sneaky...

...look who i found curled up asleep in my scrap box? yes, he's asleep, not dead. cheeky boy.

frank's fields

this is what keeps my eldest quiet for hours...packing peanuts 'sown' carefully in the 'field'. (of course, all i can see is a pretty cool design...*puts thinking cap on*) for his irrigation pipes he's sticky taped drinking straws together. genius, huh? today he says he'll be mostly irrigating (watering on a huge scale for those unfamiliar with such a term) and hopes to harvest the crops later if the weather is good in the playroom.

cuteness

i'm not sure my husband was quite as excited as i was to find these frankly adorable little measuring jugs (that measure in cups as well as ml and fl oz) in waitrose reduced to just £2.25 a set. in fact i'm pretty sure he tutted, rolled his eyes then asked me if we needed any more bin bags. men are funny creatures, aren't they?

little gifts...

look what i found on the window ledge from my littlest boy. he's generally a cheeky little sod, but he's got a kind heart.

birdy for baby

i had this little stained glass bird made by the ever fantastic flora from through the round window for my tiny little brand new niece sofia. i'm meeting her tomorrow and i can't wait!

...and the day after...

just had to post these photos of the cake my friend amy made me for my birthday party yesterday. oh my god, i nearly had a heart attack from pure joy - a summersville cake! the colour! the designs! oh the happiness! (and of course the taste!) seriously, how cool? off to have more...

on the eve of my birthday...

so, tomorrow i turn 35. it's supposed to be a sunny weekend, so i'm rather excited about my birthday bbq with friends and family, and only a little bit depressed that i'm now classed as being in my mid thirties and i'm too old to be a super model, god dammit.

...yesterday i had a making day, for no other rhyme or reason than to please myself. it went nightmarishly wrong, nothing went very right, including this piece of canvas fabric - too many colours, and too many patterns. nonetheless i felt i had to try and save my making day from being a disaster and used the fabric to make a new handbag. it's actually a bit small, but it holds my purse nicely along with with my sunglasses, but not much else, opps. i even managed to include to inside pockets on the lining...it was only ever meant to be a protoype, so i'm not too upset. i leant a few things, so it's all good. and now i must run as i've had a phonecall to let me know my birthday present from sam is ready for collecting. bless him, it's a good 'un this year, it begins with 'apple' and ends in 'mac'. yay!

happy easter

have a lovely weekend everyone! hope yours is full of sunshine and chocolates, fluffy bunnies and spring flowers. arth gave me these this morning (he opened the back door and yelled "mumeee! there's a flower delivery for youuuuuu") and then decided that today was going to be the day that he learned to ride his bike without stabilisers, yahoo! well done that boy! that was an aim for the summer and he's done it a season early :)

we went to dubai...

...and now we're home again. it went by far too fast...but it was *brilliant*. 5 star luxury all the way, beautiful weather, doing mostly nothing all day long - i could get used to that...

the above pic shows the fountain display outside dubai mall (biggest mall in the world) this had a different water display to music every 20 minutes and was so awesome, it never got boring.

our hotel - the atlantis palm. the famous burj al arab hotel in the distance from the monorail.

so, all in all a fabulous time had by all...and now it's time to get back on the exercise mill (feeling horribly blobby) and to get on with some work. it was only last week and yet seems like a distant (but lovely) dream...

quiet

it's going a little bit quiet over the next weeks - my grandmother died last week and we've got the funeral on wednesday. it wasn't unexpected but it's obviously a funny old time and i'm feeling a bit weird. i'm fine and then all of a sudden i find it hard to think i shall never sit and have a cuppa with my nan again while she knits/crochets/sews in her chair with her cat on her lap. she could be an awkward old bag sometimes, but she was also very kind hearted. someone wrote a quote by thomas campbell on a sympathy card to my mum "to live in hearts we leave behind, is not to die" which is a nice sentiment.
anyway...things will be quiet around here for the time being - we've got some trips planned for the kids, and lots of play dates with friends, so i'll see you all soon. i'll still be tweeting though so perhaps i'll see you there. xxx

update...of course, having said all that, i've just sat down and made a cushion that might (fingers crossed) make an interesting impact on a new product i might introduce to the shop (testing out fabrics) and of course i'll show you the results of my new screen!)

feeling felty

thanks to all those who bought sale items - they sold jolly well and now i've only got 5 pieces left (2 x flower basket in greens, 2 x flower basket in pinks and 1 x meadow in plum if anyone's interested!) actually just sold one each of those while typing this, so there's only one piece each left of flower basket in greens and pinks! only one piece left! click here for the sale section. all gone!

so anyway...here's something new from summersville...screenprinted industrial felt placemats and coasters. i've done a brand new design for these, but in the meantime, i got over excited and used twist in white on grey. dreamy! lots and lots of options here - all of my designs will be available in grey, black and off white backgrounds in lots of different ink colours. more sets will be listed slowly over the next few weeks... so if you fancy any of these printed to order, just let me know. sets of 2 placemats cost $17.50, sets of 4 are $32.50. sets of 2 coasters cost $7.50 while sets of 4 are $14. check out the listings here and here.

in other rather boring news, i'm on a diet after freaking myself out by weighing myself this morning. i've practically drowned, i've drunk so much water and my good ol' trusty weightwatchers books have come out to play. i've even made myself a posh food diary to boot. i thought if i said it out loud i might actually stick to it, willpower not being one of my strong points an' all. talk about all or nothing...

yesterday i learnt a new word

i've just uploaded all my new sketchbook/notebooks on etsy and my back is killing me. just thought i'd post a couple more photos of the new twist design...off now to watch mindless telly and possibly eat some malteasers...hmmmmmm...malteasers...

ps...just to lower the tone somewhat (and you know how i love a tone-lowerer) i learnt a new word yesterday. sharting. it means to fart and follow through with a bit of, well, shit. i howled with so much much laughter, i actually slightly weed myself. thankfully i didn't shart. now that would've been ironic. did any of you lot ever hear this word, or am i so not down with kids it passed me by? i can't believe i've lived my entire 33 and 3 quarter years without knowing this word, and i keep trying to slip it into conversations. not easy when you're in a meeting with the bank manager or talking to your son's headmistress, trust me.

avenue

just to say that my new design 'avenue' has landed in my summersville shop! i'm really happy with it, it's so cute...and the colours are soft and yummy...hopefully more colours to come tomorrow - depending on time. totally off the subject, remember ages ago i mentioned i was starting to 'be good'? well that lasted about 3 days. pathetic. well, i finally bit the bullet last week and joined weightwatchers. (in part because of being haunted by the ads on tv every 5 seconds - yes i succumbed. also in part because of this post) man, was i shocked when i stepped on the scales - i thought i was a certain weight which was bad enough, but i was 7 pounds more than i thought. and i tell you, it's been damned hard not to ram the cupcakes from my previous post into my mouth, but i have resisted. but without me eating them, they're hanging around alot longer than they usually would be! gah! anyway, i then signed up for a yoga class, that's on tuesday nights, and i've been walking for an hour 3 times a week after dropping arth off at pre-school. which is great for me (i've lost 4.5 pounds in a week) but it doesn't leave so much time for work which has suffered cos summersville hit 50 sales 10 days ago and has promptly stood still. gah! sooooo...i'm hoping the addition of this cute little print will start the flow of more sales...t'would be nice! god, what a ramble...yapping is stopping me raiding the choc box...

mmmm...cupcakes

yay for lurid cupcakes! arthur chose this card for sam's birthday and we were inspired to surprise daddy with his own array of headache inducing cupcakes for his birthday tea last night. no prizes for guessing which ones we made...

there hasn't been...

from left, cousin will, anna, kelly the dog, me and marie

very much creating around here this week and i'm feeling cross and crotchety. sam has promised to take the boys for the whole day tomorrow, yay! and possibly this afternoon, double yay! it's not that i don't love the boys dearly, i do, i do. but sometimes you have to get away from the ones you love to appreciate them more. that's my opinion and i'm sticking to it. anyway, the point is that i haven't had anything particularly interesting to talk about or to show you lately so i was thrilled when i got a facebook email alert this morning from my cousin marcus to say he'd posted a pic of me on the site. well, i went and had a look with trepidation, praying it wasn't one of me between the ages of 10-15 because they were the 'awkward' years. but it wasn't, it was this totally cool one of me with my cousins...i'm the one in the green stripey top looking surprisingly funky, even with my bowl haircut. even at this age i thought i was fat, isn't that sad? i'm sure it was from general comments made - i had particularly skinny cousins on both sides of the family and i was very definitely chubby. but in a cute way, i see now, 28 years later.

oh, to relax and smell the roses...

the other day while my mum and dad were amusing the boys, i escaped to their garden (hmmm...i do alot of escaping from my children don't i? i'm not counting how long it is 'til september, honestly) and i really had a lovely wonder around their ma-hoo-sive garden. it's funny how you don't appreciate what's right in front of your face sometimes, isn't it? anyway, as the sun shone the last of the day's heat (this was before the weather turned to crap,) i did a few scribblings on a scrap of paper and a slighty running out biro. it was lovely and relaxing. then i got rugby tackled to the ground by one son, and almost killed by another one hitting golf balls at me. so back to reality with a jolt then.

gummy

i'm having a tiny unexpected blog break due to the annoying fact that i've got nasty case of conjunctivitis (thanks boys) there's no pic today cos i can't see properly to take one...in fact typing this out is not a fun task what with weeping eyes and all that. what a lovely picture of myself i've painted for you over the last couple of posts - an overweight, scummy eyed, over tired, harassed mother of two. lovely. see you soon, when i'm back to normal and i may have actually done something interesting to show you.
oh, on a side note, my lovely gorgeous cousin nell (*waving to her, cos she reads this sometimes*) was here for the weekend and i was scrolling through her camera pics when i came across one of her and ned from neighbours...i was nearly sick with jealousy! she's also snogged a before-he-was -famous orlando bloom, and sat on a train with joshua jackson. she's a celeb magnet i tell you! (she's gonna kill me for telling you this...)

porky

i'm a fatso. i've been eating rubbish for far too long thinking i'm getting away with it, but two days ago the sad truth hit in me in the face when i couldn't get on a favourite pair of trousers. so, the weightwatchers stuff (left over from having babies!) has been dragged out and i'm up and running (not literally, bike riding's more my thing), and strangely i'm already feeling better - i drank my 2 litres of water yesterday and i feel really good. someone once told me that if you felt hungry (in the middle of the afternoon when you're tempted to snack), to drink water, you might be dehydrated and i think they're probably right. i barely drank anything except tea, so all this water is a shock to the system as well as the bladder, i got up about 3 times last night, heh.

anywoo, i'm working on the above for my neice, she's 10 on tuesday, i hope to goodness she likes it...she'd probably prefer make-up or something a bit cooler. ah well, we'll see. have a happy (and sunny!) weekend :)

a few more jobs...

above: desk before. below: desk after.

above: sink area before. below: sink area after.

...to do, but it's finished in the main! i've never had such a neat and tidy workspace EVER. (mainly because i wouldn't spring for anything nice on the assumption it would get trashed, but after looking at beautiful studios on t'internet, i've changed my mind) i know that it's nothing like this amazing place but i think i've used the space to the it's best potential! i've still got to get a door for the boiler, get sam to cut and fit the kick board, (which will also make the cupboard less lop-sided!) get a nice new dustbin. i also need to paint the pine table and paint my chair and cover the seat....i'd better get on with some work in it while the kids are playing happily in the garden. there's an air of anticipation in the air on the first day of the school hols! i'm sure it won't last long...

lovely day...

yesterday we went to the seaside for the day...and oh, it was a right o'l treat! it was so sunny and lovely, i seem to relax as soon as i see the sea. i dream of having a new england style house on the beach (yeah, i know, who doesn't?) fantastic. the above pic is of an excited arth on the beach...he wouldn't stay still long enough to let me take a proper one..."no, mummy, i want to dig!"

anyhoo, i've just listed the above canvas (called 'random yellow') and the previous one ('random red') in the shop. oh yeah, talking of shops, i've just opened a new one on folksy. it's a new marketplace for handmade stuff, a uk version of etsy, if you will. it's in beta mode at the moment, but so far, it's good to look at and pretty easy to use. all very exciting!