Wishing YOU the best christmas ever.

Here's hoping Santa fills your socking
with the most wonderful gifts,
HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Only 18 day to go !

The last two week ends I have spent a very happy couple of hours

 looking around the Artists Open Houses in Brighton and Hove.

I am trying to "do" most of my christmas shopping, from Independent 

shops, designers and artist's. Peggy Poppleton's Shop 20 West Hill 

Road (part of the Artist's Open Houses) was Fab and I got this lovely

hand made dog and the Brighton Pavilion window decoration,

 from Ooodies and Peggy Poppleton @ 20 West Hill Rd.

 The skeletons are from Louise Clarke @ 45 Preston Drove.

The sewing kit also from Preston Drove and the hand printed bag from Kirsten
Laundon @ 3 florence Road. How is your shopping going ?

Made Design and Craft Fair

                            Last friday 18th, I went to Made 11 Brighton's Design 

                         and Craft Fair. Here are two of my purchases BUT I

                                         could have bought EVERYTHING, the standard is incredibly

     high, my shopping included a few gifts

                        (not shown here so there is an element of surprise) ! 

          from Fleur Grenier. Fleur makes beautiful

                                    objects from pewter, which I hope will make some people 

 very happy this coming Christmas. The map lampshade is from Sarah Lock,
Sarah was selling amazing lamps ( or what ever the base is called) to go with
 the lampshades but only the lampshade fell within my budget, I just love it.

 and the wonderful  HENRY is made from recycled
 bits and bobs from Emily Maude.
 I was totally spoilt for choice, there was so much
 wonderful modern craft for sale.
 Leafing through the Open houses magazine
 I noted that both Emily Maude, Sarah Lock and Fleur Grenier
 are showing over the next 3 week ends.
On Sunday 27th November I will be at The Yard, Vintage and Craft
Market, peddling my home wares. Don't be shy say Hello.
Have a great weekend.

Vintage Christmas Workshop - a really FAB day.

 Work in progress!

 Fun.

 Choosing fabrics.

 Finished, perfect Christmas stockings and Christmas bird decorations.

Busy me

Busy Busy getting ready for Sew Retro Vintage Christmas.
Checking fabric stocks and baking

Heart Home Magazine

Just spent a very happy hour reading this on line magazine http://hearthomemag.co.uk 

hope you had a good day too.

O is for ...

The colours this autumn are so wonderful and intense with lots of
shades of orange, I felt inspired to try this orange cake from the Primrose
Bakery Book, a winner ! Simple to make, no expensive or hard to
track down ingredients and totally yummy.

Happy Halloween

Hope your day is full of treats !

Bits and Bobs

Had a great week end in London popped into Libertys love this shop,
 such an amazing fabric department. Dumpling lunch at Jen Cafe in Soho.
 Wednesday 26th Sew Retro was at theJubilee Library Brighton, for a
 Eco family fun day, helping adults and children make
recycled home decorations.

Thrifty Week Ends

 Enjoying the great weather strolling along Blatchington Road Hove I found two
side plates, a bargain, £1.00 each. Perfect to put my first try from the Primrose
Bakery cook Book -  plum cupcakes on. This great book arrived a few days
earlier from Amazon, and I am REALLY looking forward to trying out

so many of the gorgeous cakes. It's not often that I feel I will make 90% of the
recipes in a cook book, one down 89% to go. Ha ha.

Mid week up cycling

I was really inspired by these great cafe table's, at Inside Out Cafe in the
Lanes Brighton., and of course Gaudi Parc Barcelona.
With the help of my "girls" we have recycled a few paving
slabs for the front garden, to use a stepping stones.
I went to my local tile shop and bought £10.00
worth of end of line tiles (20p) each, found some
left over tile adhesive and some left
over grout, also I have recycled a few Ikea
glass beads originally used
in flower vases.

 It was easy to break the tiles with a screwdriver and hammer, and spread the

adhesive over the tiles, during the recent warm weather they dried very
quickly.

 Again it was easy to grout, I used an old take away, carton lid, cut to shape
to spread the grout. When it was dry, I wiped over with an old cloth to remove

the excess grout.

The summer we never had

Swimming in the channel in October - fresh but fab. Hope you have been enjoying
this incredible weather.

Indian Summer

After school treat, to celebrate this very welcome weather, hope you are enjoying it too !

Making and Baking

 Before this amazing weather arrived I had a bid baking session, including making
this so simple but very yummy soup, using the Avoca Cafe Cookbook. My cousin
introduced me to the Cafe's and cook book's a few years ago.
Avoca started as a family run business of Hand weavers and has
grown and grown. The soup requires zero cooking and prep, using
frozen sweet corn, onion and a few spices its very cheap too.

 I was given the recipe and base for this cafe "Herman the German" you have to
"feed" the cake for 7days, then on the 7th and final day you divide the mixture
into 4 and add more ingredients to one portion, bake, and give the 3 bases to
friends.

Kemp Town Treasures

Do you ever get bored with the same walk into town ? Yesterday I started from the marina and made my trip into town via Kemp Town, stopping to fuel up at Ground a lovely coffee shop. My tea was served in a huge glass cup and saucer with my own tea strainer, it made me Oh and Ar when it arrived, (sorry no

Photo, Oops camera at home), the walk into Brighton has plenty of vintage and retro shops to hunt out bargains. I picked up this retro fabric for a fiver to make into some purse's and bags. Hope you are having a great week end too.

Learning to crochet

I have loved knitting, sewing and craft for years

but I had never learnt to crochet.  So with the

help of Pip Lincolne's book Meet me at Mike's,

I finally got around to it, phew ! NOT easy to

start with, but these great videos found on

you tube and this one helped to explain the

chain 1 and treble 3, and now I am the proud

owner of a pile of granny square, I need to sew

in all the loose ends and either crochet or sew them

into ? I'm not too sure , maybe with a fabric backing

and a zip a cosy cover for my laptop. Oooo and by

the way Pip also has a great blog full of crafty ideas.

 

A is for .......

 Athens 20011

 but S is for Spetses