June & July in Pictures: Colour & Crafting amongst the Chaos!

I spent a hectic few weeks this summer living out of a suitcase, travelling back to my flat from time to time but mostly staying with my parents and helping them prepare to move out of our family home and across the country to their new house. You might have noticed that I rather dropped the ball on the blogging front (oops!) while all this was going on... but I still managed to squeeze in some crafting and other fun stuff in between all the packing and general moving prep.

So... what did I get up to in June and July?

My friend Kate visited Bristol and we met up for a day's sightseeing and photo-taking (you can read about her trip to the city here and here). It's always a joy to show people round my favourite city, and Bristol was looking pretty darn gorgeous in the summer sunshine.

I was nearly late to meet her in the morning, though, as I was busy taking photos of this fabulous wall! (Instagrammer problems, man...).

 

For my birthday one of my friends surprised me with this awesome "Making Things" print and I couldn't resist taking a photo of it surrounded by some of the crafty supplies I'd been using that week.

 

I made things with this wonderful marbled paper (click here to see what I made with it!)...

... and made lots of felt butterflies for June's "A Year of Wreaths" Wreath tutorial (follow that link for the free tutorial). 

 

The shiny new edition of my first book, Super-Cute Felt was published (prompting an Instagram post full of feelings)...

... with a free project from the book available over at MAKEetc...

 

... and the pear needlebook tutorial (delightfully) featured in Prima Makes magazine.

 

I blogged about some fabulous fog, my visit to Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter, a trip to Lichfield and a magnificently quirky museum: the Birmingham Pen Museum.

 

I confessed to sometimes preferring unused skeins of yarn and embroidery thread to finished projects (there's just something so appealing about those soft loops of colour!)...

 

... and had a hilarious dream in which I went on a date... not to a bar, or a café, or the cinema, but to a giant branch of Paperchase! The way to my heart is clearly via nice stationery (or haberdashery!). Naturally, I couldn't resist obeying my subconscious and visited the big Paperchase on the Tottenham Court Road when I was in London a couple of weeks later. Mmm... so many colours...

 

I shared a photo of my much beloved Dorcas pin tin - which it turns out is something a lot of people have in their sewing kit, and treasure (maybe you have one too?). This tin belonged to my mum when she was at school. I also have a larger one which I inherited from my grandmother, along with the rest of her sewing box.

 

I do love things which are pretty but also practical... although sometimes I buy so many of them that they're not quite so practical any more. Like mugs - I definitely have way more mugs than I technically need but there are just so many lovely ones! This one is my current fave: a recent gift from a kind friend who knows just how much I love a pop of colour.

 

Finally, July turned into a month of colourful selfies as I visited the WALALA X PLAY installation (a maze of mirrors and bright patterns that's perfect for taking photos)... 

 

... then got inspired by Instagram's "Weekend Hashtag Project" photo challenge and ended up spending a chunk of a Sunday afternoon lying on the floor covered in blankets (which is a perfectly normal thing to do, right??).

That week's challenge was #whptalentshow, and I got thinking about how my creative talents are things I've inherited from my parents, and which were encouraged and nurtured by them when I was growing up. Which (naturally) led to me taking selfies while sandwiched between the blanket my mum knitted for me when I was a baby, and the blanket I'm knitting for my new flat.

 

(Psst - for more blanket-y lols, check out the outtakes!).

Want more colourful, crafty updates? I'm lauralupinhoward on Instagram - click here to visit my page and follow me. You'll also find me on Facebook and Twitter.               

Gift Ideas for Bird Lovers, from the RSPB

Regular readers will know I love birds... so, when someone from the RSPB got in touch and asked if I'd mention their shop on my blog I said I'd be happy to!

I've chosen a selection of bird-themed gifts, but do make sure to check out their full range (much of which features British birds and wildlife). 

First up, some lovely mugs and a biscuit tin for cheering up tea-time. The owl mug is part of a range of wildlife-themed homewares which I have been seriously pining after for months (I'm not sure I can justify buying another mug, especially as I'm trying to cut down on my tea-drinking... maybe some cake tins? or a shopping bag?)

 

Tom Frost Owl Mug

Bluetit Mug

Madeleine Floyd Birdsong Tin & Shortbread Biscuits

Charm of Finches Mug

  

Next, the most adorable purses ever. These kids clasp purses are so fabulous - I am quite tempted to buy one for myself (maybe the bluetit?) and add a longer strap.

 

Bluetit Purse

Puffin Purse

Robin Purse

Tawny Owl Purse

One of my favourite things the RSPB sells is their range of singing soft toys - gorgeous, cuddly birds that "sing" when you give them a squeeze. I also love the Bird Bingo game (illustrated by Christine Berrie) and the charming woodpecker doorstop

 

Mini Singing Bird - House Sparrow

Bird Bingo

Woodpecker Doorstop 

Singing Bird - Chaffinch

Finally, not quite a gift idea but definitely appropriate for Christmas: sweet little bird ornaments. I have a couple of sets of these that I bought from the RSPB shop several years ago, they're always much admired when I put them on the tree.

Glass Bird Decorations

Work & Wildlife

I am still busy working - with lots of breaks for tea and cake, of course :)

Most of my own mugs are packed up in boxes (along with the rest of the stuff from my old flat), so I've "adopted" a couple of mugs from my parents cupboards (it's not just me who likes to use the same mugs over and over, is it?). This is an old one that belonged to one of my sisters when they were at school or University, I think... it's from a time of many essays and exams, anyway. It reads "I hate work I hate work I hate work I hate work" and every time I look at it I feel happy because I actually LOVE my job. Even with the occasional crazy deadline!

While on my tea breaks I have been enjoying staring out of the window at all the birds on the bird feeders. As I mentioned last month, lots of birds visit my parents garden.... and I was lucky enough to be sitting right next to the window with my camera when this lovely woodpecker paid us a visit at the weekend:

Which has reminded me that a few weeks ago I managed to get some snaps of a couple of deer sitting around in our neighbours' garden - just chilling out, thinking deer thoughts, planning their schedule for the day, etc. Aren't they lovely?

I Love My Local Post Office...

... especially when they give us free mugs:The boyfriend (a.k.a my postal assistant) came home with these yesterday after posting a big pile of parcels. We post so much stuff that they gave us one each - his'n'hers mugs to drink tea in at the end of a long afternoon packing and posting.

Postal geek that I am, I think they're rather snazzy!

365 / 159 - Building up my Collection, plus: Tea Things

I continue to be working on little batches of my designs - yesterday I finished a batch of pansies, and started sewing together a batch of red teapots. As well as helping me build up a stock of items for sale, the batch-making process is helping me build up my own personal brooch collection as I've finally got enough of certain designs to be able to keep one for myself. Here's the collection so far, including the newest addition (the pansy) ...
As you can see, there are plenty of designs still missing - ie lots of batches still to make!

In non-crafty news, I have stumbled upon a shop selling excellent mugs for your tea. Discovered via Hazel Nicholls' blog (in turn discovered when she left me a comment), SuckUK sells a drink selector mug enabling you to display your tea/coffee tastes and also a colour-matching mug to help you make perfect-strength tea or coffee. The latter reminds me of the Pantone mugs and the work of Onkar Singh Kular, who also designed a charming "pair" of three socks (the 3rd for when one gets lost) and a picture frame with a built-in spirit level (as I'm preparing to frame some pictures this one appeals to me particularly strongly!). While I'm on the subject of mugs, if you've never seen the Dunk Mug it's really worth a look. A mug with a built-in biscuit holder? Just genius, although as a friend of mine commented "it doesn't hold a whole packet though, does it?" (I do eat rather a lot of biscuits...).

Back to Hazel Nicholls for a moment though - what lovely things! This image particularly caught my eye:
It seems in my mind to be a sort of biscuit-obsessed version of Anthony Burrill's Work Hard and Be Nice to People. A copy of "Work Hard" is waiting to be framed and hung up somewhere in my house once I can work out where to put it... probably somewhere near my cheap-as-chips Keep Calm and Carry On poster (in my kitchen and much looked to during times of culinary crisis!). To continue with all this going-round-in-circles I'm doing today, checking out the fancy screenprinted versions of the Keep Calm poster (handprinted, lovely soft colours: delicious!) I found that Keep Calm Ltd now stock one of Hazel Nicholls' pieces and also (wonderful, wonderful) this completely cracking tea-themed poster:
- you've gotta love that little teacup inside the A! One last bit of tea-obsession before I sign off: a Crafting 365 photo from Seaurchin of a spilled drop of tea photographed for glazing inspiration. A quirky image in itself, I think this photo is a great example of finding inspiration in the everyday.