Help!, the summer holidays are coming... and a GIVEAWAY!

I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling a state of panic coming over me.  School finishes on Tuesday for the summer, 6 weeks of attempting to keep everyone happy, entertained, and fed on a very tight budget, what fun!  So, what better way to start the summer fun, than with a giveaway!

Come September, things are going to change for me.  Luke is starting pre-school, which will give me 3 whole days a week to work, and chance to begin putting all my plans for this little business into action.  Every move forward means leaving some things behind, this is a philosophy I often apply to my work.  I'm an ideas person, hence all the tutorials popping up, and after posting a while back about me not being a sketch book person, I actually realised I use my blog kind of like a sketch book, a place to note things down, try things out, some I use again, some I will go back to in the future, and some I wish I'd never posted!.

So, moving on from some of my older work, leaves space for the new to flourish, and means  I'm going to give away my tutorial toadstool...

leave a comment by midnight, Sunday 20th July (tell me your tips for a tantrum free summer!), and I'll do the draw for a winner on Monday morning.  This is also a way to say thank you, I've had so many visitors and inspirational comments left recently, I'm struggling to find the time to visit everyones blogs to comment back, and keep sewing!.  I might have to throw in a few left over birthday chocolates too, I'm starting to feel ill, I think I've eaten too many! 

EDIT TO POST

I'm going to have to leave this running for a couple more days, we have had a bit of a disaster this weekend, involving our kitchen floor, damp, what looks like could be a leaking pipe and worst of all, ants nests, so it's all hands on deck in the Lucykate household!

Fun with felt and the last 2 interesting facts!

There are lots of birthdays coming up plus it is almost the end of term and I decided to make the teacher and assistant something rather than buy. So the evenings have turned into a little production line, this is the result so far. The brooches work really well attached to the front of a card, they can be removed after the event and hey presto, you have your gift! This lot is using some more of the printed felt I got from Coats Crafts UK and also 1 solitary felted ball made from their 'Filz' fiber range. I have yet to perfect my wet felting technique and this is the only ball that stayed in one piece, so any tips or advice on how to do it is welcome!.



This lot are made using felt from my ever increasing stash and some patchwork and Rowan fabric. The green, brown and orange one is for a friend, who wears a lot of brown and orange, I just hope she likes it.





The pink and brown one is actually for ....... me!. Which leads me to intesting facts no's 6 & 7,

Today is my birthday, I am 37 and the brooch is my present to myself. We even have a babysitter tonight and are going out for a meal without the children for the first time in ages.

And, yesterday evening, I became an aunty again. My youngest brother and his partner had a little baby girl, Pollyanna, weighing in at 6lbs 10ozs so congratulations to them all.

I look down, and I see...

a sucked in tummy clad in Orla Kiely!

This is my new Ebay purchase, an Orla dress and I love it!

 

I'm not as fond of all the Orla patterns as I am of the scribble design.  You may have noticed my blog background changed when I realised you can make the pattern in Photoshop.

It's a birthday present to myself, am 41 tomorrow, eeeeeek!

Toadstool round up...

I think it's time to round up the toadstool swap.  Here is just a small selection of the lovely things that were made...

(can you spot the tiny mouse?!)

I wish I could show more, but it's taken forever and a day just to build that mosaic, you can see more in the Flickr toadstool swap group pool.  If you are still to receive your swap toadstool, you are in good company, mine hasn't arrived yet either, but I did get this in the post...

(look at that amazing stitching, it's so neat)

It's from Louise at Prairie Mouse, and it's beautiful!

Thank you for all the lovely comments for the cotton reels, I won't be posting a tutorial for those just yet, I have other plans for them.  But don't worry, there will be plenty more tutorials coming up, I'm certain, one day, there is a craft book inside me just bursting to come out!

Well, I'm going to take a couple of days off, it's my birthday tomorrow and I will be...

a 38 year old, shopping, eating take away and in denial that I'm one step closer to the big 4 0!

Pins & needles,

I've been (finally, after what has been a rather longer gap than intended!) putting together a few items to put up on Etsy,

 and first off the press are some cotton reel pincushion,

 which will be making an appearance soon when I have more time (and better light) to photograph them better.

 Until then, I believe I need to pack an overnight bag.  Tonight I go to bed as a 39 year old, clinging on to her 30's.  

Tomorrow, I wake up 40.

EEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKK!