Belated Birthday

Last week was my birthday, every now and then I have the day off to fully enjoy the delights of tea, cake and a extra lie-in. This year I went for a whole week which I fully intended to use to finish all my crafty projects and enjoy some time to myself, huh!

Saturday was spent buying Anti-virus for all our computers *exciting followed by a stint giving the garden a quick tidy up, our neighbours have had new fence erected and it makes our garden look much better!

the bunting was made for the jubilee street party, it's been outside all winter and is still going strong!

Myself and Bob got together with a few chums and a few drinks were consumed!!

lovely presents were gifted, all excellent...thank you very much x 

far too much of this passed my lips...the large carrot cake and bakewell fairy cakes

with custard topping my sister made ( a triumph) didn't even make it to film! 

eventually this did make an experience on Sunday night, which was not quite what I'd planned, I did get some crafting done which I show you once its all photographed x

p.s I been scooting round and enjoying all your blogging over the week too, enjoyed your car booting finds and seeing what your all making. So thank you for keeping me company!

Making and Bake

I've been having a little make and bake, as you do!

A card for Bob's Mums 80th Birthday, made one evening out of old books, clothes and buttons! How very frugal, I think I've become a super scrimper, note to self, must make a jaunty orange hat to wear at all times.

Cakes for the Birthday girl, a tray bake Bakewell and Lemon and Lavender fairy cakes. Found the recipes online, however prefer the frangipane from Mary Berry's recipe, so next time i'd use hers for that bit and mix it up a bit. They did taste gooood though!

A hug card for a friend who needed one. The buttons are the free ones from Mollie Makes. I love using old book pages stamped up with sentiments, the paper has an almost linen quality to it which makes it sturdy enough to sew and manhandle. The book came from a charity shop and was so much cheaper than buying paper from craft shops, the cover and spine had given up so I'm giving it a new lease of life!

Finally my saucy vases, made from posh brown and tomato sauce bottles! Is there such a thing?

I can't remember the name of the sauce just that it was reduced! I added ribbon and…ta dah rather nice vases don't you think?

I didn't make this! It's just a nice sky just briefly to cheer us all up! 

Now I'm watching the rain…boo!

A little light craft

Last year I went to a lovely wedding , two good friends tied the knot with a lovely reception at RIBA (Royal institute of British Architects) building in Portland Square in central London, a beautiful day was had by all.

The theme was green and white, a team of us went pom pom crazy and I emptied the local area of vintage and pressed glass vases to decorate the small outside terrace. 

 I can't really believe a whole year's gone by, to celebrate the passing it's traditional to give paper.

An afternoon of sticking and glueing later and I'd made a small token of a handmade gift, a cracker complete with moto, snap, gift and confetti!

You can find easy tutorials to make crackers on the net or just wing it like I did! I used three loo rolls (romantic) removing the end two when the cracker was rolled up, double sided tape, paper (various types) ribbon and a paper pricker thingy to help when pulling the cracker apart!

I finished off my cracker with a paper fan yoyo, vintage button and ribbon.

A card was also made from vintage material, a stamp, a little stitching with a transfer to finish.

and my moto… you both pulled a cracker!

Jubilations

Patriotic cake!

Well, that's the Jubilee over and done with the GBW (great british weather) proved a damper and 'long to reign over us" had a slightly different meaning, especially after three weeks of fantastic sunshine, but being British, we do rain well.


Our street had a party, I've never done anything like this; I was around in 1977 (just!) but lived in a small village with a village park where all the celebrations were centred.

Homemade Bunting

To decorate the house I made some crochet bunting for the front window, I did have one pack of bunting in readiness, but wasn't keen on it, so Saturday morning I made my own. 


It was slow to start, but one by one each house hung flags, balloons, bunting and the like, until the first section of our road was bedecked in Red, White and Blue.  Around two o'clock on Sunday something rather magical happened,  all the cars moved and the road was closed, garden tables were erected, bowls of food arrived, ditto drinkies and people chatted. We had music, laughter, children "playing out" and a convivial atmosphere hung over our road, then it started to spit with rain, then it chucked it down heavens hard, so we packed everything up and all ran back inside!


 It's been a long time since Britain united in this way, everyone seemed to really get behind the Jubilee in one way or another. It made you proud to be British, you don't often get to say that, I hope you had good Jubilations whatever you did :)

Half way!

This week the UK starts with a bank holiday, and I'll start with a new age…

How did this happen?

I've hit the big 40, I still feel like a teenager!  Friday started with a decorated desk from my lovely work colleagues, with hastily removed balloons as believe it or not I have an allergy to them. 

Our friends Al & Tunde came over for fish, chips and pea fritters in the evening from our local chip shop (the best ever!) 

Dinner with family, tea and cake with friends and a collectors fair still to come x