A charity shop find!!

I am never normally lucky enough to find anything in the charity shops! or normally I get beaten to it! yet on Friday as I was going to work, the charity shop opposite my shop was just putting out the most lovely high chair ever!! It was even green like my shop, so obviously meant to be mine!! and here is a photo of it, I just love it! It turns into a table and chairs too!

It has been a busy week as always for Fin and Gabs! I have such a paper trail of activities, trips, yellow day, book day and a parents evening on top! Some days Fin has to be at school early and finish late and on a different day Gabs has to be there early, they need their own calendars! I tell you they are so tired on an evening, Fin has been heading up to bed early, after doing minimum amount of homework I add! and I go up to tuck him in and he is snoring away! Glad to say we have a break from footy until the end of March as his team has played enough matches so we can have a few family Sundays to look forward to.
With Mothers Day coming up I have been making some new makes to try and get ahead, here are a selection,

I have been getting some fab new fabric for a few vintage style projects coming up,

They are all so lovely and just waiting to be made into something nice!
Have a lovely week all of you, hopefully with some sunshine.

Snow, Valentines and New Makes

Sunny Scarborough not so sunny and warm today but snowy and sunny! We awoke to a blanket of snow, lovely! so off we went on our ritual Sunday walk around the Marine Drive. It is really strange to walk around the bay, see the sand and the sea and be walking on thick snow! quite magical really, Fin and Gabs were in their element throwing snowballs all the way round!
Gabs has been off on her first school trip to York and stayed overnight, she had a wonderful time at the Jorvik Centre and at The Jorvik Dig! Gabs has also been moved up to the next level in books so is now on Gold, still not doing so good in Maths but the level she is at she gets help, I just tell her that you can't be good at everything and just do your best, that's all you can do! I too was never any good at maths and it took me three times to gain a grade c in my GCSE, I had to have it otherwise I would not have got into the University I wanted to! That though was many many moons ago!!
Fin meanwhile has been doing really well in Table Tennis and brought home the trophy of the week last week, there does not seem to have been any footy matches lately! and no weekend footy this weekend due to snow!! so a Sunday off! yay!
Valentines Day is coming up so have been busy making all sorts of things! for all you romantics out there! I will of course do a card for Will, we don't bother with pressies or anything like that though. Her is a few Valentine makes I have been doing,

I have made lots more but not photographed them yet! Will do some photo taking tomorrow! Red and white polka dots everywhere!

Wedding fever is well and truly about too! Have had lots of sample making for Brides, each Bride has wanted something different as well. It is all good fun!

January has also seen Magazine commissions coming in, some old favourites and also some new exciting ones too. It would seem lots of Babies are being born as well so I have had to step up a bit and be prepared for that! I have been making some new bits,

These have been a success as I personalise them with names so they make a great keepsake. I have cards to match but can't seem to find the image!
I also have another stockist confirmed now so that's exciting, when I have the stock made for them I will show you.
I now have quite a few hearts to cut out for a Wedding due next week and a project to write up ready to post so have a great week everyone.

Baby?

"Mum, you're not pregnant are you?"
Those are the words which Gabs asked me yesterday! innocently over a coffee whilst Fin was at Table Tennis!
"No Gab! why"
Was my reply,
"Oh well you'll just have to adopt one then, but I want a girl, and she has to be my age, so Fin can't play with her!
What can I really say to that!

Sibling rivalry at its best!

A great start to the year! and Happy Birthday Hubby!

Not really!!! We awoke on Friday to a lovely note from our neighbour saying we had a  rather large hole in our roof! That put a damper on the start of 2012, had been quite happy the previous day with good news of magazine commissions for the year ahead, still what can you do! It is now fixed before the rain comes again but they do say things come in threes so I do expect more of the same!                                                  Wills birthday seems to every year crop up really quickly! Happy Birthday Will! Better not say how old but it's 40 plus a few! This year I was actually prepared! Nice tea cooking and everything! Unfortunately today was Fins first day back at footy so Will has spent the afternoon on the footy field! still, gave me chance to sort out said nice tea! The score was 7-4, hmmm Fin not in a very good mood! He did score one of the four goals though! so well done Fin.

Fin and Gabs back to school tomorrow, I am sure they are pleased as for the last two days they have done nothing but fight! I am ashamed to say that I have only just done the ironing of the uniforms! I have had three weeks! I always leave absolutely everything to the last minute! Though it is one my New Year Res to be a little more prepared and of course give up chocolate! lasted three months last year! am only on day seven and trying not to look at all Fin and Gabs sweets!
Been making lots of Valentine cards, see I am actually prepared!
Made these little bits this week,

Been having some fun finding some bright and cheery fabrics for new makes, I love it after the holiday is over and we can concentrate on the coming months and brighten everything up! even though it is dark and drab nearly all the time!Saying that, it has been really nice here all day, we had a nice walk along the beach this morning before footy.
Well nice tea is nearly ready so have a lovely week everyone.

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas

It's been a while!! Hope you all had a really lovely Christmas, we all did, it was nice and quiet and just the four of us, we went to visit Grandma and Grandad at the farm, had a gorgeous breakfast, got some gifts from Santa and then had a lovely rest of the day at home. We are all totally tired and sleeping lots, even Gabs!! she was the last one up yesterday, that is a first!!
Fin and Gabs did however try to get up at 1.00 am on Christmas morning! needless to say the pair of them were sent back to bed, they did eventually get to sleep and we ended up not getting up until 8.30! Fab!
I am loving the lie ins I must say. I do not miss the school run at all and am actually quite glad that we have another week free of it yet!
Now that the mad time of Christmas is over, I went back into work after being closed for a few days to be greeted with a massive mess in my work area! so New Years res no:1 TIDY  UP! blimey what a tip.
I can now show you a commission I had for a seaside project as they have now been given out, I did show these in a gallery exhibition but have had commissions from the originals, this is one of them,

I really enjoyed doing these as they are always different as customers ask for messages to be placed in the postcards which are relevant to their family, I have a few to do for presents later in the new year.
I hope that you all have a great New Year celebration whatever you may be doing and see you all in 2012!

Handmade Christmas

It would seem everyone is having a handmade Christmas this year, I am really enjoying making all my decs and thought I would show you these new ones,

It is such fun getting them all ready and I have a more than willing helper in Gabs!! Obviously I give Gabs her own to paint and decorate for her own little tree in her bedroom, she just loves to sit and paint and has made some lovely ones, though I do have to keep an eye on the amount of  my favourite stickles glitter she uses as she is rather partial to it!
A little news about Fin. He has a championship match in Table Tennis tomorrow, Well done Fin!! he is very glad as it is school time so he misses Literacy!! hmmm Fin, somehow I think you will have to catch up anyway! His footy weekends have been a bit of a disaster lately, they lost again this Sunday 4-0, Fin got injured on top of an already injured leg, but went back on anyway. i am going to have to put my foot down before long as he is not getting any better but won't give in!
Gabs doesn't really say much about school, except what she had for dinner and who she played with!
Speaking of school, time for reading books and spelling tests!
Have  a lovely week everyone.

Christmas Goodies from Bloggy friends!

I have had some lovely thing this week from people I have met through blogging. I am a real fan of Jenny Arnott and have ordered some of her lovely things for my shop, here are a few,

  All the above are by Jenny who handmakes all her work from her studio in Somerset,she has a lovely website, blog and also Etsy, Folksy and Not on the High Street shops. Her blog can be found here,
http://jennyarnott.blogspot.com/
Another delivery I had this week was a batch of new Christmas cards by the lovely Julia Crossland, Julia paints fantastic pictures from her riverside studio in the Peak District near Sheffield and makes some into prints and cards. I had some cards last Christmas and also during this summer have sold her everyday cards, particularly seaside scenes as living in Scarborough they go very well, here is some of Julia's work, the first picture being her gorgeous new Christmas cards for this year, my latest delivery,

Julia has a terrific website  and a lovely blog which you can find here,

http://juliacrossland.blogspot.com/

I am also hoping that Julia is going to do an exhibition of her paintings in the Summer of 2012 at

http://www.eatmecafe.com/

This is a local cafe on the same street as my shop, the two owners now also have a micro gallery which used to be my old shop! I help to run it and organise exhibitors, it is fun and something different, so it will be fab if Julia exhibits! if you click onto the above site you can connect to the link for the gallery.


It so great to have met these people through blogging, just shows that blogging really can be worth all the effort! I love to have these two ladies work in my shop it fits in along side my handmade items and takes a little bit of pressure off me to handmake everything in there, (which I can't!!) I spend my whole days making cards, notebooks, pictures and Christmas ornaments at the moment!, I have just done a vintage style friendship set today, here it is,

Fin and Gabs are just doing their homework so I am grabbing a few minutes to do this or it will be too late as usual!
They are back into school nicely and gearing up for all the winter term activities, loads of them!!! Fin is on all teams he can possibly be on and spends his whole weekend when not playing footy relaxing to prepare for the next week! Table Tennis match tomorrow and inter school footy matches.
Gabs started her recorder today so she is pleased about that, she is also desperate to learn Piano, has always loved it so I think I may have to sort that out for her, she is turning out to be quite theatrical and enjoys drama, not the dancing, singing side just the drama and she really is funny when she does little performances!
Funny how they are so different! Fin, like me, would be mortified to do any kind of Drama in front of anyone! Gabs however does follow her big brother and loves to play footy with him much to his annoyance!
Now off to test both Fin and Gabs on their spellings and listen to reading books before bed!
Have a great week everyone.