Woolfest is the best!

Wowee what a day, I am shattered! Today was Woolfest day, which meant a 5.30am start, a drive to meet up with the group from Baa Ram Ewe in Headingley, a coach trip up to Cumbria (taking in the stunning scenery en route) and then being amazed by the wool and yarn on sale. I might have even bought a few little treats at a couple of my existing and new favourite shops, in between the gasping as well as the knitting, chatting, sipping coffee and lunching with my travel buddy Naomi.































And we even made a few furry new friends, including a gorgeous eight-week old lamb (awwwww!) and some alpacas that looked a lot like oversized poodles lol!











We saw some fab crafts (like knitting with fabric and needles that looked like swords!) and met some lovely, interesting and knowledgable people). I can't believe how much we packed into one day! And, although a little tired, we had a fab coach journey back knitting while watching and singing along to Mamma Mia on the tv! I hadn't seen it before and hadn't been too fussed but I quite liked it! And we enjoyed some more lovely views too.















Now it's 10pm, I have been up 17 hours (having only had six hours sleep the night before) so I'm heading off to bed. But I will be back soon with some pictures of today's purchases :)

Project bedroom... and sheep! Baaaaa!

Sorry I haven't blogged in a few days, I have been so busy attending a family wedding (and you don't want to be bored with someone else's wedding photos!), working, looking after the boys, erm, that's about it really, so I feel like I haven't had much to come on here and share with you.

But! Today I can share another sneak peek at my new bedroom project. I got two of these lovely bedside tables on eBay and was a little disappointed at the colour - it can only be described as smoker's yellow, yack! But that turned out to be a good thing as it prompted me to crack open the paint and rummage through my old scrapbook papers to totally transform them into something so pretty that will match the new room. And here we are - do you likey? Me very much likey!

The colour is pashmina - which I think describes the shade perfectly.

Check out those sexy legs!

Imagine those drawer fronts once I have collected and attached the most lovely clear glass pumpkin-style knobs - to match the gorgeous dressing table I'm going to paint in the same colour - happy sigh!

I had started to struggle with the new decor and making sure the different elements all tied in, but I found the most inspiring and useful website ever and now I'm planning more handmade items for the room than Kirsty Allsopp has in her entire home lol! Anyway, you simply have to check out the Ideal Home magazine website gallery - but be warned, you might lose a few hours of your day in there! Don't say I didn't warn you, that's all!

And, just in case you'e still here I've changed my mind, I am going to bore you with a couple of wedding photos from last weekend, but only because they're of my boys, who looked super cute in their little suits!

Me and Alex (me wearing my hand knitted shrug)

Alex, awwwww, he looks so grown up!

Alex and big brother Harry

Gareth's cousin and his beautiful bride outside the church

The wedding, reception and our hotel were located in the most lovely little villages, Saddlesworth and Marsden, situated somewhere between Huddersfield and Manchester, and I spied some absolutely sweet little shops that I would love to visit (sadly they were all closed on the Sunday, sob!). I think as it's not that far away at all we will go visit next time we have a free sunny Saturday and I can't wait. Saying that, this Saturday is looking pretty exciting! I'm going to Woolfest, woo hoo!

So, providing I remember to take my trusty little camera I will be back sometime over the weekend to report back. Eeeeeeeeeeep, lovely views of the Cumbrian countryside and shopping for scrummy soft yarns, yay, I can't wait!

In other news...

It's been a hectic ol' week, yet again. Alex came down with chicken pox overnight on Sunday, so my hopes of resuming normality come Monday morning were totally dashed and instead of enjoying a return to working days I've had to play nurse to an energetic and not-at-all poorly toddler in quarantine (otherwise known as our house) before going off to work in the evening. And if that weren't tiring enough, we've also had to empty our bedroom ready for the new carpet being laid. I am shattered. We were supposed to have the decorating done before the new carpet went down yesterday but it just wasn't possible. And chances of getting any crafting done have been slim. Anyhoo the carpet looks fabby, as does my gorgeous new dressing table and mirror which are now taking pride of place on it (but need re-painting so everything matches and looks fresh). As for the decorating, that will have to resume (extremely carefully) next week.

I don't think I've blogged in almost a week (ooops, bad Natalie, very sorry!) so I haven't shared my experience of a little trip to Texere Yarns in nearby Bradford. Oh wow! It's not just a yarn shop, it's an entire yarn warehouse! No! Make that yarn heaven! It's huge! Here it is from the outside.

I wish I'd had more pennies to spend, and I'll certainly be rushing back when I do. I also wish I didn't take both hyperactive boys with me, but I don't suppose I could have left them home alone (could I?! Lol!) I did manage to buy a couple of balls of aran wool though to make Harry's teacher a little mug cosy as a thank you for teaching him this year. Anyone who lives near enough to visit, go, you must go! Everyone else, don't get too disappointed as you can order online, hurrah!

What else have I been up to? Hmmmm. Well something very exciting happened yesterday! The postman woke me up at just before 7am (not happy) to deliver a big box of freebie goodies for the kids (very happy!). We had been invited to a CBeebies Timmy Time event in London, but I feared it was too far to take both boys, so instead the kind organiser sent them a box of goodies containing Timmy Time jigsaws, DVD, poseable characters, mini books and this super cute Timmy bag, which Harry adores, as well as a huge bottle of Fairy and fabric conditioner - which was much appreciated as we had just run out of washing powder and I couldn't go out and buy more thanks to the chicken pox.

The mini books are a giveaway promotion with certain packs of Fairy - so guess what I'll be stocking up on later! Thank you kind people at Fairy/Timmy Time :)

Talking of Timmy, that fluffy little lamb has reminded me of a few things. One is my trip to the wool festival next Saturday, which I so can't wait for! (Hmmm, I wonder if Harry will lend me his new bag to take along to meet the real sheep, lol!) And also of my knitting. My blanket is coming along really nicely and hopefully the several hours on the coach next weekend will help no end. I'll try pop back with pictures very soon.

Actually I will be back really soon as I have a lovely scrapbook layout to share with you too, not of my boys, but of a gorgeous baby girl and I have a little bit of exciting news to go with it so check back :)

Natalie x

60 Minute Makeover - or not!

Ok. Maybe it was a tad unrealistic trying to get our bedroom completely transformed (I'm talking everything new, carpet, furniture, decor, soft furnishings, accessories, and more) in like a week but the dream of my swish new boudoir is being dragged out longer than I'd like, sob. The blame lies with the wardrobes, which aren't now being delivered until the end of this month, and seeing as the new carpet goes down next week this is a problem (I know what you're thinking, but please stay with me!). So we have to clear the room completely for the carpet fitters, which means goodbye rickety old wardrobes, and hello clothes strewn everywhere for a fortnight. Also we can't put our new bed together until we have built the new wardrobes as otherwise there wouldn't be room, so it's either put it up, take it down, put it up again or sleep on the matress on the floor. Sigh. I bet Linda Barker and Laurence Llewenyn Bowen what-his-face don't have to put up with these difficulties! (Not really sure any of this is relevant, apologies people!)

Anyway, these delays have given me extra time to make and buy lots of lovely things for the new room. First up is this fab wire half mannequin which is currently looking adorable on the back of the door (although I'm undecided as to whether this is her permanent new home yet).







I have also made a couple more cushions using my bargain Market offcuts and some lovely fat quarters I have been stashing for this purpose.







Please admire my lovely new shimmery wallpaper in the background, it's soooo preeeeeetty!

Next up I need to go to this fab huge fabric shop I just discovered and buy the lovely cream fabric for my floaty curtains (they'll be more pretty than practical, but then that's what blinds are for - I'll be making those too!) and best of all it's only £2 per metre, woo hoo! Not sure that's all I'll come out with though lol, I am too weak!

I also have some really cute frames to paint with the fab slightly metallic paint I have, and if the vintage pieces of furniture I have bought don't match in colour they might also get the same treatment. Busy busy! Hopefully I'll have more photos soon.

In the meantime, as a reward for getting to the end of this extremely long and terribly dull post, here are the promised photos of my gran's new teacup terrier puppy Charlie.










All together now, awwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!

Back soon, happy crafting :)
Xxx

Fun in the sun!

We spent a lovely day on Friday (was it Friday? The weekend has past by soooo fast!) at Kirkstall Abbey again. Yes, we had been recently, but it's just such a lovely, beautiful and tranquil place to play and chill out on a hot sunny day. We chose a peaceful spot by the river, partly in the shade (for the boys) and partly in the sun (for my pasty legs!) - or at least it was peaceful until we arrived! We had a picnic and the boys played with their igloo tent, bike, scooter and football and then we all had ice cream, yum. It was a really lovely day and I hope we have many more this summer.

For now it's full throttle on with our new bedroom - but I'll bore you with the details of how that's coming along in another post as well as some really cute pictures of my grandma's gorgeous new puppy, awwwww!

x

Feeling sew sew

Yesterday was a sewing day, which was inevitable given my absolute bargain finds on Morley market - man I am soooo heading back there once I have some more pennies! It not only has a bargain wool shop (hurrah!) but also a bargain fabric shop with the most lovely off-cuts for just £1, and some of them are a really decent size. So I just couldn't not buy a few and came home with this little stash.

Anyway, of course then I just couldn't leave them alone and so thought I'd have a go at Amy Butler's hourglass pillow pattern, which is available for free on her website. I didn't follow the pattern exactly, more the theory of it, but I'm thrilled with how it turned out. I love this fabric, it has the most gorgeous silky sheen to it and looks great on either side (it's perfectly inverted on the reverse side). I have some more sweet fabric fat quarters winging their way to me and I can't wait to set about making more of these lovely cushions in different shapes and sizes in the fabrics I want to match our new bedroom when it's decorated.

Talking of our new bedroom, I have been busy researching and looking for wallpapers, paints, furniture fabrics and linen and have so far collected these, ahhhhhh.

And then there's this bargain bedset, which I just love, love, love, it's so pretty and summery. I have the Yorkshire Linen Company store to thank for that one (check them out online, they have a fantastic sale on right now).

I'm also hoping to get a couple of shabby chic-style pieces of furniture to tie together the look, fingers crossed I can find some I love and can afford (it seems to be no matter how old or poor your item is, you label it 'shabby chic' and it immediately demands a price of three times as much!)

Hmmmm, what to do with the short time left this evening? Knitting I think, it's quick to get out, doesn't create mess and I'm so close to finishing my shrug I could probably get it finished, yay!

Catch you soon. x