Fruity beads in action...

The lovely snowberrylime has worked some of my fruit beads in to this delicious yarn.



What a privilage! I absolutely covet so many of her wonderful yarns...I have yet to purchase any, in the full knowledge I will never find a project that I feel worthy of such beautiful supplies!

Handm@de Oxford...

Hey there...just a quick note to let you all know about Handmade Oxford...it will be taking place on November 29th.

I will be there with Johnny and my sweetest little assistant Milo.

You should come too...if you're close by that is.

xxx

Books and Bread...

I got some wonderful new books for my birthday (some as gifts from others and some as gifts from myself!)

'Totally Simple Food' by Jill Dupleix

'Apples for Jam' by Tessa Kiros

'Handmade' by Ros Badger and Elspeth Thompson
'The Creative Family' by Amanda Blake Soule (not pictured as it is currently residing on my bedside table)
I'm loving them all...so much wonderful inspiration, some of which can be seen below.  

I made this white milk loaf from 'Apples for Jam' (I've wanted this book for such a very long time)...and for pretty much the first time in my bread making attempts it actually came out pretty well.

It was a little sweet because it has honey in it, so it was super delicious with jam (and I hate to admit it, chocolate spread) but next time I may experiment with skipping the honey, or only adding a very small amount.

New Fabric

When I returned from work yesterday....to the news that we still had no heating or hot water (it's been over a week now!!)....there was also this lovely little package waiting for me. Which made the bad news seem OK very briefly!

They came from reprodepot and arrived very swiftly indeed.

Now I just have to decide what to make. I always grow far to attached to fabric, not wanting to make anything out of it as though it is more precious to me in it's original state! Or case it all goes wrong I suppose!

Yummy New Fabric

Not much crafting has been going on this week unfortunately, as I've been rather poorly. Well to be fair I've only had a cold, but I so rarely get sick that when I do I really take it to heart!

I did however receive these beauties from kitty craft....

They are so so so lovely!!! I 'm going to use them to make a quilt for my niece's first birthday, it's already late as it was her birthday on Friday, but I mean well!!

I also got sent this little extra freebie...

That really is all the news I have for today. I really have been slack this week. I promise to try harder from now on!!

Ummm Lovely Old Books!

Argh, been an absent blogger the last few days and now have lots to catch up on!

I started a new job this week, hence my lack of computer time. I'm working in a card shop, and so far it has been very enjoyable.

I had lovely last few days of freedom with Graeme.

Kidlington managed to host both a craft fair and a book fair on Saturday, which was just far too much excitement for my little village!

The craft fair not so great (same old stuff) but the book fair was amazing! It was in a Methodist Church and was your typically jumble of book-like treasures at bargain prices that you would expect to find on such an occasion. Here are my two marvelous purchases...

The Beatrix Potter book obviously houses lots of wonderful images, however the Alice book has none which is a shame.

However here are some from Miss Potter herself...

I would have loved to have had a real good rummage through the old children's picture books, however children can be pretty vicious bargain hunters themselves and getting anywhere near the children's section was almost impossible!

Craft wise I made another very satisfying pile of candy type beads....

Apart from a very disastrous attempt at using resin, I won't even bother to show you pictures, craftyness has been put aside a bit so far this week but I intend on doing much more tonight and over the next few days.

So I should have lots more photos to show soon enough!

Cornish Treasures

I'm on half term at the moment so no school (yay!!). As a treat to celebrate I went down to Cornwall at the weekend to visit bestest of all friends Melody. I had such a lovely time as it had been over a year since I last saw her and Cornwall is so beautiful.

We didn't do much, except chat, go for walks and most importantly we went Charity Shop shopping! And my were there some treasuries to be had. We came home with a lot but we could have returned with so so much more!! During our shopping time we came across 3 vintage sewing machines, fortunately we both had the will power to resist (well I think Mel helped me out in the will power stakes!).


However I did find myself this wonderful old suitcase, it has woodworm and took me and Melly about half an hour to discover the mystery of how to open it, but I love it! It's also incredibly impractical I used it to bring all my other treasures home and it is very heavy! But I think I'll just use it to store things in and look lovely somewhere...


Some wonderful buttons, which I don't have any plans for as yet....

and a lovely array of vintage neck scarfs which will probably find themselves a new home as the lining of crocheted bags and purses...

I also got myself some yarn and a lovely vintage pearl necklace still in it's original case, I don't think they're real pearls but they are very, very beautiful.

I started painting a picture last night for our bedroom and found it so engrossing, I haven't painted for such a long time and I really enjoyed it (shall post some pictures when it's finished). The rest of this week is mostly put aside for tidying and sorting, and the absolute state of an office/spare room is going to become my ultra organised craft room over the next couple of days! I'm SO excited!