Oh what a jolly good jubilee!

So as you may or may not know last weekend it was the Queen's Diamond Jubilee - that's 60 years she has been our Queen! Personally I'm not a big royal fanatic. Don't get me wrong, I watched the Royal wedding last year and watched bits and bobs of this years festivities but I don't go mad for it all. Between you and me, I'm not even the biggest fan of London.... I'm too much of a country bumpkin!One person I know who loves all things Royal is my Step mum. Although to me she is just known as Heather. It was her birthday this weekend just gone and I couldn't pass up on the opportunity to give her a Royal/British themed present so I put this basket together. We don't have lots of money to throw around at the minute but I still wanted to give something special. Some things I made and others I bought, but I was pretty proud with how it turned out and wanted to show off. (I play I play :P)

The obvious colour combo for a 'British' theme would be red, white and blue. I wrapped her gifts in some scrapbook paper that had come free with a craft magazine.

I decorated the basket with ribbon and made some bunting because what's more British than a bit of bunting eh? The 'Happy Birthday' street sign also came free with the same magazine as the papers.

I made this to attach to a brolly that I bought her because I liked the play on words and like to think I am funny.... Also it was quite relevant due to the typical British weather on the day. And how it is now, it's almost the middle of June and no sign of sunshine!

I found this corgi cross stitch pattern the night before her birthday but thought that I HAD to give it to her. This meant I stayed up until around 3am and got up early the next morning in order to complete it. I stuck magnets to the back of it so it could stick on her fridge.

And this is the commemorative plate that I bought her.

The other gifts included the items needed for a cream tea (i.e. scones, clotted cream and jam) and some tins shaped like a red phone box, bus and Big Ben containing tea. Like I said I was really chuffed with the end result and was even more chuffed when she rang me to tell me that she loved it all and was really grateful for the time and thought I had put into it. Just goes to show that you don't have to spend a lot to please people :)

Bubble Bobble!

I've recently been getting back into cross stitching. Whenever I say I cross stitch to friends they think it's hilarious, try as I might, I just don't seem to be able to convince them that not all cross stitching surrounds cats, forever friends, or little girls in bonnets having tea parties (I have nothing personal against any of these they just aren't my bag -baby-)
Instead I have been finding patterns for more 'me' things. Particularly gaming ones.

One of my ULTIMATE favourite games is Bubble Bobble.

Anyone who has ever played this with me knows that we aren't stopping until we reach the end, I will eat all of the big fruits/ice creams/fries that fall from the ceiling and I want to do all the bubble popping.
Not a lot of people like playing with me.

Anyway, as a tribute to this amazing game I have cross stitched Bub and Bob.

I know that the blue is a bit off for the colour he is meant to be, but I had to make do with the colours that I had in my possession and I'm really happy with how it turned out.
I found the pattern at www.spritestitch.com - this website is amazing for gaming based crafts!
I am planning on stitching a few of the other characters from the game and displaying them somewhere in a geeky corner of our house.

This week I have mostly been making....

.... well finishing because I started it ages ago..... a baby book for my friend and her beautiful new arrival.

I have a confession.
I like to make scrapbooks.
But don't put my pictures in them for fear of 'ruining' them because my life doesn't really seem 'worthy' of scrapbooking it at the minute.
I used to be like this with stickers when I was growing up. Just looking at them rather than sticking them anywhere.
My current drawer full of stickers would probably tell you that I am still a bit like that.
I know I'm a loser.

Anyway, as I said, I made this for my friend and have left space for her to put all the pictures she wants to in it and write about different things baby Mabel (I know, old school name isn't it) has done/how she develops etc.

Shall I just show you it?
If you thought 'no', you should probably close your eyes right about.......

NOW :)

 The front cover with a space for a picture of baby :)



 In the 'crib' the card opens up to put all Mabel's birth stats like date of birth, weight etc.

 This opens out if you pull the elephant.

 Mini frames for mini pictures.

 These hands lift up so you can put a picture underneath.

This is a mini envelope I made and put a little 'Happy Birthday' card in it for her 1st birthday.

And this present opens up, with the bow pulling up to reveal another tag :)

This is just a selection of pages; I didn't want to bore you too much. Each page is also a pocket that has a tag for more pictures/writing because I made envelopes out of card and then covered them with pretty paper and begrudgingly.... stickers :) I then bound it with my bind-it-all and bob's your uncle. I didn't want to make it all pink and girly girly because my friend isn't really too 'girly girly'. Plus I loved these papers.

You can open your eyes again now :P