Market Stall Stock!!

I have been an awful blogger over the last 2 weeks and for that I am truly sorry!! I have been preparing for our holiday to Marrakech.. only 2 days to go!! And I have also been sorting out my stock for the market stall, obviously I know this isn't an excuse but hopefully you will forgive me!

So here we have a selection of my market stall stock, I am planning on displaying everything in my apple crates.. what does every one think?

Below: We have my new addition, Vintage chalkboards, all hand painted and distressed. These began life as plain old photo frames and will be excellent addition to any home, very useful for leaving notes and what not!

Below: A selection on the mini paper bunting I have been making, all packaged and ready!

Below: A new product I've been working on, tea party confetti, all handmade with vintage and new papers.  Our confetti mainly consists of origami stars.

And there we have it, some of my many products all ready to go!! Let me know what you all think. This will probably be my last post before I go on holiday, so wish me luck and ill come back with many a picture for you!

How to cut and display flowers

You don't need to be a florist to be able to put together a loverly bunch of flowers. 4 bunches will normally be enough to do a few vases so that you can brighten up your whole home, and you can find some good deals if you go to a flower market or even the supermarket. Just Pick colours and textures that you think work well together, don't worry too much about types of flowers.

There are just a few simple points to follow:

Number 1- Remove all leaves that will fall bellow the waterline, if you don't they will rot and poison the water and then you'll have some dead flowers!!

Number 2 - Cut your stems longer than you think you'll need them, you can always shorten them if needs be, you don't want to end up with flowers that are too short for your vase.

Number 3 - Cut your stems at a diagonal angle.. I am not sure why this is good... but that what I have always been told!

You don't have to own fancy vases either, I use anything that I have to hand; empty kilner jars, painted glass jars or anything! When displaying flowers make sure that you use odd numbers, there's something that just looks better about odd numbers!! Don't be afraid to pull stems out and rearrange them either and it doesn't matter if your flowers don't follow exact florists guide lines.. just as long as they make your house look lovely!

Needle Felt Gnome

I thought I would share some pictures of my little needle felt gnome today, I made him a couple of days ago now and I reckon I love him more each day! And he was simple to do (which is always good!)

Mondays Armchair Activity

Today I've got a simple one for you.. Tissue paper pompoms!!

Step 1 - Lay 6 sheets of tissue paper on top of one another

Step 2. Fold them into a concertina shape

Step 3. Tie a piece of string round the middle of your concertina 

Step 4. Start pulling the sheets of tissue apart until you have a pompom

Done!! 

Needle Felt Mushroom in a Jar

Here is my first attempt at needle felting!! To be honest with you, I think I have done pretty damn well. This little creation took me about an hour and a half and cost me one new needle but it was all worth it.

Wouldn't Marty the mushroom look fantastic sitting on your desk at work?!

Bunting and a Bargain

Richard very kindly took me to an amazing antiques market today in an old barn.. it was amazing. The very pretty blue metal thing below came from there at a low cost of £18!! I have no idea what it is but it looks good holding my paper and what not.

I have spent the rest of my day, making and packaging bunting to see, there are 3 different types; Rupert the bear, Beano and floral. Can you tell which is which?!

Mini Paper Bunting

I have finally got my bum in gear and started making the packaging for my mini paper bunting. It has been a tiring experience with 2 solid days of research and countless failed attempts and I have eventually settled on this... ta dahhh!! Obviously this is a very rough version so please ignore the wonky lines and bad stapling but on the whole what do we think?

The Perfect Present for a Mum

I thought today I would share my mums birthday present with you. My mum is the kind of lady who owns virtually everything, so I hand a new phone case printed for her using a picture of our family cat, a lovely summery top (a little hopeful I know!) and an amazing thumb print set. My mum loved colouring in with us as kids, so I thought this would be a slightly more grown up version... kind of!!

Mondays Armchair Activity

I am terribly sorry that I have been an awful blogger last week, but it was my moms birthday and life just sorta got in the way, but I thought I would share with you my easy holiday calender for Mondays Armchair Activity!! Rich I are are going to be in Morocco in about 29 days so now is the time to get fit and swimming pool sexy... hence our calender, tick off each good thing we have done and if we have done all of them we get a happy face!!! A little childish I know but hopefully it will keep us on track, why not give it a go, it's something to aim for at least and you can't ignore how bad you've been if its in front of you!!

As well as my calender I thought I would share some snaps of the making of my royal icing flowers I made for my Moms cupcakes, all you need is a sponge and some flower making tools, you can buy them cheaply and in bulk on ebay. All you have to do is cut out your flowers place them on a sponge and use your round ended too to create detail and indents, them set them down to harden You can even add extra detail with pure food colouring, like I have done on my leaves, lovely!