Our Half Term

Thursday 27 February 2014
Last week's half term in pictures...
 
 Pinnies, wellies and our kitchen!




Glad to say the bugs have now gone and we are so ready for March!

Samantha x

The Wardrobe Architect - Defining your true style

Wednesday 26 February 2014


I've been working my way through The Wardrobe Architect project to define a handmade wardrobe for my new lifestyle as a Mummy and creative! 

In this post we look at what constructs your true style. Join in with me? It's fun to really look at your own style, if you sew or not and especially if you have had a change in lifestyle like me. Whatever your reason, it's a pretty cool thing to do!


I love this picture taken of Little L's Christening day as it shows all the essence of what I love wearing;
  • vintage floral patterns
  • white (all year around!)
  • pumps
  • pretty dresses with flair skirts
  • grey and pastel prints

So I've used a one of my pinterest board to show the styles I love. 

It is mostly dresses and anything with a pussy cat bow on (who can't resist a bow?). I would describe it as vintage meets quirky French boho with a quick stop off in Gap on route. At least I am honest!




So what is yours? 

I am looking forward to my new Wardrobe Architect posts and with three frocks on the go (delayed finish due to nasty bug) I hope I can share these too.

Bye for now,


Blogs, Pampering & Chocolate Buttons at the #MidsBlogMeet

Sunday 23 February 2014
I saw this tweet back in December ...

and yesterday Little L and I went to Nottingham to the #midsblogmeet hosted by Emma and Kelly.

The meet was a mix of Lifestyle and Mummy bloggers (and some excited children too!). Our venue was the Malt Cross, a light airy cafe bar with fabulous old leather Chesterfields and a relaxed family friendly area. It had a really quaint vintage feel to it with the bunting, carved pillars and red and green colour scheme. I loved it!

The Malt Cross host's crafty workshops also with paper and screen printing coming up soon. Plus being in the middle of the city it was just a stones through from the bus, tram links and of course the wonderful shops of Nottingham! 
image courtesy of Emma

After getting to know each other over an enormous pub lunch, the Body Shop gave us a demo of the latest products. I grew up with the Body Shop and for most of us it was our first perfume! I remember the Strawberry and Mulberry scented bath products from my teens. 

It was great to see that they have up dated them with a new a Blueberry scent launching this Tuesday. I use the hemp cream on my skin and would recommend it for any new Mummy who is always washing her hands!

I love what the Body Shop stands for and being vegetarian it was good to see products to try that are against animal testing

The product that we all loved was the new hair chalks which are perfect for dressing up the little ones without putting make up on their sensitive skins. 
Getting to try out hair chalks both Iris from @BakedByMeUK and my Little L tried them out

Instead add it to their hair! I feel a dressing up costume coming up! Little L looks lovely with her pink hair chalks in her hair.


The Body Shop - oh we love you!
After my little one had dipped her hands in most of the pots of gorgeous creams, we had a few giveaways prizes and a goody bag to take home! The bag included some loveliness to inspire future posts.

So as I write this, my family has already sampled Miss Berry's gorgeous cakes in pretty boxes and the Love Heart candies.

mmm!

I have to say I am super excited about the chocolate button moulds from Bakedbyme.net...I may need a shopping trip to get some chocolate later today. They look pretty amazing don't they?

So, all myself and Little L want to say is a big 'thank-you' to our hostesses for the meet. This is our first Mummy and Daughter meet and it was awesome!



Looking forward to reviewing those lovely products,

Happy Monday folks,



Fabric Shopping,Plans and Projects

Monday 10 February 2014
 
Happy Monday to you!

 After a weekend of fabric shopping for my new projects, here is a sneaky peak at what I am up to...

 This month I am being pretty prepared with all things sewy. I have already started the Wardrobe Architect project in this post but also... 

#ireloveyou
As I am always up for a challenge I've started the #ireloveyou challenge over on Frugally Peachy too. This project is really fab as it's a upcycling project. I have the perfect dress to re-invent and say 'I love you to again'. It's a silk polka dot dress which cost me a fiver from the charity shop.


 Also whilst planning I saw this challenge for 2014 on Marie's blog  A Stitching Odyssey to stitch five vintage patterns this year. Why not join in; grab her button and hashtag #vintagepledge and get out those old patterns. Here are some of mine for the challenge... what do you think?
my #vintagepledge patterns
And finally here is a stash of some lovely Spring fabrics for my next projects, I adore the oyster grey. I have a Wedding to go to in a few weeks and fancy a gorgeous dress to dance the night away... what would you choose, I bought enough to make the dress in every colour!

Bit obsessed but it will be made this year- mark my words!

new purchases this weekend
Better get on then...




Paper Bunting Cards

Sunday 9 February 2014
I love making birthday cards and with two special baby birthdays this week, I got out my crafty supplies and made these pretty cards.

Paper bunting means that they can stay up long after the celebrations. So the time you have put into making the card is worth it! Display them in a baby room on a shelf or curtain pole. They look awesome when the light catches them (see pic below).

Let's Create!

Cut your first flag and use this as a template for the rest of the flags. I made my bunting with the groovy inverted point but you can use the traditional flags, it's up to you.

For this card, I cut out the flags from two pieces of A4 card, weight 240gsm. What a bargain for less than 40p! 

With a sharp knife cut out the letters (you can do this free hand or download a template online). This can be quiet tricky but be careful and patience and you will get the knack. If this is your first go at paper cutting get the feel of using the knife on corners and shapes, once I mastered this the rest fell into place.  

Thread garden twine through your creation with a double hole punched top (see pic). Make sure you thread in down through the first hole, along the back and then up through the second.

This card took me thirty minutes to make and using a cutting mat really sped up the card making time. You can wrap up the card in brown paper or a large envelope.

I loved it so much, here are some more pictures of a bigger version which took three sheets.

What do you think... yay or nay??

See you soon...

Wardrobe Architect First Post!

Thursday 6 February 2014

I was reading the lovely Sally's blog the other night and came across the Wardrobe Architect project from www.coletterie.com.   Now this is just what I need to kick start my sewing and start in a new direction for 2014.

I love sewing, no wait..I adore sewing. I made my first garment, a gathered high waisted skirt 25 years ago on my Mum's sewing machine. Since then I've made most things, but now I have to admit I'm in a sewing rut and need to review my projects and styles. 

My aim is ...
  • to wear what I make 
  • to get back into wearing handmade clothes 
  • sew for everyday garments that I love!

The Wardrobe Architect makes your re-look at your wardrobe and aims to craft 'a small wardrobe to reflect who you are'.

So... in my sewing therapy I decided to pull out of my wardrobe the items that I had recently made, shoot them and take stock of where I am and think of where I want to get to!

After sewing my wedding dress in 2010, I've moved house, had a baby and started my own creative business  phew! So I've sewed a few maternity style dresses, feeding dresses (this is me in the pic above with Little L in my feeding occasional dress) and a lot of  baby clothes in the last few years.

But sadly nothing for myself, I think that it is the change in body shape after having a child and thinking that I would only wear something 'not that special' as baby might be sick etc etc on it! So as you can see I have had a lot going on and maybe lacking in everyday sew confidence?

So after getting out of my wardrobe my staple tunic dresses, strapless evening dresses and silk shrugs, I now need to sew an everyday wardrobe for my new lifestyle...

I need -
  • Wrap around jersey dresses
  • A line skirts
  • Cute casual tunic dresses
  • Smart classic work dress
  • Dressy occasional dress 
  • Spring jacket
Ok, so I have six projects! 

Next to find some patterns, so I went through my stash and found these...

 
It's a mix of vintage dresses from the '60's and '70's to a simple quick skirt to the two modern occasion dresses with a late '50's, early '60's line.

I hope that through the project I can answer the pieces to put together a wearable wardrobe for me.

Are you joining me?

Happy Thursday,

Samantha x





New Crafternoon tea classes

Sunday 2 February 2014

Just dropping by this Sunday afternoon to let you into my news of the week (hence no blog posts since Monday)...

I've got six exciting new Crafternoon tea classes all ready to roll for the Spring in lovely Derby city centre. 

If you want to find out more click on my Eventbrite profile here. You asked me for midweek classes in the middle of the city so here they are!

See you laters for some more crafty gems. I've a great project I'm doing and need to share...

See you the other side of baby bath time...