denim skirt and doggies

I realised today that I hadn't shown off the finished denim skirt which I showed in its cut out stage here. Well, here it is in all its glory.

And can I just say - I LOVE it! It is so comfortable and easy to wear. I can see myself re-making this skirt again and again. In case anyone's interested, it's Butterick 5649 .

Oh and I have no idea what's going on with my arm in that photo. It didn't/doesn't look anything like that in real life ... honest! :oD

Now for something completely different. Every single day Molly makes us laugh. She was playing with this toy and the way she had it in her mouth, it looked like she was grinning.

And, because I can't leave Rosie out, here's one of her. Molly maybe makes us laugh but Rosie makes us smile. Who could look at that face and not think "Awwww, isn't she sweet!"?

the other gifts

As promised, here are new photos of the other gifts I got for my birthday. The light was much better today for taking photos - well, it was this morning. This afternoon we had torrential rain. *sigh* Anyway, much better to think of birthday gifts than our weather!!

First of all, A CD, a very funny book about answers pupils gave in exams and a beaded cover for jugs etc.

Some sparklies.

Some more salt and pepper sets. Milk cartons -

Owls -

Cars -

And a wooden set made by Jason -

I also got some clock parts which I'm going to make into a clock of some sort and a charm pack of fabrics.

Maybe I'll put the two together to make a fancy patchwork clock. It would go really nicely in my sewing room!

All in all, I was - am - a very lucky 58 year old! :oD

it's my turn!

Today it's my turn to have a birthday. Apparently, I'm 58 today but I don't think that can be right, can it??

I got lots of wonderful gifts. I took photos of all of them but some of those photos haven't come out very well so I'll retake them in better light and show you those another day.

First of all I got some books. I LOVE cookery books and craft books so these made me very happy!

I got a rotating cutting mat. I know this will come in very handy - it'll at least stop me using my rotary cutter with my left hand which is an accident waiting to happen!!

Joanna got me (amongst many other things) a pair of blue shoes. Aren't they fab-u-lous??

We - I - decided not to go out for sconnage today but to stay in for sconnage instead. Debbie made these scones and they were better than anything we would have had out, that's for sure!

Can't beat home made scones with home made jam! Delish!!

Then for tea tonight, we had a joint birthday tea for both Joanna and me. We had sandwiches - 3 kinds, sticky toffee crispy cakes, sausage rolls, lemon cupcakes, tiffin and meg's biscuits. (The photo's a wee bit out of focus but you get the gist of it, I'm sure.) Oh and, yes, those are Christmas crackers. We had 5 left over from Christmas time and, since there were 5 of us here for our birthday tea, we used them up. Great fun!

Happy Birthday to me! :oD

unexpected gifts

Today the postie brought me the most wonderful of packages - some unexpected gifts.

It was from my blogging friend Anne whose blog is called frayed at the edge. (I've always thought that was such a great name!) When Anne returned from her holiday in Majorca this week, she e-mailed me to ask me for my snail mail address as she'd got something she thought I'd like. Oh my goodness! How exciting! And how generous!

The parcel arrived today and this is what was inside - the most enormous, fabulous, stripey bag. I LOVE it!!

There was also a lovely card which, if I'm not mistaken, is made from a photo Anne has taken. How clever!

And, to add even more excitement to my day, Anne had also bought me a salt and pepper set! Oh my goodness. They are just wonderful.

As soon as I'd unwrapped the parcel, I e-mailed Anne to thank her for her lovely unexpected gifts. Thank you again, Anne. You really made my day. :o)

my baby is 31!!

Today Joanna turned 31. How on earth can she be that old when I'm only 32 myself?? :oD

Anyway, now that the big day is here, I can show the secret sewing I've been busy with.

First of all, a card holder - she's already got it filled and in her handbag.

A new cover for her Kindle.

A pencil case. She adores matryoshkas!

And finally a bag she's been wanting to make for a while but we never got around to doing it. I think she likes it!

In case the glare makes the words really hard to read, here's what it says.

Happy Birthday, Joanna. :o)

I'm giving it up - and other things

Each week, since the beginning of the year, I've been posting a "52 weeks of happy" post where I show 4 photos of things that have made me happy in the past week. For the last few weeks I've been finding it harder and harder to find things to show. Oh don't get me wrong, I'm not unhappy, it's just hard not to be repetitive. I mean, I could easily post photos from now until December 31st of Rosie & Molly, sconnage, fabric and things I've been sewing but, to me, that's a bit boring. And, if it's boring for me, then I reckon it must be boring for you as well!

So today, as I was busy in my sewing room, I decided to give up doing the 52 weeks of happy posts. The relief I felt when I made the decision was amazing. How silly is that? I mean, it's my blog, I can write what I like and post what I like so why put pressure on myself to do something that, to be honest, wasn't making me happy? Yep, very silly.

Okay, enough of that. Let me show off some things that I've been up to.

First of all, Molly was being patient - or trying to be - when the doggy biscuits that Debbie had made were ready.

They had to stay in the (switched off) oven for 2 hours so they could harden - see why she had to be patient? :oD

This is some more secret sewing that I've been doing.

All will be revealed after Thursday of this week. :o)

A couple of weeks ago, I joined sewdirect.com which means I can buy sewing patterns for 50% off. I decided to go with the online membership (without the magazine) which cost me £15 for a year and then, after a lot of thought, ordered some patterns.

One of the patterns is on back order but, in this batch alone, I've already saved £17.02 from the normal price of the patterns so I've already recouped the joining fee. Yay!

And here's what I was cutting out in the sewing room this afternoon.

It's the skirt pattern from that batch above - the short button-through version - cut out in a fancy denim. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get it sewn tomorrow. Fingers crossed! :o)

52 weeks of happy - week 18

Here are my 4 happy photos for this week.

1. I got some more sewing done this week. I hope to get this and some other things loaded into the tartan bee shop soon.

2. We actually had some sunshine on Tuesday so I sat outside accompanied (of course) by Rosie.

3. The lady at the choir gave me another carrier bag full of fabric. Yet again, she wouldn't take any money for it. Free fabric makes me very happy!

4. And lastly, I ordered some zips from the zipit on Etsy. Even with the postage, it's much cheaper for me to buy zips from the US than it is to buy them here. Getting zips for a third of what I'd have to pay here makes me deliriously happy!

Molly and the Monster

Molly has a toy called "Monster" which developed a hole and needed some repair. So Monster was taken to the toy hospital - aka my sewing room - for surgery.

At first, Molly didn't understand that quiet was needed so the surgeon - that would be me - could concentrate.

After it was explained how important it was that she sit nicely, she got the message.

So she sat quietly and watched.

And waited.

Never taking her eyes off the surgeon's hands.

Finally, the repair was done and Molly very carefully sniffed Monster to see if he was okay.

As soon as she realised all was well, she was off!

She was so happy to have her Monster back that she didn't even realise she was sitting on Rosie's bed instead of her own! :oD

52 weeks of happy - week 17

First of all, thank you to all of you who sympathised with me for catching the dreaded lurgy. I still have it but it's getting better every day so, hopefully, that's it on the way out. Hooray!! :o)

Here are my (slightly delayed) 4 happy photos for this week.

1. I finally got some stuff sewn for the tartan bee shop - and got them loaded in as well. Yay! (This is just one of the things I loaded - check out the shop to see the bags I made.)

2. We were out for snack on Saturday so, of course, I had to take a photo of the sconnage. ("Sconnage" is a term which Anne at frayed at the edge uses. It's appropriate considering it's a scone in my photo so that's what I'm calling it too!) :o)

3. Douglas added a plank of wood under the legs of my sewing table which has raised the table by about 2". It's amazing what adding 2" to the height has done for me. I worked at the table all yesterday afternoon and didn't have one twinge in my back. Fabulous!

4. This bookcase had been sitting at the top of our stairs for about a week waiting for something to happen to it. I decided to put it in the sewing room. I don't really have room for it - it's sitting right in front of the radiator - but, hey, who cares about heat? I wasn't sure what to put on the shelves and then I moved the fat quarters over. Oh my goodness I *love* it. They do need tidied up but isn't it fab? I think so!

the dreaded lurgy

I'm feeling just a teeny bit sorry for myself as I've caught the dreaded lurgy that Joanna and Douglas had/have. I warned them that there was no way they were to pass said lurgy on to me until after the 2 concerts I was singing in. The second of those concerts took place on Tuesday evening and, since I managed to get to Friday feeling just fine, I thought I'd managed to escape it.

Wrong! Now I have the thumping head, the runny nose and I won't be surprised if I get a cough in the next few days. Ahhh the joys!! I'm off to sit/lie on the couch with a cup of tea, my book and a box of tissues. Let's hope this goes away soon!

Apologies for not replying to the comments on my last post. Let me just thank you all here for taking the time to comment and hopefully I'll be back up to speed really soon.