Happy Sunday

 

 

Well it's certainly been a while since I was last here.  It has been a hard and busy last few months.  Dh has a job and starts tomorrow.  I have been trying my best to be as frugal as possible.  There are still many areas I need to work on but I can't imagine just spending money frivolously anymore.   I am continuing to be frugal as we need to build the savings back up. 

 

I am having another year where I make as many of my Christmas gifts as I can.  I have wrote a list and I am slowly plodding my way through.  I have 3 quilts to make so when the boys go back to school tomorrow I am going to make a start on those. 

 

 This is a bag with a set of cards I made for my Auntie.  I have so much stash I need to start using some of it up. I used to sell papercraft supplies so I have a fair bit of it here. 

 

 

I thought a bit about this blog in the last few months, I was going to start another one as I never really got this one started but I have just decided to keep this one going and I aim to blog at least once a week.

 

 

Thank you so much for visiting.  I have taken lots of photos the last few months so I certainly have a lot to show you.

 

 

xx

So that was January

Good morning I can't believe we are in to February already! I managed to get quite a bit done.

I stitched 6 designs which I am very pleased with. I would have like to have done more but I received my late Christmas present which has kept me extremely busy.

Meet Bella and Bentley. We have had Bella for 2 1/2 years and were wanting a companion for her. The breeders we got her off had just had a new litter which was perfect. They share the same dad so are brother and sister. They get on so well.



He is very much the Andrex puppy and is a very loving dog.


I have been doing a bit of crochet too. I am doing a granny square a day. I am using up odd bits I wool and apart from the white wool for the border I am hoping to not spend any money on this blanket. This was it at the beginning of last month.


Ds1 will be 12 in April and asked me to make him a crochet blanket for his birthday. We looked on Pinterest for different designs and he chose a ripple blanket. The colours are navy, grey, red and white. I need to spend more time on this in February to get it finished for his birthday.



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February goals

1, finish a few valentines designs

2, Christmas ornament for Needle Haven forum

3, continue working on sal piece

4, finish patchwork quilt

5, continue with granny square a day

6, make good progress on ds1 blanket

7, stitch monthly Halloween design

8, stitch Lizzie*Kate May design

As you can see I have a lot to keep me busy this month which I look forward to sharing with you.

Thank you for visiting

Laura x


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Christmas gifts and things

Well hello, apologies for the lack of blogging. One of my new year resolutions is to blog a couple of times a week. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Santa bought you all you asked for.

I spent a lot of time making gifts for Christmas. I have come to the conclusion that I have a lot more time than I do money so I made quite a few homemade gifts.

For both sets of parents I made hampers. I included cookies in the tin, jam and chutney which I made in the summer, handmade fudge and peppermint bark, a box of candles, a small bottle of wine and a bottle of beer. The gift wrapped up in this one is a quilt that I made - I will show photos on my next post. Please excuse the decor the dining room is getting te plastered this month and is a mess!



This one was the same but the gift is a jigsaw puzzle with a picture of all the grandchildren. My mum had a pandora bead. These were so easy to make and they went down so so well.




This next photo is another quilt I made for my special girl Bella. As you can see she likes it a lot :-)




A random photo here but this is from a wreath making class I went to at the beginning of December. It is still on the door going strong.




One of my best friends and I decided to do complete handmade gifts for each other. Her birthday is New Year's Eve and I can't remember what I gave we for what so here is all of the gifts.

I made her these wrist warmers




I made the pattern up as I went along with some yarn my mum gave me. I need to make myself some soon.





Next are these earrings. I have a pair and she is always admiring them so now she has her own. The flowers were originally brads but I cut off the back and stuck them on to earrings.




She always likes a brooch and these two were so easy to make.





I am a list maker and have a list for everything. I am always encouraging Ali to make a list so I made her this notebook. The cross stitch pattern is from an old crafts beautiful magazine and is designed by Helen Philips.




All of the gifts went down very well but I think this year I will start a lot earlier!!

Thank you for visiting

Laura x

Weekend baking

I have go in to the habit the last few years of always baking on a Friday. It's not the only time of the week I bake but I always fill the tin up for the weekend.

I don't do over the top baking very often it's usually a simple fruit cake, Victoria sponge or loaf cake. Yesterday as I had a bit of time I decided to make some cupcakes.




They are a very basic chocolate sponge with a vanilla buttercream topping. I used some leftover Halloween sweets to decorate. The boys were over the moon when they came home from school.




I have been teaching my boys to cook. My 11 year old made this chicken and bacon pizza with onions and sweetcorn all by himself last night. It was delicious.



The boys are at different birthday parties today. For once they all seem to be at the same time so I have 2 hours sewing time that I can complete some gifts today.

Have a lovely day

Laura x



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Teacher Gifts

Hello is anyone there? I can't believe it has been a month! My laptop has broken again and there is no way it will be replaced this side of Christmas, so I have downloaded an app and am having a go from the iPhone and iPad.


So as I have had no laptop I have been busy crafting each day and have lots and lots to show you.

I wrote myself quite an extensive list this year for the homemade gifts and have been slowly plodding my way through. A few things I have completed on the list is the boys teacher gifts.

I covered 2 notebooks I picked up in Tesco for 95p. I made a wrapper for a bar of Dairy Milk and decorated 2 white paper bags. I then added a Yankee Candle tart to each bag. Hopefully the teachers will like them.


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I had all of the supplies here so each teacher gift cost me about £3 which I am very happy with as a box of Roses is more than that!

If you would like tutorials for anything just let me know.

Well hopefully this post works. Thank you for visiting

Laura xx


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Stitching Sunday

Hello anyone there? Apologies for the lack of posts I have been so busy.  I have so much to blog about and I promise to get some posts out this week.  

I have a finish for you today!!!  I actually finished it last Saturday but I just didn't get around to blogging - or instagramming sorry. The design is Owls and Acorns by Blue Ribbon Designs.  I stitched it in the recommended DMC colours.  I am going to frame it this week so it can go with the Autumn decorating. 

I am linking up with Chrissie over HERE.  Pop on over for a look at what everyone else is stitching today. 

I have added a few different ways to follow the blog now I hope that helps. 

Laura x 

Sunday Stitching

Good evening how are you?  I have been a little poorly this past week so I haven't been up to much.  I have tried to sleep as much as possible which is not easy with 3 children and a chocolate Labrador!!   

I did make some progress on my Friday night fall stitching which I take part in on Instagram.  I would ideally like to get it finished this week but I have a lot on so we will see. 

Next up is a new start.  I have seen this on a few blogs recently and it is a new stitchalong by this lovely blog.  The second part is already out so I need to get a move on.  

I managed some embroidery this week too but my camera battery has died.  It is on charge now so I will take some photos soon.  

If you would like to see what others are stitching this week pop on over to Chrissie. 

Thank you for visiting 

Laura x