28 July 2014

Sunny weekend in Norfolk


I know... Another rather non craft related report, but do you know what.. We spent basically all weekend by the seaside (well more travel than sea, but we can't have it all).

My auntie lives in the most incredible house in the middle of the Norfolk Coast. It's a one story house in the middle of some farmland which is made entirely from wood and tin. It's been there for a long time, and from what we can tell, in the early days people would just add rooms and rooms on to it, so it has around 30 I believe, and is a proper little maze on the inside. It is adorably quaint though, with handmade furnishings, and cute eclectic charity shope decor, I love it. 


The views are spectacular as well. We had a really lovely time with the family. But do you know what, as much as I love the ability to stop and kick back every once in a while I don't think I could cope with living away from the city. Though there is a lot to be said for the good life. 

I hope you all has a lovely weekend? Do you have any thoughts on country vs city living? 

I promise to be back ASAP with some sewing.. I really need to think about starting on the Christmas stuff for project craft as well! So much stuff! 



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25 July 2014

I think it might be time to get maternity sewing

For the first time today I decided to 'dress' the bump instead of hiding it. It really is true what they say, the media can make you so body concious, even when pregnant. All those perfectly rounded bumps you see on the dress models and in magazines. Well do you know what? my bump is not perfectly spherical, it does look a bit like a double belly and I have decided I don't care. Its a special time and I should celebrate it instead of hiding it.

I am also very concious that my wardrobe is shrinking (or I am growing) so its probably time to start looking at Maternity clothes, and what better way that to try and make a few myself. Megan Nielson does the most amazing independent sewing pattern pack for mums to be so I have purchased my very own copy and can't wait to get sewing some of these. I will start with the skirt which I just adore.

Image is the property of Megan Nielson

I have started off a little pinterest board to see the types of things I want to wear during the pregnancy. I am sure I will be adding to this as the seasons go on, especially as we will be into winter and dark nights before I really need to cover this thing up! 

So if any of you out there have any tips on dressing maternity through the seasons, or getting sewing for your bump I would love to hear all about it. 


Follow Helen Fox's board Maternity style on Pinterest.
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21 July 2014

Crochet Baby Bear Hat


Who's been sleeping in my bed...? No one at the moment but it won't be long I'm sure till we have a tiny person trying to hog the covers as well as Mr Fox! 

Not having the craft room hasn't been a total disaster, I have managed to crochet this awesome little baby bear hat. Anyone that knows me will easily be able to tell you that my child is going to be nearly permanently in some fancy dress or another! You can't wait can you!


It's still a couple of weeks till we find out the sex so I am still trying to craft neutral, Bears are a great way to cover this even if brown is not exactly my favourite colour. 

The main body of the hat was crocheted using the following Velvet Acorn pattern. The face was self drafted from felt pieces and sewn on with a blanket stitch. Finally the ears were self drafted. I did start off with two giant pom poms for ears but they didn't quiet look right so I made up a new set. 

Using the same wool and hook as the main pattern (you will have to purchase it for that info):
Make a magic loop and sc 5 times into the loop, do not join
Turning the work 2sc in each stitch around (10 sc), do not join
Turning the work sc in each stitch until you reach the last one (9sc), slip stitch, fasten off.

You then just need to sew them on to the body. I don't think mine are quiet equal but meh!


In other news: The Kitchen fiasco continues, we can't get a worktop for 2 weeks so they have had to put in a temporary fix and then they will come back and finish it off. Not ideal, but at least I can use the kitchen for now. We had a major storm, I should not have been laughing at us not flooding at the top of a hill, the garage was underwater, though nothing major so we are counting ourselves very lucky. Also Mr Fox bought a Harley! I am a little gutted I can't have a go until next year but I am really pleased for him, he was so happy!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. p.s. if you have any cute animal baby makes to send my way for trying please do... I probably won't be able to resist.
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18 July 2014

My new little toy



Wow, well this week has been a bit of hard work. What with not having a kitchen, the builders being around until 7.30 in the evening and me loosing my craft room I don't seem to have time to do anything but work and sleep. We have just found out as well that the kitchen is going to be delayed two whole weeks :( not happy news.

But on a brighter note I wanted to show you my new little toy/treat/whatever you want to call it. I have been thinking about a new point and shoot for a while now as I have an SLR but my little everyday camera is very old and very battered. However I have a bit of a thing for cameras so my search got a bit extensive and I ended up with this little beauty on the right.


It's a Fuji Finepix X20 and I think the thing that drew me to it the most was it's styling, look at it, so similar to my first manual SLR (which took real film!), it's even made of aluminium in stead of plastic so it feels really sturdy. 

I had real toss up between one with a really good aparture priority or one with a super zoom. I eventually decided, as my SLR has a decent enough zoom, I should go for the aparture which the other is lacking in. I am really glad I did I love shooting pics with this thing. It's a good job I bought a big handbag though, it's not really handbag sized!! 


You can see the aparture at work above in a picture I took at the wedding in Scotland. It even supports a wifi SD card so I can transfer pics immediately to my phone and ipad for instant blogging to you lot. 

I just need to make a pretty case for it now so I can chuck it in my handbag without ruining it. I just need to think about how to work around that awkward lens! 

Have an awesome weekend everybody xx
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14 July 2014

DIY Clay Kitty Plant Pot


Come on.. admit you don't instantly want to make one of these yourself now? I knew you would! 

I wanted to get a couple of plants for the new kitchen, and one for my new office desk, but just wasn't too inspired by the plant pots they come in, or ones you can buy. I mean why doesn't your local DIY store carry Kitty plant pots? Silly people. 

I have had an inkling to play with some air dry clay for a little while now, especially as I knew I would be without the sewing machine for a while. I got quiet a lot of the inspiration to have a go at this from our recent trip to Rhodes. All the white houses and churches amongst the green landscapes were really pretty. I then thought about the types of shapes which would lend themselves well to a plantpot, and added my own little quirky style and this is what we got. I will admit that (close up) this first attempt does look like someone gave a 5 year old a lump of clay... give it a go, see if your 5 year olds can do better then me! but I am pleased with the overall shape of it. It also looks a lot better after a layer of paint, but there are definitely some things I would do better next time. But its still really cute and so I don't really care about any of this!



How to make a clay kitty plant pot: 
  1. Get some air dry clay. This will be available in your local craft stores. You can buy white clay so you don't need to give it a layer of paint, but any colour will be fine.
  2. Take a lump of clay and start hollowing it out into a sort of bowl shape. You can use an old plant pot or bowl (or even a plastic pop bottle) to help get the shape you want if needed. Make sure to try and keep all sides quiet even in thickness, and no area to thin. Also make sure there are no holes... add more clay to these areas if you need. 
  3. On one side pull the clay up at the top to form two pointed kitty ears. You can add an extra bit of clay to form these bits, but remember you will need to make sure they are smoothed into the base if you do it this way so they don't fall off.
  4. Using a soft paintbrush and some water smooth out the lines and finger prints from the outside of your pot (the step I skipped!)
  5. Leave your pot to dry - this can take anything from 24-48 hours depending on the size, but I would leave it a few days to be sure.
  6. Paint your pot with some white (or any other colour) acrylic paint and leave this to dry.
  7. Using a pencil first draw on your kitty face then go over this with black acrylic paint and leave to dry
  8. Pot up your plant and admire your handy work.
 My advice would be to plant up some sort of cactus or other non thirsty plant as the clay will likely soak up a bit of the water. You want something which doesn't require too much watering. 

Please do send me a link to your pots, I would really really like to see these. Two of my favourite things in one... DIY and gardening <3


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11 July 2014

Getting Some Baby Sewing Inspiration

Happy Friday! I am off out for dinner tonight (lack of kitchen) and Mocktails with friends so I am very much looking forward to it. 

The kitchen renovations appear to be going pretty well, they have already ripped it all out, plumbed, rewired and measured up half the cupboards. Hopefully we will have lovely new skimmed walls by tonight as well. I have to say though we are already fed up of the lack of kitchen and everything being in upheaval. I am also really not liking the fact I have lost the craft room to a make shift kitchen! its not good for my productivity.


So instead I have been purchasing an reading this new book from Lotta Jansdotter to get some inspiration for more baby makes. You are really not surprised are you. This book has some excellent ideas in it, my favourite being the rattles (what an excellent way to use up all those spare cat bells we get from the cat collars), the support pillow and the tag blanket. Though of course I can see me making many more of the things out of this book in the near future. You can get a look inside the book on the Amazon site to give you an idea of the types of projects in here but it looks like a great little book. I really can't wait to find out the sex of our little baby so I can start really planning some sewing. 

I hope you all have a fun weekend planned ahead, enjoy whatever you are doing, and I will see you on the other side. 
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7 July 2014

Leopard Prom Dress



Pregnant lady on a swing in a leopard print prom dress... Very dignified of course! 

So of course I changed my mind didn't I! After making the jade prom dress I decided it was too dark for a wedding and thought about going out and panic buying a new frock from the fabulous Frock. Though I know what I am like and the one dress I would have wanted was the leopard print poplin bombshell dress! So having already got 2 meters of the fabric and a pattern that still fits for now I decided I might as well just have a go at rush jobbing the thing myself last week and I successfully managed to make this dress in time for the wedding.

We had a fabulous time in Scotland seeing two of our friends getting married. What better way to spend a weekend than sharing two peoples really special day with them in the company of more really good friends! We all had a really great time (dispite my complete sober ness) and I am so thankful that we were invited along :) 


We visited Scotland twice in one day (due to our hotel actually being just the other side of the border), ate far too much food, played on the park, danced, sang and were generally very merry. All in all a great time was had by all. And despite this being the hardest occasion for not drinking I was at least glad to not have a hangover the next morning. So here's to many more weekends like this one.

On a less exciting note for now... They are ripping the kitchen out this morning... I am already fed up of. Noting gift being where it should be and tonight there will be even more chaos. I am sure it will be worth it in the end. Here is a picture of what it looked like this morning ( I hate that oven in the middle of the room!).



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4 July 2014

Baby Dribble Bibs


Whats the one problem with making baby things this early... I have no idea on the sex and I am actually finding it really hard to sew neutral. There as so many ideas to make: cuddly dinosaurs or dollys, dresses or pants, the list goes on. I know I shouldn't be so stereotypical (I mean why wouldn't a little girl love dinosaurs) but it has actually become something that I think I have started way over thinking.

One thing you can be certain on though is that all babies dribble! So why keep them in a generic bib all day when they can sport a stylish little dribble neckerchief? It also gave me an excuse to buy a couple of my favourite current quilting cottons: Catnap - Purrfectly Happy in Cloud and Wildwood - Foxes in Snow (currently not available on the Village Haberdashery website where I bought it).


I found a PDF pattern for these bibs somewhere on pinterest, but essentially it is just a couple of triangles sewn together. I am not 100% sure how big a babies neck is either so I have sewn two poppers on to each one so that it actually has an adjustable width (and the largest fits round my neck so I think we should be ok).

I am really looking forward to seeing the creative fox related things that come from having this baby. I am already imagining fox hats, fox shoes, fox print clothes and who knows what else. I have also declared that this baby will likely constantly be dressed as some kind of animal or in fancy dress, because lets face it, what other reason is there to have a kid other than to dress it up??

And finally, here is Leo doing an excellent job of modelling in the absence of a baby. I know a lot of people who will probably shout at me for being so mean to him but he got a fuss and some ham for his troubles.

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