Me-Made-Monday #5

Hello there lovely readers! Today's Me-Made outfit is brought to you from the gorgeous city of Cardiff! And not just from Cardiff, but from the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff!!

Dress: Made by Me, Cardigan: Made by Me

As an avid Doctor Who watcher it was pretty much a given that I'd be visting the Experience whilst in Cardiff, even though I have already seen the London version, and it was great fun. My parents are currently visiting me and so we all went together, it was a great part of a pretty much perfect day :) And I think my Me-Made dress in blue and white (a la Tardis!) was particularly appropriate!

I think the Doctor approved anyway...

Me, the Doctor and the Tardis, happy days!

Are there any other Doctor Who fans out there?

Katie xxx

Results of the Shabby Apple GIveaway!

Hello there lovely readers, it's the moment you've all been waiting for: The Results of the Shabby Apple Giveaway!

A big thank you to everyone who entered and an even bigger thank you to the lovely people of Shabby Apple for making this giveaway possible :)

And without further ado, the winner of the gift voucher is...

... Shelley Gajus!

Congratulations Shelley, I will be in touch very soon with details as to how you collect your prize :)

Thank you all for entering so much and I hope you all have a marvellous weekend!

Katie xxx

Calling all Stash Busters, you know what time it is!

It's time for the Bi-Monthly Round Up!

Yes my lovely Stash Busting friends, it's that time again and I want to see what you've been up to! Please e-mail me links to your projects at: 

misskatie (dot) littleredsquirrel (at) gmail (dot) com 

And remember this is for projects completed during BOTH the months of June and July! As always newcomers are always welcome so please don't hesitate to get in touch even if you just want some information or to ask a question! The closing date for submitting projects is  Tuesday July 31st, so get those entries in asap :)

I look forward to seeing what you've been up for the past two months!

Katie xxx


***For more information on the UFO/Stash Busting Project take a look here***

Wednesday Wonderfuls #80

Hello my Wonderful readers and welcome to another Wednesday Wonderfuls post, particularly wonderful as Summer has finally decided to arrive in the UK! I am currently in sunny Cardiff soaking up the rays and enjoying the fact that I can finally wear all my summer dresses (of course I'm not sure how long this heat wave is going to last, that's the curse of living in the UK, but we're not going to focus on that right now...!)

Images, Each Line from Left to Right:
1. Reading in the sunshine, 2. Homemade gluten free carrot cake, 3. The inside of the theatre, so excited!
4. New to me vintage fabric! 5. Lemonade = Summer! 6. Yummy cocktails :)
7. The Millenium Centre, I can't believe I'm performing here! 8. I cooked jerk chicken and rice and peas! 9. Homemade bias binding :)

It's been a bit of a funny week in my part of the world, mostly because I have spent half of it off work and then the next half was spent travelling across the country and into a different country altogether! My week off was fantastic (thank you for all your well wishes, I really appreciate them!), involving lots of cooking, baking, drinking (yummy cocktails!), cinema and theatre trips, sewing, knitting and glorious time with my family, and yet now, much too quickly, I'm across the sea and miles away from home again... You would think that after almost a year of touring it would be easier to adjust to changes, but I have to say that no matter how many times I pack up my bags and head off to the next location it never gets easier. It is always hard to leave my family and my Sweetheart behind and I miss them pretty much all the time when I'm away. So it's good to have a bit of sunshine and general happiness to make me feel better! But I can only be glum for so long because both my parents and my Sweetheart will be visiting me during my time in Cardiff, I cannot wait for them to get here and to share this beautiful city with them! Yay! And this city is just ridiculously gorgeous, have you ever been? If you have you'll know what I'm talking about!

I have high hopes that this is going to be a splendiferous week, so to get things started let's have some Wednesday Wonderfuls!

• Ever since I got my hair cut I have been looking for new ways to style my shorter look, so I was very excited to find this hair tutorial from Sarah of The Chronicles of an Eccentric, after all her hair always looks stunning :) I can't wait to have the time to try it out!
• I love Tilly (of Tilly and the Buttons)'s Day in the Life posts pretty much all the time, but this one about the wonderful pattern designer Megan Nielson was particularly brilliant. I warn you though, if you read this you may feel slightly inferior as to what you can get done in a day, I certainly did! :)
• You're going to get bored of me going on about Gertie's book, but she shared some pictures of the inside this week, including all the patterns it contains, and quite simply be still my beating heart! Gertie has also started another beautiful project this week, I cannot wait to see how it turns out!
• A really useful post from Liz about how to remove stains from Vintage Fabric, a need to know for both vintage sewists and general vintage clothing lovers!
• Any expectant mothers out there? Well you need to head over to A Beautiful Mess, because they have started a fabulous series of DIYs for simple maternity outfits and they're all very cute and stylish :)
• And finally you must take a look at Nicole Needles' tutorial for bias binding, it's a beautiful way to finish an outfit as shown by her stunning skirt!

Now let's all get out and enjoy the sun while we can! 

Bye for now,

Katie xxx

Me-Made-Monday #4

Hello lovely readers! Today's Me-Made-Monday is brought to you by a very special sponsor... the Sun! (and I mean the actual Sun in the sky, not the dodgy British newspaper!). The Sun has finally come out so obviously I had to throw on a cheeky sundress and sunhat :)

Dress: Vintage Revamped by Me

I'm thrilled that I've finally had the chance to wear this dress again, it's the first time since the Me-Made-May Challenge, and this is the first time I've felt warm enough since then to pull off this outfit! Sadly for me though my holiday is over and I'm back to work tomorrow, this time I'm heading to Cardiff, anyone know of any good places to go there? I'm sure you all know what type of things I'd like :)

Anyways, enjoy the sunshine if you can my lovelies, and I'll see you again soon!

Katie xxx

P.S. If you haven't already then do check out my Fabulous Shabby Apple Giveaway!

A Fabulous Shabby Apple Giveaway!

Hello there my lovely readers! Now, I've been having a lovely week off, filled with fun and treats, so I thought it was about time that there was a treat for all of you! I'm so grateful that all of you take the time to stop over at my corner of the blogosphere, so when the lovely people of Shabby Apple got in touch with me about a giveaway I jumped at the chance!

Madison Avenue Dress

Together with Shabby Apple I can offer one lucky reader the opportunity to win a $50 gift card to use on anything they wish at the Shabby Apple website. Believe me there are some gorgeous items on offer! I have admired the vintage inspired collections of Shabby Apple for a long time, so I'm sure you'll find something to fall in love with :)

Seriously, have you seen some of the lovelies at Shabby Apple? Here are a few of my favourites...

Show your inner vixen in the Alto Sax Dress

Pretend you're in Paris in the Bellissima Dress

Channel Joan in the CEO Dress

Be a princess in the L'Argent Belle Dress

In order to enter this fabulous giveaway you only have to do a few simple things... 

First up you'll need to head over to the Shabby Apple facebook page and like them (go on, they're lovely, you know you want to!)

Next, leave me a comment on the post telling me what you'd spend your gift card on if you won (I'm just nosey and I'd love to know!)

And it's as simple as that!

Oh, one more thing, in order to enter you must have a USA shipping address. I know that this is a bit of a downer for all my UK readers, but never fear because I have another little treat up my sleeve! The lovely people of Shabby Apple are also offering all of my readers (no matter where you are from!) a 10% discount for a whole month! All you have to do is enter the code "littleredsquirrel10off" at the check out and voila!

So there you go, everyone's a winner :) I will announce the winner a week today, Friday, July 27th, good luck to every one of you!

Bye for now,

Katie xxx 

Summer Sewing Swap!

Hello lovely readers! Now is there any better way to start the day than receiving a parcel in the post? I have always adored getting personal snail mail, so when I heard about Kerry's (of Kestrel Finds and Makes) Summer Sewing Swap I was more than a little bit up for it!

The basic idea of the Swap was to be paired with a fellow sewing blogger and then the two of you will exchange some yummy sewing goodies. And I was very, very lucky indeed, in so far as I was paired with the fabulous Marie of A Sewing Odyssey, who is a really stylish gal with some killer sewing skills! I had a whole bunch of fun putting together Marie's parcel, but nothing could quite prepare me for how happy I would be when my parcel arrived. I am one happy happy bunny, do you want to see why? Just check out my lovely goodies!

Look at all my goodies!!!

I was lucky enough to be sent:

A beautiful dress pattern

Some gorgeous floral fabric

Some antique lace

Some smaller pieces of gingham fabric

A selection of vintage buttons and buckles

I adore this pattern, I'd love to made both versions!

Be still my beating heart at this lace...

These colours make me so happy :)

Can you see why I'm thrilled? I feel very lucky right now :) I can't wait to start planning the future of all these lovelies, they'll probably be finding their way into my sewing journal sometime soon! Thank you so much Marie, I couldn't have asked for a better partner in this swap!

**P.S. If you want to see what I sent Marie then check out her post!**