Avoidance Tactics

Last night while packing an order from my Folksy Shop I found some of these tiny little stud like buttons in lovely earthy neutral tones;


I had an idea and in an attmept (well not techinically an attempt as it worked) to avoid doing anymore ironing I set about going through all my button tins and seeing how many I could find. I found lots! I strung them onto some elastic and ta-dah;

I really like it, it's funky and 'different' but quite chic and grown up at the same time. Sadly I didn't find enough to make any more last night but my search will continue and hopefully I can find enough to make another to go in afore mentioned shop.

No baby as yet but more killer back ache, am not hopeful though think we may have days left to go :-( Technically I'm not due until tomorrow so shouldn't be too fed up as he's not made an appearance!

Today I have had visitors, my oldest friend in the world (and she is ancient) well not really as she's a little younger then me but we have been friends since we started high school together a lifetime ago. She brought her wonderful baby son and her lovely mother. I have been forced to sit and drink tea and eat egg sandwiches and chat for a while and I feel rested. Maybe not rested enough to do the ironing though.

Might just snuggle my little man for a while instead....

Daisie xxx

PS: I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who has left me comments and sent emails over the last few days and apologise for being too huge and lazy to have replied! Normal service will be resumed shortly, one hopes! xxx

Big Buttons

I bought some large buttons to send to my friend and the children helped me take quality shots of them so she can see what they look like;

Daisie xxx

More French Fancies

My parents recently returned from their second home in France and Mum found me this wonderful 'bag-for-life' affair covered in buttons;

I do love it so!!

And they also brought me back (on request) several (more) kilos of reclaimed French buttons;


Mmmmmmmmm, they are yummy!

Have mostly been stroking them today;


At least I won't run out for a while :-)

And if you are loving buttons you should go and have a look here, I love it!!

Daisie xxx

I Really Love Jenny Brown's Grandma

Here I was late last night being snapped by Simon (please excuse dark bags under eyes, bra-less breasts and general unruliness) while I look through the button stash I had been given but was going to save until morning so I could take better pictures. I just couldn't wait;


Jenny is Nathaniel's friend Erin's Mum (and a good pal to me too) and I have made some items for Erin to wear and made her a patchwork elephant for her second birthday. Jenny's Grandma is highly impressed that there are still people who make things themselves and she helps out part time in a charity shop. So periodically I get sent (via Jen) some rather lovely little boxes of loot;


This box is lovely in it's own right but look what happened when I opened the lid (after re-filling it after my midnight madness);

Lots and lots of lovelies that have probably been cleared out of an old ladies home after she left it (lets not think why);

These are just some of the buttons, there are lots strung together that have obviously been removed from clothing before they were cut up and used for polishing rags.

These are little tiny flowers in all shapes and colours, beautifully textured (and in need of a good clean);

These are all plastic but have a real 30s or 40s feel to them, again with wonderful textured details;

These ones I think are older, they feel like bakelite to me but am in need of a sure test to find out. They are really yummy and probably my favourites;

The three at the bottom of this pic are mother of pearl and are about the size of a 10p piece, the darker ones are also made of shell and are quite thick and heavy;

There were more goodies in the bag but I'll save those for another day, don't want to tip anyone over the edge. There are so many stash mad button freaks out there, you know who you are!!

Daisie xxx

Blisters, Buttons And Bags

1. Blisters

Nathaniel is poorly, so very poorly, he has a mouth full of blistery ulcers and is so unhappy :-(

He didn't sleep well on Tuesday night and became very droopy and miserable during yesterday afternoon. Simon and I sat up with him all night while he cried and cried. I rang the doctor's surgery first thing this morning and it went like this;

Me; I would really like my baby son to see a dooctor today please.
Dragon; Is it an emergency?
Me; (thinking, 'no just fancied a morning out') yes, he has a raised temperature and has a mouthful of sores, I would really like him to be seen today.....
Dragon; Well, he can't some to the surgery if he has a temperature, someone will ring you back.

Feeling a little put out and concerned, contemplating bypassing the GP and going straight to urgent care then the practice nurse phoned me back. I explained his symptoms to her and she seemed to agree with me that it may be pox (of the chicken variety) or hand foot and mouth (Francesca had it when she was small) but it was difficult to diagnose over the phone as he has no other sores. So we were granted an appointment.

On arrival at the surgery we were ushered into a little private room because "he has a high temp and may be a swine flu victim". Oh purleeze! The world is gone mad. How many children have raised temps every day through really simple illnesses and teething!? Lots and lots and lots! Anyhoo, after a quick look (which he did not like at all) and a temp check, gland feel etc it was decided that it wasn't anything serious, just a.... wait for it........ virus! Nothing to do, keep hydrated, give paracetamol when needed etc. But if he gets more blisters on hands or soles of feet it is hand foot and mouth and if he gets sores on his trunk and legs it's chicken pox. Although treatment doesn't change.

Hope he feels a little better by the morning as I am supposed to be away this wekend selling my goodies to steam heads!

2. Buttons;

Remember Simon dragged me into the shop next to the building society and bought me buttons, well here they are. A huge one, no really I mean HUGE, which he has put little felt pads on the bottom of so it can sit on my bed side table and wait to hold a morning cuppa;


Here are some smaller versions of the HUGE olive wood one and some beautiful daisy buttons and assorted ceramic cat ones which are destined for card making me thinks;


3. Bags.

In preparation for the fair this weekend I have made some more shopping totes the last couple of days. Here are two in a really yummy pink lily upholstery fabric that I got on a recent trip to SAMS (scrap store);


Two in a wonderful children's soft furnishing fabric from John Lewis called Distant Shores;

And another John Lewis fabric, this one called Mimosa which has wonderful lemon coloured 'blooms' on it;

Tomorrow will be busy, I have a birthday present to make for a friend of Francesca who is having her party this Saturday and two shoulder bags cut out ready to be assembled to go with me, a car to remove all the seats from (so it can be like a big van) and lots of ironing to do, toe nails to paint, hair to wash and general panicking about leaving all my babies so I can travel up the country and sleep in a tent for two nights. I must be mad!!

Daisie xxx

Thanks to all who left advice on the iron front, it is alot worse than I had first thought. I am often lacking in iron after 20 weeks (grow iron hungry babies) so take a supplement when I find out I am expecting and take it all the way through. So I am taking that and have been taking Floradix as well and am now taking a prescription supplemnent too. My iron count has dropped from 13.9 to 5 in just over ten weeks, very bad indeed. But it does explain why I have been so tired and breathless and generally feeling like shit (sorry). They will test the levels again on the 7th of August, if they are not over 10 I will mostly be eating liver sandwiches and drinking Guiness (joking) or chewing nails!

Will keep you all posted, thanks for caring, it means alot to me!!

xxx

Brilliant!!

What a fabulous day we have had!!

It was a bit wet and a bit dull but we set out early to York as the children had bought home vouchers from school so they could get in free to Jorvik, so we had to go really. Simon and I haven't been since we had Elizabeth (bad, bad parents) and it was exciting to see the changes. The girls thought it brilliant and particulary loved the man pooing behind a wooden fence in the street next to the butchers!!

There were helmets to try on;

Even Simon had a turn;

The lunatic smile is becasue he tried to put his specs on over the helmet nose piece and I could barely take the picture for laughing!!

And bone combs and tiny glass beads and amber jewels and intricate metal worked cloak pins and just lots and lots of beautiful things to look at, oh, and many battled scarred boney remains. There were also skeletons that showed signs of lots of diseases, I used this to my advantage to drum home the point that I am not a mean Mummy because I make them eat vegetables!!

We took a stroll, glad to find the drizzle had stopped, and found the biggest church Elizabeth has ever seen;

A rather impressive Roman column;

And a Roman Emporer;

I had a little accident;

But I must say that the accident wouldn't have been so bad without the egging on from my very luverly husband!! The fact that he encourages me helps to disperse the gult.

I have never been into a CK shop and the prices of these things made me gasp! I did manage to find a rather lovely (huge) jersey dress/long top in a really lovely olive green soft jersey that I think I may be living in from now on for just £15. Oh, I've said it out loud! This does not agree with my charity shop/cheapy clothes buying ethos, oh well, I can reasure myself by remembering the shoes that I so wanted in there too but didn't buy (halo back in place-ish).

Then, after more rambling Simon spotted this;

I must confess that at first I was confused as to why my beloved would think I could be excited by a building society, der!!

But then all became clear as he walked me through the door;

These are just two quick snaps I took but all the walls were filled floor to ceiling with boxes and boxes of the most beautiful and unusual buttons I have ever seen. Simon went mad (honest, nothing to do with me) and bought me some lovelies but the light is really bad now (and blogger says I have probably used enough picture space for one night surely?!) so I will post some pics tomorrow after I have taken them to bed and stroked them all :-)

Hope you've all had a good day too?

Daisie xxx

I Had A Little Accident

No, I didn't wet myself, although it is always a worry with a belly full of wriggley baby!!

Ooooops, I seem to have bought some buttons.....



At the fair on Saturday there was a very lovely lady with lots of yummy crafty goodies and although I tried to be good, I just couldn't say no to these little beauties (look at the price)!!

Go have a look at her website which is also rather lovely!

Daisie xxx

A Boy Project?

Firstly have a quick look at these beauties that were given to me by the lovely Jenny at playgroup on Tuesday, mmmmm;



Now the other day when I went on a mammoth spending spree with my friend Gil I bought some fabric with a boy project in mind.

Well, it ended up being a boy project;



And a unisex project;

And a decidedly girlie project also;

Quite pleased with what I managed out of a seven pound piece of fabric and some plain cotton t-shirts! There are also the coloured circles left and the cream circles with coloured borders that were interspersed with the picture circles. I am thinking that I may cut some flowers from scraps left over from bag and hat making and sew those to the circles and then put them onto t-shirts too? If the weather is fine at the next fair (so we'll be outside and not in) I have been promised to have my stall between two trees so I can rig up a washing line to hang them from! I have been looking for a child size dummy/mannequin and will have to sell a kidney (or an awful lot of t-shirts) if I'd like to own one :-( But this afternoon at Boobie Club (yes, we have moved day and time, just to confuse people, mainly me) I discovered the dolls used for baby massage training and they are yummy. Soft bodied, about the size of an 18month old, there are different skin tones too. I am hoping I will be allowed to borrow at least one (maybe two) to dress in my t-shirts or dresses and sit them at either end of my stall. The children, of course, will be head to toe Daisie Davies too!

Anyway, I best get back to sewing the labels into the t-shirts and tie off all the ends!

Daisie xxx

Remember These?

Well they are now available in my folksy shop in 100g bags. Don't usually do my own advertising (perhaps that's why there are so few sales) but so many of you expressed delight and thought you might like some too. If we use the code word "Strawberry Marmalade" in notes to seller on paypal (if you buy some of course) I will chuck in something extra for being a blog reader!

Today has been sunny and the children have been in and out of the back door all day. We spent the morning bed hunting and we ended up spending far more money then we had intended but I can't wait for it all to be delivered :-))

So no makes today yet but am feeling full of beans so will maybe make a start on the handbag orders from yesterday before bed.....

Daisie xxx

A Box

A big white cardboard box;


Full of yummy scrummy french reclaimed buttons;



Just over 8kg of french reclaimed buttons to be precise;

Some have already been sorted ready to become button bracelets and bag dangles for the craft fair on friday and I can't wait to play with the rest. Neither can someone else;

Some are going to be used during my craft sessions starting wednesday next week (more about that later) but I think some of them may have to be sold off in 100g bags on folksy so someone else can enjoy them too, it would take me forever to use them all and if I get rid of some I'll have some space for new things :-)

Must be off, buttons are screaming my name!!!

Daisie xxx

Unexpected Delights!

I had an impromptu visit from my friend Jenny (not of the blueflower variety but the Erin's Mum at playgroup variety). She came brandishing gifts;


Not butter cookies, although I'd never say no to a tin of biccies, but beautiful buttons she had gathered at her granmother's house;

Just look at that huge big red flower one, made me shriek with delight, there is only one of those sadly :-( but many other wonderful buttons. Like any other older lady she has saved all the buttons from her old clothes and coats so there is a huge array of styles, sizes and colours. A huge thank you Jen!!

I have not managed to take any pics of Elizabeth in her top yet as it has no straps and I have been aching from the smocking I did yesterday. I think the way it has to be stretched and pulled through the sewing machine uses muscles I don't usual trouble as this morning I woke with terrible chest pains and an ache in my right arm pit. Not a heart atttack though!! It was fine once I got going but began to be sore again when I started Elizabteh's dress :-( The old muscles will have to get strong or just get used to it as the dresses look so fabulous I am going to make many many more!!

Daisie xxx

Button Maker

Having seen all the lovely buttons that have been swapped in blogland of late (not sure how I missed that one?) inspired me to go grab some fimo and make my own. The fimo wasn't nearly as pricey as I had feared but cutters?! Blimey, found some I really liked and then had to decide if I liked them enough to remortgage my house! So no new miniature cutters for me (but I do have a birthday coming up, hint, hint...) so I had to improvise with some chocolate moulds I have in the kitchen drawer and some badly drawn card templates;



A daisy, well, what else! Love the little leaves, they are made using a marble finish fimo and the daisy and butterfly have a glitter content. I can see a set of these on a little girl's cardigan, leaves all the way up and a flower under the chin!

Then using my recently discovered, perfectly sized button cutter (my wedding ring) I made some more in the sparkly stuff and made a spotty pattern around the edge with a very sharp pencil;



And you must please note just how sunny it is out there in my garden today, I can hardly believe it, bloody cold though!! Doesn't seem to be scaring the daffies though, there are new yellow heads nodding at me every day.

Yesterday I attended an adult art class (oooh, that sounds rude), partly becasue I like to learn new things and partly to let Nathaniel have some more time in the creche and try and address some of his seperation issues. And it was free!!!! Yes FREE!!!!

It's a three week course and this week was silk painting;



It was amazing to do, I really enjoyed it. We were asked to draw a design, I copped out and went with a flower (again) and then we drew this image onto the silk with a rubberised paint, when that had dried we got going with lots of fabulous coloured inks. I seem to have created a strange dappled effect with the purple in my background, not sure I could do it again but am quite pleased. I am so thrilled with the overall finished piece that I have even forgiven myself for the huge gold splodge at the top of the flower. As first attempts go I am rather proud of myself and can't wait to see it framed up ready to go into our bedroom (when we eventually finish it)!!

Daisie xxx

Small Gifts And Big Smiles

I must firstly say a big hello to the lovely Mo who bought a card from my folksy shop this week and left me the most wonderful feedback and then came here to say hello too (see last post's comments). Hello!

Simon has been working exceptionally long hours this week and is tired and grumpy and we have all missed him like mad. When he returned home at nearly 10pm on Thursday he was really low but brought a huge smile to my face when he said that he had a present for me. Ooh, says I. A big button that he found;



Anyone who truly loves me would bring me a stray button knowing that I would love it!!

Nathaniel I think is suffering from sore teeth and a bit of a cold (but he is training to be a man so more like flu) and has been very difficult indeed (good job I love him!) so not much has got done. I did manage to make the decoupage daisy toppers for the cards I have planned for the fair;

And I made some more felt tree decorations;

These photos are really hazy, don't know why?

We had lots of fun last night (being all together again) when the girls unearthed a wig in the style of a black bob. I bought the wig for Elizabeth when Francesca was very small, she dressed up as Zoe from Doctor Who (one of her favourite companions) to go to see the singing kettle. It is in dire need of a good combing but it looked rather cool on Nathaniel;

He'd make a very pretty girl! Nathaniel has a bit of a thing for wigs (or I have a bit of a thing for putting him in wigs), we have a brilliant pic of him in my Mum's post-chemo wig when he was just a few months old. The wig is a sandy colour and he did have the look of Rod Stewart. Mum laughed and laughed, the first time for a long while.

And we laughed so much it hurt when Simon put it on;

He doesn't make such a pretty girl but he'd be great as a stand in for Maureen or Barbara!! And in true spirit of the BBC; "Other kitchen towels are available!"

Have a lovely Saturday, Daisie xxx