My sister is a teacher and it’s her birthday this week so perfect timing for teacher gifts, loads of kitsch items you thought you had lost to the school yard, enjoy.

Gold star necklace
Clipboards
School clock
Rocking chair
Personalised stamp
Apple cupcakes
Leather satchel
Vintage pencil pin

PS I’m aware I haven’t done any ‘proper’ blogging for a while but I’ve got two corkers coming up I promise, just got sew on buttons and block, sigh…

Simon and I had the week off together, not to go away or achieve any particular goal, just to spend some time together and with the kittehs.

However I obviously wasn’t completely idle…

Simon went on a butchery course I had bought him for Christmas and came home with a huge bag of meat so that night we had herb crusted rack of lamb – yumarama!

And I made Nigella’s cream cheese brownies for dessert, they are amazing, go make them now.

I also made some gorgeous chicken stock from the bones of the filleted chicken which will be transformed into some delicious soup very soon.

I received a very unexpected package in the post. I’m sure you’ll agree it’s always exciting to receive a parcel but even more so when you aren’t awaiting it! A mysterious box with a ‘par avion’ stamp, how fun!
Simon handed it to me and read from it (in a resigned voice) ‘yarn’. But I hadn’t ordered yarn…
This is what I discovered on opening it

My lovely blogging friend Pam had sent me this treat as a ‘thank you’ for helping her with her first pair of socks, how sweet and lovely is that? It contained this delicious shi bui yarn (not available in the UK) and a hand made card. This really made my day, if not my week!

If you haven’t read Pam’s blog now is the time, she is the goddess of Christmas craft, check her out on http://gingerbreadsnowflakes.com

We spent a lot of time playing with the kittens, some photos for you to squee over below

On Saturday I went to the De Beauvoir Association bric-a-brac sale and bought this old library book (I’m a bit obsessed with buying old library books, this one used to be part of the Islington Libraries Hospital Group), a hardback of course, isn’t it pretty?

And on Sunday went to the Rio cinema in Dalston to see:

Okay this was a while ago but I’m a busy girl you know. Lizzy and I had a lovely sunny Saturday out in Victoria. The Royal Horticultural Hall was amazing, a stunning art deco building with all the original fittings was very exciting, I felt like I was in Poirot.

We went to a talk by Debbie Bliss which was blighted by a major powerpoint fail, not a big deal as she clearly didn’t need it but the security guard would NOT let it go and kept buggering about with the screen and projector which was very distracting. To be honest we were impressed that Debbie Bliss was a real person and not jut a brand, more than anything else.

We spent a lot of money on yarn, but we could easily have spent more, it was nice because it wasn’t too busy you couldn’t chat to the exhibitors and everyone was really friendly. I bought the last of the wool I will need to get started on my sweater as well as some ‘secret-squirrel’ Christmas present making yarn.

For my money, although smaller (and yarn only based), this is a million times better than the knitting and stitching show which is just a bloody nightmare, too busy, not enough space or seats and no freebies – all for more money, lame!

I had a shitty week at work and to cheer me up Simon sent me flowers to the office, they’re in a basket and everything! I have acquired a few baskets recently but don’t worry, just refer to Ange’s Rule Number One of Housekeeping – ‘you can never have too many baskets’.

A woman on the bus as I was carrying them home told me I ‘didn’t know how lucky’ I was and ‘what a lovely man’ my boyfriend must be

My mum and I go to Wimbledon every year, we just queue up and get a day pass for the outside courts but we normally go on the first Monday, this week we stupidly went the second week (my fault) and even though we arrived at 08:45 we were told that we wouldn’t get in until 17:00 – so we though bollocks to that! We wanted to watch some tennis.

We went back into town, did some shopping and got home in time for the first match, we had a little picnic in the lounge, with plenty of pimms and later we had afternoon tea with hot cross buns, yum! We watched, Federer, Nadal, Serena Williams, and of course Andy Murray. Just as good as being there without the price tag

I also used my new tea service and this lovely tablecloth my grandmother was getting rid of, it’s Cacherel and will be used properly once we have a dining table, isn’t it lovely to have such a pretty a hand me down.

I realise I haven’t posted for AGES! I must say I find it really hard in summer  as I’m doing less craft to talk about, however, yesterday Lizzy and I (plus our boys) went to Brockley Open Studios, an annual event where resident artists in the area open their homes for you to view and buy their work. It was a really lovely day to be wandering around Brockley in the sunshine, and checking out these people’s fabulous Victorian houses and stunning gardens too.

We saw some fabulous painting, sculpture, woodwork, prints, drawings, ceramics and basket weaving.

This is a wine basket made by Naran Gopal, he didn’t want to sell me it because it was too ‘slapdash’, I insisted on buying it because I think it’s gorgeous, lots of people were asking me about it as we were going around the rest of the studios so I hope he sold lots more this weekend! He also does commmissions so I may well order some more of these for Christmas presents.

Simon bought this notebook from Barbara Wiggins, she has leather journals and diaries in Liberty, the Conran Shop etc, but all of the ones she had on display were discounted heavily so it was a bargain.

There was one painting we really liked by Ann Taylor but I don’t think we’re in the market for art at the moment, maybe next year…

As you may be aware Simon and I moved into our first house this January, so far we have done minimal DIY, putting pictures up, changing the toilet seat etc. However, our main project has been coming on it bits and bobs, our bedroom.

Now when we saw it before completion we had decided to rip out the two full walls of built in wardrobes the day we moved in but we didn’t realise what a complete shithole the bedroom was until we got there. Talk about disgusting, it was thick with dust, mould on the walls and a stained carpet, not to mention the peeling textured wallpaper, ugh! So we decided not to live in that room until it was re-done. My mum ripped out the wardrobes and carpet and Simon’s mum took off the wallpaper leaving us with a dirty shell.

Simon and I sanded, filled and washed the walls, ripped off the polystyrene ceiling tiles and had it basically ready to go. We also wanted to knock into the cupboard next to our room and have a walk in wardrobe, so we decided to get in a builder to do this for us. I got two doors off eBay for 99p each and they put the doors in for us.

The next step was a full weekend of DIY, my parents came up and we painted, put in new light fittings, laminate flooring, coving and the clothes rail. I painted the room in Dulux ‘potters clay 1′ and potters clay 2′, I love how warm they are.

I finished the painting and Simon put up the blinds this weekend and we moved in!

Before

Small and dingy

After

Spacious and cosy

Before

Gross Dust

After

Pretty and clean

Before

More built in cupboards and a tasteful colour choice

After

Simple and fresh

Before

Filthy and mouldy

After

Cleansed. Physically and metaphorically.

Quite a transformation I think you’ll agree, we still have to finish putting the coving up and fit the skirting board but other than that we are done! Only the rest of the house to go…

I realised recently that the majority of blogs I read are all US based and I struggle to find really good UK ones. My top 4 in the uk are currently:

Attic24 – beautiful rainbow coloured crochetings galore! The inspiration of and pattern for the ripple blanket and home of many a beatiful yarn item, if you can’t get excited about crochet this is the place to change your mind.

Through the Round Window written by the lovely Flora who has the most enviable life I can imagine, living in dorset making the most fantastic stained glass and sharing her process, inspiration and talent.

Then there is of course Ysolda’s wonderful knitting creations and patterns are a must for any crafter, whimsical lace work and wintery cosyness abound.

And not forgetting Yarmstorm, another brilliant photographer as well as prolific knitter, quilter and all round crafter, as well as producing books you’re bound to own one of – ‘the Gentle Art of Domesticity’ being my favourite.

And of course a special mention to my favourite crafter Lizzy, Ruffles and Ribbons is the best new blog around featuring a mastery of sewing, knitting and baking and general prettyness.

I recently (as you may remember) entered the Dorset Cereals blog awards and I have been browsing through the other nominees for some inspiration, here are some good ones I found:

Do you mind if I knit? She’s a really good knitter, she makes clothes and they are NICE and everything!

All Pretty Little Things does exactly what it say on the tin!

Cupcakes for Clara has some really cute things

Fabric Nation Amazing vintage fabric makes

Posh Yarns Some really clever knitting and sewing

However we all know the best things online are the ones that are recommended to you by other people so please please share your favourite UK crafty blogs with me. We must redress the atlantic balance and show we are just as good at homemade and blogging as the Americans! Listen to me sounding all riled up, I’m just excited to hear your faves really