Christmas Sale

On November 20th, me and my MIL and SIL are having a crafty Christmas sale. This is our second annual sale. We get together once a week and craft various items (and also work on them at home) to sell. This year we are also starting a blog. After the sale, any remaining items will be put on the blog for sale. We are really excited about starting this new venture. We know that not all our family/friends/potential customers will be able to attend on the 20th, so having a blog will enable us to reach more people. I'll add a link to the blog nearer the time, when we've put items on it!! lol.

This year we decided to craft some different items from last year. I believe the star of the show will be the aprons we have made (adult and childrens). We have made some adults and girls from Cath Kidston fabric but at amazing prices!!

I've been busy making crochet flower brooches. At the moment I'm busy with the actual crocheting. Finishing them off will come later. I love making them and hope that people will like them and want to buy them, :) But they aren't limited to just being brooches. They can also be pinned to bags, hats, hairbands, and whatever else you can think of. Here is a sneak peak of a few of them in their natural state (unfinished!). What do you think?? I've also done a few different styles but, if I'm honest, this style is my current favourite.

Confidence

I'm a little worried about my 6 yr old son right now. He seems to be suffering from a lack of confidence at school. He has just started Year 2 and seems to have gone backwards. He is left handed and has always struggled with his handwriting. He is great at reading and also very good at spelling. Today he had 3 sentences to write, each of which contained a spelling word. Well he got all upset and started crying saying he couldn't do it. I know that he can. After quite a bit of coaxing, I managed to get him to spell out the words for me and then write them. He COULD do it, but he didn't acknowledge that he could. I asked him if he got upset and cried at school and he said yes. He said that he can't write sentences and when they were asked to he got all upset and cried (I didn't know this before now). I know that he's a perfectionist and gets upset when he gets something wrong, but now he's getting upset BEFORE even having a go! He's got it in his head that he can't do it when he can. I just don't know what to do!! It's awful watching him get so sad and discouraged, especially when I know that he is a very bright and clever boy. {sigh} - the struggles of being a parent! Oh, and does anyone else thing 'juice' is a difficult word for a 6 yr old to know how to spell?

Old Friends

This past week I have been touched by the generosity of an old cherished friend (not that she's OLD but we've not seen each for quite some time, lol).

Imagine my delight when I returned home one day to find a package waiting for me!! All the way from Texas!! I went to school with Anne Marie when we lived in Norway (oil business fathers!). She's one of those kind, sweet girls that your parents are so pleased you are friends with :) It's funny how you can be friends with someone for a short period of time (just a year in our case) but feel a bond and connection. And even 17 years later (gosh it is that long??) I believe that we could pick up our friendship from where we left off. I sooooooo hope that in the next few years I can visit her. That would just be amazing :)

She sent me loads of Big Red Gum which I LOVE. She also sent a fantastic craft magazine that has LOADS of great projects for me to try. AND she also sent me lots and lots of little baggies filled with punchies. Me and the boys can do so much with those! AND she sent me the most delicious smelling lavender sachet she'd made (can't believe she'd not made them before!) with local lavender. I just LOVE LOVE the smell of lavender so this went directly into my bedroom. Mmmmmmm. Aren't I a lucky, lucky girl!! What a special friend Ann Marie is!!

Not ready for this at all.........

This morning when I went to the door it was so cold outside. There was frost on the car windows and I could see my breath. I'm so not ready for this weather. Bring back the sun!!

Inspirations

Last November/December time, me, my sister in law Cait and my mother in law Joyce had a craft sale at Joyce's house. We had met together for weeks before making lots of goodies to sell. It feels so good to be creative and then so satisfying when people actually want to buy what you've made! I'm sure I posted about it on here.

Well it's that time of year again that we are gathering together to create for our sale. We have been gathering ideas and excitedly telling each other what we've found!! Well tomorrow is our first official meeting. We will all take whatever materials and stash we have accumulated over the past year and decide on a final list of what to make. We will then get busy making, both individually and collectively. It's always hard to find a suitable amount of time to meet since Cait works at the beginning and end of the school day and I work during the lunchhour! But we do our best, lol.

It's so exciting to get together with others who share a mutual love of crafting. Most of my other friends just don't understand how giddy I get when I see beautiful handmade things that either others have made or I have made. I'm forever reading through blogs of creative people. In fact my bloglines list is crammed full of crafty blogs. I just feel so uplifted and inspired by them. And everytime I see a wonderful project, I put it on my mental list of 'things to make'. Of course I never remember them all! I should really make a written list! I used to do lots of papercrafts (cardmaking, scrapbooking) but lately I've been drawn to crocheting and sewing. Not that I'm great at it - but I'd like to be. And they do say that practice makes perfect!

I've also had the idea of starting a new blog for our craft items. A site where I can put items for sale perhaps. I was thinking that after our sale, whatever is left I will put on the blog for others to buy. I'll put details of that blog onto this once we have created it.

Now look at this amazing scarf!! Isn't it to die for?? FABULOUS!! This will be on my list for after Christmas, when I have time to make things for myself.

http://doyoumindifiknit.typepad.com/do_you_mind_if_i_knit/2009/09/littl.html

Eddie Izzard - Sport Relief

I dropped my boys off at my mum's as they are having a sleepover there. I'm working tomorrow but the boys don't go back to school until Wednesday so my mum said she would watch them for me. As my dad is in Houston on business, my mum asked the boys over for a sleepover so that I don't have to get them to her first thing in the morning.

Well anyway, on the way back home I happened upon this:

Now you may have to click on the pic to enlarge (if that works!) or have a good squint. Do you see who that is?? YES its Eddie Izzard!! THE Eddie Izzard, comedian and actor. In case you weren't aware, he is running an unbelievable amount of miles for Sport Relief. How amazing is he?? Read more about it here

And so it continues.....

Well I'm still working on the bedroom makeover, but we got a little sidetracked because before we started our room we started the kids' room and then today we ended up working on the living room as well, lol. So 3 rooms on the go at once. I really should start and actually FINISH one room before doing the next. But that's just not me.

We moved the furniture around in the living room a couple of months ago. Well today we decided on the spur of the moment to change it around again. We moved this piece of furniture from near the window to another area of the room. We then cleaned the windows and radiator a baseboards and did a spring clean! We then put a 2 seater sofa there. Then, also on the spur of the moment, went and bought a new TV!!! and took our old one to my BIL and SIL who live a few doors away (their TV had just broken this week). My husband is happy playing with his new 'toy'. He's excited to see how awesome the picture looks with his game consoles (yes, plural - we are talking Wii, Xbox360, PS3). And also how it looks with his Blu-Ray DVDs.

I went to a car boot sales again today (so rare to find ones not on Sundays!) which was only a few minutes away. It was so much smaller than the one I went to on Monday, but I bought a lot more. Pictures will have to follow as I haven't taken them yet!

So pictures of bargains to follow soon, and then pictures of room makeovers when they are finally complete :)