This is what I found on the kitchen table when I came down this morning , these two are Hebe's Jelly Cat's, she has two as having found out from bitter experience with her older brother and sister, much upset can come from the loss of a special toy...
So now she has a spare, but as she tends to take them both everywhere with her we would have double the upset if she lost them !, so that Idea has not really worked...

All my children have 'special toys', from left to right we have 'Hippo' belonging to Freya 11 years, 'Monkey' who is Finn's aged 10, ' Jelly Cat' (the one pictured here is the sad one apparently, and if you look at the picture above the one on the left is the happy one and the one on the right is the sad one, who would question the thoughts of a 5 year old !), and lastly we have 'Rabbity' who belongs to Clemmie aged 3 years...

Anyway, back to Hebe and her Jelly cat's, they had had an accident, one (happy) had bumped into a house and broke it's leg and the other (sad) had fallen out of the rocket it was flying and broken both its arm and its leg !

Goodness, it was a good job nurse |Hebe was on hand to administer first aid and stickers, the stickers were for being good patients, like you get when you go to the dentist....

UPDATE : the happy Jelly cat has recovered from a broken leg and arm and is left with only a little spot, but unfortunately now has a broken ear, I am glad to say that 'sad' jelly cat is fully recovered....



A FEW MAKES...

I seem to be the pump bag queen at the moment, its strange how things seem to come in waves isn't it, at the end of last year it was cushions that were the order of the day, but January seems to be the month of the pump bag...

This little pile were last weeks orders from the local cafe I supply...

Did you notice the heart picture in the background ?, I was so pleased with the one I made for Uncle Bob using cut out maps that I thought I would have another go, not sure whether to put this in the cafe or on Folksy to sell, although it does look rather nice sat on my dresser and I might just keep it for myself....

I had another birthday gift to make last week, this time for my older sister Pauline, she had told me about the Kindle she had bought and how the covers for them were out of stock, I remembered seeing a tutorial for a Kindle cover here at Junie Moon so I gave it a go and am really pleased with the result, it even has a little pocket on the back to store the charging cord...



We have had some really miserable weather the last few days, which makes me look forward to the hopefully fairer weather of spring, all that thinking of Spring saw me dig out some nice spring like floral fabrics and run up a few little bags to sell in the cafe.... so pretty....

FREE SEEDS FOR SCHOOLS....

I know that this is primarily a craft blog, but I just had to share this with you.

When you stumble across a company that offer great products and service, you feel as though you should tell other people about it..

This is the case with this company..

seedparade

After having looked through the many seed catalogues that drop through the door at this tine of year and thinking that they were a tad on the expensive side, my husband started to Search online, and came across Seedparade, they sell seed at a very competitive prices (read cheap), they can do this because the seeds are packaged in minimal packaging (polyethylene bags) rather than fancy seed packets.  The seeds arrive with no sowing instructions, but these can be viewed and even printed in a printer friendly version from their website.

 

The other great thing about this company is that they are taking part in the 'Seeds for Schools' project.

If you email them at supportatseedparade.co.uk and put seeds for schools as the subject on the email they will send £15 worth of seeds direct to your local school (you obviously need to put the schools address in the email), our school got a big package of seeds within a couple of days...

They do say that priority is given to primary schools, but I think that if you asked and they had the supplies they would perhaps donate to other children's groups....

INSPIRATION...

Where do you find inspiration ?...   Mine comes from all sorts of sources....

Could I replicate this cobweb effect in white cotton crochet I wonder ?....

I think Autumn has such a stunning colour palette, a Autumnal quilt perhaps ?...

I use hearts quite a lot in my work, I wonder who MH and BB are ?....

 Red and green, such a great combination....

Just look at the reflections in this ball sculpture at Trinity College, Dublin....

 

Another piece of artwork, again from Dublin, this time from the Museum of Modern Art. It makes me want to have another shot at lino printing....



Inspiration often comes from objects in my home, how lovely are my new Rob Ryan plates ? a much loved Christmas present..... paper cutting, something to try in 2011 ?...

Rainbow bright coat rack on the back of the door....

The lining of Freya's new jacket.....

Hebe and Clemmie's tea set...

Wooden  figures...

Of course the more traditional medium of books inspire....

As do magazines, I have piles and piles of ripped out pages that I constantly use to get my creative juices flowing...

HEART ART.......

This has been an idea that I have had floating around for a while.....

Such a simple little make, but one that I am mighty pleased with......

This particular one is heading to Uncle Bob for his Birthday....

The maps used are from his 'patch' around the Leeds area.....

 My problem has been photographing it, so much reflection !, what am I doing wrong, there must be a way, but how ?....

THE LAST ONE STARTS NURSERY.....

Clemmie (#4 aged 3 yrs) started at Nursery on Tuesday, she was very excited ! It seems for ever that we have been telling her "In January", in reply to her question "When can I go to Nursery ?". Although when we were walking up on Tuesday she did ask if  January would be there, I think she thought it was another child !.... 

Just look at her with her new Peppa Pig bag filled with her most important things - 2 loo roll tubes, 1 sheep, 3 rabbits, 1 Christmas card and an old mobile phone...

She will go to Nursery on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning from 9am-12pm, leaving Monday and Friday free to be at home with Mum.....

We consider ourselves very lucky that all four of our children have gone to this Nursery which is in a spare classroom of the Primary School that the older three all attend, and that they have all had the same three teachers as well ! (quite surprising with the usual turnaround of staff in private nurseries)....

Clemmie has really enjoyed her first couple of days, doing lots of painting, sticking and threading....

What a lovely way to spend the next couple of years until school in 2012.......

CATALOG CARD GENERATOR...

Have you seen these ?

Catalog card generator

If you go to the link you can type in what ever you like and print them off...

What about typing favourite recipes, printing and keeping to hand in a nice box, contact details to have next to the phone, lists, etc .....

How cool are they ? the uses/possibilities are endless...

What would you use them for ?....

SEWING WITH MUM....

Did you sew as a child ? I can remember my Mother buying those ready printed panels when I was a child, the ones where the cushion, toy, stocking etc was printed out onto fabric for you to cut and sew....



I had not really thought about these printed panels for some time, but then came across this Patty Young rag doll panel on seamstar (however,when I have come to look at them again they were not there so maybe Courtney has sold out ?), and thought what a great little project it would be for Hebe (#3 aged 5 years old), I put it away ready to pop into her Christmas stocking, but then forgot, only remembering it this week...

 So we set to work, cutting out......

pinning...

sewing, Hebe guiding and me pedaling...



all sew up and ready for stuffing....

I gave a bit of help sewing up the opening of the stuffed doll...

And 'ta da' , the doll was born....Hebe was very proud of her doll that she had 'made' herself, and called her Daffodil ? (who am I to question why !)...

Of course as soon as little sister Clemmie saw Daffodil, she wanted one too, so half an hour later Elena was ready to play......

On Patty Young's blog there is a free downloadable pattern to make dresses for the dolls, so as soon as the fabric choice is decided upon, that is what we will be making next.....

It was fun to spend time with Hebe doing something that we both enjoyed, and I think that I may well be looking out out for other simple 'makes' such as these in the future....

A YEAR IN PICTURES....

Our year in pictures......

JANUARY.....

FEBRUARY.....

MARCH....

APRIL.....

 MAY.....

JUNE.....

JULY.....

AUGUST.....

SEPTEMBER.....

OCTOBER.....

NOVEMBER.....

DECEMBER.....

I think that I have fallen out of love with my blog of late, it has almost become a chore to me, just something else on that seamlessly never ending to do list..

But, putting together these collages and reliving the memories of the last twelve months have rekindled that love and reminded me of why I started blogging in the first place, how else can I keep such an accessible record of family life, achievements, goals etc..

I am looking forward to 2011 with a skip to my step and hope in my heart........