When I bought these fab buttons in Tallin I had the vague idea that I would turn them into brooches. At the time I wasn't wholly sure how that was going to be, but I knew that's what I had in mind for them.

I was in a bit of a bad mood last night (a bit?) after having a day of looking after the kids, but having my head full of work I wasn't able to get done.

When Matthew got home I literally ran up to the attic and locked myself in my studio. I'd had an idea during the day for a new Craft Kit and was desperate to try it out. I was now working like a woman possessed and produced the kit in record time (I'd had all day working it out in my head after all).

New kit completed (more of that another time) and not in a hurry to venture downstairs, I took out the buttons and started to play...

Less than an hour later, 3 nice new brooches. All I need to do now is persuade the shop to send me some more over (why oh why did I only buy 3?)

One thing that always captures my attention is sweetly wrapped purchases. I love when a little effort is taken, however simple.

Have you noticed how well they do it in France? Nothing fancy. Usually involving a paper bag.

The same appears to be true in Tallinn, Estonia.

I wandered into a little shop down one of the old lanes, full of what I soon realised was quite depicting of Tallinn, wall to wall wooden items...from buttons, to butter knives, to chopping boards, to ornaments. The most beautiful, smooth, tactile wood.

If it wasn't for the fact that we literally had 3 hours in Tallinn (down to 1 1/2 by the time I'd found this shop of treasure) I would have perused for longer and purchased masses...good job we weren't then. As it was, the troops were calling from outside. We still hadn't had our obligatory coffee stop in the square. So all I had time for was to grab a few buttons and a couple of brooches.

I was standing at the counter quite content with my little purchases, some gifts, some for me, when suddenly magic occurred and my little purchases were transformed into pretty treasure. As I said earlier, nothing overly fancy, just a thoughtful little touch.

If only I'd had time to gather more.

Matthew treated himself to a new camera just before we went away. He had been wanting to for ages and found going on the cruise was the perfect excuse. After all, you can't visit some of the most wonderful places in the world and not have a great camera to shoot it all with...apparently.

Whilst he was now self appointed Chief Tour Photographer I gave him a little project of photographing doorways everywhere we went. Since we were going to alot of different cities I thought it would be interesting to capture a similar thing and see how different they really all were.

I also thought it might make us stop and look at our surroundings a bit more. I wasn't necessarily after big, opulent, formal doorways. I wanted to get a feel for the everyday. I'm not sure we quite managed that, mainly due to the fact that we were in the city centres and not in overly-residential areas.

Still, I love the feel that Matthew has captured. I love the way we can look back and see how different to English architecture they are. I love the way that the buildings themselves are so colourful, rather than just the doorways. Opposite to how it is here in UK. I love seeing the similarities to these countries too, which I guess is predictable. But at the same time I can recognize the specific characteristic of each individual country.

We didn't manage to wander around St Petersburg as freely as the other cities as we were on a tour bus, hence no doorways there, just majestic, colourful Palaces.

Do you recognise any of the cities? (Click on photos to enlarge)

Answers below...

from top:

Stockholm

Oslo

St Petersburg

Tallinn

Copenhagen

I've been having severe computer problems of late. To be truthful, my PC has been giving me grief since the day I bought it almost 3 years ago.

Nobody seems to have been able to do anything about it . It freezes regularly and has driven me to distraction on a regular basis.

It could take me an hour to do a simple blogpost with it crashing everytime I tried to uplaod a photo.

I'm pleased to say it no longer crashes. I took it to my local computer shop up the road, who informed me that Advent were notorious for over heating and thus crashing when large files were attempted to be uploaded.

You can imagine my delight when I managed to upload all these images in one swift sitting.

And you can probably imagine my utter dismay when I tried to type something and realised somewhere along the line my keyboard now failed to function. Aaaaaggghhhhh! Hence I had to throw Samuel off his own brand new laptop, so I could finish what I started...my latest blogpost to show you my new cushion I'd created whilst the PC was in hospital.

The cushion was the product of some inspirational hexies that I received from the very kind and generous Ryan who sent them to me as part of a swap. Thanks, Ryan, for sending me something more than perfect and starting me on my latest sewing obsession.

Needless to say, my PC is still my arch enemy and I'll be ordering my yearned for Macbook quicker than a quickest thing on a quickest day.

In the interests of research and inspiration I made it a priority to pick up some magazines whilst we were away. I managed to pick up a nice selection from Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway.

It's clear from looking at them that the handmade vibe is as strong over in Scandinavia as it is here in the UK. Even though I can not understand a word of what is written, the pictures were speaking to me loud and clear.

I love seeing Scandinavian houses featured in British magazines, with their clean, fresh, quirky styles, so it was hardly a surprise that I would love flicking through the pages of these magazines.

Whilst it was possible to get Scandinavia's version of Elle Deco and the like, it was these with a vintage, handmade feel that I had to have.

Don't you just love this armchair?

With the world growing increasingly smaller and with several Scandinavian goods regularly seen on our shelves (Greengate and Rice being the most predominant) everything seems strangely familiar.

To stroll in and out of stores and see them in their own setting and amongst others too, was strangely comforting. And to flick through magazines and have this same feel be at my fingertips is a real pleasure.

Colour is something that Scandinavia does so well. Not in room decor, where walls are normally painted white, but in accessories.

All this colour against a white backdrop gives such a fresh, clean, relaxed approach. So easy on the eye.

There's a lot to take in and I'm looking forward to reliving my Scandinavian experience in the months to come as I flick through the pages again and again.

We came back yesterday from a holiday of a lifetime. It was my Father-in-law's 80th, so he took all 17 of us, his sons, their wives and their children on a Baltic cruise. It really was a holiday of a lifetime.

Despite the fact that we are essentially holiday anti-socialites, preferring out of the way gites to busy, noisy hotels, we managed. Well, what's not to manage? Being taken to some of the most beautiful countries in Europe. Spoilt thoroughly by 24 hour attentive service. Oh and did I mention the all day and evening kids clubs?

Whilst I am not a convert to this kind of holiday, I certainly made the most of it and enjoyed not having to do any domestic chores of any description for 10 days.

I'll be reporting back, over the next few weeks, on the wonderful places we visited, but since this is essentially a crafting blog, I thought that would be a good place to start.

Our first port of call was Copenhagen. I instantly fell in love with this city. Not only is it beautiful and oozes charm, but it is such a laid back city. And I loved the way the whole city travels around on bicycle. It didn't take long for us to realise that bikes, with their own space on the road, rule the road. In our naivety as we strolled down the street, it soon became clear that you don't walk down the cycle lane as it is just that. The first cross tooting made us quickly evacuate the lane and made sure we never entered one again!

The shop windows in Copenhagen were beautiful. Quite Parisian in feel, I thought. The bead shop above is one such example. I loved the mix of vintage with bright colours. I had to be dragged out of here kicking and screaming.

The knick-knack shop across the road had a real vintage feel. I am quite cross I didn't get my promised return to explore to it's full potential.

This all highlights Frustration Number 1 of cruising...being given the merest glimpse to some wonderful cities. Whilst I feel privileged to have visited some amazing places at all, there were times when less is more really did not apply. Coupled with the fact that we were a party of 17 trawling the streets, with little folk amongst us, a lot of compromising took place.

I did however make the most of the very short time we had in beautiful Tallin. This was a much more compact city, so plenty of opportunity to break off from the group and catch up a bit later. Tallin was full of linens and embroidery work. Whilst some of it wasn't to my taste, I loved the crafting vibe. And I loved even more my find of this bag of embroidery threads. All this for less than £15...definitely worth breaking away from the group for and being a little late for rendez-vous ;-)

I'll be back soon to show you some magazines I picked up on my travels. All have a Country Living/Marie Claire Idees vibe and are going to be a great source of inspiration to my work over the coming months I feel.

A holiday isn't a holiday if you haven't a new, clean, fresh bag to accompany you.

I'm now ready for my holiday.

If you don't count not having done any packing...at least I have the bag.