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!

Handmade Monday and a little plug.

I think it must be true what they say about time flying by once you have kids. On Thursday my gorgeous Teaghan Alice will be 6 months old! It really only seems like 5 minutes since I was telling you all in this post that she had finally arrived. And now she is getting so big, and I will soon have to leave her to go back to work. Booooo.

(and just so she doesn't feel left out, here's a recent one of my other gorgeous girl, Caoimhe Rose )

So every time I update my blog, and tell you it's time again for Handmade Monday I know I'm getting one more Monday nearer to the end of my maternity leave, and one Monday nearer to being a working mum again.

However, it also means I get to have a good look round other people's blogs and see what they've been up to as well!

On the making front I've been a bit slack for the last few days. I've not been feeling so great thanks to the Snot Fairy visiting, so not done an awful lot. I have managed a couple of hats,though, including a design for the boys - what do you think?:



I've also been toying with a few other ideas, as well as spending a fair bit of time on UK Scrappers, all in the name of research you understand, looking for some inspiration for papery type projects, and looking to get into some swaps, too. I managed to get myself some lovely chunky baby yarn on Friday, in that mad, mad weather we had in Manchester, and I shall hopefully be making something out of it in the next week or two. I'd like to say it won't be hats, but it probably will be! I've updated on my Facebook page and you can see pics of the yarn I bought on there too!

As well as linking up with Wendy again this week, I also wanted to share a couple of other links with you. These blogs are by some of my lovely mummy friends over on Verity. and definitely worth a read so please pay them a visit of you have a few minutes spare:
Rach at This Woman's Work shares life as a twinkie mummy, and Hilary at Bishopston Mum is a full time mum who shares ideas of places to go and things to do in/near Bristol with your kids. Naomi at Mrs B's Blog isn't a mummy yet, but I really hope she is one day soon! And Beth at My Name is Beth often has really informative posts about parenting type things. All are worth a look.

Well that's it for me for now. Til next time!

ATC Trail - Little star

I thought it was about time I entered an ATC swap as I've been threatening to do one for a while but not got round to it.

So this is my contribution to the ATC trail on Ukscrappers  www.Ukscrappers.co.uk

Purple is my favourite colour and I had some purple glittery paper from an off cuts pack that I've been wondering what to for with it for a while.

So the adventure begins...

Morning everyone, how has Monday come around again so quickly? It feels like the weekend was over in a blink!
Once again Wendy is hosting Handmade Monday over on her blog, and I will be joining her of course. It's lovely to catch up with everyone and see what they have been up to over the week.

Last week there was a little bit of interest in my phone's retro camera app. I really enjoy using it and have taken loads of pictures with it now. Here are a couple for those who asked!

And of course my new logo at the top of the page was taken using the app too!

It has been a busy week here. I have now officially set up my Facebook page and my Folksy shop (although I have yet to add any stock to it) and I am fulfilling some orders for baby hats, which I posted up on my Facebook page. I had a change of heart halfway through making some and have changed the yarn. Initially I was using a chunky wool but now feel that aran gives a much softer, lighter feel for the smaller hats. I will still use the chunky for hats for bigger children though.

I'm hoping to get some more makes up on my Facebook page by the end of the week. I'm not planning on specialising in baby hats! I have got a few ideas and plans in motion to turn them into reality, when I get a spare five minutes that is! I really don't know how people find the time to turn handmade into a living, I tip my hat with the utmost respect to those who manage it!

Well that's all from me this week. Busy, busy day, especially if I want to find some time to catch up with all the other lovely crafty bloggers too!

Just before I go, just time to mention that Bath Bomb Creations have a linky party too from the 2 feb. try and pay them a visit...their link is in my sidebar!

Til next time!

My favourite things

As usual I am linking up with Wendy over on her blog for Handmade Monday. It's nice to see what other people have been up to, and I enjoy reading their blogs every week. It's like sitting down with old friends for a weekly catch up!

I've been thinking this week about making and selling (as regular readers will know already) and I have managed to set myself up with a Facebook page and a Folksy shop. (Links are in the side bar, although there's not a lot to see ....yet!) Whilst I was doing so, I pondered the name of my new venture, and whether I should come up with something new or stick with what I have. As you can tell if you visit my new pages, I have stuck with Raindrops 'n Roses. I originally chose this name because it automatically conjures up images of Julie Andrews atop a mountain, which means school holidays, but was also one of the first musicals I really remember watching as a child. The song itself means 'favourite things' to me (well, that's what it's about of course!) and that's what this blog is about - my favourite things, which are my family, (and being the best mum/wife/domestic goddess type that I can be to make our home life happy and comfortable and filled with good things and happy memories in an increasingly bad world) and the things that I like to do - making and baking, reading and writing, hoarding and reusing (or at least thinking about reusing!) There's a few things I'd like to achieve through selling my 'stuff'. Obviously it would be lovely to one day give up the day job, but even just earning a few extra pennies to spend on the kids would be fine by me. I really like making things, even if it's a simple card, or a cake, a scrapbook or a stew, and I really get pleasure making things for other people, and if my things can become someone elses' favourite things then how lovely would that be?

I have been kicking a few ideas around, ideas of things to make as well as where and what to source, as I would like to use some reclaimed materials in my makes, I already do this now, I'm forever trying to think of things to make with this leftover, or that remnant of fabric, or that spare ball of yarn, even if the procrastinator in me doesn't always do something about it! It's a bit harder when it comes to paper crafts, although I am quite fond of getting the 'scrap bags' often available in bargain bins or pound shops and the like, and I already have a fair stash of off cuts of paper, ribbons from cakes, and little bits and pieces, the origins of which I'm not too sure of now!. It will be interesting to challenge myself to recycle and upcycle more for cards and other papercrafts too.

So this week I have been busy making a variety of things. On the Domestic Goddess front there was 'Sunday Roast Leftover Potato Cakes' using the left over mash and vegetables from Sunday tea to make potato cakes for Monday tea (and Tuesday dinner!) and chicken and vegetable pasties, from the leftover chicken too.On the crafty front there were brooches.. I have a tub full of old buttons reclaimed over many years by mum and passed on to me, and I used a few to make a couple of button brooches, one of which is here:

It's not easy to tell from the picture, but I scuffed the edges of a silvery coloured button to make it look 'shabby'

I also made a little scrapbook for my mother in law as it was her birthday this week. I put in some photos of the girls, which I had taken with my new 'retro camera' app on my phone. I am quite fond of that particular app, I love the effects it gives. I didn't have as much time to spend on the book as I would have liked, but she was happy with it and that's all that matters really, isn't it?

Til next time!

A (hopeful) new venture

Morning everyone. I hope that 2012 is being kind to you all so far!
Today, as it's Monday, I shall of course be linking up with Wendy over on her blog for Handmade Monday. Make sure you have a wander over there and see what everyone's been up to!

In all the post Christmas chaos I've not really managed much this week. However a swift kick up the bum will hopefully restore the balance of that.
Last weekend saw the return of the takeaway challenge and after a quick look in my veg rack and at some recipes I produced a butternut squash and potato curry.

It was quite quick and easy to do, onions lightly fried until soft (but not coloured), add garlic, turmeric, curry powder, cumin, paprika, then the vegetables (in this case butternut squash, potato and mushrooms) a tin of chopped tomatoes, a tin of coconut milk and leave to simmer until the veg is nice and soft. Seemed to go down well and I was crowned the *Queen of Curries* by my hubby, so Domestic Godessness is restored! Tim now has to take up the gauntlet and produce the next 'takeaway' so watch this space!

I have been a little bit crafty this week, as it is a family birthday so obviously cards had to be produced. Caoimhe enjoyed making her card, using my 'sheen' to make paper flowers to stick on. And I came up with this:

I also made a book mark from some things in my stash:

I'm quite pleased with it I have to say. It turned out more or less as I imagined, which is a rare event!

I have decided to use the New Year as a bit of an impetus to actually do some things I really want to do. On the agenda is:

Completing my English degree, which I had to abandon when I had Caoimhe, and which I hope to restart again in the next 18 months. 

Learn to use my sewing machine, and also learn how to hand sew better than I do already (which wouldn't be difficult since I am rubbish at it!)

Learn a new craft skill - don't know what yet so I am open to suggestion!

And sell my handmade things.

I'm working on the last bit already, tentatively. I think you are always your worst critic, and I wonder if anyone would ever actually want to buy the stuff I make. Well there's only one way to find out I expect!

So, with that in mind, my goal this month is to set up a Facebook page and a Folksy shop and then see where it takes me!



Til next time!

Happy New Year

Just a quick post today to wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

I hope 2012 is kind to you and brings you everything you can dream of!

2011 had mixed fortunes in the Gallery house. In March we lost our much loved big guy, our rotty cross Salem. It was heartbreaking. He had been part of the family for 9 yrs.



And in August we were blessed with the arrival of our beautiful baby girl Teaghan Alice. She is a joy and she and her sister Caoimhe make a lot of people very happy, not least me and Tim!

I wonder what 2012 will bring!