A gift for a friend

A friends little girl is getting christened at the weekend so after much deliberation I thought I would make her a little doll as a keepsake. She is yet to be named and at the moment has a set of PJ's for bedtime and a little dress. If time permits she may get a handbag and some another dress!

A day of sewing

It's been a productive sewing day! I am doing a little sale event in my local town of Berkhamsted in the morning so I set myself a great big list of things to sew this morning thinking I would have the whole day to get through it all. This is generally a bad idea as I don't get even half way down my list normally. It is 12:00 so just managed it all today but I have made 12 cards, 2 appliqued pictures and 4 appliqued tote bags!

New Shoes

Great excitement in our house this morning as the children all got new shoes yesterday from the lovely Hippity Hop and I couldn't' t quite resist sharing Lottie's new shoes with you all. They are just the sweetest shoes ever and as she hasn't yet reached the age where she needs boring school shoes we went for the fun red option.

I have spent the afternoon making little cards (more on that to come) so inspired by Lottie's new shoes I made a little shoe card.

A lovely day

It's been a lovely Sunday with a good mix of family time, catching up on jobs and a bit of sewing time! The result is 3 content children, a very clean rug and this lovely tote bag for a little girls PE kit.

And thank you to the little girls next door for the flowers from their Granny's garden, they are looking very splendid in the little glass bottle that Grace dug up on a bottle digging session with her Daddy.

Rather Random Bits

Graces Mug and Plate

The beautiful haba dolls

The Girls in France enjoy so much space!


Well as the title suggests this blog may be rather random but I decided a random blog entry is better than no entry at all! I had visions before the summer began of me spending lots of lovely time with the children, making, baking and really getting to grips with some of the sewing projects I have had on hold. The reality of my summer though has been nothing so idyllic, we have had a lovely holiday to France but this was before the schools broke up (frowned upon I know!) We have really just been at home and as the weather hasn't been the glorious summer that was promised we have had a lot of time indoors and its all felt rather boring!

We have had some highlights, Grace turned 5 and we had a lovely day surrounded by a lot of Haba dolls that we have been collecting since Lottie her sister got one for her 1st Birthday. Graces party is not till September as most of her friends were all on holiday so we do still have this to look forward to.

We also had a lovely visit to our local pottery project cafe where a beautiful plate was painted and a very sweet mug which Grace now uses daily.

I am hoping we manage to squeeze in a visit to Great Granny Alnmouth and perhaps a little visit to Devon to Granny and Granddad's but as the time is whizzing by I am not so sure.

I am doing a little fair in my local church hall (St Peters) on the 26th Aug with my friend and her fab business Hippity Hop shoes so if anyone is free would be lovely to see you I shall be there till 2pm.

Little wooden bed

A while ago I bought this lovely little bed in my local Oxfam store that was in need of a little love and care and it has been sitting in the dinning room for some time now looking at me and bugging me as I really haven't had the time to clean it up. So today with my fayre, Birthday parties and holiday all behind me I made a little time for the wooden bed.
It now has a lovely red ticking mattress, an appliqued quilt, matching cushion and with a fresh coat of white paint it has scrubbed up rather nicely.
I am however rather convinced that I will come downstairs in the morning and find the cat snuggled up inside it!

The Princess an the Princess and the Pea!

For all those coming to the Berkhamsted Pimms and Pamper evening tonight in Berkhamsted town hall, will be in with a chance to win this lovely handmade Princess and the Pea that comes with a lovely princess from The Puppet Company. Each bed has a lovely handmade blanket, 2 pillows and 5 scrummy mattress's.

As I am trying my hand at some boy versions of things I have also made to sell a lovely Prince and The Pea bed. Tickets to win the girls Princess and bed are a bargain £1 or £3 for 5 tickets so someone is going to go home with a great deal!

Happy Birthday Lottie

Well with one day to go before our lovely Pims and Pamper evening a welcome break was taken today from all the preparations to celebebrate Lottie's 3rd Birthday. She had a lovely party in the Garden this morning with 6 best friends and has spent the rest of the day dancing around to ballet music in a lovely new dress from Granny and Grandad. And although her cake was not a patch on the fabulouse cakes from Nievie pie it still went down a treat with the little ones.

Can not belive that this is the same little baby in the photo that was taken 3 years ago today she seems so grown up in just a blink!

If only I had more time!

I sometimes wonder how much work I could get done in a day or a whole week without children, dinners, and housework to juggle at the same time.

Most of my work gets done in little snippets here and there and today was a really good example of that.

I am a packaging junky, I am attracted to a certain type of packaging regardless of the content or item and so I decided to give my lovely new hair towels a shiny new label that then ended up with my making 3 more labels to enhance their packaging! So in between school drop-off, lunch, flyering for the next event, school pick up again and tea I have made 3 labels and it has made me really want a week to just get on with all the things for Islabbaby that I keep meaning to do.

Tomorrow Finlay is having a few of my friends around with there little ones for cake and pass the parcel so I really now must crack on with the list of jobs for today that got set aside in favour of doodling labels.

Sneak Peak

Here is a sneak peak at my new labels for one of my lovely new products that will be available at the Pimms and Pamper evening on the 23rd June in Berkhamsted town hall from 7pm.

I am super excited about them as they have truley solved the wet hair problem in our house. (Product shots to follow)

My very soon to be 3 year old and soon to 5 year old can not keep a towel on their heads long enough after a bath to dry even a strand of hair so by the time they get downstairs their poor Pj's are dripping wet. So my lovely new gingham trimmed childrens Happy Hair Towels are just the job!

The wedding party

My older brother got married a little while ago and then this weeked he and his wife threw a great party for friends and family to celebrate with them. It was a lovely weekend as most weekends in Cornwall seem to be and my three children had a fantastic time. I had no idea my soon to be 5 year old had such great dance moves! She now of course would like a disco party just like uncle Dave and Auntie Zoe had for her birthday, she would like it to run from about 8pm to midnight, unfortunatly I don't think this will be a wish that gets granted but I couldn't resist sharing her dance moves with you!

The Princess in the woods

We went for a lovely family walk today to bluebell woods in Ashridge and on our way there we drove past the Ashridge College which looks very like a castle. The girls asked if a princess lived in the castles and I on true make believe mode said "yes of course" so when we got to the woods and Grace shouted out "Mummy there is the Princess" you can imagine my surprise when sure enough we saw what could to the eyes of a 4 year old and a 3 year old very well have been a Princess. As the said Princess then approached the girls became very shy and excited especially when the Princess actually said hello!

So for those who are reading this who are wondering what the Princess looked like I have attached some photos to help solve the mystery.

The bunk beds arrived

Well after a rather long wait the bunk beds arrived! Grace has been counting the sleeps till the arrival and was incredibly excited to get home from school today to test them out.

I of course just had to put 2 new sets of Isla b baby bed linen on them to finish the look!

The next event!

The party season approaches our house

With a string of parties both to attend and to plan for my 3 children it can get a little dull trawling the high street to find something worthy of the Birthday child. I never know what they already have or sometimes even like and can not feel anything other than guilt when I do cave in and buy plastic fantastic! So when Jo Esson at Stealing Candy said she has some new gifts for children amongst her new range I was very excited. I even bought a little girls present well in advance of her party as I couldn't resist her new garden sets! (don't want to share a picture of that one in case her mummy gets a sneak peak that spoils the surprise)

I bought for this weekends 5 year olds disco party a lovely set of writing paper and then personalised it by making her a little bag with her name on it and a pretty face cloth to help clean up all the cake later today! Making part of a gift of your own is great way to keep costs down and still end up with something scummy.

I won something!!!!

I never win anything so you can imagine my excitement this morning when a lovely package arrived for me from http://bearpawandbearpaw.blogspot.com/ with a fab "sew it yourself" picture to adorn my sewing area wall, some lovely ribbon and a gorgeous little patchwork keyring!

So i just wanted to say a very BIG thank you to Jo Avery at Bearpaw for all the lovely goodies and if you don' t already read her blog I heartily recommend you do! x

A new member of the mouse family

We had lots of excitement this morning as our latest Maileg family member was given its own home. Earlier in the week Finlay got a pair of star child soft slippers that came in a very nice box that was just the perfect size for a small mouse to nest inside.

So here is Grace and the new mouse in the garden this morning enjoying a beautiful day of sunshine!

funny day

My day has been filled with both frustration and amusement of equaling amounts. It began this morning with Grace declaring that she is old enough to choose what she wants to wear in the morning and at almost 5 she's right she is but its the lack of regard for the weather that this morning caused the argument. Grace carefully selected a summer dress then refused point blank to back down when I told it was too cold for a dress on its own so she decided that a pair of leopard print legging were the solution with her pink snow boots!

I then took Finlay to get his first pair of cruiser shoes only to discover that he didn't fit any as he curls his toes!! So despite a 40 min battle in the shoe shop we left disappointed and headed to the park. At the park I got a call from a company I would love to buy from for my website who have been lovely and patient in waiting for me to get the site ready and my act together but they do always seem to call when I am juggling the children and today was no different, when they called I did amusingly tell them that I was at the park with the children as it was school hols so they know not to expect my total attention, however half way through the conversation I looked up to see that Lottie my 2 nearly 3 year old had her trousers down and was shouting Mummy I've done a poo! When it was time to leave the park Grace decided to shout that she wasn't Grace and that I wasn't her Mummy and she didn't want to come home with me!! Quite a good delay tactic from her as I then felt the curious looks of lots of other parents checking me out to make sure I was really her mum.

All this said my day is getting better as the dinner is nearly ready and my lovely knew pink breakfast stool has arrived for my sewing area.

On a mission

Grace, Lottie and Finlay are all together for a photo!

The lovely hangers are far to cute to go in a wardrobe so will be adorning the walls of the children's room with favourite outfits.

Ballerina princess Lottie

Am really pleased to be enjoying my sewing, even after a busy fortnight of sewing for the More than a mama fayre!

The children got out some Maileg skittles the other week and the solders inspired me to make Finlay an appliqued name for his room as blogged about yesterday. Having 3 children means I'm going to make one for each child so while I was on a role I made Lottie's little ballerina princess.

Am hoping that by the end the week the children will each have an applique hanging above their beds and one of these beautiful Maileg hangers with a dress or outfit from when they were little to decorate the walls.

Am ready for the fayre! (I think)

It has just gone 10:30 the night before a fayre and I am organised! This is normally where I still have a million and one things to do and end up going to bed in the small hours, now I am sure this doesn't mean I am actually organised but more that I have just forgotten about 3 hours worth of things that do need doing, and so because I think I have everything ready I have just spent the last hour making Finlay a sign to go above his bed.

Tiny cost tops

Making my son 2 funky t-shirts was not really top of the list of priorities today but the Boden catalogue arrived with a welcome thud this morning and lots of pages had the corners turned over by mid morning! Alas though this is a wish list at the moment as I can not justify spending £16 on a gorgeous T-shirt for a 9 month old who is growing super fast and getting food stains on everything!

So on my trip into town this afternoon to collect Grace from school we found some very very cheap T-shirts that I decided I could embellish with my own characters, so instead of sewing for the Fayre on Friday I veered of track and had fun making these.

They were very easy to do and although not quite the super cool appearance of a Boden T they certainly do for a 9 month old.

More bunnies please

The bunnies all went to loving new homes last night and looked very cute tucked up in their little beds!

Will need to get some more made for this Fridays More than a Mama fair as I am sure they will again be a success.

Swim bags

At the last couple of fairs I have sold tote bags for PE kits that have done well so it was no surprise last night at a local pamper evening when I was asked to make some swimming bags in the same style. After some playing around with various dodgy designs I have finally settled on these and now just need to get them finished off for Friday.