Easter Wreath Giveaway

I've been wanting to hold a giveaway for Easter for a couple of weeks, but I've been so crazy busy that it's only just happened!

So here's the VW Campervan Easter Mini Wreath that is up for grabs this week:

It's only open to UK residents due to the timescales (i.e. if I post it on April 1st it won't get to you by Easter weekend if you live abroad - I'm sorry but I promise the next giveaway will be worldwide)

So all you have to do is head over to the Grace's Favours Facebook Page and like & comment on the picture to enter.

If you don't have a Facebook account, feel free to leave a message on this Blog post and I'll add you into the draw at the end.

Good luck & I'll be back to announce the winner after 12noon on Wednesday 1st April.

Room on The Broom - another Julia Donaldson Forest Trail

Happy Easter everyone!

Hope you're all full of chocolate and excitement like these little munchkins:

There were a LOT of joyous whoops from the 4 youngest members of the party this weekend when it was announced after the Easter Egg hunt we would be going back to the same place as last year, which was then a Gruffalo's Child Forest Trail, but which is now a Room on The Broom Forest Trail!

All 4 of the children (we had two little friends staying for the weekend who are 2 and 3) love the Room on the Broom story and were really keen to see how the story had been brought to life... both by the magnificent chainsaw sculptures and the real life Witch & Dragon they saw:

Patrick inspecting the Wand and the Witch's Broom

Not sure about that Dragon!!
(but the row of Gruffalo's Children in the background are impressive!)

Seren, Evie and Patrick riding on the Witch's new broomstick

But far more fun was watching Uncle Olly try and climb the totem pole in the playground!

Not even Patrick!!

And of course who could resist dressing up
as the Witch?

The Forest of Dean Heritage Centre is definitely worth a visit if you are in the area and if you live close enough to visit twice in a year, then the annual family pass is a very sensible buy as our two request to go at least once a month and EVERY time we have weekend visitors (children or adults!)

We had a great Easter weekend... but now there is much chocolate to eat up and surely an afternoon film to snooze in front of!

Goal: Creating PDF Sewing Patterns

One thing I promised myself that I was going to make time for this year was to get a line of PDF patterns in my shop and I'm really really proud of myself, that before the first month is out, I've made a great start!

I've started off with the masks that I've had rolling about in my head for a while and I really love the Easter ones, particularly the cute Lamb Mask:

And sticking with the Easter theme... the next up will be these 3 adorable Finger Puppets:

You'll be able to find all these patterns through my Etsy shop and also my Craftsy Shop.

Changes at Uniquely UK - the Home of Gorgeous & Unusual Gifts!

I was thinking about trying to be a bit more organised with my blog posts this year, rather than just crashing from one event to another at the last minute, which is rather how I feel last year's posts were put together!

So I Googled a calendar of events and created a spreadsheet for myself.

Do you know what though? Since then I've had complete brain freeze when it comes to creating new posts!

Typical.

So I thought I'd just give you a flavour of some new things going on...

We've rearranged our Uniquely UK website a bit, so it's got a fresher, more contemporary feel:

I love the Spring colours that the clever ladies who made the changes have chosen (can't claim any credit for that bit) and the brilliant 'New!' section, where you can jump immediately to the new things that have been added:

We're all quite a bit in love with our resident photographer's cushions! This one is my favourite:

And lastly a little something that has landed in my Etsy shop (can't work out how to get it instantly downloadable (is that a word?) from the Uniquely UK website, but as soon as I do, it'll be there too!)

Duck Dressing Up Mask

It's the first of a new range of PDF patterns that I've been promising (threatening?!) for a while now... watch this space for more!

Easter Egg Hunt & The Gruffalo Trail

I hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend - we kicked off Easter Sunday with an Easter Egg Hunt (in our jammies of course!). Seren & Patrick LOVED their Easter Bunny Bags to put all their loot in, they REALLY LOVED all their chocolate and they were surprisingly impressed with Mummy's quickly made Easter Bunny Masks:

Then after plenty of chocolate had been consumed (or in Patrick's case, smeared all over his face, very enthusiastically!) we went off to the newly opened Gruffalo Trail at the Dean Heritage Centre and we all loved it:

 'Oh help, Oh no! It's a Gruffalo!'

  A lovely day out - definitely worth a visit if you are anywhere near the Forest of Dean!

Being Featured!

Well, having said in my last post that I was over the horrid flu bug I'd caught off my daughter, it came back with a venegence and I've spent most of the last week in bed! However I have found the time to make a lovely friend of mine a 40th Birthday present... she let slip a while ago that her favourite flowers were tulips, so I thought a bunch would go down well that could stay out all year round without wilting:

I've also managed to finish off 3 Easter Bunny Rabit bags, 2 for my kids, Seren & Patrick and one for a friend's little boy who will be staying with us over the Easter weekend.... I will take some pics of the kids as they are doing their Easter Egg hunt and of all their spoils in the bags at the end - I expect it to be a true choco-holic's dream!

Now onto the other exciting news - I've been featured on a couple of different blogs, which is really exciting for me as it's still a novelty!! The first is Heart Handmade which has a lovely mini interview and some pics and the second is the fantastic Cuteable which has featured my cuddly owl cushion and also my Easter Finger Puppets

So despite the bug that's still lurking and forcing me to return to bed at regular intervals (and interrupting most of my craft time!) I'm really quite a happy bunny :-)

Have a lovely Easter weekend xxx

Easter Toys & Union Jack Swap

Sorry for the slight break in posting for the last week or so... our household has been hit by flu (first both kids, which meant I was run ragged looking after them and now me) so everything has been on hold till we all started to feel a bit more human.

Last week (before the lurgy descended) I was busy making Easter chicks and Easter finger puppets

The Chick in the plastic egg is being listed in my Etsy shop later today - as you can see from the second photo, it has a little pocket sewn onto the back with enough space to hold 2 Lindor chocolate eggs (which will come with the chick) so would make a perfect Easter present for a little someone who doesn't need yet another large chocolate egg!

The finger puppets consist of Larry Lamb, Chester Chick and Bertie Bunny and the prototypes have been robustly tested by Seren & Patrick (my 3 year old & 1 year old!) and have also been listed in the Etsy shop.

However the most exciting thing, which I wanted to blog about straight away (but of course didn't quite get the chance!) is that I have joined the Popular Crafts monthly swap which for April & May has a Union Jack theme. I have been paired up with a lovely lady named Cybele, who's blog can be found here - she makes beautiful things, mostly knitted or crochet and I'm really excited about my first ever craft swap!

Watch this space for pics once my makes are finished & have been received by Cybele (and of course, I'll be posting pics of the goodies I get in return!)