Collected Treasures...

Our collected treasures from the last month... feathers, berries, shells, lots of leaves, driftwood  a glass droplet shape and some 'special' pieces of plastic!

Each month, I'm photographing our collections of bits and pieces we've picked up when out and about on our adventures. A way of documenting and remembering all the little finds we've gathered together on our windowsill.

Please feel free to join in any time and show your collected treasures too, It would be lovely to see them. I'm using #collected_treasures over on Instagram too! Or you can see my previous 'collected treasures' posts here!

Wishing you all a lovely week ahead! xx

Seaham Seaglass

Back in the Summer holidays, my Mum and I had a little break in Seaham, Co.Durham to look for seaglass. As you know, I love searching for seaglass and treasures at the beach. But ever since seeing the wonderful pieces Emma from Silverpebble had found, and reading about the amazing sea glass there, I had been obsessed with the idea of going, of finding my own colourful pieces.

Seaham was once home to a Victorian glass factory that closed in the 1920's. At the end of each day they would throw all the unwanted glass over the cliffs into the North sea. They produced decorative glass items as well as milk and beer bottles, and because the volume of production was so high, so was the amount of waste glass.

We spent the best part of a day on the beach, picking up little tumbled nuggets of glass in every colour imaginable. Some of my favourite finds are the striped pieces above, called 'End of Day' glass. They look amazing when they're wet, freshly washed up from the sea. Like little jewels laying on the sand. We collected mostly whites, seafoam and green, but also some wired safety glass, some lovely opaque pieces and some and metal and pottery too.

I would love to go back and search for more seaglass one day. The beaches were fairly busy at the time we went, with quite a few people also looking. I imagine you could find a good amount in the winter though, especially after some storms!

Mini Leather Notebooks DIY

This year, I really want to try and make a lot of my own Christmas presents. I'm sure I say that every year, and always end up leaving it too late! So, I'm starting now, with the hope I'll have a few little bits and bobs to give come Christmas time.

I bought a bag of leather scraps for a craft project a while ago (from ebay) and had loads left. I thought I'd try using pieces for some mini notebooks.

You will need:

Pieces of leather
Ruler and sharp craft knife
Cutting mat
Paper
Sewing machine
Cottons

First cut a template for the size of your finished notebooks. I made mine 12cm x 16cm as this was a size I was able to fit on most of my scraps of leather. Using a sharp cutting knife, carefully cut around the card template.

Use the same template size to make pages for the inside of your book. I used 5 pieces of thick paper, making 10 sheets inside the notebook. I think my sewing machine might have struggled if I'd used much more than this!

Fold each piece of paper in half and place inside the leather cover. Using the fold lines as a guide, carefully sew down the centre of the notebook. You could use a matching colour cotton, or a contrasting colour, as I did with the bright turquoise and neon pink thread. 

When you fold the notebook back together, you may find the paper sticks out slightly from the leather. I just trimmed along the edge of my pages using a ruler and craft knife, to make a nice flat edge. I also placed my finished notebooks under a heavy book overnight to flatten! 

You could easily make these using some pretty card or thick paper for the covers too!

I'll be sharing a few more present ideas in the run-up to Christmas.


Wishing you all a wonderful week. x

Sunday...

▲ Feeding the ducks
▲ Blue skies
▲ Sunny shadows from the trees outside
▲ Sweets from a party
▲ An afternoon beach walk

Hope you all had a lovely weekend! x

Tower of London Poppies...

Last week, during half term, we went to see the 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' installation at the Tower of London. I'd wanted to visit after seeing pictures over the Summer, watching the progress as the masses of poppies were 'planted' around the Tower moat. I though it would be a good time to take the kids, before they are all removed again after Remembrance day. To actually see it in person was really quite amazing, and so moving to think that each one of the 888,246 ceramic poppies represents a British fatality during WW1.

We picked the worst day weather wise. Grey skies and rain... all day. Which meant I didn't get the best photos! Though I think perhaps the crowds weren't quite so big as a result.

We also went on an open top bus around London and a boat which took us along the River Thames. The kids loved it, despite the rain! It was great to point out things as we were going along. Elizabeth was especially excited to see Big Ben and a glimpse of Buckingham Palace. We had hoped to stop off there on the way back, but completely ran out of time. We'll just have to visit again, hopefully with some better weather next time!