Ok, it's time I started declaring all the fabric that has been mounting up over the holidays. Part of the reason I have been ordering with such gay abandon was that my Aunt came over from US during the hols and I always make use of getting fabric Stateside, without the worry of heavy postage and import costs. However now that the airlines have started charging their baggage allowance according to weight, I'm not sure she'll be quite so agreeable to letting me take up precious kilos. In the meantime I made the most of it.

First up in the show and tell pile is this collection from Fabric Closet. I'd seen the Kisses in Red by Wendy Slotboom and thought it was fab and then found the other 2 by Wendy too. They are perfect basic stash fabrics. While I was there, as you do, I dropped Michael Miller's Brady Bunch (far left) into my basket. too.

Whilst it is pretty clear that there is little chance of me giving up my fabric buying addiction anytime in the near future, so it really was pointless to make any resolutions to do so, one thing I have however made a resolution to do, is to keep any new fabric on my work desk in full view and approach it first when making something. This way, hopefully it will become integrated into my making psyche and not hide away and be forgotten.

So today when I needed to make some gifts, I headed straight for the new pile. The girls in Noah's year are all celebrating their Bat Mitzvah's this school year (girls come of age the year before boys) and he seems to have a party almost every weekend. I'm trying to keep stock up in the present pile to avoid that "aggghhh, what do you mean you are going out in half an hour and you need a gift??" panic.

Judging by Ruby's response to these Make Up and Purse Pouch Sets, I'm hoping the girls will be pretty pleased with them.

I promised to show you some of my purchasing from over the holidays. And I will but I am ashamed however to tell you that none of this is any of it.

This is all yesterday's shopping.

I know it is shameful - especially since this is just an iota of what has been arriving into this house over the last few weeks.

But let's not dwell on that. Let's talk about yesterday...

Manda and I headed to Fabworks (remember where I bought all this Liberty and shirting?) and I knew it was going to be trouble with a capital T.

And trouble it was...

First up was those bundles of the most delicious felt, in stunning colours of teals and greys. I have no idea at the moment what I am going to use it for, but at just £1 a piece it would have been rude to pass it by.

Everything else however has a purpose. (Do you think if I repeat that enough times I'll be able to convince myself as well as you?)

But it's true...

Having designed the Summersville Pencil Pouches and on the whole being really pleased with them, there was a nagging detail that wasn't quite as I wanted it. Before going to Fabworks I put my finger on what it was...the need for a little tab detail. I'd already begun searching online for some ribbon, but hadn't got very far. I needn't have worried as one whole shelving unit was given over at Fabworks to stunning vintage braiding which I am overjoyed to have found and even more overjoyed to see that this works a treat on the pouches.

Of course a trip to Fabworks wouldn't have been complete without the purchasing of a stash of fabrics. And as I said before, these all have a purpose. (They absolutely really do).

First up was the selecting of several Libertys - very useful little numbers for quilting, kits, linings.

Next up was crisp shirting at just £3/m. I love the shirting. It works beautifully as lining for the pouches and I particularly love the green stripe. I find it quite difficult to line green, but this stripe is just perfect.

Last up and almost *gasp* passed by, was this gorgeous linen with red line through it. How amazing is this? It is incredibly soft and utterly beautiful. Simple understated, just how I like things.

And of course creating this Make Up Pouch was far more important than doing my tax forms today...whoops...

It is however available in both my Etsy shop and Big Cartel shop if you'd like me to feel that it was money and time well spent...

Happiness is...

...a new coffee mug and a homemade blueberry muffin.

Update: The mug is from Habitat, but unfortunately now out of stock...and I desperately need a second before someone else in the house pinches mine...

I don't know about you but I'm really struggling to get back into a good working rhythm after the break. The children had all gone back to school by Wednesday but Matthew was still off until today.

This had the advantage, as I've already told you in my last blogpost, of slowly getting into 2011, but it's had the negative effect of making it difficult for me to reestablish any kind of routine. I've been having the joy of spending lots of time with the family and not being cocooned up in my studio in the attic. But it's resulted in me being out of the swing of blogging, tweeting, making...generally attending to my business.

I have had these photos uploaded into edited mode for about a week now, but couldn't get into the right frame of mind to actually write the post.

I can't quite put my finger on why that is. I'm so excited about these new pencil pouches and am very keen to get them out there and have already got a couple of stockists interested, so it's all good. But still I can't quite move myself into action.

I've got my tax return hanging over me. That always makes me sick to the stomach until it's all done and sent off and I'm hoping that that's the root cause of my unrest. It's time-tabled to be done this week, which is the first opportunity after the silly season and holidays (if you don't count any time from April 6 2010...)

So hopefully all this New Year procrastinating and inability to focus will disappear into a puff of smoke just as soon as I hit "send" with my tax return and I'll be back to bugging you regularly with constant tweets, flickr uploads, blogposts and anywhere else you may happen to be lurking...

Happy New Year!

What a lovely break it has been. We've been surrounded by family and the house has never had so many people all at once and for so long. I love it. As long as I'm organised with meals and places for everyone to crash, I love having the house full, particularly with all the little ones running around.

We got out for quite a few bracing walks too, which is quite useful when all you're doing otherwise is going from one meal to the next.

We did have to quite often bribe the kids with stop-offs at Starbuck's at the top of the road for hot chocolates on the way home. (It did astound me however that more often than not in these climes they opted for ice cold Frappaccinos...strange children...)

This was the first time since Chanukah that we got together with Matthew's family, so New Year's Eve was celebrated with lots of pressies for the children, which as you can see made them rather happy.

It really has been a lovely couple of weeks and I have the treat of getting back into it all very steadily this week. Matthew decided to take this week off as well, as he had extra holiday to take, so whilst doing a bit of work, we've also been doing lunch, enjoying a bit of time together without the crowds and easing our way into 2011.

Having had such a relaxing break I'm very eager now to get started on all those plans that I've been muting in my head and things I started on before Christmas that had to be put on hold. And then of course there's the huge backlog of fabric deliveries to play with and report on that have been arriving over the hols, including my Aunt's delivery whilst here from US.

So here's wishing all of you a great, successful, healthy and happy 2011...I wonder what we'll all achieve this year...

How are your holidays going? We are having a grand old time and doing a bit of everything. Seeing family, seeing friends, going out on family outings, just the 5 of us, eating well, drinking well, sleeping late...

...and getting in some crafting.

I made a conscious effort last week of choosing a crafting project to do over the holidays that wouldn't keep me away from my family (I knew there was no point saying I would do NO crafting - I could NEVER have kept to that)

I'd used up what wool I had bought for the grey cushion on Day 1, so I had to think up a new plan.

I've been staring at the canvas I've been wanting to recover for the past however many weeks and have been ignoring it as I've been too busy to do anything with it. I'd had it in my mind that I'd tackle it more fervently over the holidays. The way the original idea was heading wasn't conducive to hanging out with everyone and also, the more I looked at it, the more I didn't like how it was developing.

So a quick U-turn has resulted on it going in a completely different tack...

...Hexies...lots and lots and LOTS of hexies! I still haven't decided quite how many colours are going to be incorporated and whether it will be all hexies or a mixture of some other design.

But in the meantime, I'm getting my crafting time in, I'm doing a specific project that needed addressing and what's more, I'm not missing out on hanging out with everyone.

I hope you are having as much fun this holiday and managing to tick all the boxes.

The party season has started at ours...

It was my Mum's 70th birthday yesterday. My Mum is an incredible woman who has a lot on her plate...2 ageing parents herself to care for...full time carer for my Dad who has MS, not to mention all the community work she does, being there for all of us - her 3 children and 7 grand-children... You'd think life would be a bit gentler on you when you reach 70.

She really is amazing. And to top it all she doesn't look anywhere near 70 either. Just as long as I've inherited her genes there...

We had a big party for her yesterday and just so it doesn't pass in a breeze we are all heading out for brunch this morning...all 15 of us.

It really is setting the party season off on a high, but I'm not sure I'll be able to continue through it all at this pace!

Whatever you are doing these holidays and whoever you are spending it with, I hope it brings you joy, happiness and laughter.

Thank you so much for your support in 2010, it really does mean a lot to me that you are all out there sharing my musings, craftings and whatever else is happening to be going on in my life and I look forward to sharing more together in 2011, whatever that may bring...