Happy Birthday to ......................................

ME!!!!

Yep, it was my birthday the other week and I was very excited! As I had been allowed to order most of my presents before the day I knew how much I was going to like them!!! I was very good though and didn't peek even when they arrived weeks early.

This little tale will show you where my money-spending priorities lie:
A friend and I had been clothes shopping just before the school holidays and I had seen a nice dress but decided I couldn't afford it. My friend suggested I got it from my parents for my birthday
"But I can't do that" I said "then I would have less birthday money to spend on craft books!"
So this is what I got myself:

You should see the pattern for the pull-along elephant in here - it's gorgeous!Angry Chicken's book is great - some useful tips in here.


These Japanese books may be incomprehensible to me but the designs are universal and absolutely amazing
I can't wait to get sewing!

I haven't had a chance to read this yet but I am looking forward to discovering what makes other crafty people "tick"

I also treated myself to some wonderful patterns from Melly and Me

I have wanted the pattern for Pocket and Floss for ages and was intrigued by the wallet design - and even more exciting - I managed to buy a wallet made by Melly herself! It is wonderful to have something actually made by a designer I admire so much. I really treasure it. I have been able to make two wallets from the pattern - they are fab - more about them in a later post.

Then, having discovered Japanese Import fabric, I bought myself some from Nuno on ebay - it came really quickly and is absolutely gorgeous! I keep going back to their shop to see if they have more goodies - I can't wait for them to restock!

I also got a copy of Sarah Raven's new book - full of ideas on how to cook my glut of courgettes and all the other veg from the allotment! The fridge is full of home grown goodies but I don't seem to have the time to prepare them all :0(

Finally, if those goodies weren't enough, my very good friends (the sewing girls) took me out shopping to our local patchwork shop The Fat Quarters, and each gave me spending money for my birthday so I could choose my own treats (how well they know me!) Kim had the new Tilda book in so I had to get that! and then some of the lovely fabrics, ric-rac, buttons and felt that go with it (although I have spared you photos of them). Tilda has produced three amazing books that have been translated into English but I think this one has to be the best of all - even just the room sets are amazing - I love her style.

So, all in all, a very, very HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! Sorry it has taken me a while to write this post but as you can see there were rather a lot of photos to take and upload and I have been working semi-full-time for the last week (9.15-3pm) so I have not had much "me-time". It has been quite a shock to the system as the last time I worked full-time was over 10 years ago!