Baking - Savoury Muffins

After the awful brownie bake I had to redeem myself with something
So using one of my favourite recipes I made up a batch of cheese and onion savoury muffins, these are delicious hot or cold (they've been tested both ways of course)

Its easier to make these in silicone cases as they stick to the paper ones, its always fun to see how colourful they look in the muffin tray

Going to add some ham and mushrooms to the next batch

Bank Holiday Fun

The bank holiday came and went but it gave us glorious sunshine that we've been missing out on so much at the moment, to the point I have sunburnt arms and they sting a little!
We met up at Irchester Country Park with some friends from long ago that we havent seen for an age, the boys met for the first time and enjoyed each others company which was great

The bigger boys as in the men decided to challenge each other to climbing a tree, my spider monkey went up there so quick it was hilarious!

After we went round theirs for a while before going out for dinner, Charlotte has chickens and ducks (i'm slowly getting there with talking him indoors into having them too) to be honest I think I totally fell in love with the ducks, there only 6 weeks old at the moment - love um

 A fab day all in all and next time we wont leave it so long x

Milk Moustache

Just because its funny and he looks so darn gorgeous x

Garden Time

Sunday was a glorious day of sunshine so we went off to The Bell Plantation in Towcester and spent a couple of hours mooching around the plants, chickens and most marvellous
We came home and hit the garden whilst we could, I started on my herb area by digging out weeds and edging the lawn

 I moved my funky wooden toadstool to the rockery

 I totally adore this peony, its in the oddest place in the garden so i'm very protective of it

 I do believe we will be well laden with blackcurrants this year

 The lilac tree is finally in full bloom

Fathers Day! How Difficult!

When running your own little independant shop means having little displays for seasonal dates, its quite fun to start on them and find handmade gifts within the shop relevant to the event!
My goodness how difficult it was to find gifts relating just to dads!
This is what I have managed to put together so far!
A fun knitted monster and a glass whiskey bottle clock, maybe a chalkboard star to write fun messages to Dad!

 A fun little frame with the little one and dad, chalkboard coasters, handmade cards!

 lampwork cufflinks in liquorice allsorts designs

Most items can be posted out just ask if you see something that you like x

The Garden Rockery

There was already a rockery in the garden when we moved in, it basically just needed a good clean up and some fresh new plants!
With the weekend just gone been a bank holiday, we of course did the must do garden centre visit, to one of our favourites at Poddington! Its a little drive out but really worth it as they have huge koi swimming around in a large pond outside

I bought these for some gaps in the rockery

Its taken a whole month to be able to plant them out as the weather has not been kind to us here! constant rain! but finally they are in their new home

Monday Monday

Its the beginning of the week again and time to start to jot down whats on the plan!
This week its half term! again! so soon!!!

Great Outdoors - Daddy is working away so its just me and the boys, everything depends upon the weather, so i'm hoping for breaks in the rain to allow us to go out, get some much needed fresh air and sun rays

Reading - I've bought Jack a new book 'the billionaire boy by david walliams' and I'm going to start reading 'call the midwife' (finally) Riley has some school books which I've asked for to help keep him in a little routine as he doesnt really like change!

My Shop - the boys will come with me to my shop on Friday, which is fine as there is a back room if the weather is awful, we always take a picnic, the laptop for dvds, books and lots of drawing paper and especially lego for Riley

Doctors - for me!

Baking - watch this space for bake of the week, where I'll be trying something new or a favourite and I'll share it with you all

Designing - I have some new sewing kit ideas that I'd like to make time to sketch out

Stock Building - I'm building up a lot of stock at the moment for something that I'm doing from next week, which I'll share once its all done and dusted

Games Table - Riley enjoyed playing pool so much at the weekend that I'm going to dust off the games table (which I was going to sell as wasnt used!) so we can play pool at home, mini style!

What are you up too over the holidays - my very lucky friend is off to Croatia for the week!

Instagram Cards!

Finally after searching for some 'correct size envelopes'! I now have a small batch of my photo cards available for sale in the shop
My hope is to take lots of locally inspired photos and make them into cards and possibly framed artwork which will hopefully sell as keepsakes of where people live/grew up etc

This photo is of a frosty walk to my shop one morning, I really love it

I started out with white card then decided I just loved kraft cardstock too much
The red telephone box in Warkton

The village hall in Warkton

Some of my photographs from home are
The bright orange gerbera

The sunflower

and some crayons! perfect for a teacher card maybe!

 I'm really enjoying these cards so I'll be doing some more photographing very soon

At £2 each I'm hoping there a good price too x

Artisans - Deborah Nicholas Designs

I've known Debbie for a few years now purely through blogging, she's just opened up her own little independant shop and asked if I could stock it a few of my makes
Debbie creates some gorgeous large artwork of 3d images like hearts and butterflies she also does events so her dessert table is super pretty 

I sent her a box of various goodies and hopefully they will sell, my goodies are in the little wicker basket on the floor there :)

Its such a cute little shop if your up in Durham then do pop in City Attic and say hello

Another critter found in the garden today, he was super huge

cheery bugs!

I've been quite ill this past week with a viral infection to the point I havent been able to work in my shop or attend our monthly market!
I've woke up this morning feeling a little itsy bit better, I went out to the garden first thing and saw this little beauty

It kind of made my day start with a smile
Happy Sunday everyone x

end of an era!

After running my monthly craft group for 3 years I made the really difficult decision to close it
My family really need my attention at the moment and some things in all honesty have had to give

I'm still going to be seeing the girls hopefully by having an evening at home but I want to get things sorted out in my head and health first (really not feeling great at the moment)

We've created so many fun projects together and its been a delight to know so many gorgeous craft minded girls, I truly love them

It was honestly really really difficult to send them all the message but thankfully they all understood

Wild Olive Stitching Club

I've joined the Wild Olive summer stitching club, it starts on the 1st June and I cant wait to get started, I'm off to choose from my fabric offcuts (a great way to use up your stash)

If you join up now its only $5 pop along here for more details x

stitching!

Im really enjoying embroidery stitches at the moment, I got this design as a free printable ages ago and thankfully I still had the page to link back too
I chose yellow, red and teal and all I have to do now is frame it, this is for our bedroom once its finished

This is a free download printable available here

burning organza

I've had a wedding cake topper design in mind for a while, I started practising on the organza flower base, it took me a couple of times to get the burning technique right! These ones I feel are a little too burnt!

Then I finally got use to it so I'm happy with it now

Now onto the next stage in the design!

Glorious Pie

My lovely friend popped over to see me so she joined me and the boys for dinner (as my partner was working away - I suffer with anxiety the most on the first night that he's away so it was lovely to have some company to pass the time away with)
I made my favourite chicken pie from the jamie oliver 30 minute meals

and some chocolate fridge cake from Lorraine Pascales cookbook which she liked 'alot' :)

A good night with good chit chat x

Cat Embroidery

Sometime ago I found a free printable download of a collection of cats, as soon as I saw them I printed them off and knew I wanted to turn it into an embroidery

*sadly I have looked everywhere and cannot find the link to share! so if anyone knows whos this is please let me know so I can link back to them*

I chose teal and lime embroidery thread (I have so many threads so its good to use up my craft stash)

I was going to frame it but then I remembered that I had this extra large wooden hoop so its fits in perfectly

*sadly the only point where I've gone wrong is you can see the interfacing on the back through the fabric, thats because like I said I was going to frame it! I'm sure it will become invisible soon enough*

I really enjoyed this embroidery project, so cant wait to find my next one x

Marie Antoinette

I got this gorgeous book 'Wee Wonderfuls' as for the last few years I've been sketching out a few ideas of dolls so I bought this book for some much needed inspiration and direction

My first make from this book is the pretty embroidered Marie Antoinette

I love how shes turned out

The blog is a truly wonderful read too so do pop by here and have a look 

Shop Dressers

Sometimes its quite difficult to dress the shop up, do you go overboard or keep it clean and simple!
I re did this particular dresser last week and just really loved how it looked and I must say after sharing it on facebook we had a number of sales from it too x

Sunshine

We've had a rare few days of glorious sunshine, its been lovely to come home from my shop, pick the boys up from school and spend some time in the garden
Sitting drinking tea and chilling by the koi pond is a sunny day must

Sewing Machine Cover

I really loved this pillowcase so wanted to keep it for myself rather than turn it into an apron so instead I simply sewed on some velvet ribbon and created a pretty sewing machine cover

*photos taken in the workroom at the back of the shop - very useful indeed to be creative whilst at work*