Been Awol !

Or rather distracted by twitter and /or facebook !   Still been a productive few weeks, dd turned 2 !  She was, of course, thoroughlly spoiled and she deserved it.  A small family gathering at home, with lots of yummy food and pretty cakes.  I cannot believe that she is now two,  nor that her 'big' brother will be four in two months time ... where has the last few years gone.

playing intensly with the button board

We had a fantastic day out at the safari park, which both kids loved and of course wonderful animals aside, there is the biggest playpark.   Ds had a fabulous time showing off and climbing *very* high nets, and going down the biggest chutes - hard to believe a few months ago he was aprehensive of them. 

*hello birdy*

And ... it IS the Easter Holidays here so I'm not feeling too bad at having some lazy(ish) days.  Ds and I are still working away on the nature box and his little photo book to go with it, so hopefully that will be finished by the time he returns to nursery.   On a crafty  note, I have been trying to figure out facebook pages (arggh !) and also, been making lots more flower pots, and some pretty pendants ... which I will photo and upload shortly.
TraceyT
x

Jeez time flies

Pottering and doing *account paperwork* - why didn't I stick to my plan of little and monthly ... ?????  All done now I think, files zipping down the wire - toes crossed all is well (numbers are not my strong point).
I am now exhausted after the busiest day with flumps, and will leave you with a delightful photograph we took on holiday the other week ... DS and I are making a nature book and box.

 Just sitting in the woods it was - bless the little creature.

An Award !

Catching up after my holiday, to find I was given the follow award from two lovely fellow bloggers Bod for tea and also from Elle & Belle

This is an award for the little blogs (less than 300 followers).  Thank you both for sending it to me.

The rules are:

1. Post displaying the award, linking back to the person who awarded you
2. Choose your own blog picks and let them know they’re been given the award
3. Hope everyone discovers some new favourites
4. Revel in the blog love!

I found these lovely blogs and have sent them on the award. 

Badger Mad
Mommy Beadzoid
 Lara

Pop over for a peak at their blogs. 

This made me cry !

No matter what I make, or create, or turn from old to new - I can never do this  ...

DS aged 3.5 made this for me at nursery and even tried to write his own name.   The flowers are just gorgeous, hee hee I love the way he's packed as many as he can in this tiny pot.  But most importantly I LOVED how proud he was and how pleased with it he was when he gave it to me.

I will remember that look forever, his big blue eyes, beaming smile, he had that look of 'I love you mummy' and boy was I choked !

Yes, I did shed a tear, my beautiful clever little boy.  He's come a long way from the tiny, notgrowing inside, induced way too early,  4lb button that he was, and he's doing so well and I'm so proud of him. And I feel blessed every day, to have my two beautiful little people (DD almost 2), and I adore them so much.  That's what the maternity matters  means to me ...  that never questioned love, the struggles, the mischievousness, the cuddles and tears .. the surprise little gifts they bring you x

 

One week old - so fragile

TraceyT

I've been featured !

Wow, am so chuffed that the give-away at http://scotland4thesenses.blogspot.com/  went so well.  Congratulations to the lucky winners, and thank you to everyone who stopped by my blog and left me such lovely comments.   I appreciated them all.

I have also been featured *puffs out chest* on http://ajb47.wordpress.com/2011/03/31/pebble-heart/  thank you very much, it's lovely to know that people like what I do (this crafting at home can be a bit lonely sometimes lol)

 I have lots of ideas and lots of new things coming along, so keep in touch.

You can see my website here Pebble Heart   which, having built myself and transitioned from another webspace, I'm quite pleased with it ... !

I also was presented with a super blogger award, which I will update and pass on the award tomorrow.

TraceyT

Mother's Day Competition

Hey everyone, I'm assisting with a little mother's day giveaway via my very good friend at scotland4thesenses.blogspot.com .   Wonderful pictures, beautifully written and all about Scotland. All you have to do is leave your answer to the question that has been set.    Good Luck x

Do pop by for a peak details are here Competition

Family Time

This has been the biggest whirlwind week I've had for ages, with crafting, children, and classes - it's gone by in a flash.  We are having some much needed family time next week, so will catch up with you all then.  Hopefully I'll have worked out how to put the tutorials onto here ... I'm being lazy and trying to avoid re-typing and inserting tons of photos ... but I will if I have to x

Just moved blogger

Trying out the new format.   I'm impressed that I managed to import some stuff, lost all my followers and followees but will re-tag you all.

one more flower pot

custom made with camouflage flowers

Special order for a special friend.   Have lots more of these coming for mother's day, watch this space !

Paper, Scissors, Glue = Kusudama Flowers

Kusudama Individual Flowers

Loved making these dinky little flowers.  The ones above are 2" square (5 squares to make one flower) and used little effort for something very pretty.

Popped into a little pot

This is my second go at the Kusudama Flower Ball.  Dort squished the first one !!!!

Kusudama Flower Ball

This is 3" square and consists of 12 petals to make the ball up, which is a bit model making, a bit fiddly, but quite sweet when it's complete.  I have still to glue this one together as I'm waiting on some pretties for the ribbon centre before sealing off.

And as I have lots of paper to use ... these ones are made from those 6x6 paper stack pads that I seem to have a huge amount of ... they are MASSIVE !!!!   I have lots of ideas for these, and am anxiously stalking the postman waiting on some stems and oasis and other 'flower' type things to arrive !!!

As I had all the papers out, I made little post it note gift pads to use up some odds & ends ...

 

All these items are very easy to make, with not too much supplies needed and make great little gifts x

Fun with Paper

Recycled, scrap, magazines, newspapers ... Paper is so much fun.  I made these pretty little pendants from pages out of old magazines, added a bead, glued into a discarded lid top and popped on a little bail.  They turned out quite nice. I also had a real go at making my own paper beads (there is a wealth of information on how to on the internet ...apparently paper bead making goes back to Victorian times !).  I remember making these with my nana as a wee girl, kept my sister and I out of mischief for quite some time !

I used a combination of modpodge, glossy accents, and diamond glaze to seal variouis batches, and think they all turned out equally nice, with a good finish and shine on them.  I did read on my cyber travels, that mod podge can get sticky if it gets warm from your skin ... I will need to test one out.

There's lots of variations that can be done with these, decorative scissors for a nice 'edge',  glitters, ribbon wraps round the edges, and I'm sure I will come back to doing more of these soon.

I did these as an easy project for a local group, and I think everyone enjoyed making them and having a pendant to take home.







TraceyT

Beautiful Boxes

These boxes were so pretty, that I really did have to buy them.  £8.00 for the three ... such a bargain. The biggest one is about 12inches by 9.5inches so can store craft goodies in a pretty way.

 

Had a lovely morning crafting with some friends and we made these flower corsages (I am donating mine to my niece for Burns Day).   One of ds's nursery teacher very kindly gave us a box with tartan swatches, bits and bobs and some templates.  I have made flower corsages before with felts, ribbons, hand-knitted petals, but this one was put together using a technique I've not used before so it was lovely to learn something new today.  I can see me having another bash at these as I have lots of pretty fabrics lying about, and would maybe like to try them much smaller, maybe as a pendant.

Having some fun in the kitchen ...

I have decided to try at least once a month to bake (or make) something - particularly something the children can help with.  We made biscuit chocolate truffles at New Year which ds loved shaking in the bags to coat with the chocolate strands.

And this week I made Tablet ... not one for the kids though - boiling sugar and children do not go together.  Relatively easy(ish) to make, but hard work on the arms for all the stirring and mixing - but it seemed to work.  A little bit of tablet does go a long, long way - it is so sweet and very moreish.  There are many recipes online and all much of the same ...but I followed this one as it had pictures ... :0)

Next month I am going to try and bake these delicious Banana Muffins from the detailed recipe on Debbie's blog (Country Heart & Home) ... oooh and the decorated sugar cookies ... too delicious !


Tracey x

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Year.  We did, the children had a ball and were of course thoroughly spoiled.

A couple of quick pics of them having fun ...

And onto some serious crafting, in whatever form that will take me in 2011, though I can guarantee it will involve copious amounts of wire !!

Tracey