Quick Catch Up: Hello June

The month of May has been a really mixed bag of “why nots” and “let’s give it a go”! The last four weeks I have done things I wouldn’t normally do, I have stepped right out of my comfort zone and given things a go and, all-in-all, it has been pretty amazing!

For one, I never thought I would be able to say, “Hey! Check out my video tutorials on YouTube!” Yup! I shrugged off my shyness and embrace the have-a-go philosophy (not to mention my phenomenal awkwardness!) and created a set of three DIY Wedding Mini-Make Videos for Haynes – the publisher’s of my book The DIY Wedding Manual!

Earlier this month I headed up to beautiful Malvern to share some inspiration, ideas and Vilene how-to at the Quilt UK . Having never attended this show, I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. But, what I discovered is that there are so many rad folks out there making lots of rads things, looking for awesome new supplies and skills and that Quilters are pretty much an all-round rad bunch! I have a whole stack of makes in mind for the coming weeks – I just wonder if I’ll be able to get these finished up before The Festival of Quilts?!

Sometimes it is a little [read: a lot] nerve-wracking, putting yourself out there, trying something different and giving it a shot. In fact, almost a year ago, I decided to start up Made Peachy, to share some daily inspirations and do just that – give it a go. I’m getting rather sentimental over here, and I predict that I will only get more so over the coming months as Made Peachy hits the One Year mark! So, I’m sure that I don’t need to tell you how chuffed I was to be nominated by Blogers Required as one of their first 15 bloggers awarded with their new One To Watch Award! To say I’m stoked doesn’t even come close!

What else can I tell you about the glorious month of May…

Y’all have seen the new Love Sewing  magazine by now, right? I’m so stoked to be contributing some designs to this amazing new magazine – be sure to catch the latest issue, which goes on sale at the end of this week and, if you’ve got a questions for me for the Letters Page – be sure to email it over to letters@lovesewingmag.com

Today, while you’re reading this I’ll be heading over to the Big Smoke to dot the i’s and cross the t’s on a brilliant new project that I will be starting work on in the coming days…I’ll also know just how soon I can share this with y’all!

But in the meantime, here’s where I’ll be over the next few months…2014 Diary Dates

7 – 10 August The Festival of Quilts NEC Birmingham

19 – 21 September The Handmade Fair Hampton Court Palace

9 – 12 October The Knitting & Stitching Show Alexandra Palace, London

30 October – 2 November The Knitting & Stitching Show RDS, Dublin

20 – 23 November The Knitting & Stitching Show HIC, Harrogate

There has been a whole heap of things going on over here at Peachy HQ too…

Crafts: DIY Floral Crown

Style:

Skills: How To Crash Fabric

Eats: Macaroon Stack Cake

My Browser Besties:

1: The Sewing Directory

2: Simply Solids

3: SewMeSomething

4: TheMasonBarCompany

My Blog Crushes:

1: KatieGetsCrafty

2: Frugally Peachy -pssst! My chum Emma is looking for some Guest Posts for Frugally Peachy – be sure to get in touch with her if you have some rad ideas to share!

3: TheTattooedQuilter

4: AprilRhodes

This month I have also been super stoked to share a few fun children’s makes in the latest issue of  Sewing World  magazine! Seriously is there anything more cute than sewing projects made for Littles? Nope, there really isn’t.

This week I’m finishing up another exciting especial issue for the next issue of Sewing World, and seriously, this one has been a total blast! So Watch This Space!
PLUS – how delicious are my week trio of nephews?! They are killing me with their cute right here!

My Months Reads:

There have been some pretty epic books in my life this month- seems that if its dark, disturbing and dramatic, its on my reading lists this month…

19  Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes (Rose Gardner Mystery Book 1) -  Denise Grover Swank

A quirky mystery that grabs your attention right from the get go! The main character, Rose, is perhaps one of the most personable protagonists that I have read about in quite some time – making this book all the more charming.  The last few chapters of the book seems to cram in rather a huge amount of action – although by this point you wont want to put it down – which can make it a little hard to keep track of it all. But ‘crappy doodles’ i sure do want to read the rest of the books in this series!

 

20 Dark Places – Gillian Flynn

This book is dark, twisted, depressing and splattered with booth from start to finish. However, this is not a slasher novel, despite charting the life of the survivor of a horrific family massacre. Depression and sadness radiates from the main character, and the narrative skips from present day as she is trying to fathom out the actions of that fateful night, to flashbacks of the days, hours and minutes before the event.

21 Kingdom of Childhood – Rebecca Coleman

I wanted so much more from this book. Had felt that I was promised controversy, shocking events and even a hint at some horror…on these grounds I found the book slightly lacking. Not one for reading erotica, I found that this gave me a strange feeling that I was reading the fantasy of a middle aged woman (and not in a good way!) The concept as there, but somehow I don’t think that it fully delivered! Perhaps don’t read this after something as strong, dark and disturbing a Gillian Flynn!

22 Mystery Box- Eve Pohler

I picked this up as a free Kindle book with the view of trying a new-to-me author. The style of this writing was engaging, fast paced and, for the most part, well crafted almost to the point of being lyrical! I enjoyed the characters, although the cultural references were a little bit jarring on me. While there was a clear distinction between the good guys and bad guys, I still found myself being shocked and drawn into the story. 

Boom! I’m officially 42% through my Reading Challenge for this year! Are you taking the challenge  - how’s it going for you?

Bookworms – be sure to keep up with the other books I’ve been reading this year - January Reads, February Reads, March Reads, April Reads – or swing over to Goodreads and say Hi!

Finally, there was sunshine in May (albeit a little broken up with bouts of rain storms) and sunshine means lots of time when the Dog, so indulge me a little please! WaffleTheAwesome If you can;t get enough of this pup – you’ll love my Instagram feed, it is very puppy-heavy…and, I’m not even sorry!

So June, I’m pretty excited about all the opportunities and plans that are happening this month so, I am going to go right ahead and call this coming month OpporJUNEity  (yup, I said that!) – you can keep up-to-date with all the latest post, news and happenings on Made Peachy over on Bloglovin‘!

Tell me, what are you most looking forward to this month?

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