Super Sweet Blogging Award

I've got to thank not one, but two of my lovely Blogging friends this week as both of them have nominated me for the 'Super Sweet Blogging Award' which is really nice and surely means twice the amount of cake???

So thank you Ali, from Ali Bee Creations and Sarah from The Lilac Dragonfly :-)

I have to answer 5 questions and then choose a Bakers Dozen of other blogs to pass on the award to.

So the easy part first... the 5 questions:

1. Cookies or Cake?

Hmmm I think it would have to be Cake.

2. Vanilla or Chocolate?

Always Chocolate!

3. What is your favourite sweet treat?

Chocolate - in any situation! Although my husband is always scandalised that I can eat chocolate with alcohol, which is quite wrong in his eyes!

4. When do you crave sweet things the most?

When I'm awake!

5. If you had a sweet nickname, what would it be?

I don't have a nickname at all, but I always find one from Gavin & Stacey very amusing - Sugar Tits, though I'm not sure I'd want to answer to in a public place :-)

Now, the harder part... to choose 13 other bloggers to receive the award:

Free Spirit Designs

Mythillogical

Handmade Harbour

Witchway Beauty

Aisling Designs

OkiFolki

Erica Price Designs

You Sew Should

Isle of Shalotte

The Feminine Touch

Creating Trouble

Handbags by Helen

Goodnight Boutique


As for what I've been up to this week... boringly I finished off a couple of orders that were just replicas of previous orders, so not too exciting photo-wise, but I'm working on something for easter.... An Easter Bunny wreath, which will be available in my Etsy Store next week:

Can't decide on the positioning of the bunnies yet

And a sneak peek of what I'm working on this week coming...

Can you guess what it is?

I'll give you a clue, it's for me, I'm going to a wedding in a fortnight and my dress is red and black..... Yup, it's the Sinamay to make a fascinator! Looking forward to showing you the finished results next week, but now I'm heading over to Handmade Monday to check out what everyone else has been up to.

PS. This wonderful coaster that I bought from my lovely Etsy friend Dayz who runs the fantastic store Cheeky Geeky rather sums up how I'm feeling today!!

One of many gorgeous coasters by Cheeky Geeky

Oh and PPS. I promise a pic of the Daffodil Brooch this week didn't I? Now available here I've already had two very happy customers receive theirs!

Now I'm really going over to Handmade Monday!

6 Nations Rugby Felt Rose Brooch

I'm feeling a bit guilty this week as not only have I not done much crafting, due to half term, but I've also not posted since last week's Handmade Monday post.

I am going to try and blog more frequently, but in turn it involves remembering to take some pictures as I'm pretty sure the blog posts are more interesting if there's something to look at!

One day I'll get more organised :-)

In the mean time, this week's post, which is for the Handmade Monday link up over at Wendy's wonderful Handmade Harbour blog is about the 6 Nations Rugby.... I promise there is something crafty in there too though!

We are quite a big rugby supporting household - my husband is Irish, the kids were born in Wales and I support England, so there's always chaos, shouting and arguing here! This year my Dad and my Hubby were lucky enough to score tickets to see England v Ireland in Dublin (last weekend) so the kids and I stayed at home and watched the match on telly trying to catch a glimpse of Daddy and Grandad.

As the kids' England tops were too small to wear, I decided to kit them out in white tops and make them both an English Rose badge/brooch to wear.

Here's me in my England top:

Here's the work in progress shot whilst watching the rugby (trying very hard not to stab myself!):

Seren wearing her badge with pride:

Patrick refused to be photographed wearing his, so here's a pic of the finished item:

These are now available in my Etsy Shop and by midweek I'm hoping to have a daffodil added to the shop too as a couple of Welsh friends have pointed out that it's St David's Day in a couple of weeks and they'd like something patriotic to wear!

Have a great week - I'm heading over to Handmade Monday now to catch up on all my crafty friends' adventures. Simmi xx

The Kindness of Strangers

I had a real surprise last week - I received a phone call from a lady who asked if I was the woman mentioned in the local paper who is running Teddy Bear Making Workshops - something else I bravely (crazily?!) said I would do along side the Children's Craft Parties I told you about the other week... here....

Anyway, I said yes, and asked was she interested in joining one of the classes, but no, she had plenty of experience making teddies as she used to run similar workshops, but that sadly she couldn't sew any more due to arthritis in her hands and that she had a bunch of patterns that she no longer needed, but couldn't bear (geddit??? Sorry!) to throw out and would I like them?

Would I???

Of course I lept at this very generous offer and said I would be straight round.... well, I wasn't expecting quite as much as she had to give me...

Two FULL boxes of soft toy patterns

Vintage teddy bear making book

teddy bear pattern collections

Another vintage teddy bear creations book

I was absolutely bowled over when I arrived at this lady's house and she presented me with these two enormous boxes of patterns, supplier lists, trade magazines and journals - I was like a child in a sweet shop!!

Not only that, but she wouldn't take any money from me for them. She just wanted to help someone else trying to make it in the 'craft world'.

So I can honestly say I have really experienced the kindness of strangers and I feel so so grateful.

I know it's not a proper handmade post, but I just didn't think such a lovely gesture should go unnoticed. I am posting this over at the Handmade Monday link up but keep your eyes peeled later in the week for a more 'handmade' post! 

Have a good one xx

Work In Progress

For this week's Handmade Monday I thought I'd do more of a pictoral post than anything else as I haven't got anything finished to share with you today.

I took a pic of a Work in Progress from my working week - making an R2D2 hat as part of a commission

As you can see there's also a Campervan with 3 wheels half done and there's a couple of other half finished bits hiding in my craft box - I'm terrible for starting more than thing at once!

(Thankfully though they did all get finished in the right order!)

Then this afternoon I was quietly sitting at the dining room table cutting out enormous letters for a commission (I've been asked to make a 5 foot name banner for another craft business so they can use it at craft fairs and it's all in this gorgeous hot pink colour! Not sure how I'm going to show you the finished pics of something so big, but that's a problem for next week) Anyway, I was sitting there quietly on my own when my 4 year old daughter Seren came up and asked if she could do some cutting out too, so on some of the scraps I drew her some flowers and she sat next to me happily cutting for ages:

I love the look of concentration!

And then of course the peace was shattered by my 2.5 year old son, Patrick coming up and asking if he could cut out too. Here he is sitting opposite Seren watching carefully to what she's doing and within 20 seconds of this being taken he was pouting because it was 'too difficult' and back to the telly he went!

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend :-) I'm off now to check out the other lovely blogs at Wendy's link up party on the Handmade Harbour website.

St Patrick's Day Parade

Today I'm revealing the first in the line up for the St Patrick's Day parade here at Grace's Favours HQ:

He's been made to the same dimensions and exacting standard as our normal Campervans, but he comes with a removable Shamrock Top Hat Brooch:

I've been trying to take some more interesting, lifestyle type shots, but I'm not sure I've got it quite right yet...

There will be some more entrants to the parade next week and hopefully my photo styling will continue to improve!

To buy this lovely fella, pop over to the shop