Bogged Down

The title is a pathetic attempt at a pun, given that we are STILL working on the bathroom across the road, and it is one of the many reasons I haven't been sitting down and blogging much lately.  It is so nearly there now - but not quite ready for the statutory 'Ta-dah!' moment of Blogland.

First of all I'd like to welcome new readers! I am really pleased to have several new followers over the last week or so and have really enjoyed reading lots of comments recently.  New followers and commenters mean new blogs discovered!  I so enjoy my daily catch-up with other people's blogs, which is getting longer day-by-day...

So what's been occuring at Used-to-Bees HQ?

Aside from work in the bathroom-from-hell, there's been a little trip to the local car boot, which produced this stamp album (for 50p!)...

Not many stamps, but I wanted it for the old maps inside, which will be appearing on fabric at a blog near you sometime soon (when I get round to ordering more ink for the printer).

There were two of these egg cups...

...which matched two I had already, which came from a charity shop.  All four have already been topped with an egg and bunny or hen cosy.

This brass pitcher, chosen by Mr U-t-B.  I love its shape.  And its aged patina.  Won't be ruining that with any polishing! ; )

And finally, a bit of 'King's Speech' memorabilia...

There was more sewing for Saturday's Spring Market.  Mostly little drawstring bags...

These were made from rescued traycloths, embroidered napkins and precious scraps of vintage feedsack and lined with other pretty fabrics - bits of old pillowcases, vintage remnants and some 1930s style reproductions.  I have finally come up with my best yet method for making them - will add this into my 'Makes' section soon, before I forget!  

I also came up with the 'brilliant' idea of buying some delightful old German lithograph eggs...

...and making little bunnies and bedding to put inside.  When Miss U-t-B was smaller she made a little bunny called Rabbit-y, and a bed for it in a tin, and loved to take it around with her.  So I thought my 'brilliant' egg idea would be a cute Easter pressie.

Well, that was before I spent an entire afternoon making this bunny.  

So maybe not such a brilliant idea!

I think I will call her 'Fleur'. She's made from some lovely fabric from 'Sal's Snippets'.  Small she may be, but even she has to curl her toes and ears slightly to fit inside the largest of the eggs I have, so I need to go smaller still!  Undeterred, I intend to have another go this afternoon - prototypes always take way longer than the next one along, so I am hoping the lessons learnt making Fleur will help me speed up!

Mr U-t-B and I have also been spring cleaning, or rather spring tidying, trying to reclaim our home from the chaos caused by nearly three months of neglect, whilst we worked on his daughter's flat.  He launched an assault on his tools (of which there are an enormous number), sorting them all into categorised boxes, and I tidied up my ribbon and lace hamper!  We dismantled an old divan bed that was in our spare bedroom and in true 'reduce, reuse, recycle' fashion, have kept some of the wood to help make new shelves to house my sewing stuff, which seems to have migrated to every corner of the house. Oops, sorry Mr U-t-B!


Anyway, there's a paintbrush with my name on it...time to crack on!