Let it Snow!

This morning we woke up to no power in the house it was hard work getting 2 under 4's ready in the darkness! There is no leisurely lie in bed and waking up slowly in this house it doesn't exist! We are woken by two wide awake little people, first thing that comes into Emily's head is 'cereal mummy' and Elliott's first words are 'downstairs' so off we trotted for Weatabix in darkness lighted by tea lights! Then it started to snow really heavily outside which caused much excitement as they rushed up to the window and pressed their noses up to the glass to watch the wintry scene creating before us.

The above picture is the lane that we live on, I love to watch the changing of the seasons on our little lane unfortunately this isn't the best pic as I've had to cut off the left side as every ones bins was out. I'd of loved to of stayed in all morning in the cosiness of the house and enjoy the view from our window but I did have to venture out in it to take Emily to pre school and then take Elliott to playgroup I was absolutely freeeeeezing. It was nice to see some snow especially with all the candles lit in the house it really did feel quite festive.

Here is my collection of festive house magazines my addiction to house magazines goes stupid at this time of year I can't resist those Christmas front covers there's more than this pile I have a few other ones put away too.
I bought them all last month in hast so I'm looking forward to sitting down and having a proper read through them all this month.

I love this time of year especially the run up to Christmas I have just finished all my Christmas shopping so this month will be spent doing nice festive activity's we always go to Chatsworth for the day everywhere is decorated so beautifully there they even decorate the farmyard. We'll be taking the children to see Santa and this weekend I'm going to bake some snowflake biscuits for the tree.

I love decorating the house in fact I'm a bit obsessed with Christmas decorations having worked selling Christmas decorations in a wonderful old fashioned department store I have built up quite a stash of Victorian style decs. But this year I've bought all new in Scandinavian style better suited to our decor so I can't wait to put them all up.
I'm sorry all there's no pics of the garden room I will be doing a post with lot's of pics soon I promise! It's turning into a bit of a Santa's workshop in there it's a great place to hide all the Christmas presents! But to give you a taste of something that's in there this is my comfy chair that I have covered in lovely Greengate fabric.

Underneath is a yellow tub chair bought for £10 from the junk shop. This picture was taken half way through making the cover for it, it's finished now. I'd never covered a chair before so it was quite a challenge but I'd got a great book a making loose chair covers from the charity shop which really helped me and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Back soon with a garden room post have a good week all whatever your up to!

Sarahx

Sew Fabulous Fabric

A few weeks ago I received this gorgeous book I won from http://theflourloft.blogspot.com/ the girls had recently had this book published and were giving away 3 books to celebrate their book being hot off the press which they co wrote together. Ginny and Alice had their own company making all sorts of items using vintage and found fabrics they were approached at the Country Living Fair and asked if they would like to write a book and that's how Fabulous Fabric came about. Guess who was the lucky winner of one of their books? Me that's who!! It felt like winning Willy Wonka's golden ticket out of over 50 comments I was one of the lucky 3! Yes I am feeling very smug about it how lucky I am I? I was completely delighted and could not wait for it to arrive. When it did land on my doorstep I was not disappointed not only did they send me their book I got a beautifully wrapped parcel which inside contained this starter kit containing 8 different beautifully patterned fabrics, felt, denim, some tweedy woolly type fabric, some cards and envelopes for making handmade cards and some corsage pins.

They have written a little message inside the book for me and also sent a stunning handmade card sorry there's no photo I have misplaced where I have put it this morning (what a narna!) I've put it a little too safely away as I want to frame it for my summerhouse, den, studio, office oh dear I don't know what to call it now autumns here summerhouse just doesn't sound right!

The book is separated into 4 sections Home Making, Out and About, Let's Celebrate and Lasting Memories at the back of the book there are patterns for the 20 projects in the book. It also has a fabric focus tip for each project recommending what fabrics work well .

What I love about the book is that it focuses on using recycled fabrics it has a really good section of sourcing fabrics. I love the idea of reusing fabric I have saved a lot of Emily and Elliotts baby clothes so that I can use the pretty patterns again in a cushion or picture so that I can keep them and enjoy them everyday. I now have something new to hunt for in the charity shops usually I head straight for the bric a brac but reading this book has inspired me to take a closer look at the clothes so I can add to my growing collection of fabrics.
The 20 projects in the book are all ones I'd like to have a go at, there are ideas for using every last scrap of fabric and scope for putting your own personal take on each project. Here are a few of the pages I have photographed. The photographs really are beautiful it is a really pretty book that would make a lovely gift for someone who is creative or maybe a treat for one self ?

Above a cosy draft excluder using found tweed, woollens and boucles.


A patchwork floral fairy cushion

Child's artwork made into a picture

Flower Corsages


Handmade Cards

I'm really looking forward to rummaging through my fabrics and having ago at one of the projects but what to start first I like them all? I have some nice tweedy fabric in my stash from a pair of Emily's old trousers think I'm going to have a go at a winter style corsage for myself. A special thankyou goes out to Ginny and Alice for sending me your book I am going to get lot's of enjoyment from it and it's just the inspiration I need to get sewing again.

Posh nosh and picnics

I've finally finished these napkin rings I've been making I'm quite pleased with how they've turned out.The leaves are made from a charity shop jumper that I felted I've never tried it before and was curious to see how it worked the results gave a great texture I'm well impressed that's another thing to thrift for woolly jumpers! To felt a jumper take an old or thrifted jumper must be at least 80 per cent wool and wash at a high temperature to shrink it and voila you have felted wool.

I had to see what they looked like on my table I'm one of those people who can't just throw some knives and forks on the table I have to faff around and make it look pretty. So one night this week we had posh fajitas alfresco style!

What glorious weather we have been having it actually feels like summer has arrived. Emily and Elliott have been enjoying playing outside in the garden we have retrieved the garden toys out of the loft and dusted them down. Elliott absolutely loves being in the garden I don't see him he's either picking daisies, hiding in his tent, kicking the football or pushing his toy pushchair round the garden through the house and back again and again...... I've designated a little area for Emily to have her own small patch of garden to look after so we can plant some little plants there in the next few weeks.

Here they are tucking into their picnic tea! I've also celebrated my birthday yesterday yes I am now 33! I had a birthday outing to my favourite shop around here which sells the most gorgeous things and spent my birthday money so more about that and my other pressies in my next post! Thankyou for all your nice comments on my beanbags it's given me the confidence I needed as I wasn't sure about them. I was going to put them on Ebay but I find Ebay a bit hit and miss and then theres the hassle of packaging them up due to their size so what I've decided to do is save them. I have plans to have my own stall sometime in the future at a craft show when I have built up my stock of various things all shabby chic of course!

Tomorrow were having a barbie for mine and my mums birthday which is next week hope your all enjoying the weekend whatever your up to!

Sarahx

Just a quick post to ask you what you think to these. Their beanbags I made them a while ago with the intention of selling them. You could use them for spare seating, footstools or for a kiddies room. The cover has a zip fastening at the bottom and is completely removable for machine wash. The polysterene balls are sewn inside a inner cube so don't all fly everywhere when you remove the cover! Their made with a mix of Laura Ashley and Cath Kidston fabrics.

I was thinking about trying them on Etsy but I have no idea whether I could list something like this on there.

Anyway I need your feedback be it good or bad I'm open to your opinions. please don't think you will offend me all opinions are good!!

Do you like them?

What price would you be happy to pay for one?

Do you think I should try them on Etsy?

Do you think I should change them in any way?

Or maybe there a no no and I should just keep them for myself!

Can you spot whats missing from my Roberts radio?

I'm very lucky that my mum and dad have Emily and Elliott for the day on a Saturday, unfortunately poor Steven has to work so we don't get much of a family weekend and try to pack everything into Sunday! On a Saturday the house turns into an oasis of calm and I stick on my Roberts radio and busy myself cleaning the house. Then hopefully I get a little me time, check my computer, read some blogs, take a long bath, read a magazine utter bliss! However to my horror this week I went to switch it on and found that a knob was missing arrrh!! and nowhere to be found. I was not a happy bunny!
I think Mr Elliott is the guilty one he's taken to climbing in a big way recently and I've caught him afew times climbing over the sofa onto the side table where it sits and pressing the buttons goodness knows where he's put it. It's not in any of the obvious places, it's not unusual to find things in the fridge, posted inside his toy garage or down the loo! Arrrh it's driving me nuts I'm sure it will turn up in the most ridiculous of places he's also managed to take the batteries out of the remote and hide them too! Cheeky monkey!


Sunday morning we was up bright and early to find lovely clear blue skies so we decided to go to the car boot we had a quick breakfast and took the half hour drive there. I was all eager in the anticipation of what goodies might be there only to find it was not on I was so disappointed. I did however find this vintage canteen set of cutlery in my local charity shop earlier in the week so I suppose this makes up for it. I've been after some cutlery for a while I just love the cream handles on the knives.

On the way back from the car boot we decided to stop off at Calke Abbey. We put Elliott in the new backpack and had a lovely walk by the river. It was so nice to walk somewhere where we couldn't normally get to. Your so restricted to where you can go with pushchairs. Emily really enjoyed it climbing over the stiles by herself and she managed to walk quite along way. We saw canada geese and deer which were fenced off, we were really surprised when one deer came right up to the edge of the fence to say hello. It's so beautiful there and I could of kicked myself for not having my camera with me. The sun shone all day and it really did feel like the first day of spring. I think it's probably my favourite season I just love to see all the trees come into blossom and flowers and plants awakening in such abundance. Heres the magnolia tree in our garden just coming into flower.

Thought I'd better show you some sewing now seen as this blogs called Miss Sew n Sew and not a stitch in sight yet! Here's an applique and embroidered castle I made for Miss Emily sorry about the rubbish photo. It's either going to end up framed or on a cushion not made my mind up yet. I'm starting to get very frustrated on the creativity front. Lately I seem to have very little time to get going on things and spend alot of time thinking about ideas and very little time doing. So sorry if my projects on here are few and far between. I've decided I'm going to try and manage the little time I do have more effectively and spend at least one evening a week being creative!

Here's Miss Emily in the garden looking all cute in the tutu I managed to snap up in The White Company sale. I am so looking forward to more sunny spring days and being able to get out in the garden with the little ones instead of being couped up in the house.
Roll on spring! Hope you all had a lovely weekend whatever you did!

Sarah x




Seem to have a huge gap here and don't know how to get rid of it whoops!