How was your Easter weekend? Great I hope.

We have just come back from the best weekend ever. We went to visit one of Matthew's brother's who lives in Bristol. The other bro and his family came over too. We get along just brilliantly. (Take a look at us girls here). I couldn't ask for better sister and brother-in-laws. Really, I couldn't.

And what's more all the cousins, ranging from my big boy Sam at almost 14, down to little Luka at almost 3, are so close and love spending time with each other. They are a great team.

And what's more (just gets better and better, hey?) they all let me indulge myself by being my willing guinea pigs in crafting activities.

I'd brought along freezer paper, fabric paints and bags for a little activity yesterday afternoon and as if they'd be prepped by the other Mum's and Dad's - "you know what Auntie Karen's like. Just humour her and play along..." - they all sat willingly to 'play'. They continued to play along, even when I made them sit and work out their design properly before letting them lose on the freezer paper and paints.

Even Anastasia, aged 4, took it in the spirit that it was meant to be taken...

The boys were surprisingly keen. Hardly surprising. They've know Mummy/Auntie Karen for long enough.

They were only supposed to do one each (at Auntie Ruth and Auntie Alex's request to do one too) but as you can see they all loved it so much that they wanted to do a second. I was so impressed with what they've produced. It was such a fantastic afternoon and a great activity to do with them all as, despite taking some effort and concentration, results were pretty rapid and immediate.

And the bags came in pretty useful for our next activity - having something to carry home the precious rocks in that they had all collected in the rock pools by the beach.

I don't know about you, but I am so slow with finishing touches. I'd like to think it's because I don't like to rush things and like things to come together organically, working out what would work in a space.

Quite frankly I think it's because I'm not good at the finer detail.

However, in an Etsy perusing mood last week, I hit on this fantastic piece of fabric by the uber talented Heather of Skinny Laminx. This has long since been an absolute fave piece of fabric of mine and something that day connected with my brain and told me to buy it right now to make the much needed cushion for the newly appointed hallway.

Heather's fabrics tick every single box for me...

hand-printed...

crisp linen...

simple eye-catching designs...

lots of greys and yellows.

Even without seeing this fabric in the flesh I knew it was going to work perfectly in this space. It compliments my hand-printed wallpaper by Missprint beautifully.

I used some of my new Ikea grey linen for the backing, which I binded with another new (to me) Ikea fabric, the pretty ditsy daisy.

I love the splash of colour here in the hallway and I love the fact that the space is just about complete. I say just about because as you can see there's a second chair that needs a little Skinny Laminx treatment. The question is do we go for a cushion in the same colour and design or same colour, different design? Me being me I'm all for a different design. I'm not too good on matchy matchy.

What do you reckon? If this was your space, what would you do?

It's that time again. The next Grey Circles is in just 2 weeks. Something to look forward to after the mayhem of interrupted time due to school holidays, Royal Weddings and Official Bank Holidays.

If you fancy some 'me' time after all that, then grab a place on our Children's Clothes Workshops on Saturday May 7th.

You will learn to make a top or tunic, along with a pair of trousers for any age from birth to 8 years. We ran the workshop back in February and it was a great success, both meeting great people and learning new skills. These designs are perfectly suited for summer clothing, so come along and design something unique for the children in your life to wear and enjoy all summer long. All you need to do is turn up and we'll provide everything else; including machine, all the fabrics you will need, lunch, tea, coffee, cakes, everything to enjoy the perfect day away learning new skills and meeting new friends.

Need to know anything more? Just contact myself or Manda for further information.

Ready to book? Go straight here and we look forward to having you join us.

Whilst we are on the subject of spring and garden's and enjoying our beautiful weather here in the UK (sorry Aussie's heading towards winter) let's just stick to the theme of flowers for one more day.

I'd mentioned that my garden and particularly my deck needs some attention and colour leading into summer, so yesterday, when I walked up to the local florists to get Passover gifts for family we are visiting over the next few days, I put in a few sneaky purchases for us.

These daisy plants just sang out to me and I can just picture them re-flowering throughout the whole summer. They depict summer perfectly to me and I'd already decided I fancied lots of fresh white and yellow on the deck.

I'd seen some mini ones of these and already thought a row them in yellow would be fun filled with an abundance of white flowers.

Then I placed my daisy pots in my flower stand, which my lovely Grandma bought us for a house warming gift and decided that this filled with the white daisies would get the look I was after too.

So my 3 pots are a start - it's amazing how many plants you actually need before you start noticing them - and pretty soon the deck will be my summertime solace and if the sunshine continues, then all will be good.

I think spring has to be my favourite moment in time.

I'm a real one for the days being longer and it staying light for longer. It is such a feel-good factor beyond anything else.

Much to my husband's difference of opinion, I am very low maintenance and really value the simple things in life:

a quiet moment with a coffee...

a quiet moment with a glass of wine (are you sensing a theme?)...

an evening spent with family...

an evening spent laughing with good friends...

time in my studio creating...

Along with all these and other simple pleasures, the onset of spring is way up at the top of the list.

Our garden is at it's best in the spring. The cherry blossom against the blue skies is just stunning. We have Grape Hyacinths aplenty, along with the most stunning red tulips. And finally, my uppermost most favouritest plant, my Peony, by the front steps, comes up year after year, without fail, to shock and take my breath away every year.

Simple, unadulterated pleasures in life.

What does it for you?

I've talked before about my hoarding of scraps and my inability of throwing anything out. After all, you never know quite when you may need them and what they can be used for.

And this is the reason why...

The leftover pieces from my pencil pouches weren't exactly huge but they were too big to be discarded in the bin. It's almost a criminal offence to throw away these bits of beauty.

At 11.30pm last night, my normal lightbulb time, when I should have been finishing off and heading to bed, I started playing with these pieces and voila, the new Lippy/Coin Keyring Pouch was born.

They will be in the shop very soon.

I can't guarantee what designs there will be.

After all, as I've said, they are just a bunch of scraps.

UPDATE: Now available right here...

Since BCTF I'm back to making kits in abundance.

It's funny because the fabrics I have generally been using with my other work is very different from what I call my "kit fabric". Since the kits are children's kits the fabrics I tend to use are a lot brighter and zingier than I use with my accessories. So I had to put my kit-making hat on and make selections. It's not always clear quite how these fabrics look in the flesh but the lovely ladies at Saints & Pinners are more than happy to send out samples of fabrics making it much easier to make the right decisions. After all it's costly making mistakes. And I have made some right clangers in my time.

Today I received my samples (I only ordered them yesterday) and I'm really pleased with all of them and as well as wanting them for the kits I am also liking the bottom two, Genie by Annette Tatum for summer clothing for Ruby and possibly they may even sneak into the accessories range.

The top fabric, a gorgeous teal Mod Flower, also by Annette Tatum, will work perfectly in the kits and the 2 bright flower designs in the middle there from the Weekends collection by Erin McMorris are just great. Their brightness stands out perfectly.

So, if you are unsure about whether fabrics you see online will work for you, I strongly recommend you see whether samples are available. I know M is for Make will also send samples and I'm pretty sure most of the lovely online fabric stores will offer this service.