Chuffed to bits!

I'm so pleased right now as have just found out that Cuteable has featured my Claudine Beach Bag! It's my first mention on another blog so I'm over the moon!!

Hurrah for late birthday presents!

Had a fab night on Wednesday with the girls - and Liv gave me the cutest leather and ribbon pendant that she'd made. Just the right length to hang over The Bean's bump:

Things to make

Images from Sew Mama Sew and Weekend Creative

I've been saving up these fab tutorials of crafty projects that have caught my magpie eye - some old, some newer, but all gorgeous!

Booklet with pocket from How About Orange

Little pink house (felt applique in hoop frame) from Checkout Girl on Sew Mama Sew

Butterfly collage from Weekend Creative

Chunky book from Memory Makers Magazine
Dear Head from Chronicle Books
Fabric bowl from Imagine Fabric

Fabric Scrap basket from The Sometimes Crafter
Fabric Calendar from I heart linen
Napkin rings from Merriment Design

Mini pin cushions from How About Orange
Heart shaped paper clips from How About Orange

Day of the dining room chairs

I'm feeling very pleased with myself as we made good progress with Operation Dining Room at the weekend. We're still a few finishing touches from completion, but we've come a long way!

Here's the before photos... (mmm, nice carpet - I love a good stain!)


We've now re-painted, carpeted and we've got some fab Eames era furniture, but the chairs needed recovering (honestly Paul, they really did!) so this was my big project of the weekend. Feeling in need of some adult supervision, I removed the cushion pads from the chair frames and took them over to Mum and Dad's where I knew I'd be safe if things started to go wrong!

The preparation took most of the time and I'm sure we removed enough staples to make chain mail for a battalion of guinea-pigs. I used the old chair covers as a pattern for making up the new ones and then attached to the pads with Dad's trusty staple gun and help from Mum with a few tricksy corners. Aren't parents great?

So here's the before photo...

And here are the after shots in all their glory...


(Let's gloss neatly over how I spent an hour painstakingly reattaching the cushion pads the wrong way round - suffice it to say that Paul wins a special bravery medal for pointing it out!)

Oh, and to top it all, after all their help, Dad also gave me this amazing harvest festival style box of home-grown fruit and veg to take back home!

Look what came in the post today!

I know I should be concentrating on getting through the to-do list in my previous post, but look what I just got my hands on…

I bought these vintage curtains from ebay and love love love this fabric. It’s going to be perfect for bags and I might sneak some aside to use as a cushion or put into a picture frame for the dining room (more on that later!) Right, I’m off now to wrap myself up in the curtains of loveliness like a big floral ghost.

My first post

Still trying to get to grips with how this all works, so thought I'd start off by putting up photos of my current projects! As usual, I have a million things going on at once – pressure is mounting as we’ve only got 7 weeks left before our baby (aka The Bean) is due. For some reason I have it in my head that everything MUST be perfect before The Bean arrives when really s/he will be completely oblivious and would be perfectly happy sleeping in a drawer (who wouldn't?).

Anyway, current projects are:

• Finishing the dining room decoration
• Converting my sewing room/our spare room into the nursery
• Making cute baby stuff for Bean
• the latest batch of bags I’m working on for the madebyloulabelle shop

Let’s start with the bags!

I’ve got a big cupboard full of fabric, trims and other bits and pieces, so thought I’d go through the whole stash and make a batch of Esther clutches:


I really love the clean, curvy shape of this clutch and think it looks really cute tucked under an arm – this time though I’m adding to the design with a detachable chain strap and then they can be worn ‘hands-free’ as well.

Looking at the pile of fabrics I ended up with, there are 2 definite themes emerging – day-time kitsch with cute cotton prints and a slightly more summery feel (it is still August after all)....

and evening opulence with upholstery weight brocades and satins and a more autumnal feel...

I can’t wait till they’re all made up and I'll have a big old stack of them to feel proud of. These ones will fasten with a simple magnetic snap, but I think I might try out a brief-case style tongue clasp on the next batch.