Goodbye 2010

 We have a household full of kids with chicken pox. So the last few days and nights have been difficult and tiring to say the least. But we have the music going now and are having a boogie with the kids and I don't think it'll be long before we treat ourselves to a glass of Elderflower Champagne, so we are slowly getting into the spirit of things! 

 [Flossing after the turkey!]

We won't be staying up to see midnight in, hopefully we will be snoring away catching up on some lost sleep! 

Whatever your celebrations I hope you all have a good night.

Wishing you a very Happy New Year, 

and a Prosperous 2011

xxxxxx

This Is It!!

The mince pie and carrot are by the fire waiting for Father Christmas and his reindeer, the children's stockings are ready and we have just put three very excited kids to bed!

We've been tracking Father Christmas and as I write he is delivering presents to children in Madagascar!
So he is on his way!
I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas,
Best wishes and enjoy xxx

Finished And Complete!!

The last of the wrapping is finished. 

The trip to the butchers is done, and my last bits of sewing are complete!

Our daughter's present is a wooden pram, and no pram would be complete without a quilt set!

The pram has red wheels so using this as my inspiration I chose a Russian Doll fabric that I have had in my stash for ages and I couldn't resist teaming it with one of the Westfalenstoffe prints.

 
I've made it reversible and it'll be interesting to see which side she prefers to tuck her dolls up in.

 
I've used a plain linen for the mattress and also used it with the Russian doll print on one side of the pillow which is my favourite part of the set.
So with this present finished I have put my sewing machine to bed for Christmas!
Well until Boxing Day that is!

4 More Sleeps To Go!

Every morning my oldest tells me how many more sleeps there are till Christmas. Too him the ever decreasing number of days brings excitement, for me it brings on just an ounce of stress and concern! Will we have everything ready for the big day!

The disruption caused by the snow might mean that certain parcels haven't arrived and that a weekend spent with my parents in law didn't quite go as planned, with them stuck the other side of the moor, with the only road between us closed by the police due to heavy snow, but the snow has meant that Mr D hasn't been able to work, which has it's bonuses as it's meant that I've been able to get on with making Christmas presents.

After seeing the flannel/Voile scarf tutorial over on Seamzine I knew that I wanted to make them for my mum and sister and of course myself!! I was wondering what Anna Maria Horner's voile would be like to work with, so I decided I best make my scarf first, purely for learning purposes you understand! The Diamond Mine in Ink goes perfectly with her flannel Forest Hills in Moonlight which I have become just a little obsessed with, and have already bought more to use for a blanket for #3. The scarves are very quick to do, I found the cutting took the longest. The voile and flannel are lovely to sew through.

The finished scarf can be worn wrapped round 2 or 3 times. Worn with the voile against your skin it gives you the feeling of wearing silk and worn the other way, the flannel makes it the most cosy of scarves. I chose a mix of mauves and yellows for my mum's scarf and Diamond Mine Sky for my sister's.

I apologise over the quality of the photographs!! They do not show the scarves at their best, but time is limited and I decided to try and do them myself rather than rope Mr D into helping. There is something about the bottom photo that I adore however unclear it is!
Right that's another job to tick off my Xmas to do list!!
I am slowly getting through the jobs and have high hopes that on Christmas Eve we will be able to relax with a glass of port, rather than having the last minute rush wrapping gifts, that has over the years become quite normal in our house at Christmas time!

Busy Sewing Stockings!

In any spare time that I've found lately I've been busy making stockings for the kids. Last year they ended up using some walking socks of ours as we couldn't find their stockings. And I've come to the conclusion after rummaging through the attic that somehow they have ended up being thrown out. Of course no Christmas is complete without hanging up your stocking on Christmas Eve so I've been eager to get this project finished.

I found a free pattern on Denyse Schmidt site's called "All the Trimmings Stockings" and if I'd looked properly would have noticed that she includes a pattern for the stocking that you can print out and enlarge. I didn't notice so got Mr D to draw the shape for me, which I think adds to the uniqueness of them. I made the first stocking up following the pattern's instructions for quilting through all three layers, folding down the top edge and sewing around the top, but I don't think the finish is very neat, though that's probably a lot more to do with me rushing than the pattern!

So for the other two I made a separate liner that I sewed in at the end and I much prefer the finish. I also played around with the "trimmings" and added some of the fabric from the body of the stockings to the top. I'm really pleased with how they have turned out and also of how quickly they came together.

  I also love the fact that they are similar but different enough that each child has one that is their own so hopefully no arguing Christmas morning over whose is whose!
And of course the most important thing is the fact that the boys are also very happy with them, especially the size of them. They have never had such big stockings and are now busy imagining how many gifts Father Christmas will be able to fit into them. Saying that I too are wondering how many presents it's going to take to fill them!

A Christmas Sale!

 

 With Christmas quickly approaching and the last posting date before Christmas in my shop being the 15th of December, I am offering 20% off all Christmas Bibs and Decorations.

So if your looking for a special something for a little person or a unique decoration to decorate your home then please take a look in my Folksy shop.

 

 

Vintage Wise Old Men

It's surprising what can be found in a sleepy village in Devon.

Well actually, not that sleepy, it would be better described as positively thronging! Which is a great sight to see and one that I feel I miss out on, as I normally work on a Saturday. So with day off work booked we decided last minute to cancel our family shopping trip to Exeter, I'm so glad we did. We haven't been to Exeter for well over a year and I have very fond memories of sitting outside a cafe by the Cathedral but whatever were we thinking, Christmas shopping with three young kids?? Thankfully we came to our senses before it was too late and headed instead to Ashburton. 

Ashburton is filled with independent shops, antiques and collectables sit amongst quirky giftware shops, and a lovely vintage emporium that was so wonderfully set up that the boys collapsed onto the sofas and asked where the TV was! Which was great as it gave me chance to mooch and stumble across these two vintage hanging ornaments and this lovely teal vintage fabric.

We found an amazing fish deli, that not only provided us with red mullet for our evenings dinner but also a great selection of olives where we found the brightest green olives I've ever seen. They even had a sign up saying "these have not been dyed" as they were so vivid. The boys came to the conclusion that they must be alien olives!

I couldn't resist this card by Rob Ryan which I hope to frame as part of our decorations. 

But it really was these two wise men that were the star find of the day, with their crowns and their jewels, and who are now going to take pride of place in our festive decorations.

Christmas Shopping, Fabric Style!

Christmas offers such a perfect excuse to do some fabric shopping!

And I've been doing my fair share lately. Luckily the weather hasn't managed to stop our postman doing his deliveries! In fact Mr D thinks I single handily keep the Post Office going,
how cheeky of him! 

I've been after some festive fabric to make the children's stockings out of, a print that's not too childish, something that is reasonably stylish, and I think I've definitely found it in these quirky prints from Westfalenstoffe, which I brought from Celticfusionfabrics. 

They are adorable, and I haven't been able to resist ordering more when I saw a few different prints over at Fabricrehab. I've also bought some fabrics over at Saints and Pinners. I think they will become a staple in my stash and not only for Christmas as I can imagine so many uses for them and at £1.75 for 1/4 meter they are very good value for money.

 
 As for today, I spent a lovely hour this morning shopping for voiles and flannels to use to make Christmas presents, well that was my excuse! It was a very indulgent online shopping trip that unfortunately came to a very abrupt end when I realised that the washing machine pipe which I thought I had defrosted was in fact still frozen and we had a stinking puddle of dirty water on the utiltiy floor.

How ever lovely the sprinkling of snow we've had is, I really wouldn't mind it getting just a little warmer!