Beautiful, bountiful, buttony buttons

The Gloucester Square market on Thursday in Oxford is a real vintage-lover's treat. There's all sorts of bric-a-brac and bits and bobs to browse through, including a stall dedicated to old letter press equipment and another for vintage tools (!). But my personal favourite is the button stall - Ah, how I love a good button particularly a vintage one! So, here in all their round and bobbly glory are my new old-button friends from yesterday's market trip.


I've had a bag idea in mind for a while now that would be perfect for some of these....

Okay, so we have the smallest 'garden' ever, but we have the best pansies and I love gazing at them first thing in the morning.

The fruits of my morning's labour...

Freya and I trekked into town bright and early this morning to take back some clothes that didn't fit her. On the way back we 'accidentally' popped into a charity shop and - whoops - I now seem to have a Hornsea tea jar, a batch of vintage fabric and a crochet cardi....

Craft adventures #4... and some Craft Fair news

A quick update on today's Crafty Friday session: the brooch necklace is now a nearly finished work in progress - this beading palava is brilliant fun but takes a lot longer than you'd thing - probably not helped by my over-enthusiasm which meant I nearly had a necklace that would reach my knees.

Here's a taster... I really hope it turns out okay and doesn't just end up look like a few bits and bobs on a string!I also have some news - I've managed to book some spots at the weekly craft fair at Woodstock Town Hall near Oxford. I'll be there on the following dates:

Saturday 5th June
Sunday 1st August
Sunday 7th November

It's been a while since my last craft fair - just over a year in fact! A teeny tiny Freya came with me too - I remember feeling like it was massively obvious I was pregnant, but looking back at the photos, you can't see any sign of bump yet!

Anyway, I'm a bit scared about how close the first date is, so, while Freya is napping I'd best stop blogging and start sewing!!

And the winner is...

Thanks so much to all who entered my first ever giveaway - to be honest, I was pretty nervous about it, but it's been good fun - your comments all made me smile (Frangipani - I hope you have recovered after your peanut butter in the suitcase disaster) and I now have a whole load of new blogs to add to my ever expanding reading list.

So anyway, I've thought long and hard and visited every blog that was suggested, and have decided that the winner of the Hobo bag is Homo minutus. She suggested True Up which is a fab blog I'd not previously come across dedicated to fabric and it looks as though it's got a particular focus on the vintage/vintage inspired aspect - exactly the kind of blog I love.

Thanks so much to all of you for making my first giveway so much fun!

Monkey!

Look who's come to join us...

My first attempt at a monkey. It's a gift for Nephew Number 2 - a monkey for a monkey (although the original isn't quite so turquoise!) It went down pretty well I think - who knew you could knit a banana!

If you want to try making your own, the pattern is from Knitted Wild Animals by Sarah Keen.

Here's a quick roundup of my favourite knitted toys currently dwelling in folksy and etsy land:

[clockwise from top left]

Little Olive Knitted Owl from Love LOttie Knits
Squiggle - the hand knitted Monkey from Boo Biloo
Sydney Hedgehog Plush Lambswool Toy from Sara Carr
Gnomes hand knitted in Australian Merino Wool from tidabellamonkey
Tiny fox plush by adorablykawaii
Where the Wild Things Are Carol Inspired Amigurumi PATTERN aka Moishe from CraftyisCool

Craft adventures #3

Many thanks to all those who have entered the giveaway so far - there's still plenty of time (the closing date for entries is the 20th May), so if you haven't done so already, then give the giveaway a go!!!

Anyway, better late than never, I thought I'd quickly update you on my latest Crafty Friday adventure. This time we were right in my comfort zone with a fabric brooch and necklace combo. I loved this project - the brooch took no time at all but the necklace is a bit more fiddly so I'll be finishing it at next week's class.


I went for a romantic feel with a nude peach coloured chiffon and used a vintage button that I had in my stash.

It was super easy - you can probably guess what we did just from looking at the picture, but I think it was pretty effective. I thought I'd include some really basic instructions here, as it would make a really quick last-minute gift. When the necklace is finished I'll post instructions for that, as I think they are going to look really lovely together.

Step 1: Cut circles of fabric. I cut 15 10cm circles as the chiffon is so delicate, but for thicker fabrics you would need fewer layers. I used the same fabric for all the layers of my flower, but some of the other girls used a combination of fabrics - using layers of net worked really well for a fuller flower.

Step 2: Sew a running stitch in a small circle in the centre of the flower and pull to bunch the fabric a little. Then sew a running stitch in a straight line from the centre of the flower out towards the edge and back again. Pull the thread to bunch the fabric and tie a knot to hold it in place. Do this 2 more times at even intervals around the circle to give the flower it's shape. I only went a little way out towards the outer edge of the flower, but you could go almost to the edge for a more "pansy" type shape.

Step 3: Sew buttons and beads into the centre of the flower to embellish.

Step 4: Sew onto a brooch plate.

and that's it!

I should really have been finishing the cake tin instead of moving on to new projects, but I decided to complete the tin at my leisure! After a week of thinking time, it looked a little sorry for itself so I'm going to start again and paint on the brown base colour before getting stuck into the fun decoupage part.