A Beautiful Week

What a fantastic hot week its been.
I had a stall at the Anonymous travelling market on Saturday and it was sweltering from very early on. I stupidly did not take my marquee, thinking we would be inside. I like how the stall looks but I had to keep hiding behind my van in the shade. Unfortunatley the market was so Anonymous very few people showed up. I enjoyed sitting in the sun (and shade) crocheting and listening to the live music. Maria (who's bunting you can see in the pic) came along in the morning and went and got me some suncream to stop me burning for which I am very gratefull!


It has been amazing to have the doors open in the sitting room drinking the odd glass of wine and enjoying the full moon :)
The flowers are all coming out in the garden, Star flower one of my favorites to add to salads along with nasturtium flowers (we eat very pretty salads lol)
The sweet peas have come out at last and look gorgeous.

and I have been lucky enough to spend time reading the paper and drinking tea amongst the flowers half way down the garden, my own little hiding place.
Arthur had his first sleep over on Saturday and they thought it was great to watch Doctor Who together, I made them a midnight feast (which luckily they ate at 7.30 ) and they were asleep by 8 after quite a bit of chatting. On Sunday we went to The Wincanton Classic Car Show which we thought would be very small.
But it turned out to be a really good show of vehicles, the guys were in there element.
Arthur and Ted loved all the steam engines,
Tony loved the bikes, He has an old BSA which he is slowly restoring.
Sunday afternoon we all planned to watch the World Cup with England versus Germany, Arthur has been loving the football and insisted we put flags on the van.
George and Tony put up a new goal for Arthur (well thats what they said) Think they went for a rather big one!
George thought he'd test out the goal....I don't think Tony was quite ready it was hilarious, he got quite badly hit by the ball as you can see from his face, I haven't laughed so much in ages.
Then Tony decided he would get revenge..not sure George was ready for it either, but he did turn sideways I notice ;)
The boys had a little game then went in to watch the match, which ended 4-1 to Germany, with a goal that was disallowed because the Ref didn't see it, he was the only person in the world not to see it, not sure about the rules there! It was so funny reading all the comments on Twitter...quite a bit of swearing going on!
I have also been busy making this week, I sold out of the felted brooches so thought I would make some more, I am also working on scumbled bags, which I am lining with recycled jumpers, and cushions which will be backed with recycled jumpers. I love playing with colours and textures like this. Great fun.
Arthur picked me this lovely bunch of flowers from the garden. I feel so lucky this year that we have the luxury of picking our own flowers :) Veg is also looking good and I forgot to put the picture in!

I can't believe a whole week has gone!  though i have been fairly busy. I actually managed to get an order out.
These are tea cosies covered in vintage buttons (the more buttons I use up the more i can buy he he!) They were knitted and then felted in the washing machine before i added the buttons.
Another great way of using up some of my button stash..these little bracelets are made using some new yarn that came in last week, it is as wide as ribbon and has silver thread running through it. I can sew the buttons directly onto it and make instant bracelets, I also did some using the felt flowers and buttons.  I am aiming to do some mixed yarn bags for sale in my shops, also adding little packs of vintage buttons and unusual ribbons that i have now...one day soon i will get organised :)
I also finished a batch of my little felt brooches. All of the above has gone to my favorite cafe in Childe Okeford.
I have had a new delivery of yummy yarns
and gorgeous fairtrade Rosewood needles by Mango Moon.
The above yarn I thought would be great used as a fringe rather than knitting with it, and this will be one i add to the mixed bags.
This is a really soft multi coloured yarn, which i have not yet tested. I will make some mobile phone socks in this to see how it knits up.

Right i'm off to do some more making. I have 3 more shops waiting for orders.

Banished to the dining room.

Last night I was banished from our sitting room, as tony and harry were taking it over.  They were going through rugby dvd's of the under 15's North dorset Teams season...which I must say has been a good one winners of the County Cup 3 years running, infact i think they only lost one match in the whole season and that was to come second out of 8 teams.  any way tony is putting together the end of year dvd where it shows highlights from each player.  So they annoyingly have to watch all the matches , they watch a bit discuss it, pause rewind watch it again discuss, write down the number so they can go back to it..this goes on for hours! Now i don't mind watching Harry play rugby a bit, but i get bored after....10 minutes and moan so much that they have had to banish me, and warned me in advance.

Well I do have a lot of toys to play with (of the crafting kind!) so I decide to get out the embellisher which I have not really tested out properly since I got it at xmas.

The skirt on the table i started to embellish at the last Make do and Mend workshop, and just need to add one more heart and possibly some fabric to the bottom, to make it longer. I have this great wool that looks like it has been sewn all down the middle of it, I have embellished onto the skirt and used it to make some cup warmers (will finish them and post a pic tommorow). It is great for edging and looks as though I have sewn it on.

I have been collecting lots of denim skirts and jackets to upcycle, so at least I got going on that.

I also used the embellisher to fray the edges around fabric hearts which I anm adding to old pillow cases and turning them into laundry bags. So I had a lot of fun.
I had a brill day yesterday, starting with a carboot in the morning, me and arthur left the house quite early to get there before the other buyers, it was lovely and peaceful for the first half an hour and we managed to get quite a lot of good stuff, I got some fabric, needles and assorted knitting bits, as well as an old wooden sewing box with a lovely needle holder full of really old needles (twice as thick as the modern day ones) and two skirts to upcycle.  

 Arthur got a fab spider man suit (which he has not taken off since it came out of the washing machine. I did make him leave it at the end of his bed explaining how hot he may get if he left it on! (not great to sleep in nylon!) he also got a whole load of army vehicles for a 1.00 so was very pleased.  
When we got back Arthur played with his new toys and I was able to do some spinning in the garden yay!  Alice aka Ladypole gave me some of her gorgeous carded wool to spin a few weeks ago, so it was great to see it turned into yarn. A wee bit over spun but i am just learning :)
Saturday i spent cutting some of my fabric mountain to put in the shop as fat quarters.  I have a huge delivery of fabric arriving tommorow, which i am a little apprehensive about as no one really knows i have started doing fabric...ah they will tommorow ,it is gorgeous linens from japan, some cupcake ones, some vintagey looking and some russian dolls with the most amazing ribbon.
These are button hearts i have been making to show people how they can use up there buttons.

Back to work.

I had a lovely delivery of Jewellery Tuesday and have been busy changing my whole cabinet, which now looks very flowery, and organised....another delivery of Pearls and Girls jewellery is due in any day, and really there is not much space left for it. I think I need a rush of customers, always the optimist :)  Today i am going to finish these brooches just need to add butons and beads.
I really should be doing a whole shop stock take :( but keep getting side tracked as usual..there are much more fun things to do, counting is boring!  I have started though..slowly slowly, I have found Items that no longer go well in with the constantly changing stock, so next week I am going to have a photography week, and update my shops on Folksy and Etsy (with new bits) and have a sale on e-bay (with old bits).  While doing the link to my Etsy shop I realised how long it is since i updated it, poor shop.  
These are some of my button brooches using some of my huge stash of Vintage buttons, I have been teaching people how to make these and button hearts as well as jewellery as part of the new button workshop.
I thought I would share a couple of my favorite cards with you, these are by Pulp, and I have a great range of them in my shop.
Der.. think that might be me ;0

I have been busy changing the shop around and fitting in all my new finds and lots of new stock.
I am really starting to mix old with new, and am becoming a little bit addicted to finding vintage buttons and tins, my Sundays are now spent at carboots or antique fairs..well it gets me out of the shop.  Arthur enjoys it too as he can always find a new old car, he loves to rummage and find the perfect car or lorry.  The bluebird tin (which i think is gorgeous) sold with in two days of having it in the shop!  It looked so nice with my buttons in :(.  I must learn to share and not keep it all for myself!
This is some of the lovely new yarns by Gedifra and Adriafil...I am going for the colourfull and glitzy yarns. If That way if no one buys them I turn them all into lovely flowers and little bags (may take a while but it will be fun!)..
Lots of new stock I will try and get some online, by wednesday next week..if it hasn't all gone by then...always the optimist!
I can't believe a week has gone by and I am getting ready for tommorows workshop, which is a Button workshop..so I can share out a little of my button stash, mmm and then go and buy some more ;)

Last saturday was needlefelting, above is Alice's (aka Ladypole on Ravelry) felted bits..I have actually pinched the squiggly yarn idea on the heart, quite useful doing these workshops..every one is so inspiring!
Jane brought her three daughters, which I was slightly worried about, as the needles are very sharp! They were all amazing though and really enjoyed the morning.  I love the octopus necklace and Jane's flag brooch. Very clever.

Concentrating very hard!
They were all very industrious!
Above is Elizabeth's work,  I can see the half flower as a hair decoration. ("fascinator"). Elizabeth brought in some of her own equipment one of which was a needle holder with four needles in, much quicker to work with..and every body borrowed it.  I will need to get some of these in for the next one. 

 First I need to put in some new dates for workshops as March is just going so fast.

Well back to my buttons ..it is my first button workshop so I am a little nervous, I never know how it's going to go. It will be lots of fun and I'm sure everyone will have fun picking out the buttons they are going to use, and I'm sure they will go home with lots of goodies!

Buttons.

Tony had gone out playing music..so I decided to take over the sitting room, in a nice tidy way and watch one of my favorite fims. The Mistress Of Spices, I love the colours and photography, the beautiful spices piled high in the shop, I would love a wool shop with a similar character. Instead I set up my buttons like they are spices and poured them into these sweet little bowls (which were really meant for the kitchen, whoops!).
I managed to sew all the buttons on my mobile phone socks while watching the film and enjoying a nice glass of wine. All very peaceful.

I have left the buttons in the bowls and put them in my workspace ready for making more button necklaces.