Comments, Patchwork and Prayer Flags

As I sat down at my laptop this morning, with little C packed off to nursery for the morning I had full intentions of going out to my little studio to find another unfinished project to get on with. That was until I read the lovely comments about the cake I made for my aunt, thank you so much, all of you! but I can't take credit for the design I saw the idea for the icing effect here on pinterest and pinned it sometime ago to remind me the next time I needed a simple icing idea for my favourite Victoria sponge recipe. 

 I'm so glad I clicked on the link to Jan's blog and saw and read about lovely prayer flags that she and others are making, I was lost on a journey reading all about them and I want to make some now! 

 This is my little mini quilt which I finally finished the binding on last night. I put it away after completing the applique some time ago and blogged about here.

 I decided I would make it in to a wall hanging and perhaps display it in my little caravan.

I have been meaning to make bunting for my little caravan too but perhaps a string of prayer flags would be nicer and more meaningful.

Have a lovely day, its raining and windy here,I hope your weather is better x

A Birthday Tea

We had a little get together at my niece, Adele's a few weeks ago and although I took some pictures, so many things were going on I forgot to do a little post.

It was in celebration of my Aunt Margaret's birthday. 

I made her a Ribbon Rose Cake.

A traditional Victoria sponge

 filled with Strawberry & champagne jam and strawberry fromage frais 

it was quite yummy!

I also made her a heat pack

in this pretty blue and lavender print fabric with some vintage buttons.

 She is suffering from a sore shoulder and says it is helping.

These are little courgette and feta pastries I made to take. They were quite delicious,  made them from a recipe I adapted from a Greek cookbook I brought back from a holiday in Crete.  

I'm going to write up the recipe for these in a separate post with more pics as they are easy to make.

I don't have any other pictures of the day as we were so busy eating and chatting I forgot to get the camera out opps!

Sunny Weekend Camp

We managed to take advantage of the sunshine we had at the weekend and got some time away at Thurston Manor camp site in our little caravan. 

Eager to try out our new Isabella awning which we are delighted with and a perfect fit! 

Our porch awning which we bought last year has been a great purchase being such a large porch awning and we have a little van,  but when I we got it out to use on our trip to Oban I noticed it had a rip on the window panel where it is stitched to the door so its not going to last much longer, perhaps it could be repaired. 

With my sister Theresa and her grandson Dylan, we set up camp on Friday.  

One of the drawbacks to the porch awning was getting it to sit flush on the side of the van,  and lets in a lot of draughts when it's windy, having the full awning which fist all the way round the van is great, although with the weather so lovely and sunny we spent most of the 2 days sitting outside relaxing, it was roomy enough for us all to retreat to in the evening when it got a little chilly even Adele, Mike and the little ones who joined us for the day on Saturday.

We also bought a bedroom annex which zips into the side panel you can see in this picture.

 Harry tried it out, it was a bit cold at night not helped by the fact he was a bit unwell with a temperature so ended up back in the caravan at 3am. 

Charlotte too ended up with a sore throat and a temperature but still managed to sleep through the night.

The camp site was lovely, I think we will all be back.

The little Freedom caravan on the left is Theresa's, isn't it cute :)

Charlotte and Harry are on the mend now :)

Starry Eyes

My little Tiny Tears is home again. C and I had waited with such anticipation on her return and it was such a thrill to finally hear the postman's knock C was jumping up and down with excitement, she kept looking at me as I was opening the package 'are you excited mum' she kept saying.

I guessed she sensed this from me as we had spoken about her quite a few times in the past week, it was so nice to have her share this moment.

We were not disappointed,  here eyes are stunning I had forgotten the pretty blue colour they were and the eyelashes just flutter as she is lifted and played with, C got her long awaited cuddle and said  'im not scared of her now!' :)

After 40yrs of safe keeping in a box she is now complete again.

So who are wonderful people who fixed her? It was 'Ellies Dolls Workshop'

 I have to tell you as the service was excellent. Very friendly, efficient and quick.

I found them on the Internet, I emailed my enquiry about having her eyes replaced and got a reply a day later with a price, I called them and spoke to Lesley, she told me it would only take a couple of days. 

I had the doll back within a week, although she was fixed on Friday Lesley held off posting her back to me until after the weekend, just in case she got left on a shelf and forgotten about.

I'm so delighted with her! 

can you tell ?

And look at her now

Wearing her pretty new dress hat and shoes
hand knitted by this  lovely seller on ebay

I did make a slight alteration to the ribbons on the hat,

I made a shorter loop tie with one length and with the other I cut to make 2 ankle ties for the shoes.

It's a really pretty outfit and fits perfectly. 
I added a little rosebud & ribbon holder for her original Tiny Tears dummy.
Sadly, I don't have her original  bottle any more to demonstrate to C that she really does cry and wet her nappy when fed. Ill have to try and source one. 

My next little project is to make her a nappy.

Tag Tuesday ~ Owl

Getting back on track with Tag Tuesday

this weeks them is 'Owls' and so I had a little fun with some origami papers

I did a simple torn paper collage

I used two little buttons for eyes.

Baby Dolls

Charlotte has been asking me to get more clothes for blue baby, 

Blue baby is a little baby doll which was unearthed from the loft in a bag of toys which belonged to April her older sister. She was quite new looking as she was not one of Aprils favourites but Charlotte seems to have taken a shine to her, actually I should say him as Charlotte has decided Blue baby is a boy.

So I have ordered some doll making patterns from a nice seller on Etsy ...we shall see what I make from them......I was never a dress maker....more of a wrap that round and tie a knot there kind of doll dresser when I was a child. 

Which brings me on to my next subject, my childhood doll Teeny Tiny Tears.

A treasured Christmas present when I was 5yrs old I have hung on to her keeping her in a box until such times when I can have her put right, sadly she has no eyes,

 I wont go into the details but I saw them highlighting the eyes of a giant Mark Bolan poster in my older brothers room and was horrified to find out where they came from.... need I say more!

Anyway I'm delighted that I have found a dolls hospital that will repair them so that she might be seen in public again :) I carefully packed her up and posted her off on Wednesday I got an email to let me know that she had safely arrived at the dolls hospital in Dorset.

Looking forward to getting her back soon .......

Circus & Singers

Last weeks theme on Tag Tuesday was 'Circus'

this is my little attempt with the theme

 The background is red and white Prismacolor Pencil 

with an added sprinkle of red glitter for sparkle

The little clown, also a Prismacolor pencil drawing was cut out 

and attatched with sticky pads for a 3D effect as were the gold stars.

I took the printed words from an article in 'Sew' magazine about the Glamorous Giffords Circus and their amazing vintage themes costumes.

Its not my best tag, Im a little restricted to what I can do at the moment with my back still causing me grief and my printer is still out of action. 

Although its not that long since we bought a black cartridge for it, and it has been used, last week it came up with an error message about the cartridge being counterfeit and it refuses to print.

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I have sold two of my old singer sewing machines, both 99k ones.

1958 hand crank one

1945 Knee leaver

 I didn't really see the point of keeping them as I was never going to use them and they take up space. I still have my 28k which I wouldn't part with and there is room for that now in the cupboard. I thought I would be sad to see them go after all this time but actually, Im glad they are both away to good places to be used and loved as they should be Singers are meant to go on and on ......

and my back......

I finally gave in and went to the Docs, he tested for mechanical problems and found none, prescribed Tramadol painkillers rather than anti inflammatories, as I have C to take care of. I took one last night about 7.30 and it was not good, this morning I still felt queezy and tired having woke 3 or 4 times in the night for no reason I know except I felt on edge.

I'm now realizing that I'm not good with these synthetic medicines, I've gone through this sort of thing before, with Amitriptyline which was given to me for the pains in my neck and arms.

 needless to say I wont be taking any more!
The pain is still there but the area it covers is reducing which suggests the muscles are getting stronger , better or well again. 

I'f it's not one thing it's something else!

I'm not going to come on here after a little bit of an absence and start moaning, but! Ive been in agony for well over a week now with the most horrible back pain that has left me unable to do all the little tasks I would normally carry out each day without giving them a second thought! 

Having to walk about with a very straight back all day is not easy to do and not being able to pick up things from the floor when you have a 3yr old is not fun!

One saving grace is that Charlotte has nursery in the morning and so is not having to put up with me all day and is having lots of fun :)

We went swimming today in the hope that if I did some lengths it would help strengthen my lower back muscles and ease the pain and it seems to have helped a little but I think I might have to go to the docs :(

I'm still a little behind with my Tag Tuesday tags but have just realised I didn't post last weeks on here so here it is....

Funfair

 I decided to use the elements that most appealed to me as a child 

 The candy floss, apples and canes

The brightly painted imagery, sparkle and the lights.

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