Thrifty Dress

This is my second post today, please scroll down for the other one :o)

Am so excited about my little summer dress that I found in my local BHF charity store that I had to share with my readers.
It is such a lovely red/pink colour and looks great with my cutoff jeans, £3.30 worth every penny!

Do you know I've just realised I haven't made anything crafty recently, tut tut I hear you say! Well I shall rectify that this weekend as I have 5 card orders to fullfill so will be sure to take some piccies for you all.

xx

Creativity Magazine - free stamp set!

Was up with the lark this morning, I could see the bright blue sky through my bedroom blinds and it was just stunning. I love mornings like this don't you. They make everything seem okay in the world.

By 9am the washing was hanging on the line with a gentle breeze blowing it, the cats were fed and I had had my brekkie. So I flung on my jeans and flipflops and went down to my little market town for wander. Everyone was out in their summer gear, smiling away, not a grumpy person in sight. See Britains aren't 'grumpy' at all they just don't like grey weather and I'm with them on that one!

I have a small dept store that is a Docrafts stockist so popped in there to see if anything new in. On the rack was the latest edition of Creativity magazine and free with it was this lovely set of clear stamps with a cupcake in it, so in the basket it went.




Next to the mags was a wooden stamp sale bin, at first glance they weren't really appealing to me, a bit medalion style and too ornate but then I spotted this heart one with dots on reduced from £4.49 to £2.00, that went in the basket as well.


Lastly in the glue section I saw some new boxes of 3D glue dots. I love these and find them really useful and these ones were £1.99 for 250 of them which I thought was very good value.


I paid the lady at the checkout and walked out of there with a big smile on my face, the one I always get when I've just got some crafty bargains!

Off to do some work in the garden now, although that may just turn into sit at the table and read my magazine instead!! xx

Twitter, Twitter - taken the plunge!

Well I've gone and done it! Yep I'm a Twitterer! Gosh sounds like I've got a disorder doesn't it ;o)

It seems wherever I go these days it's all about the Twitter. I was even watching the 'Live Surgery' programmes currently running on Channel 4 this week and they put Twitter as the easiest and most favoured way to contact them during the live shows. When did emailing or texting programmes go out of fashion! I just can't keep up these days.

Have put my Twitter on my sidebar, you can follow me by using the link on it if you want to. Can't promise anything of great literacy/wit but I will give it my best shot!

Used to be a Facebook user but that got far to complicated and personal for my liking. Twitter seems a refreshing change from all those busy looking social networking sites.

Off to look for some likeminded 'tweeters' xx

Shabby Chic Bedspread from Matalan!!

Have been a bit lazy lately, no crafting since I got back from holiday, just can't get into the swing of it and the weather has been sooo lovely I haven't wanted to sit in my craftroom and miss it in case this is our summer!

So I thought I would show you something I bought a few weeks ago. There is a retail park not far from me which I visit sometimes in the evenings when it's nice and quiet. My main reason for popping there is TKMaxx, one of my fave places to rummage. You never know what you are going to find as they are constantly changing their stock. Obviously the house section upstairs is my fave place. At the opposite end of the retail park is Matalan, I rarely go there as I normally end up spending far too much time in TKMaxx and have to dash off. But on my last visit I went to Matalan first as was looking for a few bits for my recent holiday. And boy am I glad I did as in their home section they had the most gorgeous bedspreads.

They were hanging up at the back of the cushion section and I could so easily have missed them. There were two designs, one very cath kidston with blue background and pink cabbage roses and the other more laura ashley. I ummed and aahed and ummed and aahed some more and finally, based on what I already had I went for this one.

It cost £30, yes you did hear that right, and measures 180x240cm and they also did matching cushions for £6 but if you bought the bedspread you got one cushion free! How could I not buy it at that price! Something like that in the high end stores would be at least £80-£100!

Isn't it pretty! It's fully reversible with the most exquisite red flowers on it, I just love it.

At the moment my bedding is all pale blue/greens with big pink flowers on it. Looking forward to putting this set on, I always go back to neutrals in the end, just find them so relaxing don't you.

Thanks for stopping by xx

Red, Aqua and Polka Dot swimwear

Don't know if any of you out there have heard of Fashion Union clothing but you should pay a visit to them here. I had their latest catalogue through the post and was so excited when I saw the front cover!

It's dotty and it is Red and Aqua!!

Here's the page with some of the variations that they do

I know a lot of you girls love this colour combination and they are a good price. £12 for the tops and £10 for the bottoms. I have to have them and halter necks are my fave style.

There is also a really pretty floral maxi dress, which according to Gok Wan is the dress style that suits anybody, and it is only £30!

Isn't it lovely!

They don't have a huge range of clothing but they are very reasonably priced and the quality is good too. Worth a look I think xx

Boot Sale Sunday

As promised here are my finds from today's trip out with my mum. It was a scorcher and so glad we went to the early one as by 10am it was getting hot hot!!

First up is this gorgeous chalk board! I have wanted one of these for my kitchen for ages but all the modern ones have such plain frames on them.

Am liking the pig I think

Here he is close up, aaah.

Next I spied this picture frame sitting in a 25p for anything box. And when I pulled it out there was a lovely shabby pink rose in the middle

Frame has a few knocks but nothing a bit of filler won't fix

Lastly, yes only 3 items today, were these large index cards which will be perfect for my large wooden recipe box, which I've still to makeover!

Oops, why does blogger do that sometimes, it's the right way round on my PC, honest guv!

So there you have it, this week's update with a grand total of £2.45 spent. xx

PS - we went for the bacon rolls but never again, undercooked and fatty, big disappointment and cost at a fiver. It's homemade sarnies for us from now on, or MacDonalds need to keep their breakfast menu running till midday on a Sunday!

Back from Hols! This is piccie heavy!!

I must confess I have been back a few days but it has taken me a while to get back in the swing of things over here, you know how it is after a holiday ;o) Looks like you have all been busy, I've got loads to catch up on!

At Luton Airport I was a tad nervous to say the least, stomach churning and all that. Unrealistic I know but just can't help it now. The flight wasn't too bad though, quite bumpy but nothing major. The feeling of relief when we landed was amazing and I immediately started smiling and chattering.

My OH and I have this routine of no matter what time of day we land we always go to this lovely hotel on the beach for a drink.

This is the view from the terrace that we ate at, just stunning.

It was dark by the time we left there and the holiday had defo started!

After much needed rest the following day we wanted to go and see this place called Guadalest up in the mountains that is renowned for it's stunning resevoir and castle. And they have just launched a solar powered boat that takes 60 people around the resevoir lasting 50 minutes.

We stopped at Alicante marina on the way which is just full of the most expensive boats and is where the Audi Med Cup sailing race starts from.

Beautiful view of the boats

Med cruise ship, would love to do that one day!


Oh this is me and my OH's reflection at the Alicante Casino on the pier

Next stop enroute to Guadalest was to see the longest/cleanest beach in the Med (so I am told). It is just 5mins from Alicante and I have to say it took our breath away. My friend and I just stood there on the wooden slatted walkway staring in awe of it. The sea was glistening under the suns rays, the sand was pure white and oh so fine and stretched for miles, 7kms to be exact and it is 85 metres wide. It was not crowded at all, I don't see how it ever could be it's that big!

Here's a view looking back towards Alicante - now that's a beach!

Every so often there are a few quaint beach huts (want, want one of these!)

We all decided that on our next visit we would be spending some more time here, well the girls did anyway, the boys can go off and amuse themselves elsewhere!

Right, I am just getting to the Guadalest piccies and there are quite a few I want to share. However I think in the interests of not sending my readers boggle eyed I'll do a separate post for the rest of the trip ;o)

Hopefully I haven't bored you all too much, at least it's not like when you go to someones house and they get the holiday piccies out and there is no escaping them ;o) xxx

Viva we're off to Sunny Spain!

Sorry couldn't help the title! Am flying off to Murcia tomorrow afternoon for a 5 day break with other half. I know life is tough sometimes! Really looking forward to the break but I am one of those 'nervous' flyers so starting to feel a little anxious to say the least.

Didn't used to be like this, only started last year after experiencing turbulence on a return flight home with Ryan Air. I found myself a complete wreck and almost in tears! I have flown since then but cannot relax at all and jump at the slightest movement/noise, my poor OH probably wants to just knock me out for the flight ;o) Ooh now there's an idea..............

Anyway enough of my moaning I am very lucky to be taken away on a break, many people this year wont be having a holiday at all. We're staying in our friends villa, not too dissimilar to this one with it's own pool.


So for the next week it will be rather quiet around here. I promise to take some interesting piccies to post when I get back. And yes even when I am abroad am always on the hunt for any crafting shops to look in, much to my OH's dismay ;o) A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.

See you when I get back, hugs xx

Shabby Chic Hearts and Roses

You might need a cuppa for this one, I've waffled on a bit :o)

I just love the heart shape don't you. I am always drawn to all things heart when I'm in shops. Roses are another fave, in fact they are equal to hearts! In a recent post I blogged about the first one of these shabby hearts that I made and had sent to Carol over at Katherine's Dream as part of her blog candy she won.

I've since been playing around and making some more of varying sizes, some good, some not so good! They can be tricky little things, and do test my patience sometimes, but I'm sure it will get easier the more I do, one can only hope ;o)

The little roses are made from narrow silk ribbon and finished with fabric glue to make them stiff, and some I made using Fimo, bit fiddly but worth it when they go right!

Cream roses are my fave!

Small hearts would be great as card embellishments or for special scrapbook pages. I can see the larger ones being hung from door knobs, shaker hooks and the like. Oh and small ones added to picture frames would be lovely too. Note to self: must make one of these for my bedroom.

I'm hoping the pictures do them justice, could do with some training in close ups and the use of Adobe Photoshop. If you knew how long it took me to find how to change the edges of the picitures! I was trying for the sort of fuzzy edge, not sure I got it right ;o)


Some of the better ones will be going onto my online shops over the next few weeks, this will be the first thing that I have sold outside of Ebay! Am I doing the right thing, will people like them? Can feel the nerves kicking in already!

So fellow bloggers, do you think they are okay? Am I barking up the wrong tree with these. Any pointers for me? I can take it, good or bad I won't be offended ;o) xxxx

Boot Sale Sunday - new regular post

I'm hooked hard and fast, there's no going back! Now the weather is lighter and brighter my Sunday mornings are spent doing the rounds at my local boot sales. Sometimes I get to drag my poor mum with me, bless her she never complains.

There are 4 or 5 that are fairly close by and start at varying times which is very helpful I must say. So far I have resisted scoffing a bacon sarnie from one of the burger vans but can see me giving in very soon as the warmer sun makes you want to sit in their green plastic chairs and scoff really bad for you food!

So this will be a regular post to all things thrifty! So without further ado here are this week's treasures.

Pale blue lace trimming, blue and pink buttons, blue stitch holder and what I think were some sort of collar trims, these were lurking in a tatty box on the floor. Lovely lady only wanted £1.45 for the lot!


The biggest picture frame I've ever seen, it is huge! It has all the fixings on the back still and is unfinished pine so I can do what I like to it. Ummed and aahed while I thought about where I could possibly put it, then light bulb moment, it would be perfect as a pin board in my soon to be new craftroom. It cost a not so huge £1.85!


I just loved the soft blue/brown colours of this teacup and saucer, sadly this was all the lady had, 75p for all 5 pieces.

Lastly in the light of the lovely sunshine these brighlty coloured zips caught my eye, so I zoomed over and grabbed them before anyone else did, 50p for 3.


Some lovely finds and gorgeous weather, what better way to spend the morning. Oh and I did give in, and the bacon roll was scrummy ;o) xx

Lolo's Card - Dresses galore!

I wanted to try making a big birthday card last year, you will probably recognise it from my profile piccie! Thought it would be nice to share a close up of it.


I took an A3 piece of cardstock and folded in half to make the A4 card base. I then picked out a range of co-ordinating papers in pinks and greens and cut them into strips of varying width. These were then stuck to the card using a wet glue so that I had the ability to move them whilst lining all the strips up.


Next I took a dress template that I had, cut out 4 of these from card first, then covered them in co-ordinating paper and trimmed around them. The dresses then had to be blinged up! Used a mixture of ribbons, pearls and crystals for this. I just love netting skirts so I added cream netting gathered to the back of the dresses for their underskirts, frocks like this, they make you feel really special when you wear them don't you think;o)


The dresses were then adhered to the card using 3D foam strips. Lastly I put a chipboard letter onto each dress to spell out the word Lolo, added a few chipboard sentiments and pink flowers. Voila! There you have it, the background to my profile piccie, hope you like it x

Pretty gift box/bag

My local craft shop had the KandCompany gift box pads but allowed you to buy just individual sheets from them for 50p! Brilliant idea as I had wanted to try some of these for a while but didn't want to buy a whole pad.

Here's one of the first ones I did. They are a little bit fiddly mostly on the sticking side of things but they are really cute and you can get quite a lot of choccies in this one, mmmm!

Now the only trouble is I don't want to give them away........ xx

Special Sister - Birthday Card

My nan was one of 9 children, yes 9, can you believe that! There are still quite a few of them left and one of them Evelyn has a birthday this Saturday. She is one of the younger ones and quite modern so chose some florals and butterflies for her.

Piccie is a bit dark, sorry

The papers are again from one of my 6x6 KandCompany paper pads, these things are so handy when needing something quick to put together. The diecuts were from some freebies I got with a crafting magazine a while ago and the sentiment is from a huge box mixed messages that I got from QVC.

Birthday Card for a Princess!

One of my mums neighbour's daughters has an 8th birthday soon and I was tasked with making her a card. Her favourite colours are lilac and pink and she loves sparkle, what girl doesn't ;o) I dipped into my KandCompany stash as they have a lovely range called Dollshouse to Go which incorporates all things to do with sparkle, pretty colours and dresses fit for a princess.

I didn't have much time to do this but think it turned out okay. Anyway it will be winging its way to her tomorrow along with some pressies ;o) xx

Cats are so funny!

She thinks I can't see her! My darling little Levi had buried herself under my bed throw, aint it just the cutest!

Sadly she didn't get to stay there long as soon after this shot was taken her brother Morgan found her and proceeded to stick his paw in there and started patting at her head. He can be such a grumpy old man sometimes ;o)

Katherine's Dream: Another Week Went By

Katherine's Dream: Another Week Went By


The lovely Carol has just got the most gorgeous knitted bunnies, too cute, and she is looking for name ideas.

She also very sweetly posted about my candy that she won, so glad she loved the heart I made.

My nan taught me how to do those and I have made some more that are a bit bigger. Will have to post about them ;o) Thanks Carol xx

All Day Crafting - QVC!!

Seeing as I couldn't do much today coz of my silly wrist (that's my excuse and am sticking to it ;o)) I have been in front of TV watching the Craft Day on QVC (channel 640). I love watching crafting shows and today they have my two fave designers on, Anna Griffin and K&Company, am in heaven!

Anyone else watching? They've been asking what your desert island craft tool would be? Think mine would have to be a Fiskars 12" paper trimmer!

I just love mine and I have tried a few others, it's so light an portable but cuts brilliantly.

What would yours be? xx