To my little man...Jude

 I found out that my lovely little boy Jude won Student of the trimester I was a very PROUD Mummy, yup people my little man has won this 2nd year in a row now and I have been shouting it from the rooftops and now I am blogging about it, he deserves it!

Back home in England we don't have student of the trimester or I should say we didn't, they may have changed it now but many years ago when I was still at school they didn't.  

So for Jude to win this was HUGE for me, huge in the fact that I can revel in my lovely little boys accomplishments!  

So let me tell you a little about this sweet little gentleman...

Jude will always open the door for me, or wait for me to pass before he opens his car door, he strokes my face when I am sleeping (so he thinks) and tells me how much he loves his mummy, he writes me little notes and will try to make me laugh when he is in trouble because he knows I cannot resist his little giggle. He asks me how my day has been and if he can do anything to help me. He tells mes how clever I am and how much like his dad he wants to be (he already is!) He reads to his sister and helps people he doesn't even know. Jude cleans his room, unloads the dishwasher and works very hard at school! People this boy is 7, yes 7!!!! 

Don't get me wrong he'll beat his sister up when hes done reading to her or he'll battle it out like any boy, but for the most part he is a sweetie!

All I know is we have one of the most affectionate studious little boys out there (I'm sure you do too, but this about my little man today) Who knows he is loved and who is not afraid to show how much he loves us too!

Jude I LOVE you and I am so very proud of you... Mummy xxx 

I Used to intelligent!

 
Really at one point in my life I did.And sorry for the typos I am a little fraught (unintelligent!)

My BF growing up~ Kathryn had a TERRIBLE memory... not me! I was always on her case about why she was as forgetful as she was? Now that's me! I birthed my brains and apperntly memory out with my kids!
So take for example today!I was supposed to to this bloggy linked in thing!




Probably a lot sooner then now? Huh yeah I got it down I know what I'm doing and I'm going to remember! NOPE I forgot, but I hurried back from INK and got typing, apparently I've also forgotten how to spell and use punctuation!

So here I am scrapping in by the skin of my teeth like I always do and post the link that is supposed to come here back to YeptheBlog!!! Hehe wow I am brilliant!  I know what your thinking! I can hear it, you are jealous, jeaous of my perfect life and my brilliant memory aren't you?
Sorry but this is my brain lady so back off I'm keeping it (trading is an option if you really want it?)

Well let me tell you why I had momentarily forgotten about this event?!
This week I am re-designing my sewing studio/office and it is taking MUCH longer than anticipated! I just couldnt look at these yellow walls any longer...

They HAD to go.

But I do have two amazing helpers (note the sarcasm)

 

We also had a little fire scare so I am going to totally blame it on that! (It's not really to blame) But (by chance I'd like to add) I came across this smoldering cord in my daughters room, melted to carpet and hooked up to her space heater which we use every night... Sorry USED to use! Can you see how crazy burnt this is? I think a couple more days and the whole room would have gone up in flames!Oh and that metal thing left in it is part of the plug I tried to pry of the heater!

Anyway the studio is... coming along SLOWLY....

But right now I am enjoying a nice glass of red!

Again sorry Kim for being late.

Hmmmmmmm

I really should write more, but I don't. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, normally thanks to my darling little ones who somehow manage to find their way into our bed nearly every-night! despite having their own amazing beds and being WAY to old to be in bed with us!!!!

Anyway as I was saying I have these great postings in my head but by the time I have woken from my amazing slumber! haha not I can't even begin to remember let alone write down all the things running through my mind!

Sooooo with that in mind I am taking a pledge, a pledge to write more?! yes it's that frightening to me, I am not a writer, I am a... hmmmmm well I do a lot of things but generally writing is not one of them!

One of my daughters favorite things is for me to tell her stories about my childhood! I'm wondering if she is so amazed at what a looped out crazy childhood I had or if she's planning on copying me with some of it? 

Well the current story that she has an obsession with is when I dared my younger sister Sammy to jump out of our second story window, not once but twice! 

Yep she is the skinniest and one of the prettiest of my sister's (I do have two other pretty sisters!) she did however lack the ability to see why I told her to do it and not me!!! I knew it would end in disaster but she however saw the dare and thought yep, I'm going to fly with a bin liner strapped to my back (trash bag for you non brit speaking people) 

hmmmmm 

She didn't fly, BUT... she did get to ride in an ambulance, which was very cool and that did make me very jealous, so who really won? Anyway this is what my 5 year old daughter is obsessed with, OBSESSED.

Ella; "How long did it take her to feel better? How long was the ambulance ride? How big was the bin liner?!"

Am I in trouble??? Yes I am! Do I see future hospital visits? Yes I do! Am I going to stop telling her crazy stories? NOPE! 

I'm hoping she will learn from my many mistakes, which she probably won't but at least she will know a little of who I am and where I from, hopefully she will understand her crazy mother a little better! Who knows! 

Maybe she's just stalling at going to bed?!
 

It's a Cheat

I know, I know it's cheating but I was reading through the Gilmores In Wonderland blog and I think some of you my find it interesting. So if you want to see what we got up to last year when we took our kiddies back home to England then click here. We also took them to France. It was so an amazing trip... very very cold though!
Well I hope you enjoy :-)
Here are a few pictures to wet your appetite!

What a year! and THANK YOU

Wow it really is the beginning of another year? where did it go?

Here are some of things we accomplished last year :-)

We moved to an amazing house with the most amazing backyard! This summer we plan on throwing so great garden parties!

 One of my fav parts of the house!

 

 I made 5 new blinds with interliing for my daughters freezing bedroom and boy am I glad I did! this spurred the opening of An English View  Do you need custom drapes, blinds, pillows? give ma a call!

 My two lovelies went of to school (yay ;-) )

I started a new line of art work... watch this space for more! 

 I did keep on sewing for my little one after we close QC down :( a sad but needed goodbye to two fun years with one of my best friends Sheila, I sad sign of the times unfortunately!

 I got to wrok with another good friend Mila from LaRee Jewelry Design, her things are very cool... check out her custom scrabble tiles, some of the nicest I've seen!

This was our booth at a local craft fair this year... it was fun!

I got to decorate a wedding with a good friend Krissi, who made the amazing cake... she has a gift! 

We threw Ella a major princess party! I'm not sure who had more fun though, her or me???

 I joined a local etsy team :)

A 9yr old showed me how to make origami, which I turned into jewelry ( I know it's hard to stay grounded )

 I developed and obsession (one of many) with Alice in wonderland which sparked of my tea-cup pincushions...

 ... which in turn sparked of my felted ring pincushions...

... Which got me the amazing feature in MSL magazine that bought Ella's Wardobe so much business and along the way I got to meet some very kind amazing people. THANK YOU for all you kind emails.

 

SOOOOOOOOO as A HUGE thank you for your support I want to make a custom just for you, a custom felted ring. 

all you need to do is the usual... Comment, Tweet or Face Book a link to my store and January the 12th 5pm I will choose a winner

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU

A link to the Martha Stewart Website

I have another couple of posts in the works, I promise! I have a couple of awesome local artists to feature too so check back soon!

I waned to link the Pincushion ring from Martha's website mainly for my refrence!
Anyway here it is "The Ring"

What I Like

We went to the San Francisco De Young  last Tuesday with our lovely children! A lady in front of us asked us what we had done to bribe them into coming, what could she mean I asked myself, thinking they would love the D'orsay exhibit as much as we did?? Would they?...They did... they did! My son who is 6 1/2 acquired headphones from someone and figured out how to punch in the numbers to the various paintings and stood there and listened to the commentator on most of the paintings like a little old man... he was enthralled, and adorable!

We got to see a few of the Van Gogh pieces (please pronounce Van GOGHF as the French, English and Dutch do! and not Van GO ) It was amazing to see starry night and his bedroom in person up close, you really appreciate the painting so much more and it  really moves you. I'm not talking about a hoity toity way, but a ... I get ot see this famous masterpiece in person kind of way!

There was an artist featured there called George Seurat, I'm not his number one fan but seeing some of his work in the flesh made you realize how brilliant these men were. Seurat used a method called Pointillism The technique relies on the ability of the eye and mind of the viewer to mix the color spots into a fuller range of tones so you can see the painting as a whole when you step back. Have you ever seen those pictures made up of millions of small photos? well simililar concept but done with a human eye and hand and not a computor.

If you get the chance do go to see the exhibit and invest in the walking tour headphones esp. if you are taking your young ones with you.

Oh and it would be awsome to have seen more Degas!
This was my favorite as a young girl when it was on display in the Tate Gallery, London.

Vintage and felt

I am SOOOOOOOOOOO excited to have my felt rings featured in the Martha Stewart magazine for December. Check out pages 45 & 46 for look at the ring, can you tell I'm excited?



Well here are some new rings I have been working on. I am starting to use vintage brooches, buttons and vintage inspired ring bezel's.


And I am starting to do lots of different sizes, to accommodate all size's of fingers.




And use up my collection of vintage buttons!!


They do look cute just laying around too.



It is also my goal to start listing them on etsy one a day... we'll see how far I get ;-)