Lace hearts

Letterbox Dolls House - a mini look!

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:01:00 +0000

I couldn't resist showing you this. Regular readers of my blog know I love Letterbox, a UK company, packed with fabulous toys for kids of all ages. I loved trying out their Ezyroller in my post here (before I go any further, I have to add that this time this is not a sponsored post... I spotted this and thought it was such a brilliant bargain, I had to share.)

When my kids were much younger, I spent many hours searching for the perfect dolls house. I then realized how expensive good wooden dolls houses were, and it took me a long time to find one I was happy with. This beauty is in the Letterbox sale, reduced from £130 to £65 - I thought this was such a brilliant bargain, I wanted to draw attention to it, in case anyone's looking for a dolls house and is despairing of finding one at a reasonable price. It's shown in the picture with an extra floor, but it's still a bargain. At least, I'd say so!

And I promise you, Letterbox did not contact me and ask me to write any of the above, but I'd have loved to have spotted something like this a few years ago!

Just to balance it up, I also love this... I'd better finish now - I could browse the Letterbox catalogue for a while quite happily. This is also a bargain, and has had loads of lovely things said about it. But I had to include it, as my three all enjoyed playing with their wooden set when they were younger. I love wooden toys!

A Monthly Make Pledge!

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:25:00 +0000

As usual, I'm pretty much the last in the door for another event. This one is the lovely Monthly Make, organised by The Felt Fairy. You can read all about it here. I'm number 146 to sign up. Last ... hopefully not last for the whole year. Come on, someone else sign up and put me out of my misery.

As it's so late in the month, this is what I've added as my January make, which I showed you in my last post.

I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone makes, but also to it meaning I definitely blog regularly about my makes. So I'm pleased I found it, even though I was late. :)

Valentine's Day Love

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:12:00 +0000

I've been cutting templates to back some of my letters this morning. Guess which this was for! :) After I've finished the letters, I have to trace and cut the backing. Once the backing is sewn onto the ribbon that hangs the letters, I then fix the letters and choose buttons to embellish at either end. I love these buttons in particular, which I found at Liberty in London.

And sewn in place:

It really is a long process, but I think the result is well worth the wait.

I've also been going back to a hobby I did a long time ago, which was stamping. I tried stamping on linen, which isn't the easiest as it's got such a texture. But I'm very happy with the mobile phone cover I made. It's just a little bit different.

Folksy - for beautiful handmade gifts

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:28:00 +0000

First of all, a huge thank you for the lovely and supportive comments on my last post. They were all really appreciated. x

I wanted to do a quick post to look at some of the lovely shops on Folksy. Folksy is the British equivalent of the more widely known Etsy, if you like. It's a showcase and sales front for British craft makers - it's where I've set up my Sew Happy shop, and it's a treasure trove of fabulous and talented makers. I recently chose a gorgeous necklace for myself from this shop, Natalina's Jewellery.

It came beautifully wrapped, and using ribbon from another fantastic Folksy shop: Printed on Ribbon.

I just fell in love with the design, the dragonfly, the green glass, the silver...

It even came with a little silver cleaning cloth! Natalie has plenty of silver gorgeousness in her shop, while John's shop is a brilliant find for anyone selling and wanting a promotional ribbon. Both are worth checking out... as are so many other shops on Folksy.

If you're wanting to check it out, a good place to start is with a blog called Uniquely Yours. The lovely lady who runs it tirelessly promotes all sorts of shops on Folksy and has for a long while. I've been lucky enough to be featured on a few posts, including this post, a recent listing of items with a blue shade. Uniquely Yours has a shop on Folksy, here, and it's full of lovely warm winter scarfts and hats and gloves and mittens - I chose this one to include here:

So if you're looking for gifts, do try Folksy. It's a lovely showcase of talent.

Juggling all those different tasks!

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:43:00 +0000

I had a bit of a wobble this morning. I'm usually a cup half full sort of person, and I'd definitely say I think on the positive side. But I wobbled this morning because I'm continually amazed by how other women cope so well with running a perfect home (there are numerous blogs out there with such perfect pictures of perfect sofas and perfect table settings and perfect children's bedrooms...). My home never looks like this, which is why I rarely show glimpses of my home. My children's bedrooms are a continual mess, though in the scheme of things, I don't think they are that bad. Let's say, they are lived in. But on top of the perfect appearance, these same bloggers manage to keep their blogs updated regularly (I'm a huge fail on that!), update on Twitter every 2 seconds (fail!), run successful online businesses (Sew Happy is going pretty well, but not nearly as well as some online business), update their facebook business pages four or five times a day (fail), and regularly post on forums - I've been making inroads into Etsy, but ... just how people have the time... I don't get it. This isn't meant to be a rant against other bloggers at all - I just wish I could keep up, and, yes, I'm very very very jelly-ous!

Anyway, in an attempt to try a bit better, I've divided my time today into 1 hour slots, and am seeing what I get achieved. So far, it's worked pretty well. I started with a cup of tea, in my fave new mug, a Christmas pressie, and spent an hour tidying, hoovering, and putting a load of washing in. No pictures, as house still a mess, but bits of it (I emphasize bits) are clean.

Then I spent the next couple of hours sewing. I haven't finished - I'll reveal it soon, but I achieved what I wanted to achieve, and I'm pleased. I'd spent a couple of hours sewing yesterday and made this yesterday:

(The 'O' is finished now... but I had to hurry to take a picture before the light went.)

Now I've allowed myself an hour online. No time to update my Sew Happy Folksy shop (which I'm pretty proud of, having made my 50th sale this week, which was lovely) or even try to get to grips with Etsy and how it works on there (Sew Happy Etsy)... but I decided to update my neglected blog ... hence the post!

I'm thrilled this month to have featured in the January issue of Popular Crafts. Two of my Sew Happy items feature on one page, and I've reviewed the FabricMaster for them... sneak picture here of what I got up to:

Right, my hour's nearly up. On to the next task. There's not enough hours in the day. If you've read this far, thank you! And if you've the time to leave a comment, I'd love to know I'm not alone.

Rabbits as inspiration!

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:19:00 +0000

Our rabbits came into our lives earlier this year - we found them at a rescue centre. And they are incredibly cute.

This was their first venturing out, after being brought home. They both took their time.

They've grown, but are still incredibly hairy - I love long haired animals. They were my inspiration when I was asked to make a pair of rabbits, which resulted in these:

I miss having a dog, but I have to say, rabbits are sweet pets.

It's a week before Christmas! :)

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 20:00:00 +0000

I've been busy finishing off lots of projects. I've finally finished a little lavender purse I've made for a friend's daughter for Christmas - I'm hoping she'll like it. It's an oilcloth fabric from Cath Kidston, which was interesting to work with, but I love the result.

I've also just finished a few letter bunting orders, and here's a peek at one:

I really enjoy doing these, but they do take a long time, as I cut templates for each letter. But I love the results so will keep doing them. I did a commission for a little boy recently and was asked to add a train at either end, which was fun:

I've been experimenting with my new toy, a light box: sometimes to better results than others... I think it's too small, so I'm constantly aware of lines in the background. I'll have to experiment more... photography isn't really a strong point of mine, and I'm constantly in awe of the photography I see on other blogs.

What else... I've finished quite a few more patchwork iPad cases, something else I really enjoy doing, as every one is a different combination of fabrics.

And one of my favourite fabrics went into this mobile phone cover:

I'm now running low on this fabric, but I think when it's gone it's gone. I'll choose something else - there's so much out there.

I hope everyone's enjoying the run up to Christmas. We went for a lovely walk today, only to get caught in an icy shower. It was nice to come home and put our fire on...

...the result of a good five years of saving and worth every penny!

New wallpaper love - lush papers for children

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 10:10:00 +0000

Those of you who have followed my blog for some time will know how much I love wallpaper. I fell in love with the antique rose for our understairs toilet, here.

and finally chose a timeless Laura Ashley for our hall and landing, a hunt that started here.

And loved spending time on my daughter's patchwork wall, here.

Now, look at this:

I've now discovered another wallpaper company, just launching online here and at Liberty, which specializes in papers for children. And they have a wonderful selection. I think these are my favourites, called Enchanted Wood:

The muted colours and the details are really pretty.

This isn't a sponsored post - I simply saw the wallpaper collection and loved it and wanted to share. I've had a few small samples to see what they are like, and they really are gorgeous. The company, Hibou Home, have developed a collection for children's rooms that is truly imaginative.

Here's one for the boys, another fab name... Cactus Cowboy:

And there's also Pirate Seas:

What I particularly like is that these wallpapers are all designed and made in England. There's even a horsey print:

Here's a link to the company's website, where you can see the papers in place:
http://www.hibouhome.com/

One final picture from the website to tempt you:

Yummy! Truly yummy!

Canvas Dezigns - my kids on canvas!

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 10:09:00 +0000

Like all mums, I love taking photographs of my children, and I have a record going right back. Recently, the guys at Canvas Dezigns asked if I had a photograph I'd like made into a canvas. I've had one I've been considering for some time in fact, but just wasn't sure if it would work on canvas. It was a shot taken when we were all slightly damp, looking out over my three children from a cave on our favourite beach in Dorset. I loved the shot, but wasn't sure it would blow up - so this seemed a good test of their skills.

I'm thrilled at the result - it's far better than I expected, given my photography. It was a brilliant day, spent amongst rockpools, colourful sands, and in and out of the water. The canvas has the photo wrapped around at its edges, so there's no blunt finish line. It works really well. What I particularly like about their site is the fact you can have a good play. You upload an image - you don't have to enter any personal information to do so - and can play around with the size and shape of canvas, whether you want it full colour, sepia, or black and white, whether you want to zoom in on a particular aspect of the photograph - have a go. it's great fun, and really helps you to visualize how your photograph will look.

If there's a photograph you've been considering, CanvasDezigns are currently doing a special winter savers deal, with 10% off all orders. I think their prices for large canvases are pretty competitive anyway - the last canvas we bought, cost a lot more. It would certainly make a very special and thoughtful Christmas present - I don't know anyone who wouldn't like this as a gift and I'd have no hesitation in recommending them.

Thank you from a very happy mum!

Silk painting for beginners

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 08:49:00 +0000

I had such a fabulous day yesterday. A friend treated me to a day's textile course (a birthday pressie, and a very nice one too). I love doing these things because you get to try new things in the company of hugely inspirational people. The teacher was amazing. My daughter was on an Inset day, so came along too and we had a ball. We spent the morning trying silk painting. We sectioned a piece of silk into four, then used different techniques to fill the four spaces. My daughter chose a horse to begin, and I chose a sun theme.

We outlined and filled for the 'picture' scene. On the left of this, the lavender effect was done using rock salt. The green was table salt, while the yellow/orange was a mix of colours and salts. We then tried painting another silk panel with a variety of colours, and sprinkling it with just a little rock salt.

This was mine...

I wasn't very happy with it in the making - it's impossible to plan what's happening. But once it dried, I was really pleased. My daughter's:

It was nice enough to sit outside for a picnic lunch. Then, in the afternoon we tried weaving and produced two hangings:

and

Meanwhile, I've been very busy making more of my lavender dogs. I love these little cuddlies, and they are fun to make. A very quick preview...

So a very crafty week!

Angel and Angel Fire L.A.Weatherly : Book review

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 08:18:00 +0000

I make no excuse for an over-the-top, effusive, in-awe-of-this-writer post. If writers rock, L A Weatherly rocks, she really does. We read a lot in this house, and the shelves are piled high. Too high, I sometimes think, and we have to have have regular culls. Take a peek:

Posted in the expectation I will embarrass myself into a quick tidy!

Looking at that, I really must have another sort and cull soon! We are one of the families who also make regular use of our local library, and my heart sinks each time I hear of another library closure. The latest books we've been absorbing are the two books in the Angel series, by L A Weatherly. I can't tell you the excitement at the beginning of October when the second book came out:

If you have teenagers - and I would say they would appeal to boys and girls (unusually), these would be a fabulous choice. I can't really rave too highly. We enjoyed Twilight in this house, but these are far more polished, I have to say (though we love Twilight, don't get me wrong). But if you've read Stephanie Meyer's The Host (another fabulous book), I'd say these have the depth and richness of that.

Often, the second book in a series is a disappointment, as by then you have your own impression and mindset about the characters and the settings. Well, this one doesn't disappoint at all. Angel Fire is 708 pages, and every page earns its place. My daughter read it, and I finished it last night, and it's now on its way to a friend of my daughters who got hooked reading the first over her shoulder. She's been nagging every day this week for me to finish it, so someone will be very happy this morning! Whether she'll get any school work done is doubtful!

I don't want to give the plot away but the Angel series deals with the premise that the world as we know it is in danger from a race of Angels. I'm not going to say more. But I have no hesitation in raving about these books. The third is apparently not out for another year. Ohhhhh noooooooooooooo! What do I do in the meantime. Thank you L A Weatherly for a fantastic read!

A narrow boat birthday cake

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 09:04:00 +0000

A quck post as I remembered I hadn't posted a picture of my recent birthday make. October and November and December are fully of family birthdays for us. My latest cake was a narrowboat, inspired by some very happy holidays. This was fun to do... though hubby's first words on seeing it was "It's obviously had an accident going through the tunnel" !!!

Patch the rabbit

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 07:28:00 +0000

We have two gorgeous rabbits, and I've been wanting to make a pattern for a rabbit for a long time. It's taken a long time of sketching out ideas, and trying different ways. I wanted this one to be 3D, but also wanted to capture a rabbit's movement. Rabbits have this curious half hop motion. I've finally settled on this design. I'd love to have feedback - do you think he's sale-able for my Sew Happy shop?

Like my lavender dogs, I'm intending all my rabbits to have script ears. Or maybe one should have vegetable ears, like my sausage dog?

http://www.folksy.com/items/2514641-Doorstop-Sausage-dog?shop=yes

Sausage dog has now found a happy home... will have to decide on fabric for another...

Christmas robins

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 17:25:00 +0000

I've been beginning to focus on Christmas, and have made a flock of robins for my Sew Happy Folksy shop, as well as for my local shop. I'm really pleased with them - I wanted to make a Sew Happy robin that was a little bit different to other felt robins I'd seen and so spent a long time sketching ideas. This one worked the best I thought.

I particularly wanted to make them so they worked both ways - so I've made them identical both sides. They have cute wings and string legs, as well as sequin eyes. And they would look wonderful flocked on a mantelpiece as a special touch.

And I couldn't not add some Christmas trees!

I love the build up to Christmas.

Happy Halloween!

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:22:00 +0000

The big one carved at midnight last night, and the little one by middle child a little earlier. I love the glow they give. Happy Halloween! And a huge welcome to all my new followers, and especially those of you who have left such lovely comments. I'll be popping by your blogs a little later to say hi. x

A busy couple of days of sewing... Bliss!

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 15:21:00 +0000

I've been managing to get a lot of crafting and sewing done this week - I have bursts of activity I find. This week I've been working more on my script dogs - this one with a romantic theme, and this one with a baking theme:

I love script fabrics, as you probably have guessed by now! :)
I've also been making more notebooks - I still love using Cath Kidston:

and another in another script fabric, this time travel related:

It's been a lot of fun.

Some of these have made it into my Sew Happy Folksy shop, Visit Sew Happy

Ezy roller and Letterbox - a favourite old friend!

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 08:11:00 +0000

How cool is this little oh so up-to-date version of the go kart I used to use as a kid?! Best of all, it's self-propelled - no need for pulling/pushing/tugging, just lots of fun on wheels and it's been well used over the past couple of weeks in the Lacey household.

At this time of year chez Lace, we begin thinking on what to buy the kids as a joint present for Christmas. We tend to do this, and then give them smaller individual pressies, as I love the shared play it always generates. We've always done it, so they are well used to it. I aim for it not to be electrical, though I have to admit that a couple of years back we joined the pressure and caved in to give them a Wii. Last Christmas, in contrast, it was a crafty badge maker. Both have had lots of use, and created lots of fun in different ways.

A few weeks back my youngest came home really excited, because his friend had been given one of these:

An Ezy roller. I thought it looked fun, and also saw the 4-14 tag when I looked it up - aha... a possible one for Christmas. It's won several toy awards and parenting awards so has been well tested where it's appeared (New Zealand, Canada, the USA), but I think it's only more recently come to the UK. The following week the Letterbox catalogue popped onto the mat

I've been on the Letterbox mailing list since my kids were born, so that's an awfully long long long time - over the years, they've been brilliant for party gifts, and easy given it's all mail order. This time, my son, like a sniffer dog, found the Ezy roller in there - it was the first thing he found given he spotted it on the front cover.

Best of all, it was a Union Jack one with a cool red frame. And so... it was absolutely lovely when with great timeliness, the folks at Letterbox asked if I'd like to test something for them and offered the chance of an Ezy roller.

I used to trial toys when the children were younger for a high street store, and it was always great fun. I love Letterbox - when the kids were smaller, they were useful because they've always had a fabulous pocket money favourites section. I hadn't thought to look at them more recently because I thought mine were getting a bit old. How wrong I was. The catalogue is stuffed with goodies for all ages. So I jumped at the chance they offered and soon afterwards a lovely big box arrived...

And the kids got stuck in when they got home from school...

Unpacking and pre-testing (notice my 10 yr old's feet on the footrests already! He was thrilled...

And what a result. The Ezy roller is brilliant, I have to say. The kids have all used it.

I was doubtful that it would suit all three - they range from 10-14, but true to the hype, it really does. I've also had a go (!). It has an adaptor (a long pole that can be added or removed from the basic frame and is very simple to do), so it can be altered, but to be honest, the medium size suits us all, so we don't need to keep changing it. I've since spoken to a friend who has one and her 3 year old is adept at it. Sounds more adept than me (and no, I won't be posting a pic of me on it, though I've spent quite a time having fun). Oh, okay, here's one of my legs...

It is easy to use - it has a brake, and it works simply by moving your legs slightly back and forwards to create a forward roll. The kids can work it easily up a slight hill. I can't do that bit, but am working on it! I think I'm very unfit. I love it most of all because it encourages my lot to play outside, and they are always happier after doing that, and always find ways to play together.

So, thank you Letterbox - it's a winner. We love it, and I think lots of people would agree it's a fab gift for kids (especially for those like us who like to find toys to share for their little-lies).

The birth of a birthday cake! Yay!

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 15:24:00 +0000

It's that time of year again. As people who follow me know, I love making cakes for my three and always have done. When they were younger, it was easy and I had a free rein. Now they have Opinions and are very clear about what They Want and more especially what they Do Not Want. This year...

"Okay, what do you want?"
"Um, dunno."
"Something more grown up?"
"Um."
A few more days of this (teenage speak can be very tedious and is never enlightening at the best of times) and we managed to find a picture online that she fell in love with (it had four tiers, mind you. "S-ok, I don'twantfouryoucandometwo") ;-)

However, it had painted sides and I'm no artist. I think I got a U in GCSE Art! Anyway, I got going yesterday and the cake developed today, with the lappy close beside me with the picture of the finished cake I trying to use for inspiration.

I started with

Then popped them together and covered them in a sky blue icing...

The next step was to ice the board with a grassy green and create a river bordered with icing pebbles (hard to stop little hands from eating these and reminded me of the tiles on my troll cake shown in my side bar and at the bottom of the post here, though didn't take as long!).

Painting the mountains wasn't as hard as I'd thought, but it's not brilliant. But she's happy.

The figure on top represents the birthday girl.
"But mum, you've given me a pot belly"
"It's icing, there's not much I can do"
"But..."
"I've squashed it in, see"
She loves reading so the book was very appropriate. The bees have appeared on every cake since they were first made several years back. The beauty of modelling paste is it never seems to get damaged.

The trees were an easy bit.

All ready for the party tomorrow, when it will be heartily demolished. Yum! Actually, I need to add some butterflies first. And some candles. Happy birthday sweetheart! x

Yep, we did it! We went to the coast!

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 07:02:00 +0000

We joined the hordes at the weekend who headed for the coast. Yes, the traffic was bad, but not disasterous, and certainly not enough to spoil the day. We were all glad we went. The beach was the busiest I've ever seen it, but it's so long, there was ample space for everyone. We all went in - the sea was lovely...and it's a long long time since I've been in English sea so it must have been.

We dug the inevitable holes...my youngest wanted to crawl through a tunnel, which was a big no from me!

We had a picnic with us, and had plenty of food which was a relief, as the cafe had 45 minute queues (at least according to our poor beach neighbour) and ran out of hot food. Late in the day some balloons begun to take off, which was fun:

I love watching hot air balloons but I don't think you'd ever get me up in one!

And there was also an air display by a passing private pilot who treated us to some loops. To top it all, on the way home we were treated to a huge firework display.

We all agreed it was a pretty special day.

A bit about being a mum and a bit about my latest makes

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:44:00 +0000

Being a mum means having to juggle so many balls in the air at once. It's fun, but boy is it exhausting. It also often means you come second... or rather fifth or sixth depending on the size of your family. Take this week. I'd spotted a dress I really wanted. Went through the should I, shouldn't I, shall I, shan't I... sort of convinced myself I should given I rarely buy clothes new for myself any longer. Then eldest comes home full of excitement about a French exchange - the first trip she's been offered in 3 years at her secondary school, so I don't feel it's right to not let her go. £100 deposit. Middle one needs money for her clarinet - which she absolutely loves, but again, which costs. And termly fees are due. Open the cheque book again. Youngest is looking forward to France as well - another school trip and part payments begin now! So bye bye to my new dress. Ah well. That's one of the things about being a parent, but waving a psychological farewell to the dress was a little bit hard.

Hubby wanted a case for his mobile having seen my pretty ones... but didn't want a pretty one for some reason and didn't want any fiddly buttons. ;-) I worked on a few, and he's settled on this one:

It's another lovely script fabric, but with a maths theme... he liked the back -

Job done. I also sewed up these, which I'm really pleased with:

And a sweet ps. We do sit around a table to eat most evenings - when I had a family I really didn't want to sit in front of the tv and eat. It's our chat time, it's noisy, and it's fun. Breakfast I feel guilty about. They always have breakfast, but everyone tends to fend for themselves. I came down this morning late yet again - so difficult to find summer clothes when they'd all been put away - to find my middle one had cooked up this...

Brilliant! I must be doing something right!

Have a fab weekend all. And thanks so much for your comments on my sofa dilemma. We're keeping the white!

A dilemma over the sofa...

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:41:00 +0000

These arrived this morning - it took me a long time to find somewhere that did the size and colours I wanted. Far more complicated than I thought, felt balls. I have all sorts of ideas for these, so watch this space. I won't be making a rug. Mr Lace saw them and mentioned he'd seen a felt ball rug the other day for £349! To be honest, I know that there's a lot of work in making one ball. One day I'll give it a go, but until then I'm happy to buy in my balls. :-)

Now, there's a dilemna in the Lace household. We have to get rid of one of two sofas. I was happily getting my white Ektorp ready to sell but when I stood back, I really really liked the effect, and the sun shining on it, and the fact you can colour up white with anything. I know it's not practical with a family, but honestly, life has changed since a friend sent me out to find oxyclean!

However, Mr Lace favours our brown highly practical leather sofa, of which I'll show you a glimpse because I feel it's not worthy of more than that on my precious blog (said with tongue in cheek!):

More the matching leather cushion than the sofa, but it just doesn't suit me so well. I know it's practical. I know it's incredibly comfortable. I know it's sensible with kids. But it's Brown! What to do?! Well, I have the ebay account... ;-) What would you do? Browsing ebay, I've been amused to see how many sofas are listing with a 'the wife's changed the decor' tag in the description.

As for sewing. I'm loving it more and more. I've been busy again. I'm making iPad covers at the moment. This is one of the latest, which I've listed in my Folksy shop, link here: SewHappyFolksy. Sorting out the photos took AN AGE! I wish I'd found a quicker way.
Thanks so much for stopping by.

Is it just me?

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 16:31:00 +0000

My daughter's class at school are steadily getting their nails done. I don't mean having fun at home. I mean going to a salon and paying around £30 a pop to get acrylics. Apparently around a third have done it. Now, I've had acrylics done once, and they looked lovely, but if you want to keep them looking lovely you have to go back regularly and pay to maintain them. I couldn't afford it, and I hated what it did to my own nails. I'd rather maintain my own nails for free. I have no problem with friends who have it done - as I say, I think it looks lovely for special occasions. But 12 and 13 year olds? Why do they need it, and how the heck are their parents funding it? I certainly can't.

I was pretty speechless when she asked if she could join in. You can guess my answer! Funnily enough, after an initial rant, I really don't think she is that bothered. But it did get me thinking about how much things have changed since I was growing up - we wouldn't have been allowed a scrap of varnish on our fingernails at school.

Have you found similar with the endless requests from teenagers... Or am I out on a lonely limb here?

Books for a reluctant teen

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 07:31:00 +0000

I cannot believe I haven't posted since July.... I tend to take the summer hols off the computer as much as possible, as spending time with the kids comes first. We've had a lovely summer. One of the good things was the discovery of this book...

One of my children hates reading, and it's been a real struggle to find a book that would entertain her and prove that reading can be fun. We found this while browsing yet another bookshop for something to appeal to her, and I was reluctant but desperate. It wasn't a publisher I particularly knew, and as far as I could see it's a new author (not in itself enough to put me off as I love finding new authors but meant no track record I could refer to). Anyhow, I am so glad I bought it. It's the very first time she's been so absorbed in a book that we got a 'hang on, I've got to finish this bit' response whenever we were needing to do something. So, thank you, Paige Harbison!

She's now trying this one, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed. My other two whizzed through the whole series of these. But who knows with a reluctant reader?!

I've been busy making wristlets for Folksy... here's one of my favourites, made with fabric from one of my favourite fabric designers, Suzuko Koseki.

And we've been squirrel watching. I know they are seen as rodents and pests in this country, but they are very very cute. Unfortunately this little chap had a bad leg, so I doubt he will last long, but he was munching on our grapes for a long time, so he had a good appetite.

I was also rather excited yesterday to finally get around to signing onto Tots100 and find I listed at 72... a huge rise, when I haven't been around. So a huge thanks to all of you who drop by regularly, from a very intermittent blogger.

Loving all things horse!

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:43:00 +0000

I've always loved horses. I used to fill in WH Smith's Win a Pony competition every year, and pray fervently that I would win. Anyone remember that competition? I'm sure I wasn't alone, though few of my friends at school shared my absolute obsession with horses. I never did win it. My family didn't have money to spare, but they supported me as much as they could - I rode every 8 weeks or so (and it was much cheaper then!) and on our annual summer holiday they would treat me to one or two hacks from whatever the local stables were. I never did enough to satisfy my craving, but it was something.

I love everything about them. I love that they are all different - different personalities, different coats, different sizes - but also that they are always so keen to please. I love the complexity - the fact they can sense your mood sometimes before you can. Humans have heaped so much on them, and still they work for us, and often work so hard for little if no gain. So it's been a real treat to have a couple of days away with my youngest immersing ourselves in all things horse... and discovering lots of other animals along the way. Funniest of all were a pair of alpacas we christened Sally and Sue - not their names... they turned out to be male in fact - but we thought the names rather suited them. Here's Sue:

We said hello to all sorts of horses, from the smallest:

to the biggest:

He is beautiful (all the horses we had the pleasure of meeting were - these are seriously well looked after horses, and pretty special ones as well, and it shows in their whole demeanor). But he really is a stunner. He has a lovely nature and he loves people. I've never heard a horse winny so desperately when we left each time we visited him. Unfortunately he bullies other horses, so there's nobody he can share his field with. Horses hate to be kept alone - it's unfair as it makes them very insecure. So he shares with...

...a whole load of cows (and there seemed to be some bullocks in there as well). It was very funny to see him cuddled up with them whenever we visited. Not the ideal, but if he bullies other horses, there's not an easy answer and he seems to rather like the company.

You may be able to spot him in the centre of the herd above. Apparently he's brilliant when used by the local hunt.

We read extracts from this book, much of which explains the horse-human thing better than anything I've ever read and my littleun loved the extracts:

And we stumbled on the inevitable barn kittens, all well cared for:

So, it was a lovely and memorable trip away.

Now he (youngest) wants to learn to ride. Serious gulp at the expense. He had one lesson while we were away and it was fabulous. He's tricky to please in terms of activities, but horse riding seems to really encourage his confidence in so many ways. We met some wonderful people, and had a ball.

He was a star, and it's been fab to share some precious time.

Cath Kidston and summer with the kids sorted. Thank you!

noreply@blogger.com (Lace hearts) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 09:05:00 +0000

When I was young, we had a wigwam (I think they are now called teepees!). As a child, my parents had little money and a lot of my entertainment centred around our small garden. Hence, we got so much use out of that wigwam. I absolutely loved it, and spent hours with friends. It was basic, with eight bamboo rods and a fabric covering, but it did the job. We also made dens, plenty of them, and my kids have always picked up on this, making dens everywhere out of sheets and chairs and tables, and whatever else they can find. Den building is fun. Tents are fun. But if you're a kid, teepees and wigwams can be the beez-neez!

So I was so excited to see Cath Kidston had brought out a teepee. It wasn't too girly or too boy-sey - very important when you have a combination of both! It's a basic teepee shape and it even has a flag, for goodness sake! I jumped at it.

If I'm going to be quibbling about anything, it's only because the fabric print runs the wrong way on the sides. But I love the fact it has a back and a front entrance. I know this is going to see us through many summer days. The kids were so excited, and I have nothing but praise for it. They easily put it up themselves, and have spent a night in it already. They added blankets for the floor.

And one or two (!) cuddly toys.

Being a camper, I highly doubt I would ever take it away to camp in - it is not double skinned at this price, and I can't imagine it would therefore withstand rain or condensation (though the rain thing hasn't been tested out in our garden yet), but for an overnighter in the garden on a warm night, it's perfect.

I love everything about it. It's plenty roomy, easy to put up, is fun in terms of shape, and to top all that is in one of their best kids prints. What's not to like!

Related to this and regarding the cost - I think it's a bargain for what you get. I read recently that parents spend on average £2,000-£3,000 per child on summer holidays. I've no idea why it would be that much - no parent I know spends that on their children, and most find good entertainment at home, squeezing activities in around work. But there's no doubt that taking children out now can be expensive - take the theme parks, which can be around £100 for a family. A theme park is fab, but is over in a day. I think we're sorted for plenty of days for a portion of that cost.

And, no, I haven't been sponsored by Cath Kidston. I'm just one very happy customer! :-)

Edit to add: I just want to say, I love all the comments I receive and always look at the blogs from the commentators. However, I've been having problems leaving comments on blogs - it just won't go through. So if you leave a comment, I'll comment below, but do know I appreciate each and every one. x