A new blog for the New Year...

and here is what it's looking like...

I can hardly believe that I have been blogging here for 3 whole years and had some 26,000 views from around the world, which is something I find quite astonishing!
 
Each week and sometimes more often I have found things to say and share, I have met and mingled with some wonderful people and their inspiring blogs and thoroughly enjoyed being out here sharing bits and pieces and some of the joys and challenges of life, I feel I have made friends around the world and if I met you in the street we would all have lots to say!

I have loved being part of a crafty creative network and of a wider community too, I have had so much encouragement and lovely feedback which has helped me on my journey as a maker, and I have loved sharing what I make, even just taking a photo of my work aids my creativity

but, after much procrastination...which is tricky to say let alone spell...I have taken the leap to create a new blog in my own name...it will make it so much easier to follow other people and make comments and I will be able to be ME!

so I am clearing the decks and starting again...I feel a little sad to be leaving this faithful old blog, which has indeed been a friend, but it will sit here quietly, unobtrusively...whilst a new sister blog gets going

I would be more than delighted to see you all over there ...click the title image at the top or here...and I look forward to sharing some new ideas and thoughts and bits and bobs with you

...and it will take me a wee while to get all my following of your blogs sorted out, but I will be there as soon as I can!

 

love and blessings to you all in 2014

Emmaxx

Quick, make... an Easter bunny or chick....

I know it's nearly here but there's just time to rustle up a few of these crafty little Easter goodies...for the children you understand...or maybe just for the child in us all!! So get making and stuffing...you only need a little felt...could be any colour you like...and some threads (I used embroidery thread but any kind will do) and a teeny bit of polyester wadding or similar to pad them out a little....it's child's play and that's the best sort in my book!

 

and wishing you the warmest and happiest and sunniest of Easters...and that the Easter bunny is kind to you...Emmaxxx

make it...for Easter

April...sweet April..sunshine and showers...swelling and opening leaf buds on the trees...delicious colours of flowers and green shoots...and four feet of snow! Luckily not here..so the illusion of spring can continue...we've had rain to water the garden...a welcome refreshment...

 

 

Homes and Antiques calender full of loveliness to cheer and inspire when your own house is still full of wintery sloth and dust...a girl can dream...

feeling like a making session in the studio...and so (sew?!) a little something sunny and eastery has come to mind...playing with fabric...how easy to transform a piece of old woollen blanket and some little scraps into something pretty and homemade...use a touch of bondaweb if you have it...add some lace or ribbons...a little easy sewing and stitching...who needs to buy when you can make it yourself and have all the fun and pleasure of being crafty?

draw a little egg shape on paper to make a pattern and use that to draw lots of eggs on a piece of old blanket or thick felt...this is optional...sew 'happy easter' in the middle of each egg......take care it doesn't become happy eater...

use the pattern to cut out egg shapes from fabric - if you have any bondaweb iron it onto the fabric first then cut out..it is good to use as it keeps edges from fraying and makes it a bit stiffer to sew the next bit...add lace and ribbons...

once sewn in place trim to a nice egg shape...this bit is quite satisfying!

if you have sewn 'happy easter' onto the egg shapes on the blanket/felt..turn the fabric over and carefully lie the fabric egg shape over each set of words...bit tricky but do-able with care...otherwise just out the fabric eggs on anywhere...iron on if you've used bondaweb or just use an old fashioned pretty pin or two...

sew in place...note this egg has no ribbon or lace..it was actually a slightly different version when I was working out what order to sew things in...well spotted!

cut out... leave a little edge of blanket showing if you like...happiness is a little pile of egg shapes..aren't they just edible? positively almost as nice as choclate ones!

simply sew a nice piece of thickish thread with a good sturdy needle through the top of each egg...knot it to make aloop and voila...Easter starts here...

off to London for a few days now...to see wonderful grandparents...and getting much bigger 'small cousins' and favourite Swiss auntie and favourite uncle who are travelling over...hoping for more sunshine...may take my new Laura Ashley Spring skirt...I love the combo of pretty skirt...and my BIG boots which I adore...I call them my POWER boots cos they make me feel I CAN do anything!

hope you like my easter 'make it'...why not have a go..it's ever so easy and so pretty ..you could even write names on the back to give as personal little handmade presents...have a lovely week xx

making ...the most of everything...

mm glorious sunshine...warmth...birdsong...roaming chickens and cats...a feeling of spring if not summer in the shorts and summery dresses and skirts in town...

where to be?? inside doing house'loving'...tidying...washing...washing up...admiring the dust collections...looking dimly through the streaky windows...or enjoying all that nature offers us in the great outdoors...doing VIP activities...ie. Very Important Paperwork and Planning and Tea Drinking...in the 'outside' office...with some beautiful books to savour as I plan workshops...all this in no socks or cardi...careful now...and please note the essential SUNSHADE!!

and a crafty moment or two in the studio...there's something sunny and Easter-y in the air...so I neeed to do some fabric playtime...

 

time to get out the cottons and flowery prints and ginghams and vintagey embroideries...to feel my way into creativity because now my wrist is getting much better...with healing going well...I have made a very wonderful discovery...I can SEW!! I can even thread a needle and use my hand to stitch a little...I can carefully cut a little...and as long as I don't overdo it I can use my patiently waiting sewing machine...it feels fantastic to be truly in touch with making again...even in a small way...happiness is in small things...

hope you are enjoying sunshine too xx