Bunny Birthday Card...

I've been getting a little obsessive with instagram of late, can you tell? I don't have a good camera so it hides the shame of poor quality photos well!

I thought I'd share this cute little card I hand sewed and embroidered for my friends 30th, she loves bunnies too so i thought I'd get that into her card...

I love the little whiskers and it was pretty easy to do! I just used stranded embroidery floss, tied a knot in one end, pulled it through, trimmed it and split the floss down again into individual strands, finished off with a little pink french knot nose!

I really enjoyed making this card, and am really pleased with the finished results! What do you think?

My Garter...

One of my latest sewing projects was to make my own garter for the wedding day, I knew what I wanted, but was on a budget so this seemed like the best option...

I started by sewing some lace onto a strip of elastic just the right size for my thigh... 

I wanted this to be my something blue, so added a ribbon rose, made my simply gathering up a simple running stitch along one edge of the ribbon...

I finished off the centre of the rose with some small pearlescent beads, but it looked a little lost...

So I made another ribbon rose by folding each strip of ribbon over and stitching it into place, this is the first time I've ever done this and I kinda made it up as I went along, not too bad though...

Again I finished this with a few pearlescent beads, randomly distributed this time though, and I finished it off with a little lace bow, I did love the final result...

I'M MARRIED! Our wedding in a nutshell...

I'm going to leave it to Amy to blog our wedding, but here are a couple of pictures that pretty much sum up what was an amazing day...

Photos courtesy of Amy Lewin Photography

There's also a video which captures the vibe of what was a rainy but otherwise, brilliantly fun day!

Charlotte and Josh Wedding Highlights from LifeStory Videos on Vimeo.

Link courtesy of LifeStory Videos

Love and why I've not been around too much lately...

OK, so I'm not going to start banging on about love, really, I'm no expert! However I do love my boyfriend, (I know, I know it's a sewing blog.... But I am getting to the point. Promise!) I love him so much I foolishly agreed to marry him, so that would explain my absence! Weddings are far too time consuming, and unfortunately for crafty folk like me, I have just too many ideas and not enough time, I am also especially crippled by my need for perfection, meaning everything takes 10 times longer than it ought to!

This won't be the end of my wedding blogs as I have a few things I'd like to share, and no, they don't all involve sewing, like this one, but it sure is pretty....

I was lucky enough... and I genuinely mean lucky, I am still amazed I managed to stumble across our Wedding Photographer Amy, who is bizarrely enough also a Textiles teacher like myself, but she was available to shoot our wedding and she has a style of photography which I love!

I thought I'd share a few of these photos with you...

No.... We're not ducks!!! (But they're far more photogenic then us!)

See, thats why we have no heads!! 

I love this one, for some reason I think of 'Where The Wild Things Are', why, I know not...

It was cold so...

...and it was yummy! 

I love the cinematic feel of the photos, its interesting and fresh, whilst having an almost timeless quality to it. Much Love. 

Amy has lots of other this to look at too: 

http://www.amylewinphotography.com/ (inc. far more photogenic people than us, even though she manages to make us look good!)

She blogs too! Here http://amylewinphotography.wordpress.com/

And has a big old love for all things Wedding, good job eh? 

http://weddingsmadewithlove.net/

See you soon!

A Mothers Day Project, Marshmallow Biscuit Hats!

So I know this is technically a sewing blog, but, I was having a flashback to my youth t'other day and remembered making these for my Mum at Sunday School. Come to think of it, we might have made them as Easter Bonnets... either way, perfect for this time of year, why not have a go during the school holidays!

I loved making them and thought it would be a great little project for little folk, I have none of my own, so clearly I am just a big kid, but Dad's take note! (I'm hoping that my Mum and Grandma will appreciate the nostalgia trip as much I as I have!)

Best of all, they are SUPER easy...

Things you will need:

• Packet of Ready to roll icing
• Rich tea biscuits (Digestives and Ginger Snaps, or other Mum's favourites work just as well, as long as there isn't a hole in the middle)
• Marshmallows
• Jam, or some other suitable edible glue type stuff (e.g. Nutella/butter cream)
• Things to decorate, I used writing icing pens and things from my cupboard, sugar flowers and things like that work really well, or what about favourite sweets like dolly mixtures

How to make them:

1. Roll out your ready roll icing until its nice and even (don't go too thin though, else it will tear, especially if little hands are making them) cut out a circles that are a bit bigger than your biscuits...

2. Spread your jam over the biscuit top and place your marshmallow in the centre...

3. Place the icing over the biscuit and press down firmly until the shape of a hat has been made, take care not to tear it here, you can then trim any excess icing from around the edges...

4. Using the icing pens, decorate accordingly... (I would like to say I have decorated them to make it look like little hands had made them, but realistically I'm just not that good with icing pens, too gooey!)

5. Give them away... (Maybe make one or two yourself whilst you're at it!)


Hope you enjoy!


I would love to know if you'll be having a go at these, please leave a comment...

Liebster Blog award

Well, I received a rather lovely tweet on Thursday from Hannah @Made_By_Hannah, of handmadebyhannahblog.blogspot.com, a generally crafty individual, who also likes taking a needle to fabric, telling me that she had awarded me the Liebster blog award...

...what on Earth is that you may well ask, I know I did... 

It is awarded to blogs with less than 200 followers, by those who have just been nominated, I suppose it works a little like a chain letter, 'a chain blog' if you will, but what a fantastic way to help support fellow bloggers raise their profile, so it is now my given duty to pass this on... 

The blogs I have nominated after a good deal of thought are... 

1. http://lynseygray.blogspot.com/ 

A very talented knitter, scribbler, creator type... her blog has been quiet for a while, but is full of fabulous ideas and shows off her wonderful talents. (also, shh... but I know she is currently developing a whole new blog and I have no doubt she will direct you there through this blog) 

2.http://modelmakeandmend.blogspot.com/

A crafter who seems to live in lots of cool places and has the BEST ideas... 

quite frankly I'm a little jealous!

3. http://samanthaeynon.blogspot.com/

Another illustrative type from the Midlands like me, she has a great blog, full of cute drawings and things that make me very jealous, as well as lots of very cool paper toys!

4. http://meanyjar.blogspot.com/

Yes I am jealous of the banner on this blog... I want it... I am also loving the cool ideas for crochet on here, it also helps as my new years resolution is to learn to crochet... lets see if I manage it! 

I am still amazed by the fact she has less than 200 followers! 

5. http://amylewinphotography.wordpress.com/ 

Not a crafty type this time, although a textiles teacher like me, I was fortunate enough to stumble across Amy who is going to be our wedding photographer come June this year, I love her work, and whilst I have no idea how many followers she has, it's a fairly recent blog so I'm going to hope I can do this. She takes lovely photos, and yes there are some on there of me and my other half... I'm not sure I should have admitted that one!! 

Until next time folks, have fun exploring these lovely folks blogs! 

Felt Birthday gifts...

Happy Birthday to me.....

Ok, so 1. My birthday was weeks ago... and 2. I'm not quite so self obsessed I would actually write myself a birthday blog. However I did throw myself a little party and as a result got some pretty cool presents...

As I am (even more rapidly it seems) approaching 30, it seems perfectly acceptable to continue partying like its 1989, when I would have been... oh 5. So in true 5 year old spirit we play silly party games including pass the parcel and pin the tail on the donkey, only we also include alcohol. It's always a lot of fun!

So imagine my delight when my friend Charlotte, who is a regular at my sewing sessions, and at my parties, who also featured on my last post with her cat nip fishing rod, presented me with this....

It really is pin the tail on the donkey in felt! What an absolutely amazing idea, I'm not sure I would want to trust actual 5 year olds with said pins, but it was an inspired choice of present, needless to say I loved it! I also love the fact she supplied me with multicoloured pins so that we could each have our own colour... She thought it all out brilliantly!

As over the moon as I was with that, imagine my delight as I continued to rifle through my bag of goodies to discover a felt badge, made following my first (and as yet only, I will try to fix this soon though!) tutorial on here, fittingly in the shape of a bird, because, well I like them, quite a lot!

Fabulous presents Charlotte, Thank You!