A Great Weekend!!

I just love going home to Clonmel to visit my parents. They are great with the Grandkids and I always come back with treasures from my childhood.

This week I found my old letters/numbers stamping kit from the ELC- perfect for making Christmas paper and gift-tags as the ink is red. Will be great for getting Dyl to make words too. Also found my Easter egg moulds so will have fun making them nearer the time. And I brought back a load of postage stamps for future swap-bot swaps!!!

My Dad let me use his mobile phone upgrade to get myself a snazzy new phone and my Mum pooped in to O' Reilly's pharmacy and managed to snag the last 2 baby goodie bags from their baby giveaway day. Loads of free samples and leaflets!!  The only thing I missed out on this weekend was the Clonmel Market at Dudley Mills- they always have great crafty bits so will def have to make it next time.

Finally this weekend we booked our Summer holiday to the French Med- Can't wait, just hope Arabella can cope with the heat...

This morning our postie brought me a very pleasant surprise a RAK from PJ, a Little Bo Peep and a sheep iron on for Arabela's blanket. I had totally forgotten it was on it's way. Must get my swaps sent this week too. I'm due to send 2 small envies of Irish stuff e.g. stamps etc and a penpal letter.

Also to Do this week:
- Walk Everyday
- Attempt to cook a new recipe (My New Year's Resolution)
- Send out the last few baby pressie Thank Yous...... (3 months later!!)
- See 'Tangled'

Phew, better get to it!!! xXx

Happy Belated New Year!!!

Wow, it's been a very exciting & hectic few months.

Our beautiful Princess, Arabella was born on the 28th October and has been keeping us busy ever since!
Dylan had his fifth birthday in November, celebrating in great style and was the star of the school play (literally, he played a star!!) in December.

Santa (& all my family and friends) was very good to me. My stocking was filled with tons of ribbons, crafty bits, baking gadgets and I got lots of books to fill me with ideas for a crafty 2011. My faves are:

• 'Lovely Things to Make for Girls of Slender Means' ~ Eithne Farry
• 'Kirstie's hoemade Home' ~ Kirstie Allsopp
• 'The Crafty Minx' ~ Kelly Doust

I got spoilt:

Arabella doesn't give me a lot of time to myself but I managed to get a few bits done in advance for her:

This was my moses basket when I was a baby, almost 26 years ago. After me, my 2 brothers, sister and my son it wasn't looking too great!!! So with some new lining (and I can't take all the credit, I had a HUGE amount of help from my Gran's friend) and a new stand (the original was mouse-attacked!) it now looks like this (I've since added some pretty ribbons too because a girl can never have enough ribbons!):

 This is the bunting I made for Arabella, surprisingly easy to do, even for me who has never been allowed to use a sewing machine before!! Her room needs doing up but hopefully we'll be moving soon!

These shoes were so much fun to make, and reversible too, I was so proud when the little princess wore them. The pattern is from: http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/reversible_fabric_baby_shoes_2

Finally, and nothing to do with crafting, but another love of mine... SHOPPING! I just love the sales, went a bit mad this year despite being flat broke. Could not resist buying these 3 fabboo dresses in Monsoon:

And now I must go and rescue the chocolate fudgie cupcakes from the oven!!! xXx