as she is!

Little Harriet I love reading her blog, she takes things in her stride and always seems so cheerful! Oh and she makes some lovely things :)

http://chasingart.blogspot.com/ The lady responsible for introducing me to ATCs and swaps (thanks for that!) and also the lady who told me I COULD crochet (and she was right!) I love her makes, and she always makes them seem so easy.

I hope you enjoy reading these blogs as much as I do. It was really hard picking just 5, but these are my favourites.

Til next time!

This one's for Liz.

I've got a couple of things to show you this week, despite the fact that we spent some of last week in a very snowy York.



It was very pretty and Caoimhe enjoyed playing in it, but it did make getting out and about a little bit difficult!

I did manage quite a few makes this week though, mostly for the ATC and card swaps over on UK Scrappers, and a couple of which I have shared already. I also made a card for my lovely husband's birthday, which was quite simple but took me ages to make. You know when you have an idea what you want to do but it doesn't quite work out like that? Well, that's what happened to me! But this is the card I came up with in the end:

And I got my hook out with the scraps of my chunky white, and blue and green flecked wool for a quick make:

It turned out quite a bit chunkier than I thought it would, and at first I didn't like it. But it has grown on me now. Even so, I think I'll try with a lighter wool and see what effect that gives.

I'll be linking up this week with Wendy of course for Handmade Monday, and I've also recently discovered Serenity You, so I am linking up there as well. Lots of lovely and inspiring blogs to read through this week!



Before I go this week I want to just use my blog to introduce you to a very special lady who is doing some amazing things.

Liz Goodchild.  

I am in total awe with this lady, she has been raising money for Mind for a good while now, and this year she is taking on an astounding (and slightly bonkers if you ask me!) feat of running in 4 races in 4 cities. Her reasons for doing so are very personal. Mental health and illness is such a huge taboo in this country, we shy away from talking about it, and yet it can , and does, devastate lives. Please spend just a few minutes reading Liz's blog where she explains what she is doing, and why, and if you can donate just a couple of quid, share her request and story on your blog, Facebook page, Twitter, whatever, then that would be amazing.

This is her Just giving page if you would like to make a donation.

You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter and get in touch with her if you want to ask her anything about the races and her fundraising at 4races4cities@gmail.com

Thank you for sparing the time to read!

Til next time!

ATC - Hello Flower!

I've really started getting into the swing of ATC swaps. I'm finding it fun and a challenge do create a piece of art on such a small canvas. It's also a great way to fullfill my little promise to use only what's in my stash or what I can get for free for the next 3 months.

 UK Scrappers have an ongoing ATC swap and this is one of the ATC'S I made for it. Once again I've used offcuts of paper I might otherwise have thrown, as well as some flowers that came inside a quid bag of scraps from  the pound shop. I printed the greeting from the computer, it is 2012 after all and I am sure I can class printer ink as a mixed media! In any case I'm now on the unpaid bit of maternity leave so I really can't justify buying stamps just at the moment!

In other, more domestic, news I'm rediscovering the joys of weaning. I really thought I was going to have to really push Teaghan to have solids as she showed no interest at all, but we're going great guns now. We've thankfully got past the puree stage and this week we're getting on with finger foods quite well. I was anxious to give Baby Led Weaning a really good try from day 1 this time but it didn't happen, she was just a little bit too young I think. But we're now starting to get there and so far she's tucked into pancakes, potato cakes, toast and biscuits.

I'm enjoying watching her exploring new textures and tastes. And if I'm honest it's so much easier than whizzing everything for her. But if I do have a complaint it's that no-one seems to have cottoned on to it as a way to feed kids. I'm not talking about mums here I'm talking about the thousands of eating establishments around. I did notice this with Caoimhe too. You can buy food for babies in puree form or the child's meal which is suitable in size as well as content for kids of about 3-5 and up, but for the littlest ones ... Nowt. I used to share my meal with Caoimhe if we went out but that meant I had to order something suitable for her too. It looks like I'll be doing the same with Teaghan.

So come on all you foody types get catering for the 6-24 mths old. A nice range of finger foods for their lunch. Surely it wouldn't be too much hard work!

Til next time!

Recycled ATC!

Another week has flown by and once again I'm linking up with Wendy for Handmade Monday. You can find her blog at  1st Unique Gifts and as usual there are plenty of other bloggers linking up with their crafty blogs,  all well worth a visit. Handmade Monday is now a year old too! Well done and thank you to Wendy for hosting it :)

This week I wanted to show an ATC I made for the ATC Trail on  ukscrappers . I made it from offcuts and recycled bits and pieces as part of a stashbusting promise to myself to not buy any more papercrafting supplies for 3 months and to just use what I have and what I can get for free.

The stars are leftover from some Christmas cards I made with Caoimhe, we sponged silver paint on to paper and cut out stars with my Big Shot. The paper I used is all off cuts I originally got in a pound bag in the pound shop and I stamped the word star onto a scrap piece of paper I might have thrown away once upon a time.

I hope the recipient enjoys it :)

Til next time!