Maud's Having An Outing

I've only put this on as I don't like posts without pictures;

Maud is coming with me and all my handmade goodies tomorrow to a massive (yes really huge) gathering of local crfaters at the ACE centre in a nearby town to sell alongside all the musicky charity fund raising that is Oxjam. There are fifty confirmed stalls, it's going to be a great day, I'm really looking forward to it!

So I have spent today packing and getting ready for that and also cutting out a mountain of felt, I am running a workshop at the LET project as a member of the Art Exchange, I got to do a children's workshop (think I got the short straw) so opted for making christmas tree decorations as the ages range from 5 to 12. I fugured with the shapes precut and lots of buttons, sequins and glittery thread we can make it as easy or as complicated at the child wants. We can sew or stick,. whichever is easiest.

A busy start to the half term holidays! I have also been trying this week to sort out the cluttered space that is my den/cupboard/wardrobe. Remember we built an extra room(ish) when we gutted our bedroom and remember how empty and lovely it looked?
Well, needless to say it doesn't look like that anymore, it is bursting at the seams and with recent mad crafting it has become somewhat of a mess! I took 'before' pictures on monday and am not yet ready to reveal how it looks 'after' - another million man-hours needed I think. Progress is slow with so many small people to get in the way help me!

The renovations are finally coming together, Simon and I (well, mostly Simon) put the hallway wall up this morning and with him at home this week the plan is to lay the new floor and put the ceiling up. It's all very exciting but I feel so near and yet so very far.....

Daisie xxx

Oh The Shame

The cloud cover was a bit dark and looming, it put people off, a really quiet morning as I chewed on paracetamol and shivered in a hot/cold sweat. Elizabeth came with me to set up and was an absolute star. Later Simon came down and brought his Mum and the rest of the children. We had a picnic lunch together and then my Mum and Dad arrived.

This is what my little offering looked like;


The bunting looked really really good, lots of people came and admired but no one bought any to take home;

Francesca turned into a butterfly;

And Nathaniel turned into a scary lion (although we thought he looked more like a tiger);

And the shame; I only just covered the cost of my pitch and that was only because my Mum and Mum-In-Law bought things. I wish they'd just take the things they like.

Daisie xxx

My Poor Mushy Brain

I am ill, I have the highest temp I have had for years and I feel like I could just lay down and cry. I didn't though, I soldiered on into the night to get everything ready for the fair today.

I am tired, can you tell?;


Can you spot the mistake? It took me a while too. I'd machined half the panel before realising that it was on upside down! My poor poor brain! I just didn't have the energy to unpick this baby last night. But it is atleast saveable and I can congratulate myself on not sewing the front to the back on any of the t-shirts I finished last night, yay me!!!!

Anyhoo, I am up stupidly early because I was frying my husband just laying next to him so have sneaked down for a cup of tea and some paracetamol before the children surface.

It's rained overnight but I can see some blue sky poking through so am keeping my fingers crossed for good weather and a good show today.

Daisie xxx

Ouchey Ouch, ooooooh And Ugh!

Francesca has been at home again today (she stayed in her PJs yesterday too), she has a very high temp, sore bones but nothing specific, lots of love and sleep seems to have made her much better. Nathaniel has been the same this week. There has been an outbreak of 'slap-cheek' at school, it's a viral infection and the usual reaction is becoming very very red down one side of your face, hence the nickname. It spreads like wild fire. My girlies have had it before. I wonder if this is what they have just without the red reaction? And today, after a week of administering paracetamol, cups of water and endless cuddles at all hours of the day and night, I seem to have it. My bones hurt so much. Francesca said her ribs hurt when she breathed, I assumed it was tired muscles from coughing but I have not been coughing and it hurts to breathe. I now feel very sorry for the pair of them in retrospect :(

But on the plus side of our poorly pyjama clad situation is lots of little helpers for the fair on saturday (have I mentioned it :));


My pictures seem to have been jumbled? So here is Francesca modelling the new hair slides we made this morning, Nathaniel turning the handle on the bigshot, francecsa choosing buttons and me burning my finger, bloody hot glue gun!!


Here threy are (some of them, we made twelve altogether);

I dug out the braceletes I made that didn't sell on Folksy and thought I'd try them in person, maybe someone will fall in love with one if they can hold and try on;

And this is how much Francesca likes the hair slides;

Unfortunately, I ran out of binding before I ran out of pretty triangles, no time to order some and expect it to come before saturday :(

I have a number of t-shirts stabalised and ready to sew, all my bags and t-shirts need ironing, I need to find all my little tags and get them stamped so I can price up items and really all I want to do is go to bed. Think a hot cup of tea and some paracetamol is in order.

Daisie xxx

A New Obsession

I made some bunting last week (that the girls mistakenly thought were fancy pants) for Evi's birthday. I have been meaning to make some for ages, I promised Francesca when she moved into her pink room, but things keep getting in the way. Now I have made some I can't stop, it is so simple and so very effective. A large roll of binding tape from good old eBay and a few bits of pretty cotton from my stash and look what I've got;


The process is so repetative and soothing, the only ball ache hard bit is poking out the points with my crochet hook to make them nice and pointy. To be honest I can't believe how easy it is and am now kicking myself for not having done it before!!

The theme of the fair on Saturday is 'All The Colours Of The Rainbow', I plan to hang all the bunting across my stall inside the gazebo like a fancy floating ceiling. I just hope the rain holds off and the sun shines.

Saturday 10th, 10.30 til 3.30, Gawthorpe Hall. Maybe see some of you there? Make sure you say hi!

Daisie xxx

The Spring Fayre

Was a bit of a washout really, the weather wasn't fab but they still managed the speedball challenge in the yard and the ususal school stalls were up and running. The children are allowed to attend school on Fayre day in non-uniform, the penalty being a donation to either the chocolate tombola, the bottle tombola or the cake stand. My girls took in three dozen Gruffalo cupcakes (my poor arms were ready to drop off I can tell you!).

My stall looked like this;


My favourite bit being the monkies , the elephants and the monkies riding elephants;


They got lots of good comments and people dragged others across to see them but not one of them went to a new home :-(

I did spread out a bit with my shopping totes on the window sill;


And my shoulder bags on the window sill on the other side;

They looked brillaint with a little paper stuffing, sadly this was the only one that sold;

If you've been visiting a while you'll remeber my sign from the steam gathering that kept falling over, well my lovely Father-In-Law made a sturdy stand for it that doubles up as a little box in which I put my brooches;

Thanks Grumpy!!

I filled a pot with some blue stones to display my headbands, all of these sold except one;

The boys and I spent Thursday afternoon cutting flowers and the girls chose buttons for the centres when they came home from school so I could take along some sleepy clips, again not many sold;

It wasn't just me though, turn out was bad, not as many families as usual and takings were down on all the stalls. I made a good donation to school and what was left paid for our chipshop tea.

I spent most of yesterday at the hospital with Sebastian, his chest is very bad again and we'd had an awful night. He has an inhaler and we have 48 hour access. He seems brighter this morning and has managed to let us sleep last night, all should be well in a couple of days. *crosses fingers, arms, legs etc*

So today, as is typical on a Bank Holiday weekend, with the weather being cold and dull and everyone being tired and wanting to snuggle we are off to find a family movie and cosey up on the bean bags and eat popcorn.

Enjoy your Sunday, Daisie xxx

Thank You

A very late thank you to Kathryn over at Lazy Daisy Glass who had a fabulous giveaway on her blog of which I was the winner!! Big grin :D, look what I won;


I thought these were really quirky little items when I first saw them but I can now say they are even more amazing in the 'flesh'. I love it so much, thanks Kathryn!!

No pictures from me as the camera has died, really rather naffed off about it as I have been busy making lovely new things for the school fayre on Friday including a rather nice pirate sock monkey (he has an eye patch and everything) so I am hoping that some lovely person at school will take some pics of my stall and let me use them. If you are nearby and at a lose end on Friday afternoon it would be lovely to see you but be warned, it's a manic two hours!!

I have also been involved in a breastfeeding steering group meet up this week too but more on that on the other blog.

Daisie xxx

The Steam Gathering 2009

Well, what a weekend!!

Nathaniel recovered sufficiently for me to leave him with Simon although I found this very hard indeed. Elizabeth had two nights at home with Simon alone when I was admitted to hospital expecting Francesca and I left both the girls over night for a hen party (but left near bedtime and was home again for lunch the following day) but Nathnaiel has not been left over night. I spent lots of Friday very tearful. Silly really as all the children have had a wonderful weekend being spoiled by their Daddy!

Sarah and I made great time up the motorway until we were about six miles away from the event and the last little bit took nearly an hour as we were following several heavy steam engines on flatbed trailers, a real nightmare around all the steep hills and twisty narrow roads.

We arrived eventually and began to unload my very full car;


I had removed the three back seats so it was like a huge van. It contained three tables (and cloths), two chairs, a tent, a gazebo, two days worth of clothes etc, all Sarah's sparkles, a half dozen elephants, countless t-shirts and shoulder bags plus many other assorted goodies for sale, oh and stuff to wash with, a big bag of apples, lots of bananas, six bottles of tonic water, a flask and (very good thinking on Sarah's part) a huge bag of nachos and some flapjack!

We set to with the gazebo and it was a piece of cake! We had it up and running in no time at all. We added our tables and goodies as the organisers wanted all sellers to be organised and 'ready to sell' for 9am, not knowing how well or how long we'd sleep we figured it would be better to get most of the setting up done the night before.

After a stroll around to meet people and check out the facilities and find some hot food we completed our stall;


By the time we had finished titivating and laughing it was well after midnight so we decided as it was dry to abandon all thoughts of putting up the tent and sleep in the gazebo with the stock (if you look you can see the grass peeping out between our airbeds).

We awoke early to a lovely bright day, had time to hunt down some breakfast and grab a wash (of sorts) before opening our doors to the public;


We sat outside all day in the baking sun chatting to lovely people and making sales :-)

There were lots and lots of steam engines (well, we had expected that really);


At least a hundred tractors;

Two very big (very annoying) pipe music organs which cranked up around 8am and went on long into the night;

Some very beautiful vintage campers and cars and caravans, this was my fave (soooo pretty);

We walked around and looked at everything for a long time in the late evening sun, me nursing my sunburn and Sarah worried about the rain. All the other traders were very concerned by the forecast of heavy rain for the night and next day. In a slight panic and hoping to be wasting our time (you know how when you have an umberella it doesn't rain) we gathered all our stuff into the middle of the gazebo and covered them with waterproof cloth to keep them dry should the worst happen;

We also pitched our tent;

The rain came in buckletfuls!! We were up and bringing down our tent by 7am in our PJs. We thought it best to keep the one set of clean clothes we had dry. We got very very wet indeed and when we'd finished we set off to get dressed and found an inch of water on the floor in our usual dressing spot. We stood on our already wet pyjamas and hopped our way into dry things.

We stopped on the way back and managed to get a traders discount on something stylish to keep our feet warm and dry;

We had to have a drastic rethink of our layout to keep things dry (the rain was coming in sideways) and ended up putting quite alot of things away in the car. It did mean we weren't too cramped and people could come in out of the rain to browse which was a good selling tool for the few people that decided to brave the weather. Not a brilliant day for sales but not a wasted day either!

We ended up with my t-shirts folded on the table and it wasn't nearly as effective as the washing line but at least they stayed dry;

We packed up and made good time home on Sunday night, in time for me to snuggle all my babies before they went to bed, a later night for them but it is the holidays and Mummy had been missing for two and a bit days!

It was a brilliant weekend, even with the rain, and I am half thinking of taking all my family next year and making a mini holiday of it. There were lots of things for the children to do and see and there were lots of families around running stalls, manning engines and running the fairground. Something to think about.....

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

Oragnised, Me?????

Blimey, it's Monday and I am travelling a long way on Friday night to sell my goodies here with the lovely Sarah of Molly and Izzie. It all happened a bit by accident as her boyfriend didn't really want to camp and she didn't want to camp alone. So there we have it, I will be packing my goodies, my tonic water, my iron tablets and my raspberry leaf and setting of on a jolly adventure!!

Sarah emailed me all the final details the other day and apparently the organisers hope to have 40000 people through the gates during the two days so I thought I really should start making.

A new batch of t-shirts;



This is my favourite and if it doesn't sell I think I know a little boy who would love it;



A poppy shoulder bag (excuse the bits on the floor, holidays etc);

Some rather yummy tea towel pinnies;

I made a load of these a while ago when I found some really lovely pink spotted tea towels (can't rememeber if I showed you or not) and they have been really good sellers. I make big ones and little ones and they seem to sell in pairs which is nice. I really liked the 50s feeling kitchen objects on these ones;

And the spirals are cool too;

Then last night I thought maybe I should have some elephants that are a bit more manly (well less girlie anyhoo) so here is Elizabeth this morning (she is bothered by her scruffy hair but I assured her that we all have scruffy hair when we get up!) with a blue one, a red one and one that is kinda blue and kinda green depending on where the light catches it;

Off to hunt and gather some coffee beans and maybe have a walk in the park before coming home and making some more lovelies.

Daisie xxx

It Didn't Rain!!

What a good day, after the weather man saying it would rain all day we were pleasantly suprised by beautiful blue skies;

This was the most well organised event I have ever attended, everyone knew what they were doing, the tables and gazeboes were up and ready when the stall holders arrived, everyone was very friendly.

Here's my pitch when I'd finished titivating;


The elephants ended up in a basket but I thought they looked a little like puppies at a pet shop trying to escape. They got lots of hugs from passing children and lots of positive comments but I only sold one;

The clothes looked fab on the washing line;

And because I placed the table at the back it meant people came in to the space and could browse and chat better, I didn't feel like I was hiding behind the table;

I got to shake hands with the Mayor of Burnley and later in the afternoon the Lady Mayoress of Padiham stopped by to say hello too!

I didn't take a huge amount of money but made profit and had a lovely day. Because it is so near to home I saw lots of people that I already knew from playgroup, school, nursery and the centre. It was great to catch up with people and stand in the sun and chat!

Daisie xxx