Love This

I was browsing through the fabulous on line craft store Three Potato Four website this morning, which is a great way to kill some time if you're bored, or even if you're supposed to be working...

Anyway I found this adorable 3 ceramic piece measuring cup set from Piyo. Isn't it fab? And at a mere $ 28, why I'd be crazy NOT to buy it!

New Banner

I decided to add a new banner to the site today. It's taken from a photo I took a while ago in our back garden, a big tree with millions of berries all over it. It was easier than I thought to 'bannerise' it using Photoshop so now I know I can do it any time I want. Hurray!

All the sites I go to have lovely banners, like Posie gets Cozy, Wiksten Made, Homebug etc. and I always wondered how they did it. This whole template thing can get a bit complicated sometimes, and sometimes I'm afraid to monkey around with the settings too much in case I do something really horrible, and the whole thing goes up in flames. I think I'll just leave well enough alone now, and make tomato soup that will last me the week. Hurray :)

I Heart Paris

I think I've gotten a bit carried away with the making squashy hearts thing. I've made 3 in this pattern alone (which I am pleased to say have all found good homes!). As you can tell by the Eiffel Tower, the fabric has a Parisian feel to it, and because the grahpics aren't too large, it really lends itself well to making smaller items. To make these hearts extra special I added 2 cinnamon sticks to each, and when the scent fades a bit, I just break a section of it, which doesn't affect the overall shape of the heart at all, but releases a wonderful new burst of the winter spice.

New Knitting Bag

This is a really simple, really quick drawstring bag I ran up last weekend. I wasn't feeling well and I didn't leave the house, so naturally I got really bored and had to do something. I grabbed a few lumps of fabric I had in my box: linen, Japanese 'music town' fabric (from Matatabi at etsy) and some yellow gingham. I didnt even measure anything. I just cut out two rectangles of linen, cut the music town fabric in half, and sewed up the edges. Then I made a yellow gingham tube, turned it inside out and sewed along the top and bottom, making sure to keep the ends open for the cord to fit through. Simple. I now use it as a knitting bag, to keep all my wool and needles together, but it would be also perfect to bring on holiday as a small laundry bag, or flip flop bag.

How to Become a Famous Blogger!

I think this cartoon by Dave Walker is hilarious. Thank you to Jessica from How about Orange who featured one of Dave's cartoons on her cool orangey blog last week. Check out Dave's site, weblogcartoons.com for more great cartoons.

Good luck Kat!

I have just received an email from the lovely Kat over at Secrets of a Butterfly , whose blog I regularly read, to say that she has opened her etsy shop, also called Secrets of a Butterfly (of course!).

Kat specialises in making adorable vintage hand made cards, ATCs, beautiful lace bracelets and other treasures. It's really obvious that Kat puts a LOT of time, thought and effort into everything she makes and I'm sure her shop will be a huge success. Check it out.

Gingham Hearts

I started making these initialed gingham hearts for Christmas yesterday. I know Christmas is still miles away but I want to be a bit organised this year, and I didn't know how these would go, I thought it might take me 8 weeks to get it right! As it turned out I think they're coming along really nicely. The one with the letter 'T' is for my sister-in-law and the one with the 'R' is for her son.

To make the hearts I cut out 2 heart shapes from the red gingham, then I cut out a large letter'T' from the navy denim (leftover from the denim tote I made). I then cut out a smaller 'T' from the red felt, and sewed a white heart shaped button onto it. Then, because I used denim which is stretchy and will fray (unlike the felt), I sewed the 'T' onto one of the heart shapes using zig-zag stitch. Next I sewed the red 'T' onto the larger denim 'T', so the navy denim becomes a boarder around the red letter helping it to stand out more against the red and white check fabric. I then sewed the two hearts, and the hanging ribbon together leaving a gap to stuff it with cotton wool. I also stuffed a few cloves in there too to make it smell Christmasy, before stitching up the gap. They're really simple and fairly quick to make. If I'm not completely sick of them over the next few weeks I might make some more for around the house for all year round. I might make one for the kitchen adding coffee beans instead of cloves, and a nice change to the usual lavender hearts.