Candy!!!

Have you got any candy, chocolate and other goodies left from Christmas? We are nearly through it...just this one jar and a few luxury chocolates. I love this jar, I made a few jars up for pressies this year (the idea came from the Country Living magazine). I saw a box of sweets from my childhood and thought they would make a great gift for someone I know with a sweet tooth... The little box was £40.00 I had a closer look at the contents and worked out that there was only about £10.00 worth of sweets, so whilst the box was adorable the gift was for a man who would just not appreciate the box so this was my solution...Of course I had to check that the sweets really did taste like they did when I was a little person...
Now on to a candy of a different sort...eye candy...more to the point my WIP...I bought this fabric pre Christmas and fell in love with it, I was planning on a wall hanging...nothing fancy just pinning it around a board and hanging it up...then I was looking through my latest copy of Homespun and saw this lovely wall hanging with an embroidered centre...so I copied the bird and sat the last two nights embroidering it, picking up all the colours form the fabric, hopefully later on today I will make it into a cushion...
I have also being playing with buttons, all the lovely button wreaths over Christmas and also some super cool buttons from artsycraftybabe gave some inspiration here. So I got the glue gun out and had a little play...what a mess...I am still picking buttons up days later...anyway I made a load of pins which as usual I gave away to some friends, but I made a special one for my new coat, yes its from Boden, a beautiful green velvet coat, it can not have escaped you that green is my favourite colour, usually I struggle to buy clothes in green, at the moment it seems to be everywhere, I don't know if I am happy or not about this, as it will still be my favourite colour once the fashion designers have moved on to another shade. Anyway I am very pleased with the result and it was just so SIMPLE!!! Glue a few buttons together and glue a pin to the back of it... Here is the funky scarf for my youngest. Last Christmas I made one for my older child, a blue one with a boat design, it was a fun and easy project to do over the busyness of the holiday period, not much thought needed and very portable. Once the desired length was achieved I lined it with some fleece for softness and warmth, as soon as I sew together all the pieces of the sweater to match it, it will be a cool set for my little chap...
Yes once I sew up the sweater, all the pieces are knitted I just need to sit down and sew them together...actually I have a couple of knits at this stage, I am always so eager to get on to the next project...as you can see from my current knitting basket which sits next to my chair so I can curl up in the evenings in front of the fire and click away.

I have recently started a HUGE project for me, a swing coat...now this will be an ongoing project, I imagine until this time next year, I know I will not have the commitment to stay faithful to it...Oh look...its green!!!
So here are the new additions to my fabric stash, mostly bought in the sales, first from my favourite ebay shop...Sal has some really super stuff that you often struggle to get in the UK and she is so so generous, I have always had one or two extra fat quarters in my order and on this order I got some little Christmas blocks for the children and some great little patchwork squares that I am itching to put together. Thanks Sal. You can link to her shop through her blog... I also made two trips to a patchwork shop sale, I was buying some fabric for my current quilt, but also to stock up my stash for the year...so yes I did go a little mad...
and there's more...
Of course storage is always a problem so I purchased another rack for my new goodies... With that lot, I am moving happily into the New year with lots of projects in my head and some already in progress...So much so, I shall away and get an hour in the sewing room before the school run...

PS Thanks for all the reassurance about the dynamics of friendships and the relationship to the status of children from my previous post, its good to know its not just me.