Button Bookmarks and Macramé

Well it's back into the normal swing of things since I returned from Ireland. Missing the family already but great to be back with the hubby!

Some button craft was needed to help the week go quickly. During the trip to Watford (HP Studios) for my sister's birthday we discovered a shop called Tiger, it's a Danish Store that sells all sorts. I loved it. Two of my purchases included paper-clips; a set of bicycle shaped clips and "mega paper-clips" which are 10cm long, perfect for making bookmarks I thought. So that's what I did and it's really easy. I just tied a large button to the top of the clip using leather cord, paper cord or embroidery floss, depending on the button. To make sure the knot doesn't come undone I dabbed on a spot of clear nail varnish (I hope you can see the detail of the upside down one in the photograph). I only bought one pack which contained 8 paper-clips, as usual I wish I'd bought more. I have tried searching The Net for more the same, but have had no luck so far. I also looked up the locations of the stores in the UK, with everything crossed for one in Cardiff, but they're all in the South-East surrounding London :-( Never mind! There are a lot of 75mm wavy paper-clips on available, I may try those?

In the meantime, I have great plans for Saturday. My Dad and I are off to Cardiff Bay to join a macramé group who meet once a month to knot, chat and share ideas- I'll have some of that, thank you very much! As I've previously mentioned my Dad is very creative and use to do a lot of macramé when I young. This Christmas he got a book by Suzen Millidot called Chinese, Celtic and Ornamental Knots and he really liked it. The book contained information about Suzen's website so we had a look and found out although she's lived in various places all over the world, she now lives in Cardiff and hosts the group in the Bay. Yay as Cardiff is only 35 miles from us. I'm a real novice when it comes to macramé but I did use to make a lot of friendship bracelets when I was younger and my Dad taught me a few things including how to make this simple bracelet.

I'll let you know how we got on!

Other great news this week, friends of ours has just had a beautiful baby girl and she's absolutely tiny and incredible adorable. I love making baby gifts, especially hats so that's the next thing to get cracking on with. There'll be pictures on Sunday of the results!