Crafty Kids: the boy who knits

Noah loves his craft. His head is full of creations. He is definitely the most creative in the house (I come in second LOL)

He really enjoys knitting with his loom and made a beautiful scarf which I raffled off at the School Pamper and  Shop evening. He made £11.50, which enabled him to buy the Harry Potter wand he was after!

He can use normal needles though. He entranced the ladies at the local craft event after he plonked himself down and started with his in-over-through-off!

It was lovely to see - everyone was so impressed to see a 6 year old boy knitting away.

He does love an audience too!

This is his finished scarf - won by Mrs Rees from the school.

#proudmummy

The Handmade Fair, Hair, and a clearout

I wasn't going to go to the Handmade Fair - its not that close to me and I don't like missing out on weekends with my boys. However. I won a pair of tickets from the Fabric Fox (as well as a fat quarter) and then I won another pair from a competition on the Handmade Fair website. So I had to go really didn't I?

Turns out I had an extra bit of holiday I could use, so I took the Friday off work. I dropped the kids off at out of school club, and headed to Englefield Green to pick up my lovely friend Tanja, who I haven't seen for a fair few months. After getting a look at her house building site, we hopped back in the car and made for Hampton Court.

Its proper posh round there. Really lovely. It did of course p*ss down the second we left the car, and did so at various points during the day. Luckily when it wasn't raining, the sun was out :)

First stop (after the coffee stand), the loos LOL. Very nice. Bit cramped!

Not a great photo. Sorry.

Inside one of the big shopping tents. There were two. We took a while getting around them!

The Art Deco airstream bar. Prosecco. On tap!!

Couldn't leave Hampton Court without a quick regal wave

wot I bought...

I got the last of these. Heh Heh. These were from Mauds Fabric Finds. I knew I'd seen them before, but I didn't realise it was this shop until I looked in the bag later. 

This is what I won from the Fabric Fox

Pretties from the Eternal Maker (I dragged Tanja round every single fabric stall to try and find a contrast fabric for the bag I'm making)

See how restrained I was? That last fabric I bought three metres to make a dress. The rest is for bags.

I got to meet the owners of lots of shops that I've only ever bought from online, including Tilly from Tilly and the Buttons. I spent AGES at the Eternal Maker.

Actually, before I went to the Fair, I had a haircut:

On the family side of things, we paid a visit to Wimpole Hall as we're NT members. It was 40s weekend. This puppet show is incredibly un-PC and awesome

I also cleared out the spare room. Below:

as it was originally ...then after the clearout...

... then after the ikea treatment. Its still not quite finished, but the boys love their new office!

Bagmaking: Dolled Up Train/Vanity Case in Zebra and Cherries! Plus: frocks, days out, and clearouts!

Its still the summer holidays. I'm still not getting much done, however I can show you my most recent completion.
This is a really lovely pattern, but quite hard work. Its the larger train case from DiedelbugHandmade, and as I was commissioned a very long time ago to make a vanity case for an old friend, I decided this would be the pattern I would use.

The spec was basically zebra, pink and cherries for a teenage girl.
It was supposed to be just a 'box' rather than a 'two piece' but I could not resist making this pattern.
The lid has space for brushes etc, and then the bottom has a clear zipped pocket, then space for larger items like hairdryer/bottles/tongs and so on.

The pattern is very clear, but there is a LOT of cutting out to be done. My machine struggled around the edges where foam interfacing met foam interfacing.

Overall though I can't quite believe it went together so well. You just need to follow it slowly, step by step, and it does come together. 

One day, I will make one for me!

In other news: Noah had his first taster session at the olympic gym. He loved it, but sadly they are only on in the school holidays, for a few sessions, so next time probably October.

I had a wardrobe clearout. 6 bags of clothing gone. This is what my wardrobe looked like after the cull. Too many dresses for the tiny space on the left. 

So I took out that bar on the right and re-arranged. Ta-da!!

We visited Burghley House and the beautiful grounds. This coincided with a family fun day, so the boys got to do activities, followed by the Gardens of Surprise (water gardens)

I bought some dresses. Because its August LOL.

This Hell Bunny is very cute.  Please note - I had just come back from aqua aerobics so Im' not looking my best. Also, our bedroom has since been cleaned :)

This Lindy Bop May dress sadly didn't fit at all. Bodice too long. I'm holding down the sleeves here as otherwise they sit an inch above my shoulders. Also skirt is a bit A-line - I'd prefer more fabric. Too much work to fix. Went back. Love this fabric, although I do own 4.5 metres of it so one day I'll make my own :)

I purchased items in the collectif sale. Two Fairy dresses for our hols, and a Dietrich swing coat. (work toilet shots - nice)

I love Collectif, as their dresses are generally very flattering, although I had to take some little tucks in at the neckline to stop it gaping. I also reduced the bodice  length by 2 inches on the pineapple dress. Haven't got around to doing the atomic flamingo mods yet!

Love this coat. I've been wanting for ages. Well its my birthday this month so, y'know, why not!

I completely changed my mind about what I'm wearing to mother in laws wedding. It will now be this:

Its the atomic flamingo design- but this is Dolores style (the one with cap sleeves which I modified a while back because they were TOO TIGHT) The sourpuss bag is one I won from Audrey Stars Boutique/British Belles. The shrug was ebay. The shoes MohedaToffeln. I have since bought a slim belt which I may or may not wear :)

Other news:

I sold the tent! 

I bought (another) paddling pool! 

The Punto failed its MOT (boo hiss) and the Peugeot required over a grands worth of work (faints) but otherwise - its going well!!

A sweet makeup case for teacher, what we did on our holidays and win win wins!!!

Unfortunately I'm not getting much done at the moment. 

Its the school holidays, which of course means I'm either at work, or looking after mine, and possibly other peoples children. I cannot do ANYTHING with children in the house, as I'm either cleaning up their mess, cooking their food, pumping up paddling pools or similar, or responding to 'muuuuuuum' or 'Lyynnnnnnn' followed by 'can I have this/Joeys hitting me/its my turn on the tablet/can you help me with this' and so on...

Anyway. I did get a superquick makeup bag made for Joeys teacher who has been great with him this year. These are so quick and easy and look much more professional if you box the corners. 

My mum sent me the external fabric which has a linen feel. The lining came from Japan (I had an etsy spree). The 'handmade' zip pull is from Emmaline Bags (also available from Bobbin Girl in the UK)

In other news, we've done our best with the british weather. Some days were good - like when the Huntingdon churches laid on this beach in the town centre, as well as free entertainment and food. It was very windy, but the sun came out.

We have of course, been to the woods. Hinchingbrooke Park is always a good option for kids.

They have cheap inflatables and fun stuff outside the garden centre too. 5 quid for endless bouncy castles, trampolines, and boating? ok then.

There was of course our camping holiday last weekend in Norfolk, which we cut short, because it rained endlessly.

Made more bearable because of a) the outdoor pool right next to our tent which the kids loved even though it wasn't that warm and b) being able to meet up with my lovely friends Anna and Nic and their spouses and children - I still have no plans to attempt camping again any time soon. 

Give me a hotel room any day :)

vintage tea room in Swaffham

Dressing like an Egyptian in Swaffham museum

At http://www.greenbritaincentre.co.uk/

In the tent. 

Little Egyptians

Oh and I nearly forgot - I've been winning some prizes lately too!!

I sadly didn't get to go to the British Belles picnic in the park, but I did win this lovely combo in their raffle:

Prize courtesy of https://www.facebook.com/AudreyStarsBoutique and https://www.facebook.com/thebritishbelles. 

The Bag of the Month prize winners have been selected.
Sadly I didn't win any of the prizes over the 6 months - although my vinyl companion bag was a finalist for the January prize - see http://handmadebymrsh.blogspot.co.uk/…/2015-finalists-bag-o….

However, I did randomly win a prize for my small companion https://www.flickr.com/…/1630776…/in/pool-bagofthemonthclub/  which was a $50 gift certificate for fabric.com (guess what they sell?!!) - which is a huge yey (as long as the delivery, customs and handling fees aren't larger than that LOL)

Full winners list here: http://sewsweetness.com/…/bag-of-the-month-club-winners.html

Well done to all the winners. Go have a look in the album at everyones entries:

https://www.flickr.com/groups/bagofthemonthclub/

Finally, I  won a bundle of beautiful fabric from the Sewing Directory!!