Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head!

Quite literally it has felt that everything you step out the door of the house over the last few months you will get rained on. First there was the jet stream that was affecting the weather and causing all the rain and then just when you think that 'crisis' is over and we did have a week of blissful sun for the first week of the school summer holidays, the rain returns! The constant sight of raindrops on the window that I look out of as I sew and the ever-increasing amount of bags filled with small fabric pieces, that I'm continuously stepping over or moving from one end of the room to the other got me thinking, there must be something I can do with them.

I am lucky that my other OH does not seem to mind too much my fabric obsession! In conversation with him the other day about the amount of bags in the room filled to bursting point with what are best described as 'fabric scraps' I mentioned that maybe I should recycle them. I was quite surprised when he answered 'really you must have some use for them'! I wonder sometimes what size fabric scrap other sewers keep and which they feel are too small to be used, I find it hard not to keep every last morsel! 

 

 

I ordered some dried lavender with the intention of making lavender sachets as gifts for my son's teachers but never managed to find the time so sitting staring at the dull winter like weather that was hitting the window the other day and with a head full of the smell of lavender I started playing around with my fabric pieces and doodling.

So please welcome my 'Patchwork Lavender Raindrops'.

I have really enjoyed sewing these, fussy cutting small pieces of fabric to get animals in the right place like this Orange Fox

and this 'Hiding Fox' {below} cut from my very precious last scraps of Cica 52 Birch fabric, the print is one of my favourite fabrics and I've been caught out by not having bought enough. I have finally tracked down a shop in the US that a metre left so are waiting its arrival eagerly, but still its a lesson to be learnt!

The raindrops are filled with dried lavender. I have made them with baby's in mind, thinking that they would look lovely placed in a nursery. Lavender helps to calm and aid sleep, lavender also acts as a insect and a moth repellent so these raindrops will be great for placing in clothes drawers or for hanging in wardrobes. Of course they aren't just for babies and can be hung or placed anywhere in the house.

 

 

I have listed them in my Etsy shop here and are hoping to add some to my folksy shop. I really hope they sell as these first six have not made dent in my 'fabric scrap stash'. I could probably make enough raindrops to fill the sky above me and still have small fabric pieces left!

Birthdays come and go

It wasn't my intention to leave it so late after my birthday to blog about it, in fact I ended up having such a lovely meal out that I felt really excited about sharing it with you - but this is the thing my birthday seems to just come and go! It's no surprise that it's often under celebrated as it comes exactly a week after my oldest child's birthday. He's due date was my birthday, I was never keen on that idea and settled happily for him being born 7 days before, but I should have realised that even having 7 days between it would mean that my birthday has no run up, very little excitement and we are often 'still' celebrating my son's birthday, but oh well, I guess that is often the case as we grow older, birthdays just aren't what they use to be!!

 

 

So my birth 'day' was pretty awful, to be honest we were still full of the fact that our oldest had just turned 7, still feeling pretty shaken by the fact that we had recently lost my Gran (that's another story) and busy with the fact that #2 was leaving pre-school to start school in September, and that #1 was finishing key-stage 1 to start key-stage 2 again in September, so my day was spent doing well 'parent' things. So it went pretty much uncelebrated. But sometimes this just isn't good enough and we well to be fair needed a treat so at the weekend we went to the River Cottage Canteen at Royal William's Yard, as you can see from the photo someone wasn't so impressed with the place, but my what a place. Royal William's Yard is a former Victualling Yard I'll admit I had to look up the history of the place when I got home and really wish I had done it before we went, it is an amazing place and the River Cottage Canteen fits in so well. 

We had a lovely lunch even with #3 stamping here feet and having a tantrum. The food was gorgeous, locally produced and in season, our waitress was brilliant with the kids which makes such a difference I think when you decide to dine out with kids. We felt welcomed, and the boys loved it.

We felt so at home that it made me question why we don't venture out more often with the kids for food, but then I remembered that this is England and we don't often manage to combine good food and child friendly atmosphere! It is one of the things that I miss from living in France. It was lovely for us all to be able to relax and still be able to eat such gorgeous food. 

 

 

Yes #3 mangaed to even sit back down and cheer up once her food arrived!

And for once even I had my photograph taken, well it was my birthday!

 

 

River Cottage Canteen is situated in the old Brewhouse building. The whole 'Royal Yard ' makes for a good wander and explore. We had a really special day out, one that we will all remember for quite a while and at a place we can't wait to go back to. And for me it was a real special birthday as I really felt like I relaxed - so for once I can't wait for the next one!

Shop Talk

Summer holidays and sunshine has meant very little time spent in the house and plenty of time spent at the beach which has been a lovely start to the school holidays but has meant that my work has taken a back step, and at what is appearing to be a very busy time for me it has meant that my late night sewing sessions have become that bit longer. Thank goodness the mornings have been lazier than normal with no school runs to have to get up to.

'A Crafty Hen' has had it's first bit of publicity this month with a feature in Folksy's online magazine Frankly Shop Talk, Jennifer Parsons - A Crafty Hen I felt when writing it that I had gone back to college, as its been a long time since I had to write something other than snippets here on my blog! I was really pleased that Folksy asked me and have also been lucky to appear in their 'best sellers' list a few times lately.

 

{Please excuse the imagine I was hoping to somehow show a picture of the interview and using Instagram was the only way I could think to do it!}

I was also asked recently if I would mind being featured in a new blog Great British Family it's a lovely blog where they aim to showcase the best Great Britain has to offer for the family, a place to showcase the talents we have here in the UK aimed at families, particularly to show case designers, handmade artists and photographers.
I was really happy with the article they did on 'A Crafty Hen' .

So all in all it's been a good week for me and my 'little business'!
It's very exciting to watch it grow and to wonder where it will be in a couple of years!

One Summers Day

I am sat here 10am on a Monday morning in July, I can hear the rain pouring down outside and I have the lights on as it is so dark and grey. I am dressed in jeans and a long sleeved top which wouldn't be out of place on a winter's day and I am surrounded by piles of laundry waiting for a dry day to get washed. The fact that it is mid way through July is crazy, doesn't bear thinking about. Only 2 more days until the boys break up from pre-school and school and the 'summer holidays' commence. So far the British Summer here in Devon has been awful, the wettest and dullest that I can remember, so it was amazing yesterday to wake not only to some sunshine but also to a weather forecast that showed no rain for the day! 

With a chance of a day without rain there was only one thing the family wanted to do and that was to head to the beach.

We can only hope that 'Summer' decides to appear again soon and we can get out and about a bit more. For my oldest it did make a lovely ending to what has been his Birthday week! He turned 7 on Wednesday. Seven I can't believe it, it seems so grown up. I have also noticed that turning 7 seems to mean that taking a photo of him has become very difficult, in fact quite rare! I can't quite decide whether it is because he rarely stays still or if he no longer thinks it's 'cool' to have his mum constantly taking pictures of him! Either way I feel his birthday passed by with only a few photo reminders but hopefully his memories will stay with him for a while well at least until his next birthday!

  

And The Winner is.................

Thank you to everyone who entered the Summersville fabric giveaway.

So without any further delay, the winner is.............

Number 26, Mousey Brown!

 Picked at random by the Random Number Generator which has had be baffled all morning as I couldn't paste it to blogger with the result showing, so out of desperation I eventually took a photo, I guess I got there in the end even though I'm sure it didn't need to be so complicated!

Well done to Mousey Brown for being the lucky winner of Seamstar's giveaway. 

For all of you who didn't win don't worry as just as this giveaway has ended another has just begun! 

For Seamstar's next giveaway they are offering a Flea Market Fancy fabric bundle up for grabs. All you need to do is head over to Kerry's lovely blog very berry handmade and leave a comment. 

And the great thing about this giveaway is even I can enter!!

My weekend on Instagram!

As technology moves forward there are many times that I feel that my brain is still in rubber key spectrum era! I watch my 4 year old with amazement as he scrolls around on the computer and just seems so at ease with it, and its many uses. There are times when I am quite happy to sit back and watch the latest 'fad' pass me by without feeling the need to get involved or even to try and understand but then there are times when some things fascinate me and make me want to try and 'upgrade' my brain to learn to use them and Instagram is one of them. I've noticed photos taken using it have started to appear on many of the blogs that I follow and since putting it on my phone I've fallen for its charm and ease of putting filters on photos. It did take me a while to figure out how to transfer them onto here but thanks to the help from Lou at Little Green Shed I have discovered a way, so I apologise in advance but I think you will be seeing a lot more of  my filtered Instagram photos! 

So here is my Weekend on Instagram......

Friday ended with sunshine something we have lacked so far this summer so daisy chain making and eating watermelon with its sweet juices were enjoyed. 

And then there was the visit to the fish mongers which I'm pleased to say has become a family ritual on a Saturday and has encouraged the kids to eat and enjoy eating fish like this pollock topped with a parmesan breadcrumb crust. 

And then there was the arrival of scribble and some other prints from Ed Emberleys fabric collection 'Happy Drawing'. The prints are inspired from his Drawing Book of Animals, which was his first learn-to-draw book originally published in 1970 and still going strong today, and my oldest is such a fan of his 'Make a World' book that I couldn't resit buying his fabric's and have already listed some baby bibs and gift sets made using these quirky organic fabrics in my shops.

And then on Sunday we went for a walk on Gem Bridge an amazing bridge 24 metres high that crosses the valley and is such an amazing construction that even the youngest members of our 'walking' party couldn't help but be impressed! 

Not a bad weekend considering the rain that we are experiencing and it's even pouring down as I type.

So for those of you on Instagram I can be found here!
Oh and there is still time to enter Seamstar's  Summersville Giveaway on here where they are offering a bundle of fabric from Lucie Summers first collection all you need to do is leave a comment. Competition ends on Friday the 6th Good Luck! 

Seamstar Summersville Giveaway

A few weeks ago I was contacted by the lovely Courtney who runs the gorgeous online fabric shop Seamstar about whether I would like to hold a giveaway on their behalf, well I jumped at the chance, the only downside is that I've since realised I can't enter the giveaway myself!

So here it is - Seamstar are offering one fabric bundle from the Summersville Collection containing 6 quarter meter pieces of fabric. Wonderful! The prize also includes free p&p and is worth over £20.

You see I want it all! 

Summersville is Lucie Summers first fabric collection for Moda Fabrics it is modern and bright, perfect for quilting, bags and children's clothes and accessories. Seamstar have the whole collection in stock now.

To have a chance of winning all you need to do is leave a message on this blog post. You have until the 6th of July to enter, after that a winner will be chosen at random. On top of that Seamstar are also offering 10% off to Sew Obsessed readers until the giveaway finishes (excludes sale items). Just enter the code SOJune into the discount box when checking out to claim your 10% discount. So how great is that!

So I'm off to do some fabric shopping! 

Seamstar is a lovely established online Craft Shop which specialises in contemporary craft products. The shop is packed full of Modern Fabrics, Trimmings, Ribbons, which I highly recommend and felt. Seamstar is an easy website to navigate and use and their service is fabulous with wonderful rapid delivery. 

 

So there you go - leave a comment, just the one for a chance to win the fabric bundle. Make sure there's also a way to contact you in the comment too, Good luck :)

Right now for the necessary terms and conditions.

The prize (but not the amount of fabric) may vary from the photos shown, 

The winner will be sent the prize free of charge after the draw has taken place.

Non-UK people can enter but free postage is only up to UK post value and you will have to make up the difference.

All prizes must be claimed within 30 calendar days.

Thank you to all those that entered.

The giveaway has now closed.