A customised Cushion...

I love a good craft project, granted I'm not great at it and have been known to hem trousers using industrial parcel tape. But I do like to make and do presents for my friends, don't worry I'm not going to teach you how to make a sock bunny (although they are always fun) today's craft comes to you via a primark shopping bag.

And before you ask ladies I'm not talking about the paper brown ones that inevitably break as soon as you leave because 'you only popped in for black tights and seem to have bought three tops, two pairs of jeans and a pack of hair bobbles and forgot 120 denier tights' . I'm talking about the cotton ones that you have to buy when the paper ones break. They normally have quite cool patterns on like this.

So it is a cool shopping bag but it does say primark on it. So I thought I would make it into a cushion for my friend. Here is a step by step guide on how to make it.

To make it look more fun I sewed buttons onto the headlights and wing mirrors. As the bag has patterns on both sides I mixed up the colours. As the number plate said Primark I used one of thd handles and sewed Bella on each piece and then sewed it too the bag.

Once you have done this cut down the side of the bag (neater than I did) so you have pieces like this.

I then pinned the edges along each side like this

I then used a sewing machine to sew down all four sides, I sewed the sides inside out.

Once you have sewn each side leave a small gap to add your stuffing and fill your cushion. I used some stuffing that I already had but it should be available in all good haberdashery shops (ALWAYS wanted to say that)

Ok so here is where my craft skills come into question. Once you have stuffed your cushion you will be left with a gap, as I'm not great at craft I don't really know what to do here other than to hand stich it which is what I did. It's not great but I did it at the bottom so I figure no-one will see. (Shh don't tell anyone) If there are any budding crafters reading this then please let me know how to do this bit.

And here is the finished cushion....Ta-dah

Oh and proper Blue Peter moment but here is one I made earlier.

Same technique and a canvas bag from primark.

I would love to know what you think?

Gemma xx

Birthday fête....

This weekend I went to Bournemouth to see my very good friend Bella. Bella is totally opposite to me but I think that's what makes us such good friends, she is also the type of friend I can speak to everyday or not speak too for 6 months and we pick up exactly where we left each other. Bella and I went travelling to South East Asia a few years ago and we had the best time. Bella taught me that it's ok to make fun of yourself and that you can pretty much eat marmite with everything. So as the sun came out her boyfriend had organised an amazing surprise and turned their garden into a mini fête.

The games went down a treat, shots for the grown ups if they won and haribo prizes for the kids. It was a really fun to play these games and a lovely surprise for Bella (who is actually turning 27 but is the biggest kid I know)

I have decided to add on a little outfit post onto the end of this post as I'm not brave enough yet to dedicate a whole post to what I am wearing, so here goes.... *I haven't quite mastered the art of gracefully posing for photos yet, see below! Eyes shut, looking down and squinting, but check out this hilarious male fashion blogger Stu who has written a post on doing just this.

Head scarf home-made

Vest -New Look

Denim Shirt-Next

Jeans and Scarf -Primark

Shoes-Peacocks

I hope you had a lovely Saturday!

Gemma xxx

My Skin and Blister (sister)

This weekend was my sisters 30th birthday. We have pretty much been celebrating for the last week. Francesca (my sister) and I haven't really been in each others' lives all that much, a combination of her heading to university at 18 meant that we haven't lived within the vicinity of each other for about 12 years. That has changed recently as she made a big move and packed up her whole life and moved from Liverpool to Brighton and now lives about 5 minutes from my house.

Birthday girl having breakfast

Now Francesca will agree with me that we haven't always got on. We did try to play nicely as children (which normally wouldn't last long) and with only 18 months between us we constantly competed. I can still remember us watching Sweet Valley High and wondering if when we were grown ups we would have an Elizabeth and Jessica type relationship. Francesca and I are just very different, which we are both learning as adults that it's no bad thing. Francesca is very tidy and extremely organised. I am neither. She will wear heels that would give most people vertigo. I am more of a flats kind of girl. She will happily wear red tights to work because they make her happy and you will normally find her talking loudly on the phone.

She is also really kind, will always send letters, she can pretty much spell everything in the dictionary. (and will often make me feel like I am sitting my English GCSE) She is one of the nicest warm hearted people I know. She is fiercely loyal to all of her friends and they mean the world to her. Since she has moved near to me I feel truly blessed that she is a daily part of my life and I get to share my grown up life with her. If we didn't get on as children we are certainly making up for it now. Elizabeth and Jessica have nothing on us!

I wanted to share some photos of her birthday weekend 5 days with you, I hope you enjoy!

Karaoke on a school night (taken at about 1.30am)

Little Red Riding Hood

Me, Alice in Wonderland and Tinkerbell

Prince Charming and Captin Hook

For her party night out she had a Once Upon a Time Theme....I am the pumpkin from Cinderella (Obviously). On Sunday she had a party for all her friends and our family which was lovely.

Amazing cakes and our little niece Alice, her cake fell on the floor about two seconds after this was taken. For her 30th Birthday I wanted people to make some wishes for her. So I bought 10 red balloons and everyone who came on sunday wrote wishes on luggage labels of what they wished for her. We then read the wishes and let the balloons go on the beach. This idea was inspired by a really lovely blog called I love my house. We then went down to the beach and let the balloons go so the wishes would come true. The pictures we took were inspired by my friend Anna. She writes a beautiful blog for her sisters called Skin and Blister. Check it out they have a really lovey sisterhood.

Our Grandad making a Birthday wish

This is my favourite picture of the whole weekend, she looks so happy.

We had lots of fun despite the freezing cold British weather.

Did you have a funfilled bank holiday weekend?

Gemma xxx