A New Hybrid

My mate Lynsey made me (no, I think I remember offering) punch lots of little swirls from her business cards. The reason for this will become clear if you take a look at her blog. She's giving some away but I grabbed the ones I'd punched!

And this is what I made, a true craft hybrid, it's a Swirly Daisie!!!!



We spent today at the in-laws as Simon was fixing Grumpy's computer (not being a bad daughter-in-law, that's what we really call him) we did the rounds of the charity shops there but I came home with exactly nothing! Not happy! Am trying to talk Simon into a car boot tomorrow, provided it's not too cold or wet!

The children were given biscuits by Granny, that is what they're for after all, and here is Nathaniel with his little pinky up!! He must have known we were visiting the posh side of the family!!



And here's a pic to illustrate the point that you're never to young to start to nurture your creative flair;

Daisie xxx

Just A Quick One

Just a quick one today, unless anything exciting happens later!

Making shepherd's pie to take to my friend's house later, she's going to look after the girls while I go to Elizabeth's parents' evening. Then we're going to have tea there with them. A bit worried as to what the teacher will have to say this time, not sure why, we'll soon see!

Just wanted to show you these lovely pictures I took of Nathaniel after playgroup on Tuesday. He would normally have a snooze in the morning but playgroup is just so exciting, he looks at all the other children, sings songs, claps hands, has water and a snack. It really tires him out and he usually falls asleep in the sling before I've even left the place. He did this week before I'd even stacked my chair away! I then walked to the bakers for Francesca's lunchtime treat now that she's too big for playgroup :-( and on down to nursery, collected Francesca, I put him into his car seat, and got him out again at home and just dropped his sleeping form onto the dining room sofa in the hope that he would stir and join us for lunch.

Needless to say he didn't make it to lunch but did wake up for an afternoon snack!!

Daisie xxx

From Yucky to Yummy

'There's a funny smell in the kitchen,' said Simon this morning, so when Nathaniel was having a snooze this morning I got down on all fours and decided to investigate the source of said smell.

We only have a very tiny kitchen and we have legs on the bottom of our cupboards (not a foot board like most other people). This makes the kitchen look bigger, don't ask me how but it does, and it's a great place to stash the stuff that we buy in bulk; cat food, washing-up liquid, orange juice cartons etc. The smell was definitely worse at floor level but I only have ordinary length arms so I went in search of a broom. Found one, back on the floor, glad no one came to call as it probably wasn't the best view in the world, me with bum in air grunting and flailing around with a broom. I managed to sweep out this;




A hair bobble, a triangular brick from a teaching clock (been looking for that for ages), Barbie's bicycle helmet, lots of bits of paper, a knackered orange felt pen with no lid, twenty pence (woo-hoo, we're rich) and I found what I believe was making the smell, if you look in the centre of the pic you'll see it too, a red pepper, or at least I think it used to be a red pepper! Ugh! There were also many grapes in various stages on their journey to becoming raisins, they can't have helped the aroma much!

Nathaniel awoke so off I trotted to fetch him downstairs, he sat beside the washing machine laughing at me while I swept my broom around one last time before filling the mop bucket. I found this;




A half squashed tin can, probably jumped from under my foot when being squished to go in the recycling box (they do that) must have said to myself that I'd pull it out later and didn't, a Barbie handbag, an empty water bottle (?), a toy motor bike thingie, and best of all a box of beer that still had two bottles left inside! It was worth it after all!! Don't know how long they've been there but they're going down quite well.

After collecting Francesca from nursery school and mopping my new empty under cupboard space, it's gleaming now, I decided to have a play with some of my nice papers. Francesca loves to help but some of her paper combinations were just scary, we compromised on some but the combinations were mainly mine (she just thought they were hers) and this is what we ended up with;

Quite pleased with these, am off now to drink beer and pack these lovely cards ready for sale and then off to bed to do some knitting, it has been somewhat neglected of late, Lynsey's book has inspired me again but I think she'll have a long wait for a gnome!!!

Daisie xxx

Daisy And Her Needles

What a good day I had yesterday, Nathnaiel and I set off to playgroup via the post office (which wasn't great but that's a story for another day) and had a lovely time, he clapped his hands at singing time, such a proud Mummy I was!!! While we were there I got a text from Lynsey to say that she'd bought me a present, oooh the excitement could be felt in the air!

So after we collected Elizabeth from school we went on over to get my prezzie, no we were going anyway (honest!!!) as I'd boguht a present for her too (spooky). Am sure if you visit her blog she may have mentioned it. My present was a book called 'Daisy And Her Needles' by Keith Balding. The pictures are fab and what have I just learned to do...knit!!!!

It goes like this....

'When Daisy got out her needles the world began to change,
She knitted a fire,
She knitted her tea,
She knitted her husband



And she knitted me.

When Daisy got out her needles the world became woolly.
She knitted some books,
she knitted a view,
she knitted a crossing,
She knitted a Ewe.

As Daisy worked hard at her needles the world began to soften.
She knitted a garden,
She knitted a gnome,
She knitted a prize,
She knitted a home.

She knitted a scene from an avant-garde ballet,




She knitted a clock in the shape of a chalet,
She knitted a plate with a birthday cake on it,
She knitted a cat with a bonnet upon it,
She knitted a tree with apples all rosy,
And just for a change another tea cosy,



Daisy has knitted and this book is full, so she's busily knitting some new balls of wool.'

Wish I could show you all the pictures but I'd be here all week, may put some in later posts because they are just sooooo cool!! Thanks Lyns!!

Daisie xxx

Look What I got!!!

Hello, been into town with my friend Mick who's down from Aberdeen for the weekend. We did all the charity/cheap shops and look what I got;



Thank you to Francesca for taking a photo of me in my new skirt. It's a PER UNA one, ooh posh! And it's knitted!!! I just love it, it has a thick sage green cord waist band that fastens with lovely silver shiny buttons. The best bit is that it only cost me £6.50, alot for a charity shop spend but I just love it so and it's only a fraction of what it would have cost new, or that's what I keep telling myself. Here's a close up;




And as a bit of a thank you to Mick for making me go shopping on a Monday morning when normally I would be changing beds and doing the weekend's ironing I made a card for him to give to his friend who is boat mad and emigrating next week, here it is;





Am going to fondle my new skirt, Daisie xxx

Tidy House?

Well, the day has been eventful, we haven't got dressed all day!!! Bad Mother, again! We've had a lazy day, Simon spent the morning in bed with a terrible tummy ache (I think the same bug that Elizabeth and I have had) and the girls did many interesting things with the bricks, Nathaniel tried to join in but got no further than eating the bricks, bless. I will post some pictures of their creations (and they took many) soon.

Just wanted to do a quick one tonight and show you my new tidy work station, this is the tidiest it's ever been (no, really)! I found loads of things that I forgot I had, it's been like Christmas.

Let me take you on a tour; this table sits behind the door into the kitchen so is a general dumping ground for all things paper and items belonging to the children. When my cry of "Tea's ready, clear the table!" this is where everything ends up! The green drawers were bought by Simon when we moved in here (1997) to store our, wait for it, cassette tapes. Needless to say we moved onto Cd's and then moved on again and now have MP3s instead. The drawers are now full of lovely toppers and embellishments for cards, card blanks, envelopes, stamps and inks, stencils and lots of other interesting things. On top of the green drawers is a huge stack of beautiful handmade papers Simon bought for my birthday. In the yellow box are cut out bits from last year's Christmas cards, ready to be turned into gift tags for this Christmas. The magazine boxes and the top shelf are where I store my SAMS card, great for all sorts of occasions. On the left of the top shelf there are reels of bargain ribbons, many of which have not been put to use yet.....The margarine tubs are filled with off cuts of felt that I use for badges and to decorate the Daisie Davies Gift bag. The bottom shelf has flat boxes with loads of compartments, these are full of buttons and tiny pegs and ribbons and sequins. Under those are boxes of acetate sheet, Simon made me stock up as he believes the time of the OHP may soon be over! There are loads more things hidden away and you can see on the right the assorted children's craft boxes and pencil cases. And last but by no means least, my trusty guillotine is there for all to see.

This is just paper crafting, wait til I show you a picture of my fabric room!

Night, 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