An English Summer

Aloha Bloggerinos,

As you will see from my last post, I recently went on a lovely picnic to Castle Ashby, in Northamptonshire. It's a lovely big National Trust type place with amazing houses that I WILL live in one day when I make my squillions from my craft fayres, pretty gardens and ornate lakes.

I thought you might enjoy some snaps of a true English Summer. Ahhh

Matt about to through Issobelle in. (To clarify- not really!! Don't go calling the authorities on us!)

Me at some sort of steps-into-the-water affair.

That's the gang. It looks like me all sat in some sort of marsh but I can assure you we didn't! It was a nice little picnic bench area.

The Belle thought this was a magic fairy garden. I think Mattmoo did too.

I'm definitely more of an indoors girl but this, was luurrvvllyy.

Toodlepip!

xx

Stop and smell the roses..

Aloha Bloggerinos,

A couple of days ago my Auntie Rose kindly left a little vase of freshly cut rose's from her garden, in my porch. I know this sounds mental but they smell SO LOVELY. I know flowers usually smell nice, but the smell of these is uber nice and makes the hallway so perfumey. Mmmmmm.

They were so lovely that even Issobelle had to test them out. They passed :)

Toodlepip!

xx

Issobelle's NOTD

Aloha Bloggerinos!

I have a few NOTD posts coming up soon because I was sent some GORGEOUS goodies from Tans and Talons - click HERE to visit this treasure trove of nail goodies, but when I was having a little sort out on Saturday, Issobelle popped round (not by herself, being only 4 years old, hahahaha) and was VERY excited by all the nail varnishes and eyeshadows and makeuppy goodness. So, with her Mummy's blessing, we went to town and she choose five colours for Aunty 'Ooweeze' to paint on.

Yes, I know I haven't done the neatest of jobs, but alas, little girls don't hold very still for very long! After we had painted them, she spotted a tube of glitter that was part of my Tans and Talons loot and instantly wanted some. It looks so cute in the little vial that I couldn't bare to open it so I sprinkled on a little of my MAC Glitter Pigment on the wet paint and we then had one very happy Issobelle!

In a bid to play longer with my nail goodies, she kindly modelled a few bits. I'll do full reviews later and I have mentioned them in my youtuberrino channel :)

Nail Art Glitter:

Nail Art Rest (very handy I tell ya!):

The nail art rest and glitter are only a couple of pounds each or so and are brilliant! The nail art rest is perfect for someone like me who is a nail art novice, it really does help :)

Hope you enjoyed my (well sort of "my") first ever NOTD. Many more to follow!

Toodlepip! xx

Little disclaimer- For those of you that don't agree with cosmetics on children, her Mummy removed this the next day and I don't put false lashes and tan on her so I hope you aren't too up in arms! :)

Salt Dough Sparkles

It's a habit of mine, a pretty habit none the less, to decorate every nook and cranny of the house with anything that I can! Whether it be Winter, Spring, Summer or Autumn, I find something to jazz everywhere up with.

So, whilst making salt dough shapes as tree decoration presents with Issobelle, I made a few for myself to glitz up the house.

I was having so much fun the Iz that I didn't take the usual step-by-step photographs, but I hope you enjoy the finished product.

I'm off to string them and hang them from every door handle, picture nail and hook I can find!

Toodlepip! xx

Someone's ready for Christmas

On a recent trip to heaven, ahem, I mean Hobbycraft, to buy Christmas card supplies, I was given this brilliant photo opportunity. Issobelle was so eager to get the Santa hat on that she didn't even take if off the stand. If that doesn't show commitment to the festive season, I don't know what does!

Toodlepip! xx

"Oh and by the way..."

About a week ago, on a cold, dark, rainy Tuesday night, I popped in to Auntie Judith's to drop something off, it was very precious cargo (Issobelle) and then dashed to the door to get to an appointment.

So off I shlepped to the front door, about to face the elements when suuddeeennnnllyy, Judith said "Oh by the way, I've got something for you". Ooooooh Juuuditthh, what is this something you speak of? It isn't Christmas yet.

Well my little bloggerinos (this is what I shall call you Dear Reader), it turned out to be a big box of VINTAGE RIBBON!!! I simply had to put that in capitals to truly display my joy!! My Great Auntie Edna, who sadly died a few years back, used to help my Mum with her craft fairs (I come from a very very crafty family), and had saved a lot of the ribbon they used. Thankfully Auntie Judith had also kept it and thought I might want it. Of course I did!!

Naturally, this little beauty was too good to keep to myself so here I am, sharing it with you.

Enjoy!

Toodlepip xx

Beauty of Booth Pictures

With all this grey weather we are having at the moment, I thought we should have a bright and funky project to cheer us all up before the Christmas Panic sets in.

On a mundane outing to the shopping centre with Issobelle, to pick curtains for my recently decorated bedroom (hurrah), we stumbled across a photograph booth. "How very ordinary", I hear you cry! "They're everywhere nowadays", someone shouts from the back! Well no, no, no dear readers, this was the old kind of photo machine. That glorious kind where you could do four different poses and they come out in a strip, rather than a block. Oooooo I was excited! So, back to what happened!

Issobelle was drawn to the machine almost as much as I was and with £3 and a few minutes we had captured our exciting little discovery and were very pleased with the pocket sized results. We managed 3 out of 4 good pictures- not bad when you pop a four year old into the equation- and I banked them safely in my purse until I thought of something fun to do with them. That's were this project comes in..........

The first colourful step was to select a canvas and paint it. I selected a 5x7 acid free canvass board and used paint from the little 97p tester pots I mentioned in an earlier post. I selected "Purple Victoria". Mmmmm sumptuous! I left my vivacious victoria canvass to dry and set to work on the important task of selecting buttons to frame it.

I decided to go for all the bright but not garish (in my opinion) ones as I thought they would compliment my purpley colours.

Using regular kiddie friendly pva glue, I squidged the buttons down, making sure to push them over the edge (they were very stressed and couldn't hack it hahaha) slightly to disguise the straight edge of the canvass. I them arranged our magic photo booth pictures and using my very special glitter pen, doodled all round the pictures and wrote a little caption. Ahhh!

Last but not least was was to adhere a sunshine yellow ribbon (once again calling on my old trusty pva) to enable my to hang my vibrant piece of art.

I hope this inspires you to insert a little sunshine into your crafts and of course, keep your eyes peeled for fantastic photo booths!

Toodlepip!

xx