Happy Corners

Oh lovely homes on design blogs and in magazines, how stylish and perfect you are! And how depressing it is to compare you to my own humble little flat! (does anyone else feel like this when reading design blogs?)

However, I am determined to stop wishing my flat was design-blog-perfect (which, let's face it, it never will be) but instead to celebrate all the small things in it which make me happy. Here are a few corners making me smile at the moment...

Pictures on the walls next to where I work at the kitchen table:


Working in the kitchen is not very glamorous (piles of washing up = not inspiring!) but these pictures always make me happy.


(Let's not mention all the other prints I've had for years and still not got round to framing and/or deciding where to display them. Shhh...)

Much beloved bedroom drawers:


I fell in love with the chest of drawers on the right after seeing it in a charity shop near my old flat in Bristol (despite at the time living in a fully furnished flat with no room for extra furniture!). It fits perfectly under our very slopey ceilings, magically matches the giant wardrobe that was here when we moved in, and we managed to find the drawers on the left in a Gloucester charity shop on our first furniture shopping trip. Hurrah!

Atomic coat hooks:
Love these. They're usually hidden under more coats than that though!

A vintage corner:

I blogged about this corner last year when I "temporarily" hung up these curtains... naturally, they're still there. I thought the boyfriend would hate them but he (amazingly) said he quite liked them and they're so gorgeous I don't want to take them down just yet :)

Bunting on the spare bed:


I made the felt bunting for a tutorial and it ended up (totally by accident) being the perfect size to hang on the end of the spare bed. The rest of the spare room is usually a big mess, but the bed + bright blankets + bunting = lovely.

And one more - beloved vintage suitcases:


I love storing things in vintage suitcases, they're so much more fun than boring boxes.

The bright teal suitcase was a bargain charity shop find, and is currently full of fabric. The brown suitcase belonged to my grandmother and is full of things that need mending... it also doubles as a doorstop!


Now, I just need to remember how happy these corners make me and try not to worry about too much all the bits inbetween ... and all the housework which hasn't been done because I was too busy sewing ;)

P.S. apologies to anyone who got this post twice in their blog reader. Technology & I are having issues today!

Giveaway Winners: Sew, Making + Find it, Make it

Time to announce the winners of this month's giveaways! The winners were picked at random.


The winner of the copy of Find it, Make it is Mikayla who said... "I work with children and would love to win this book to share it with them!"


And the winner of the copies of Sew & Making is Cassandra who was the very last person to comment before the deadline (great timing!). She said... "A little late to the party...but not too late thankfully! These magazines look great. I bet there are oodles of interesting things inside. :)"

Thanks to everyone who entered, and for all your comments during book week - I hope you all enjoyed it xxx

Two Dozen Poppies

I took some time off work over the long Easter weekend, but though I can manage to switch the laptop off and avoid checking my emails etc too often I find it much harder to stop sewing... especially when watching TV in the evenings.

After so many years of crafting in front of the TV it just feels weird watching telly without stitching something at the same time! So I picked a nice relaxing sewing project for the weekend and gradually created a whole field of poppies:

These poppies will become brooches and hairbands but for the moment they're just sitting in my wip box looking pretty :)

UPDATE: My poppy design is now available as a sewing pattern! Visit my shop to see all my printable PDF patterns

Giveaway: Sew + Making

As promised, another giveaway! Not a craft book this time, but two crafty magazines instead :)

I'm having a big clearout at the moment as I don't have room to keep all my crafty stuff... and I'd much rather these magazines went to a loving crafty home than got recycled!


One lucky commenter will win both magazines: the launch issue of trendy UK crafts magazine "Making" (published Nov/Dec) and the December issue of Sew Magazine (issue #17) which is jam packed with sewing projects, including a dress pattern.


As always, I'm happy to ship internationally, so anyone can enter. Just leave a comment on this blog post for a chance to win! (If you're reading this on my Facebook page please click through to my blog to leave your comment on the original post).

Leave your comment before 10pm on Friday 29th April and I'll pick a winner at random on Saturday 30th.

Please make sure you leave a name or pseudonym (no anonymous comments please!) and leave a link or email address so I can contact you, or make sure to come back to see if you got picked.

*** This giveaway is now closed ***