friends are fabulous arent they

especially when they give you such gorgeous flowers just for listening to there woes
they look fab on my new spotty table cloth, love them x

Its craft group today, the time in the month that I get to spend some quality crafting time with my lovely girl friends, I totally love running this group

Heres a peek at a cute project i'm working on

and some yummy slimming world choc krispies I made

Whilst I was crafting, Daddy took the boys to East Carlton Park and they had such a fab time, my little ones response was, I want to stay here forever Daddy x

We're busy decorating still at home, but I'm off to finish some crafty projects tonight which I'll share soon, there super cute x

Pictures of my morning in East Carlton Park

Just what me and my friend needed to blow away some cobwebs x

Today has been full of up and down emotions, a great start to the day a great middle and a tantrum fueled 5 year old has brought me back down to planet earth! On another note I've walked my feet off today I cant wait until later today to totally rest them by not moving an inch

After searching for something else I came across these pretties in my studio, I love this green raffia and my friend gave me this pretty vintage deer

and look my blooms are blooming

Blogging!

When you first start blogging you have an idea of where you want to go with it, and I'm certain that most of us have also got side tracked as in blogging about things that you think you 'should' be blogging about, trying to hard and so on, I'm certainly guilty on some parts and not ashamed to admit it.

Some days I think my blog works some days I think it doesnt, today is one of those days that I think it doesnt!
I use facebook and twitter alot more now for showing off new Quirky Boots goodies, as I have now narrowed myself down to have a folksy and not on the high street online store only so facebook and twitter play a huge part in advertising my handmade business.

So why is this a down blogging day for me, I dont know, I feel that I've gone off track and I'm not blogging 'me' anymore!
Today has been a day full of emotions for various reasons and I sat myself down and looked at everything.

I love my blog, I truly do, my blog is about my life, my family, my hopes fears and dreams
Today I'm getting back on track... especially with the boys!

we've been working hard at home and our living room currently resembles a shell!

our little one is a little manic in some ways but does love to help mummy cook dinner, with thanks to a friend who sells pampered chef goodies, he now has his own little 'safe knife' to help me chop food

and finally, well i've been busy with creating cake buntings again and the magazine you can see peeking out of the bottom, well thats another 'change' I've decided to go back to 'fat club' lots of reasons why, I may share this journey from time to time

How do you feel about your blogging, are you where you want to be... x

Jelly Jars!

My lovely friend Ruth came round to visit yesterday, my little one calls her Aunty Mental! Quite right really
Anyways she used a jam jar in a very fun and unique way

Did you guess, yep its a jelly jar! Each layer is set before the next one poured in
I love it and the jelly was fab too

 Thanks Aunty Mental x

Storage Jars

Today is another woolly one! A pretty storage jar

 I've popped all my crochet flower magnets inside and used a glue dot to attach one as an embellishment

This is so easy to make it literally took 15 minutes max
I simply added glue dots in a vertical line and started to wrap my wool around and thats it!

I've added this to the flickr group here 

Photo Jars

Another way to preserve fond memories is using a jam jar! yep you heard it!
A few years ago as a family we had our first trip to Cornwall, I adored it, to the point I cried on my way home as I so didnt want to leave.
One of the most favourite places for me was time spent at St Ives, its totally beautiful and we spent time on the beach there.
I also collected sand from every beach we went too!
Heres my photo jar

Heres what I did
Choose a treasured photo and cut to size to fit in your glass jar
I filled my jar with the sand I'd collected and a pebble I'd found too
You may need to curl your photo a little, I placed it at the back of the 'scene' in the jar
I then screwed the lid and added a touch of glue so it stuck on and decorated with pretty patterened paper with a seaside feel (added buttons - of course!) and added a tag as a memory for the date and place we visited.

I'll certainly be doing more of these when we revisit Cornwall again (fingers crossed its this year)

If you join in (and please do) pop along to the flickr group and add your upcycled glass jars

Tin Bucket Lanterns

Heres a quick and easy mini tutorial to make some pretty lanterns
I found some of these mini tin buckets in box and there super easy to get hold off (try ebay)

Using a hole punch, I used my big bite, I punched in the large holes first and then the smaller holes after

Just doing the holes make them look pretty

I then hot glue'd some twine around the middle

Grab a tealight candle and ta da

A very quick and easy set of lanterns ready for the garden in the summer time

Bulb Jars!

Whilst shopping in Tesco I found a pretty pot of bulbs for a bargain price of £1
I thought it would be fun to plant them in a glass jar, I just emptied the pot they were in and made the jar pretty with a touch of ribbon

How pretty eh

I'm just going to mist them so they shouldnt get too water logged (fingers crossed)
I'll share again once the flowers come out

Sweet Valentine

Happy Valentines Day
I've just gone a little crazy over on my crochet pinterest board here
So for the love of crochet here goes -

 I am so going to try making something like the lamp and of course the glass jar cosies will come in handy for the jam jar collective

 This blanket is adorable and a reason to buy a very large crochet hook

Enjoy your valentines day x

The Jam Jars Collective - Part 1

Well heres my first instalment with the glass jars

I crocheted a funky little wrap for a used jam jar and made it so it was nice and snug
and because I love this wool so much I found a little ketchup bottle lerking in the cupboard too which I couldnt help but wrap up and will use as a pretty single flower vase

I've set up a flickr group here if you would like to join, just add your upcycled jars and links to your blogs :) xxx

Jam Jars!

Fancy joining in with a fun challenge!
I'm sure we all have a million used glass/jam jars stored in the far corner of the cupboard, oh what to do with them all!
I've found so much inspiration the last few weeks which I've put in my pinterest album here so I thought I'd make a collection of fun storage/gift ideas with them

I plan to share what I've done with mine, need to dust them off first!
Pop back Monday for the first instalment

Join in by sharing what you do with yours, its all just for fun and inspiration x

wow

The lovely katie over at Am I a Dreamer was one of the first to purchase my Hoot Hoot owl kits and really enjoyed creating her own little owl, you can see her post here
Anyways I was super smiling when I was playing catch up on her blog yesterday as I saw she had made Hoot Hoot into Vowel Owl for her gorgeous children, and out of fabric - look -

How awesome is Vowel Owl :)
and it just goes to show that once you have the kit, you have the pattern to create to your hearts content

Thanks so much for sharing Katie xxx

Party Badges

These badges are great fillers for party bags, they are sets of 5 and are one offs as I dont have repeats of these papers, so they are been sold in my folksy store here

Hmmm thanks to the wonders of the internet I lost my service for a week!
I'll be starting 'The Jam Jars Collective' from this Monday now.

Hope you've all had a fab week xxx

Show Off Saturday - late

was a tad busy yesterday so here is my show off saturday/sunday

 our gorgoeus pooch enjoying the snow x

Doilies

I have a few projects lined up with some fab doilies
These pretty purple ones were donated to me, I'm think wall art of some sort!

 These gorgeous handmade ones I bought from a friend and they are destined for my craft stall tablecloth

Have you done anything with doilies lately that you'd like to share :)

A late woyww

I'm a stay at home mum so sometimes your days just dont plan out!
The last few days I feel that I've really settled into my new studio and my mojo has appeared again and I have pencilled down so many new ideas
Today I was really cracking on with orders and drawing up a new design when I received a phone call from school, Riley had had an accident and could I please go and collect him and that they urge me to take him to hospital - eek -
I then realised that I dont have the car (I currently car share with my father in law) oh what to do what to do (then I had a sad moment as the one person I would have rang was my lovely friend who passed away last year) I then saw that next door was home, okay we speak but we're not best buds or anything, anyways I knocked on her door rather rapidly and she came to my aid by taking Riley to hospital and then coming to collect me
Riley thankfully was okay, he had ran around the playground and ended up smack bang in a wall! cut on his head, you can imagine the blood loss! to the point Riley told me he had got lots of tomato sauce on his hands (bless!)

A day in the life of a stay at home mum its never uneventful!

Heres my woyww, a montage of my space, not finished but as you can see its busy!

I share lots of different photos on my facebook page, if you'd like to join me, see the link to the right of this post :)
I'm off to bed now to try to have some much needed sleep x

Sponsorship

I approached a few friends of mine about 'free' sponsorship as a trial to see how it goes as I cannot always afford sponsorship on other blogs and I also thought this was a kind of pay it forward too. I also dont want to overload my blog with everyone elses banners, so if this works out okay then 2 or 3 banners will be my monthly blog limit!

So for the month of February I have two wonderful friends sharing their blogs as sponsorships
Please pop along and say hello to
Lindsay at evajeanie
Lisa at Home Sweet Home
Later on in the month I'll do a brief outline of who these lovely people are.

If you would be interested in a possible free sponsorship on my blog please contact me for more details, I will only accept blogs that are very much similar to my outlook, thank you.