A round up of the past few weeks

WARNING: this is the moany part of the blog - but it get cheerier...I promise.  

Mr J has been able to get home most weekends and has been busy doing lots of DIY.  He is currently in the cellar 'spider proofing' Big G's room!  This involves removing badly made floor to ceiling cupboards and replacing them with a fake wall.  So yet again my house is upside down and an absolute mess.  I'm not moaning but it does mean that I will spend much of the beginning of next week cleaning, rearranging stuff and painting yet more walls.

A few pictures of a small corner of the house that was actually organised (for all of 4 days) , it is currently buried in Big G's boxes, desk, a pile of clothes, you name it, its there.  

My pine cones have opened up and dried out nicely.  Two of my favourite postcards I received this month, some pretty vases purchased in Ikea and a remembrance card for Mr J's granddad who died last year, aged 100.  

I am a bit fed up of painting, but probably not as much as Mr J is; spending every day off doing huge DIY projects!  

So not a lot of sewing or crocheting has been going on this week.  I am however still continuing with my mammoth crochet blanket - one looooooong row at a time!

On a happier note: 

(See, I told you!)

It was middle B's 7th birthday mid week and we celebrated this weekend with pressies and a cake.  I used leftover wallpaper to wrap his pressies.



Not easy to wrap with wallpaper, it doesn't like to fold so you can't get clean crisp edges - but 7 year olds don't notice such minor details! I then used left over wrapping paper to make a sweet garland to hang.  I couldn't find the Happy Birthday garland that we use for every birthday, I'm sure its nestled safely between some fabric in one of my cupboards. 

I whipped up a new one.  Took me about 5 mins to make.  

                 

I had my birthday a couple of weeks ago too, and as usual was completely spoiled by my family - especially by Mr J.

                .  
Please note that my kitchen table is NEVER this sparse!  EVER!  But Mum and I had just finished wallpapering this wall so I decided to take a quick pic.  Birthday flowers from Mr J.

I am a huge fan of Rob Ryan's work...I mean HUGE.  Mr J went overboard (not complaining) in Ryan Town and bought me a lazercut of my favourite piece of Mr Ryan's work.  You can see it on the left of the photo, all framed and ready to be hung.  Swoon.  

                

When in London a few weeks ago I went to Ikea and stocked up on lots of frames.  I spent an afternoon framing all the new prints we (I say we!  Mr J is the gadgets/appliances man and I am the interiors lady - we stick to our roles!)  have bought for the home.  I now have no finger nails left, but I do have a mini art gallery to admire until I get the time to hang them.  

I am still enjoying being part of the post crossing community.  So nice to receive mail from around the world...some tell you about their culture and lives, others just want to say Hi and practise their English, and there are a few that use it to create beautiful mail art - just to make someone on the other side of the world smile.  I have to admit that I use it as a create outlet. 

 A yellow themed envelope for a postcrosser.

 A wonderfully floral themed package that I received a few weeks ago - for no other reason than I expressed an interested in flowers and airmail stickers from around the world.  

Oh, one more SUPER DUPER CHEERY thing... 

Mr J and I celebrated our 4th (going out together) anniversary yesterday - I couldn't be happier if I tried.  I bagged myself an amazingly kind, thoughtful and funny man when I honestly thought I'd be a single forever!  

Thanks for stopping by my lovelies.  Have a great week and I'll see you all on Instagram till my next post. 

Claire x

creative mail

I would like to share with you my mini moments of creative happiness.  Because my family life is so hectic at the moment the only creating I can spare the time to do is sending happy mail.

This is the most recent mail that I received.  

I swapped Chinese airmail stickers for English ones, they were wrapped in a little Hello Kitty gift bag.  

The lovely sender also surprised me with some wash tape and a pretty airmail sticker.

I have sent this mail out into the big wide world: 

I hope the receivers appreciate the fun I had putting their mail together for them.  

xx

A bit of this, that and the other

Life has been a little hectic recently, hence the lack of posts.  I don't have time to think straight some days; let alone upload photos and write about what I've been making.  Which is incidentally ...

absolutely nothing!   

I still haven't finished Big G's quilt as I got cold feet when it all went a bit wrong - in quite a few places - front and back - top and bottom.  I popped a few pics of badly sewn quilt in here as I don't have any 'oh look how lovely and nicely made' pics yet!!

I roped in mum and she helped me to unpick my stitch in the ditch stitches.  She actually showed me a clever way to remove a lot of stitches in one go.  

You may know this already - but for those of you who don't... you know when you sew using a machine,  the top reel of cotton catches the bottom cotton, so the underside doesn't actually go through the material (still with me?!; and can, therefore be pulled, gently but firmly, out of the clutches of the top stitches (if you cut the bottom stitch in a few places then each section SHOULD pull out reasonably easily).  Im sorry if you are totally lost!

So back to the story, mum and I spent about an hour removing 8 lines of stitching, so now the quilt is only one third attached.  It is so tricky to get all the layers through the machine as it is, let alone when you have the added hassle of trying to stuff half of the quilt through the space to the right of the machine.  So I'm wimping out - yet again.  Big G has been most understanding, well sort of, actually she thinks I'm being 'totally dramatic' about the whole thing - teenagers (pot....kettle....)!

A blurry pic of the abandoned and disgraced half quilt... I then stomped out of the living room muttering and cursing. 


ALL IS NOT LOST MY FRIENDS!

I have been scratching my itch to be creative by Postcrossing as much as possible.  

I briefly mentioned sending happy mail via Postcrossing in an earlier post and promised I'd dedicate a bit more time to it in a future post.  I do try to keep my promises.  

It is my new favourite thing - I think it is bloody marvellous.  What am I rambling on about now?  Visit this website: www.postcrossing.com (not a link - can't do those!) and have a read up - THEN register. 

This is what happens.  You send randomly chosen people a postcard.  They could be anywhere in the world.  Each Postcrosser has a home page where they can write a little blurb about themselves; what sort of postcard they'd like to receive, what languages they can read and write in, what hobbies/interests they have.  All this information can help you to decide what sort of postcard (and extra mail) to send them.  

Some people put a lot of effort into their postcards and make/decorate envelopes etc.. its up to each individual.  

I discovered postcrossing via the digital version of Flow magazine.  I read their yummy article and eagerly followed the links and signed up (free) immediately.  The only rule is that you actually have to send a postcard within the mail.  

Anything else you choose to put in the envelope is up to you.  

 Also a good way to promote my blog!  (Cheeky!)

Some Postcrossers explicitly ask that you only send a postcard. Strangely I actually bought these two weeks before I even read the delicious Flow magazine article.... It was meant to be!! 

 100 Classic ladybird covers!  Fabulous!  So far the recipients have loved these postcards.

The 3 above were purchased from Charity shops - 6 for £1.  Charity shops are always full of classic, weird and wonderful postcards.  I bought these three as some Postcrossers request city sights.  

As an aside - I bought this lovely tablecloth from the same charity shop as the London postcards. 

 I have so much fun setting aside a little time in the evenings putting together some fun, beautiful and surprising mail for a stranger somewhere in the world!  

Wallpaper samples from my local DIY store - they make sturdy, interesting and tactile envelopes. 

Anything goes!

Well that was a higgle-de-piggle-de post.... hope you could keep track of what I was wittering on about?!

Stay sane folks - keep creating.  

Claire x

pastel prettiness

Hello - I have missed blogging this week - it has been a bit hectic my end. 

Big G started her GCSE exams on Monday and turned 16 on Tuesday, Middle B hasn't had a good week and I have not been able to find a spare moment to put a post together...until....this evening.  

A short post - but a post nonetheless.

We were allowed to make a little fuss of Big G on her birthday, so I made some bunting.

 (Really?  More bunting? Yes! I am a bit obsessed with bunting - I haven't exhausted how many different ways one can create/decorate bunting!!) 

 I hope you like.  I found it very therapeutic to make.  I simply love the process of creating with paper, far more than I do with sewing.  

I start out with one idea in my head and then the idea grows and evolves and before you know it I have created something, that, even surprises me!

Big G loved it and it kept me amused for a morning.  Also keeping me sane this week is my new obsession...

...POSTCROSSING...

I'll explain more about it in another post (I'm aware that I promise this a lot!  I will try and keep to all my promises...so much to share - so little free time).  

Here is one of this weeks contributions:
(Photo taken before address and stamps added)

Enjoy the weather and thanks so much for popping by.

Claire 
x