I think spring has to be my favourite moment in time.

I'm a real one for the days being longer and it staying light for longer. It is such a feel-good factor beyond anything else.

Much to my husband's difference of opinion, I am very low maintenance and really value the simple things in life:

a quiet moment with a coffee...

a quiet moment with a glass of wine (are you sensing a theme?)...

an evening spent with family...

an evening spent laughing with good friends...

time in my studio creating...

Along with all these and other simple pleasures, the onset of spring is way up at the top of the list.

Our garden is at it's best in the spring. The cherry blossom against the blue skies is just stunning. We have Grape Hyacinths aplenty, along with the most stunning red tulips. And finally, my uppermost most favouritest plant, my Peony, by the front steps, comes up year after year, without fail, to shock and take my breath away every year.

Simple, unadulterated pleasures in life.

What does it for you?

I've talked before about my hoarding of scraps and my inability of throwing anything out. After all, you never know quite when you may need them and what they can be used for.

And this is the reason why...

The leftover pieces from my pencil pouches weren't exactly huge but they were too big to be discarded in the bin. It's almost a criminal offence to throw away these bits of beauty.

At 11.30pm last night, my normal lightbulb time, when I should have been finishing off and heading to bed, I started playing with these pieces and voila, the new Lippy/Coin Keyring Pouch was born.

They will be in the shop very soon.

I can't guarantee what designs there will be.

After all, as I've said, they are just a bunch of scraps.

UPDATE: Now available right here...

Since BCTF I'm back to making kits in abundance.

It's funny because the fabrics I have generally been using with my other work is very different from what I call my "kit fabric". Since the kits are children's kits the fabrics I tend to use are a lot brighter and zingier than I use with my accessories. So I had to put my kit-making hat on and make selections. It's not always clear quite how these fabrics look in the flesh but the lovely ladies at Saints & Pinners are more than happy to send out samples of fabrics making it much easier to make the right decisions. After all it's costly making mistakes. And I have made some right clangers in my time.

Today I received my samples (I only ordered them yesterday) and I'm really pleased with all of them and as well as wanting them for the kits I am also liking the bottom two, Genie by Annette Tatum for summer clothing for Ruby and possibly they may even sneak into the accessories range.

The top fabric, a gorgeous teal Mod Flower, also by Annette Tatum, will work perfectly in the kits and the 2 bright flower designs in the middle there from the Weekends collection by Erin McMorris are just great. Their brightness stands out perfectly.

So, if you are unsure about whether fabrics you see online will work for you, I strongly recommend you see whether samples are available. I know M is for Make will also send samples and I'm pretty sure most of the lovely online fabric stores will offer this service.

As you have seen from all the printing I have been doing recently for BCTF last week, there has been a lot of new work going on. Most of it was for actual items, but some has been for a couple of new kits I've been developing.

I have 2 new kits that I launched last week - 'Gerry' and 'Steve'. Who's Steve you may ask? Well, he's an elephant of course. (A very good friend of mine put me straight on the over obviousness of Ellie the Elephant. Steve was the next natural choice...) And Gerry? Well, he's so a 'Gerry'.

That aside, Gerry and Steve went down a storm at BCTF and they are now wending their way across the country from Lavender Lakes up in the North, down to Hawthorn Gallery down in Dorset.

I'm just waiting for the new labelling for these kits to be back from the printers. I just love how they are looking though. And that side is all thanks to my brilliantly talented designer friend who is the brains behind all my Kit labelling.

I'm very excited about these kits and already have plans for similar ones that hopefully I'll have time to develop very soon.

That was a rather nice weekend, wasn't it? The timing of all that beautiful sunshine could not have been any more spot on. Here in Leeds today it's all but disappeared, but when the weekends manage to be sun-drenched, who's complaining?

The sunshine has such an affect on people, doesn't it? On Friday, I was feeling on top of the world. I was doing the same old stuff - food shopping, cooking, working - but when the sun is shining on you while you do it you just feel so positive and happy.

And when it continues throughout the whole weekend, so you can actually enjoying the finer things in life - picnics here, coffee and/or vino on the deck, taking an hour out to read in the sun - really, for that time, life is good and all problems seem to momentarily fade away.

And don't you feel you have more energy in the sunshine too? (well, once you have managed to jog yourself from your hazy slumber) That certainly seems to be the case in this house anyway. Ever since we decorated - gulp, almost a year ago - we've been wanting to get a table in the hallway. I have to say, I have fleetingly looked over the last few months and whilst still haven't found anything in the budget that quite fits the bill, with our sun-induced get-up-and-go this weekend, we did a bit of furniture removing and now we have the old redundant desk in a new position. And I love it.

And whilst I am under no illusions that we will find the most perfect affordable piece to replace this old worn out desk any time soon, I am thoroughly enjoying walking by this version in the meantime.

Particularly with my fab new print by Mrs Eliot Books that arrived this weekend...

Do you like japanese fabrics?

I do. A lot.

And I particularly like this circle range.

I'm particularly partial to this yellow and grey combo.

I know - I shock you with my revelations ;-)

But this red and navy combo is rather delish too.

The lovely Jo at Saints and Pinners sent me some samples of these fabrics that they are now stocking, along with some of these ditsy flower and dragonflies.

Gorgeous, aren't they?

I love how japanese fabrics are so compatible with each other and I can just picture them together in a variety of projects.

I for one am going to be racing to S & Ps pronto to add each of these to my fabric collection. I have a feeling as soon as the show orders are completed, I'm going to be in the mood to create with some of these lovelies.

It's been a crazy few days. It's funny isolating a snippet of time and all that goes with it. I've had a fantastic few days at BCTF, partly as a result of meeting lots of wonderful cyber friends in the flesh and also as a result of the great response to my work.

There will be more about BCTF another time - when I've had chance to regroup and get my breath back.

In the meantime another very exciting thing happened during this period. I won a giveaway! Not just any giveaway but a giveaway by the uber talented Francesca, of Mrs Eliot Books. I've long since been a fan of Francesca's work and am so overjoyed at winning not one but TWO prints. And not just any old prints (not that I wouldn't be happy with any of them) but 2 prints

of my own choosing.

This in itself did pose a problem. Well, have you tried narrowing down these prints to just 2? I rest my case. This and this were on my initial short list but the two that won out in the end were these 2 right here. I love Francesca's use of collage mixed with her own drawings. She has such a great eye for patterns and illustration.

The 'I think your dress is very beautiful' print, above will fit perfectly in our hallway and how perfect is 'The knitting needles and the midnight sewing'? That is going to have pride of place above my sewing machine in my newly appointed studio. I can not wait to be staring endlessly up at it.

Thank you, Francesca for you very generous giveaway and being so darn talented to boot.