Car Portraits and stashing up...

When I first started to read blogs about three years ago, there was a real pattern to the way our community would blog, I liked it, it was a routine, it became familiar and each day I would look forward to the different theme of that particular time. One of the photographic inspirational headings was 'Car Portraits' various snaps taken in the car,  now if you have little ones you will understand this heading, because a lot of time is spent in the car when your babes are young. It might be taking them to the park, or a play date.  Maybe your just driving around in desperation of getting your baby to sleep, yer I guess most of us have done that, I used to take my knitting with me and a flask, I would pull up in a nice spot once babe was asleep and have some creative time.  The thought of taking pictures and portraits of those snatched moments in the car when your rushing, not thinking about taking pictures, well I found it appealing.  So I have been doing this, but not of me, of the babes, which is why I have not shared it before. Today though I was sitting in the car, having had my morning swim and I was just flicking through the pictures on my camera from the weekend... Click... One self portrait... 
The power of a picture is quite amazing.  It was the Harrogate Twisted Thread show this weekend and for the last five years I have attended, this year was the first year that I was recognised.  So that little square inch of a picture of me really must look like me if someone I have never met can say "Are you Suzie Sews?"  It was nice, I had that 'community' feel, a group of people who would never normally meet say "Hi" and open up a whole new friendship, yes it was nice...

So as this was a stocking up stashing event for me, I knew what I needed and I went straight for the goodies.  Buttons...
Some fun Japanese fabric...
Stocking up on Boden fabric from my favorite fabric supplier...
Being the Boden girl that I am!
I bought the new Knitting kit that's just hitting the UK market... its a present so I can not share to much more at this stage...
Of course I bought some sock yarn, and within an hour of getting home I got it on the needles...
So with all this shopping, selling and chatting... my little feet needed a rest and what could be better than a moment or two with a pair of the most beautiful feet in the world...

I hope you all had a good weekend and I look forward to catching up with some of my favorite blogs in the coming week, I think its a busy time all round with the plans of Thanks Giving and Christmas getting in full swing, I peeked back to this time last year on my blog and I wrote about it being a quite time then, funny how these patterns are formed...

cup cakes and catastrophes...

Cup cakes and catastrophes...yep that was the kind of day Monday was...I had planned on some serious sewing room time and sadly I only got to my favourite room at home for a couple of hours...Now I am showing you the results in reverse order as the horror of my fist creation might be too upsetting to start with... SO the day started very well with a ring on the bell and a visit from the postie with a lovely BIG brown box from Amazon, because you know I just did not get enough books for Christmas, yer right! The book that got me really jumping for joy was Warm Fuzzies by Betz White, apparently she is one of us, a blogger and jolly good one at that, her lovely little pin cushions just shouted out to me 'MAKE ME and make me NOW'. I should have sat down there and then and made them instead I followed my crazy idea to design my own stuffie. The result was a catastrophe, so I decided to make a pin cushion to restore my faith in my abilities...I made it for my littlest ones new kitchen and I can see many more of these being made...easy and fun...half an hours work max...
So on to the designing, right many of you are really great at this, so being inspired I thought I would be OK. I picked a project I like...owls. Easy enough, I wanted to make the design mine so I approached it from a different angle from ones I had seen...BIG MISTAKE...So with a lot of mess and fiddling around...

I present to you my owl...brace yourself...you have been warned...the front view...
The side view...
The back view...
I showed Owlie (the name given to my little creation) to my children at tea time, my older one looked at it, lifted up his wings, fiddled with his eyes, had a good squeeze and then said 'Mommy the colours are great!!!' Oh bless how diplomatic:-) If it was meant to be a penguin it might have helped...Saying all of that, the best bit of the day was when my youngest handed me his bedtime bears so he could sleep with Owlie!!!
If all that was not enough to make you turn off your computer...its Self Portrait Tuesday...this was taken by my older child on Sunday morning, minutes after I had got up, this time I am very thankful that he is a bit wobbley when he takes photo's.

I can not Ok this post without giving credit were it is due... I name Small Fox and LucyKate Crafts and the Queens of owl making...

Its all going on...

The winning just keeps on going, Capello from No Appropriate Behaviour the winner of the 100th post liberty giveaway emailed me to say she is not a knitter so I will swap the shades of blue yearn for a fq of some fabric from my stash. Which means the yarn is up for another chance to win, or should I keep it my stash??? OK we did another raffle, this felt like a fair thing to do for a few reasons, as I have two children, two more names, the yarn being one little giveaway (unless this winner is also a non knitter) and the other will be a handmade pin cushion.
So in second and third place of the raffle the winners are...Joanna from On the Blossom Trail and Julia from Vintage Heaven. So get your address over to me and the goodies will be sent at the end of the week.
Ok that's it all done, now to concentrate on the next 100 posts... I had to throw in these two gratuitous photo's of flowers, I blogged about them earlier this month. They are my favourite flowers and as a florist I like a LOT of flowers. They are from my garden and the previous post about them was when they had just budded. Well they are now picked and in my kitchen. A whole week earlier than usual. They are my birthday flowers. I love flowers in the house and these are just special to me. Since the first year I have lived here (they only got planted in the first year) they always flower on my birthday. So they will have blown over by them sadly, but I am enjoying them now. I am hoping to buy a little treat for myself from a fellow blogger, you know when you look at the stuff bloggers sell and you really want it, but don't do it. Well maybe this time I will...I believe in making birthdays special no matter what age you are, the gift of life is a precious thing and should be celebrated. Also being adopted Birthdays can make me quite sad. So I always like to chase away the blues by making it fun and what could be more fun than sharing it with my children.
Now talking of children, this is the moment I have waited for...whilst my youngest slept in the garden on Sunday my older son asked to play with my sewing machine. I had gone to great lengths to get him one for Christmas, a child friendly one with a safety cover by the needle. Well I agreed we would set him up, he was so excited. We pulled out the safety machine (my child has suffered from poor hearing and it has had an effect on his hand eye co-ordination so I was a little concerned). I watched his face fall as the silly little machine was utter RUBBISH!!! We hit the garage looking for the box that had stored away my VERY OLD and well used first machine, it had discoloured somewhat, but it did work. He took to it like a duck to water... NO, straight seams are not for him, with in minutes we had mastered circles (admittedly a little wonky) and he just took to changing the stitches without any advise form me. The end result is a picture of a little stick man. No photograph of this as its in my sewing room ready to be turned into a fabric quilted picture. Talk about a proud Mommy moment. This was a nice moment as it was fathers day and as their Dad was too busy working and I was missing mine it helped with the emotions of the day.
Anyway this sort of play continued, my child just itching to do the stuff that he sees his Mommy doing. Whilst I was taking some pictures he wanted a go. This is just one of his photo's, his first self portrait. As a family we do this style picture in the summer on the beach as you get great shadows and contrast, I have a record of them growing up just from this kind of picture.
So its all going on here...all the busy stuff I had on last week is done, the flowers in Church turned out OK, not as happy with them as usual but I was racing the clock, not to mention a little helper who wanted to run off with everything. The school fair was a success, I had two helpers in the craft room this summer and they really did a good job, the children enjoyed it and it was a lot easier as the things we made did not need so much one to one help. The sell out was the Grass Heads, so if your about to arrange a summer fair I can recommend this one, the kids love it and our grass head (Bert) is getting watered daily on the kitchen window ledge. I so love watching kids do art work, allowed to do their own thing the work and ideas they come up with are so inspiring.

Last but not least...
I was delivered some joy by the postman, my swap with Rebecca from Crafty Goodness arrived. I had expected one possibly two magazines from her and look at the bounty of stuff I got. Plus some cool vintage goodies. I am so enjoying these magazines, I have really dipped into them over the last couple of days, a joy indeed. Over the pond the magazines are sooo much more interesting than the ones you get here. Country Living, Coast and the new Charlie and lola craft mag are about as good as it gets here. So I thank you Rebecca from the heart, the postage on its own was a fortune. I really appreciate it and I hope you enjoy your goodies.

Self portrait Tuesday/Amazon!

Holly Molly (seems to be the in saying as the kids come out of school at the moment) my Amazon order arrived, at last. I ordered these books ages ago, but I had a pre-order in the trolley so it was never going to get here until that book was due out, so I changed my order and BINGO it arrived. What joy. I am a real bookie. I adore the look and the feel of most books. Pre-children I used to spend hours in book shops, long before we had the big stores with coffee shops in. My house has books all over the place (yep I mean all over, little piles here and there) I am very comforted by books, I feel very odd when I go to a house with no books out. SO a nice little selection...I needed a treat I have felt rubbish this week. I have had a sore throat and generally feel horrid, my voice is a scratchy squeaky sound in the morning and at night, despite being tired I keep myself awake with a pathetic little cough that actually really hurts. SO as you can guess I have been dreaming about all the stuff I want to be making, but not actually getting a lot done. I guess I am run down again, it happens! So on with the goodness. I sat up late in bed with my ipod plugged into my ears a lemony drink and went through all three books. Naughty but nice. Well actually not as great as I would have liked... Simple sewing is the most lovely book, in look, design and content, anything that you do not have to enlarge using a copier is good with me. I have seen it on a few blogs and felt the need to buy, it did not disappoint, if you loved the Amy Butler's In Stitches, you will like this, Snap is the word I would use!!!But just look at this hat, it is beautiful, I so want to make at least three of them. It also helps that it is in my all time best colour...Green, yum!
The surprise treat was Yer I made it myself, I was not sure this would be any good, it was a cheapy. Well I assure you its a joy, fun and frivolous, but not for everyone. If you are neat and precise this is NOT the book for you. I do like my work to look neat and professional at times but sometime I just to it for the fun of it and relax the rules, well actually anyone that knows me would tell you I do this most of the time, especially with knitting. Well this book embraces this theory to the max, some are just plain silly most are fun, this skirt is a treat and as for the chapter on felt, Oh lovely stuff... Sadly the House proud was a disappointment. I have seen most of the stuff before and mostly around the eighties, I still have the craft books to prove it. I have read various reviews of this women, cool funky style etc...and I guess if she is reaching out to a new generation then that's cool, but it just did not do it for me. I did however like her pattern making skill...where did I put that old newspaper then...Now if this has wet your appetite on reading material now go and hop over to Treefall, after a well deserved trip to New York her review of her purchases are just fantastic. I am not a city girl and have no inclination to head off to a city, but what that girl has brought back with her is enough to make you run out and drop all responsibility and buy a ticket to NY.
Self portrait Tuesday!!! I have been reading blogs for about a year now and had my own since January. When I first started there was pattern to the days ..Self portrait Tuesday, Thursday-corners of my home and WIP Friday. Some bloggers still stick to this others come and go with it as they feel. I have never been inclined to do a self portrait, but whilst I have been off colour and not making much I have been doing lots of camera play, so much so that my oldest wanted to get in on the act, so a few snaps later (well a lot of snaps later)...now it might look fairly anonymous, but in fact its good likeness, I am known for my rather wild curly hair, the present colour is a shocking red, more so than on this snap, but I think a good job was done here. So I guess I might be getting out my old digital camera for my budding enthusiast...