Blogiversary

So I've been writing this blog for a year now, can't believe its been that long.  The intention of this was to document all the things I wanted to make and, well, to actually make them!  So how well have I done?  The list on the right has certainly changed in the last year.  A couple of things are still on there from last Christmas but most things have been completed.  New things arrived through the year and completed, other things have remained. 

So out of the the things left over what will I remove, what will I add?

• Make Banners for the girls  (staying, planning on redecorating Miss M bedroom this year so I think I'll see if she likes this idea)
• Make Gingerbread House for Christmas! (Have actually got the felt for this but ran out of time before Christmas)
• Learn to crochet (remove, I did have a little try one time this last year, but I've come to the conclusion I'm not a yarny person, fabric all the way for me!)
• Draft clothes for the girls (definitely staying, in fact this is my big intention in 2011 to really learn how to draft and construct clothes both for me and the girls.  I had a little go at this a while ago but I need to redo the measurements with the knowledge I gained from my first attempt)
• Try out my new Ruffler Foot!!!! (staying, I had an unsuccessful attempt which is why I haven't removed this yet.  Had a few teething problems which I will definitely resolve in 2011)
• Peasant top (staying)
• Ra-Ra Skirt (staying, had one of these when I was a kid and the girls would love one)
• Split skirt (remove, only so many projects I can do!)
• Make One Hour Sundress (remove, ditto)
• Make Ruffle top or even Dress (probably stay, although I don't think it will be high on list of priorities!)

things to add....

• Make a Christmas Tree Skirt
• Make loads of cushions for Miss M bedroom
• Make a quilt (maybe for Miss M)
• Make a Rag Doll each for the girls
• Make clothes for Barbie
• Make some clothes for a Build-a-Bear Bear (anyone got a pattern or tutorial?)
• Make some clothes for me using some of the resources I got at Christmas 
• Read more books (I know this isn't a crafty thing but I'm setting out my stall for 2011 so I'm going to commit myself here.  I think I'll use Richard & Judy as a starting point and see where those books take me. )

What have I enjoyed making this year?

• Advent Calender

• Purple skirt for me

• Superhero cape

• Skort

• Dresses

• Frilly top (which I happen to be wearing today!!)

• Pencil Roll

All in all I've had a great crafty year and I'm glad I've committed it all to this blog.  I'm glad I've got ideas for next year and all the wonderful blogs I follow will give me more ideas along with all the books I got at Christmas time.  I'm glad that there are wonderful people out there who read this blog and occasionally give me feedback on what I'm doing and hopefully next year I can give you more opportunities to tell me what I did well!

Didn't I do well!

So how was is for you?  Here it was manic, lovely but manic.  We had ALL our family staying here!  So normally there are 4 of us in this house yet on Christmas Night there were 9 of us and 1 in hotel (he's the cleverest of all of us!) so it got very busy.  Because of the snow and bad weather they all turned up 1 or 2 days earlier than originally planned so that's a lot of cups of tea, lots of meals, and lots of people! Add to that my DH  has not been feeling well due to a cold which I now seem to have caught and you see how busy its been.  Now we are down to 2 extra people staying here so that's much easier!  Today being Boxing Day there has been football all day so I had a lovely hour and half on my own catching up with Eastenders (Gotta be done!) which was the longest time I've had on my own in over a week!  We had the same amount of family staying last Christmas and right now I'm think that next Christmas I NEED a quiet Christmas with just us to worry about rather than EVERYONE else.  We lost my mother 5 years ago and her absence is felt strongly at these significant times of the year and I had a little moment last night when I came to bed and realised how I'd been running around like a fool trying to make everyone elses Christmas perfect and since my mother died there was no-one trying to make my Christmas perfect IYKWIM.  You know how us mothers are sometimes we need some mothering ourselves and without a mother to do it sometime we forget.  Anyway.......

For my Xmas pressies I had made a list of craft books I wanted and look what I found under the tree ......

.... plus some that got stuck in Scotland due to the snow that should get forwarded on to me in a few weeks!  Can't believe I've got so many craft books now!  Its nearly all the books on my list (my brother is particularly generous!) not sure where I'm going to put them all!  What about you, did you get some lovely crafty books.  I'm thinking that I might make some of the Christmassy things now rather than leave it til next December and rush it.  I already know I'm going to make a Tree Skirt so maybe I can get some Christmas Fabric in some sales and get a bargain! I'm also going to make the Gingerbread House that I've been threatening to make since last Christmas, I actually have the thick felt I need but I ran out of time.   I think we need lots and lots of red Nordic felt decorations so that shall be on my list and most of the Tilda books!    I shall be updating my list of what I've achieved and what I want to do in the next few days as amazingly its my blogiversary!  Time to take stock and assess what I want to do!

Massive giveway

In case you haven't seen it Sew, Mama Sew are hosting the biggest collection of give-aways you have ever seen, seriously there's 3 list of lovely bloggers who are giving stuff away.  There's loads of fabric, patterns, wool, clothes, quilts, mug rugs, even a donation to charity!  Most of them are willing to ship internationally so us Brits don't miss out.

Check it out and see what lovely things people are willing to give away!

Crafting B4 breakfast!

This morning Miss C woke up and said she wanted to wear her Christmas top, ok no problem there, except it was too small for her as it was not even last years top but the one bought for her 2 years ago!  Luckily for her she has a crafty mother.......

....out came the scissors and I cut out the appliques used on her old t-shirt....

 .....take a red top that fits ......

.... some Bondaweb and an iron and you have a new Christmas Top!

And she loves it!

btw she's standing in front of my Advent Calender.  

All done b4 breakfast, she wore it the rest of the day.  What do you think? Cute or what?

Advent Calender Sew Along #3 - Still going!

So I finished my Advent Calender with 3 ornaments on Nov 30 so I've been sewing like mad every evening to get the rest finished.  Here's what I've done so far........

One for each of the family, I was doing Matts while he was watching his football team Liverpool play and when I asked what colours he wanted it came out in their team colours, so I put a little LFC on it for him!!

It's both my girls birthdays in Dec so I made a parcel for Miss C for her birthday, still got Miss Ms to make but she's already told me to colours she wants!

This is my favourite bunch so far, I made the snowman last night and he is too cute.  I also like the holly as I feel it was well made.  Not so keen on the colours of the stocking, but it will do.  I've still got 8 left to do, one of them will be another parcel for Miss M and we all want a star on 24 so I need 6 more ideas.....  Think I'll have a trawl through the Homemade By You Flikr group.  I'm having trouble uploading my pictures to Flikr so I haven't been able to add mine, will try again!

Its Chriiiiiiiiiiiiiisssssssstttttttmmmmmmmaaaaaaasssssss!

The best Christmas song eva.... released the year I was born and I'v loved it every year!  It you weren't feeling Christmassy before you will once you hear this!

What's your favourite Christmas Song, what song do you love to hear this time of year, what song says Christmas to you!

Snakey Cakey

It was Miss C's 5th birthday this weekend and she had a large party at a play area with 25 friends and an animal theme so the cake had to reflect that and she chose a snake.  I Googled it (as any 21st Century mum does!) and found loads of cakes using bundt cakes as a basis but as I don't have one and didn't fancy buying one just for one party we had to come up with another plan.  Swiss Roll!  I bought 3 large chocolate swiss rolls (3ft of cake in case your're interested!) and husband and I proceeded to model with cake!  He cut the cake and laid it out to make a snake shape.  

(looks a bit like a t*rd!)

then we took about a ton of green buttercream icing

and covered, and covered, and covered

and smoothed and smoothed and smoothed

and then deoorated the back with Tooty Frooties and edible glitter, marshmallows for eyes and fangs and a fruit string cut to make a forked tongue.  

Not so scary snake!

The kids loved it and it went down a storm at the party. 

 Miss C did very well out of the party, here's her birthday haul wearing her birthday t-shirt!!!!

Iron On Transfers Extravaganza

So last Christmas my girls were lucky enough to have a visit from Father Christmas who was very generous and left lots of presents, so many in fact that they wouldn't fit into their stockings.  So I thought I would help the old guy out as I'm sure he will be equally generous this year! :)  I bought a pack of white pillowcases from Tesco for £2.50 and the using clip art and iron-on transfer paper I made personalised decorated santa sacks!

(please ignore my slipper, we're snowed in, slippers are compulsory!)

Here are some close-ups of some of the pictures......

My favourite!

Its also Miss C's 5th birthday this weekend and she is having a party at an indoor playcentre, (you know one of those hellish places with plastic balls!) for ALL her friends.  As she'll be running, climbing, sliding (screaming, hyperventilating) a pretty party dress isn't appropriate so I decided to make her something special.  Again using iron-on transfer paper, this time I designed the image myself (the butterfly fabric is by Ann Kelles Remix range).  Its pretty cool and really cheap, the t-shirt was from Amazon and only cost £3-4, much cheaper than the personalised t-shirt I bought a couple of year ago for £20 which faded on the first wash!!

She loves it!

I've been had a bit of an evening with iron-on transfer paper as I also made some robes for Miss M Harry Potter party in 2 weeks (yes I had both my kids in December, no that wasn't very good planning and no I wouldn't recommend it anyone.......) but I'll show you all that soon.  Keeping lots of it secret from her so can't take pictures at the moment but we made a Sorting Hat last night!!!!!  Dunno who's more excited her or me?!

Skin of my teeth!

So on the evening before 1 December I finished my Advent Calender!  Maybe I should have started it a bit earlier but now its done.  I only have 3 ornament so I shall be doing them as we carry on, both the girls birthdays are in December so I think I will make a present with their initial on for their respective birthdays.  We already have a calender which we put little chocolates and they alternate days so they get the chocolate on their birthday so this will run alongside that one and they can alternate the ornaments.  

Neat blanket stitch 

Lovely tree shape

sparkly!

My first set of ornaments!  Need to get moving!

I'm really pleased with how its come out and the kids love it.  I hope that it will give them great joy over the coming years and even to their own children.....  I've embroidered my name and date on the back so my girls can't pass it off as theirs!!!!

I shall be linking up with all these lovely link parties this week