Spring Sunshine.

What a beautiful day!
After being stuck indoors most of last week, with both of the children being ill, we all really needed to get out in the glorious sunshine.

We headed for Hengistbury Head, which is seven miles from my home.

Iola (my daughter) & myself went for a walk over the head, leaving the boys on the beach. We joined them for lunch, then enjoyed the afternoon together. Loki & I mostly building sandcastles, climbing rocks & dodging waves!... More photo's here!

The gorse sent a waft of coconut across the heath land.

Like Father, Like daughter.

Interesting erosion pattern

It's amazing what you can get done when you take a duvet day with a poorly child.

I have at last finished my "Attic 24" cushion & am stupidly proud of myself! Ok, I know that you could pop down to your nearest M&comericalMax type shop & buy a nice cushion for a moderate amount, but hey... 

 ...I made this!

The back of the cushion.

Attic 24 is a fantastic blog by a lady called Lucy. She has lots of easy to follow tutorials and has a real eye for colour. 

Visit her blog by clicking here.

The cushion is very tactile & is just asking to be touched. For this reason, I uses cotton to make it, so it won't fuzz up.

Lucy's cushion tutorial can be found by clicking here.

Lucy's Cushion.

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to all you UK mummies out there! I hope you are being spoilt rotten & having a lovely day. I made my mother this bunch of veg corsage. I mostly improvised the pattern. I don't really expect her to wear it, but it will look cute on a bag :)

My 1st canes

Amazing!

Recently, I started playing around with polymer clay. It is so versatile. I had a go at making some "canes". This is also known as millefiori and is an amazing art form. I love this one here:

Keyrings

You can even transfer images onto the clay, but i need a bit more practise. My results were very hit & miss!

These broaches were made by my children. One of the main tools you need is a pasta machine. (Thanks to my mum for lending me hers!) 

Iola & Loki loved putting the clay through the machine & experimenting with colours. 

Watch this space for many new polymer creations to come!

Just a Quickie...

....but  I saw this over on Pinterest & gave me a smile. Thanks to Natalie over at One Busy WAHM for Sharing. If you want to look me up on Pinterest, click here for my boards.  Followers welcome :)

Scapstore Goodies

Today, Sarah & I visited Poole Scrapstore and picked up some real goodies.

Today's loot!

Scrap stores are a great initiative. The scrapstore collects materials donated by local industry, commerce and individuals and makes them available to the community as a valuable, low cost resource

Dorset Scrapstore have
branches in Puddletown & Poole.

Here are some helpful links:
Dorset Scrapstore website.
Dorset Scrapstore blog.
Dorset Scrapstore Facebook page. 

Camo netting for Loki's bunk beds. Total £1:50!

Covert Robin

Sarah at Sew Now We Are Four pointed me in the direction of the covert robin blog.

What a great idea! 
It is a round-robin gift exchange of handmade presents. You are given another blogger to make a handmade gift for. You can take a peek at their blog to see what sort of crafts they are into & make something appropriate.

In turn you will receive a gift from another blogger.  As all the blogs are advertised, I am not going to give too much away at the moment, but I can't wait to see what has been made for me.


The covert Robin can be found here.

Everyone out of the universe, quick!

Cobblers Children....

I started making my husband a Nibbler (from Futurama) ages ago, but other projects got in the way. I made a concerted effort to finish it for him this week, complete with cape & diaper. Well I finished it today & am very happy at how it turned out. It took a fair bit of improvising, but the husbands happy.


Pattern can be found here.

Pretty Things

Today I visited a Craft Junket. This is basically, a craft fair with beautiful, carefully selected, high quality items.

Lots of lovely stalls. One of my favourites was ChickP, who sell bright colourful vinyl stickers for making murals. They can be found on Facebook here.

But my absolute favourite was Mango Fizz Creations. I treated myself to a beautiful polymer (Fimo) necklace. Pete Bungay, the talented artist who makes them, has a great eye for colour and there were so many beautiful items to choose from. It took me a while to choose. Each bead feels like a little bit of treasure. Visit their Facebook page here.

Wool & Wittering

Having a skill like crochet, naturally, I want to share it. A few friends said they would like to learn, so I came up with "Wool & Wittering" evenings.

      On our first evening, we learnt the basic single crochet. After much concentration & some huffing & puffing, every one seemed to get it & ended up with a rough square.

At our second meet up we learnt to crochet "in the round". We came up with some oddly shaped circles, but ever the optimist, they were only "Happy Mistakes" which could be turned into an Attic 24 Bird or flowers.

I sent them on their way, enthused & ready to try on their own. I have a list of people wanting to learn. So will be kept busy for a while!

Special thanks to Sarah from Sew now we are four  for her help teaching.