This is what my kitchen table has been full of this week! 

Back by popular demand, my lovely wooden button brooches. 

I made forty of these in the summer as a bit of an experiment and put them in the shop and they sold like hot cakes and as i've been asked by so many people to make some more, i thought i would.  I've had some new buttons in since i made the last lot so there are a few more designs available.

I have some really nice small plastic bags which i thought i'd put them in with an attached label, i think they make nicer gifts when presented in this way.  I'm currently designing the label as these will be sold under my "Sugar and Spice" label, which will be one of my etsy shops, but  more about that when i get a minute

Aren't these gorgeous? 

Delicate slivers of wood cut into shapes and covered with fabric!  Each one is different.

These ones are covered in lace fabric

And, of course, just had to get some butterflies....so pretty

...and with christmas coming......some reindeers too, very sparkly...

These are going on hair slides or bobby pins, they're all ready to go, i'm just waiting for Gav to dig out the proper glues for me...have to make sure they stay on, the stuff i used to experiment with didn't work, they just fell off after a while.

In addition to the above, my last batch of buttons contained these pretty little heart shaped ones and they look adorable on these rings.  These sell really well in the shop, so i need to get on with my pretty labels today, they'll make nice stocking fillers.

Wednesday night saw me at the Activity Centre here in Montgomery with the "Montgomery Ladies Club" making enamel jewellery.  Here's the Kiln with everyone's work ready to fire.

Ruth and Carol creating

These were Carol's creations, she made them into earrings, they're so beautiful

These were my creations, not so patterned and pretty, but deliberately so because i wanted to use them as embellishments on Gavin's birthday card (sorry about the photo)

Talking of which...the man himself!
The candles he's holding were Nicci's cake candles for her 3rd and 4th birthday many years ago (he's 44 actually, but as close as he could get)

Fire Hazzard!!!!!!
Couldn't quite get 44 candles, but i did my best, i think i got about 20 on in the end

...and of course, Lizzie had to join in

Deep breath Gav, and don't forget to make a wish!!

Aren't these amazing?  Gav bought them the other day as parts for his phone restoration business - already thinking how fab they'd look in my sculptural assemblage!  Wonder if he'd miss a few!

Awww...couldn't resist this. 
One of our pretty tables sold last week and i put this one in it's place.  It looks lovely with the vintage cake stand and trefoil dish on it.  The pattern under the glass is vintage fabric and is admired by everyone.

So....next on my list is preparing for my teaching group session with the Montgomery Ladies Club in November.  I've decided to do "Mind Doodling" and have been preparing some finished specimens.  We're going to make a gorgeous brooch, a small picture and a book mark, using repetitive patterns.

Well that's it for today, except i received gorgeous mail art this morning from Mindy Lacefield (photos in next post), i'm ecstatic about it, she's been one of my favourite artists for such a long time.  I participated in her "Mail Art Monday" scheme and she shows all the art she receives on her blog, have a look and see if you can spot mine (he he, not difficult as there are only two this week).  I'll post the new packaged "Sugar and Spice" Items later in the week.

....and to say congratulations and all our best wishes to Diane and Tim (my sisters sister-in-law) who got married a few weeks ago.  They look gorgeous and i love that dress.

Happy Birthday

GAVIN

My Fabulous, Amazing, Gorgeous, and Wonderful  Husband

Enjoy your day

Looking forward to wine and canapes at the checkers tonight!!

XXXXXXXX

Gorgeous Girl

Lovely weekend with my beautiful baby girl (she hates me saying that).  Here she is in the shop on Saturday afternoon waiting for me to whisk her off for a coffee!  She's not good at having her photo taken so this was a rare treat!

 So off we went first to the craft show at the town hall to see Jo and her daughter Maxine and their gorgeous stall full of hand made goodies.  Maxine had made some wonderful cushions which i bought to go with my collection.  She has a lovely Etsy shop called Tilly Tea Dance, have a look.

When we were done there we went off to Welshpool for our coffee and a wander.  Lovely mother/daughter time.

Lillies in my kitchen

I love lillies, they're Nicci's favourite flower too.  These ones were all closed up when i bought them but we've had such beautiful sunshine over the weekend they couldn't resist opening.  It's our day off again tomorrow and gav and i are off out again to look for more soft furnishings for the house.  We're still looking for rugs and curtains and such.  I have a day off again on Tuesday to go to Chester with a friend and then i'm back in the shop again on Wednesday as Gav has some film editing he needs to finish by the end of the week.  He's just finishing off editing the gig he did in London for Steve Hackett and is trying to get the Micky Jones Tribute gigs done in time for their Christmas concert in Swansea.

and...

Being the fab hubby he is....and birthday boy this week....

He's got us tickets to see the Kaiser Chiefs in January...

......yaaaaayyyy

Here comes the summer!!

Can you believe this gorgeous sunshine we're having here at the moment? 

 Such lovely balmy weather. 

This is Montgomery Town Hall all decorated out for the Charleston Evening tonight. 

Doesn't it look brilliant?  Broad Street was buzzing behind me when i took this photo, it was really warm, the Checkers had opened it's doors and people were arriving to dine for the evening and the Castle Kitchen was just starting to serve their evening food and had their tables and chairs out on the pavement, it was so nice.

The Town Hall is such a lovely building and it's nice to see it being used.  Gav and i had our wedding reception and evening party here (lovely memories).  This is the downstairspart of the building , needs some work, but it's ok.  Pippa, Louise et al have done a fabulous job doing it all up for the party.

This is the upstairs, sorry the photo isn't good, but i took it just before the party started and I was in a bit of a rush, but it gives the idea.

INDIGO MOON

More moving around in the shop.  We were offered a dresser unit by one of our "new" neighbours a few weeks ago.  We thought it would create more space for our Christmas stock so set about shifting things around (hence my chronic bad back at the moment!). 

Bare walls at Indigo Moon, awaiting dresser

It;s a great big thing and Gav got a friend to help him to collect it and move it into the shop thankfully.  It was huge and has very dark wood and as we don't have time to paint it, i've partly covered the back panels and shelves with some pretty wrapping paper to lighten it up a bit.

...and squeezed some other bits of furniture around it.

Anyway have a look around the re-organised Indigo Moon and see the 'new' cupboard filled up

(Lizzie gets in on everything, she loves the shop)

My kitchen looks like a warehouse at the moment so these pretty flowers are a welcome sight.  I got them from Tesco's (Shhhhh...thats a swear word around these parts!!)

 I've just got to show you these.  It's my vintage apron collection.  The fabrics are amazing, some of them are home made and some of them are commercially made, but they're all pretty unique.  I'm not sure what i'll do with them yet, I may package them and put them in the shop, but i just love them and are loathe to part with them.

 LIZZIE

Poor Lizzie, she's looking a bit sorry for herself in this photo!

She was spayed on Wednesday and also had to have a cyst removed from the top of her head, bless her, when they cut the cyst it was bigger than they thought and she has a load of stitches.  Nicci's calling her Frankenstein. 

 ...i love this greeny/bluey colour, i think some of our furniture in the shop should be painted in this.  Here are a few gorgeous images i found on the internet (sorry i can't name the sites they're from, but none of them are mine).

 OK...i know it's not blue, but i love these.

It's nice also to hear that my dear friend Annie's daughter is on the mend now.  They've all been in my thoughts and i'm so glad things are better for them.

"The summer night is like a perfection of thought"

 ~Wallace Stevens