Birthday Goodies For A Very Special Birthday

       My Mum celebrated a very special birthday on Tuesday, which called for some extra special presents.
     My Mum's favourite designer is Vivienne Westwood but she had yet to own one of her bags. So I knew that was the first thing I was going to buy. I went for this gorgeous Yasmin bag in winter tartan.

        My Mum is a very talented sewer who has a love of vintage. She also loves wooden boxes. So I found a wooden drinks crate from the 1960's and filled it with vintage sewing supplies.

Vintage needlebooks.  Complete and unused.

A variety a French vintage sewing supplies.

My Mum can't get enough of these vintage wooden spools of thread.

Vintage Nodding Poodle Pin Cushion, Vintage Apple Tape Measure Complete with stalk and original box and a vintage thimble.

A selection of uncut vintage doll patterns from the 1960's. Including Betty Boop, Felix The Cat and Popeye. 

Apart from the fact that my poor Mum managed to catch a bug on her birthday, she did enjoy her day and loved her presents.

Halloween At Lakeland

       These are just some of the items on offer from Lakeland this year. And I have to say I would like to buy all of these.

Fred Flare Gingerdead Men Cookie Cutter £5.49

 Halloween Chocolate Mould £4.99

Pumpkin Lantern Silicon Mould £3.99

Witches' Hat Silicon Mould £3.99

An Early Birthday Gift For Me

     I have still been adding to my collection of needle felted items from Miss Bumbles. I now have a second cabinet to put them in (which is much bigger, so I have plenty room for more!)
        My Mum very kindly bought me my most recent custom order for my birthday and luckily I was allowed to have them now. The custom order consisted of:

     This beautiful Queen Of Hearts kitty comes complete with flamingo mallet and a hedgehog croquet ball. The detail in her dress is amazing.

     This Mad Hatter kitty is just gorgeous. I love the colour combination. And he even has a little hand painted cup.

This little cat burglar is just so sweet. He looks full of mischief. He is based on both of my cats as they can break into any room or cupboard.

And last but not least is this Big Hairy Scary Spider. I love the expression on his face. He also has a skull on his back which you can't really see in this photo.

      I have already asked for another custom order which will hopefully be ready before Christmas. I am really excited about it. I also have a gardening guinea pig on the way which I can't wait to see. Miss Bumbles' guinea pigs are so cute, they make me want a real one.


    Here are some photos of the rest of my collection including an early piece from 2009 which I picked up from ebay. He is a rather sweet tortoise holding a lovely juicy peach.

Ruby Bunny Ears Portrait

       I have cut out all other forms of shopping completely but Etsy continues to be my downfall. I have realised that it is impossible to ban myself from Etsy, so I've stopped trying!

      One of my latest purchases was from Water In My Paint. I have a French squirrel painting from this shop which I love. For my next purchase I wanted a custom portrait of one of my cats.

      I decided to get Ruby done wearing a pair of red bunny ears. And I couldn't be happier with the finished painting. It's amazing, it looks just like Ruby!

      I can't recommend this shop highly enough. The painting was ready so quickly and arrived in the UK very fast. I will be going back very soon to get Violet done too.

   The shop has lots of other lovely paintings too. Click here to visit the shop.

Halloween Nail Art

     
       I know it's only August but I'm already way too excited about Halloween! I am trying to decide what my costume should be this year. At the moment I am thinking vampire (I want to get covered in some fake blood)!
       Here are some really clever Halloween nails to jazz up your costume. They can all be found on Etsy.

 In Stitches Ghoulish Halloween nails

       by celdeconail

Frankenstein Nail Art Set

by CriztawlNailz

Halloween Nail Designs

by Cre8tiveKtina

Halloween Pumpkin Nails

by Cre8tiveKtina

Blood Clot 3D Halloween Nails

by niceclaws

Halloween Blood Drip Nails

by ExhaleHate

Teeny Tiny Spider Artificial Nail Art

by KaitlinsKreationsart

Halloween At John Lewis

      While browsing on the John Lewis website today, I discovered that they have quite a few Halloween bits on their website already.

    

Here are some of my favourites

Meri Meri Skeleton Cupcake Holders and Cases £11.00

Meri Meri Halloween House £17.50

Meri Meri Halloween Cake Stand £12.50

John Lewis Felt Spider's Web Bunting £5.00

John Lewis Spider's Web Lantern £8.00

John Lewis Spider's Web Candelabra £12.00

You can find John Lewis' Halloween section here.

Happy shopping!

Halloween Excitement

     It's that time of year again when I start to get really excited about Halloween. It will be slightly different for me this year because as much as I love it when the shops get their stuff in, I won't be able to buy much. There is no point being on a shopping ban and then buying mountains of Halloween stuff.
       That said I have bought more Halloween goodies from Etsy. I was lucky enough to purchase more of Miss Bumbles' delightful Halloween pieces.

I think this little black cat with a Halloween treat in the form of a mouse head is my favourite.

Another lovely black kitty sporting a pumpkin skirt and showing off her skull garland.

I love the little details on this Guinea Pig devil, the red whiskers and beard and the forked tail.

This little pumpkin Guinea Pig was just too hard to resist.

And lastly is this very witty headless Guinea Pig. His little smile is so sweet.

All pictures belong to Miss Bumbles you can find her Etsy shop here.

       This lovely lot will be arriving with several more pieces which include a very exciting custom order. 

    I have collected quite a few different things over the years. But I have never enjoyed collecting anything as much as these woolly wonders! Here's hoping there are more Halloween delights to come...