End of (another) Era

Our boys have finally broken up for the summer! 

It was #2's last day in Primary school so we went out for a celebration tea...finished with ice cream in the sunshine


 We then watched the Olympic opening ceremony - which was all agreed was bloomin marvellous. I loved how different it was from Beijing - good work Danny Boyle.

Other than that it's been the usual busyness - although we did find both time and sunshine for an annual 'chips and crochet' in the park with my good friend Jane and her boys (we crochet, the boys play and eat chips)

Made all the more special by the addition of my beautiful blanket, made by same said friend!

Speaking of herself - I borrowed shamelessly stole an idea from her while taking tea in the shed. 

She had the loveliest floral curtains up - which I learnt were from Ikea. I managed to get a cheap set on EBay and put them up at our front window. 

I was all set to hem and sew them - but Jane said 'Oooh no, just chop them up and whack some Velcro on them'. It worked a treat - and since I bought a jumbo sized roll of sticky backed Velcro I'm now going round the house wondering what else I can stick up!

Our house has a pretty facade but is on the main road into Timperley village so non too private. We've thought about putting a pretty glass film on before now but it always ends up being really expensive. This option took less than an hour and cost 

less than £25! result.

I also received a lovely package from Jooles at Sew Sweet Violet.

Her daughter Sweet B has been helping out in Jooles' Etsy shop to help fund her studies - and her makes are TOO cute.

I requested a set of luggage labels with meal time, kitcheny words on to make some new bunting for above the oven...

and she didn't let me down:

Thank you Sweet B - I will photograph again when they are up 

My shop has officially closed for the summer (hooray!) but I am still finishing off some commissions (my favourite) - here's a sneaky look at what I've made this week.

This one is for Emily's Mum:

Some Cath Kidston covered thank you blocks for little flower girls

And blocks for a first birthday

 

A double sided block for my blogging pal Helen, 

who inspires me on a regular basis!

And lastly some family blocks for another regular customer Liz - hope you managed to part with them!!!

Happy weekend - fee x

Blog hop?

My little brother Mark has requested I join in this blog hop, and it's for a good cause so how could I refuse? He has shared some memories of his childhood (an event that I knew nothing of!) over at his blog here.

The purpose of the hop is to highlight the gulf in differences between some of our own childhoods and those of youngsters around the world who don’t even know the meaning of the word childhood, let alone share in any of the joys each one should include as a guaranteed minimum entitlement.

As part of the campaign, every £1 donated will be matched by DFID so there really is no better time to donate than today, and it’s easy peasy, just follow this link … Word Vision – Single Gifts

I too was lucky enough to have a wonderfully carefree childhood! Like Mark, I hope that I can provide my boys with the same love and security that I was so lucky to have. As is often the case, it's only through having my own children that I realise the effort my parents put in to making us feel loved and cherished.

My Mum with us three!

One of my favourite games as a child was 'the tasting game'. Basically you had to blindfold your younger gullible sibling, then feed them a surprise on a teaspoon...they had to guess what it was.

There were some basic rules - nothing from under the sink (!) and no marmite - Mark HATED it.

 

It was a simple but fun game that went something like this:

Mark fed me jam, I fed him marmite. 

I chuckled, he cried, Mum told him not to play it again. He always did. 

My boys like to play the same game - and it seems to pan out the same way (poor Kenzie)

Anyway - in the style of a blog hop I'm going to encourage anyone who wants to to join in and share a childhood memory....and on that note wish my little brother a very 

HAPPY BITHDAY!

fee x

Treasures from near and (very, very) far

So, this month I have been lucky enough to win 3 giveaways and one 'carry it forward'

How lucky is that?

The first was from very lovely Vintage Vicki over at ....Vintage Vicki, who was celebrating 400 followers!

Thanks again Vicki, it was a wonderful box of goodies - little dolly has been gifted to wee Mabel.

           

My second good fortune came from my blogging pal Anita from castles, crowns and cottages - who was celebrating the end of her Paris Blog Soiree. 

Anita makes exquisite treasures out of paper - including these amazing little shoes!

 

 My shoe is a very specific colour - and will go in my boudoir perfectly. The picture below already hangs there- what a perfect match!

Anita also included the little castle below - and I was delighted to see 'lavendar' on the list of ingredients. One night when Cleggy was away I was CRAVING chocolate (as is my want) and remembered this little treat with great excitement. I had save it for just such a time. Unfortunately as I bit into it I soon realised it was in fact SoAP!!!

SO serves me right for being such a greedy guts!

My last treat was this little set of spotty magnets - which I received from The Little Picture Company 

(thanks again Anita!)

Obviously they are being used to create as many rude words as possible..... !

 

The last treat comes all the way from Korea! Whilst travelling in Italy last month The Granny found a wallet full of money and documents. On returning to the UK she googled the name inside and duly posted it back to it's rightful owner, a doctor working at a medical centre in Seoul. Despite the fact that she wrote 'wallet' as contents of the package (doh!) it still arrived and the delighted recipient sent her a little something to say thank you! 

 A beautiful inlaid mirror -  How lovely is that?!

Here are my commissions from the past week:

Chunky blocks for a wedding and an anniversary

 

A set of 1st anniversary blocks:

 

 New style space inspired blocks for boys (hoping to put in the shop in September):

A single love block for a pearl wedding anniversary:

A girls room sign:

And some special, LONG overdue, blocks for a blogging friend...

you know who you are! (clue on map!)

And finally something I
made just for the sake of making (a real rarity!)

I so enjoyed making the Alice in Wonderland things for my giveaway I decided to play with wood, stamps, and old keys:

 

Speaking of giveaways...I'm only 7 followers off my next one! And it's already made and waiting...

Meanwhile, I hope the sun is shining wherever you are (and if you're in the US I hope there's a breeze!)

We had our first BBQ last night - bring on the summer!

fee x 

Counting The Sleeps...

...until our holidays! (21)

We usually take our family holiday in May so this one feels like it's been a long time coming. I can't wait.

In the meantime there are commissions to finish and plenty of things on 'the list'.

Boys wise its all about end of year performances and making do (not mending) the rags they call uniform!

We went to our first speech night - where #1 made the speech on behalf of year 7. It was held at The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester - and I have to admit I was feeling pretty nervous. Not because I thought he would mess up (he's a natural on the stage - not a trait he gets from my side of the family!) but more that he would be buoyed by an initial laugh and veer from the script! (he didn't. Phew)

Meanwhile Kenzie is playing The Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz this week. Scares me how much he looks like me with that make up (maybe I'm overdoing the foundation!!)

  Here are my latest commissions:

Some 'funky eclectic' blocks for a naming ceremony. They aren't colours I normally use - but I really liked them

some more Ladybird blocks (can't ever get enough of these!)

A big block for a special friend (front and back view):

and some more knit blocks (hope you like them Avril!)

 That's it for me...back to the list! fee x