Thursday, August 30, 2012

Bye bye France...

I was going to name this post 'Bye bye France... hello Home!' but I have so many lovely photos of our French adventure and right now my home is looking like a bit of a bombsite and not very photogenic by any means....I wont inflict any unpacking photos on you!.
So... we are back ! After seven weeks of French sunshine I'm back in Ireland (and the land of unlimited internet access!!yayyy!!!!).
It's been so lovely to get away but its also lovely to come home, I've really missed blogging and am looking forward to getting my home work-space sorted out and lots of crafty projects on the go !
I'm ready to say 'Bye bye' to France for another year.....


Bye bye to Racels cats (Milly & Marvyn)

Bye bye bike rides along the Charente....
Bye bye to the beautiful beach & blue skys of Charante Maritime......

Bye bye little swallows in their nests......


Bye bye beautiful French sunsets........

Bye bye to those Oh! so perfect peaches......

Bye bye lazy evenings down by the river fishing with the kids.....

Bye bye little crayfish......

& finally bye bye to my favourite purchase of the Summer, only 1 Euro at a local brocante!! My restoration project for next year methinks!



Thanks for visiting !

Siubhan x x x

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

The boy loves Brocantes …

This summer we’ve been visiting lots of brocantes in France. A brocante is the French version of a car boot or outdoor jumble sale & you never know what you might find there to bargain for and buy for just a few euros!  Gavin is convinced that he is going to discover something truly marvelous at the NEXT brocante hence the many early morning trips through fields of tat and treasures! It’s a lot of fun! Here’s some of our purchases from this summer….

Lorna has finally found an old Polaroid camera (she’s been looking for a while!)
 
And I picked up two other old cameras another brocante yesterday to add to her collection! I really love the look of this one ….
I think the corrugated finish on the case is just fab, It may or may not work but I think it looks pretty cool! All of the above cameras cost 5 euros each …. It would have been just rude not to buy them for that!!

Next up two of my favourite purchases so far…….

 
a big metal washing basin (which we’ve planted up in the garden & a cool vintage style leather bag both a snip at 10 euros (I’m telling you ! what’s not to love about Brocantes!!!)

Some Brocante finds for the kitchen ;a cute coffee pot I really love and what has to be simply the purchase of the summer so far, Gavins vintage radio; Gavin has spent about 6 hours fiddling, tweeking, soldering and mending until he finally got it working. It clips open displaying its insides making access to the working parts really easy and I think he would agree its the best 2 euros he ever spent! When we were driving home from that particular Brocante the discussion in the back of the car went something like this
“Imagine if you actually managed to fix this radio and then when you tuned it in, you could only hear radio broadcasts from the past…”
“Yeah!...Wow!...Imagine…..”

Some more of my other (un-photographed) Brocante purchases included some jam jars and a new copper jam pot !Hiding behind the coffee pot you may have notice some jam. Not just any old jam its my world famous super-de-dooper Apricot breakfast jam. I’ve made two batches so far; I took loads of photos of the jam making process and will post them as a tutorial as soon as my disjointed internet access will allow, I promise!


For the rest of the post I’m just going to share some of Lornas Brocante photographs from yesterday…..
 





& finally
YESTERDAY evening the Brocante loving boy fell off his bicycle and cut his shoulder, wrist, knees, elbow, both hands, chin and chest.
TODAY I discovered the photo below on Lorna’s camera that may explain the prelude to the damage inflicted on our unsuspecting hero! Boys eh ?!
 


Thank you for visiting & please do come back soon !

 Siubhan x x x



By the way, big, big thank you to Lorna for use of her camera and some of her photos for my holiday blog posts.


Monday, July 9, 2012

Le Blog on Holidays in France !

The CraftLee house is on Holidays !

I haven’t been able to Blog much lately because I have had no access to the internet but I’ve been itching to share my holiday adventures with you so it’s off to the local supermarket café (with free WiFi!) for lunch.

Last Saturday we found our sea legs, took to the high seas and left Cork in Ireland for Roscoff in France.


Leaving Cork harbour you pass the beautiful colourful town of Cobh.



Lorna took this moody shot of a little boat zooming around against the background of the town.


Even Cooper managed to find her sea-legs ! Those Brittany Ferries people are so nice, dog’s have their own kennels & private running around area onboard !


We are going to be in France for 7 weeks ( I know ! We are truly blessed!) So first thing Monday morning its off to Saintes for a BIG food shopping & we stumble across a BIG street market ! What a great way to spend a few hours!


Beautifully presented aromatic salts …. Irresistible!


New shoes anyone ?! I love the look of these old French vehicles & what a lovely shoe shop it makes !!


Yummy fabrics ! I bought some … but not enough! (It’s never enough!)


I know this has been a long & picture heavy post but I just had to post some of the hollyhocks , they are everywhere ! When you go for a walk you can find them strewn on the roads, victims of speedy French cars !



Lorna gathered some up for me yesterday & I popped them on the mantelpiece with some donated roses from the neighbours to make a happy holiday posy !!



Thank you for visiting & hope to see you back here again soon !

Siubhan x x x


P.S. I love getting messages but at present my access to the internet is limited so if you leave me a message I may not be able to respond immediately but I will respond as soon as I can !

Sunday, June 24, 2012

We're all goin' on a Summer Holiday!

Finally the week is here !
The week BEFORE the Summer holidays !
Time to take a break from the planning and packing and  share a little summery crafty goodness !

I came home from work last week just itching to make a beach bag, after drooling over the many beach bags online I was really taken with a lovely bag by the beautiful Leanne at Elle Apparel . I used her super easy tutorial as a basis for my own bag -


I made some adjustments to Leannes lovely pattern to create my own 'designer' beach bag. I added an extra pocket on the front (super simple to do !) and lined the interior, adding a few pockets inside too!



I also added a ribbon closure (you can just about see it in the pics !) This allows for ladies who may overfill the bag (ahem! - moi!) and its also handy to tie the car & house keys to so they dont end up buried in the sand !


The fabric came from IKEA (years ago !) and the red and white bow was attached to some slipper socks I bought last Christmas ! I had about 1 yard of the main fabric and just scraps (maybe a quarter yard) of the red and white ticking. I lined the bag with cream remnant fabric making the pockets from what was to hand.


Not content with the bag I sewed up a little document wallet for our travel documents. I found the tutorial at the Sew Delicious Blog where the super talented Roslyn has posted THIS fab tutorial on a zippered wallet. I'm thinking I may need to create one for my make-up next....


The little anchor motif was wholly inspired by THESE fab crosstitch buttons I found on etsy. I chose an anchor to tie in with the nautical theme of the bag AND because we are going to be taking the ferry to France! (Ooohh!! I can't wait !)


 And when I was taking the shots outside I realised that my one and only completed cross stitch has a very nautical theme so it can sit well with this bunch ! I made this little beachy cross-stitch about 2 years ago, it was fun but tough on the eyes (I felt I needed magnifying glasses by the end!)
Think it may well have been my first and last cross-stitch picture ... taa daaa!!!


Have you been on holidays yet ? if not I hope you have a lovely holiday wherever your going !

Thanks for visiting !

Siubhan x x x



Thursday, June 14, 2012

Two special gifts for two special girls !

Its been a really busy month in my 'day' job (more like 'morning, noon and night' job !) but all good things come to those who wait! and on Tuesday I had a blissful day off and finally caught up with some of my crafty tasks .

I posted of two packages to two very special young ladies ...

I managed to FINALLY wrap up a gift for my beautiful new niece, Cara Rose.

And her lovely mummy took some pretty nice shots of what was in the package!



The blanket you'll have seen before ! but I made the bag from some really pretty 'Cath Kidson'-esque fabric I found in France last year. Can you see the little bib on the bedpost? I thought I'd give a bib a go after seeing this lovely bibs and tutorial from the lovely Jamie at 'Sew She Sews' . Click HERE to link to the tutorial.

Lovely bib from Jamie at 'sew she sews'
I didn't manage to print off the pattern (no paper!) but I made up my own pattern with a sideplate, a cup & some greaseproof paper! I think it came out pretty good, all that remains to be seen is if it fits the little lady in question ! (& if it dosen't it'll always fit a teddy bear!)


The second parcel was a lovely snuggly pink blanket to my old school friends daughter Grace.
Grace suffers from RETT's syndrome which is a genetic condition. You can find out more about RETT's here. It was Graces seventeenth birthday last month and I know that she looks beautiful in pink so when I saw this wool I just had to make something nice for her.
And I'm delghted she likes it ...look at that beautiful smile !


Have a lovely day wherever you are & thank you for visiting !

Siubhán x x x

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