Cardiff Trip Purchases

On my lovely week off before the start of the Christmas rush at work, I went on a trip to Cardiff with my lovely friend Kylie.  We went to the Creative Stitches show as it was far nearer to me then the Sewing for Pleasure show that we normally go to in Birmingham.  Unfortunately it wasn't nearly as good.  There were a lot of card making stalls and some really random ones selling cheese and nuts but I did find something to spend my money on.

Iron on appliqués

Aren't these cute?  I could have bought so many more of them! They have a website too called Patsy May but they don't seem to have all the designs on there so far.  I am hoping they add them soon as I can see that I am going to want more.

Next we went on the search for vintage shops in the town and after seeing a few which were not quite what we were looking for we stumbled upon the wonderful Vintage Affair.  They don't seem to have a website but the link is to the facebook page.  The shop is amazing, it is a complete treasure trove of goodies with everything downstairs dating up to the 1950's and upstairs is '60's to modern day.  I totally love this shop and spent an hour and a half in there just looking at the clothing and sewing patterns and trim.  I tried on the most fantastic lacey wedding dress which was far too small but I am in love with it.

I bought a couple of bits:

Vintage pin

Plastic fruit possibly for jewellery or sweater clips

Beautiful aged lace trim

Black lace trim

How beautiful is this trim?  One triangle of it could jazz a top up so much!  The lady in the shop believes it is actually Victorian.  I can't believe it, actual Victorian trim and it was really reasonable priced too.  They have lots of different vintage trims from different eras and all really well priced.

Fruity Carrier Bag Holder

Today I finished off my carrier bag holder.  I have needed one of these for a while as I have carrier bags coming out of my ears and they were just shoved in a cupboard in the utility room which was a complete waste of space.  So now I have a lovely new holder for them :) 

A plain sewn holder just wasn't really me to I made some fruity friend from felt and appliqued them of by hand to just add a bit of fun to it.

Cheeky cherries, sunshine orange slices and a bitter lemon......

 ....a moustached kiwi, baby blueberries and sour grapes!  Heehee!

I searched a few tutorials to get the basic size and measurments and used the one below fot this, but I didn't use the patchwork idea, as although it is really lovely I already had an idea of what I wanted.  http://saidosdaconcha.blogspot.com/2009/10/scrap-buster-tutorial-scrappy-carrier.html

Late Christmas presents are the best!

I have been away for the weekend with my lovely *hem* bunch of guides.  We did some crafty activites including glass painting, space pictures and lavender bags which went down well apart from the fact they cannot be trusted with expensive permenant paint and got it everywhere.  We also made 5 min ice cream and sherbet which worked really well and I would recommend to anyone.

Before I went away I recieved a lovely late Christmas present form a fellow crafty friend.  She made me this gorgeous wollen scarf which changes colour and the colours themselves really remind me on her :)

Isn't it amazing?  It must have taken her ages!  I also got this very cute earring tree and a necklace holder which I haven't put up yet as I am not sure where to put it yet.

She sent me this very cute little mirror, I love the Moomins and I have a bit of an on going joke/nickname with my bf about them too.  It has a pretty blue moomin on the otherside too.

 The whole lot is amazing and I can't wait to use them!  At the moment I am working on a carrier bag holder which I am hoping to applique some fruit onto in rainbow colours so here is a progress so far piccie!

I got hungry tonight and tried the microwave cake recipe that has been circling the net.  It totally exploded heehee!  but was very yummy and I added choc chunks.