One more step along the road I go, more and more about the world I know...

This Thursday October was seen in with glorious sunshine and crisp orange leaves falling of the trees like golden confetti and it seemed almost a crime to stay in doors and waste the beauty of it all. I volunteered to collect my other Niece, Issobelle (mentioned in 'Naked Ambition') from school and walk her back to my house for an hour or so.

The walk to collect her was 10-15 minutes maximum with my grown up legs, but it turns out, little legs walk a lot slower and little hands and eyes are a lot more inquisitive than I had anticipated and so the time home tripled in length! It was such a fun 45 minutes, I thought I would share some of the moments with you- not very beads or buttons but definitely a sprinkle of glitter in my opinion.

Along the way we wandered onto the green where Issobelle was beside herself with glee when she realised the power her foot kicking had in a big pile of crunchy leaves!

Then she found a baby feather and after some alarm that the baby bird was lacking a feather and discussing that baby bird was fine, the feather became a hot topic for the next 200 yards.

The cherry on the cake was the little ginger cat that took a real shining to Issobelle's little hands and after much stroking, followed us all the way home. To reward her "fwend", Issobelle felt the cat deserved a couple of Mindy's cat treats, which soon turned into rather more than a couple- sorry Mindy!!

So with Issobelle finding fun in leaves, feathers and cats, what did I find fun in? My fun was watching Issobelle enjoy the simple things and loving every moment of what could have been a mundane journey.

Toodlepip! xx

A Gentle Read

Today I decided that after all this spotty material I have been sharing, I should also share a little of my reading material with you. I love reading almost as much as I love creating, so what would be the ideal? Reading a book about creating, of course!

I was lent this fabulous book, "The Gentle Art of Domesticity" (written by Jane Brocket) by my Auntie Judith and what I loved most about this book when I picked it up from her coffee table, was the little note she had slotted in on a recipe page with a little shopping list. To me this is the best review a book can have. It suggests that the book has been read, pondered and then something has has been made from it- for a few moments, it was an inspiration to somebody.

I took my new found treasure home and flicked through all the gorgeous glossy photographs and lost myself in the literature. This is an easy read that simply appreciates the beauty you can find so close to home and is often lost in the hustle and bustle of day to day life. If you ever have a chance to read this- do it!

Hope you've had a inspiring day and find a little time, to appreciate the little beauties.

Toodlepip! xx

Naked Ambition

This weekend, I took a deep breath and accompanied my lovely Auntie Judith to one of her favourite haunts- a Car Boot Sale. Unlike me, Auntie Judith has an incredible knack of finding all sorts of gems at car boot sales and her home is full of fantastic goodies that I envy. So, what with having my new house renovated and in need of all sorts of items, I decided to go along and see if I had the "eye" for treasure.

It turns out I didn't. Auntie Judith assures me this was the first sale of the season at this particular site, so it wasn't going to be the best but something positive did come out of it- a new craft project! Woo!

Judith bought (for her Grandaughter Issobelle, not herself of course) a sparkly Barbie type doll with a glitzy top and pink hair but she was missing one thing- a skirt. For 50p it was a bargain and I knew I could rectify this problem. So this morning I set to work on creating a puffy pink tutu to complete the gift for Issobelle.

It was really very simple to make and could be easily adapted into many other projects.

To make the puffy pink tutu I needed one pair of scissors, one skinny hair band and some coloured (in this case pink) netting. I bought the netting at a fabric store in Liverpool for £1.40/m and I think I used about 10cm by 10cm today so about 14p worth of netting! Yowza!

1. Cut the netting into strips about 10cm long and 2cm wide. This is an approximation and you can alter as you feel happy with.

2. Tie the 10cm strips round the hairband so there are 2 5cm strips hanging off (connected by the knot of course).

3. Continue this all around the hairband until you have a full tutu.

You can add more or less strips, trim to create a more or less puffy skirt and add different colours and textures- what about incorporating ribbon for a more floaty effect?

This is a great project to do with young children as the only risk is the cutting with scissors, which you could do for them. I have even done this project on a much larger scale, using a long piece of knicker type elastic (the type used for the scrunchie I made earlier) and made adult tutu's for an office fancy dress day. For my own dignity, I won't be posting a picture of this!

Well I hope Issobelle and her fashionista doll are as pleased with my latest creation as I am!

Toodlepip! xx