Merry and Bright.

Tonight is the first chance I have had to edit our December pics. Well, you could say I am a little behind on blogging.  I can't believe  it is the night before Hogmany and I am only just getting pics on here from the 1st of December!! I want all of the December pics up before the New year.

One of my resolutions is to write more.
So I will be here again. I have missed this space.

The past couple of months have been very trying. For a whole lot of reasons. It has been very stressful and emotional and just plain hard. Nothing just flowed, everything had to be pushed along and grappled with every step of the way.

But looking back I can say we made it. I will always remember the moment on Christmas eve when we looked around and realised that we had done it, finished the marathon, reached the top of the mountain.

The presents were wrapped.

with a little help

We baked cookies

the house was decorated

We relaxed by the tree and soaked up every delicious scent it wafted our way.

We danced and sang

Stress aside there was plenty of christmas spirit.

My girl painted my nails for me for christmas.

We made memories, we have had lots of family fun and we have made the most of every moment that we could.

December magic.

Christmas gift exchange.

Twice a year, Linda at Craftaholics anonymous hosts a gift exchange. Once again I took part in the Christmas gift exchange and it was so much fun!

 

This year my partner was a very sweet girl called Lisa. We chatted back and forth a couple of times , via email, and then set to work.

I received the sweetest gift through the post!

A crochet mug cosy!

I am so so excited. I have wanted one of these for such a long time and I love anything that is crochet.

And it is red. Be still my heart.

(Please excuse the ropy pics, my favourite new camera is needing batteries and I have been housebound for the past couple of days!  So the old faithful has to do)

I adore the purple heart on the front

and the super cute co-ordinating button on the back.

Love.

Thank you so so much to Lisa for my wonderful gift! I can't believe you are only just learning to crochet! You are a pro already!

And as always thanks to Linda for hosting the giveaway. It is lovely to meet new people and to enjoy exchanging something handmade and yummy!

Merry Christmas everyone! xx

Aaah. It' here.

The glorious cold weather has finally arrived. With attitude! Earlier this week we had some crazy wind that seems to have blown some deliciously low temperatures our way. It's bliss! I feel like I can breathe again!
As much as I have been anticipating it - I don't seem to have been organising for it!! I still have no gloves. Oh dear, it seems I will need to go shopping..........

Today marks the second last day of the October holidays. Sigh. I love having the kids home every day, no time restraints or deadlines. I will miss them so much next week. They start back on Monday, which is , unfortunately, the same day as Sarah, Joe boy and my Mum fly out to Spain. For the start of a new adventure.
Nope , I can't do it, I can't think about that yet. I'll deal with it on Monday.

For now, we are going to have a nice stroll on this cool , sunny day, finish up some crafts that we started yesterday and I have a TON of cutting and sewing to do for an upcoming craft fayre (eek!!).

I have two weeks left to get organised and I have barely even started? All I have so far are a few felt rose accessories

Three things. Not exactly a "fayre"

On the plus side - I have discovered how to get good non-blurry pics of K!

I just need to be attempting to take a photo of something else and ...... bam! There she is! Ready to pose!

Love it.

Love that cheeky little face.

I am looking forward to the next three days, I get to have Joe boy for a couple of days to let his parents pack for their upcoming move. We are planning to go on our annual conker hunt on Saturday and this year we get to take Joe with us. I can't wait xx

Good things come to those who wait.

In May last year, I sat down one Wednesday and wrote a wishlist. Lor Lor used to write a post for wishlist Wednesday and I just had to join in. 

My wish was for a crafting space. I had a small pile of crafty accessories in the corner of my bedroom and I wanted more space. I drooled over bloggy craft spaces and dreamt of a place to store my stash. 

The problems? No space. All of our rooms are spoken for. I also work from home so all available spare space, downstairs, is taken up with storing toys. 

No money. I didn't have the spare pennies to spend on all of the things I would need.

My big sister  read my wishlist and immediately started gathering supplies for me.

I rearranged my bedroom and she gave me an old computer cupboard.

I spent a whole £5 on a sweet little chair in our local second hand shop and I had a start.

This corner has basically been unuseable ever since. It really wasn't handy to have to pull everything out and spread it around my bed, just to make a workable space.

But I was patient.

Last summer my sister gifted,to me, some shelves from her salon and I tucked them away in my corner.

I have been given baskets, tins, containers and other odds and ends.

Finally, I called my Dad and asked him to help me.

Yesterday was the day and I was bursting with excitement.

It felt like Christmas day.

My little space is done. My very own little patch of craftiness.

I honestly thought I might burst with excitement! LOL. I couldn't stop smiling that I finally had my space.  Last night as I was trying to fall asleep, I kept opening my eyes and peeking over at it , just wondering what craft will break it in! Hopefully some princess party bunting, if the bias tape ever arrives!

And then my Dad tipped out all of the screws from these dinky little boxes, with lids and handles and left them on the shelf for me. (Best Dad ever) So cute, so handy and just begging for something cute to embellish them :-)

Finally a home for the super sweet sewing box that my Mother in law gave me as a birthday gift in July last year.

And my little Daisy picture from Beebs is finding her niche in my little corner.

I am sure I will add some little touches and fun here and there.

Happy Happy Happy.

Thanks Dad for your hard work and Sarah for all of my bits and pieces.

Not bad for a total cost of £5! LOL talk about rocking what ya got!

Once upon a time ......

(If you click on the pic you should be able to read it)

Date - March 6th 2011

Location - Princess Kirsten's castle

Time -   1pm - 3pm

How is it possible?.....

.......For me to have made all of these roses ....

And still not know how to do it??

It is so frustrating! I read a few tutorials and couldn't find one that worked well with the textile I am using. So I just kind of started folding and twisting and gluing and worked out something I like.

 So long as I am not thinking about it I am ok. When I started I was crafting with Beebs, we were chatting and I was hot gluing my fingers roses and it was great. My hands just got on with it.

(party planning central in the background! LOL)

Last night when I sat down to finish them I couldn't for the life of me remember how it was done! It's like I need to not think about it and it just happens.

These are hopefully going to become part of the decor,

if I can remember how to do it!

I sort of got there in the end. I have loads left to do, I so hope I don't have to continue throwing away more  than I can keep!!

Here is a little sneaky peek into some of the crafting that is being done for the Princess' party.

Lotsa love

Hello! Is anyone still out there?? I wouldn't blame you all if you had shuffled along to another blog where there are actual posts!

To those who are still hanging on

Thanks for "bearing" with me ;)

As usual , life just seems to be hurtling along at a break neck speed and I can barely keep up! I hit the ground running , when I got home. last Tuesday and have barely paused for breath since.

Oh but how I miss this little corner of my life. I love settling down in the morning, cup of tea in hand and K playing away in the other room. Even if it is just to catch up on my google reader or blogroll. I haven't even had tine to do that! But I must make that time. I will make that time.

I wanted to share a couple of valentines crafts I have done this past week. We don't go all out for valentines, by any strech of the inagination.

But, I guess it is a celebration of love. And for all that is lacking in our home,organisation, regular mopping,the inability to keep pairs of socks together..... there isn't a lack of love. That deserves to be celebrated.

I have been pretty uninspired recently and haven't been able to think of many crafts/activities to do with the kids AND our oven has been broken for a week so no baking either!! Shock! 

So after a little googling, most of the inspiration out there is valentinesy. (ok not a real word but you all know what it means, right?) The kids don't mind the theme, so long as there is messiness, glitter and fun, they're in!

This website popped up and I LOVED it. I found a tutorial for making these sweet little string hearts.

I had everything (almost, I did pinch some wool from Granny Mary) so I pounced on it and we got stuck right in!

It felt great to be up to our elbows in glue!!

It is so easy, I did it with two 4ish year old girls and they loved it too.

First , you draw some hearts on freezer paper, I used greaseproof paper which worked out ok.

Mix some white glue with a little water. I put ours on our little kids Ikea plastic plates, so it wasn't too runny as it didn't pour off, so don't add too much water it still needs to set when it dries.

 dip your yarn/wool into the mixture and then follow the lines of your heart. Filling in the centre with squiggles.

(strange pose optional)

Leave to dry.

Once they are dry the glue has made them hard, so you can hang them.

I used a little ribbon to hang mine up with and then because we had quite a few we made a simple valentines garland.

I just threaded the little heart decorations onto a length of red ribbon.

I also made a little ribbon heart wreath to hang for some extra festivness (is that a word??)

This actually the back of it. I thought it was much prettier than the front!
You could only see the outline of the heart and all of the pretty ribbons that I used from the back, so I hung it up back to front LOL.

.

Happy love day.

ps..I want to apologise to the person who runs the blog I linked to, my computer wouldn't open the page, I previously have een following by reading on my ipod. So sorry I couldnt put the actual link to the tuorial in there. My laptop is a little elderly and she gets very easily confused!