This Week

I've had a really lovely and productive week this week. First of all, we finally finished the baby quilt for my sisters bump. I've finally rejoined the gym and have been trying lots of different classes, I decided to start a Project Life scrapbook, had a great day at Sheffield Does Vintage and spent today catching up with friends.

I have to apologise for the blatant selfie, but I am completely in love with this dress that I bought from The Queens Drawers. Can you believe it was reduced to £10?? If you want to view their fabulous stock, check out Vintedge in Sheffield. They have a great selection of vintage home ware and clothing at affordable prices.

This is the first of my first Project Life pages. I'm still learning as I've never tried scrapbooking before, but Project Life makes it so simple and looks really effective. I know it will be great to look back in years to come.

A Finished Baby Quilt

There is great excitement in my family at the moment as my sister, Sally, is pregnant. When she announced it, my other sister, Vicky and I knew straight away that we wanted to make a baby quilt for the little one. We had both been trying our hand at english paper piecing and I had seen a beautiful star pattern that I thought would be perfect. We didn't (and still don't) know if it is going to be a girl or a boy so we thought a rainbow of colours would be ideal. 

We bought all of these fabrics from A Patchwork Garden in Sheffield. Once we started piecing, we thought a few more patterns were needed, so we also used scraps from previous projects.

Now, I have to be honest, making the diamonds wasn't so bad, but I wasn't very good at sewing the stars together. I couldn't get the points to join perfectly and there wasn't much room for error. That is where Vicky stepped in and saved the day, she has the patience of a saint!  

Quilting and binding, however,  I can do. We decided to quilt in a semi-circular pattern, to match our rainbow theme. We started by drawing round a small bowl and then machine sewed the width of the foot outwards. I really love the effect and it's surprisingly simple to do. The photo above was taken quite late on one evening and I have that crazy 'we're close to the end' look on my face. 

For the binding we chose a bright turquoise polka dot. I think one of my favourite parts of this quilt has to be the backing fabric. 

It's called 'Raindrops' by Timeless Treasures and I think it looks like it was made specifically for our quilt. Again, it goes with our rainbow theme perfectly. 

We gave it to Sally yesterday, she and her husband both love it and we're so pleased. I can't wait to meet the little bundle of joy and see him or her all wrapped up in their new quilt. She kindly sent us some photographs of the quilt in babies new bedroom, and personally, I think it looks lovely!

Our trip to Prague

This year I decided that I really wanted to spend New Year away from Sheffield. I had initially thought about going on a trip to the Lake District, but then we saw a really good deal on a three day trip to Prague. We delayed booking it a little bit too long and missed the New Year, so we ended up going on January 12th instead. We flew out from Manchester airport and arrived in Prague at about 9pm. We took a taxi to our hotel which was fairly basic but very clean. That evening we walked through the city centre and in to the main square. We stopped at a restaurant and Mark decided to buy a litre of beer, the photo below should give you an idea of how large that actually is!

The next day we walked in to town and saw many of the sites that Prague has to offer. The historic buildings are beautiful and the astronomical clock is truly incredible.

Death, represented by a skeleton, chimes it's bell each hour and the images of patron saints appear at the windows above the clock. 

Our next stop was Prague castle, which has stunning views overlooking the city. We also were lucky enough to see the changing of guards. 

Just behind the castle is St. Vitus Cathedral, it is free to enter and is truly stunning. I have never seen such intricate stained glass designs. 

The food is particularly good in Prague, especially if you are a big fan of meat. We had read good reviews about a medieval themed restaurant, which has to be seen to be believed. 

It's not every day you see a food establishment with swords and maces on the walls! The food was excellent though, very reasonably priced and the beer worked out at only £1.50 a pint.  

The next day we visited a Dali exhibition. I later found out that I wasn't supposed to take pictures, so shhh! 

We took a trip on the fenicular railway up to Petrin Hill. The views from the Lookout tower are fantastic and definitely worth the walk to the top. 

There is also a mirror maze!

Despite the weather being very cold - thick jumpers, hats and scarves definitely recommended - I loved Prague in January. It wasn't overly busy with tourists and the crisp blue skies made everything even more beautiful. 

Next week I am even getting to go on that Lake District trip that I had wanted! My sister has booked for me and Mark, my two sisters and their husbands, my niece and my Mum and Dad to go up for a long weekend, I can't wait! I am definitely a very lucky girl. 

My New Years resolution for 2014 is to go on more adventures and I definitely think I am already going the right way about it. My two aims are to visit Iceland for the first time and to go back to New York, so fingers crossed we will be able to afford at least one! In the spirit of travelling, I bought myself this print from Walsh Walsh and Son on Etsy. I can't wait to frame it when our living room is ready!

Vintage Sheet Swap UK

Hi All! Just a quick one to let you know that I will be taking part in Mary Emmon's vintage sheet swap. If you want to get involved, all of the information that you need is available here. I can't wait to see what the postman brings in March!

The Vintage Fair

I've had two brilliant weekends of selling my vintage wares, first of all was Mary's Marvellous Vintage and Craft Market and then The Vintage Fair at the Sheffield Town Hall. I have to say a huge thank you to everyone who came along and made my car a lot lighter on the way home!

You can tell from my grin hat I am thoroughly enjoying myself. Thanks to the lovely people at The Vintage Fair who I stole this picture from! Anyway it's safe to say that I am becoming a bit obsessed and I am booking myself in to as many fairs as will have me, so here are the ones I have planned so far for the rest of the year with (hopefully!) even more to come...

                                          

And finally here is a sneaky peak at a few of the items that I will be bringing along with me. I am particularly taken with the 1960s scooter dress by Marcel Fenez, it's made from a thick wool fabric and absolutely perfect for Autumn/Winter.

                             

                             

                             

                             

A Mini Shop Update!

I have done a mini shop update, but there is much much more on the way so keep checking back! How fabulous is the turquoise and orange maxi dress? Oh how I wish it fitted me!

Holidays!

I thought I would share some of the photos from our holiday this year to sunny Cornwall! I know it's not the most exotic of destinations, but because we are saving to decorate our house we thought we would try and save some money by going camping. I was preparing for torrential downpours and had packed wellies and waterproofs but honestly we could not have picked a better week to go, it was non-stop sunshine and thats something you don't get very often in good old England!

We stayed at the Polmanter camp site in St Ives which I would recommend, it has great facilities including a swimming pool which we used every day. We visited a lot of different places; Newquay, St Michael's Mount, Truro, Penzance and Lands End - and of course I couldn't resist doing a spot of charity shop shopping while we we there. I really enjoyed going to St Michael's Mount, it's a castle built on top of a small island which you can walk to at low tide. We arrived a bit early and the path was still under water - the sea was icy cold and I couldn't feel my feet by the time I had crossed! 

I think the only downside that I can think of was that the weather was so good that our tent was like an oven by 7am in the morning so we woke up really really early every day. That and the sunburn!

We were definitely not put off camping and have already been planning some mini camping breaks before the end of the summer, I am thinking maybe Whitby, where would you recommend?