Stuff

So I managed to make Elizabeth's bean bag yesterday;


And my book arrived and along side them were these little lovelies for my devouring but I have a feeling they may have to be put away until my birthday, thank you Simon;


Today I have a headache and am feeling rather ill but not as bad as last time. I have made tomorrow's meals and stashed them in the fridge just incase. I am also off to see our GP in the morning. I had some rather interesting information following my headache blog post and now feel there may be a solution, watch this space....

Today I made a new style bag. I grabbed the greaseproof paper and made my own pattern and although it needs a little tweaking here and there, overall, I am very pleased;

Anyhoo, am off to bed when the children go in half an hour, Simon is working late, I have left instructions on the fridge/microwave for his meal later, feel kinda bad as he will have done a 13 hour day.

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

A Custom Bag

Well after much putting off the bag is finally made and the new owner is very pleased, phew!

Here it is hanging with my washing in the sun;


The fabric she chose is yummy, quite thick and canvas like with beautiful fluffy striped circles that are very very strokable.

Here is the zip that she requested;


I still added the ties as I would normally as the shape of the bag just didn't look right without them.

Behind the zip are four patch pockets;



And there was a little bit of the fabric left and I found a chocolate coloured zip in my stash so made her this little zipped pouch too;

I have given her some business cards and hopefully she'll big it up and maybe I'll get to make some more. The zip was a nightmare, the air was blue, it was like the okey-kokey gone horribly wrong! The zip went in, the zip went out, in, out, in, out and I shook it all about (swearing wildly), Finally it lined up and sat flat and I actually quite like it now :-)

And because I had the camera out in the garden I had to take a picture of my little poser;

Daisie xxx

A Wet Success

The fair in Lancaster went really well. It was cold and wet while we set up and no one was very hopeful but the rain soon stopped and although the sun didn't shine it wasn't unpleasant. We were in a small marquee (which Francesca summed up perfectly as a 'fancy tent') which meant I could hang my washing line along the wall, my table was next door to Swirly and she very kindly let me hang stuff along the wall behind her too (very fortunate as there was no room for my hanging rail although it did make loading and unloading the stuff much easier). People really liked my handbags :-)) and t-shirts, I sadly didn't make sales of any of the smocked dresses or sunhats but personally I blame the weather!! I sold lots of hair clips and button bracelets so need to make a few more before the next fair.

I have a custom bag to make this week but the buyer has requested it has a zipped main pocket, my brain has been itchy with thinking about how best to do it. Am quite confident that I could do it with a bag with a square top (good old youtube) but the bag design she likes has a curved edge that runs into the straps. I am thinking of doing the zip in a gusset (?) so you get a rectangle with a zip through the middle and attach it to the lining so that the outside look of the bag is not changed but the pocket would be more square once you are inside. Will have to try it out with some old sheets me thinks before I chop up the lovely fabric she has bought especially!

And because it is just plain rude to post without pics here is a little snap of the children doing an impromtu 'show' on a bench in the willow walk when we went to Wycoller;

Daisie xxx

Bags!

I recieved some orders for shoulder bags at the school fair on friday.

This one I made last night and am rather in love with, it is an Ikea print in big, bright, funky, retro flowers and I have lined it with some sunshine yellow cotton;


The other two I made on Saturdy and one is another Ikea print (the same as my handbag) and one is a John Lewis print called 'sunflower';



They just need delivering now and then I need to crack on with the hat order I have to fill.

And make much more stuff for the fair I'm doing in Lancaster in early June. After the success of the school fair I am feeling rather optomistic and want to make lots of lovelies. Lets see how many I can get done in just four weeks, argh!!

Daisie xxx

Things That I made Today....

Another productive day here in the Davies' house, while the girls were finishing their breakfast (do all children take an age to eat or is it just mine?) I made a paper pattern for a handbag, an idea came to me. This is what I ended up with;




I think that it could perhaps be a bit fuller in the bottom and it needs a bit of tweaking but it's fully lined and I have stiffened the handles with plastic tubing, it looks really good. I like it, expect to see more in this style made from my amazing upholstery fabrics! While I did this the girls made a miniature seascape with some blue bubble-wrap at it's centre, quite cool.

Then we went into town to visit the post office and Poundland (for eBay packing materials) and had a good visit to The Works (bookshop) as they're closing down and lots of goodies are rather cheap. Then we went to see Lynsey and had some lunch, thanks Lyns!!

Home again mid afternoon to make a birthday card for the sister-in-law, then a brief walk to post it. Supervised Elizabeth making a card for her friend Ellie-Kay's birthday on Sunday.

I made this rather lovely mousy shirt for my niece, Mhairi, who will be 11 on Sunday. It came from my fabric finds of yesterday and it has a swirly whirly tail that goes round the back of the shirt;




Then I made this hot pink cord shoulder bag, with mouse, to put it in;




Finally I made this little oil skin number for Elizabeth to deliver Ellie-Kay's presents in;

I did also make a shepherd's pie but we ate that and I didn't take any pics!

Daisie xxx

Am sewing again...

...it seems like ages since my machine was last out and there were tiny bits of annoying thread all over the floor that make the drum of my vacuum so colourful. I took an order on Friday for a dress, similar to the one on the website but in a larger size. It has a wedgewood blue t-shirt top and a full pleated skirt in linen with a beautiful blue bamboo print.





I made the dress last night and while my mind was thinking of amazing things to do now the machine was out and plugged in I made a little shoulder bag with the off cuts of fabric. Then while awake in the night feeding a small boy I realised I could make a fabric flower with the off cuts of the blue jersey. I made the flower this morning after breakfast and have mounted it on a brooch back so that it can be on the bag or on the dress or on a cardigan over the dress, the possibilities are endless!





Not sure what the rest of today has in store for me but as we're in the UK we seem to have lost an hour in the night and it's supposed to be summer time???

Daisie xxx