Christmas is coming.

And our youngest is in need of a stocking. We couldn't get her one to match the other four so I decided to make her one of her own. Annoyingly the hoop for my machine is broken and waiting on a new one but was still pleased with the outcome. The fabric is Holiday Frost which I bought from the lovely Rachel at Rooftop Fabrics. (If you haven't come across them before take a look). It is lined with a cheaper white cotton from our shop up the road and the cuff is micro fleece also from Rooftop. It has a ribbon hanger and a red button to finish it off. I was undecided whether to use a pattern or draw around one of ours and I ended up downloading a pattern from Simply Notable. You could easily just draw your own though. To add the lining I added a slightly larger seam and just popped it inside the stocking before sewing the cuff on.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

But I did!

And so it turns out that I am now the owner of Simply Sewing. Just in PDF format. I shall have a look and see what I can rustle up to put on here so you can all get an idea of what the book is like. 

We have been getting ready for Christmas here. We had a party at home today with just the family and the boys thought it was great. Yesterday we had cousins over for tea and they all ran circles round us adults. 

I had an end of a stall yesterday with some one else, very last minute, (30mins before the event), but I made a few €'s so I was pleased with that. I also learnt a bit about what people will or wont buy. Always interesting to see what people are interested in.

I hope everyone is getting on well with their preparations for Christmas.

Until next time. :)

Or Not

Well actually I didn't win as despite there being nothing in the blog post to indicate as such it's only open to US residents. I knew it was too good to be true. ;)

Shwin and WIN!

I have won! 

I was very pleased to receive the email as I had forgotten about entering the competition. Shwin and Shwin were having a giveaway over on their blog (check it out here) and the lady running the giveaway contacted me today to say I was the random number generated by rafflecopter. (Well actually she just said Congratulations you have won but you get the gist). The book is Simple Sewing by Katie Lewis. You can visit her blog here. 

I shall let you know what it is like when I receive it and have completed some of the projects. 

Family

I have just returned from a short trip back to the UK to visit family and friends and attend a hospital appointment. It was lovely to go back and see people we miss out here and to spend a bit of quality time with my parents. The children stayed behind with Dad due to commitments here. It was quite a novelty waking up in an empty bed with no small people crawling over me and eating all my lunch with no one trying to steal it from me. It is lovely being in Germany but going back home is also pretty good.

This is from earlier in the year when family came to visit us.

Making Time

So I can't remember if I told you or not but hubby and I have moved lots of furniture around and sold children's beds and bought bunk beds and had a complete over haul. The upshot of all that was I have a proper sewing space rather than the dining room table. I didn't ever really need one before we moved here as I didn't sew much before we moved here but with the purchase of the lovely Brother Innov-is 955 for Christmas last year I have found sewing has become quite a hobby. As has fabric hoarding. SO we found an Expedit unit on our local sale site and snapped it up. It has a desk and 8 cubby holes. It came with four boxes already matching the the boxes we had in our old unit which was just a bonus. Those boxes are now full of fleece, linen, wadding, cushion pads and all sorts of other gems. I still don't have quite enough space to store everything but it is looking so much better than it did before. And it has given me the urge to do a little bit of sewing. I posted already about the skirt I sewed for our youngest last night. I am still in love with the fabric and undecided quite what to do with the left overs. 

Yesterday I also made some coasters with interfacing in them. First time I have used interfacing in anything other than a shirt collar. And I was quite pleased with the result. So here they are ready to wrap.

And today I had a go at some snack bags. They look tiny as the fabric I wanted to use I have almost run out of and I had a specific person in mind when I made them. But actually they have turned out to be a great size for a handful or two of nuts or dried fruit etc. I am really enjoying trying out all these new things. 

In fact he could even keep his tees in them if he wanted to.

The final sewing make of the day I have yet to photograph as it is now in my sons room. As I said we have had a complete makeover furniture wise in their room. So I have made a small hanging tidy/caddy to hang over the end of the bunk. I will have to make one for the other son too of course but only managed to get the one finished today. I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do as he used to have one of those mid sleeper beds with a hanging tidy on it. We used to keep a teddy and the current bedtime story in it among other things. I Googled for some inspiration/consolidation of my idea and was pleased to find several pictures of very similar things. I will endeavor to get the second one done and get a picture of the two in action. 

Moving on from sewing I am currently waiting for the resin to dry in a pair of corps cuff links I have made for a friends brother in law this evening. I meant to do in months ago but he went to Canada and I have only just got round to doing it now he is back again. I am hoping to deliver them tomorrow. When they are finished I shall take a photo to share with you. 

What do you do when the husband is watching Machete?

Last night  while the hubby was watching his film I sat and looked at my stash. I have had this gorgeous babycord for a while so I decided it was time to put it to good use.

I was very happy with the result and I think she likes it. She didn't try to pull it off anyway. 

Please excuse the camera it was taken on the kindle and the little madam was determined to try and catch th  kindle and refused to sit still.

What do you do when your partner takes over the tv?

New Blog Discovery

Today I came across a great blog that I had missed out on before. It's full of tutorials, patterns and great ideas. I thought I would share it with all of you who have not yet come across it.

So please pop over and take a look. I think you'll love it.

Guilty Pleasures

I don't have much in mind to share today but I wanted to write something. So I decided to share a few pictures with you instead. 

Some of my lovely fabric

Gorgeous. . . 

Mats and Coasters ready for Christmas

 

And I leave you with our (well hubby's) Corps poppy. 

The writing bug.

I just spent an hour writing an article for the husband for a magazine. It was a work related thing but hubby bless him is not the literary type and people will ask him to do these things. I took pity as it has been going on a while and now feel I could well have trained and tabbed with the AAC team he was writing about. But it reminded me how much I used to enjoy writing. I haven't needed to write more than an email for a long time, being a mother of three small children doesn't really necessitate it. Now the youngest is almost 10 months perhaps I will find myself with a little more free time. We shall see.
I wish you all a very happy half term. We started with a busy day full of crafting and baking. I just hope I can keep up the entertainment for another 8 days. :)

Wedding pictures

I thought I would share with you a couple of 'official wedding photos'.

 They are just some of the jewellery I made for a wedding earlier this year.

 There were matching earrings for the bride and her two best ladies too.

 There were two of these slightly different but essentially the same for the two best ladies.

The bride also had a bracelet and a hair piece.

It was a beautiful day. We went back to the UK especially for it.

Must be getting old and grumpy! RANT ALERT.

When did it suddenly become OK to visit someone's house, break their stuff and say it's OK xyz told me it's alright. Is it xyz's house I want to ask? Er no it's my house, my children's toys, brand new birthday gifts in fact. An apology and offer of replacement would be standard had it been my child someone else's house. And don't get me started on the lack of manners.
It seems a standard thing now to go out trash peoples stuff and leave. We always have a party for birthdays but I am starting to think it's not such a good idea.
And while I'm ranting birthday presents, same family gave one of boys nothing and one 5€ in his card. What makes one different to the other? I gave hers an Usborne dressing up dolls book and the oldest 10€ despite being distinctly not invited to the party.
Do I have mug printed on the back of my sweater? My husband is forever telling me not to bother with people but we live in such a small community it is hard not to.
Perhaps I should take heed and shrink my hospitality.
Well hopefully that little RANT will reduce some of the stress and irritation I am feeling today.
Thank for listening. :)

Back agan

I haven't been here for four months. It's surprising how busy you find yourself with three small children. I do miss reading all my blogs so I thought I would pop back now we are getting into a routine.
I will have a bit of a catch up and will write again soon.
Hope you are all enjoying the summer.
:)

Crafty times.

I have been enjoying lots of crafting recently. 

I have made a few more crinklies.

Some cushions for the neighbour.

A couple of bracelets from leftovers.

An Easter Nest for the neighbours. (Different neighbours). 

 And two travel items for the boys. There is a dinosaur small bag. Different fabric too for the second son but not photographed yet.

It has been busy. But a lot of fun.

..

Today I have. . .

Recovered one seat of six. I was pretty sure I knew what I needed to do but I Googled a couple of examples just to be sure. It seemed fairly straight forward. 

Original chair

Then we discovered to take the pad off you needed to loosen the front legs. I had hubby intervene for me.

The underside of the pad. I removed the black lining.

Stapled on some wipe clean fabric which I love. And will hopefully last a little longer with 3 small people. 

Replaced the lining.

And Hey Presto! My first new seat. 5 more to follow tomorrow!

The rear corners were tricky and it's not perfect but it is so much better than the horrible things that were on there before. 

Making for baby. . .

Most of my makes so far, (apart from the blanket I knitted), have been for my older children or friends etc so today I sat down to make something for our daughter. It was simple enough and quite fun to make. What would you make for a baby?

My neighbours suggested smaller sized ones for taking in the pram or pushchair so I experimented this evening. They have cellophane inside so they crinkle when you touch them.

A week of making!

So I have been at home with lots of poorly people this week and it has meant I have been home more and been making more. I think there is something for everyday of the week.

Monday - Card for Aunt

Tuesday - Wedding comb for friend

Wednesday - Superhero top for son's red nose day

Thursday - Crayon roll for friends daughter

Saturday - cushion

Sunday - front of bag for finger puppets

Sunday - back of bag for finger puppets

 I can't remember what I did on Friday which is a little frustrating. But it was great to make for a week.