Strawberry Heart Monthly Make

I recently found a great link to join in and show case your monthly makes. Annie at Felt Fairy has organised A Monthly Make, where you can showcase your hand made items you have made during the month. I particular like that this as it is a monthly challenge, thus taking the pressure off trying to make something every week!

This month I wanted to have a go at appliqueing. (Appliqueing is when you iron/sew fabric onto another piece of fabric and sew into place.) I have seen other people's items finished with appliqueing and I have always thought it looks really nice. I decided to use my new fabric I wrote about here brought from My fabric house.

I satin stitched the free hand applique heart using my sewing machine.

Thrifting comes with a lot of bubble wrap!

So I made a strawberry heart appliqued bubble wrap holder

And lastly a sneak peek at my beloved sewing box. The box was given to me from my Father in Law (who also sews). He gave it to me as a surprise when I first started sewing again last year, he had filled it with lots of bits and pieces for me and I was so thrilled to recieve it. 

Bxx

Vintage Cream Tea Camping

We have been camping recently and found a great campsite locally. Its small and has only a few pitches, which suits us as we dont like the 'madding crowd' so they say. It also has a swimming river and the best part a cream tea in the afternoon.

It was magical, the front lawn of a old listed house was set up with plastic chairs layed with flower tablecloths, vintage tea cups and teapots, and the best looking cream in sundae glasses.

I still have a burning ambition to go to London for a high tea, but I must say I thoroughly enjoyed this country vintage cream tea. It has definitely wet my appetite for more.

Inspired by the vintage tea plates, I picked these two flower and fruit vintage plates from my local charity shop this week. They were 69p each.

I also spotted this white fire place coal holder, in my other charity shop in town. I knew as soon as I saw it that I would use it for our umbrellas. The lady at the charity shop said it was used to store coal in for fireplaces.

I have been storing under the stairs at the moment, as it doesn't seem to be rain weather at the moment.... Cross fingers for more sunny days.

I am linking in here for Liz's Magpie Monday, and Sophie's Flea market finds.

Happy thrifting!

Bxx

Knitted Blanket Map Love

Hello there! This week I received the most lovely 'Map' wrapped parcel all the way from New Zealand from the lovely Max at Blackbird has Spoken.
A couple of weeks ago Max blogged about her recent thrifty finds and this Cool knitted blanket was one of things she found. Amazingly Max said that the blanket may be better suited for someone else and said if anyone wanted the blanket to leave a comment. So I did, guess who was the lucky recipient? Perhaps it was my sob story about never seeing these blankets for sale in the charity shops, or the fact I could have a piece of NZ with me here in England!) either way I am thrilled. Thank you Max!

                                                         How cool a Map wrapped parcel

Sitting proudly on our living room sofa

One little kitten especially loves it! Poppy our kitten has arrived and she is just gorgeous.

Lastly I have been thinking recently about all the great things I get from writing my blog. I have meet (virtually) some really lovely people, I have been inspired, I have found some great products, competitions, swaps and received some lovely presents. When I first started writing this blog, I never thought I would do all of the above, and each week that goes by I still feel excited about what I am going to read or find.
As mentioned here the lovely Lou at Jumbles and Pompoms presented me with the 'One Lovely Blog' award. Thank you Lou!

                                                    

I think I am supposed to write some random things about me.

My Uncle was a All Black (rugby) for NZ in the 1950's.

My Father had 8 sisters and no brothers.

I love roller coasters.

I can count to 10 in Japanese

I almost never measure ingredients when I bake.

I have been to Malaysia 8 times.

Please feel free to not do this blog award, as I know some people feel it doesn't suit their blogs, but it is nice to receive a award!

Tartan Kiwi Christchurch Mum with a heart of gold!

The Savvy Crafter Contributor to Mollie Makes amongst other things..

From the Kiwi Girl Op shop Kiwi living in Australia
Bxx

My Red Cross Nurses

Happy Thursday everyone! Thank you very much for your lovely comments from my last post about the dreadful earthquake in Christchurch, I have been reading Christchurch Mum blogs and feel relieved that they are all supporting each other in this terrible time for this city.

I recently joined in a Tea Towel Swap I wrote about here, organised by Leonie at Kiwi at Heart. I was so thrilled to receive a parcel this week from my swap partner Tracy who has a lovely blog called From the Kiwi Girl . Tracy is a Kiwi Mum living in Australia, who loves charity shopping and life!

The Parcel was wrapped beautifully and had these little stamps of Australian Kookaburra's on them.
I was so delighted when I opened the parcel and saw that my love of vintage and tea towels was all wrapped into one! Not only is it vintage in design, but a charity shop find, as Tracy wrote in her little note that she brought it at her local Red cross charity shop.

How could you not join, with this angelic face looking at you!

                                               The Family that joins together, stays together!

But my favourite is this lovely lady, I have recently added her to my avatar as she reminds me of me! Ok I am not as beautiful as her, but I love vintage and she is a Nurse. (Clue on my profession here)

Lastly a really Big thank you to Loo at Jumbles and Pompoms for presenting me with the One lovely blog award. I am really delighted and thrilled with this blog award. I will be writing more about it at the end of the week. Thank you Loo!

Happy end of week to everyone.
Bxx

My Thrifty Finds - Wooden Prayers

Happy Monday to everyone! Sorry to start on our a down note, but I awoke this morning to hear the awful news about another earthquake in Christchurch overnight. What more can this beautiful city endure? Luckily no one so far has been hurt, but I am sending all my prayers and thoughts to Christchurch on this dreadful day.


For my thrifty finds this week I found these beautiful wooden silhouette prints at my local charity shop in the 50p frame box, I brought the pair for £1 pound. I seen to be gravitating towards items from Scotland recently, as these two pretty prints are from Edinburgh and are made using a technique called 'Marquetry' where the artist rough sketches a drawing on paper and uses there eye to draw onto selected wood and cut, assembled and finished by hand to form the one-of-a-kind wood image. Very cool!

Another glass item caught my eye when I went into my local charity shop, I spotted this thick beautifully cut glass vase for £1.99 and loved the flower pattern on the outside. It was all fairy liquid cleaned, and this morning I cut some roses from our garden to put in the vase.

In the fabric section, I spied this vintage curtain, on the price label it had 'old curtain fabric'. It is fully lined and quite heavy fabric, but I liked the flower patterns on the fabric, and I could definitely use it to sew a lot of projects.

And lastly thank you to all the fantastic Vintage, charity, thrifty blogs that I follow, I absolutely love reading all your blogs and adore looking at all thrifty finds and everyday life.

For this weeks thrifty finds I am linking in here at Liz's Magpie Monday and here at Sophie's flea market finds.

Happy Thrifting!
Bxx

Thrifty finds - Small items

 For some reason this week, all my thrifty finds have been small items, it got me thinking about all the sayings about small things eg 'small things come in big packages' or 'its not the size that counts', 'its the small things that count' (can't think of anymore?) anyway I am digressing.....
 For this weeks thrifty finds I have been out and about to car boot sales. I love going to car booties this time of year, you can pick up some real beauties for really low prices and this week I managed to get each of my items for under a £1 pound.

I saw this really cute retro one-person tea pot at our local car boot, I have been looking for a teapot for a long time, although this one is not what I had in mind, I couldn't resist it, as I really liked the 70's pattern on it. It has a Polish mark on the bottom of the pot and it was 50p.

This next item was inspired after reading a post on Glass from Karen at her beautiful blog The White Approach . Glass has never really shall I say 'rocked my boat', but after seeing how beautiful Karen's glass vases are with fresh flowers in them, I decided to take a closer look next time.

So on Sunday when I saw this cute baby glass vase at the car booty I immediately had a second look.

 The lady at the stall gave it to me for 50p, and when I got home and had a chance to look at it properly, the label said  'Scottish crystal' on it. Surprisingly for a small item it is very solid and the detail on the glass is amazing.

And my last item is this 'Noritake' China Blue Moon sugar bowl with lid. I was attracted by the blue flower pattern and loved the 60's look of the china bowl. I brought it for 99p.

For this weeks thrifty finds I am linking in to Liz's Magpie Monday here 

 

I am always on the look out for new blogs to add to my reading list. I tend to gravitate towards vintage/thrifty/crafty blogs, and I have recently added a few to my blog roll (Thank you to the lovely Lakota at Faith Hope and Charity Shopping who always recommends brilliant blogs to read - grab a cuppa and take a look!)

That is why I love blogging, by reading other peoples blogs you can find so many other like minded people out in the blogging world.

There is always room for more!

Happy Thrifting

Bxx

Tins, Pins and Red Roses

I can never walk past the Cath Kidston shop in my local big 'town' without having a quick browse, I love the patterns and colour on her products, and whenever my birthday rolls around she is always on my wish list. Last week whilst out shopping, I happened to pass her shop (not really a coincidence) and found myself drooling over her products inside, I spied this very cute red rose pin book. I love vintage tins and the red roses on this tin really caught my eye, when I opened the tin book I was sold.

It was filled with sewing pins! I am always happy to have more pins.

On the same shopping trip I also found this cool vintage tin, I love the old fashioned clothes and scene displayed on the tin. It has 16 plasters (bandages) in it, all with vintage pictures on them.

After my recent sewing project of making a pillowcase dress for the great charity pillowcase dress for poverty, it has spurred me on to think about my next sewing project. Unfortunately my miserable low amount of fabric in my fabric box has stopped me from moving forward with any sewing.
This week I finally managed to order a load of fabric, after finding a great fabric shop online, who sell the most beautiful fabric and haberdashery items in their online shop. I am alway nervous about ordering online to new companies, but I was really pleased with the quick service, and a small gift they put in every order!

 

Roses,roses, roses..how I adore thee!

My fabric stash is now very much 'open for business' again, I have a something in mind for my next project which involves my new fabric, glue, and ribbon, now all I need is to find some time to do it.......

Bxx