Handmade Christmas!

This year whilst trying to get my own little business off the ground money has been tight to say the least.  Needless to say that when it came time to ask the girls how many presents they needed for friends this year after a large gulp I needed to get my thinking cap on.  Normally I would just trundle off down to either superdrug or boots and buy something, however, budget constraints were not allowing that this year.  So here is what I came up with for littlest child a cupcake brooch with small tissue parcel of sweets and a handmade gift box.  For teen a felt twilight brooch and a feather hair clip, now this is where the plan went a tad pear shaped as I had spent so long planning and making I ran out of steam admitted defeat and bought the gift bags for her.  So all in all not 100% handmade but a sight cheaper than a trip to the town centre would have been and there is no wonder Santa needs all year off I am exhausted now!

Feathers, feathers Everywhere!

I have had an extremely busy week this week.  On Monday my youngest baby was singing in Young Voices at Manchester MEN Arena, Tuesday they had athletics, Wednesday football tournament, Thursday was assessment for Web Design course and tonight is finally night off!  We are off round to a friends for a meal, a chat and possibly a glass of wine or three!

Craft wise this week I had the wonderful luck to start chatting to Krysia on Crafts Forum aka Sparklyshoes who had a lot of feathers and wanted to know what people used them for.  I replied that I use them in my fabric brooches and thus a deal with was struck.  In return for a bag she had spied she sent me feathers and boy did she send me feathers there was an extremely large box full of the most beautiful feathers in all different colours.  Alas, I could not restrain myself anymore, even being time poor I made these feathered hair clips which were promptly snapped up my eldest daughter for her friends' Christmas presents.  Anyhoo have a look and let me know what you think.........

Christmas Cushions

Thought I would share with you the Christmas cushions I made from some scraps of material found in the charity shop.  I am quite pleased with them as they are my first attempt at cushions & patchwork let me know what you think!

Also, still time to join in the December Giveaway leave your comment below that post for your chance to win one of my handmade fabric brooches (UK only I am afraid, sorry!  For a double chance of winning join my facebook group Not Just Handbags, good luck!

Christmas Decorations!

ooh it is just around the corner now!  Loving my new Christmas background courtesy of Shabby Blogs it's lush as Stacey (from Gavin & Stacey would say!).  Anyhoo, I love Christmas and all the preparations,  in the spririt of the season and to say thank you to all you lovely followers I will be doing my first blog giveaway details will be in my next post.  Stay tuned!................

Halloween!

Been very busy this week hence no posts! I have now ordered snazzy carriers (recycled of course!) and tissue paper for upcoming craft fair. I have kept the order low in order to keep costs down, so have just ordered 25 although the way sales are going at present I feel that is very optimistic and I may have them for a very long time!

Back to halloween the curse of every busy mother! Big child decided that being a horror buff she wanted to go as one of The Strangers which was very handy as it only involved painting a mask. I was quite proud of the result myself!

Smaller child on the other hand wanted to go as a cat, which involved ears and tail, although she did look very cute! Also, was quite proud of the ears as they stayed on, result. So costumes completed window decorated we waited patiently for trick or treaters..........

This week no bag making as I have been concentrating on social networking to get my name out and about (with moderate success), making up business cards, leaflets and this afternoon the painting of a sign to go on said craft fair stall. Hopefully my next post will not be as delayed as this one. Anyhoo halloween decorations are down and now it is truly my favourite time of year countdown to Christmas!

These are a few of my favourite things

I have been avoiding this post as I have been desperately trying to be very businesslike with this blog and not deviate. However, I can refrain no longer returning from taking the kids to school this morning I looked at the trees and I thought yippee autumn is now here! I adore this time of year, people moan and say about dark nights but I love it. I truly know that winter is approaching when one of my favourite programmes begins Autumnwatch and I know it is really sad and the kids moan but I don't care. Autumn also means that Christmas is not far away and all I have to do is endure Halloween which has got to be the biggest pain in every mums bum. I must admit the decorator in me loves decorating the window and seeing the little ones coming around, it is just the big teenage ones that scare me to death and half of them don't wear a mask!



I also love sitting in my nice, warm, cosy house watching the tv and sewing. This year I will be mainly sewing these little beauties that I found trawling the web. If I start now they will make excellent pressies for my girls to give their friends for Christmas. Click here to see fab tutorial and pattern of how to make them. Thanks Sarah. x