Buttons & Flowers

One of my "things to do this year" is to try harder with this blog that I started nearly 4 years ago!  I have just about managed to keep up with Facebook and Twitter, but this has been sadly neglected.  I really don't know how others manage to juggle it all!  I am hopeful that my new camera will make it easier (and quicker) for me to keep things up to date so watch this space!  I have a smart camera that allows me to upload photos straight to social media sites...I just have to be smart enough to know how to use it properly!

Anyway, here I am!  A very belated Happy New Year to you all!  I  am so excited about all that I have planned for the year ahead...some things are business related and others are to do with home.  I hope to share it all with you here!

My first day workshop of 2013 will be taking place this Saturday...it is called Crochet Buttons & Flowers and I so looking forward to it.  The gorgeous colours I have been working with have really brightened up the cold, dark days we've having of late!   So, as you will see, I am still mad about buttons and flowers...

Rebecca
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Flea market finds

Today is flea market day, which means that I shall be taking a wander round the stalls at lunchtime.  Last week I found so many lovely things, I could hardly believe it...and all for a grand total of £5.60!

Old books, crochet cottons, vintage buttons & snap fasteners...I'm in heaven! A vintage embroidered table cloth for 25p - it has a huge hole in the middle, but I'm not worried about that as it will be used to make more handbag mirrors or magnets.  An enormous pillow case with a beautiful crocheted edging, also for 25p.  I usually end up paying a lot more for vintage linens like these so you can imagine my delight!

Two pressed glass bowls at 20p each.  There was a lovely pale blue one too, but it was damaged so I shall be on the look out for another one of those - I wonder if there are other colours too...green perhaps?  I found one lonely etched glass (20p) and this has now joined some others of the same design in our glass cabinet ready for when we next "pass the port"! A very grubby coffee cup in a box full of crockery grabbed my attention...I love Portmerion Botanic Garden and thank heavens for dishwashers!

As you will see, there are a lot of flowers amongst my finds:

I love these old books with floral designs on the front - this one is from the pansy series.  I've been crocheting pansies too using one the crochet cottons that I bought for 50p.

So much for so little...I wonder what I will find today?

Rebecca

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Giveaway Goodies

As promised, here are some photos showing some of the goodies that will be included in my giveaway parcel:

Some Lettuce Seeds for the garden, a Vintage Embroidery Handbag Mirror

...some Buttons & Threads...and one of my Flower Brooches

and some Baking Cases and these colourful Jam/Chutney Pot Covers & Labels

- altogether a parcel which, I think, sums up the kind of things that I blog about quite nicely - I do hope that you will think so too!

There is still time to enter the giveaway by leaving a comment on this post, or 1 today, in response to this question:

• What do you enjoy about blogging/reading blogs?

I have loved reading the responses so far! The lucky winner's name will be drawn on Friday 23rd April. Good luck!

Time now to sit in the garden with a nice cup of tea and make the most of the glorious sunshine - hope the sun is shining wherever you are!

Back soon,

Rebecca

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Something New

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, the start of the autumn term means time to catch up and move forward...and, maybe try something new!

I am really pleased with these brooches:

I cannot decide which colour to wear myself - perhaps I should have one of each! I hope you like them too!

Back soon,
Rebecca
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Twittering about at Home

The plus side of not going away this weekend was that some things got done around the house!

Hubby made a start on the much needed painting of the outside of the house and managed to complete the sanding and undercoating. DIY is his least favourite pursuit of all, so I'm quite pleased that this job is now a work in progress! Of course, it probably means that it will rain every weekend so that it takes forever to finish the job, but at least it's a start!!

I finished a cushion for the sofa...I know, it has a button and a flower...sometimes I just can't help myself!!

I also listed a few more things in my Folksy and Etsy shops, and found time to explore Twitter! I have to say that I'm still a little unsure about the whole twittering thing...what should I tweet about? Obviously, I would like to use it to promote 'rebeccamaryjane's', but I don't want it to turn into a 'look what I made, buy it here' kind of thing. However, I do need to find a way to increase my sales and I'm finding that a lot of people have never even heard of Folksy and Etsy!! Any tips?

Poorly boy is feeling much better, thank you - indicated by the return of his favourtie words, "I'm hungry" and "What's for lunch?" So, I guess that my cue to go and butter some rolls...

Back soon,

Rebecca
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Buttons and Flowers

When I'm busy making and creating I do tend to make rather a mess and spread myself far and wide all over the house!! So this week, as we're taking it easy, I've started sorting out my work space - no room of one's own here, I'm afraid, just an area of the dining room!!

My son says that his bedroom and the bathroom are the only rooms without any of "mum's stuff" in them! The sewing machine and badge making machine are set up and ready for action on the kitchen table, there are knitting needles, crochet hooks and baskets of wool in the lounge (well, I can't have idle hands when my legs stop moving, can I?), boxes of stock and materials are stored in our bedroom, lots of bits and bobs are stored in the top cupboards in my daughter's bedroom (well, she wouldn't have been able to reach them when I started using them!), I keep all my materials for children's craft workshops in the cellar, and...I can't even begin to say what I might have stashed away in the loft over the years!! So, hang on...that means the hall and the upstairs landing are free from my "stuff" too!

I'd love to hear where you work at home? Messy or tidy?

When I was tidying my boxes and tins, I came across...

these pretty terracotta buttons (with flowers on!) that I bought from the V&A Museum shop on a trip to London with my daughter just before Christmas! These are"for me" buttons, not to be used on bits and pieces to sell! Now I just need to think how I shall use them. I've decided that, during the summer holidays, I am going to try to do a bit of making and creating for just for me and for my home, which is something that I hardly ever get around to doing, always being too busy preparing for workshops, fairs, and making for other people and my little online shops.

I am working on a small wall hanging piece (a flower) using rag rugging techniques, which will be used to promote a rag rugging workshop that I'm doing later in the year. I'd not done any rag rugging for a while and had forgotten how much fabric it uses - this small piece, which measures 6" x 6" has used almost two t-shirts!! I put it down by this month's Country Living magazine...the colours are perfect!

Today is wet and miserable...quite cool too!... but I took this yesterday...

The gorgeous white buddleia with its enormous flower spikes is attracting all kinds of insects and quite a few butterflies - unfortunately, they always seem to flutter off before I've managed to capture them on camera!
Buttons and flowers...see...I just can't get away from them! And that's just how I like it!

Bye for now,

Rebecca
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