Craft swap part 2

I could hardly contain my excitement on the swap day, the #colourmeprettyswap had me worried for a bit I had got to the swap day and I still hadn't received my parcel, but it came later on in the day so I was able to open it.

 It was from @_katiekookaburra and here it is :

I got a very large and pretty bag, a cute bird candle and another candle, some lovely nail polish and a nail file, cupcake cases and a very pretty card. I love everything especially the bag which I have filled with my wool stash. The only thing that I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't anything hand made in it. 

And this is what I made/bought for my swap recipient @donna_marie74 : 

I made a pin cushion jar filled with pink, yellow and green buttons and a crochet hook holder, I bought ribbons, fabric tape, 2 note pads and a little pad of stickers, a bag of rosy apples and a sewing kit. I really enjoyed doing it and I was so glad that Donna loved it too, part of the excitement was seeing what she thought of the gifts. 

Today was the birds and flowers swap and I was up at the crack of dawn to open my swap stuff! 

It was off a lovely lady called Beth @crossstitch_gal but she's just changed her Instagram name to @bethslc and here's what I got:

A really nice handmade card, a beautiful photo frame, 3x Cath kidston tissues and washi tape, some lovely pegs and a hanging bird and 2 fantastic cross stitches made by Beth herself, I think we are very alike because all the things that she's got for me are things that I would get for myself. I was so pleased I felt like it was Christmas! 

This is what I sent to my swap recipient Isobel  @isobelcupcakes79: 

I was quite worried about this because my handmade items don't look like much, I made a cross stitch and 4 granny square hearts, I bought a personalised notepad from funkypigeon.com, a little hanging heart and a lovely bird mug and Cadbury's bubble bar. 

Isobel posted the picture saying "what fabulous, thoughtful gifts!" So I was absolutely made up that she liked them.

I am definitely hooked on doing these swaps, its really nice to meet new people and make things with a focus, its such a brilliant atmosphere on the swap days seeing if your gifts have gone down well and seeing what everyone else got.

I have signed up to two more both summer related and hopefully I will get on another swap ran by @kellysmellysharpe who organised the birds and hearts swap when she posts details about it soon, I also maybe organising one with Kate @the_happy_hooker who lives in America so she will coordinate swaps for US swappers and I will do the UK swappers side which will be good if we can sort that out but a bit nerve wracking because neither of us have done it before! 

Thanks for reading! 

Abigail x

Half term :)

What a busy week off I have had, almost as busy as a working week.

On Monday I looked after my nephew, Joshua for a while we made some valentines cupcakes, took Max for a walk and watched 'Ratatouille' then I had a lovely catch up with my sister and his mum Susanna.

On Tuesday It was pancake day so I had my mum around for tea I made a lovely minced beef pie then for afters we did pancakes, some with lemon and sugar and some with Nutella. I always enjoy pancakes and wonder why we don't have them all the time! Afterwards it was art class and this week we had instructions to draw out a picture ready to paint. We had to paint it using the 3 primary colours and mixing and blending the colours. It didn't turn at all like what I thought it would but I learned a lot about shades. I'm pleased with it technically but I'm not sure I like it, I don't know it something about the colours it's very dark and I'm not really a dark colours kind of girl but see what you think?

On Wednesday it's Matthews half day so we had planned to go out to the cinema and watch 'Les miserable' ( i still haven't watched it!) and out for a meal but it had been snowing since 6am and it was getting deep by the time Matthew got home from work, so we decided not to go out and we got a chippy tea instead and when we took Max out for his walk we went sledging again.

On Thursday I went for a walk with Max around Entwistle reservoir with Sandra and Kimberley from work and Kimberley's dog Finbar. It was dry and cold but because of all the snow melting on the hills the reservoir was very high and in some places it had flooded and we had to wade through luckily we all had our wellies on. We went up to have a drink and something to eat at 'the strawberry duck' last time we went there Max barked so much we had to sit outside to eat, but this time he was much better. We had a lovely time. It was also mine and Matthew's 11th valentines day together, I made Matthew a card and made him some heart shaped Nutella biscuits (his favourite) and he got me a card and some Guylian chocolates (my favourites)

On Friday I went with mum to Cafe create, a cafe that is set up in the hall of Claremont church in Bolton town centre it is open every Friday for people to get together and learn new crafts, meet new people and eat cake and drink tea! They have a gallery where they sell crafts that people have made. We sat crocheting hearts and teaching some of mums friends to crochet it was great I really enjoyed it. I took some of the felt keyrings that I had made to show them and they said they would like to sell some I just need to think of a name and put some business cards with them. I had such a good time I wish they did it on a weeknight or weekend because I'll only get to go at holidays otherwise.

Handmade Christmas

This year I wanted to really get into decorating the house for Christmas as well as using old favourites to decorate the tree I wanted to add more that I had made myself.
I started with the tree , most years I decide on a theme and stick to it duck egg blue features highly in my lounge so on previous years I have had red and gold with blue, but last year I was given some small vintage style baubles as a present from one of the children's parents at school. This gave me the inspiration for this years tree , they were small, one was gold, purple, red, orange and green made out of crackled glass. I wanted my tree to be colourful like these. So first step- lights I had coloured lights instead of the usual white. I keep some of my old baubles but added more different coloured ones luckily I was able to borrow some off my mother in law who bought new baubles near enough every year and had lots to choose from I also borrowed some quite retro looking lantern decorations which reminded me of some we had as a child I was told that these were older than me!
I also had some old favourites that I had picked up along the way. My glass stars/snowflakes I bought from Jo Downs glass in St Ives, the two handcrafted snowmen I bought from the Christmas markets in Manchester, the Father Christmas and angel I bought from Woolworth's for our first tree in our new house 9 years ago and a little Venetian glass angel given as a present off a friend from her holiday in Italy. I also added this year a handmade decoration to remind us of the year we got Max. A little felt Max the red nose reindeer decoration.
I like to look at a tree and remember the different stories that go with each one.

I also made some crochet snowflakes to hang in the windows, some small ones and big ones and next year I'll do more. Pinterest has been a massive inspiration for Christmas decoration ideas I pinched an idea for hanging candy canes with ribbon and a garland over the kitchen window, I also got an idea for making a driftwood tree that I stuck on to a canvas and put battery operated lights. The driftwood I collected on a beach in Anglesey when we went camping in May at the time my sister slated me for collecting it but even she had to admit it looked pretty good.
I also had a party and made bacon wrapped sausage rolls or pigs in duvets as I like to call them! I made my own mince pies and snowmen cakes.
It has all been time consuming and hard work at times but in the end it all looks good..I'm actually wishing I could decorate the house the whole year around because it gives me an excuse to be creative.

Wearing my poppy with pride.

Last weekend was Remembrance Sunday. A time to remember the fallen or injured soldiers and wear or poppies with pride.
When I saw a free pattern for a knitted poppy I knew I wanted to try it http://blog.themakingspot.com/blog/free-pattern-knit-a-poppy-in-november I hadn't knitted in a while so I had to remind myself of a few techniques but it was quite easy to do. I added a felt leaf and did the centre of the poppy with felt too.
Of course the most important thing for me to do was to log on to  http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/ to make my donation. I had so many comments about it that next year I might make a batch of them and sell them in aid of British Legion.

Felt craft

Do you like my car keyring? I made it from felt in the likeness of my beloved Maxi. I posted it on Facebook and my sister wants me to make her one and my friend sandra wanted me to make her a cat one. I quite enjoyed doing it which has made me think that I might make a few christmas decorations too, maybe even a Maxi themed one. What do you think?