Baby - and Big - Buntings...

All about bunting !

The other day, Jo-Jo put a post on her blog, all about how she was featured, by Rex London ( was DotComGiftShop), in a list of 50 Craft Blogs that they liked. After having a look - and jumping up & down with excitement because Jo's was No.3!!!! - I sent them an e-mail to offer my blog for inspection (as they had asked for more blogs). 

I had a lovely reply, saying that my blog was just what they were looking for. It made my day, I can tell you!

Anyway, they also asked if I'd consider helping them, by reviewing some of their rather fab Paper Bunting.  Now, Rex London do have rather a fabby collection of bunting and I've had my eye on it for a while.

In fact, I've had my eye on quite a lot of their stuff for a while.  You may remember this post, about a recent arrival of DotCom Treasure... but recently it's been Bunting that has caught my eye (along with a couple of other lovely things, which I'll come back to later).

As you all know, I have a bit of a liking for the flappy, flaggy little strings of stuff... well, it's just so bright, cheerful and eye-catching. Guaranteed to bring a smile to anyone's face and to make any little party or afternoon tea into an Occasion.

So I couldn't say no, could I?  Of course not. I sent back a reply, saying "Yes please" in my bestest typing...

Then the doorbell rang:

An Exciting Envelope from DotComGiftShop (Rex London)...

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You have to admit that Bunting is quite Exciting stuff.  It's been quite fashionable recently too.  Lots of people I know are doing cool stuff with bunting:

Check out the clever playing-card bunting at SJ's Birthday Party!

How about this cute stamped bunting on Shimelle's blog?

Sian has been using it on her layouts - such as this one...

Kirsty sneaks the odd bit of bunting into her layouts and cards...

Jane Dean made paper bunting triangles, to decorate her studio...

In fact bunting seems to be everywhere just now... 

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You know that I love to make bunting too...

These little strings of mini-bunting...

Little strings of bunting and tag-strings to decorate a hand-made baby album...

A loooong string of House Bunting (papers courtesy of Rinda, from her Blog House Party!). 

Every little house is hand drawn by me and each one is different. I had a lot of fun making these.  The "houses" were actually punched out with a tag-shaped mini-punch, which is how they are all the same shape. Each one is 3/4" high.  I haven't decided what to do with this yet, though it may end up in my "Project 2009" album (as it's houses).

And of course there's this little string of fabric bunting, which I made for my new baby niece's bedroom. 

It was entirely stitched by hand, as I was still recovering from my back injury and couldn't use the sewing machine. I did a little bit at a time, until they were finished. 

This now lives on the wall of Elle's bedroom -

She has such a lovely bedroom.

See the little fawn and height chart wall stickers there?  Those came from Rex London (DotComGiftShop) (in the Treasure I bought!).

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And speaking of Rex London (DotComGiftShop)...

We left the story at the point where the doorbell had rung and the post-lady had given me an Exciting Envelope with stuff inside from Rex London (DotComGiftShop)....

Remember this?

So, what could it be?

Well it's obvious it was bunting, as that's what they said they'd send me; but which sort of bunting?

Here's a bit of a sneak-peek...

Well, obviously I was fairly excited... two packs of fabby paper bunting... like this -

Vintage Paisley!

and this....

White Lace!!

Look at the lovely design... oooh... (they do this in coloured paper too).

Once I'd opened it all up, I was Extra Excited! 8 Metres of bunting - Two lots of 8 metres of bunting!

And we're having a family party on July 4th, to celebrate my mother's and niece's birthdays...

So, of course, I had to try it out in the garden; to make sure it would look just right for the party...

Tea Time in the Garden...

with Vintage Paisley Bunting!

Fluttering in the breeze...

...actually it's good stiff paper, a bit like cardstock, so it flutters, but doesn't rip...

These are the two designs on the paisley paper bunting. 

They are double-sided papers too and the string is strong and easy to tie (not slippy!), with plenty of spare at either end.

  

These are the lace ones...

I thought I'd hang both up together...

... they looked so pretty, blowing about against the blue, summery sky!

I'm so happy with this bunting - it's just what I wanted to decorate our garden for the party.  Keri-Anne loves vintage style, also lace and bunting, so it's got to be a winner for her birthday party!

* * *

So, what else will I have from my Favourite Online Shop, at the party?

A cute door-mat?

A spotty cake stand?

Definitely cakes in these spotty cases!

made with ingredients measured with my heart-shaped measuring cups!

displayed on some fab pink doilies?

(someone around here, was saying the other day, that they'd like some heart-shaped doilies!)

 and some lace table mats to go with the bunting?

Frankly, I'm spoilt for choice! There are so many lovely things to choose from.. I can spend hours browsing their shop (and could spend all my hard-earned shop money on stuff too!).

I'm excited about our party in July and it's going to be so pretty in our garden!

Thanks guys, for the great ideas and the fabby bunting!

A Quick Update on Lizzie's World ...

Hello all Bloggy Friends! Sorry I haven't been around much. I am so busy just now (which is good news actually!).

Here's a quick catch-up on what's happening in my world just now:

- The 150th Post Giveaway is finished. The prizes were won by Stacey and Jacky.  They have both been in touch to tell me their choice of stamps, which I will be making very soon! 

* * *

- We had a busy weekend.  D. has been away in Stockholm again, but was home for the weekend. It was Fathers' Day, so there were cards and presents for him. 

We went to a local Mongolian restaurant on Saturday evening, for dinner.  It's great there - they have all the ingredients for different meals, cut up and put in boxes in a chiller cabinet. You are given a bowl, into which you put your selected ingredients, then you go to the spices table and add your spices, oils, stock etc.  There are some helpful recipe cards on the walls, so you can make "authentic" recipes, such as Satay Chicken, Thai Curry, Sweet & Sour, Noodles, etc etc. 

You then take your bowl to the counter, which is a semi-circle round a huge, circular hotplate (with an extractor fan over the top like a chimney!).  The chefs are there waiting and they take your bowl, carefully put the contents on the hotplate - in its own nice, clean patch - then cook your meal in front of you. Once it's ready, they put it onto a nice, clean plate and give it back to you.  It's great fun and very tasty too. We had a lovely meal and really enjoyed our family outing. 

* * *

- Monday was our Wedding Anniversary (as you'll have worked out if you saw my Post!).  I made D. a scrap page, rather than a card. He was really pleased with it and put it up in our bedroom, where he could see it. I also bought him a nice present and we took ourselves to the local garden centre, to buy a joint present to ourselves. 

Last year we bought ourselves a lovely garden bench.  This year we bought a big, green garden umbrella with a wooden frame.  It has a crank handle, which means I can put it up by myself and sit in the shade to eat my lunch in the garden. 

The previous umbrella was so heavy that I couldn't open it (or close it) by myself and could only use it when D. was home.  It was left up a couple of weeks ago, but the wind suddenly became very strong and blew it over (it was a big, heavy thing!). It was broken beyond repair, so we felt justified in replacing it. We'd considered it for some time, as the old one was bought the year we married and was beginning to look moth-eaten - well, mouse-eaten actually, as it was left in the shed all winter and they ate holes in the canvas!!    

* * *

- I'm hard at work just now, making Wedding Guest books for two custom orders.  Both need to be finished and despatched PDQ, so I'm busy with them!

One is quite large, with heavy printmaking paper pages and covers of ivory linen and moss green silk, bound with natural-white linen.  I have the pages cut (well hand-torn actually) and the cover boards cut. All materials are ready, so I now have to make bookcloth from the linen and silk fabrics (this involves attaching a fine tissue-type paper as a support, to line the fabric, protect it from the boards showing through and stop it stretching all over the place when it's attached to the cover boards). Then I must cover the boards and stitch the binding.  Still a way to go, but I'm getting there. Should be done early next week!  

The other is smaller and just like this Ivory and Gold wedding guest book in my shop; the customer has asked for navy silk trim on the binding, instead of gold.  The pages are all cut for this book and I've been covering the boards with the ivory damask-style paper. Today I took a trip to a local patchwork and sewing/knitting shop, where I can buy great fabrics in Fat Quarters. I was so lucky, as they have had a new delivery and there was a piece of Tussore Silk in navy, just as I wanted! That has saved a 40-mile round trip to the shops at the next big town!  So I hope to get the silk bookcloth made tomorrow and everything ready to make the binding. I aim to finish this before the weekend.

* * *

- I also have another custom order, which is still at the design and materials stage.  My friend came to lunch a couple of weeks ago. We were discussing my shop and I told her about some of the things I had made.  I mentioned the custom order last November, for a planner/diary/notebook, which I so enjoyed making.  She said "I wish you'd make me a diary too!" and from that sprang a Plan and an agreement that I would design her a special diary/planner of her own.  She'd like it to be black, with some bright fuchsia pink decoration inside.

I have some notes and sketches and am trying to locate a piece of black grosgrain silk fabric to make the covers. I've got some other materials for it now - papers, leather and silk in bright pinks, cotton thread, also some rather good black paper with an embossed design; but I mentioned my silk idea and she was charmed by it, so I'm trying to get the silk first. 

I still need to price it up for her, but she's patient, so I hope she will hang on a week or two longer.  Once the two Wedding books are done, I can start designing the layout of the diary (which is more complicated than you might imagine, as it must be bound in sections and all the pages have to be placed carefully so that, when each sheet of paper is folded, the correct diary pages face each other!).

Keep your fingers crossed that no disasters crop up, to stop me getting on with my work!

* * *

- I spent yesterday afternoon in the garden, with my camera. I was taking photos for a Special Blog Post, which I hope to publish on Friday or Saturday.  So  keep an eye open for this!

* * *

Meanwhile, I anticipate that life will continue to be busy, busy, busy... it always seems to get extra-busy in June and July, then I hope for a quiet few weeks in August, while we have our holiday. 

However, if past experience is anything to count on, September will be the usual chaos.  Note to Self: don't sign up for any scrapping or blogging courses this September!!  I did LSNED last year and had to drop out half way through, because my mum was ill in hospital and life was generally chaotic. No courses for me this year - I'm sure I'll have plenty of other stuff to keep me busy - whatever it turns out to be!

Looking forward to our holiday in August. We're off to the seaside... ahhhh...

Another busy day tomorrow.. I'm off to bed soon.  Apologies to all that I've been so bad at reading and commenting on blog posts recently. I have actually been reading quite a lot, but I haven't been able to comment on many. I promise to try harder - I really value all the comments people leave for me, so I'm sure you all feel much the same about your own posts.

Good night all Friends! Normal Service will be resumed asap.

To A Wonderful Husband - 13 Years Ago Today

I am lucky enough to be married to the most wonderful man in the whole world (bar none!).  Today is our Wedding Anniversary and I made a scrap page instead of a card.

The journalling reads: 13 Years Ago Today... was the luckiest day of my life.  Happy Anniversary!

We have Two Winners!

Well, it's Sunday night. And, of course, those who've been reading along recently will know that this means..... the end of my 150th Post Giveaway and the announcement of the Prize Winners.

I had entries from 23 individual people, so this is what I put in the random number generator.


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FIRST PRIZE :


True Random Number Generator



Min: 1


Max: 23


Result: 15


Powered by RANDOM.ORG
 
The 15th Entry was from ...... goes away to check......
 
Stacey - aka ComfyMom!! 
 
* * *
 
SECOND PRIZE:
 
True Random Number Generator
Min: 1


Max: 23


Result: 1


Powered by RANDOM.ORG
 
Number 1 is.... Jacky, of ScrappyJacky fame!
 
* * *
 
Yay! So, Stacey wins three hand-carved stamps of her choice and Jacky wins one stamp.  I'll be contacting them straight away, to tell them the good news. Meanwhile, you read it here first!
 
Thanks to everyone who entered. I really appreciated all the kind comments and helpful suggestions about my stamps. And I love having all these great people dropping by and reading my posts.
 
Keep visiting - I hope there will be lots more for you in the near future. Very soon, I will be publishing a post all about Bunting... "watch this space", as they say!
 

One-Five-Oh... Giveaway!

Post Number 150.  Already.

That's not bad going.  Of course, if I posted every day, it would've happened much sooner... but then, I don't always have anything to post about.. or want to post...

Anyway, I feel a little celebration might be in order, so stick around and I'll give you the low-down on that, lower down the post!

Meanwhile...

The boys have been at it again... another Warhammer match yesterday. J won again.

My box of Stamps is getting fuller...

I made two more stamps!  I hope that the first one looks like two inter-linked rings inside a heart shape?  I'm not 100% sure about the rim round the edge though... opinions welcomed.

The second is, of course, a dragonfly. I have plans for both of these, so watch out for more in a week or two.

* * *

150th Post Celebration

I thought about this for a few days before I did my 150th post.  I wanted to have a mini-celebration, because I thought 150 posts was quite an achievement, in a way... Anyway, it matters to me and that is important, seeing as this is my blog and I'm proud of it.

So, what to do? How to celebrate?

Well the usual way is to have a Giveaway. A prize.

Never one to flout convention, I thought a Giveaway, with a prize, would be just the thing... 

One of my books? A nice sock toy?

Done that. For my 100th Post I made a tutorial about Sock Rabbits and gave that bunny away (to Spangle).  Then I had another giveaway for World Book Day - one of my own books (won by Deb) and one made by the clever Helen of BadBooks (won by Sian).

Hmm... but I fancied having another giveaway, seeing as the last was 3 months ago.

Lightbulb moment! Idea!

Drumroll here.... drrrrrrrrrrr.....

The Giveaway Prize Will Be:

Hand made lino cut "rubber" stamps!

I will make a set of 3 Stamps for the "First Prize" and one individual stamp for the "Second Prize"!

* * *

Rules - (not that there will be many of these!)

1) If you would like to win one of the two prizes, please leave a comment at the end of this post. 

2) Remember to leave me a way of contacting you - via your blog, or else an e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter address.

3) I will give each comment a number, in the order the comments were left.  I will use a random number generator to pick the winners.  The first number selected will be the First Prize Winner and the next number will win the Second Prize.  I will contact each winner by their preferred method. If I don't hear back, I will try one more time, within a week.  If I still hear nothing, I will reallocate their prize (if it was the first prize, I will give it to the 2nd prize winner and draw a new 2nd prize). 

4) The First Prize will be three stamps, made specially for the winner, from lino circles (as in this post ).  The winner may choose any three from the stamps offered in my Etsy Shop, or I will design new stamps - of simple design - if none of those appeals!

5) The Second Prize will be one stamp, made specially for the winner, from a lino circle.  The winner may choose from the stamps offered in my Etsy Shop, or I will design a new stamp - of simple design.

6) The Giveaway will close at 9pm (BST), Sunday June 20th.  The Prize will be drawn after this time and the winners contacted and their names posted as soon as possible.

* * *

If you're not already a follower of my blog, but you want to enter the draw, feel free to join in - I won't mind. However, I'd be delighted if you would also add yourself to my follow list... I have 59 followers and plan to celebrate when I eventually reach 100 - especially if they are all nice people like my current followers!  So join in and watch out for a Blog Party!

I hope this appeals to everyone. Several people were kind enough to suggest I should offer my stamps for sale, so I feel brave enough to offer them as a prize also!

Good Luck Everyone!