Bags of fun

Hello again to Handmade Mondayers! It is half term this week, so I can join in with everyone.
My dear daughter has finally let me on the computer so I can blog, but I will have to be quick as there is a roast dinner to cook! Mind you, I showed her how to make origami gift bags earlier in the week and they are now taking over the house. I believe a tutorial on them will be appearing on her blog soon.

Baby Christmas Bunting kit

I have had fun creating a new kit for Christmas - Baby Christmas Bunting.
To to launch this new kit I am having a giveaway on Pickle-Lily of one the new kits. With it you can make two metres of felt and pom-pom bunting. Everything you need is in the kit, apart from scissors. I'm also including two gift bags with a surprise in them as well.

How to enter

Follow my blog and then leave a comment to say you have done this. If you are already a follower (thank you) please just leave me a comment.

For extra chances to win you can....

'Like' me on my Facebook page and leave a comment on my blog and on my facebook page to let me know you have done this.
If you already 'like' my FB page then please just leave a comment here to remind me!
If you would like to blog about my giveaway this will give you another entry. Again leave me another comment here on my blog.
I'd like to boost Pickle-Lily's own Facebook page, so for an extra entry, please 'like' her page and  leave another comment on here.
Please ensure that I am able to contact you. Pickle-Lily will pull all the names out of a hat next Monday 4th November.

Good luck!

A quick catch up

I shall start with a picture of my latest buy to entice you into reading my latest post!

Fox lights

Life with Pickle-Lily has been busy, but not particularly exciting lately, now there's a turn-off from reading any more! I have been busy with school and crafting has been taking a bit of a back seat. P has had her first stall on her own, which was a success and has been busy dancing and with guides, as well as school.
Both of us have been very busy on Pinterest - which is highly addictive and I'm now hooked on Instagram! This has led me into finding even more fabrics to add to my collection! I have made some glow in the dark bunting from Riley Blake fabric.


Glow in the dark bunting

The screme egg critters have gone down very well and I am trying to knit some more - you can find the pattern here.
Next week is half term and there will be more posts and a tutorial and a giveaway, so keep watching!

From little things

A couple of years ago I designed a very simple knitted paper chain pattern for Pickle-Lily to knit. It was then used by the WI to create the Guinness World Record for the most people knitting at the same time at the Albert Hall.
 A week or so ago I went to the stitch and sew show at Westpoint in Exeter, where I found the UK Hand Knitting stall, and there on the table were huge balls of green and white knitted paper chains.

knitted paper chains

The challenge had been extended to knit 1km of knitted paper chains, so I sat down and had a lovely chat with one of the volunteers and 'modestly' let it slip that it was my pattern, and there was my name on the display. I also knitted a chain to add to the grand total.
Yesterday, I met the lady again who told me to check out the UK Hand Knitting website as this record had been met, and that they are now going for one mile!

Forest School Log - Autumn smells

As many of you know, my day job is a key stage 1 teacher, and the best part of my days are forest school. I 'do' forest school three times a week with three different classes, and quite often I am looking for activities, so I thought I would share some of mine with you. My sessions with the children only last for half an hour for one group up to an hour for another group, and I generally have half a class at a time. This half term has been all about senses and this week we have made autumn smells!

Autumn smells

This involved collecting the plastic tubs that you can buy lovely cakey goodies from M&S in, I have now collected 12 and they are brilliant for all sorts of things- ideal size for little people to use and have good lids. Any excuse to eat the contents really!!!
The children worked in pairs to collect autumn things from the forest school (after a reminder about not eating anything) and stir them with a little water using a stick. One group of boys found a small log and put the pot on the floor, gathered round and took it in turns to mash it altogether using the log as a pounding tool.
A lot of sharing, turn taking, describing words, discussions and smelling went on. The children were absorbed and would have carried on but we ran out of time. All agreed that it was a lovely smell, not what they'd predicted, and some looked beautiful as well.

All bunting out

This week-end I have been helping In a Pickle-Lily make bunting. Some of the bake sale bunting was used in a local shop window as part of the local food and drink festival, and it has generated orders for more! In fact the shop has asked for a selection of bunting to have as stock, so I have been helping her make bunting. This week-end we have made nine lengths of bunting, which is 22.5m or 99 flags.


lots of lovely bunting

I did distracted this week-end however, by turning my fox, squirrel and hedgehog into Christmas decorations! It wasn't part of the plan for this week-end, but my fingers sort of cut and stitched them by themselves and I am very pleased with them. In fact when I have finished this post I am going to put them on folksy, the first items in my Christmas shop for this year!