April 25th 2015 - Making a felt book

April 25th 2015 - Making a felt book

For the front of my story sack I want a small fabric book, I thought felt would be the best bet.  So I started to look for a simple design that I could use.  I couldn't find one.  Then I came across this Needle holder book and it was just what I was looking for.

So I set about making it, mine will have 10 pages in total which I plan to add "reading/book" quotes to each page.  My initial idea was to stitch them on the felt, then I realised that the sewing would go through and I couldn't use the reverse side of the page.  I tried fabric pens and fabric paint but they looked really big on the felt and not very nice.  My last idea and what I am going with was stitching the quotes onto another piece of material and fixing that to the book pages.  Whether I fix with glue or sewing i'm not quite sure.

I am going to write the quotes in pencil on the extra piece of material and then stitch over them, so that they stand out.

The middle of the book where I have sewed them together

1 of the purple and green pages inside

The book folded

April 24th 2015 - Hair bobbles

April 24th 2015 - Hair bobbles


What a horrid day!  Considering yesterday I was sat out in the garden in shorts and a vest top getting a sun tan, today I am indoors in a jumper with heating on as its turned cold and wet!!!


Anyways, todays pin.  Despite being the only female in the house (the cats don't  count) I can never find any hair bobbles.  I can wrap them to handle of hair brush, put them in a drawer, leave them on the side or shelf, put them in bathroom and when I go back they are gone.  No idea where they have gone but they have gone!  Clips and slides are just as bad.

Well I found this pin about keeping hair bobbles together with a carabena clip - so this I have done today.  I took a carabena clip from the craft cupboard and have put my hair bobbles onto it and put them in a drawer.  We will see if they still there next time I want 1.

April 23rd 2015 - Decking Squares

April 23rd 2015 - Decking Squares

If you have been following any of my blog you will be aware that we are in the process of building a decking.  This has been a long process as we have had to dig out loads of soil from part of garden to move to opposite end as garden is on a slope.  Hubby says I have got to be the only person that can buy a house that is on a hillside with a sloping garden and then want a patio (we did last year) and a decking that is also flat!

We started buying the decking squares last year every time we went to the big town (we are in a harbour town with minimal shops) where b&q is.  They have varied in price from £2.52 each to £2.97 and a few were on offer at 2 for £5.  I noticed yesterday that b&q had the decking squares we are using reduced to £2 each, I know that isn't much of a saving, but when your doing a big area on a limited budget it helps. 

I transferred £16 from the savings account (now has £2 in it!) and hubby got £4 for his petrol to a meeting today, I was given £10 that a friend owed me yesterday and we were going to use £10 from main bank account so £30 in total and 15 squares, when we got there they only had 25 squares (I needed 35 to complete area) so we bought all 25, yes it cost us more than we had planned BUT we don't know when they will be getting any more in stock - its a "as and when they arrive item" according to the store. 

We are stuck however, we don't have the wood for the frame work so work has had to stop until next week when hubby gets paid so we can buy some more timber lengths and carry on again.  I will have a decking by summer, but today and the past week has been like summer - very hot, garden thermometer is reading 26C.  If we have temps like that in April what is July and August going be???  I can't wait!

Today I have been sat around in the sun doing not a lot as I have re-hurt my knee after doing lots of walking and standing yesterday.  But I can cope with lounging around in the sun!!

April 22nd 2015 - Family Learning Story sacks

April 22nd 2015 - Family Learning Story sacks

Family Learning at the school has started a new course today - Story sacks.  This envolves us parents making a story sack based on a book.

We sat and discussed ideas that we could put in 1 based on a story about night pirates and included things like a pirate hat and eye patch, treasure chest and treasure, story book, fact book, map, material for the sea, moon and stars, a boat or ship, pirate puppets/finger puppets, pirate toys etc.

By next wednesday we need to have a story book and some ideas of what we are going to include in it.  Having 2 children at the school that did the last course with me I have got to decide if i'm making 1 between them (but as different ages this could be hard), or if i'm going to make 2 which means that they may not be as good as just 1.

I think this course could turn out to be really good.

April 21st 2015 - St John Ambulance badges

April 21st 2015 - St John Ambulance badges

Tomorrow night is the presentation evening for St John Ambulance youth where I live.  This has been a few months in the planning and as far as I am aware everything is sorted.

There was one thing that needed doing and that was adding my county emblem to my dress jacket.  Not a problem, I know where it goes, however, the problem comes in that I have a different badge in that place as my old county didn't have an emblem!

So I hunted the net, didn't have much luck, messaged my officer and posted a request on facebook asking how/where it goes.  A nice lady replied with the 2015 dress regulations that show where all the badges go.  I added the picture to pinterest so that I could use it for today.  My Grand Prior that was where the emblem goes has had to be removed and the county emblem put in its place and the Grand Prior goes underneath.

All badges are now sewn back on my jacket, (but isn't straight!).  Fingers crossed no-one notices tomorrow evening.

April 20th 2015 - Free Wood

April 20th 2015 - Free Wood

Who ever says you get nothing for free obviously hasn't asked the right people or places!!!  A friend of mine told us that she got some free wood in the form of pallets from a local building firm, so me and hubby went down there and asked the lady.  Whose answer was "how many do you want?"  Me, looking rather silly replied I don't know!

I asked hubby and he said however many we can fit in the car, so the man told us to reverse the car up to where they were and we would see what we could fit in - we got 5, and the people from building firm said we know where they are if we need more!  BONUS!

Well we had dinner and then spent the next half hour trying to take 1 apart - easier said than done.  We tried hitting the pallets with a hammer, using the claw of the hammer, using a crowbar, using a chisel and all these succeeded in doing was splitting the wood, not so good.  So I did what I always do and went to pinterest to see if I could find a pin on how to demolish a pallet.  I  found quite alot actually, some said the ways we had tried but the most useful and easy way was with a metal saw and cut through the nails.

We ummed and arrred and said we didn't think we had a metal saw and then hubby disapeared inside.  I went to see what he was doing and he was reading the instructions for the electric saw we bought to cut down trees - it had a metal saw attatchment.  He fixed it to the saw and off he went cutting the nails from the pallets.  It's not quite the 2minutes per pallet as the pin says but it is working much quicker than what we tried and  the wood is not breaking.

Free wood and a helpful hint on how to break it!

April 19th 2015 - Fairy garden sign

April 19th 2015 - Fairy garden sign

A long time ago I found today's pin about making a Fairy garden sign post and thought it would be great for when we finally made our fairy garden.  Well our fairy garden is under way and today is not nice enough to go out and do more on the decking so I have started to make a sign post post ours.

I had a thickish stick I had taken off 1 of the boys (using it to hit his brothers) which I have covered in silver and gold sparkle nail varnish (this stuff gets used for crafts more than on my nails!).

the pic doesn't show the sparkle at all.

Ages ago I used my dremmel to carve words into some wooden discs (from a tree we cut out of garden), I have coloured the words using sharpie pens and again covered them in silver sparkle nail varnish.  They look really good.

Once the nail varnish is properly dry I will nail them to the stick so that it can go outside in the fairy garden.  Lil man is so pleased that he finally has it.