March 26, 2007

Easter Give-Away

I have been feeling a little subdued lately. Partly because of the day to day demands of two tinys getting to me, partly because of interrupted sleep and also because I have been feeling like I need to do more. When I say more I mean, something more meaningful and positive. I think its probably hormones and I am super sensitive at the moment but I feel like I need to get involved with some cause or other.

While I am feeling like this I thought it was only befitting to offer up an Easter Goody Bag to one you guys. I have never done anything like this in all the time I have been blogging and I think its about time. I really appreciate the fact that so many of you out there read my blog and are actually interested in the things that I do, in fact this amazes me, especially on the odd occasion I check my stats, I am blown away. So thanks to you all my bloggy friends, you have inspired me and supported me over the past year and a half.

So I am offering up an Easter surprise for one lucky commentor. I can't tell you what it is as the Easter bunny will be very cross with me and not bring me all the chocolate I so desperately need! Just leave me a comment and I will draw names at the end of the week. :)

Posted by Maxine at 09:04 PM | Comments (9)

March 19, 2007

The Crafty Gang

Just look at this wonderful doggie that Warren and Emily made today! I have been saving the Innocent boxes and cartons for some time now and this dog was one of the wonderful 'things to do' on the back of one of the drinks. You've got to just love those Innocent guys - great healthy smoothies, cute brand and genius ideas for the kids (and us adults of course!). I bought some paper fasteners the other day for attaching the legs and I just knew it would be the kind of crafty project Warren would enjoy. Its just fab! Every time I walk past it (its now on the shelf in the kitchen) I can't help but smile.

I finally managed to convince Emily to let me patch her special blanket, which is known as 'Rubby' - due to the fact that she rubs the edges and especially the corners. Rubby is actually a sleeping bag from the company 'Grobag' if you know it. She slept in these from very young up until she went into a big bed and she started grabbing the bottom of the bag in the night to hold over her nose while she sucked her thumb. She then developed an attachment for this particular one and since then it goes everywhere with her, the thought of losing it would to too much for any of us to bear! Over the years it has been dragged about all over many floors (yep yuck I know) and has become really threadbare and some of the fabric has been completely rubbed away. I had managed to roughly sew it together before but nothing so drastic as this. Last week practically the whole back of this got torn and there were holes and bits of fabric flapping about all over it, so I asked Emily if I could patch it. She was a bit reluctant at first but soon came round to the idea. I used some of the 2D-Zoo fabric I had been saving for something special and nothing is more special than Emily's Rubby. The only problem was that she insisted on sucking her thumb with it pressed against her nose the whole time I was trying to put it through the machine, which made patching it very difficult! So although its completely rough and ready, it is now patched and hopefully will last her a bit longer.

Emily keeps a sketcher in the back of the car, to keep her amused and she drew this hedgehog the other day, completely unprompted while we were in traffic somewhere. I managed to photograph it with my phone before she had a chance to erase it! For some reason Emily won't draw like this on paper. I can't really understand it, but when she gets pencils, pens or crayons in her hand she just wants to scribble. Yet with the sketchers she is a lot more focused and I can't keep the things she draws! Just thank god for technology and the fact that I can immortalize her drawings with my phone! I remember the days...

I can't post about the gang without putting up a photo of my gorgeous son. Not quite big enough to get crafty yet but still just as wonderful. Here he is on my knee, getting bounced up and down. Shortly after this photo he was sick all over me...the joys of having a tiny!

Phew what a very long post indeed! Thanks for keeping up :)

Posted by Maxine at 09:32 PM | Comments (5)

Craft Night

Well the Friday night craft night for the ladies at St. Marks church went very well indeed. They are all such a good bunch and are eager to get stuck into whatever projects we set them. They had a ball making the cards and egg cosies and absolutely loved the felt making process. I was a little unsure how many would be keen to have a go at the felt making, as it was a little different to the other nights we have done, but a lot of them really enjoyed it and even managed to make some super thick felt to make their bunny egg cosies with, as you can see from the pic.

Its so nice spending a night encouraging other people to be crafty and we even got a chinese too! I would love to do more of these, I really enjoy them myself. Susan and I celebrated our crafty night success by going to the pub and having a couple of pints - what a great end to the night.

We will be meeting up over the next couple of weeks to try our hand at making felt slippers! So I will keep you posted about that one!

Posted by Maxine at 07:52 PM | Comments (0)

March 09, 2007

Craft Night WIP

Just a peak at some more preparation for next weeks ladies craft night. I made a couple more egg cosies and also started working on some cards - it is Mothers Day weekend after all so it would be rude not to.

I have never bought stamps before because I have this weird thing about everything having to be made from scratch and be as original as possible. So this kind of crafting/card making I always felt it was a bit of a cheat. But I thought I would give it a go as part of the card making will be re-fashioning existing envelopes and I wanted some easy way of decorating the envelope. So here is the first attempt. I have to say I really enjoyed making these, probably because they were so easy.

I will post more on this and a tutorial for the envelope soon.

Posted by Maxine at 12:17 PM | Comments (2)

March 08, 2007

Comments

Just a quick post to say that I have just noticed that I have missed some of your comments over the past few months. Apologies to anyone who thinks I might've been snubbing them and not publishing their comments! Especially Angel Jem and Molly Chicken who has left me a few lovely well thought out comments.

The way my commenting system works is that once you comment it gets emailed to me for approval so that my site is not full of junk. For some strange and completely random reason a few of your comments somehow slipped through the net and I didn't get any notification of them and I hardly ever check my comment list.

So sorry for that and if you have commented and your comment is nowhere to be seen just let me know - there is a link to my email at the bottom of the page.

Posted by Maxine at 09:57 AM | Comments (0)

March 06, 2007

Good Score!

It was my first time in ages thrifting today and look what I scored. I looked for this book before but couldn't find it so you can imagine just how chuffed I was to pick it up in the local Oxfam shop today.

Also after a big night out at a friends wedding reception on Saturday night I didn't have much energy for playing lots of games so I managed to convince Emily it would be fun to sit on the floor and sort out buttons. Here are some pictures she made (with a little guidance from me!). The one on the left is Daddy and the one on the right is Harrison!

Posted by Maxine at 09:42 PM | Comments (4)

March 02, 2007

A Great Night

Last night was my first proper night out in a very very long time and it was fantastic! I went to see Amy Winehouse at the Ulster Hall. I really don't understand how people don't like her, I know she is a bit of a nut sometimes but she is so talented and I totally unique. The gig was brilliant and her band were amazing, all dressed in black suits, white shirts with thin black ties and trilbys. The two backing singer guys had these great dance routines throughout all the songs and Amy was her usual individual self with her crazed beehive hair. Although she definitely is looking too thin at the moment. She was much more curvy when I first heard of her a while back. She only played for an hour, but we were greatful for that after hearing stories of her not turning up for some gigs, or leaving after a couple of songs.

The support band was incredible too. Its amazing how you can tell you really like something after a few songs and I really liked them. Part of what really made them was the inclusion of a steel drum which just made the tunes really summery or carnival like. Although the music is quite hard to describe, not carnival at all! A mix of soul and ska I suppose, very complimentary to Amy. My description is probably not perfect but you can get the idea that I had a great night! Oh the support was called 'Mr Hudson and The Library'. I would definitely keep a look out for them. They have an album coming out on Monday and they are headlining here in May at Spring & Airbrake which is a great venue. I am very tempted to go.

So can you believe, the one night that I go out Harrison has an unsettled evening! I really can't believe it myself. For the past month or so he has been sleeping through and developing a bedtime routine without a problem or peep from him. Then the one night I go out he cries! Do you think he's trying to tell me something!!?

Posted by Maxine at 11:25 AM | Comments (1)