Happy New Year!

 

 

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. I enjoyed spending time with my family, and then celebrated New Year with my friends. I have to say I was a very lucky girl this year and Santa brought me some wonderful presents. My new toy is this Singer Confidence 7465 sewing machine. One of my New Years resolutions is to start crafting more regularly, and my sister has really inspired me with her fabulous quilts.

 

 

To christen my new sewing machine I thought it would only be fair to get some new fabric so I bought these from the 'Lark' range by Amy Butler. It is currently reduced to £6.95 a square metre in the John Lewis sale and they have lots of different patterns to choose from. I have been busy cutting out lots of squares for a new quilt, I think it might turn out a little on the bright side.

 

My rather fabulous boyfriend is taking me to the Lake District this weekend. I have never been before but I have heard it is absolutely beautiful so I can't wait. Judging by the weather recently I am sure there will be plenty of rain but it won't dampen my spirits!

 

Kelham Island Christmas Market

Today I went to my first Christmas Market of the year at Kelham Island Industrial Museum. It was a lovely day, freezing cold but the sun was shining. 

Sunshine and bunting

A beautiful carousel that was playing Christmas songs.

This was my favourite stall, Butterscotch & Beesting. I wanted all of the lovely prints, lampshades and cushions. They also have an Etsy shop, here.

Me all wrapped up in my hat, scarf and mittens enjoying a mulled wine and being blinded by the sunshine!  

I love the old buildings at Kelham Island, they used to be the home to Sheffield's steel industry.

I was in the festive mood when I got home so decided to wrap some gifts. I got the plastic candy canes from Poundland and the string is actually butchers twine but I think it looks cute anyway!

Holidays are Coming

Hi All! Sorry about my lack of posting recently. Our house has been overrun with plumbers and plasterers and tools and plasterboard and grout and tiles. I no longer have a craft room because it is full of bathroom furniture so crafts have been off the cards for a little while. On the plus side we are slowly making progress with our new bathroom and more importantly...Christmas is coming! I am getting the Christmas feeling already. Our christmas tree will be going up at the weekend and I have plenty of Christmas markets to attend. I have done most of my shopping and the presents are already wrapped (although I can't attach the bows yet as they are my cats favourite and come Christmas Day they would all be underneath the sofa). Here is a quick peak at last years tree...

Yes, it's white, undeniably kitsch and nothing matches. It is tradition that I buy one new bauble every year and (as of last year) craft one bauble of my own. It is only quite a small tree because we lived in quite a small flat but I think it might soon be time to branch out (see what I did there?) and buy a bigger one.

Printing Christmas Trees

I wanted to have a go at printing my own wrapping paper this year, this was my first trial run. It's really easy to do, I just bought some foam sheets, cut out a Christmas tree shape, mounted it on a square of polystyrene and then painted it before printing it on to a roll of brown parcel paper. I used black paint, but I think I might try using ink pads to see if it gives a better finish. It's not perfect, but I still quite like the overall look.