back to work beauties

I sent a tweet out earlier asking if I was the only one whose weekends were more hectic than their weekdays. I seem to have spend Saturday and Sunday living life at full throttle to the point where I could really do with a rest right now and it's only Monday afternoon! If you think I'm exaggerating, here's a snippet of what we did on Saturday:

 - went into town (in the rain and with a 3 and a half year old, no less) to run some errands

 - home again and then straight back out for 3 and a half year old's first ever *ballet show (which lasted 2, yes 2 hours...)

 - sit around in the car afterwards for half an hour waiting for the AA to come fix our car as it decided to break down.

 - straight back down to church to attend a Steve Curtis Chapman concert (which was awesome!)

 - hang around at church afterwards to put a few hundred chairs out

 - get in bed at half past midnight  ZZZzzzzzzzzz

OK, so our car doesn't break down every week, and in reality I wouldn't have it any other way, but you get the gist. Anyway, since it's Monday and most folk are back to work it's time for more Back To Work Beauties - 10 things available to buy on Etsy right now.  This week's theme is Rest - of course! Enjoy...

(Credits: Sweet - 1, 2, 3, 4. Dreams - 1, 2. Zzzz - 1, 2, 3, 4)

 Hope you liked it 

Michelle x 

ps. I've got netball training tonight and I quite fancy a night in front the telly. Anybody fancy a temporary life swap with me for this evening? ?...? No, thought not. Hey ho...

* the ballet school insisted that the girls wear make-up for this. Specifically blue eyeshadow, blusher and red lipstick. My daughter is 3....3! Apparently the stage lights make them look washed out. I can't see how that would apply to my daughter as she is mixed race and therefore BROWN, so I applied the makeup so lightly it was barely visible to the naked eye. It still felt wrong and I will be forever traumatised. Her skin subsequently reacted to the make-up so I have an excuse for her to never wear it again. Ever cloud has its silver lining.......

shop love

I'm currently sitting on my settee staring out the window feeling slightly nauseous. I don't deserve your sympathy - I'm just suffering from cupcake overload. After craving the killer cupcakes I made a couple weeks ago, I decided to make another batch.... and then another. I then ate cupcakes for lunch. Not good.. Anyhoo, I'm now sat surfing t'interweb whilst my body gets over the shock. 

I'm supposed to be searching for a dishwasher, but I keep getting distracted by pretty things (white goods are soo uninspiring). My latest internet distraction is a beautiful online shop called Lasso The Moon. Judging by their press page, I'm a bit slow on the uptake with this one, but in case you've never heard of them they're an independent shop that showcases products by UK designers and the items they stock are lovely.

Here's a selection of some of my favourite things in their shop at the moment. 

(Credits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)

That's all for today folks - I really must do some dishwasher shopping (urgh!)

Take care

Michelle x 

ps. Anyone for cupcakes?

baar-gain!

Me and Mr C decided (well, I decided and he agreed) that we needed a new clock for the dining room and I was out and about in Matalan buying socks for my 3 yr old (oh, the glamour) when I spied this. At a mere £6 it was too much of a bargain to leave on the shelf. So I bought it and now it sits on my window ledge looking pretty.

my clock my clock  - so good I snapped it twice

I love a bargain - what bargain have you found recently?

Bye for now

Michelle x 

back to work beauties

This week's beauties are inspired by some close friends of mine. They'd never been on a foreign holiday before, so a few weeks ago they took the plunge and booked a holiday to San Francisco. I'm soo jealous. I asked if they would sneak me onto the plane in their hand luggage but they (rather selfishly) declined. So here are this week's Back To Work Beauties - 10 beautiful things that you can buy on Etsy right now. This week's theme - World Travel. Enjoy.

Credits: Lets (1, 2, 3, 4), fly (1, 2), away (1, 2, 3, 4)

Bon Voyage peeps.


Michelle x 

what goes around...

I've got myself some new specs! Hurrah! They're not much different to the ones I had before, except my newbies are a bit more, well, geeky (Is that even a word? It is now.) I've had a few nice comments, but at the grand old age of thirty *****. I'm not bothered if people like them or not. 

However, it didn't escape Mr C's attention that although I paid a quite a few bob for my geek-chic glasses, the look I've gone for is not too dissimilar from the tragic shouldhavegonetospecsavers looks I adopted in my youth. Have a look at the pictures below and see for yourself. But don't judge me. Blame my mother.

***** (a lady never reveals her age you know.)

i made this

I bought this grey winter jacket (fake fur, of course daaarlings) in a charity shop recently for the princely sum of £4.

I know what you're thinking - it's not winter and it's certainly not my size, and it's not even that pretty, but I could see it's potential. Although it is now April, it is still cold here in (not so sunny) Yorkshire. When it's not raining, it's too warm to be wearing a coat but on the flip side it's too cold to go without one too, so I convinced myself I needed a gilet.

As with all the DIYs I've done so far, it was pretty simple. First of all, I removed the sleeves. When removing sleeves or shortening anything really, it's important to remember that you can always chop off more, but once you've snip snipped, there's not going back, so I always do it in stages. At first I tried the sleeves a bit longer, but it was pretty clear that they needed to be trimmed back further, so I got busy with the scissors. I then rolled the sleeves back and stitched them.

Next, I needed to find the right belt, so I lined up some options and got experimenting. The wider belts made me look like one of Robin Hood's Merry Men, so I opted for a narrow plaited belt. All that was left to do then was strike a pose!

What do you think? You like? (admittedly, not a great photo, but Mr C was being used as a monkey bar at the time. Kids, who'd have em, eh!)

Anyhoo, gotta go - the Jaffa Cakes in the cupboard are calling me.....


Michelle x

Golden Hands

Hi folks. Sorry it's been a bit patchy on the blogging front these past few days. I've got lots of crafts and DIYs to do, but wiping noses, school runs and cooking dinner kinda take priority. Anyhoo, inbetween the school run yesterday I went into a charity shop, saw this and couldn't resist and at 25p it was a barrrgain! Inside there's not only instructions on how to make the dress on the front cover (which I think would look divine when the sun finally comes out), but there's other crafts projects in there too which I'm tempted to give a try. I mean, check out the crocheted watch strap/tie/ribbon brim combo! Genius!

Although I can knit, I don't know how to crochet but this has inspired me to learn....I'm sure it can't be that hard - can it...?

Crochet needle at the ready!

Over and out

Michelle x