It's a Wrap!

A good friend celebrated his birthday last week and during his lunch break he came round for a cuppa, slice of cake, and as you're never too old a surprise gift or two. 

I decided to make my own wrapping paper and had a good crafty half hour having a go with my new stamps bought in the Paperchase and my alphabet stamps purchased at a summer fair for the princely sum of 50p!

I stamped stars in both red and blue over the brown paper previously used to wrap a bunch of flowers I'd received, then randomly added "Happy Birthday" and a red bus, a graphic nod to "T" living in London in the spaces left.  Not rocket science, but a good quick, individual and cheap way to add a little extra to a gift!

Left to dry and when wrapped up his pressies looked ready to be ripped open, shame after all that effort! 

*Paperchase stamps reduced to £4 in sale (came with ink pads)

Paper - free

Alphabet stamps - 50p local village fair

Missing in instagram

Has it really been 4 months since my last post? Shame on me! The Summer weather was just too good to miss (no excuse) When we last spoke I was just about to go to my home village fair,  which lead me to meeting friends and villagers I haven't seen for twenty years or more. These chance meetings lead me to a builder (husband of friend) who then did work on our house, we also had new windows & doors as well as painting the outside (TOH) did that and a great job he did too. 

All of this is fairly unglamourous, but has been punctuated with nice things too

So in pictures a few of my adventures in my missing months. 

The Village fair, bet they regretted that idea!

Make London for a lovely hen do!

a bit of making!

re-hydration (hu-hum) options

Vintage buys

sunny days out

spruced up house...

Bath wedding, I made the Lucky couple a vintage tea towel bath peg bag - oh the glamour!

Birthday boys old and new

and now here we are moving into Autumn getting nearer my favourite month of all,

can you guess which one it is?

Some of you may have seen some of these photos as I have been on Instagram all summer, youcan find me @katysclutter come and say hello!

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!

Mouse about this house...

For Christmas I got a stash of craft books, another guilty pleasure to go with many others!

One of them has quick things to knit and crochet from stash oddments with a festive theme. The book is "Little Christmas Decorations to knit and crochet by Sue Stratford & Val Pierce". 40 projects of all capabilities to get stuck into. A few of the decorations, if you give the Christmas extras amiss, would do for any time of year.

 

So may I introduce you to Tina the Twirling Birthday mouse!

You knit her in the flat and sew the seams together,  with a little persuasion she eventually looked mouse like! Her arms and tail are worked as an icord, and ears in two parts then stitched together.

My only wish was a picture show you what she looked like in the flat, as a one point I nearly started again as it looked really, really wrong!

She's now twirled off wrapped in tissue paper to my chum, Cheryl. Happy Birthday x

Bank Holiday

To start our bank holiday weekend we had a birthday at thrifty towers, Bob's another year old and none the wiser, but I love him so...

Unfortunately he had to drive to Bristol on Saturday for work, by the time he returned the rain had stopped play so we didn't bother to do much during the day, we did however do the pub thing with friends in the evening, a late night was had by all. I fear i'm getting too old for that malarky, it took us ages to recover, soooo out of practice!

A cuppa and a toasted tea cake and a little light bargain hunting helped with the recovery process...

This little lady was on the 50p stall? I couldn't leave her behind could I?

Bob chose this, Donald's a chalkware lamp, his rifle is broken but I can live with that...

By the Monday evening and we we're chilled out and ready for the week ahead, 

for me, that's two weeks off work,  I'm d-mob happy! Bob's off next week so we're doing a few days out, Ardingly being the top of our list!

Tea for Three

I spent last Saturday in the lovely company of two good friends, we don't see each other enough, stuff just gets in the way and before you know it months have passed. We normally do coffee and browse the shops, the sort boys don't like! This time we decided to something a bit different, we had a Jubilee cream tea at a nice hotel. The thing about a cream tea is you never think you've had enough until you realise you stuffed full! It lovely way to start the weekend, there was even belated birthday gift, so thoughtful.

The weather has been atrocious this pass week, I really hope it's not been too wet wherever you are and your homes are safe and dry.

My Cream tea ladies

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