Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday - yippee!

After being woken up by Little I at 5am - (birthday lie-in what's that??) my kids opened my presents for me and look at the fab necklace my friend Lovely Sarah sent me. Can you tell it is a seagull holding an anchor? I loves it. I was also sent the green cardy you can just see here by my sister. I like birthdays!

I went with my daughter Little I who is three and a friend to wander round Shrewsbury. We drank coffee and ate pain au chocolat, looked in lots of shops. The first thing I did there was to take my poor old sewing machine in for a service. It is a 1970s Elna that my mum gave me and it has recently been feeling the strain a bit and a few things have fallen off it. The sewing machine shop there is fab- it is really small, old fashioned and unassuming from the outside but the staff know their stuff. I had a quick glance at some shiny new machines as I may save up one day for a new one. They look very impressive but seem to lack the character of my reliable Elna (I am not usually attached to inanimate objects but I am in this case).

I then confirmed my status as middle aged by spending part of my birthday money on kitchenware but ooh look it combines several obsessions in one set of items -

firstly they are storage bowls (made of tin!) with lids (slightly seethrough!). They are lovely bright colours (I am a big lover of bright colours)and they also can stack inside each other like Russian nesting dolls. The other great thing was they were cheap as chips (I loves a bargain). See how fab they are....I have been working hard trying to get our house more organised and am as a result ever so slightly obsessed with storage. I am also on a mission to stop using

clingfilm and plastic food bags in an attempt to reduce our waste output and to be healthier. These storage tins are great for storing left overs or for picnics. Left overs and picnics both feature very largely in our house. OK, I promise no more kitchen pics. Instead I give you ...ta-dahhh, my nautical skirt finished. I made it with a ribbon insert . I used the skirt pattern from the Built By Wendy Sew U book. I am just waiting for it to warm up so I can wear this as part of Me-Made-May The fabric is from my mum's uber-stash.
Finally, I have just taken out my dyed nursey-nursey tunic out of the machine. It looks so good - Iam inordinately excited and will photo it when it's dried and post more. I dyed it "Antique grey" by Dylon. It was a very dark grey on the pack but as it is a cotton poly mix it came out a shade lighter.