Last week I was lucky enough to attend a bloggers craft night at the Cath Kidston shop in Oxford. I was joined by Natasha, Catherine, Victoria, Zoë, Dina & Rosalind. We were invited along to an evening of crafting in aid of Crisis. Cath Kidston are selling decoration kits, as well as giving the profits from the sale of the charity Christmas cards to raise money for Crisis.

There’s something pretty awesome about being in a shop after opening hours! We were able to have a good look around and start our Christmas shopping/buy some treats for ourselves! I bought these lovely charity Christmas cards & a pair of penguin pyjama bottoms. To be honest, I could have spent way more money! There are so many lovely things in Cath Kidston. They keep on bringing out gorgeous prints and great products!

We were given kits of Christmas decorations to make, complete with all the tools necessary to make them. After a quick mooch about, we all got started cutting out our shapes. Before long we got chatting, eating & drinking (hello mulled wine!). Progress was varied and I have to admit I didn’t finish mine during the evening, especially as I got distracted with some out of hours shopping! But I did sew my bricks on one side of the chimney. I finally finished it this week and have to say I’m pretty pleased with the outcome. I took the opportunity to have a go at different stitches. It’s not very often my hand sewing is as neat as this!

Not only that, but we were also given a few treats, including a second decoration to make. I can’t wait to finish this one too so that they are ready to go on the tree! Are you making any Christmas decorations this year? It does add a nice touch doesn’t it?

Last Saturday found me getting my sew on. I signed up to a class at Darn It & Stitch to make a cosy pair of pyjama bottoms. I love pj bottoms, the cosier the better and I’m pleased to say that the ones I made do not disappoint! Let it be known that I can be a bit of a haphazard sewer. Sometimes my creations are great, sometimes they are only fit for the bin. But the help of Anna from Custom Made, I was able to make something wonderful!

The first thing we had to do was pick out our fabric. I picked this dreamy flannel cloud fabric & I love it! I can remember my Mum making me flannel nighties way back when so I really wanted something flannel, plus the clouds! How cute are they?! Then it was back upstairs to cut our patterns down to size, though I could skip this step, thanks to my generous thighs! Next came the scary step of pinning the pattern to the fabric and cutting it out. I picked up quite a few tips like how to pin correctly, so the fabric doesn’t pucker. This is just one of the reasons why I wanted to do a sewing class – the little tips that no one ever tells you online or in books.

The next step was to start sewing. This bit terrified me, as it’s when things start to go haywire. But I had no problems stitching the legs together. The only problem I had was that my sewing machine hated doing the zig zag stitch, which was a slight issue as I had to do this on every seam to stop the fabric fraying. At first it was just me, but then it did for Anna too. It was quite frustrating. I felt as if everyone was miles ahead of me and I wasn’t going to be able to finish them. Fortunately, with a bit of luck, Anna was able to talk the machine into it & it succombed to our will! I was finally able to move on to the waistband and threading the elastic through. While sewing the waistband, the machine let us know that it didn’t like the thickness of the materical & decided to bend the needle. After a prompt needle change, and hemming the legs, my pyjamas were complete. I was so relieved – mainly because I didn’t want to have to finish them off at home. And I didn’t. I was able to pop them on as soon as I walked through the door. (and I’ve barely taken them off since!)

I really, really want to be able to sew well & now I feel much more confident, especially as I’m currently wearing my little creation! Plus, I came away with something useful and wearable & I learnt loads, which is awesome. The only downside was the dodgy sewing machine. It made what should’ve been a lovely peaceful afternoon into an inwardly stressful one. (Had I been at home on my own, there would have been tears & swears!) Despite that, I had great time & I love my new pjs! Great class, great value for money, happy, warm & cosy me

Better late than never, eh?! The fact that this should’ve been posted on Saturday shows how busy I’ve been but I wanted to write it so I could say that I wrote something for every day. I’ve really enjoyed the #BEDN challenge and am amazed at how much it helped new people find my little blog. I didn’t appreciate how much time it would take up, not that that’s a bad thing. I’ve really enjoyed blogging away.

Are you as jealous of this bed as I am?! How comfy does Poppy look? She wouldn’t even let me finish getting it out of the bag before she jumped in!

I’d like to say thanks to everyone who took the time to read & comment on my blog posts. I also want to thank Elizabeth over at Rosalilium for organising the #BEDN challenge. It’s been really great fun! Normal service resumes now!

I don’t know about you but I am swamped. I think it’s that time of year, you know, catching up with friends, emailing people about Christmas, shopping for Christmas, work deadlines… and so it goes on. I had a crazy busy week last week so decided that I needed to switch off and relax on Sunday, a fact reinforced when I fell over putting my pants on. Yep. All time low! So Sunday morning was pj’s & pancakes day.

I made sure we had all the ingredients we needed, including super warm & comfy pj’s and set about making an awesome breakfast. I had a fried egg with mine, while my OH had some bacon. It was awesome! We ate them on the sofa while catching on Borgen (love that show!). Then it was time to take Poppy out for a walk before heading back to the sofa! It was, all in all, a pretty lovely lazy Sunday. Perfect!

(I used a picture of my OH’s pancakes as I ruined my fried egg & it looked awful in the picture!)

Blimey! Hasn’t November gone quickly?! I am so not ready for Christmas, though I have bought some Christmas cards so I’m getting there. I have also been thinking about what I want for Christmas, which is the most important thing, obviously!

1. Felt MacBook Satchel via Etsy £36.99 // 2. Camden Ditsy Dress via Cath Kidston £55 // 3. Name Necklace via Finest Imaginary £17.50 // 4. Colour block hat via Cath Kidston £25 // 5. Dachshund Umbrella via Dogs Trust £19.99 // 6. Maddaddam by Margaret Atwood //

Some of these are on my actual list but I’ve only discovered some recently and are on my ‘if no one gets me these, I’ll have to treat myself’ wish list!

I’ve struggled to find a bag suitable for my latptop, that fits other stuff, that doesn’t look like every other bag out there. I have high hopes for this little felt beauty! I don’t wear enough dresses. I live in jeans, but I need to remember that other clothes are an option and love this dress by Cath Kidston. Add on a lovely little cardi & you’ll be well away. I also love the Colour Block range that they do, including the hat & the mittens. I have a real love of woolly hats and mittens – I’d love to add these to my collection! Growing up, I really struggled to get anything with my name on because it has an unusual spelling. Now I’m older, I’m used to people spelling it wrong (even when I spell it out to them!) but this lovely necklace from Finest Imaginary would solve all those problems! (Am going to hint a lot to my OH to see if he gets me this!) We’re having a similar issue with Poppy. As she’s a strange mix of breeds, it’s highly unlikely we’ll be able to get any dog stuff with her on it, but this lovely Dachshund umbrella is pretty close. I love it! I’m a huge fan of Margaret Atwood and am looking forward to her latest novel being released in paperback. I don’t buy books very often, I’m happy to go to the library, but I have the other two books in this series and so want to add the latest instalment to my collection.

What are you hoping to open on Christmas Day? Will you be restrained and wait until after lunch or will you be opening them in your jammies while eating lots of delicious chocolate?!

I really enjoy walking around in the countryside or on the beach. One of the reasons we wanted to get a dog was to make us do this more. We’re very lucky that Poppy will walk as much or as little as we want! She was a real trooper on our recent holiday to Cornwall. While we were there, I got a bit video happy! Here are a few videos of our Cornish escapades!

We stumbled across this pebble beach on one of our walks out of Cadgwith. I was being all ‘experimental’ videoing the water while Poppy was getting bold with the sea. She’s not a massive fan of going in the sea (neither am I to be honest) so this was quite an adventurous step for her.

This was at the Lizard Point and if you watch it long enough, you’ll hear the fog horn that went off while we were there and aged us all by about 10 years! When we arrived at the Point, it was a pretty nice day. Slightly overcast, but nothing too bad. We watched the bad weather roll in off the sea and before long, the fog horn was blowing! Time to head home.

Being by the sea is my favourite, though I love being in the countryside and feel very lucky that living in Oxfordshire means you’re never far away from a country walk and pub!