Meet Sanchez!

Somehow I doubt I'll be getting much done this week.

Fabric Love

Here is just a glimpse of what arrived this week. Now the task of cutting has begun, lots of new products will be in the shop this spring.

Have a lovely weekend!

P.S. This is the first time I am posting from my phone with a Blogger App - apologies if it looks funny in any way. But if it is good it will make posting a whole lot easier in the future.

Mother's Day Swap

A few months back I also signed up to another swap, organised by the lovely ladies on the Babyledweaning Forum - it was the Secret Mother's Day Swap. The only guideline was that it had to be handmade, cost you no more than £5 and reach the recipient by today. Now I was so much in a rush to get my swap parcel in the post before we left Spain that I completely forgot to take photos, I hope my swap partner will take some. But today I opened my parcel, and it contained this lovely bag:

I am also very pleased to have found a nice spot in our new garden for future product photos, and the sun seems to be on my side at the moment. Speaking of products, this week I spent an obsence amount of money to refill my fabric stash,  I am very excited about the parcels that should be arriving in the next couple of days. I have worked on a lot of new ideas for the shop and am now looking for a few nice craft markets or similar where I can start taking a table and get out there again.

Have a lovely Sunday, and to all the mothers out there,

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Postcards Part 2 Or Meet The Queen of Selvedge

There I was trying to figure out other designs for my postcards when I came across this blog where a lovely lady called Karen gives you all sorts of ideas about quilting and also what to do with selvedge, and she has a fabulous tuorial on how to make selvedge postcards. So now I have turned into the Queen of Selvedge ...

But I had great fun finishing my postcard project. I'm quite sure I will be making many more of these in the future.

Time to get them to the post office and start working on my next project.

P.S. This post has been edited - there seems to be conflicting opinion as to how to spell selvedge and I have now adopted the latter version. I'm sure every version is a little bit right.

Four Down, Six To Go ...

Here's a sneak preview of my postcards for the 2011 Postcards Swap. I finished four within the last 24 hours so should have no problems finishing the remaining six until next Wednesday.

For a few days I played around with my fabric stash and scraps, browsed the web for inspiration, emptied out my large basket of ribbons, purchased some stick-on gems .... until I finally found the right combinations.

I also, for the first time, started sewing on paper and gave the postcards a decorative stitch on the reverse.

I'm quite pleased with the result so far... I'd love to keep them myself I think! I hope the person who receives them will be just as pleased.

Another Swap? What was I thinking?

Well I just couldn't resist. It's the same every time - whenever I need a little kick to get my creative gears in move again, I find a swap. I don't even remember why or how, but the other night whilst surfing from blog to blog, as you do, I landed on the incredibly creative blog of ihanna, and ever the sucker for creativity that I am, I instantly fell for the Postcard Swap 2011. I have a few ideas but nothing started yet, but fact is that by April 8th, I have to have 10 completed postcards. I've never tried sewing on paper so might give that a try. Unfortunately registration is closed now but do keep an eye out for the results, I think it'll be fabulous, check out last year's cards here.

Better get started!

Forgive The Silence

Thank you for your lovely comments following my last post. It is difficult finding the right words and blog post subjects for the one after your baby has died.

We're doing ok.

I think that's probably the best way to put it. They say the pain of losing a child never goes away, it just becomes a little smoother aorund the edges, and I couldn't have found a better description.

We have decided to leave Spain, well as a matter of fact we had already made this decision at the end of last year but the plan was that Joshua would be with us. It has been for various reasons, mainly for additional support through family and friends as Mr Frog is originally from Dublin. Also we had made contact with the Jack & Jill Children's Foundation, a wonderful organisation providing care and support for children with neurological development issues. Sadly Joshua never made it to Ireland, but we arrived 8 days ago and have now more or less finished unpacking the boxes. We are in the lovely countryside of County Wicklow, but only 40 minutes from the centre of Dublin, our new house is lovely, the school is great, the sun is shining (that probably won't last long) and we're slowly recovering from the strains of the last 12 months. We are taking things easy and are being kind to ourselves, which is the most important thing at the moment.

So on the eve of our first St. Patrick's Day celebration on the Emerald Isle, here's to the future. Let's take it an hour at a time.

Lá Fhéile Pádraig Shona Duit!