New Designer homewares at George Home at Asda

George at Asda have teamed up with The Prince's Trust to create a brand new designer range for your home.
Two designers - Dimitria Jordan and Amanda Bradley, both of whom were helped by the Prince's Trust to launch their own businesses - were selected to create an exclusive range of home wares for George Home with 10% of the profits going back to The Prince's Trust to help more young people get the help they need to realise their dreams.

#WIPsLinky No.4 - Christmas is a coming...

Did you know there are only 8 weekends left til Christmas?

That may be enough to strike fear into the heart of many a crafter - especially if, like me, you plan on giving everyone at least ONE Christmas pressie produced by your own fair hands!!

So most of my works-in-progress this month will be Christmas pressies - which means I can't show you them here as some of the recipients read my blog! (however they don't use Twitter so I may be able to share some on there - search the #WIPsLinky hashtag if you are feeling nosey!)

Now there is a definite nip in the air I would love to get back to working on my patchwork cable blanket. I have only managed one more panel since I mentioned it last and I suspect very little further progress will be made this side of Christmas!  Ah never mind - plenty of time to cosy up with blanket making in the New Year . . .

Last month's main work in progress was the fab retro dance dress I was making for the 60's Dance and Joe Meek celebration at Newent which was last weekend.

You'll be pleased to know I managed to finish the dress - sewing on the last button just hours before I wore it and danced the night away in it!  I was a little nervous that the poppers holding it all together would unpop in the middle of the Twist but it all held together!

the dress was made like an apron - over the head then the back wrapped round the front

not the best picture - but you get the idea...

 Making my own dress was immensely satisfying - I will definitely be doing it again!  Now I just need to hunt out some cool patterns...


What are you up to this month? Have you started Christmas crafting yet?

Blog your current works-in-progress and link up so we can all see what you are up to - there's nothing like going public if you want to avoid projects falling by the wayside unfinished...  (trust me!)

As usual I will add all your projects to my #WIPsLinky Pinterest board too - it's becoming a little #WIP treasure trove!!

Happy crafting!

#WIPsLinky No3 - Retro Rockabilly

Hello everyone! I can't believe another whole month has flown by!

I don't know what the weather is like where you are but here in the Forest of Dean we have woken up to thick fog every morning for the last four or five days. The school run is decidedly damp and my hair has gone into uber frizz mode!

The Autumn Equinox has passed which means that the nights are now longer than the days. Summer is over. The evenings are drawing in. Time to snuggle up on the sofa and craft by candle light... (although, to be fair, for most of us it's craft by TV light! ;-)

The crochet high tops I told you about last time are coming along well - I am about two thirds of the way through the second one now so hope to be able to share them soon. One good thing has come from all this extra crochet - I have finally mastered the correct way of holding yarn and hook. It really speeds things up and my hands aren't cramping up like they were before. Which means more crochet can be done! Yay!!

This month however I have a special project to get going on.  I am part of the team organising a very special event in Newent over the weekend of 18th - 20th October in the town of Newent, the birth place of the pioneering song writer/producer of the early 60's Joe Meek. His best known hit was 'Telstar' by the Tornados - the first record by a UK band to top the Billboard 100 in the US! NME even proclaimed him the NO1 most influential producer EVER! No small claim to fame.  

What does all this have to do with #WIPsLinky? I hear you ask. Well, as part of the team I will be attending the main evening event - a 60's Dance night headlined by the original Tornados (ok, not all the original Tornados) and part of the deal is that we have to dress to impress! So this month I will mostly be attempting to make me some Retro Rockabilly style!

I absolutely love this pattern - it's a little different to all the other dress patterns I researched. Lets have a closer look...

 

It's made as a wrap around style which means NO ZIPS (this is a bonus as I hate putting zips in! ) and the pattern difficulty level is described as 'very easy'.

We'll see.

To be honest I am absolutely terrified. I know it's silly, I have used my sewing machine practically every day for the last five years but I only ever sew smallish things. This dress uses a lot of fabric which I am seeing as a lot of potential to go wrong!  I can't wait to get started though!

So what projects have you started this month? Do you have anything special planned for October? Blog it, link up and share your works-in-progress with us all - there is no better incentive to get things finished!!
Don't forget you can use the hashtag #WIPsLinky when you share your post on Twitter/Facebook/Google+ too.

p.s. This month I will also be working on a #WIPsLinky badge that you can all add to your blogs if you choose. Look out for that next month x

Happy Crafting

Retro toy fun - Old Skool Lego

Yesterday we* were given an amazing gift from the Other Half's brother - a box of Lego. More accurately, a vintage (mid 70's?) set of Lego in it's original box!  

*I say we - technically it was for the Little Man, but, you know, he has to be supervised and besides he has the attention span of a fly...

This is Lego as I remember it before it got all technical and based around the latest blockbuster movie...

 

Check out that collar and the hair!

Now if your family was anything like mine there was always plenty of Lego to play with but, despite our best intentions, it rarely stayed in it's original box for long. This set however even has the instructions!

 

 Well, naturally I couldn't wait to get stuck in. It didn't take long to build the hospital - cleverly hinged on one side to allow easy play. Honestly it was like being 7 all over again. Right down to nearly throwing a wobbly when I couldn't get one bit to stay together properly...

But after about half an hour of reacquainting myself with teeny Lego (the LM is still at the Duplo stage of Lego building) I had my state of the art (c. 1970) hospital complete with bed, trolley, sink and tiled cabinet (I made that one up myself - you see it all comes flooding back!).

 

Doctor 'How are you feeling?' Patient 'A bit stiff, doctor...'

See this is 'old skool' Lego - in the days before Lego mini-figures existed. These guys don't bend in the middle...

Now I have made the hospital I can't wait to have a go at some of the other ideas on the box...

Relaxing in our stylish living room...

Who needs MFI? 

As I suspected the Little Man got bored about ten minutes into construction and decided that bowling on the Wii was much more fun. I think I may have to pass the task of creative Lego play over to Daddy. I'm sure he could make something far more interesting to a four year old boy than the various retro interiors I want to recreate :-)

Thank you to Uncle M for this little surprise. I promise I will pass it on to the Little Man as soon as he is old enough to appreciate it.

In the meantime I have a restaurant to construct....

***UPDATE***

Apparently all Lego sets can be dated by their set number. This one was released in 1978. Thanks to @frizzychick for filling me in on that one :-)