Thank you, thank you

Virtual thank-you flowers for Holly

A huge big thank you to Holly Becker at Decor8 - one of my fave websites and first stop for inspiration. She wrote a post a few weeks ago how sewing is such a handy craft to know and that we should do it more often, and I commented I was up for the challenge and that I was going to attempt to make a bean bag for Zak's room and asked if anyone knew any good patterns. Next thing I know, she's sending me a free Amy Butler Gum Drop Pillow pattern she had left over from a competition. So, so nice. In return I sent her a pile of real living mags to pore over and hopefully give us some expert-eye feedback on! My pattern arrived on Friday, gorgeously wrapped as you'd expert from a style guru, and was perfectly timed: I'd just had my mum strapped to a chair making her fix the sewing machine for me... Well, it turned out it wasn't actually broken, I just didn't know what I was doing! But I do now (it's coming back to me) and am super-keen to get started. Was also thrilled it was an Amy Butler design - her fabrics are so gorgeous and I often just spend ages on her site perusing all the pretty pictures and patterns. In fact, we're all rather taken with Amy at real living - look out for a feature on her in an upcoming issue!

My giraffe-print fabric, beautifully wrapped Amy Butler pattern and quite possibly one of the country's oldest sewing machines all ready for action. I was secretly chuffed to see Holly had used photocopied Amy Butler fabric to wrap the pattern in - after we used the exact same print in a shoot for the mag last year, I stocked up on photocopied versions of it as wrapping paper. Makes a nice change to the usual store-bought varieties. Oh, and the cute card is from Ink + Wit - gorgeous stationery and art.

It's just another great example of how sweet and helpful the blogging community is - especially when you share an interest. Before I became completely obsessed with this world, I'd spend my free time reading gossip sites instead and I cannot believe the bitchiness that goes with it! It was enough to scare you into not commenting on anything ever again. So I've pretty much given up my celeb fix - most of it is made up anyway or about people I'd be happy to never hear about again - and stick to pretty, inspirational things, people and places. It's much nicer on the eyes, healthier for the soul and so much more useful for around the home!

So anyway, thank you again, Holly, I just hope I can do Amy's pattern some justice... Will keep you posted!

Amy Butler Gum Drop Pillow in Imperial Fan

PS: On the topic of Amy, after seeing this picture (above) on the gum drop pattern's cover, I'm thinking that fabric might be a serious option for my chair. It'd be a good way to get some print into my home without going too bold... It's my current fave!